some nice bottles i found today.

[Bass]

MT, thanks for sharing more pictures with us and for also letting us see the site. Most people don't include location photos which i feel adds to the interest of their finds and enables everyone else to be part of the adventure. The horse bottle is a neat one and would be a welcome to anyone's collection. Gotta say hats off to surf for the historical background. May your shovel find its target and your back be strong.

 

[mthunter22]

wow surf thanks for the info that is great to have some knowledge of the history .. so right after posting pics went down and started digging again,, took my mom,wife and 2 sons..some pics.

 

[surf]

Hey Montana,

I absolutely love that stove door! Is it a Littlefield Stove Co. model? There are patent marks all over that beauty. Was that broken panel double patented? I couldn't quite read the dates on that portion. That door was the subject of some litigation: The Federal Reporter:

It's great that you got the whole family into the dig. Are you gonna screen any of it?

That Garden City Bottling hutch is a nice one, too. Is it a Baltimore loop? See this one: Garden City Bottling Co Missoula Montana Baltimore Loop Soda Bottle | eBay

"Born 16 April 1858 in Grant County, Wisconsin, Charles L. Cowell moved with his parents to Kansas in 1863. He was raised there on a farm and moved, along with William A. Simons, to Missoula, Montana, in 1887. Cowell and Simons were sometimes business associates, along with others such as Joseph M. Dixon. One such enterprise was the Garden City Bottling and Liquor Company, wholesale dealers of wine, liquor and cigars. Cowell was also one of the organizers of the Missoula Light Company, Missoula's first electric light company, located on the island west of the Higgins Avenue bridge in Missoula. Cowell and Dixon built and co-owned the Montana Block in downtown Missoula until Cowell turned over his part of the investment to Dixon, about a year prior to Cowell's death." Guide to the Charles L. Cowell Papers 1907-1925

Garden City Bottling Co. Missoula MT, Repo Print​

 

[mthunter22]

once again surf ,, your info is great and much appreciated,, not sure if it is a baltimore loop? how would i tell? also there are some patents on the door that i put in the picture, there were also some patent numbers on a little door above and to the right of where the big door came from.. if you want pics of anything specific let me know and i will get on it thanks.

 

[surf]

there were also some patent numbers on a little door above and to the right of where the big door came from.

Hey Montana,

That little broken door looked like it had 2 patent dates on it, but I couldn't quite make them out.

"Patented June ___
& Dec. __ 1880?" is what I thought I could decipher...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Baltimore Loop seal was another invention of William Painter.

"Bottle Seal or Baltimore Loop Seal Closure, circ: 1885-1905,
Invented by: William Painter,
American Patent: September 29, 1885, Number: 327,099,
This stopper enjoyed moderate success, but was more popular in some areas of than in others. It consisted of a disk, made of a flexible material, that was inserted into a thin groove in the lip of the bottle. It was replaced by Painter's more popular crown cork stopper." North American Soda & Beer Bottles - Beer Closures

There would be a small groove, or shelf inside the throat of the bottle about 1/4-3/8 in. below the rim of the lip.

Painter 09-29-1885​

 

[mthunter22]

well it doesnt look exactly like the first pic but it definitely has a indented ring in the neck..

 

[surf]

Hey Montana,

This bottle is most interesting to me. Could you take some additional photos of it, please, detailing the lip treatment. Maybe it's just me, but I do not remember seeing a Hutchinson that was also made to accept the Baltimore Loop seal. The dual use makes complete sense for the time & place.

I gotta ask if any of the other old bottle hands have seen this phenomena before, and perhaps I've just blithely missed it in the past.

Here's another, variant, at Tod's site:

North American Soda & Beer Bottles - Show Bottle Might yours have a "C & Co." mark?

There's a couple of great pictures of the brewery: UM-Photo Archives

"PHOTO COURTESY OF BOB LUKES
The old Garden City Brewery, established in the late 1800s, sat at
the base of Waterworks Hill near Rattlesnake Creek in Missoula.
Over time the brewery became home to Missoula’s famed Highlander beer,
a regional favorite that disappeared in 1964 and was recently revived."
​

"Missoula in the early 1870s contained a population of just over 100—hardly enough to fill a downtown bar on a Friday night these days. Half of the existing 66 buildings had been constructed after 1869. The Northern Pacific Railroad and subsequent building boom was still a decade off, making the Garden City every bit a frontier town.

Yet commercial brewing started as early as 1874 under George Gerber, and as the town grew, the demand for beer skyrocketed. The University of Montana opened in 1893, ushering in additional drinkers, and by 1900 Missoula's population numbered more than 4,000. That's about the time barflies got an official name to go with Gerber's beer: Garden City Brewery.

Like all rural communities of the day, Missoula relied on local producers for its goods and beer was no exception. More than 30 breweries statewide started up in growing communities like Philipsburg and Anaconda during the latter half of the 19th century. Bars in Missoula sold bottles delivered fresh from Garden City, and the Highlander brand officially hit the market in 1910, enjoying a decade-long reign before the U.S. Congress passed the Volstead Act in 1919.

Prohibition spelled the end for Montana's early hey-day of beer. Garden City Brewery held on for several years, producing soda and near-beer. But just days after President Franklin Roosevelt's repeal of Prohibition in 1933, Highlander brewing operations kicked back into gear under the newly re-founded and renamed Missoula Brewing Company. The beer was once again a hit, generating fierce loyalty among drinkers across western Montana and catching the attention of West Coast beer mogul Emil Sick." Missoula and beer: A history | Features | Missoula Independent

Brewery hands:

The Louvre Saloon:

"The Louvre Saloon in the old Hotel Florence must have sold Garden City Brewery beer; at right is Henry Emmerick, who worked at the brewery. Circa 1907."
The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula » <<<You'll want to visit this great site for more photos & information.<<<

Keep an eye out for these: