CREEK WALKING- STEP INTO LIQUID
STEP INTO LIQUID
Creek walking 2021 started slow but after some rough weather the waters produced its first keeper. This Liquzone bottle dates to at least 1904 and is in perfect condition. Liquozone put out by the Liquid Ozone Co was used as an antiseptic.
GIVE YOUR REGARDS TO BROADWAY
Some people can spend a lifetime searching for one of these but within a minute of entering the creek, it was ours. This is a rare Tillotson “Pilgrim Hat” insulator. Even with the chips, a collector in Massachusets couldn’t’t wait to have it. What a great find!
Hat City Diggers has found many artifacts while creek walking but this has got to be the largest. Measuring in at over three feet, this blacksmith ladle is well over a hundred years old. Smiths transported molten metals like lead using this kind of tool.
“BORN YESTERDAY”
Hat City Diggers have found a new Terrywile Farm variant. During a creek walk, this afternoon Hat City Diggers team member Fred Crowe discovered the bottle. “It was sitting on a sandbar. It looks like it was born yesterday it looks so good!” said Crowe. “We had torrential rains a few days ago and it was washed it out of its hiding place.” Unlike other Terrywile Farm milks this one has the words “quality” and “service” embossed in the slug plate. Charles Darling Parks owned the dairy farm and the bottle dates to the 1920s or 30s. Terrywile Farm is now part of the Danbury park system.
COMPANY VEHICLE
The Tweedy Silk Mill still stands today along Maple Ave in Danbury. The license plate above is a 1915 and belonged to one of the vehicles the company-owned. You can see this plate and other artifacts and ephemera at the Danbury Historical Society’s new exhibit “Driving Danbury forward” which opens this Saturday, June 8th.
18TH CENTURY OPTICS?
Sometimes we forget how long people have been throwing away or losing things in Danbury. A recent creek walking find illustrates this. These eyeglasses date from the 1790s to 1900. Just think about it: These glasses sat on someone’s nose a very, very long time ago! I wonder who they were? According to an antique eyeglass identification website oval-shaped glasses like the pair above date to around 1790 to 1900 so they could be 200 years old! Why they were discarded into the creek as trash is unknown (maybe they were lost) but the recent storms we had in the area dredged them up from the bottom of the creek to be found by me. The metal may be silver.
CREEK WALKING AGAIN
Sand bars can be excellent spots to find artifacts, such as old bottles.
Some readers may remember this kind of bike seat from the 1970s as a banana seat.
Ballentine beer anyone? Once Ballentine was one of the most popular beers in the country. It’s still manufactured but has gone the way of the Dodo in the Hat City. This can maybe from the 1970s.
CREEK WALKING 4
CREEK WALKING PART 3
A few days after a summer thunderstorm we try the creeks again…
…and the artifacts emerge. (Above) the headlight to a bicycle.
CREEK WALKING ADVENTURE PART 2
An Arnica Liniment dating to the 1880s is taken from the creek
The taillight to a late model car.
CREEK WALKING ADVENTURE PART 1
Creek walking can start as early as March but it’s at its height during the summer months. (Above) From the water comes an antique crock lid. Lids like this sell well at auction when in better condition.
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