Ever since I can remember, my Uncle Frank has been digging bottles out of the ground. I have vivid recollections of being at family gatherings as a kid and watching him pull a small rolled towel from his truck. I intently watched as he would carefully unroll the towel to reveal a beautiful blue, a gorgeous green, or an amazing aqua bottle. At that age I didn’t quite grasp the “why” or “how” of it all, I just knew they were super cool!

As I grew older, I became more and more curious. How did he get into this hobby? Why are there bottles in the ground and who put them there? Where is he finding these bottles? Then the biggest question of all. . .How in the world does he find glass bottles that have been buried for over 100 years?! In my mind I had this image of him walking through the woods and just digging random holes until. . .clink. . .he struck glass. It just didn’t make sense to me. I remember briefly thinking that it must just be a case of him being the luckiest guy in the world. However, if you knew my uncle, you would quickly come to the same conclusion that luck simply could not be the answer. So, I revised my reasoning and chalked it up to skill.

It wasn’t until I came home after graduating from college in Florida,  that I started to really get into the hobby myself. One day, my older cousin, Matt, (Uncle Frank’s son), looked at me with a mischievous grin and said, “We should go bottle digging.” I agreed and off we went. The first dig I went on was at a location that my uncle and cousin had already found and had been granted permission to dig. It was incredibly exciting, but it wasn’t very fruitful. . .One or two trips later I found my first true keeper. It was a beautiful Dr. Kilmer’s Swamp Root. (Very common, but very cool.) I remember holding it in my hands and thinking about the fact that the last time a human touched this bottle was over 100 years ago. I though about what the world looked like then compared to what it looks like now. I thought about all the years it had waited in the cold & darkness to be plucked from the ground, rescued, to once again bask in the sun’s warm rays. It was powerful. A piece of history, in my hands. In that moment, I understood what had motivated my uncle to keep digging all these years.

In an instant I understood the answer to the first question that used to perplex me as a child, the “why.” Unfortunately, the “how” was much more difficult to comprehend. Over the next several years I came to understand that those brilliant flashes of glory are only made possible by weeks of research, many miles of walking, and hours of backbreaking digging. Nevertheless, when you hold that bottle and know the world will be able to enjoy that history and learn from it. . .it makes it all worthwhile.

Over the years, our bodies have aged, but our passion has grown. It’s a common theme I have noticed in the bottle community. The love for the hobby never wanes, but the physical ability to dig that bottle dump or privy just isn’t there anymore. So in 2014 we started Chagrin Valley Archaeology, consisting of a small family group devoted to finding these artifacts and saving them before they are lost to time. We don’t make any money but we sure enjoy doing it.

So to those of you who may know of a good spot, but just never got around to digging it, I propose this to you... Contact us. If you are confident that we would find something and you are within a reasonable distance, we can plan a trip and safely dig it for you. We will document the dig and make sure you get a share of what is found. Some history for your shelf without having to break your back. It doesn’t get much better than that. Together we can help keep this hobby alive, all while preserving our past in an increasingly modern world.

- Joe Jacobs (Founder of Chagrin Valley Archaeology)