Creek Finds

Last spring, my husband and I went down to explore the main channel of the creek in the marsh behind our house. It's easier to get to it in spring before all the grasses, reeds, and thorns grow up. While looking in the creek, we saw pieces of pottery along the sandy bottom. Since we live in an area that's been inhabited for the last 160 years, its likely that previous occupants gave their broken dishes a strong toss into the swamp. It was too chilly to venture into the water and the water was a good two feet deeps, so we decided to return in warmer summer weather to see what we could fish out.

One hot summer day, we decided to go investigate again. To our disappointment, the clear spring creek waters were now green with algae and plant life. There was no way we were seeing the bottom, nor venturing into the water.

This spring we returned to see what we could see. A piece caught our eye that looked like it was supposed to be a fake log with leaves on it. We attempted to retrieve some objects with large sticks, but breaking the surface of the water was just too hard.

This past weekend after raking off the flower bed, we returned with a long-handled metal rake and the snow shovel. We found the edge of the channel still frozen, but the water was running, high at almost three feet. We had fun retrieving a variety of objects, and here are the most interesting pieces of the bunch.
The 'log vase' ; white pottery stamped from England; thick brownstone painted with a blue design; a pair of fluted saucers; a piece brown pottery with corn design, the bottom of a light blue bottle and the remains of a dark green bottle.

We found more heavy brownstone wear and simple white stoneware as well.

Amazingly this canning lid was whole. Its similar to the ones I use on the top of my wire clamp jars which I use for storing dry goods. The top reads "A.C. SMALLEY & Co. Boston & New York."
The base of the green bottle reads "Saratoga, NY."
The blue color stood out on the bottom of the sandy creek and we were surprised to find it was another piece of glass.
Now we just need to decide what to do with our finds.