pontiled bottles tossed from a passing schooner in the early 1850's discovered at wolf point

the focal point of wolf point "part two" moves away from the discovery of several mid-19th century pontiled soda and/or mineral water bottles during excavations in the 1980's, which were retrieved from intact wood-lined privy pits built and later filled by individuals that resided near the sauganash hotel and wolf point tavern.

instead, we fast forward to 2014, where another wave of excavations are currently underway in preparation for foundation work where the west and south wolf point towers will rise from. while the backhoes where digging into the land, another significant discovery, in the form of a repository of c. 1840's-1850's bottles was found in an area that suggests the bottles were likely tossed as "refuse" from passing schooners or steamboats off the south shoreline of wolf point. the bottles were remarkably well-preserved to the point where very little cleaning was necessary thanks in part to being nestled in the riverbed's layers of silt deposits.

the great majority of the bottles retrieved, were from the thriving port city of buffalo, new york, which is situated on the eastern shores of lake eerie. a particularly rare and highly sought after c. 1849 iron pontiled cobalt blue glass "burr & waters" mineral waters bottle was perhaps the highlight of the haul. a few unmarked salt-glazed ceramic bottles with unusual shaped and an early 1850's w.h. hutchinson "celebrated mineral water" cobalt blue chicago bottle were discovered around the same region as the others.