Amateur Archeologist

 Latah Creek runs right under the freeway just below my house and sometimes I just take a walk out to sit on the bench and watch the trains go by or just stare down at the Creek near Highbridge Park.

When I was walking today I immediately heard the big orange backhoe digging into the soil & rocks just over the edge of the embankment.   It was scooping its plunder into the back of a large begrimed dump truck.  This truck would then transfer the dirt into a heap that was about 18 feet deep.  I watched for about an hour as it did this over and over.

As I peered over the edge, trying not to fall, I saw several bottles, pottery and plates lying in the dirt.   They looked like they had been there a few years, and how deep they were buried in the ground was a clear sign they had been there for a number of years.   While I gazed down the slope the employee told me he felt some of these bottles may be over 100 years old, and invited me down to see their discovery. 

I grabbed my gloves and tennis shoes and hiked down the embankment.   As I started sifting through the dirt and rust my heart started pounding quickly from the anticipation.  I love history and this was unfolding right in my own hands.    I found old teacups stamped with Matthews & Kerr, Spokane WA on the bottom of them.   I grabbed my phone and Googled the name immediately, thank goodness for G3 networks.  I discovered that the company started their business in the mid 1930’s and lasted through most of 1940’s.  Their specialties were coffee, food supplies and  teacups.

 

There were thick glass bottles with lids rusted on from age and years of being buried.  Some of them had liquid in them and raised etching giving the name of a drug company and indicating that they were once somebody’s medication.   There were some that looked like old whiskey bottles and they appeared to still have whiskey in them.

I am still unsure of what these people  had come upon, maybe it was once an old landfill, or maybe somebody’s home had been there ,  destroyed and all their belongings had been left behind, just buried in time.  Sure I would like to know how these things got to their final resting place, but there is something exciting about the mystery of not knowing.   Let my imagination take over and try to put together a time long gone.

There is one thing I am sure of, I have embarked upon a dream, I have become and amateur archeologist for a few hours.  In my mind the greatest unearthing was an old Davenport coffee cup.   I don’t know if it has been buried here for 30 years or 60 years.  What I do know is how exciting it was finding these treasures from another moment time.  This was a time my grandparents and great grandparents spoke of with an adoring tone in their voice, reminiscing about the splendor and beauty of the Davenport Hotel, and Spokane. 

What was once buried in the sands of time have now been discovered and given a new beginning. There are many questions to be answered and if I am lucky maybe they will share their secrets with me.