“My friend Jason told me years ago that he’d love to bring me along to snorkel around an island in Grand Lake and see what we could find. The day finally arrived and we set out in a kayak and canoe.
Once we landed, we quickly scouted the island. We saw an abandoned large stone fireplace in the middle of the woods which made for an interesting visual. It made me think about the people who would have used this a long time ago. After walking the island for roughly 10 minutes, we suited up and got in the water.
He found a round bottom pop bottle almost right away and it took me about half an hour until I pulled up my first find – an early 1900s aqua crown-top bottle. Shortly after that, I found a coffin bottle with an oversized applied top wedged in-between two giant rocks. After swimming for another five minutes, I found a E&J Burke beer bottle with the embossed logo of a cat stamped on the bottom.
And then the most exciting find of the day came!
This W.H. Donovan bottle can be roughly dated from 1890 to the early 1910s due to the popularity and the production of the Hutchinson model at this time. The manufacturer, William H. Donovan, operated his soft drink & beverage company on Granville Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Hutchinson soda bottles are a unique type of antique bottle that had a wire stopper inside the neck and blob of the bottle. The gasket was designed to seal the bottle below the neck at the shoulder of the bottle from the inside. I’m actually surprised the stopper is still in this bottle!
Since it was found in freshwater, it cleaned up remarkably well and despite a few cracks, it’s in pretty good condition.“
Saltwater Sean (Sean McMullen)