The fourth and final entry into my series on Moorten’s Botanical Garden in Palm Springs features some of their really neat Gold Mine artifacts! I’m always fascinated by old tools and relics from days gone by. The purple bottle pieces, strung up on the string, really brought back memories, though. When I was young, my dad would take our family camping and exploring at the old gold mine towns out in the desert. One of our favorite sites was outside of Death Valley. We’d dig through old dumps and nearly always found old bottles, artifacts. This was way back in the early 1960’s, before the areas became overcrowded, and before hunting for such things became popular. We found some great collectibles, including lots of unbroken old bottles!
The house I grew up in was an adobe brick house with foot-thick walls made from mud and straw. It had been a ranch house years before we moved in. A long hallway ran from the living room to my parent’s bedroom. It was lined with floor to ceiling with windows that looked onto the lanai (indoor garden room), and along those windows were shelves. My mom displayed her bottle collection on those shelves. The ones I loved looking at most were the old purple bottles she’d found in the dumps from our various trips. The variation in their colors shone beautifully in the soft light. ~SueBee
I liked the bottle ropes.
I wish I could remember which mineral is in the glass when it’s made that causes bottles to turn purple. My dad told me… must look it up.
Your childhood sounds fun
It was! We had lots of adventures 🙂