How to dig for bottles is a question I am frequently asked.  I usually begin with the story of my own experience in my father first finding an old bottle when digging a fence post at his office--oh, somewhere back in the mid 1960's.  When I entered seventh grade, a year or so later, I met a girl and made a new friend, and she excitedly told me how she had been out to Minnesota to see her grandparents that summer, and had found lots of neat old bottles.  That further spurred my interest, and drove me to decide to ride my bicycle along what were country lanes in those days, looking for old bottles and dumps.  I found there were a few books in our school library and signed them out to learn more on  bottle digging.  Living in the country/suburbs of Pennsylvania (not terribly far from Philadelphia) there were lots of open places in woods, along old roads, bordering fields, that people long ago had indeed dumped their trash.  I soon found old dump sites, and fortunately for a kid with just a trowel and small forked digging little garden tool (you surely couldn't take a full sized shovel or cultivator on a bike) it was easy digging and not too deep.  Now, the dumps in this area of Pa. (where I moved about 20 years ago, have some deep dumps and rarely do I come across surface dumps as I did years ago)    Around the time I got my driver's license, I located a local bottle club, and soon joined.   From there, having both a car to use on occasion, and a nucleus of other diggers, I was able to get out to other areas to dig.

  I found the best tools to haul along for digging are:

(1)  a metal probe for finding if you have hit a dump and how deep it may go (you can either purchase one, or some make their own)

(2)  a shovel (short and or long-handled)

(3) a cultivator (with solid end)  A small hand-held one (short) is also a good idea for sitting and digging those small areas

(4) root cutters (loppers) for cutting roots that are often in dumps

(5) a tarp for sitting on when digging deep

(6)  some buckets or a duffel bag and cushioning material for your finds

(7)  a flashlight (for those cloudy days in the woods and peering into holes to see any bottle bases or tops)

(8)  bug spray ( in the months when this is needed)

(9)  first aid kits (bandaids and such) and if possible, a digging partner (for safety)  

Finding a dump:

Some of the advisable ways to located a dump site, is to get maps from your county. You can usually access these at the local county courthouse. Take change for making copies. Fees vary, but it is not costly.  Also, the Sanborn maps (fire) can help to locate homes, past and present where there may have been an area of dumping. Looking along old country roads and lanes, besides woods, creeks (mainly after a winter thaw and a heavy rain) are all places where people may have long ago dumped their trash.  Asking old timers if they know where dumps were when they were growing up is also a possible lead.  Hunters and contruction workers often find dumps while they are out in the woods or clearing out areas. Ask! It won't hurt.

Bottle digging has many facets from dump digging, to those who even dive to find old glass in rivers and lakes, to privy digging (outhouses) where trash was dumped so long ago.  It is both an exciting and interesting hobby, and can be profitable as well in some cases.  Selling your extra finds on ebay or at flea markets or yard sales is a good way to make some extra money, and allow someone else to also enjoy the fruits of your labor.