Jeff Haimowitz still remembers the day he discovered his first buried treasure; or was it trash? It depends on who you ask.
He found it while helping demolish an old home; under the rubble lay items long since buried and forgotten by their past owners. Buried alongside dirt and vintage grocery store flyers sat his prize: an antique glass ink bottle. To many, this may have been a momentarily interesting event, or even ignored entirely, but to Haimowitz, it led him to a lifelong passion for bottle digging and collecting.
As a former Jacksonville social studies and mathematics teacher, Haimowitz believes old bottles aren’t just junk; they are valuable pieces of local history to be learned from. In a way, bottle collecting is the study of people through what they left behind.
“The study of man through their garbage pile,” he said.
With record-breaking drought spreading across North Florida, water levels are quickly falling, exposing creek beds and shorelines where many of these once submerged relics now sit. As of May 28, the U.S. Drought Monitor listed more than 67% of the state to be under “extreme drought” conditions, including all of Alachua County.
To some collectors, low water levels may be great news, but not everyone agrees.
For local environmental officials, digging in and around water can damage fragile ecosystems and threaten what little water remains in these areas. For preservation experts, removing these items from their place can damage crucial aspects of their historical context. And for bottle collectors, a once harmless hobby now leans on the edge of illegal and environmentally harmful.
Stacie Greco, water resources program manager for the Alachua County Environmental Protection Department, said water levels have “definitely decreased,” reducing access for recreation.
“Shorelines and creek beds are more exposed,” Greco said. “Unfortunately, some people take advantage of these conditions.”
That exposed land can attract attention from people who wish to dig, collect, or even just walk around off-trail areas they could not reach before. This can cause sensitive habitats to degrade, especially under drought conditions.
“Walking on exposed shorelines can harm aquatic life,” Greco said. “Digging in wetlands and water bodies is prohibited and can lead to fines and/or mandatory court appearances.”
Environmental experts warn that illegal digging not only comes with legal repercussions but also harms wildlife, releases phosphorus and sediment into waterways, and accelerates natural erosion.
For responsible enthusiasts like Haimowitz, collecting starts before anyone digs.
“You have to get permission, and you have to leave the area the way that you found it,” Haimowitz said.
In his opinion, careless diggers have hurt the hobby by sneaking onto private properties, leaving holes, and generally making landowners less willing to allow collectors to search in the future.
“That's what ruined it for us… The people that are trying to make money off of it don’t care if they ruin it for everyone else,” Haimowitz said.
Nigel Rudolph, with the Florida Public Archaeology Network at the University of South Florida’s Department of Anthropology, said people should first know who owns the land before attempting to collect or dig.
Collecting artifacts from private property is generally legal with the landowner’s permission, Rudolph said. But taking artifacts from public lands is not legal. State-owned underwater resources include the bottoms of navigable rivers, streams, lakes, bays and offshore waters.
Rudolph acknowledges the common confusion; certain waterways, if navigable by boat, are considered public, but their shorelines and riverbeds are not, especially if exposed by drought. That can surprise people, Rudolph said, because a riverbank or exposed bottomland may not look like state property.
Old bottles may also be protected depending on where they are found and whether they are part of a historic or archaeological context, Rudolph said.
“Florida’s definition of historic resources is broad… All artifacts, and such objects having intrinsic or historical and archaeological value which have been abandoned on state-owned lands or state-owned sovereignty submerged lands belong to the state,” he said.
For casual museum-goers, hobbyists, and history enthusiasts, that means a bottle may hold significantly more historical value than just its date, color, shape, or brand. Its location and surrounding items may help tell a much bigger story.
According to Rudolph, archaeologists live for this all-encompassing context. The placement of artifacts in relation to each other and their environment provides pieces of the storytelling puzzle that would easily be lost if items are hastily removed from their location before a professional analysis can be done.
This context can matter to collectors too. One of Haimowitz’s favorite pieces, a miniature stoneware whiskey jug, is not extraordinarily rare on its own. What makes his stand out, he said, is that it survived unbroken. Many of those jugs were damaged when people opened their cork tops with knives, but this was intact, he said. “It's one of a kind.”
And that belief holds true to fellow bottle collectors, since according to Haimowitz, he has been offered thousands for this undamaged jug. Even this was not enough; his find is worth more to him than what anyone is willing to offer in cash.
Haimowitz said the value of a bottle is not always measured by what someone is willing to pay. “What is valuable to you is not valuable to everybody,” he said. Echoing the age-old “one man's trash is another man's treasure” sentiment.
That personal attachment is part of what makes the hobby meaningful to collectors. But preservation experts say that the same interest in old objects should come with a heightened level of care and respect. Especially when bottles are found in places that require it the most, like waterways or public land.
Rudolph said there are many legal ways for people to enjoy archaeology and collecting. People interested in archaeology as a hobby can contact a local archaeological society, a regional chapter of the Florida Anthropological Society or their regional FPAN office. Collecting from private property is also allowed and even encouraged with the property owner’s permission.
And when digging, if something potentially significant is found, Rudolph urges those involved to take a clear photo of the find, with location metadata, and provide the information to a local land manager or FPAN official before taking any items home. This ensures that important historical items are not prematurely removed from their place.
Greco said, “residents should verify if and where there are regulatory requirements before entering or disturbing areas near lakes, ponds, creeks, and rivers.”
For sites in Alachua County, residents can contact the Alachua County Environmental Protection Department and request staff from the Natural Resources Division.
Enjoying collecting within this mass of local laws, property lines and environmental regulations can seem complicated at times, but officials say those rules exist for a reason, and not just to deter enthusiasts. They help protect natural areas, preserve history and maintain public land.
For responsible collectors like Haimowitz, the hobby is at its best when people respect the land, the history and the property owners who make collecting possible; helping give future bottle-digging generations a good name.