Lake Erie Lost & Found

They’re baaaaaack. #mayflies #vom

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 14:03:59 -0400

They’re baaaaaack. #mayflies #vom

I’ve been here for 10 minutes and my toes are already...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 19:07:42 -0400

I’ve been here for 10 minutes and my toes are already sandy. #lakeerie

Photo

Mon, 27 May 2013 17:18:53 -0400

Working on Memorial Day clean up of the beach. Anyone know what...

Fri, 24 May 2013 13:29:41 -0400

Working on Memorial Day clean up of the beach. Anyone know what that wooden thing is?

Providence! Just in time for spring angling season.

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 12:21:25 -0400

Providence! Just in time for spring angling season.

Photo

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 18:39:53 -0500

Unbelievable. I found an unbroken Owens Illinois bottle on the...

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 14:16:49 -0500

Unbelievable. I found an unbroken Owens Illinois bottle on the beach manufactured in 1959. No clue what used to be inside. It now holds lake water and sand.

I’m thankful for this beautiful day at the lake.

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 10:35:14 -0500

I’m thankful for this beautiful day at the lake.

Decaying zebra muscles smell like an old man’s dirty gym...

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 11:04:03 -0500

Decaying zebra muscles smell like an old man’s dirty gym socks. #NowYouKnow

Even the beach is getting into the holiday spirit early.

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 11:00:24 -0500

Even the beach is getting into the holiday spirit early.

Taken with Instagram

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 19:58:37 -0400

Taken with Instagram

Labor Day Weekend. I have arrived! (Taken with Instagram)

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 14:18:46 -0400

Labor Day Weekend. I have arrived! (Taken with Instagram)

Somewhere, there’s a very disappointed 8-year-old who will...

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 22:25:00 -0400

Somewhere, there’s a very disappointed 8-year-old who will never be ‘kinged’.

Beaches never seem to have a shortage of beach glass, but seeing as Toledo is called “The...

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 13:16:35 -0400

Beaches never seem to have a shortage of beach glass, but seeing as Toledo is called “The Glass City,” these particular finds have direct ties to the area.

Of the items that wash up, I’ve become particularly interested in glass. The bits of sea glass are just part of the puzzle, and trying to find information on them can be maddening. You can tell very little about a particular piece, unless you’re fortunate enough to have something like the maker’s mark on the bottom. I’ve since learned that a bottom stamped with a cursive “L” means it’s Libbey Glass, which is appropriate, since that’s a Toledo company. Look at the bottom of your glass the next time you’re at a restaurant (when it’s empty, of course. Idiot.) and you’ll probably see an “L” there.

Some of the pieces I’ve found reveal only letters or parts of phrases. Trying to identify where these came from and what they originally looked like is practically impossible, except for the Coca-Cola bottle piece in the top left. And as it turns out, the piece in the top right probably came from a poison bottle. It’s hard to believe there was ever such thing as generic poison like you’d see in a cartoon, but it existed. They’d imprint the words “POISON” directly on the bottle so you’d know what it was. Putting a skull and crossbones on it was also a real thing.

Other bits I’ve come across pose an even greater detective challenge, taunting me with just enough graphic detail to give me hope I’d find a match. Such was the case with this piece. The bold and strong “B.” The “ng co.” The corner of what was probably a logo. The journey to figuring out what this once belonged to was relatively short, since I showed it to my dad, who looked at it and said, “Huh. Probably from a Mohr Brothers bottle,” and tossed it back to me. Well, that wasn’t so hard.

Google is a wonderful thing, since it took me all of 15 minutes to find the exact bottle this belonged to.

The picture isn’t that great, but this is it. And with any research I do into the items that wash up, I learned a lot about this particular company and Toledo’s beverage bottling industry in general.

Long before Pepsi and Coke were king, Toledoans drank locally produced sodas. Three brothers and their brother-in-law began Mohr Brothers Bottling Company in 1902, making classic flavors like cherry, strawberry, lemon-lime, cola, grape and orange. They set up shop in the 2500 block of Lagrange St., supplying their bubbly wares to candy stores and community events at first, and later expanding to grocery stores and bars.

This photo, courtesy of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library’s Images In Time database implies they also distributed beer, but I was unable to find any information on that.

Mohr Brothers changed hands in the 80s, continuing to make soda with the guidance of the grandson of one of the brothers. He eventually bought the company back, but found they were unable to compete with the market impact of larger brands and soon went under. The original building is still standing.

Propeller? Bottom of an old timey office chair? If anybody has...

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:57:40 -0400

Propeller? Bottom of an old timey office chair? If anybody has any idea what this is, please tell me.

Five second rule.

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:52:00 -0400

Five second rule.

“To reach port, we must sail. Sail, not tie at anchor. Sail, not drift.” - FDR How...

Sun, 27 May 2012 20:06:00 -0400

“To reach port, we must sail. Sail, not tie at anchor. Sail, not drift.” - FDR

How appropriate that this strange treasure should find its way to me. Even stranger is the means. Concealed in the shadows of a hot June night, two tornadoes ripped through a set of rural Ohio communities 20 miles away. Houses torn from their foundations, trees torn from their soil, and seven lives torn from one another. The storm tracked northeast until it weakened over Lake Erie, depositing untold amounts of peoples’ lives onto its shallow, sandy bottom. The following days brought much of it to us in the way of siding, water-stained pink fiberglass insulation, plywood, a Santa place mat, a broken plastic vase of silk flowers, shingles, and this stamp.

It was two years ago when the tornado ripped this page out of someone’s stamp collection book, the stamp itself protected from being licked by the lake’s waves thanks to a plastic sleeve.

Winter storms on Lake Erie often wash up remnants of trees from God knows where. This particular...

Sat, 12 May 2012 15:07:00 -0400

Winter storms on Lake Erie often wash up remnants of trees from God knows where. This particular branch is about 20 feet long and two feet wide at its thickest part. There’s really no moving this hulking piece of wood, so waves and sand will continue to wash over it year after year until it’s buried and the beach is ready for its next, new resident.

This particular branch suffered the same fate as many of its ash tree counterparts, ravaged by the Emerald Ash Borer. The invasive species made its way to the States from Asia in the early 2000s, where the beetle’s larvae went to town on the tasty flesh of our shady friends of the forest. Their constant NOMing and apparent lack of municipal strategic planning severely damage the tree’s ability to absorb water and nutrients, slowly killing it while the Ash Borers go back for 12ths and 13ths at the all-u-can-eat tree buffet.

No doubt the ash tree squeaking out another year of existence on our beach will meet the same fate soon, as it too is infested with the ash borer. It’s a shame, really. Our view will be a little less green next year.

Photo

Sat, 12 May 2012 14:25:00 -0400

Oh look, a broken piece of someone’s suburban American...

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:19:00 -0400

Oh look, a broken piece of someone’s suburban American dream.