Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana Down in the dumps

I really like that Vacancy sign!

Thanks! There are about 3-4 neon sign cans that i got from the dump this was the only one with the signs on it. Hopefully i will find the signs for them underground . Usually when i am digging i am feeling only for flat porcelain but now I dig anything up with a curved side.

The 1st few signs were amazing! then the sadness of the poor signs. If you kept digging would you find repo signs from china?

oldgoaly... haha

I would love to see a couple pics of the dig site and tools used. Just incredible that these signs exist there. You said some were 3ft. down... how are you finding them? Are any employees pointing out where to dig? are you finding all of these in one particular spot?

Its just me and my dad that found the dump. Yes they are all coming from one HUGE dump. That big Goodrich sign was literally buried vertically in the ground. A lot of other sign collectors around here have heard of the dump but we are the ones who found it and are the only ones with permission to dig there. It was kind of like a local legend. I have only been there a couple days and have already found all these signs plus more i left so I am confident i will find some more in good condition. Any where you walk you are right on top of a sign. My tools are simply a shovel and my hands.

Sounds like you are maybe on the site of an old sign factory....in their dumping grounds. I remember reading a story about how a sign manufacturer would just bury the misprints or overruns on their property.

Supposedly when they were cleaning the contaminated soil from the plant site years after the place closed....banded bundles of porcelain signs were dug up and hauled off to the landfill. Does anyone else recall this, maybe with better details?

Wish I could find a dump like that. But sounds like a LOT of work doing all that digging!

Looks like the soil must be really corrosive to just eat any exposed metal like that? I've never seen such badly eaten away signs.

Jim

That is American art works here in coshocton. I know people that dug them up. The place that i am digging at is literally in the middle of the woods On land once owned and mined by Peabody coal company. There is a little more to the story that i have shared with a couple people... It has to do with American art works a mine shaft and this dump lol. Lots of people think American art works was simply tin signs but that is not true they did a lot of early porcelain signs. If i had a dime for all the blank or misprint porcelain signs i have found i would be very rich lol.
When i am digging and i find what i think is the back of a porcelain sign i always check if its finished before i go through all the work of digging it up. I have had blanks in all sizes from 24" to 6' and 8'long ones. When American art works threw the signs outback before they pushed them in a whole and buried them the farmers would come and gather up a truck load of signs. Some of them were completely finished with a small blemish. Lots of companies have been interested in the land where the factory was but don't want to go through all the environmental clean up involved with the signs that are buried

Robert

I will take all you find for a dime each!! Please let me know!! LOL

The Beach Company was also in Coshocton. They made a lot of porcelain signs. One story going around is that the extras, unfinished or seconds/ defects were sold to the locals for 10 cents a sheet as it cost more to bust off the porcelain to reuse the metal than the metal was worth. A lot of signs were used to patch holes in barns and stuff. Also heard the story of a lot of signs being under a pig pen and a lot were thrown into the river by the plant.

Interesting history about the sign companies here in coshocton but i don't have the time to post it all. But in 1912 Mr. Beach bought the Spellacy-Raiff Co. which was a large manufacturer of enamel kitchenware. The Spellacy-Raiff Co was converted into the Beach Enameling Co. Then the production of porcelain signs and thermometers started. Beach enameling produced millions of porcelain signs from 1912 until the plant was closed in 1939. Now in 1952 the building was sold to Edmont latex gloves company.. The gloves are still baked in the same ovens as the signs were to this day. Now as many people also think American artworks was the first advertising plant which is false. In 1886 Jasper Meek formed the Tuscarora Advertising company. Later in 1896 H.D beach formed the standard advertising which was located right across the tracks of Jasper's plant. In 1901 the companies merged forming the Meek & Beach company. Then Mr. Beach sold his share of the company back to Jasper. Beach then made the H.D Beach company. For some reason Jasper waited until 1905 to change the company name to the Meek company then once again in 1908 he changed the name to The American Art Works. And then of course Mr. Beach changed the name of his company to the Beach enameling company which is what it stayed until the day it closed. Many people believe there were 6 individual companies here in coshocton but really there were two HUGE companies that had different branches. Much more history but my hands already tired.

thanks so much for the history lesson. very interesting. good luck digging.

im ready to see that stack of tydols robert!!!

Alright I'll dig out the ones i have left. Found some more signs today but only got about an hour worth of digging in before the rain moved through. I think its gonna rain tomorrow also but i don't care I'm gonna dig all day long. Seems like the signs in better condition are buried deeper all the stuff on the surface is shot. Usually its the other way around. The dump is VERY deep. I stuck a 6' steel bar down into the ground and am still hitting metal.

This is all so very interesting! Thanks for the history lesson on the 2 companies. Great to hear about what you're doing. Keep up the posts.---KEVIN

oilman,
keep going, take some CONFIDENTIAL help with you.

There is no telling what kind of gold mine you are on top of.
No one else needs to know where it is either and if word gets out, the jig is up!