5/10/22 Report - Bigger Surf But Little Erosion So Far. Stuart Bottling Works. Little Bigger Surf Tomorrow.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaehes Report.

John Brooks Beach About 3:30 PM Tuesday.

I took a quick look at John Brooks beach Tuesday afternoon.  It wasn't far from high tide.  It was exactly like I expected.

The surf was high, but the tides weren't.  Also the waves were hitting the beach straight on.  So the surf was good, but the tides and angles were not.  Also the amount of sand to begin with wasn't good.

The beach was steppening a little.  You can see the highest progress of the water on the beach.

Up at the curve to the north, there was just a little more erosion, which is what has been happening for the past year or more when you get some higher surf there.  

If you take into account the surf, tides, angles, and starting condition of the beach, and add to that your knowledge of how specific areas have been responding in recent months, you pretty much know what to expect.

John Brooks Near High Tide Tuesday.

Of course some beaches and some spots will be different.  You might know where the beaches have been eroding over the past few months during similar water conditions.

I thought I took more photos, but evidently didn't get all of them.

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I started looking at some bottles.  The green blob top was in better condition than I thought.  I just needed to clean it a little.

I have a number of the Stuart Bottling Works bottles. I got them together and am going to study them better.  Here is some good information I found on the Stuart Bottling Works company. 

In July 1913, James Elersly Weir, Jr., purchased a pitch pine wooden building owned by Joseph A. Lucas, a real estate developer, located on an isolated dirt road (Decker Street) south of Stuart; he had it converted into a bottling plant, Stuart Bottle Works. Soft drinks were bottled, sealed with large snap off caps and distributed in Stuart, Palm City, Jensen, Salerno, Hobe Sound, even to Fort Pierce and Jupiter. Weir only remained in Stuart a few years, joining family in West Palm Beach, in the plastering business and later, an auction house.

The bottling plant building was eventually owned by Ira L. Decker, who operated a concrete manufacturing business and was used primarily for storage. In the afternoon of Feb. 6, 1933, while Decker and local firemen were battling a brush fire nearby, the building caught fire. The wooden structure quickly went up in flames making it impossible for Ira to retrieve equipment, vehicles or machinery.

At least two bottles from the plant survive, clearly marked Stuart Bottling Works, one of which can be seen at the Stuart Heritage Museum...

That comes from Historical Vignettes: Some of Martin County's 'firsts' -- Part 2 (tcpalm.com)

So it seems the possible date range for those bottles would be something like 1913 to 1933.  I suspect the bottles are closer to 1913 than 1933.  So far the six SBW bottles I've been looking at look nearly identical.  I'm thinking a more narrow date range would be probable.  One seems to be made of a  more clear glass, but I need to clean them better before drawing conclusions.

Nice bit of local history, and there are certainly more than the two known examples in the museum.  It appears the bottles contained a very popular beverage in the local area, just judging from the number of them in relation to other kinds of bottles.  Of course, I find more Coca Cola bottles but the date range for them is much wider.

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Surf Predictions for the Fort Pierce Area.
Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Looks like the surf will be up another foot or so tomorrow.  The tides will be about the same though, as will be the wind direction.

Good Hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net