Hundreds of antique signs discovered buried at Chicago home

CHICAGO - It was an incredible discovery in the yard of a Northwest Side home.

A woman says she was in the process of replacing her garage when demolition crews discovered hundreds of antique signs. Some of the signs date back to the 1930s.

School teacher Soraya Zamora is playing Indiana Jones in her northwest side backyard.

"Every day I've been out here digging with my Panama hat on,” she said.

Buried in Zamora's backyard was hundreds and hundreds of old metal advertising signs dating from the early 1930s. The discovery came two weeks ago when demolition crews tore down her old garage for a new one.

"They smashed the cement and as the cement is going, I thought it was a bunch of cardboard paper. And I came out here to poke at it and it was old metal,” Zamora said.

All the signs are for three Chicago based businesses: Green River soda, a chocolate drink called Krem-Ko and Edelweiss Beer.

All three may have been produced at the old Schoenhofen Brewery, whose building still stands on the South Side.

So what are they worth?

"I saw some online from the 1930s that were in good shape. $900 bucks,” Zamora said.

How they got where they are, though, is a mystery.

“If we can have some in a museum. It's really the history of Chicago,” Zamora said.