Soon after railroads appeared in the 1830s, they started moving the U.S. mail. During the Civil War, railroads built rolling post offices to sort mail along the route besides moving mail. Special railroad cars called Railway Post Offices (RPO) employed postal workers to sort and handle mail in transit. They would pick up and drop off mail at station stops. They would pick up mail on the fly at places they didn't stop, "grabbing" mailbags from a special bracket without stopping the train.
Mail Bag Catch & Drop from a Steam Locomotive Train.
Some electric interurban routes also had RPOs, which served the same functions as RPOs on steam (and later diesel) railroads. People could deposit mail on these cars via slots on their sides, and clerks would postmark that mail on board.
Illinois Central's United States Mail Railway Post Office № 51.
At their peak in the 1800s, RPO cars were used on over 9,000 train routes. But in the 20th Century, RPO use started to decline. After WWII, the Post Office began using large regional centers with machines taking over the sorting. In 1948 the RPO network had shrunk to 794 lines. As the Post Office canceled their "mail by rail" contracts, passenger trains that relied on mail revenue lost that revenue, contributing to the eventual creation of Amtrak in 1971.
United States Mail Railway Post Office - HO Scale Car. (1:87 scale = 3.5 mm to 1 foot)
On June 30, 1977, the last RPO ended operations after 113 years.
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was a Serbian-American engineer and physicist who made dozens and dozens of breakthroughs in the production, transmission and application of electric power.
Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing Company was in Rahway, New Jersey, that operated from December 1884 through 1886. Tesla is forced out of the Tesla Electric Light Company with nothing but worthless stock.
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)
He endured a brutal winter of 1886/87 working as a ditch digger. He persevered, determined to develop his concept of generating electricity through rotating magnetic fields. However, Tesla knew that he must find a way to help investors and supporters understand the potential of his invention.
The rotating magnetic field is one of Tesla's most far-reaching and revolutionary discoveries. This is a new and wonderful manifestation of force — a magnetic cyclone — producing striking phenomena that amazed the world when he first showed them. It results from the joint action of two or more alternating currents definitely related to one another and creating magnetic fluxes, which, by their periodic rise and fall according to a mathematical law, cause a continuous shifting of the lines of force.
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Tesla invented the first alternating current (A/C) 'motor' and developed A/C electric generation and transmission technology.
There is a vast difference between an ordinary electromagnet and the one invented by Tesla. In standard electromagnets, the lines are stationary, and in Tesla's invention, the lines are made to whirl around at a furious rate. The first attracts a piece of iron and holds it fast; the second causes it to spin in any direction and speed desired.
Long ago, when Tesla was still a student, he conceived the idea of the rotating magnetic field. This remarkable principle is embodied in his famous induction motor and power transmission system, now universally used.
Tesla devises a machine to illustrate the concept: an electromagnetic motor that generates the force needed to spin a brass egg and stand it upright on its end.
Tesla named the device the"Egg of Columbus"after the famous story in which Christopher Columbus challenged the Spanish court and investors to stand an egg upright. When they failed, Columbus took an egg and crushed the bottom flat so it would remain upright. They accused him of playing a cheap trick. Still, Columbus overcame their objections by explaining that an idea can seem impossible until a clever solution is found, at which point it suddenly becomes easy.
How The "Egg of Columbus" Works.
Canadian Tesla Technical Museum.
Tesla Projects Laboratory Inc.
Tesla incorporates this logic in his Egg of Columbus to present his concept of alternating current A/C electricity to investors. It is a stroke of brilliance that results in funding from investors Alfred S. Brown, director of Western Union, and Charles F. Peck, a big-shot attorney from New York City.
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Tesla’s first laboratory opened in April 1887 and was located at 89 Liberty Street in New York’s Lower Manhattan Financial District. This is where Tesla began planning and developing his designs for the A/C induction motor.
Tesla wrote in his autobiography of this time in his life when he went from ditch digger to laboratory owner, where he finally built the first models of his induction motor concept: "Then followed a period of struggle in the new medium for which I was not fitted, but the reward came in the end, and in April 1887, the Tesla Electric Company was organized, providing a laboratory and facilities. The motors I built there were exactly as I had imagined them. I made no attempt to improve the design but merely reproduced the pictures as they appeared to my vision, and the operation was always as I expected."
Nikola Tesla (year unknown).
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In 1893, three years prior to the earliest attempts in Hertz wave telegraphy, Tesla first described his wireless system and took out patents on a number of novel devices which were then but imperfectly understood. Even the electrical world at large laughed at these patents. But large wireless interests had to pay him tribute in the form of real money, because his "fool" patents were recognized to be fundamental. He actually antedated every important wireless invention.
Nikola Tesla lived a century behind his time. He had often been denounced as a dreamer even by well-informed men. He has been called crazy by others who ought to have known better. Tesla talked in a language that most of us still do not understand. But as the years roll on, Science appreciates his greatness, and Tesla receives more tributes.
"Today, Nikola Tesla is considered to be the greatest inventor of all time. Tesla has more original inventions to his credit than any other man in history. He is considered greater than Archimedes, Faraday, or Edison. His basic, as well as revolutionary, discoveries for sheer audacity, have no equal in the annals of the world. His master mind is easily one of the seven wonders of the intellectual world." ─ Hugo Gernsback
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There are a lot of assumptions made reguarding Tesla's private life. One of the few
things that we know for sure is that Tesla never married. Tesla's seemingly indifference in women {friends, like a sister}, made him the perfect target for whispers and gossip that he was homosexual, but, of course, there's no evidence. (Karl-Maria Kertbeny coined the term 'homosexual' in print 1868.)
Tesla, unbeknownst to him, was the cynosure of all the lady's eyes. Despite being surrounded by beautiful, intelligent, women of substance, many who grew to love Nikola, yet nobody became Mrs. Nikola Telsa.
The issue wasn't the failure to meet his expectations. Instead, it turns out to be Tesla's 'no distractions' attitude allowing him to focus his energy on inventing (solutions to a problem), improvements, and , most importantly, the documentation.
"I don't think that you can name many great inventions that have been made by a married man." ─ Nikola Tesla.
Owner Mike Donley's parents, Larry and Helene, initially built a large storage facility to hold their growing collection of Museum-quality artifacts, antiques, collectibles, and memorabilia.
The indoor Museum displays antique phonographs, Old West and Civil War artifacts, Carousel Horses, OutdoorPorcelain Signs and sports memorabilia. Around the back of the Museum was an outdoor replica town called "Wild West Town," complete with cowboy shows, a steam locomotive and a carousel.
Rides and Attractions included an Archery Range, Carousel, Hand Cars, Roping, Run Away, Shooting Gallery, Streets of Yesteryear, A silent movie house, Locomotive Ride, the Wild West Stunt Show, and others.
"Please, keep your hands inside the car at all times ..."
Even young wranglers were pleased with the food and refreshment choices of an Ice Cream Parlor & Snack Shop, a Fudge Shop, and Clayton's Sarsaparilla Saloon.
Onesti's Wild West Town (formerly Donley's Wild West Town) sold the amusement park to Ron Onesti in 2019.
Unfortunately, because of Illinois and McHenry County and local COVID-19 restrictions, they did not open the park for the entire 2021 season. It was announced in May 2022 that Ron Onesti's Wild West Town is permanently closed after the Wild West Town had a 47 46-year run.
Today, Donley Auctions sits in front of the Wild West [Ghost] Town. Monthly auctions attract buyers from around the world who enjoy the excitement of a live auction as much as trying to win a bargain.
Phonevision was a project by Zenith Radio Company to create the world's first pay television system. It was developed and first launched in Chicago.
E.F. McDonald's vision wasn't that far from what some early pioneers intended for radio. Though he continued to call himself "the father of the radio," Dr. Lee de Forest (inventor of the "audion" vacuum tube and the "discoverer" of regeneration if the courts are to be believed) turned his back on the broadcast frenzy. He was appalled by the crass commercialism already in place by the 1930s. De Forest thought that the public should be allowed to sit down and enjoy a concert, a history lesson, or just simply the news of the day without being huckstered by a fast-talking shaving cream salesman.
But it was not to be. It all boiled down to economics and time. Radio needed commercial sponsorship if it was to survive and grow. As the industry was abandoning the mechanical era and embracing the new electronic era of television research, design and manufacture, it became abundantly clear that if television was to survive and surpass radio as the popular medium, it needed the cash flow that only commercial television sponsorship could provide. McDonald, chairman and owner of independent radio manufacturer Zenith Radio Corporation in Chicago, firmly believed De Forest's thinking. Zenith had experimented with "subscription television" as early as 1931.
Phonevision Program Guide cover.
By 1947 they had a working system and, in 1951, coined and trademarked the name "Phonevision" to identify their efforts. After receiving FCC approval, a 90-day test run was conducted utilizing 300 families from the Lakeview-Lincoln Park Chicago area. This area was chosen due to the limited broadcast range of the station.
Chicago Broadcast TV Networks 1950-1954.
KS2XBS was located at the Field Building downtown, and its Phonevision central distribution center was at 3477 North Clark Street. The lucky 300, equipped with a set-top converter (the first in a long line of boxes to sit atop the TV) and a dedicated telephone line, enjoyed first-run movies that were supplied under a special deal with Zenith and some of the major film studios. A typical broadcast day for Phonevision subscribers might include The Enchanted Cottage, a Robert Young film from 1945 (very recent compared to the movies available on television at the time). The film would be shown three days in a row, scheduled at different times each day. The station would receive the movie two days in advance and store them in a special film vault. Jerry Daly, along with his projectionist staff of Jim Starbuck and Roland Long, was responsible for the safety of the film. Television, in the beginning, was considered Hollywood's mortal enemy. But McDonald and Zenith were determined to prove that the two could work side by side. For the not-so-low price of $1 ($3.25 in 1951), folks could see a major motion picture in their living rooms without commercial interruption.
The experiment was attracting citywide attention. People tried to build or buy pirate boxes to circumvent the system and avoid payment. In the first month of the test, only the video was scrambled. The audio was as clear as a whistle; many sat through the scrambled picture and just listened. The second month, however, changed all that when Zenith began to scramble the sound, making all those pirate boxes obsolete.
The people who paid for their Phonevision service were required to do the following to watch their movies. Call the Phonevision operator and ask to be "plugged in." Daisy Davis and Dean Barnell supervised the operators day and night. The subscriber would turn to channel 3 on the television and turn on his Phonevision converter, which would be patched into the antenna terminals on the set and a phone line. According to The Zenith Story, an in-house 1954 publication, those families averaged about 1.73 movies weekly. Not quite enough to qualify as a commercial success. The results were disappointing as McDonald had hoped to transform KS2XBS into commercial licensed WTZR.
The experiment was plagued by technical problems right from the beginning. Passing planes and trucks was known to wreak havoc on the signal making the experience less than enjoyable. This was, of course, provided you even received the scrambled signal. But Zenith refused to give up and, in 1953, was ready to try again.
But by this time, commercial television was firmly in place, and the advertisers (who told the networks when to jump) generally frowned upon the "alternative" to commercially sponsored television. Educational television, though noncommercial, was not considered a threat. By 1953, all of the experimental licenses in Chicago had been replaced by commercial ones. Zenith, so involved with its Phonevision system, apparently didn't see or chose to ignore the situation, and KS2XBS found itself in a difficult situation.
1953 was the year that brought together The American Broadcasting Company and United Paramount Theaters. Because licensees could only own one television station in the same market- a problem quickly arose. UPT, through its Balaban & Katz subsidiary, owned WBKB Channel 4. ABC-TV owned and operated WENR-TV on channel 7. CBS, itself lagging behind for a completely different reason- its Peter Goldmark-designed field sequential color television system, did not own a station in the Chicago market. Its shows were carried mainly by WBKB. CBS quickly coughed up $6 million for the station in a sweetheart deal arranged by CBS head Bill Paley and ABC head Edward Noble.
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Subscription broadcast television used a method referred to as "narrowcasting." Employing this method, a station would transmit a scrambled picture and a code encoded in a single sideband of the audio signal. A set-top decoder would read the code and descramble the picture. Different "levels" of service (in reality, differing codes) would allow the subscriber access to the service's regular programming, special events, and late-night adult programming.
But the sale was not without its conditions. For several years, Milwaukee's WTMJ-TV and KCZO, a Kalamazoo station, had been broadcasting on channel 3, and this caused interference problems for both stations. The FCC ordered WTMJ-TV to move to channel 4 and WBBM-TV to channel 2.
McDonald cried foul and petitioned the FCC to allow Zenith to continue its experiments on channel 2 since "they had occupied the channel since 1939" when W9XZV, Zenith's original station on channel 1, first went on air on March 30, 1939. A shuffling of VHF allocations found the station at the number two position. But there are no squatters' rights in broadcasting. Whether it was because of the deep pockets at CBS or just the FCC's disappointment with Zenith's less-than-desirable results of its Phonevision experiments, the commission stood firm. It was the second time Zenith's channel position was challenged. Before the war, NBC had threatened to petition the FCC for the W9XZV channel 1 license. On July 5, 1953, WBBM-TV moved to its current home on channel 2, and Zenith signed off for good.
The 50-second show's opening will test your memory and prove your age.
This wasn't the end of Phonevision, however. Zenith conducted another experiment with an improved system that would have been tried on KS2XBS. In 1954, Zenith used New York station WOR-TV, and this experiment was considered a success over the Chicago version. In the same year, Zenith also tried its Phonevision system in New Zealand and Australia. By the early seventies, Zenith was still trying to make its Phonevision a successful commercially viable venture, this time in Hartford, Connecticut, and again as late as 1986 using the Centel Cable system in Traverse City, Michigan. None were successful enough.
The idea of a pay television system in Chicago lingered in obscurity until the early eighties when the changing face of broadcast television inspired one major network to re-examine an old idea.
It was not until 1983 that Chicago saw another pay television experiment. This time ABC would use its WLS-TV to try a strategy to increase competition between cable television and home video.
In Chicago, viewers were offered three choices in subscription television: a service called Sportsvision, which had been formed by a partnership between White Sox owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn and media mogul Fred Eychaner, who, through a series of intricate deals, brought WPWR channel 60 to the Chicago airwaves and split the license with Marcello Miyares who ran WBBS; ON-TV, a service of Oak Communications Inc., which purchased forty-nine percent of struggling UHF outlet WSNS channel 44 to air its content on that station as well as others in large metropolitan areas across the country; and Spectrum, a division of United Cable, that purchased airtime from WFBN channel 66, which was actually licensed to Joliet.
The benefits of maple trees growing in this native timber area were likely enjoyed long before the Funk family settled in 1824.
History has it that Indians were the first maple sirup producers. They used maple sugar to season their corn and other vegetables and poured maple sirup over their fish and meat. Following is one of the many legends of how maple sirup was first discovered.
One night upon returning from hunting, an Iroquois chief named Woksis plunged his hatchet into the side of a tree for safekeeping overnight. In the morning, he removed his hatchet and went out to hunt. There happened to be a bowl directly underneath the gash left by Woksis' hatchet, and the sap began to flow in the bowl. Woksis' wife later noticed that this bowl was full of liquid and, mistaking it for water, used it to cook a venison stew. The water evaporated from the sap as the stew cooked, leaving a thick, sweet substance. Both Woksis and his wife were pleasantly surprised by the sweet-tasting stew, and thus it was discovered how maple sirup could be made from sap.
Isaac Funk and Cassandra, his wife. Circa 1850s
Isaac Funk, the pioneer founder of what would later become known as Funks Grove, chose his location well in 1824—good water supply, fertile soil, and timber for shelter and heat.
Isaac raised livestock and drove it to market on foot. He later served in the Illinois Senate, where he was a friend and supporter of Abraham Lincoln. While he was away, his sons, led by the eldest, George Washington Funk (whom they dubbed "The General"), took care of the farm. Isaac and his sons also made maple sirup and sugar—cooking the sap in kettles over a fire—for personal use since it was the only readily available source of sweetener. Around 1860, Isaac's youngest son, Isaac II, took over the sirup production.
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Arthur Funk opened the first commercial maple sirup farm at Funks Grove, Illinois, in the spring of 1891.
Arthur Funk, Issac Funk II's son, replaced his father's wooden spouts with metal spouts purchased from Vermont. The small, peaked cabin that served as the first commercial sirup farm's cooking house stood on the ground now occupied by the Funks Grove Interstate 55 rest area.
Funks Grove Sugarhouse in the 1890s.
In 1896, Arthur's brother, Lawrence, took over the operation, cooking the sirup in a flat-pan evaporator and putting out about 1,000 buckets at once.
In the early 1920s, the reigns were handed over to Arthur and Lawrence's cousin, Hazel Funk Holmes (daughter of Isaac II's brother Absalom Funk), who owned the property on which the sirup operation is now located. Hazel's permanent residence was out East, so she rented the property to tenants who farmed the land and made the maple sirup. She had the little peaked cabin Arthur, and Lawrence had used as a cooking house moved to the present location, using it as a guesthouse and her summer home. A new sugarhouse was built to accommodate a flue-pan evaporator. During this same time, the paved road that later became Route 66 was finished near the sirup farm. At this time, the Funks Grove sirup producers were hanging about 600 buckets and made up to 240 gallons of sirup per year.
In her will, Hazel arranged for her timber and farmland to be protected by a trust that ensures that future generations will continue to enjoy the "sweet stuff" produced in Funks Grove. In this trust, Hazel expressed her wish to keep the spelling of "sirup" with an "i." The Funks obliged.
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“Sirup” with an 'i' is listed in Webster's Dictionary as the concentrated juice of a fruit or plant. It's the same definition given for "Syrup." Sirup was commonly produced without adding any other types or forms, natural or chemical, of sugars. Funks Grove uses this time honored method.
In 1942, sirup production was halted because of the war—heavy taxes on sugar made the business unprofitable. But production resumed in 1943, and in 1947 Stephen Funk, son of Lawrence, and his wife, Glaida, took over the operation. In 1958, Stephen had the first underground cistern installed. Before, the sap had been emptied into a storage tank higher than the evaporator, employing gravity to cause the sap to flow into the evaporator. They also began using oil to fuel the cooking process rather than wood. In 1960, Stephen experimented with tubing as a method for gathering sap. The tubing ran along the ground, and the Funks soon found that squirrels could chew up the lines faster than they could be repaired, so they decided to return to using the traditional metal buckets.
Funks Sugarhouse, 1967.
In the early 1970s, construction began on Interstate 55—and it was routed to cut right through the Funks Grove timber. Fortunately, the Funks were able to petition to get it rerouted and save their precious timber. At first, the Funks were concerned that this new road would detract from one of their primary sources of customers—people who decided on impulse to stop while traveling Route 66—but once they erected a sign on the new interstate, new business started stopping in. Stephen and his son Mike formed a partnership In the late 1970s.
In 1988, Stephen retired, and Mike and his wife, Debby, took over the business. This same year Stephen, Mike, and Mike's brothers, Larry and Adam, built the sugarhouse we use today.
Funks Grove Pure Maple Sirup Video
In 1989, Mike decided to try tubing again, this time with the lines suspended above the ground and has continued to improve and expand this system over the years since.
Funks Grove Store Entrance.
During the "in-vogue" nostalgic craze for Route 66 from the 1970s into the 2000s, interest in Funks Grove Maple Sirup grew into shipping International sales, and people from many countries found their way to Rt.66 and Funks Grove. Bikers groups, caravans of all kinds of groups traveling the Illinois portion or traveling the entire Rt.66.
Funks Grove is still going strong and looking forward to their 2023 season—March through August.
I will try the Bourbon Barrel-Aged Maple Sirup next year since I was too late this season.
History by the Funk Family
Edited by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. — BOD, Route 66 Association of Illinois, 2013-2015
The Lewis Brothers Bakery (Lewis Bros.) was established on February 1, 1925, in Anna, Illinois. Brothers Amos, Arnold and Jack Lewis mortgaged their mother's house and used that $300 to open a bakery in a rented log cabin at the rear of the property on West Chestnut Street in Anna, Illinois.
At that time, all the kneading and molding of bread was done by hand. The only machinery consisted of a dough mixer and dough brake. The wood-burning oven was made of 'homemade' bricks with the work done by the Lewis family. The business grew, and in 1926, they moved to 111 North Main Street in Anna.
The bakery operated four trucks, three driven by the Lewis Brothers, A.C, A.S. and Jack. New equipment was installed in the bake shop, bringing production up to 400 loaves per hour. They put loaves in and out of the new coke-fired oven with a long peel.
A Long Pizza Peel.
At that time, the bread was named "Milk Maid" and was baked in twin loaves, unsliced and wrapped by hand. Buns were baked in sheet pans, five dozen to the pan. Besides the Lewis Brothers, there were five other employees.
In June 1929, Lewis Brothers moved to 200 North Main Street and renamed it "Sunlit Bakery." The bread was named "Butternut."
Minnie Pearl presented the live radio show sponsored by "Bunny Bread" at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
More new equipment was installed in this plant. It consisted of two peel ovens, one new mixer, new flour equipment and an automatic bread wrapper for unsliced bread.
In 1930, sliced bread came into the picture. The loaves were sliced on an old-style meat slicer, packed in trays, and wrapped in wax paper. In 1933 they bought their first bread slicer with an automatic wrapper.
A new loaf of bread was added to the production line, called "Big Boy" in 1937. They bought more delivery trucks, and the number of new employees increased again.
In 1941, Lewis Bros. purchased the building from A.A. Crowell, which needed considerable remodeling.
On May 8, 1944, A.C. Lewis, general manager, died after a long illness. The business was reorganized, with Jewel and Charles Lewis owning the building and brother Jack Lewis becoming owner and operator of the bakery.
In 1947, the company was incorporated with R. Jack Lewis, President Charles Lewis, Vice President; Josephine Lewis, Secretary and Treasurer. More new equipment was added as were new employees, now up to fifty. The weekly bread production reached 75,000 loaves.
The picture of the rabbit going on bread wrappers was purchased.
The Modern Bunny
They decided they were ready to enter new territory with their latest equipment. In 1950 purchased a site and built a building in Harrisburg, Illinois, opening five new delivery routes, making a total of 17 Southern Illinois routes.
Four Classic Bunny Bread TV Commercials from the 1950s.
"Bunny" became so popular and well known throughout the entire territory that consumers began calling for "Bunny Bread." Bunny Bread was trademarked, and they decided to use it on all Lewis Brothers Bakery products.
Outgrowing the product capacity of their current location, Lewis Brothers purchased a site for a new plant at Illinois 146 (Vienna Street) & U.S. 51 at Anna's eastern city limits. Work began on the new building in April 1951 and opened in February 1952.
The Lewis Bros. threw a Gala for the Grand Opening of the new Bunny Bread Bakery. Over 35,000 people from Southern Illinois and southeastern Missouri attended three days of festivities.
Several new delivery routes opened in 1952, and production reached an all-time high.
The Lewis Bros. purchased the distribution rights to Kirchhoff Bakery (est.1873), Paducah, Kentucky, on January 1, 1953. The purchase opened the Kentucky Territory with routes changing to area-based, using multiple trucks per one of twelve delivery regions. (speedier delivery)
In the early 1970s, after more than 45 years in Illinois, Lewis Bakeries headquarters migrated to 500 North Fulton Avenue, Evansville, Indiana.
By this time, Bunny Bread was being sold throughout the Midwest, and the Indiana facility was a central location. In 1986, a second Indiana facility focused on producing sweet goods opened in Vincennes.
R.J., Jr. continued to grow and expand the company's Midwestern sales throughout the 1970s and 1980s and developed new lines of modern baked goods. In 1987, the bakery became the first in the country to remove trans fats from its products. In 1991, they began selling the first fat-free, reduced-calorie bread on the market, then introduced a line of low-carb products in 2000. Lewis Bakeries was also innovative in developing half-package sizes of their best-selling products.
While their beloved Bunny Bread brand remains a customer favorite, the company's product line includes the Hartford Farms and Gateway brands. They have a hand in several well-known national products, acting as a wholesale distributor of the Sunbeam, Sun-Maid, and Roman Meal brands.
Lewis Bakeries is one of few independent bakeries left in the Midwest. It's also the largest wholesale bakery in Indiana, with annual sales exceeding $265 million. Lewis Bakeries remains a family-operated business in its fourth generation and continues to run operations from its Evansville headquarters.
Green River pop (a midwestern term for soda, soda-pop, or soft drink) was introduced to Midwesterners in 1919, just as Congress passed the 18th Amendment establishing Prohibition. Green River soda was first created in 1916 in Davenport, Iowa, by Richard C. Jones, who owned a local confectionary shop.
Antique Green River Soda Fountain Syrup Bottle. Circa 1915.
In 1919, Jones sold his recipe to the Schoenhofen Edelweiss Brewing Company of Chicago. Before 1920, the brewery produced the popular Edelweiss beer, and Schoenhofen began manufacturing Green River and other soft drinks to survive the Prohibition Era.
Schoenhofen Brewery - Edelweiss Beer, Chicago.
It was also made by the Sweetwater Brewery in Green River, Wyoming.
When Prohibition officially took effect on January 16, 1920, some breweries turned to produce a nonalcoholic drink called 'Near Beer,' while others were churning out ice cream, and some breweries just closed.
The Schoenhofen Edelweiss Brewing Company was located in the Pilsen neighborhood on 18th Street and Canalport Avenue. Two of the remaining 17 buildings can still be found at that location.
The lime-based pop with a hint of lemon was poured into old beer bottles and sold in the market. The vivid green color and great flavor were an immediate success. It was popular as a soda fountain syrup, trailing only Coca-Cola in popularity throughout the Midwest.
Following the closing of the Edelweiss company in 1950, the Green River recipe was passed from one manufacturer to another. This period of Green River history is murky. Sources agree that by the 90s, the beverage was on the ropes—it was only being sold in Seattle (which has a Green River of Green River Killer fame), and it was unclear if anybody else was making more.
Around 1995, the rights and recipe were sold to Clover Club Bottling Company, 356 North Kilbourn Avenue, Chicago, a small independent bottler in Chicago (bottles "Dogs N Suds Root Beer"). Clover Club brought Green River back to life, and then WIT Beverage Company (WBC) took over the brand in 2011 and continued Clover Club's work.
In October of 2021, WIT Beverage Company passed the torch to none other than Sprecher Brewing Company in Glendale, Wisconsin, another Midwestern craft soda icon. As Milwaukee's Original Craft Brewery, Sprecher knows what it means to preserve a legacy and plans to let Green River shine again by re-introducing it to the country that has loved it for over one hundred years.
A Visual History of Green River Bottles.
Green River is frequently marketed as a nostalgia item, and its sales increased in March due to the association of the color green with St. Patrick's Day.
Chicago celebrates St. Patrick's Day by dyeing the Chicago River green.
While not widely commercially available, it can be purchased at some Chicago area grocery stores and retailers and is served in some Chicagoland restaurants.
With a unique visual appeal, including its bright green color, Green River takes people back to a pleasant time in their life, in the 1950s and '60s, at a time of corner pop fountains and drive-in movies.
According to John Fogerty, the Creedence Clearwater Revival album Green River and Al Jolson's song "Green River" was inspired by the soft drink.
John Fogerty & Creedence Clearwater Revival Play the song "Green River."
In Zen Studios' (acquired Bally And Williams Pinball Licences in 2018) recreation of the Williams pinball machines "The Party Zone" and "The Champion Pub," Zen Studios' computer pinball game "FX 3" has replaced depictions of beer with Green River. It was a precautionary act of censorship to avoid the repercussions of having the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rating of "Everyone 10+" changed to a more restrictive rating.
Fans of Green River know that it's not just another soda pop; it's nostalgia in a bottle.
