# South Dakota bottles



## triplenine (Jun 7, 2012)

Hello all!
 I am not a bottle collector but I think that your community might be a good place to get some info that I am after. I am interested in brand names of whiskeys that were being distributed in the Dakota Territory in the mid to late 19th Century. Specifically the Black Hills area but I will take names of whiskey makers from around the region (as far away as modern Denver or North Dakota). If there are any collectors out there that have bottles collected in the Hills or nearby I would love to hear what you have and if certain brands were more common than others. I am just trying to figure out what folks were drinking in the area at the time and where it was being made. I appreciate any light you can shed on this for me. Thanks a bunch.
 -Chris


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## timeinabottle (Jun 7, 2012)

You are asking for somebody to perform a momumental task for you! With that said, I can direct you to a very great book called "Western Whiskey Bottles" by R.E. Barnett.  It would be hard to find a better list. It is a price guide and as with most antiques, the rarer, the more valuable. Hope this helps!


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## triplenine (Jun 7, 2012)

Thanks. I will have to check it out. I don't want to put anyone to work!  Just looking for some names from those collectors that have bottles from the area. Hoping to get back to SD this summer to do some looking around. Cheers.


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## timeinabottle (Jun 7, 2012)

No prob and good luck![]


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## surfaceone (Jun 7, 2012)

> I am interested in brand names of whiskeys that were being distributed in the Dakota Territory in the mid to late 19th Century. Specifically the Black Hills area but I will take names of whiskey makers from around the region (as far away as modern Denver or North Dakota).


 
 Hello Chris,

 Welcome to A-BN, and thanks for your interesting question. If I'm understanding you correctly, and brands are your focus, I think you'd have to look south and east to St Louis, Chicago, Kentucky, Cincinnati, and the distillery centers. It was their products that would have been shipped into the territories.

 I'm curious as to how this line of inquiry came to you.


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## triplenine (Jun 11, 2012)

Hi surfaceone,
 Foremost I am a bit of a whiskey nut. I have been spending a lot of time with the newer whiskey distillers here in Colorado and across the US. Recently I have been seeking out more rare or historically relevant brands of American whiskey to taste and learn more about them. There are also a few places recreating older recipes, for example, Leopold Brothers here in Denver brought back an old style that has been rarely seen since prohibition in their Maryland Rye. 

 Silly enough, this current interest in SD happened because I started watching the show Deadwood again (it is pretty fantastic if you haven't seen it) and they are constantly drinking whiskey. I grew up in the Black Hills in South Dakota and this is an interesting part of the history that I had never really thought of.

 I started my research looking for brands that were made there. There was little to none being made commercially in the Hills at the time. From what I can gather there were small local distillers with varying quality with the main stock being imported as with most other commodities. I left it at that for a while but I happened to overhear a discussion about collectors digging through "bottle dumps" with bottles of varying ages. This got me thinking, if these bottles still existed with any labeling or markings, I imagined that "Deadwood era" bottles would have a decent following among collectors. That was why I asked more for the names that may be on the bottles actually found in the area rather than just a list of producers at the time. Thus here I am!

 I am headed back to SD later this summer for family stuff so I may take a stroll through a few museums and see if there are any shipping manifests or freight records that might help me out.

 Thanks for the interest in my flight of fancy!
 Chris


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## LC (Jun 11, 2012)

Deadwood is a good series . I have not been able to find it on TV here as of late . I believe it depicts the old west for what it was , not like in most western movies . They sure do spend the time in the bar on that series . Good luck with your quest for different brands .


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