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The Root Beer Float Was Invented In 1893 By A Gold Miner In Colorado

Updated February 12, 2024

On August 6, float a scoop of vanilla ice cream in an ice cold mug of frothy root beer.  It’s National Root Beer Float Day!

Also known as the “Black Cow,” the root beer float got its start in Colorado in a mining camp.

  • 1874 – The first ice-cream soda was sold in 1874.
  • 1875 -Charles Hires initially marketed his beverage as “root tea.” Introduced in 1875, it is the longest continuously made soft drink in the United States.
  • By 1876 Charles Hires had changed the name of his beverage to Hires Root Beer, and he presented the drink at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, celebrating America’s 100th birthday. The Philadelphia exhibition also included Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, Heinz ketchup, and the Remington typewriter.
  • 1892 – William Painter invented the crown bottle cap in 1892.
  • 1893 – Frank J. Wisner of Cripple Creek, Colorado, gets the credit for inventing the “Black Cow”  in August of 1893. One night Wisner, owner of the Cripple Creek Cow Mountain Gold Mining Company, was staring out the window and thinking about the line of soda waters he was producing for the citizens of Cripple Creek when he came upon an idea.
  • 1899 – The first patent for a glass-blowing machine used to produce glass battles was issued in 1899.
  • 1919 – Roy Allen purchased the root beer formula for A&W root beer from an Arizona Pharmacist.  The first batch was made in June of 1919.
  • 1920s The popularity of non-alcoholic root beer explodes during Prohibition.
  • 1922 – The A and W in A&W stand for Alan and Wright. Roy Allen would team up with Frank Wright in 1922.
  • 1927 – John and Alice Marriott purchased an A&W franchise in Washington, D.C.  The Marriotts named their root beer restaurant The Hot Shoppe.  Their restaurant expanded and eventually led to the creation of Marriott Hotels.
  • 1953 – The Sonic chain of drive-in restaurants began as a hamburger and root beer stand in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
  • 1960 – In 1960 a key ingredient (the sassafras root) came to be known as a carcinogen and its use was banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
  • The full moon that night shined on the snow-capped Cow Mountain and reminded him of a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  He hurried back to his bar and scooped a spoonful of ice cream into the children’s favorite flavor of soda, Myers Avenue Red Root Beer. After trying, he liked it and served it the very next day.  It was an immediate hit.
  • Wisner named the new creation, “Black Cow Mountain” but the local children shortened the name to “Black Cow”.
  • Root beer is made out of 16 Roots, and herbs.
  • Colonists were actually the first people to make root beer.
  • A&W is the number one selling brand of root beer in America.
  • Charles E. Hires was the first person to produce and market root beer throughout the United States.
  • Root beer accounts for 3 percent of America’s Soft Drink Market.
  • The most original ingredient was Sassafras. It comes in an alcoholic drink also.
  • A reverse root beer float is made with root beer ice cream and vanilla soda.
  • Both Benjamin Franklin and George Washington were fans of small beer, the precursor to root beer.

Sources:

Faith Based Events

National Day Calendar

Foodimentary

Mobile-Cuisine

Root Beer Respect

National Today


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