We have a professor from Texas A&M today who is involved in an archealogy dig of a steamboat wreck on the Red River. He has been here before as he researches the records of the 1830's trying to find information about goods carried on the boat that hit a snag and sank in 1838. He told me today that the dig is complete and that they found flour and pork barrels from Cincy intact on the wreck, preserved by the deep mud of the river. Some water has seeped through in the last 170 years but the flour and pork was still there. I asked about whiskey barrels but he did not find any. Damn! It would have been nice to see what the brands on the barrel were. Legend has it that the boat was carrying whiskey but it seems that if it was, it was salvaged after the wreck. They also found several bottles but there were no imbossing on them other than one "Miller's Tonic" bottle.
It would have been interesting if they had found an intact whiskey barrel even if they whiskey had been contaminated with river water. Maybe Gary and I could have had a chance to see analysis of real mid-nineteenth century whiskey (plus contaminate from the river) and answered a few questions.
The boat was carrying supplys to an army fort up river in the Choctaw nation. It is interesting because the Choctaw had autonomy enough to outlaw alcohol in their nation and forbid white people from carrying guns in their nation. Kevin stated that this led to a thriving bar business across the river in the Republic of Texas with ferry boats picking up customers in the Choctaw nation and delivering them to the bars and back across the river later.