A Whiskey Bottle

His name and story are on a bourbon but there is so much more to the man than just those 97 words.

Shout Outs:

This week we wanted to give a shout out to a few fellow history podcasts.

Obscure History: A weekly dive into the dusty and neglected corners of our past to find the most interesting stories you should know, but don't.
Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/obscure-history/id1496667775

Deep into History: An exciting podcast that takes you Deep into History’s greatest moments.
Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deep-into-history/id1440486315

Support great storytelling by simply giving these shows a listen!

Transcript:

There are ninety-seven words on the back of this bottle of 100 proof Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey. Ninety-seven words to sum up the whiskey itself and the man it’s named after. It reads like a sort of eulogy highlight reel, announcing his numerous endeavors, achievements, and successes. He definitely sounds like a man who deserves to be remembered. And here he is with his name on a bottle of bourbon.

There are more than a handful of bourbons named after people. Usually they are the founders of those distilleries or had something to do with the spirit being made. This is not one of those bourbons and not one of those men. It’s not even clear if this man favored the famous Kentucky libation. He was a Texas man after all, though born in Illinois. 

These ninety-seven words tell us he was a cowboy and a cattle driver. That he was a lawman and a businessman. But he was also many other things in his ninety-three years of life. And these ninety-seven words; they can only tell us some of who this man was, paint a picture of him to accompany the crude image of him printed on the label. 

It’s a stencil styled portrait. He looks gruff, perhaps angry even. The photo it’s based off of is from when he was a young man, just twenty-four. A photo taken around the time he gained notoriety as a Texas Ranger leading a group of men that rescued a woman kidnapped by a band of Comanche Indians. He was a hero, and now today his name is on a bottle of bourbon. 

These ninety-seven words also tell us about the trail he forged with his partner driving thousands of cattle from Texas to Colorado, and eventually to Wyoming. They tell us how the trail still bears their names to this today. Just like this bottle of bourbon. 

And there’s a town too which bears his name. It sprung up around his home, the first ranch to be settled in the Texas Panhandle. When a railroad stop was put in, the town grew and so did his contributions. Soon the town had a post office, a church, a school, even a college. Some of those places carried the namesake of the town and the man from which it came from. A namesake now shared with this bottle of bourbon.

But not all of that is told to us in these ninety-seven words. They also don’t tell us of his days as a scout for the Confederate Army. Eventually ascending to the rank of Colonel. Away from the fighting of the war but still fighting off the attacks of the native peoples. They don’t tell us about how he kept a herd of native plains Bison to try and prevent the species from being completely wiped out. Descendants of this herd which are still alive to this day. A day in which he also has a bourbon named after him. 

And what a way to remember a man. A man that in 1955 was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners in the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. A man with a statue outside the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. A man whose cattle driving days inspired the Lonesome Dove series of novels that were later adapted for television. Then again, since they changed his name most people probably don’t even realize that. But what does that really matter when your name is on a bottle of bourbon.

What does it matter that over the years this man’s name has been mostly forgotten. The man that inspired stories, from a series of books, to this story here, to the ninety-seven words on the back of a bottle of bourbon. A bourbon, like the man, few even know exists. A small batch whiskey for a man once larger than life. A man that did so much but died with so little. But those ninety-seven words don’t mention that. 

They make no mention that the town named after him is nothing but a ghost town these days. No mention of his wife Mary Ann Dyer or their fifty-five year marriage which ended when she became sick and died. They don’t mention that, though the elderly man did remarry, he never had any children. No one to carry on his legacy. But, he did get his name on a bottle of bourbon.

And then one day a young man sees a bottle sitting on the bottom shelf at a liquor store. He sees the label and reads the ninety-seven words on the back of it. This young man shares those words and that whiskey with a group of his friends. They are intrigued by the bourbon and the character presented on the bottle. His name is now spoken on new lips and in new ways. A new legacy born from this spirit.

Because of this bourbon and those mere ninety-seven words, more people may discover who this man was. This legend of the west, once lost, is now found again in the most unlikely of places. And while there is so much more to this man than what these nine-hundred and seventy words can say, perhaps we only need these final ninety-seven. 

Colonel Charles Goodnight was a force to be reckoned with when the west was still being won. As an iconic cowboy, he blazed the historic Goodnight-Loving Trail from Texas to Colorado, driving scores of cattle thousands of miles over dusty plains and snow-packed passes. As a Texas Ranger lawman, he doled out vigilante justice to protect ranchers from rustlers and outlaws. But Goodnight had a head for commerce too, building towns as well as businesses. This premium Small Batch Bourbon harnesses the unique character of this legendary man. Unflappable, unforgettable and one of a kind.

Today’s episode was written by me, Cory Greiner. Keepsake is produced and edited by Alex Hoelscher. If you have an idea you’d like us to explore on the show, send us an email at keepsakepod@gmail.com. 

If you want to hear more episodes, please make sure you subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform and leave us a review. This is an independently produced podcast and reviews are the best way for us to gain more listeners which will help us produce more episodes. 

And finally, next episode’s item, A Puzzle Piece.

This has been Keepsake. Thanks for listening.