Thursday, April 4, 2013

From the E-Mail Bag #12: Wild West Sarsaparilla

Attention Lorain collectors: this classic can is currently on Ebay!
I've written about Lorain's hometown soft drink – Wild West Sarsaparilla – a few times in the last couple of years on this blog. The big advertisement for it (featuring a cartoon cowboy) that was painted on the beverage store that faced McDonalds is still imprinted on my mind.

A few days ago, the son of one of the creators of the drink left a great comment on my two-year-old post.

Allen W. Ashbolt wrote, "Wild West Sarsaparilla in Lorain was created and owned by my father, Allen D. Ashbolt and his counterparts Gerald Strohacker, and John Pappas, all of Lorain Ohio. World Trade Inc. was created by the three."

What was of great interest to me is that he confirmed my guess as to who the cartoonist was who created the great cowboy.

"My father did work for the Plain Dealer and the artwork was in fact that of Dick Dugan. Needless to say, we drank plenty of Wild West Sarsaparilla and Fire Water growing up," stated Allen.

Thanks, Allen, for sharing your story!

I always thought it was impressive that Lorain had such a great soft drink heritage. Besides original creations like Wild West Sarsaparilla and Seher's Old English Ginger Beer, there were several national brands bottled in Lorain, including Whistle and Canada Dry Ginger Ale.
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3 comments:

  1. -Alan D HopewellApril 4, 2013 at 3:13 PM

    I remember enjoying Wild West Sarsapirilla, but what was Firewater like? I seem to remember the product, but never tried it.

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  2. UnknownApril 20, 2014 at 2:09 PM

    We all grew up drinking this, I was searching for the name of it because almost 40 plus years later were in Hawaii having g a mini family reunion... Believe it or not, I'm with Jacob Ashbolt and waiting for Allen W Ashbolt to fly in this evening, my cousins. So cool you have this rid bit of family history.

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  3. UnknownApril 20, 2014 at 2:11 PM

    Sorry I'm using my partners Google account to write this, my name is Troy Warman, my father was Robert Warman, Allen's nephew.

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