Crystal Rock Beer – Part 2

Here's Part 2 of my 2010 article about Crystal Rock Beer that appeared in the Black Swamp Trader and Firelands Gazette. As I noted yesterday, the text has not been updated, but I have included a few color photos taken for the original article that did not make it into the paper due to space. (You also might remember that the heritage tourism newspaper was printed in brown ink, so it's nice to see the photos here presented in full color.)

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Crystal Rock Memories of Caves and Beer – Part 2
By Dan Brady

Vintage Crystal Rock bottle and labels
(Courtesy Jim Winkel)

Around 1944, during an anniversary celebration of the Cleveland-Sandusky Brewing Company, Crystal Rock Beer was proudly advertised as Ohio’s oldest beer, as it had first appeared in the early 1890’s. The beer was later repositioned as the company’s low-cost brand, before being discontinued for a time at the end of the 1940’s.

Crystal Rock Beer made a comeback of sorts in the late 1950’s as a low-budget beer sold only in supermarkets. Eventually, however, the Cleveland-Sandusky Brewing Company shut down brewery operations in 1962 and only distributed Crystal Rock Beer, which was produced for the company by International Breweries. When International Breweries closed in 1966, two other breweries acquired the rights to Crystal Rock Beer and produced it for a few more years. Finally, the brand was discontinued around 1969.

Today, collectors treasure vintage Crystal Rock Beer memorabilia, particularly advertising items and labels from the brand’s earliest days, when it promoted using the water from the Crystal Rock Spring.

But what became of the Crystal Rock Spring?

The property containing the Crystal Rock Spring and caves eventually became Crystal Rock Park. Information is sketchy, but by the 1920’s, owner Edward J. Martin operated it as a summer resort with picnic facilities and a dance hall. The nearby community of Crystal Rock on Sandusky Bay (“Since 1923”) was developed around the same time and exists to this day.

The Limestone Caves and Caverns of Ohio explains that there are two main caves on the Crystal Rock property: Crystal Rock Cave and Brewery Cave. In the 1920’s, the Crystal Rock Cave was the only one being shown regularly to visitors. 

Undated photo of the entrance to Crystal Rock Cave
(Photo courtesy of the Charles E. Frohman Collection, Hayes Presidential Center)

The Brewery Cave was named because it was the water from this cave that was used originally for Crystal Rock Beer.

The book’s 1926 description of the Brewery Cave stated that “A brick-walled excavation, 21 feet in depth, and 14 by 10 feet, served as an entrance to the cave, and to house the pump and engines used to force the water to Sandusky. From the entrance an eight-inch pipe leads to the water, popularly called an underground lake. The pipe remains but the pumps and engines have been removed. At the bottom of the entrance a passageway about two feet high leads into the main cave, which is divided into two parts by a large block of stone which dropped from the roof. The cave is nowhere more than four feet in height and tapers at the sides.”

Local resident Jim Winkel is well acquainted with the Crystal Rock Caves. Jim’s father, Ted Winkel, purchased the property in the late 1960’s and operated it as the Crystal Caves Park complex for years. Ted Winkel also built the Crystal Rock Campground around 1969, which is still in business today, located on Crystal Rock Road across from the caves. The campground still uses the distinctive Crystal Rock lettering from the beer advertising as its logo.

Existing advertising from this era enticed tourists to “SEE the underground river in the BEAUTIFUL CRYSTAL CAVES.” Visitors were also lured by the park’s other amenities, which besides the campground (originally part of the KOA system) included nature trails, a picnic area, and furnished cabins on Sandusky Bay.

According to Jim Winkel, the cave tour business closed down around the end of the 1970’s due to a variety of reasons, including government regulations regarding handicap access. But Jim’s involvement with the caves wasn’t over yet.

Since October 2005, Jim and his wife Dian have lived in a fabulous showplace home they built atop the Brewery Cave. The building formerly used as a starting point for cave tours was thoughtfully incorporated into the home’s design. The cave’s entrance is behind a door in his basement, and its exit door opens to a beautiful sunken garden adjacent to his home. 

The Brewery Cave exit door

The wooden stairs that once led cave visitors back up to ground level now lead to a beautiful circular patio and wall surrounding the sunken garden. 

Brewery Cave visitors would climb these stairs to return to ground level

A fountain on the patio attracts a variety of birds, and a huge picture window overlooking the garden provides a year-round spectacular view. It’s obvious that this is one of Jim and Dian’s favorite parts of their house.

I asked Jim why he decided to build his house above the Brewery Cave.

“It was too unique to allow it to disappear,” he stated solemnly. “The sunken garden view is worth everything to the history of the Crystal Rock Caves.”

I was fortunate to be given a personal tour through the Brewery Cave. 

The electrical mood lighting was still intact, and I was impressed with the cave’s simple beauty. 

Jim pointed out the section of pipe that was used to pump the water out of the cave for use in Crystal Rock Beer. 

The famous Crystal Rock Spring water is now used as a heat exchange for the Winkels’ heating and cooling system. Thus the cave and spring that were so much a part of Jim’s life have become an integral part of his home.

I enjoyed my tour of the Brewery Cave. It was a throwback to a simpler time when a guided tour through a cave and a picnic afterwards was all a family needed for a day of summertime fun.

Although the Crystal Rock Cave tours are over, and Crystal Rock Beer is no more, time has not dimmed the happy memories of them for many people. So, if you happen to see signs for the mythical Crystal Rock Bottling Company at Cedar Point this summer, remember that for more than a century, the ‘Crystal Rock’ name has been synonymous with good times in the Sandusky area.

Special thanks to Jim and Dian Winkel, Jim Norrocky and Nan Card, Curator of Manuscripts at the R. B. Hayes Presidential Center for their help with this article.

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In preparation for this post, I drove over to Crystal Rock to see what things looked like these days. The campground was open and doing a nice business.

And the nearby community of Crystal Rock had erected a colorful new sign since my last visit in 2010.

Crystal Rock Beer – Part 1

I think I'll keep the beer flowing here on the blog for a couple more days.

Above is a handsome ad for Crystal Rock Beer that ran in the Lorain Journal on July 2, 1947. Although the beer is but a memory now, its name lives on in Northern Ohio as a campground, as well as a nearby community on Lake Erie.

But how did the beer get its name in the first place?

You’ll find the answer in this article (below) that I wrote for the Black Swamp Trader and Firelands Gazette back in August 2010. 

Some things have changed since I wrote it ten years ago; the ‘new’ Cedar Point ride referenced in the article has already been dismantled! But the history of Crystal Rock hasn't changed.

So here's the article as it originally appeared, courtesy of the Black Swamp Trader and Firelands Gazette. In a few instances, I replaced a black and white image with a color version I had; I also included a few photos taken at that time that did not make it into the original article due to space.

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Crystal Rock Memories of Caves and Beer – Part 1
By Dan Brady

This summer, when Cedar Point guests embark on the new Shoot the Rapids water ride, they’ll board their boats inside the Crystal Rock Bottling Company of West Virginia, part of the ride’s moonshine and feuding theme. What many of the out-of-town guests won’t realize is that ‘Crystal Rock’ is not an ad man’s whimsical creation. It’s a name with a lot of Sandusky area history attached to it. It refers not only to a group of caves and an underground spring dating back to the late 1800’s, but a popular beer brewed with the spring water. The name lives on in other ways as well. Why is the name ‘Crystal Rock’ so memorable and enduring? To find out, let’s tap into some memories of Crystal Rock Beer and get the lowdown on the Crystal Rock Caves as well.

The Crystal Rock name begins with the caves and underground spring, located eight miles west of Sandusky near Castalia. According to the book The Limestone Caves and Caverns of Ohio by George W. White, the limestone Crystal Rock Caves contain Monroe dolomite, which is made up of tiny crystals, thus giving the caves and spring their memorable names.

At a time when Sandusky’s water supply was not yet filtered, the Crystal Rock Spring water flowing through the caves attracted the attention of some Sandusky businessmen. In 1892, Charles L. Wagner, Vice President of the Stang Brewery, and Albert E. Merrill, a probate judge and banker, formed the Crystal Rock Water Company and leased 125 acres of the cave property. They proposed selling the clear, pure water from the underground Crystal Rock Spring to the city of Sandusky for its water supply. They planned to use the water at the brewery as well. (The Stang Brewery had just been rebuilt, after a disastrous fire had destroyed the entire complex in July 1891.)

According to an article in the Sandusky Register on April 13, 1893, plans were made to construct a six and one-fourth inch pipe running five miles in length from the cave springs to the Stang Brewery, which would have exclusive rights to the water for brewing. The city would connect up with the end of the pipeline at the brewery.

Many meetings were held between city officials and the Crystal Rock Water Company to work out an arrangement. Although the plan ultimately fell through, the Crystal Rock Spring water was indeed used (for a time) by the brewery for its flagship product, Crystal Rock Beer.

Many local history books state that around 1904, it was determined that the Crystal Rock Spring water was not of uniform quality and that the pipeline to Sandusky from the spring was dug up and removed. But at least one local resident believes that the pipeline was never built.

Vintage beer tray

Jim Norrocky, who now owns part of the former Crystal Rock Cave property, has extensively researched the matter and makes a strong case that there is no evidence that the pipeline ever existed. “There were no deeds or leases that I could find, to property for a pipe which would have been needed to get to Sandusky across country which is the direct route,” he explained in a letter. He has determined that there is no physical evidence of a pipeline either, just a record of the brewery's intention to build it. Norrocky also believes that the water used at the brewery, along with any that was sold to the city, was transported from the cave by horse and wagon.

No matter how the Crystal Rock Spring water was ultimately transported to the brewery, it was important not only for the taste of the popular beer, but also for the marketing angle. A rare Crystal Rock Beer tray from the early days depicts a tranquil spring in a beautiful forest setting and states, “Our Famous Crystal Rock Beer is Brewed From the Waters of this Spring.”

In 1896, the Stang Brewery merged with the Kuebeler Brewing and Malting Company to become Kuebeler-Stang. 

Two years later, the company joined with several other breweries in Cleveland to form the Cleveland & Sandusky Brewing Company.

According to the book Brewing Beer in the Buckeye State, Vol. 1 by Robert A. Musson, M.D., Crystal Rock Beer in its early days “dominated the entire beer market between Cleveland and Toledo.” Crystal Rock Beer was so popular that for its fans, the brewery constructed the Crystal Rock Castle at the Cedar Point amusement park and resort in Sandusky in 1904. This popular beer garden was located near the lagoons to attract arriving park guests. Many postcards exist of this impressive structure, which lasted until the 1960’s.

Vintage postcard of the Crystal Rock Castle, postmarked 1905

With Prohibition in 1919, Crystal Rock Beer became a near beer called Crystal Rock Cereal Beverage, produced by the renamed brewery, now known as Crystal Rock Products Company. Since it could no longer serve beer, the Crystal Rock Castle at Cedar Point was converted into the Ye Olde Castle Grill. But within a year after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, Crystal Rock Beer was back in production.

Next: Into the Cave

Crystal Rock Memories

Did you ever visit the Crystal Rock Caves out by Castalia when you were a kid, maybe as part of a fun day spent enjoying all the local attractions, including Deer Park and the Blue Hole?

Were you a big fan of Crystal Rock Beer and felt bad when it wasn't being made any longer?

Did you ever camp at Crystal Rock Campground?

If you answered 'yes' to any of these questions, then by all means go out and pick up the August issue of the Black Swamp Trader and Firelands Gazette. In it, you'll find my latest article, Crystal Rock Memories of Caves and Beer, in which I explore all things 'Crystal Rock'.

I start with the history of the caves and underground spring, which led to the introduction of the well-known Crystal Rock Beer. Along the way the article also discusses the Crystal Rock Castle, the community of Crystal Rock, and much more.

Finally, I finish up with an interview and a trip down into the caves with the longtime owner!

The Black Swamp Trader & Firelands Gazette is free and available at many stores, including Toft's Dairy & Ice Cream Parlor on Venice Road in Sandusky and the Vermilion Farm Market on US 6. It's also available at many antique markets; for the closest location near you, contact the editor via the website.

Vintage photo courtesy of the Charles E. Frohman Collection, Hayes Presidential Center