Wild West Sarsaparilla Article – April 2, 1972

Wild West Sarsaparilla has ‘popped’ up on this blog many times over the years. The unique soft drink with the Western theme was marketed by a Lorain company and is well-remembered by older residents.

There was just something cool about a soft drink marketed nationally that was Lorain-based. And the Wild West cowboy theme made it fun. (I wonder if they served it at Heilman’s Ranch House?)

Anyway, here's a good article from the April 2, 1972 edition of the Journal that tells us a little bit about the history of the drink, a hint as to what was in it, and how the business was going at that time.

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“Do You Shoot the Man Who Doesn’t Like It?

‘Wild West’ Sarsaparilla: A Big Hit from Lorain

By GLENN WAGGONER, Staff Writer

WILD WEST Sarsaparilla, tough to find in Lorain and illegal in Oberlin, is finally making its way back to the land of its namesake.

The soft drink, first produced in 1969, is marketed by a Lorain firm. It is now being sold west of the Mississippi after it caught on fast in the east.

Wild West is patented by World Trade, Inc., at 1127 Reid Ave., Lorain.

That first year, about 30,000 cases were sold in Ohio and Michigan. Company officials estimate sales will push toward a million cases this year, and Wild West will be available in all but a handful of states.

Even though one of the canneries which produce it is located at Aurora, near Cleveland, the drink is hard to find in Lorain County because the area is currently without a distributorship, according to Al Gantose, general manager of World Trade’s beverage division.

“We’re looking for a good distributor,” he added. “After all these years I don’t feel like becoming a beverage truck driver again.”

And because Wild West is available only in red, white, and black cans, an Oberlin sarsaparilla drinker who brought some home would find himself in violation of a city ordinance banning non-returnable containers.

But elsewhere, Wild West seems to be a hot item. About a dozen canneries in the nation produce it, from the flavor concentrate sold to them by World Trade. The concentrate is combined with sugar to form a syrup, which is then combined with carbonated water and canned.

The president of World Trade, Inc., is Gerald Strohacker, who claims he has met only one man who didn’t like Wild West.

“Did you shoot him?” asked Gantose.

“No, he just didn’t like the real sugar in it,” Strohacker replied. 

He has a letter on file from an elderly man who wrote that he hadn’t tasted anything like Wild West since he was a youngster. “A woman told me she likes it because it tastes like bubble gum,” Strohacker added. And others say the flavor resembles root beer.

What is this brew with the “quick-draw top?”

The formula is a secret. The drink traditionally derives its flavor from birch oil and sassafras. Wild West looks like a cola drink. And a Journal reporter who uncapped a frosty one agreed that the flavor is distinctive, if undefinable.

Strohacker says the flavor seems to appeal to both young and old. He expects a higher per-capita consumption in western states because of the drink’s association with prairie history.

“The good guys drank sarsaparilla, instead of redeye,” Strohacker explained. Gantose added that sarsaparilla was mentioned more than 15 times in a recently televised western film.

THE PEOPLE at World Trade are proud of their product, and feel justified since several imitators have been marketed since Wild West was introduced.

Gantose opened a can of another brand.

“It doesn’t foam. I bet you’re going to burp,” commented a secretary.

Gantose squinted like Marshall Dillon. “It doesn’t have body,” he judged. No one said if that meant “yes” or “no.”

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Lorain County has been soda pop central over the years, with all of the various local companies producing and bottling the stuff, including Whistle, Canada Dry and Pepsi. And don’t forget the other Western-themed soft drink from World Trade called Wild West Firewater.

Wild West Sarsaparilla Wrap-up

August 1972 Wild West Sarsaparilla ad from the Billings Gazette

To wrap up this whole Wild West Sarsaparilla business, here's an article that appeared in the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram on May 13, 1979. It's a nice snapshot of World Trade Inc., the company that marketed Sarsaparilla and other beverages.

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Lorain soft drink business fills 'old west'
'Firewater' isn't number 'Un", but hits spot

By KATHY BYLAND
C-T Staff Writer

LORAIN – Cars and steel have made Lorain its name, but somewhere out in Wyoming a thirsty cowboy may be guzzling a tall glass of yet another Lorain product – Wild West Firewater.

Although the "Flaming Red Soft Drink of the Old West" – along with Wild West Sarsaparilla and the new Wild West Lemonade – are brewed elsewhere, company headquarters are here in an out-of-the-way office on West 12th Street.

"We're not in with the big three – Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola and Seven-Up – but each year our volume increases, which tells you something when we have no national advertising campaign," says Gerald Strohacker, president of World Trade, Inc.

Currently, through a dozen franchises and "umpteen" distributors in many states, his firm markets several million cases a year of the three drinks in cans, syrup and bottles.

UNLIKE THE legendary Indian beverage, however, firewater is not alcoholic. Rather, it's a red cherry-strawberry-cream soda concoction aimed mainly at youngsters. And most weeks in the four years the company has been selling it, letters pour in from kids, their parents and grandparents extolling the drink's virtues, Strohacker says.

"We're small enough that we can respond to all the letters. We always try to oblige the request of a small boy collecting cans or someone else who wants a bumper sticker," he said.

The company's best selling and oldest beverage is Sarsaparilla – the "First Soft Drink of the Old West" – a sweetened carbonated drink from the root beer family that is also geared toward the younger set.

World Trade, Inc. began producing the drink 11 years ago, along with eight or ten other companies, but now has only one competitor, Strohacker said proudly.

Recently, the company introduced for the summer months Wild West Lemonade, which tastes "just like Mom made it in the kitchen with fresh lemons," Strohacker said.

1974 Skaggs store ad from the Joplin Globe
featuring Wild West Sarsaparilla

WITH A NAME like "Wild West," it's easy to guess that the drinks are most popular in the Wyoming area, but the trade name is registered in both China and Japan for eventual production there.

"Sarsaparilla is not new in Asia, and in some parts of the world, like Puerto Rico, is regarded as a very healthful drink," Strohacker said.

Distribution is somewhat limited by state laws, according to Malcolm Hartley, former editorial editor of the Lorain Journal, the company's secretary and one of five stockholders. For example, Michigan's law of a 10-cent deposit per can forced the company out of the state.

Locally, the drinks are distributed through most beverage carry-out stores and highly visible at Al Gantose's concession stand in Lorain's Lakeview Park. Gantose, Allen Ashbolt of Lorain, and John Pappas of the insurance agency are the other stockholders.

Strohacker and Hartley are proud of the drinks' quality, which with no additives and no caffeine are as "wholesome and pure" as a soft drink can be, Hartley said. A diet drink hasn't been tested because the company prefers to shy away from saccharin.

AND THE company also has "the best cans in the business" graphically, Hartley says. The colorful Wild West scenes do indeed set the cans apart on a grocery shelf filled with soft drinks of every imaginable type.

Perhaps the only drawback to the drinks is "they don't mix with anything alcoholic, at least not that we've been able to find," Hartley laughed. When serving conventions where a mixer is desired, the company provides its own Seven-Up-type brand, Quaff, which hasn't been sold through distributors because of the direct competition with the powerful "Uncola."

The business has taken off so well that Strohacker, now a Lorain Port Authority member, was forced in 1972 to give up powerful positions as the vice chairman of the Lorain County Republican Central Committee and chairman of the Lorain Area Republican Central Committee because of the lack of time.

When the corporation was first formed in 1967, "we made a tremendous effort to do business overseas as a manufacturers representative, but the sometimes impossible government regulations made us decide to limit the business," Strohacker said.

ALTHOUGH the company could grow much larger with a national media blitz, Strohacker prefers the small-business approach.

"You can remain small and make a living or become big and face all the responsibility. Sometimes it's better to do one small thing well," he said.

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.

Wild West Sarsaparilla Follow-up

Last week I mentioned that there had been a big sign for Wild West Sarsaparilla (featuring the cartoon cowboy at left) down on West Erie Avenue just west of Leavitt Road on the side of a building in the 1970's. I remembered that you could see it from McDonald's. Unfortunately the building with the sign is long gone.

Fellow blogger Lisa posted a comment that the sign had been on the side of a beverage store – and wondered if the store had been an early version of Rite-Nau Beverage.

Well, I looked it up in the library tonight and she was right! Beginning in 1970, Rite-Nau Beverage was listed in Polk's Lorain City Directory at 2506 West Erie. For decades before that, it had been a private residence going back to at least the early 1940's. But by the late 1960's there seemed to be a front and back address designation with the property, with the front being the store and the rear continuing as a residence. The store later became Lakeside Beverage.

Here's the 1970 address listing of that area from the City Directory.

Remember Wild West Sarsaparilla?

Here's a newspaper ad for Wild West Sarsaparilla from the June 28, 1970 Lorain Journal. (Click on it so you can read it.) It caught my eye because of that cartoon cowboy. I seem to remember seeing him in the same pose in a huge ad on the side of a building near the McDonald's on West Erie Avenue; it's one of those iconic images (like Oakie the Squirrel) that still haunts me from childhood. Strangely enough, the cowboy didn't appear on the pop can.

However much I liked the cowboy illustration, though, I don't remember ever drinking this stuff. My family was too set in our ways when it came to pop. We had Pepsi with Yala's Pizza, and 7-Up or Vernors when we were sick. Other than that, we usually had Hires Root Beer (for floats), and the odd bottle of Cotton Club Ginger Ale now and then.

Looking at the sketchy cartoon cowboy makes me think that it is the work of the late well-known Plain Dealer cartoonist Dick Dugan, creator of the Cleveland Browns brownie. (Here's a link to a nice article about him, and links here and here with samples of his work.) What do you think?

Photo of can courtesy of www.rootbeerworld.com