Fort McCoy ArtiFACT: Sauce bottle

Courtesy Photo | An A1 sauce bottle found in a past archaeological dig at Fort McCoy, Wis., is shown Oct. 27, 2015. This particular bottle was found in 2014 and was made between 1916 and 1929. (Photo by Colorado State University’s Center for the Environmental Management of Military Lands.)  

FORT MCCOY, WI, UNITED STATES

08.22.2019

Courtesy Story

Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office           

In 2014, researchers from Colorado State University’s Center for the Environmental Management of Military Lands investigated a site at Fort McCoy dating to a time archaeologists in Wisconsin commonly refer to as the Euro-American settlement period, which spans the last 150 years and encompasses when western Europeans moved into the Americas.

In this electronic age, people don't often pay attention to the things left behind. However, when European explorers, fur traders, missionaries, and farmers came here, they brought people of vastly different cultures to this area and left many things (what we now call artifacts) behind.

Most of the artifacts from this site that could be attributed to a specific time were made between 1900 and 1940 and included a wide variety of materials. A baking powder canister lid, cattle bones, a doorbell cover, an Oshkosh B’Gosh suspender clip, harmonica parts, an Aspirin tin, pocket watch parts, and an ignition coil were among the more than 1,800 artifacts recovered from a single excavation unit.

This excavation unit yielded more than 96 percent of the artifacts recovered from the site. What this concentration indicates is that there was an intensity of activity in the area where this unit was located.

Researchers suggested that the wide variety of materials encountered, combined with the lack of a nearby farmstead or homestead, indicated that the site was most likely the location of an old communal dump area used by multiple landowners.

One of the most well-preserved artifacts from the site was a glass bottle with embossed lettering that reads “The ‘A1’ Sauce” on the side. The bottom of this bottle has additional embossed lettering which reads “BRAND & CO LTD” and includes a maker’s mark indicating that the bottle was manufactured by the Illinois Glass Co. between 1916 and 1929.

The condiment itself was originally created by Henderson William Brand for meat, fish and varieties of fowl. Brand was an innkeeper; brewer; and chef to Britain’s royalty, such as King
George IV. This sauce was first marketed commercially in 1831 under the Brand & Co. label and distributed in the United States after 1906.

At the International Exhibition in London in 1862, Brand first introduced “Brand’s International Sauce,” which was ranked “A1” at the exhibition and thus became known by this name. It wasn’t until the 1960s that A.1. was marketed as steak sauce that we recognize today.

The A.1. brand is now part of the Kraft foods umbrella and is a common sight at restaurants and backyard barbeques across the country.

All archaeological work conducted at Fort McCoy was coordinated by the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch. Visitors and employees are reminded they should not collect artifacts on Fort McCoy or other government lands and leave the digging to the professionals.

Any person who excavates, removes, damages, or otherwise alters or defaces any historic or prehistoric site, artifact, or object of antiquity on Fort McCoy is in violation of federal law. The discovery of any archaeological artifact should be reported to the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch.

(Article prepared by the Colorado State University’s Center for the Environmental Management of Military Lands.)

• Date Taken: 08.22.2019
• Date Posted: 08.22.2019 13:02
• Story ID: 336935
• Location: FORT MCCOY, WI, US