Archaeologists, bottle collectors, and historians are all interested in soda bottlers and the containers in which they bottled their products.  Although the three groups have overlapping interests, their needs rarely coincide.  Historians rarely show more than passing interest in the containers, themselves, although they are generally interested in the role the bottles, bottlers, and the bottling industry play in the overall history of a city, a nation, and the world.  Bottle collectors are interested in the bottles, themselves, and consider the history of an individual bottle or the bottler to be of interest but less vital than possession of an item, itself.  Of greater importance is the value and desirability of each container.  The provenience or specific location in which a bottle was found is usually of little or no interest. 

      A historical archaeologist, on the other hand, is interested in artifacts--in this case, ones made of glass--as a means of information.  The provenience is frequently as important as the glass container, itself.  As such, a container fragment can be as valuable to archaeologists as the perfect specimen is to the collector.  Although we produce endless reams of dry descriptions of artifacts, broken and complete, the focus is not on the artifact itself, but, as expressed so aptly by one researcher, "Just What Can a 19th Century Bottle Tell Us?" (Staski 1984).  Our desire is to verify history or to correct it.  Like the historians, we grapple for the deeper meaning of the overall picture.  But we frequently seek that picture from the viewpoint of the common woman or man, the ones whose lives are frequently ignored by the overview expressed in the textbooks. 

    The pursuit of the overview also tends to overlook the reality that the larger picture is actually a mosaic composed of a blending of hundreds, thousands, or even millions of microcosmic views of the lives of individuals.  The glory usually goes to the one who pastes together these smaller clues to create the larger picture.  But the lesser image is equally important.  Views of the region, the city, the individual building, and the individual person must also be expressed. 

      This book is dedicated to filling the needs of the working historical archaeologist--the fieldworker and the analyst.  Typically, while analyzing excavated glass artifacts, an archaeologist turns to other archaeological reports, collector's literature, or local sources (e.g. city directories, newspapers) to identify and date bottles and bottle fragments that represent tiny pieces in the mosaic.  Reference works to guide in identifying and dating specific artifacts are few and often difficult to obtain.  With notable exceptions, books and articles by bottle collectors, while helpful, rarely contain all the information required by the archaeologist.  Gordon Pollard's excellent reference work for Plattsburgh, New York (Pollard 1993), is one of the few identification guides written by an archaeologist.  The normal pathway for information is for the researcher to search laboriously through directories, censuses, and other sources in an attempt to date and identify a single bottle type from a single company. 

      My intention has been to add one more piece to the mosaic--to set forth a detailed identification (along with a history) of soda and mineral bottles from El Paso, Texas, that will be specifically useful to all archaeologists who discover such bottles in their excavations.  I believe that similar volumes should be compiled by archaeologists in every city throughout the United States (e.g. Pollard's work) to provide detailed working references for the future.  Nor should the study be limited to soft drinks, although such bottles (or identifiable fragments thereof) are common in both urban and rural historical excavations.  With the completion of this volume, I plan to research milk bottles, beer bottles, and other glass containers indigenous to El Paso and Southern New Mexico. 

      Although my efforts are aimed primarily at archaeologists, I hope this work will be useful to historians and bottle collectors as well.  My descriptions are occasionally long and detailed to enable identification all segments of a bottle.  Where the collector only deals with complete containers, the archaeologist usually only finds only a fragment, often the base or part of the body with just enough of an embossed or enameled label to spark curiosity while defying identification.  A single colorless body fragment with embossed lettering that reads "El Paso - Phoenix" can be identified as a Nehi bottle from the Nehi Bottling Company of El Paso and dated 1931-1941.  A bottle base embossed with the large initials, J. U. can only have belonged to José Urrutia and his Lone Star Bottling Works, operated from 1918 to 1934.  Small scraps that formerly were meaningless can now provide information and disclose another tiny clue. 

      During the research process, I have been repeatedly blessed with delightful serendipity.  As I discussed my soda history project with University of Texas at El Paso student John Seeback, he mentioned that he had dated a young lady whose grandfather owned Nicholson Bottling Works.  He did not know how to contact the grandfather but told me where to find the father, Andrew Nicholson, Sr.  Andy, an El Paso jeweler, allowed me to copy a picture of Nicholson Bottling Works taken in 1927, loaned me a case of Nicholson bottles to photograph, and introduced me to his father.  Andy's father, Alkie Nicholson, had been raised in the soda business by his father, Constantino "Gus" Nicholson, former owner of Union Bottling Works and founder of Nicholson Bottling Works.  Alkie was a veritable fountain of information.  His memories included such first-hand details as stirring the soda vats with a paddle prior to the introduction of mixing machines to Nicholson's and other inside information about the daily operation of a Prohibition- and Depression-era bottler--details not to be found in the usual sources of information. 

      Another interesting incident concerned a connection between a bottle collector and a former bottler.  Richard "Rick" Chávez graciously allowed me to copy ads and photographs from his collection including a 1939 ad for Seven-Up that featured an infant bracing himself against a stool that supported a bottle of Seven-Up.  The sponsor of the ad was the Seven-Up Bottling Co. of El Paso.  On March 7, 1996, I interviewed Al Randle, Jr., whose father opened the original Seven-Up franchise in El Paso.  Al and I warmed to each other quickly, and I soon became immersed in Al's recitation of his days as a Seven-Up bottler (see the section on Seven-Up Bottling Co.).  Al had finished his story, and we were sharing a little small-talk prior to leaving, when his face lit up in a big smile.  He almost effervesced with memory as he exclaimed, "Oh yeah!  I just remembered another thing you may be interested in.  When I was one year old, just after my first birthday, I was playing around my mother's dressing table in her room.  There was a bottle of Seven-Up sitting on the stool, and I had pulled myself up so I was standing beside it . . ."  I gave Al a photocopy of the ad, reuniting him with his former self of 57 years in the past. 

      And so, to anyone with an interest in soda bottles, glass artifacts, bottlers, or El Paso, I extend my wish that some part of this book will be useful to you in your work, your hobby, or your interests.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it.