December 28, 2023 – While clearing out part of my shop, I came across a collection of old soda bottles. Most of them were Pepsi bottles touting the 1972 Dallas Cowboys, but one was unique. It’s impossible to know what flavors of soda were inside this bottle, but one thing is clear, it’s a ‘Big Chief’.
My bottle is from a bygone era when independent bottlers were almost as common as modern fast food franchises. Sulphur Springs had its own Coca-Cola bottling plant, which at the time was a huge deal.
If you drank a ‘Big Chief’ soda in Hopkins County in the 1930’s, this bottle could have been against your lips. Big Chief
This particular ‘Big Chief’ bottle clearly says Sulphur Springs Texas on the bottom. There is no telling how many times, if ever, it was refilled. It’s maiden voyage could have been to my farm 6 miles west of Sulphur Springs.
‘Big Chief’ was regionally popular and never really a coast-to-coast brand. It was popular in Mississippi, Alabama, Kansas, Idaho, and of course Texas. A quick search on eBay shows bottles available with marks from across the nation.
It was common then and now for bottlers of major brands like Coca-Cola or Pepsi to also bottle other flavors like cherry, strawberry, lemon, lime and orange.
‘Big Chief’ beverages faded out of existence in the early 1970’s. This due in large part to brands like Fanta. In a move to streamline production, maximize profits, and make a more consistent product, regional bottlers were also phased out in the late 70’s and early 80’s.
Clear bottles like mine are probably pre-1930. Around that time a different method of bottle production took hold. The applied colored label (ACL) bottle, or ‘painted bottle’ shown below replaced the clear bottles nationwide.
My ‘Big Chief’ Sulphur Springs Bottle will be on display at the KSST Studios till I remember to take it back home. Feel free to stop by and take a look. If you have memories of ‘Big Chief’, pictures of bottling plants and would like to share them, please email them to us at [email protected].
