Iconic soft drinks spotlighted at Reece Museum

From now until Sept. 13, “The Tri-City Beverage Story: A History of Dr. Enuf and Mountain Dew in Johnson City” will be on display at Reece Museum as a highlight of Johnson City’s Sesquicentennial celebration. Johnson City has been recognized as “The Home of Mountain Dew” with an official Tennessee Historical Marker located at the site of the former Tri-City Beverage Corp. 

Artifacts featured in this exhibit range from newspaper and television ads, preserved soft drink bottles and various collectibles – all thanks to the Reece’s permanent collection and entries from local collectors. Gabe Perez, a 2019 media and communication graduate of ETSU, as well as Fred Sauceman of ETSU’s Office of University Relations, produced a documentary that is also featured in the exhibit.

“As I was exploring the history of Mountain Dew, I was surprised to find how relevant the history of Johnson City and Tri-City Beverage was to the story of one of the nation’s largest soft drink brands,” stated local contributor and Reece Museum student-worker Dalton Byrant. “Learning about the people commemorated on the bottles and their role in the growth of our hometown, was inspiring.”

Each exhibit depicts the history of Tri-City Beverage and its two most renowned soft drinks – Dr. Enuf and Mountain Dew. Success for the company began to boom in 1949 when Chicago business man, William “Bill” Mark Swartz, formulated a B-vitamin rich beverage that appealed to the masses.

An ad for Dr. Enuf was posted in the “National Bottler’s Gazette” in hopes to partner with a bottler and distributor. Tri-City Beverage’s president and co-founder, Charles O. Gordon, soon after landed a long-standing partnership with Swartz, which led to its overall success. The products are more popular than ever and continue to be distributed in the same region.

Mountain Dew was originally produced in Knoxville, Tennessee, by Ally and Barney Hartman in 1946, but the flavor of this popular beverage is always traced back to Johnson City. Tri-City Beverage was issued the first Mountain Dew franchise in 1954 and distributed the soda with a lemon-lime flavor that was similar to other popular beverages like 7UP or Sprite.

It was not until 1960 when Tri-City Beverage began bottling Mountain Dew with their “Tri-City Lemonade,” giving the product a new flavor. This new flavor led to the world-wide distribution of Mountain Dew, as well as a rights deal being sold to Pepsi in 1964.

Today the brand is recognized as the third most-popular liquid refreshment in the United States and a symbol of East Tennessee.

A catered reception for “The Tri-City Beverage Story” will be held Thursday, Aug. 29, from 5-7 p.m.

The Reece Museum is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.etsu.edu/reece or call 423-439-4392.