The History Of The Cabinet - Part Two

Last summer I posted the first in what will be a series of articles uncovering the fascinating history of The Cabinet (http://whiskycabinet.blogspot.ca/2011/06/history-of-cabinet-part-one.html). Now we know that pulque was drunk at this site by native traders going back millenia. We also have tantalizing clues in a recently uncovered version of the Vinland map that the Norse may have penetrated this far into the continent, and, moreover, that they may have been drinking brennivin here. It's incredible, but the evidence is quite compelling.
Earlier this summer we began to dig at the end of the oxcart track, where it approaches the river, in the faint hope of finding artifacts to support these theories.
                                                          The dig site:

We knew that the probability that something identifiable would still be there was remote, but to our astonishment within just half an hour of digging we found something...

While it's clearly not Norse (or is it...?), it is certainly old. It is of solid iron with no visible attachment points or markings. It appears to be a hand-tool of sorts. We decided to contact the Manitoba Museum for an opinion and immediately received a reply from the staff archaeologist:

"Hello Mr. Schott,

This looks like a stone mason's finishing tool. It probably dates from sometime in the 19th Century (these types of tools didn't change very much over time)."

Cool. Now this was interesting. At around the same time I had been hunting for information about distilling in the Red River Colony. As the reader is aware the colony was founded in 1812 by Lord Thomas Douglas Selkirk to aid destitute Highlanders and Irishmen. And what do destitute Highlanders and Irishmen like to do more than anything else? Drink whisky of course. Consequently there must have been a local source, given the expense and difficulty of shipping to this most remote of settlements. And sure enough there was. Look at what turned up in a document entitled "Being a History of the Development of the Church of England in North-Western Saskatchewan", published by the North-West Historical Society in Battleford in 1927 (the internet is truly a marvelous thing, this is available online): 

1. The Mathesons of the Red River
by Alexander Sutherland

(Cridhe Agus Lahn)
Heart in Hand

Harkening back to our original adventurers, we read of Angus Matheson bargaining shrewdly for the disposal of his right to brew twenty gallons of whisky annually in the still erected by Lord Selkirk for the convenience of the colonists, which right he valued at one hundred pounds, or more than double the sum demanded by other holders of this truly royal Scotch privilege. As the family were noted more for their generous Highland hospitality than for proverbial Scottish care and close dealing, let us hope that he had been basing his claim on the extent of entertainment provided for the friends who so constantly gathered around his fireside. We cannot but read with anxiety of the recommendation of Governor Simpson that he be allowed to "compound" with the amateur brewer in the sum of twenty pounds and meditate on the probable value of the "right and privilege" had it been handed down intact to the present days of bootleggers and lucrative government monopoly.

This makes for amusing reading, but you might wonder how it is germaine. Well, here is the key point: the original settlers of our property on the Assiniboine were.... Mathesons. So, it is reasonable to suppose that Angus operated the still on his property here, but sensibly enough did not wish to do so right at the house. Instead he would have chosen to build a small structure for it down by the river, also for ease of access to water. This could not have been built of wood because of the fire hazard inherent in distilling, instead it would have been made of stone. And this, dear reader, would have required a "stone mason's finishing tool"...

So there we have it, first the native traders, then the Norse, now the Selkirk settlers. And the North-West's first whisky, right here. It is not hard to imagine the recently arrived Highlanders, the local Metis and any voyageurs passing through gathering by the riverside here for a dram or six. The Cabinet. Two hundred years ago.