Our first notable find in the barn was, without question, this old bottle of Kentucky bourbon.  It was sitting on a wooden work table just left of the front, sliding door.  We searched for information on Coon Range as well as the distillery, Taylor and Williams, but we could find very little beyond it’s inception in 1865 and that it was bought out in 1944.  I also looked for information on how to date whiskey bottles and  found a wealth of relatively inconclusive data.

This bottle does have a green tax strip, but most of the helpful info is worn off.  It also has the words “Federal Law Prohibits sale or reuse of this bottle” which apparently date the bottle to sometime between 1932 and 1964, so we don’t know exactly how long the whiskey has been there, but we know it’s been there awhile!  In talking to our neighbors (two of whom grew up in the home), their parents bought the house in the sixties and the whiskey was already in the barn then.  Their father, Gilbert, left it there undisturbed  and we’ve decided to do the same.  : )