COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS
Favorite find: If the house was on fire and Jim Beaton could save only one item, it would be a 100-year-old Hamm beer sign (produced before the company added the "s" to its name), reverse-painted on glass. "It's from an old bar in Stephen, Minnesota, up by the Canadian border," he said.
Most controversial: A 1905 tray, produced by the Standard Brewing Co. of Mankato, depicts the real-life 1862 mass hanging of 38 Sioux Indians. "The soldiers are drinking beer while the Indians are being executed," Beaton said. "Some guys won't collect execution items. They think it's in bad taste." But he values the tray for its historical significance.
Shortest-lived beer: Royal Bohemian "57," from Duluth Brewing. "It was made for nine months in 1951," Beaton said. "The story is that a guy from out east went into a saloon in Duluth and asked for a bottle of 'that ketchup beer.' He was thinking Heinz 57 [steak sauce], which was copyrighted. So they changed the name to Royal Bohemian '58.'" (The Beatons have a rare bubbler lamp bearing the original name.)
