POCAHONTAS BOTTLING WORKS

SPUR / NESBITT'S-DOUBLE COLA / FALLS MILLS BOTTLING COMPANY

Beginning operations in 1919 as the Pocahontas Bottling Works(1) this company actually lasted over fifty years, providing soft drinks in the small town of Pocahontas VA and later to the area including the counties of Tazewell, Mercer, McDowell, Raleigh, and Buchanan (1), under the leadership of the owner, Nick Crist (1), who's death, sources indicate, influenced the closing of the company sometime in the early 1980's.(2) The company appears to have moved at least three times in it's history, the first of which was into the building that was occupied by the Obbagy Bottling Company in the 1920's from some as yet unknown location, and finally to the small community of Falls Mills about three miles outside of Bluefield, VA.

On October 19, 1938 the Bluefield Daily Telegraph ran a full page article with ads and pictures announcing that the Pocahontas Bottling Works had just finished refurbishing their bottling plant with the purchase of new bottling equipment and the concreting of the entire floor of the building that they were occupying.(1) One of the ads is introducing Double Cola which the company had just gotten permission to bottle and distribute.(1) This information is what helped lead me to the bottling plant location, because in a photo that I had run across online the building shown is the old Obbagy building and it even has Pocahontas Bottling Works painted on it and Double Cola as well which dates the photograph to sometime after the 1938 article and before 1947 when the bottling plant was moved to it's final location at Falls Mills, VA. That of course leads us to the time period when the move took place.

According to a lawsuit that was levied against Nick Crist he had just finished construction on the building for his new plant, and was in the process of moving the bottling equipment to the plant on January 30, 1947, when a woman ran into the trailer that had been left parked on the road in front of the building.(3) I have no idea of the outcome of the case but it might explain why it seems so long before he starts running Double Cola ads touting his new plant. He is certainly operational again by sometime in 1948, and continues to bottle until at least 1982 which is the date on the newest Pocahontas Beverages bottle that I can find, which of course is the only brand that still employs a town name at that late a date that the company bottles.

The brands bottled by the company are many, aside from the Pocahontas Club (most likely a Ginger Ale) bottle from 1935, there was Double Cola (one of their signature brands), Nu-Grape (1938), Cavalcade (another Ginger Ale maybe local origin), Spur cola (a Canada Dry brand) 1941-1946, Sunny Isles (1949), Nesbitts California Orange (mid-1940-?), Sun-Drop (1964), and of course their Pocahontas Beverages line, which appears to start in the 1940's, but may be much older. Then there are the sheer amount of company names that the company had been known by. We start out with Pocahontas Bottling Works until at least 1941, Spur Bottling Company 1941-1947, Nesbitts Double Cola Bottling Company in 1948-1964, and finally Falls Mills Bottling Company 1964-1982(?).

This was the Pocahontas location that seems to have been taken over after the Obbagy Bottling Company went out of business.

This is the Falls Mills location of the bottling company as it stands today.

7oz Nick's Pale Dry bottle (obviously a Ginger Ale) from the Pocahontas Bottling Works of Pocahontas, VA dated 1933

7oz Pocahontas Club bottle from the Pocahontas Bottling Works of Pocahontas, VA dated 1935

Introductory ad for Double Cola from Pocahontas Bottling Works March 10, 1938.

12oz Spur Cola bottle dated 1941

12oz Spur Cola bottle dated 1943. Note that the company name and town have moved from the front to the back of the bottle.

6oz Spur Cola bottle dated 1946

10oz Nesbitts Orange bottle dated 1945

7 1/2oz Pocahontas Beverages bottle dated 1947

Ad for Double Cola announcing the opening of the new bottling plant in Falls Mills, VA from June 22, 1948.

7oz Sunny Isles bottle dated 1949

7 1/2oz Pocahontas Beverages bottle dated 1951

10oz Pocahontas Beverages bottle dated 1953

10oz Pocahontas Beverages bottle though undated is most likely from the late 1950's or early 1960's.

7 1/2oz Pocahontas Beverages bottle dated 1964

Apparently the company carried not only Nesbitt’s Orange, Double-Cola, and the Pocahontas Beverages line in 1964, but was also bottled Sun Drop Cola.

16oz Pocahontas Beverages bottle dated 1965

16oz Pocahontas Beverages bottle dated 1966

16oz Double Cola bottle dated 1967, which according to antidotal evidence was bottled at the Falls Mills, VA plant.

16oz Pocahontas Beverages bottle dated 1968

16oz Pocahontas Beverages bottle dated 1969

16oz Pocahontas Beverages bottle dated 1972

16oz Pocahontas Beverages bottle dated 1975, note the neck label is backwards.

16oz Pocahontas Beverages bottle dated 1976. Who knew that there would be this many variations of the 16oz Pocahontas Beverages bottle?

Pocahontas Beverages Crate from Falls Mills, VA

Ad for Cavalcade Ginger Ale from March 10, 1938. This brand might be a local created drink.

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