American Mint - Parts I-IV

Now available: "American Mint: A Documentary," a four-hour video history of the American peppermint and spearmint industry. Based on over severnty on-site interviews, vintage photographs and rare archival movie film. In four parts.


American Mint - Part I
"American Mint: 1790-1920"

The discovery of an abandoned mint still near St. Johns, Michigan sparks the preparation of "American Mint: A Documentary." See how mint farmers today harvest and still their mint hay, and how Americans use peppermint and spearmint oil to better their lives. Learn about historic mint bottles and the 19th century American "Peppermint Kings." See which American companies were the leading chewing gum manufacturers. Learn who invented a mint candy shaped like a lifesaver. See how American soldiers helped create a demand abroad for chewing gum and candy. 62 minutes


American Mint - Part II
"American Mint: 1920-2002"

Mint products were widely advertised. Some companies employed attractive young women to hand out free samples; one company had salesmen make their rounds in cars shaped like a roll of mint-flavored candy. Learn how one mint grower, during the "Great Price Rise" of the mid-1920's, received a check for $12,000 for a single barrel of peppermint oil. Learn how verticillium wilt threatened the survival of the American mint industry. See how one company, in the first successful use of irradiation for vegetative propagation, developed wilt resistant peppermint varieties. Note the migratory nature of the mint industry, now centered in the Pacific Northwest. 54 minutes


American Mint - Part III
"American Mint: From Hands to Machines"

Learn about peppermint and spearmint varieties, and watch as "handlers" process mint oil for "end users." Witness, through vintage photographs and rare archival movie footage, the dramatic transformation of agricultural practices in the planting, harvesting, and stilling of mint. Learn how mint roots were once planted by hand, how mint leaves were originally boiled in water over a large fire, and how mint growers in New York and Michigan developed the first "steam distillery." Watch workers in the 1940's "stomp" mint hay in stilling tubs. Learn who invented the first portable mint stilling tubs in America, and why the old stationary round tubs units are now archaic relics. Contrast these older practices with modern "state of the art" mint distilleries. 72 minutes


American Mint - Part IV
"American Mint: A Heritage Worth Recognizing"

Learn about the changing role for women in the mint industry. Be a witness to the pride American mint farmers and "handlers" take in working with an important speciality crop. Are mint farmers are "a special breed" in agriculture? But the American mint farmer is facing new challenges from overproduction and foreign competition! Can the small family mint farm survive in America? Or will the American mint farmer, as has largely happened with the old mint stills, largely disappear from the American scene? Learn about one of the oldest surviving mint stills in the United States, and the effort to save it. This is a heritage worth recognizing! 62 minutes

The Historic J.E. Crosby Mint Still

If you are interested in a one - video version, consider our initial 53 minute release created with excerpts from American Mint: "The Historic J.E. Crosby Mint Still." The Historic J. E. Crosby Mint Still in St. Johns, Michigan, one of the oldest surviving mint stills in the United States, is part of an important heritage that touches us all. But the number of mint farmers is decreasing and it is a heritage that is disappearing from the American countryside. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this video will be donated to a trust fund at the California State University, Fresno Foundation for researching, recording, and restoring historic structures and buildings associated with the American mint industry. 53 minutes