Improve keg-hefting with tooth filing

Like most families, my families has it share of family stories. It can sometimes be hard to tell reality from fiction but this weekend I was reminded of several stories.


While waiting on breakfast at the "Orginal" Hard Rock Cafe in Empire, I looked around the cafe. In the west room they are building a new entrance and had several panorama murals. I remember the murals from childhood when they were located in Empire's Redman Hall. The murals depict life of the early Empire valley settlers and one mural was particulary interesting because it is about my Swedish relatives who I am visiting later this week.


The mural did not have a label, but I think "Tall Tales of Lindstrom" might be fitting. It featured the Lindstrom homestead/brewery, several men, an ox-team, a wagon full of beer and notecard about Lindstrom.

In case you can not read the postcard, this is what it says.

"Lindstrom's brewery, due west of Empire, made beer from hops imported by ox-team brom St. Louis. The brew was dispensed in five gallon kegs. These kegs, weighing approximately 60 pounds when full, challenged brawny miners and loggers who worked nearby at Lindstroms's saw-mill to lift them from the ground with only their teeth gripping the bung. Competition was keen. But Paul Lindstrom was the champion keg-hefter. He conditioned his small, but strong, teeth for the sport by using a carptenters's file to keep every tooth at the same level."