A mint still that Smith discovered while photographing old barns in Michigan left him fascinated by the early history of American mint production.

Historian Ephraim Smith has himself a cool holiday

by Mary Lisa Russell

Dr. Ephraim Smith is working hard this season, but it isn't visions of sugarplums dancing in this history professor's head. Peppermint and spearmint are what he is thinking about.

With more than just a sweet tooth, Smith is traveling around the country determined to record our nation's history on peppermint and spearmint farming and making an educational video documentary.

"I stumbled onto this whole mint idea two years ago while photographing old barns in Michigan," said Smith. "I have an insatiable fascination with derelict buildings and I just couldn't pass up such an interesting find as an old mint still."

Smith's enthusiasm for history had him searching out other abandoned mint stills until he realized what a fascinating background mint production had in our nation's heritage.

Smith contacted Rocky Lundy, executive director of the Mint Industry Research Council (MIRC), and a friendship soon evolved. In fact, Lundy feels Smith has been a driving force in preserving the history of mint production in the United States.

Smith and his wife, Donna, a teacher at Heaton Elementary in Fresno, collected hours of videotaped interviews, historic photographs and facts from mint farmers and stillers. "Ephraim could easily write a book with all the information he has gathered," said Lundy.

The mint industry's success is uniquely American, according to Lundy. "The mint plants that farmers use today can be traced back to our country's first immigrants, who brought them to America in the Colonial period," he said.

Mint, a sterile plant, must be vegetatively propagated because it does not reproduce by seeds.

"Peppermint and spearmint yield an essential oil that has been used in flavoring for hundreds of years," said Smith. "Last year 150,000 acres of peppermint and spearmint were planted in the United States, and farmers sold more than nine million pounds of peppermint and three million pounds of spearmint."

That might not sound like a lot at first, but according to Lundy, one pound of mint oil can flavor 13,000 sticks of chewing gum. The peppermint oil produced in the United States last year alone could flavor 117 billion sticks of chewing gum.

"Mint oil is highly concentrated and usually constitutes one-tenth to one percent of the product it is flavoring," said Lundy. "Nearly 45 percent of peppermint and spearmint oil

is used for chewing gum flavoring. Another 45 percent is used for dentifrices and the remaining 10 percent is usually put in confections, pharmaceutical applications and liqueurs."

Lundy said that American mint oil is considered to be the highest in quality and that other oils on the market are generally inferior. The United States produces about 70 percent of the world's mint supply.

The ideal location to grow mint, according to Lundy, is north of the 45th parallel in an area that has a long day length. He said Washington and Oregon are the top mint oil producing states in the nation.

"Even though there are only 800 mint farmers in this country -- what they do touches the lives of Americans everyday," said Smith.

Smith will speak before the Oregon Essential Oil Growers League in January and hopes to have his documentary on mint completed by this summer. "There is so much to share about this nation's mint production history and so many fascinating stories to tell," he said.

"It seems that since Ephraim has gotten involved, a lot more attention is being paid to mint production and its rich history," said Lundy.