Any members of the Sourtoe Cocktail Society?

[M.D. Holloway]

If you have ever been to Dawson City in the Northwest Territiories then you may have stopped into the Sourdough Saloon and if by chance you had a wildhair you might want to be inducted into the Sourtoe Cocktail Society.

Now, legend has it that many many years ago a guy got frost bite and he cut off his big toe and perserved it in Whiskey. In honor of this local legend, men would take the toe out of the Whisky and put it in a glass and fill the glass with their fav libation, drink and have the toe rest on their lips. Upon this feat (sorry!), they would become industed into the Sourtoe Cocktail Society.

To date, there is an inventory of 5 toes. I am not sure where they get them and if you have to ask.... The original one was accidentially swallowed.

Here is a pic:

[M.D. Holloway]

Toes are kept in rock salt. More info on the toe(s):

Toe #1 was that of Louie Liken, trapper, placer miner, and in the 1920's, rum runner. Louie and his brother Otto would cross the border to the United States in a blizzard by dog team to deliver their alcoholic cargo. During one such outing, Louie stepped into overflow and got his foot wet.Fearing that the Northwest Mounted Police were on their trail they had to continue their trip. As a result of extended exposure to the cold, Louie's big toe froze.To prevent the onset of gangrene it was necessary to amputate.




Lacking faith in doctors the brothers had no intention of traveling 60 miles to Dawson and paying one to do what they could just as easily accomplish on their own.The first step in the amputation was anaesthesia. Consuming large amounts of their 180% overproof rum, they soon felt that they were sufficiently drunk to continue with the amputation. Louie stuck out his frozen toe as Otto lifted the woodcutting axe. With one swing the toe was removed. As a reminder of the incident the brothers kept the toe, pickled in a jar of alcohol.

Years later, when cleaning the brothers' cabin, the toe was discovered by Captain Dick Stevenson. After conferring, Captain Dick and his friends decided on the rules of the Sourtoe Cocktail and started serving it at the Eldorado Hotel in 1973. In July 1980, a placer miner named Garry Younger was trying for the Sourtoe record. On his thirteenth glass of Sourtoe champagne his chair tipped over backwards and he swallowed the toe. Sadly, Toe #1 was not recovered.



Toe #2 was donated by a Mrs. Lawrence of Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. Her middle toe had been amputated thirteen years earlier due to an inoperable corn.The toe was kept in a jar of salt in the Eldorado's bar. While the bar was undergoing renovation, the jar holding Toe #2 was lost and has not yet been found.



Toe #3 was sent to Captain Dick in 1982 by a trapper in Faro. He'd had his big toe removed due to frostbite. The next summer during a busy night with 60 soldiers "doing the toe," Toe #3 went missing. Later it was learned that one of the soldiers had taken the toe to a canteen in London, Ontario. Once the soldier's commanding officer found out about the toe it was returned promptly. Celebrations over the return of Toe #3 were short lived, when in 1983, the toe was swallowed by a baseball player from Inuvik, Northwest Territories.



Toe #4 was sent by an anonymous donor. While on tour in Watson Lake, Yukon the toe was stolen by a big game hunter from Texas. Though the hunter was identified, he refused to return it until several years later, when the Watson Lake police threatened to lay charges on him for the transport of a human body part across the border.



Toes #5 and #6 were donated by a Yukon oldtimer who wished to remain anonymous. His other stipulations for the donation of his toes were that his doctor also remain anonymous and that all his nurses got to drink the Sourtoe for free.



Toe #7 was delivered by three ladies who arrived in Dawson City by camper from Sudbury, Ontario. The toe had been removed due diabetes and was sent to Dawson after the donor read about the Sourtoe in the newspaper.



Toe #8 arrived in a jar of medical alcohol. The donor had just recently learned a handy life lesson," Don't wear open toed sandals while mowing the lawn."

[Joeaksa]

I prefer this type of toe personally...

[rammstein]

She looks cold.

[K. Roman]

That toe drink is disgusting! But, to each his own...I prefer the camel variety myself.