“This pickle is from Columbia Heights and, this particular lady grew it in her garden and she pickled it around 1963,” said Kassandra Mackenthun, collections manager at the Anoka County Historical Society. “It was donated in 2020 by her granddaughter. So this is our pickle, but it’s definitely not the oldest.”
There is a second pickle in the building. And this one is even more of a big dill.
“The story on the oldest pickle is that Charles McKinney decided to do a little science experiment. So, he just let it grow and see how big it could get, and once it was confined in the bottle, he put some vinegar in there, and he sealed it,” said Mackenthun.
The bottle and the history of the bottling plant in Anoka have helped estimate the age of this fine brine.
“This particular bottle that we have, we figured was cast in probably the early 1900s. So we have an idea that he probably put pickle into this bottle around that time,” said Mackenthun. “We got it in 1977. He died in 1964 at the age of 93. So we figure the pickle’s around 120 years old.”
Adopt an Artifact
And while this pickle’s appearance and color can be a little jarring, it’s a part of the collection that visitors can’t get enough of.
“When we started the Adopt an Artifact program, that was one of the first ones to go.”
The Adopt an Artifact program began about a year ago, and gives visitors the chance to symbolically adopt an item in the collection for a year. The money raised through the program helps preserve the item’s history. With donations being the bread and butter of the history center, the money helps keep unique items, like the pickle, on display.
“I don’t know of an older one,” said Mackenthun. “It could be the oldest pickle in the U. S.”
One of a kind
The staff at the history center relishes the opportunity to share this century-old pickle with the public.
“There aren’t a lot of them, so when you get to see one, it’s like this unicorn sort of object,” said Mackenthun.
“It has a story. It’s got something unique to it. People don’t see it every day. So we love the pickle,” said executive director of the history center, Rebecca-Ebnet Desens.
