In the early days of the 20th Century, an explorer by the name of Gert Draulinger was digging for gold in the hills of southern California, USA.
No-one had told Gert that the gold rush was long over, the hills were empty, and that all he was likely to find was dirt and an angry spider named Jim.

And it's a good thing no-one had told him that - for on the morning of February the 18th 1901, Gert Draulinger and Jim broke into one of the largest natural springs of fire water ever discovered. Fire water = Whiskey!

Whiskey is some kind of liquid that is created deep within the planet, right next where they make the lava! It begins its life as simple vodka, but thanks to the immense pressure, turns bright brown - the colour of volcanoes. Yes, 'whiskey' literally means brown vodka. That explains its hilarious name!
Some other things soon happen, but these things are a spooky mystery.

Finally the whiskey floats upward, since it is lighter than gravity, until it emerges from the ground as a torrent of booze!

If you've ever wondered why pubs are situated where they are, you now know the answer (the answer is whiskey).

The most expensive bottle of whiskey is currently valued at more than £500,000: enough to buy several unusually valuable camels!
What's so special about this bottle? Well, it was bottled by Draulinger himself in 1912, containing the very last drops from his original whiskey-spring. It is rumoured that one sip of this whiskey is enough to make you so drunk, you immediately think that Harold Pinter is alive and well, and he has written a poem especially for you!

WOW!