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High Times magazine was founded in 1974 by journalist and activist Tom Forcade. The publication was meant to be a standalone, cannabis-focused parody of Playboy magazine, but that inaugural issue was so successful that it became a monthly publication. The magazine is focused on marijuana and its associated subculture, and has featured contributions from writers such as William S. Burroughs, Truman Capote, Kinky Friedman, Debbie “Blondie” Harry, Joey Ramone, Hunter S. Thompson, Andy Warhol, Robert Anton Wilson, and Frank Zappa.

Black and white illustration of a cat under a blanket with black text on a white background

The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was built in Virginia in 1869. After expansions through other states, C&O became part of the Chessie System in 1972. Chessie is also the name of the kitten that became the railroad’s trademark in 1933 as a way to advertise the new passenger trains with the phrase “Sleep Like a Top” and eventually “Sleep Like a Kitten." 

Illustration of a character with arms making a C shape and squeezing an orange with orange text on a white background

Created by California chemist Neil C. Ward and known as “Ward’s Orange Crush,” Orange Crush was a beverage made with real orange pulp until 1930. Ward merged “Ward’s Orange Crush” business with Clayton J. Howell’s “Howell’s Orange Julius” business in 1911, and the beverage became known as Orange Crush. Crushy, the advertising logo, was a symbol of Orange Crush and appeared on Orange Crush bottle labels, signs in auto garages and stores, and pinback buttons. Crushy squeezing the flavor out of an orange became the symbol of the soda. Crushy’s appearance changed slightly over the years.

Bottle labels also featured Crushy, the rectangular label dates from 1929 bottles, while the diamond shape label is from circa 1920.

Illustration of a pig's head with black and white text on an orange background

Harold Heinold from Kouts, Indiana, was the founder of Heinold Hog Market, which bought large quantities of hogs from farmers and resold them to packers. Heinold Hog Market operated first in Indiana and expanded to 13 states in 16 years. Later branching out to include cattle and becoming Heinold Hog and Cattle Markets, Harold Heinold wrote rules and specifications for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for trading hog futures in 1966. In 1969, Heinold founded Heinold Commodities, Inc. on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Illustration of a hatchet in a yellow circle with red text, an outer red ring, then a white ring with blue text

John Q. Twitchell and James P. Champlin started Twitchell, Champlin & Co., a wholesale grocer and extract bottler, around 1880 in Portland, Maine. In 1903, they added a canning business, selling canned peas, corn, string beans, raspberries, strawberries, and fish. They later expanded to production in other parts of New England and sold their canned goods under the Hatchet brand name. 

The historic Twitchell-Champlin Company building on Merrill’s Wharf was built in stages between 1884 and 1924. In 1962, it was converted into a cold storage warehouse. The Portland Waterfront National Register Historic District boundaries were expanded to include Merrill’s Wharf, making the building eligible for historic tax credits, which were used for rehabilitation of the building in 2011. 

White and black text on a red background

In 1900, brothers John Francis and Horace Dodge established the Dodge Brothers Company, manufacturing ball-bearing bicycles in Detroit, MI. In 1903, the brothers shifted focus completely to automobile parts. Henry Ford approached Dodge Brothers and offered a 10% stake in Ford Company if their plants could manufacture Ford parts. Dodge Brothers held a major portion of the industry as they continued to profit from Ford parts and designed their own. Dodge Brothers went public on July 17, 1914. Although John Francis and Horace Dodge died in 1920, the company has experienced great success with iconic advertising campaigns such as “Join the Dodge Rebellion” in 1966-1967 and “Dodge Fever” in 1967-1969.

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Created in 1951 by Andrew McLay for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the character known as Willie Wiredhand (wiredhand as in being the farmer's hired hand) became the “spokesplug” for electric cooperatives and continues to do so to this day. Willie’s birthday takes place on October 30, during National Co-op Month.  

As Richard Biever describes in his history of Willie, "Electric cooperatives initially wanted to use Reddy Kilowatt as their spokes-character. Reddy—depicted with a body and arms and legs of jagged red lightning bolts and a round head equipped with a light bulb nose and outlets for ears—had been around since 1926 and was being used by 188 of the nation’s private power companies as of 1951. However, Reddy’s creator —Ashton B. Collins, who had licensed his character to the private utilities—believed that electric cooperatives were “socialistic” because they borrowed money from the federal government. Not only did Collins refuse to let Reddy be associated with cooperatives, he instructed his lawyers to warn NRECA that any rival character cooperatives might develop would infringe on his exclusive trademarks."

Red and white illustration of a person in a hat with black text on a white background

The El Dorado Refining Company, also known as "El Reco," existed in El Dorado, Kansas, from 1917-1958. It was later bought out and is now known as HollyFrontier El Dorado Refining LLC. Oil fields in El Dorado were discovered in 1914, and as the need for crude oil increased, El Reco was one of 29 refineries built. It is now only one of three refineries that exist in the area and is holding its own as one of the biggest in the Great Plains.