c-span three, american history tv. touringyear, c-span's cities across the country, exploring american history. next, look at our recent visit to waco, texas. you are watching american history tv, all weekend on c-span3. ♪ [jazz music] >> waco is the home of dr pepper, and it started in 1885 when a pharmacist named charles alderton was mixing together some different concoctions in the back of the old corner drugstore where the pharmacy was located.

he came up with a fragrant-smelling mixture that he liked very much, and he probably used it in some medicines, but eventually, it was sold as a syrup with carbonated water in it across the soda fountain counter. at first, it was just called waco, but later, they gave it the name dr. pepper. it became very popular in drugstores. soon, other drugstores were asking, can we get some of that syrup you are selling in your store, in your pharmacy? people here said, sure, for a price, we will make a barrel of it and send the wagon over. the popularity grew as other pharmacies and soda fountains around the area began using the waco syrup, which eventually

became dr. pepper syrup. later, as it got beyond wagon range, the rails came into play, and waco being a railroad center, it was pretty easy to transport syrup to other areas, as far as oklahoma or south texas or over to louisiana. here at the dr. pepper museum, we try to tell the early story, and we've got several rooms that are kind of replicas of the old corner both -- drugstore or one of the early production facilities for dr. pepper syrup. a visitor can come in and stroll through those one at a time and follow the progression and development of the drink. then you get into the story of the increased manufacturing. at the same time we are talking about the industrial revolution in the late 1880's, 1900s, machinery and equipment was being developed, and the

bottling industry benefited from that. ways to cap and fill bottles with dr. pepper syrup and carbonated water increased production. bottle washers, high speed for filling, carbonating machines and how they developed over the years, an assembly line production. if henry ford could do it, it could be done in bottling. today, we have plants that can bottle thousands and thousands of bottles per minute. we show how that started and several steps progressing along the length. the industry changed in the early 1950's. the metal can came into wider use.

canned vegetables and things like that appeared in grocery stores years earlier, but eventually, the idea of putting a soft drink in a can and selling it, instead of a bottle, appealed to people in the industry because a can was cheaper than glass bottles to manufacture and reproduce. by the mid-1960's, it was necessary for any bottling plant to have both canning and bottling lines. this building was too small for that. the decision was made to close this building and develop a new site with both canning and bottling for future use, which happened in the mid-1960's. when a visitor visits the dr. pepper museum, we hope they get a little bit of nostalgia about days gone by when everything in the world hadn't been invented yet, and that there were products that were brand-new, for the first time on the market.

a respect for history and the people that put those things together. it is always interesting here. also, the second part of the dr. pepper museum is the free enterprise institute, and we focus on the growth of small businesses. almost all of the soft drink franchises in the country were family-owned and operated. small family come please -- companies. people that sold ice, other things like that, acquired franchises to produce coke, dr. pepper, other brands like that, and built those from very small family businesses into large, regional businesses that covered many counties, maybe even states, as the manufacturer and purveyor of that soft drink. -- of beverages throughout that area. we focus on small business to try to encourage invention, entrepreneurship, business ethics, salesmanship, all of

those things that small businesses, which are really the backbone of america's economy and make things great in this country. >> the free enterprise portion of the museum was started by a man named ww "foots" clemmons. thetarted as a salesman in 1930's in alabama. he really worked himself up in the ranks of dr. pepper, and he really treasured and valued the free enterprise system. he credited free enterprise for allowing him to work his way up in the company to become president and ceo of dr. pepper. it was really his vision for the museum to teach children about free enterprise and the opportunities that are presented to them in this country and how they can use that to immediately start their own business with their small idea. we tell the story of the free enterprise system in america by

using some of our educational programs, whether it be a simple tour, showing the history of dr. pepper and how it grew. we also have a program called create a soft drink. kids work in small groups, and they actually make some test drinks. we have some flavors for them to choose from, 16 flavors, and they get to mix and be their own beverage chemists. mix together different flavors. they have to market their drink. they pick the best one out of all the ones they make, and they make a marketing campaign. they have to come up with a slogan, a logo, come up with a commercial, and we actually film their commercials. it is a great way for them to see the process of free enterprise at its best, having that small idea you have come up with and then turning it into something larger. >> dr. pepper is a unique product. it is much loved in the

southwest. waco views the dr. pepper museum certainly as a tourism attraction for people who want to see where something started. america's history is full of places all over this country where people want to see where the battle took place or want to see where something was invented. this is a unique place from that standpoint. the company had always had an interest in their history. they had several past presidents and employees that preserved the history of the company and thought it had value. when the museum developed, they saw this as the perfect place to keep the company's history and store that. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

c-span's localre content vehicles are going next online at c-span.org/localco ntent. you are watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. >> here are some of the programs you will find this weekend. sunday evening at 8:00, political reporters share stories about being on the campaign trail with senator mitch mcconnell. 10:00,an2 tonight at on money in lewis politics. the sunday at 10 p.m. eastern, shane harris on the military's use of cyberspace to wage war. on american history tv on 2:00, a panelat on howng david keene

ronald reagan's career helped hone his communication skills to be a successful politician and president. sunday at 8:00, a former aide to president in shows clips of his 1983 interview with the former president about the anon, watergate, and his resignation. find the complete schedule at c-span.org know what you think t the program zero watching. send us a tweet. join the c-span conversation, like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. >> this year marks the 50th anniversary of ronald reagan's "time for choosing," speech. given on behalf of gary -- barry goldwater. up next, a look at president reagan's skill as a communicator and how it contributed to his success as president. panelists discusag