Early Popcorn History

• Though popcorn probably originated in Mexico, it was grown in China, Sumatra and India years before Columbus visited America.
• The oldest known corn pollen is scarcely distinguishable from modern corn pollen, judging by the 80,000-year-old fossil found 200 feet below Mexico City.
• It is believed that the first use of wild and early-cultivated corn was for popping.
• In tombs on the east coast of Peru, researchers have found grains of popcorn perhaps 1,000 years old. These grains have been so well-preserved that they will still pop.
• In southwestern Utah, a 1,000-year-old popped kernel of popcorn was found in a dry cave inhabited by predecessors of the Pueblo Indians.
• Ancient popcorn poppers -- shallow vessels with a hole on the top, a single handle sometimes decorated with a sculptured motif such as a cat, and sometimes decorated with printed motifs all over the vessel -- have been found on the north coast of Peru and date back to the pre-Incan Mohica Culture of about 300 A.D.
• Most popcorn from 800 years ago was tough and slender-stalked. The kernels themselves were quite resilient. Even today, winds sometimes blow desert sands from ancient burials, exposing kernels of popped corn that look fresh and white but are many centuries old.

Europeans Meet Popcorn

• By the time Europeans began settling in the "New World," popcorn and other corn types had spread to all Native American tribes in North and South America, except those in the extreme northern and southern areas of the continents.
• More than 700 types of popcorn were being grown in the New World, many extravagant poppers had been invented, and popcorn was worn in the hair and around the neck. There was even a widely consumed popcorn beer.
• When Columbus first arrived to the West Indies, the natives tried to sell popcorn to his crew.
• Writing of Peruvian Indians in 1650, the Spaniard Cobo says, "They toast a certain kind of corn until it bursts. They call it pisancalla, and they use it as a confection."
• Early French explorers through the Great Lakes region (circa 1612) reported that the Iroquois popped popcorn in a pottery vessel with heated sand and used it to make popcorn soup, among other things.
• The English colonists were introduced to popcorn at the first Thanksgiving Feast at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Quadequina, brother of the Wampanoag chief Massasoit, brought a deerskin bag of popped corn to the celebration as a gift.
• Colonial housewives served popcorn with sugar and cream for breakfast -- the first "puffed" breakfast cereal eaten by Europeans. Some colonists popped corn using a cylinder of thin sheet-iron that revolved on an axle in front of the fireplace like a squirrel cage.

Recent Popcorn History

• The first popcorn "machine" was invented by Charlie Cretors in 1885. Until then, poppers were made to sit in front of stores to attract attention. But vendors wanted to be close to the crowds, especially the crowds near movie theaters. So Charlie made poppers that could be pushed on foot, pulled by horse and mounted on trucks. Today, much of the popcorn you buy at movies and fairs is popped in poppers made by the Cretors family.
• During the Depression, popcorn at 5 or 10 cents a bag was one of the few luxuries that struggling families could afford. While other businesses failed, the popcorn business thrived.
• Home poppers were first introduced around 1925, and a few years later they were being built in Junior High shop classes.
• During World War II, sugar was sent overseas for U.S. troops, which meant there wasn't much sugar left in the States to make candy. Thanks to this unusual situation, Americans ate three times as much popcorn as usual.
• In 1945, Percy Spencer discovered that when popcorn was placed under microwave energy, it popped. This led to experiments with other foods, and the birth of the microwave oven.
• Popcorn went into a slump during the early 1950s, when television became popular. Attendance at movie theaters dropped and, with it, popcorn consumption. When the public began eating popcorn at home, the new relationship between television and popcorn led to a resurge in popularity.
• Americans today consume 17.3 billion quarts of popped popcorn each year. The average American eats about 68 quarts.