A couple weeks ago, I had a rare opportunity to get behind the scenes at the Library of Congress with a few friends. Spent some quality time in their manuscripts area - the vault where priceless documents of all kinds are stored. (Think: Raiders of the Lost Arc) Our host showed off some remarkable things: Orville Wright's personal diary from the day of the first flight, and the telegram they sent to their father to announce success. Personal papers of just about every famous American ever. Things like that. Much of this stuff is on-line now, but we got to see the real deal. Fascinating!
Anyway, back in 1795, one of George Washington's buddies sent him a letter and on page two was something I thought WKC might find interesting: a recipe for grilled Beaver Tail. Of course I took a pic:
(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1855/43815034234_0b6c52f9c3_b.jpg)
Believe it or not there's a place that sells Beaver Tail if anyone is up to recreating this recipe. Sounds like it might approximate pork craklin's, but who knows? They have a cool public exhibit on the history of Baseball that runs through next year for those interested and are able to get to DC.
That is really neat that you got a behind the scenes tour, I love US history