Did You Know a Guy in Illinois Invented the Twinkie 92 Years Ago?
Don't tell me that great things can't originate in the state of Illinois. I can prove it with science as a very famous snack cake was invented in the Land of Lincoln almost 92 years ago.
Kudos to Only In Your State for including the fact that the Twinkie was invented in Illinois onto my radar. It's the tale of James Dewar who is the father of the Twinkie thanks to an idea he had in 1931. As the story goes, James was the manager of the Continental Baking Company plant in River Forest, Illinois. He had these spongy snack cakes that were filled with strawberries, but didn't know what to do with them when strawberries weren't in season. That led to a bit of creamy-filled goodness.
The Oak Park River Forest Museum estimates that 500 million Twinkies every single year. That is a heck of a lot of snack cakes and calories. I'm not judging though.
You might recall that the beloved Illinois-invented Twinkie almost became extinct back in 2012 when Hostess filed for bankruptcy. Fortunately, they were resurrected the following year and seem to be selling fine again. Whew.
It could be argued that Twinkies are now better than ever as you can now consume Twinkies Cereal. Finally.
If Twinkies are part of your life, you can know that they originated in Illinois thanks to James Dewar. The River Forest man made sure spongy cake will never be unused.
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