I'm thinking back to the pioneer days when all the settlers were crossing the frontier. I would think that each family had a sour dough starter. It was probably a means for survival, lol.
It's sad to think that in this day and age, if your starter goes bad you can't go to a family member or a friend and they would give you some. No one really makes sour dough any more. It's a shame.

RE: "I'm thinking back to the pioneer days when all the settlers were crossing the frontier. "

Sourdough is still HUGE in Alaska- precisely because of these frontier days that you describe. Afterall- the frontier days aren't that distant to many Alaskans living a remote lifestyle in a harsh clime, and in many regions, it still IS those days- Ha! In fact, sourdough is such a part of The Last Frontier State that the actual term "Sourdough" is used to signify a true time-tested "pioneer" of the state- or someone who's lived there a long time.

A quick sidenote: One of my favorite restaurants in Anchorage is the "Sourdough Mining Company". Here's a link if you'd care to check out their scrumptious meat & potatoes/ribs/seafood/steakhouse menu chock-full of Alaskan classics! (click on the "menus" tab at the top, then select catering menu, lunch menu, dinner menu, etc. I always took visiting friends & family there for a "real" Alaskan dining experience!)

Sourdough Mining Company | Anchorage, Alaska

I watched one of those "How it's made" shows on the history channel a few years ago and they were doing San Fransisco sourdough. They had the head bread guy somewhere there in SF explaining how their starter was a couple hundred years old or some such thing.

This episode is what got me sold on trying to make my own starter. He explained that if you took a truckload of this starter and brought it say, to Manhattan it would do you no good. For a couple weeks sure, you would have real SF tasting sourdough but eventually the local yeasts and bacteria would find their way into it and completely change the flavor.

I think that "localness" of the yeast is the most appealing part of the entire thing. Anything you can make that very few can is always a plus. Doesn't matter how good a cook say, Cathy is, no matter what she does, she cannot make the same tasting bread as me, and vice versa when it comes to the sourdough because she lives in a different area.

Oh absolutely IC, I could not agree with you more!

After discussing it with Jafo I am going to try my hand at it. What I have decided upon is to let my bowl of starter sit on a table in our screened in room outside to catch the yeast. I am even going to drive over to a place called Cave Spring, Georgia and draw up some natural spring water that bubbles up there [all the locals come to the spring and fill up gallon jugs of fresh water] I am now so excited to see what the results will be. I am even going to buy a new dish towel that has never been washed in bleached water to cover the dough with so that the bleach residue in my towel covering the dough does not impede the natural yeast. Wish me luck guys! I will let you know, GOSH I LOVE SOUR DOUGH BREAD!!!! This will be a real treat for Christmas. Thank you everone for all the great in-put, your sharing has helped me loads!