Uncle Sam Brewery Mural

Troy, New York

Uncle Sam is an adept politician: he can be whatever you want him to be. This is clearly true in his hometown of Troy, where America's mascot has had his name and image attached to everything from a health food store to a micro-brewery.

The Uncle Sam Brewery is worth mentioning for its large mural, painted in the 1990s, of a vigorous Uncle Sam at the wheel of a sailing ship. We guessed that it was probably a reference to Samuel Wilson ferrying his barrels of meat down the river to the troops during the War of 1812, the event that supposedly turned Samuel into Uncle Sam.

We wanted to ask the owner of Uncle Sam Brewery about our theory -- but Uncle Sam Brewery no longer exists. The owner kept the mural, dumped Uncle Sam in 2008, and renamed the business after himself.