Do any of you remember when Yosemite Sam would burst through the saloon doors and tell the bartender to "Give me a sasparilly and make it snappy"?
When I did some online searching it indicated that bark from sassafras tree roots was not used to any great extent in North America to produce "sarsaparilla" or "sasparilla" (there are two versions of the word depending on local use) because of the great difficulty in obtaining usable amounts for large production. There is a
Sarsaparilla vine that grows in Central America that is used for many purposes including making the carbonated beverage with the same name. I don't know about the "roots" (excuse the pun, but I did it on purpose -- "origin" just seemed to lack spice) of Root Beer -- maybe at one time it was made with some version of Sarsaparilla or Sassafras, but today's beverages that are called root beer use artificial flavorings as far as I can tell. Many many years ago when I was into fermenting, I made a batch of Sarsaparilla soda. It was OK, but a bit low on carbonation and a slightly more subdued taste than root beer soda.
"Fugitive"? John, is this is a spelling error or do you have a 'shine operation going on in the woods among the sassafras trees?