I was watching a program on the History Channel about moonshine and the Prohibition Era and was wondering if the RRs hauled illegal liquor on a large scale during Prohibition.
I know of a story that Santa Fe would not ship liquor from Kansas to Oklahoma during that time. I am not sure of the reason.
Is there any other cases that you would know about? I am sure the RRs probably turned a blind eye at hauling it.
Will,
Considering that most ‘shine’ is locally made and locally distributed(via trunks of cars), a box car load would be rather easy to see, and be far outside the production capacity of even the Chicago brewers of the 30’s. Could it be done - maybe…
Jim
This page describes how it was done - shipping Booze and Beer via the railroads - Canada into the US. Very interesting read.
Booze Carrying Boxcars in Prohibition
Gil
There may have been situations as described in the link of Canadian alcohol being shipped into the US under false pretenses and distributed here, but it would have been very very rare in the grand scheme of things. Maybe one-one hundreth of 1% of illegal alcohol might have come in that way. I think the railroads, being federally regulated, would have had too much to lose to turn a blind eye to it, but it is possible as described that a boxcar that was intentionally mis-labelled might have gotten thru now and then.
I don’t know about the Kansas - Oklahoma thing, except that before and after Prohibition Kansas was noted for having many “dry” counties where you couldn’t buy and sell alcohol. That might have been tied into it somehow.
Many of the breweries that tried to stay in business during prohibition either expanded their product lines or they offered things like malt extract that, while it has a legit use in baking, was also a good starter for home brewed beer. Pabst and others had reefers painted to mention malt extracts and syrups. So what they hauled was perfectly legal but the ultimate purpose and intent was to wink at the law.
I suspect there was more unlawful liquor carried on passenger trains than in freight cars.
Dave Nelson
Dave Nelson wrote: “I suspect there was more unlawful liquor carried on passenger trains than in freight cars.”
The joint CN-CV-NH Montrealer between Montreal and New York City earned the nickname “The Bootlegger” during the prohibition years. Of course it was the passengers, not the railroads, who were responsible for this.
So long,
Andy
In March 1923, Martinez Constable Rogers, Concord Constable Ott, and Deputy Sheriff Call (love those poses) confiscated the still and monshine hidden in a barn on a northeastern Contra Costa County ranch. Messrs. Forble, Zanotta, and Grasso were arrested.
With the addition of a photographer, this would make a good static scene on a 1920s layout.
Mark
In many localities it was still legal to make beer and wine in limited quantities for personal use.
Mark
I remember being on an Amtrak train in the 1980s, and hearing an announcement that the lounges would stop serving liquor when the train crossed into Kansas. At the time, Kansas had a law banning the sale of alcoholic beverages except in private clubs. (My hosts in Kansas carried some kind of membership card that allowed them to buy drinks in restaurants, making them “clubs”.)
At the time of my visit, I believe liquor stores were state-owned.
I am told Kansas loosened up its liquor laws a few years later.
Yes, Kansas has loosened their liquor laws considerably in the last 25 years. About 5 years ago, they lifted a ban on buying liquor on Sundays. They left it up to the counties and local towns to adopt their own rules. Many towns and counties (including mine) ban the sale of any kind of liquor on Sundays.
The answer to that one is quite simple. Until well into the 1970s the entire state of Oklahoma was ‘dry.’ The closest one could get to legal alcohol was “3.2” beer except in private clubs, I’m not sure if those clubs were ‘legal’ but they did exist. Even after distilled spirits became legal on a local option basis in the 70’s, establishments in ‘dry’ areas sold memberships in their clubs for a nominal fee to anyone of age who came through the door. And yes, that practice still exists today in some states.
Prohibition had a number of odd quirks. Near-beer (non-alcoholic beer) could be made and sold. Of course, some folks bought it and spiked it with booze. Sacramental wine was still allowed to be made by certain vintners but they were licensed and regulated. The ingredients for making alcohol were freely sold, but Revenue agents were on the lookout for people buying unusually large amounts of sugar or malt or other things that were used in fermentation.
It was thought at that time that in some situations alcohol was good for certain conditions, so you could actually get a prescription for alcohol from your Dr. and get some “real” alcohol from your pharmacist - the old line about needing booze “for medicinal purposes” goes back to that.
There was also something in the law regarding at least some sovereign Indian reservations that allowed them to sell alcohol on the reservation. Apparently the old Mesaba Electric RR in NE Minnesota went thru a reservation where alcohol could be sold, and people would buy a bottle and tie a string to it and hang it out the window if an inspector entered the train when they left the reservation.
And of course as the fictional Elmer Gantry pointed out, it was only illegal to produce, sell or transport booze - not to drink it. [:)]
Interesting reading - good stuff, guys! [tup]
While the RR’s may not have legally carried Alcoholic Beverages during Prohibition,it probably wasn’t too far fetched for an enterprising bootlegger to sneak a load or two on a freight car.
Plus,remember that Canada and Mexico didn’t have Prohibition,so it’s possible that passengers on the Sunshine Special from Saint Louis-Mexico City to sneak a bottle or two of Jose Cuervo or Presidente over the border into Texas.
As Andy pointed out, it would be far easier for individuals to bring in alcohol - like making the round trip form NY City to Montreal and back - than to ‘sneak’ stuff in freight cars. Although not every car was checked, customs officials could open and inspect any car they chose to, to be sure the contents matched the bill of lading the railroads would be required to present at the border. However for passengers it would be pretty rare for anyone to question or ask to inspect someone’s luggage - again, the customs officials could, but unless they had a reasonable cause or suspicion it wasn’t likely to occur - so a suitcase in the baggage car with booze in it would probably go thru OK.
My guess is the amount of alcohol coming in by rail was pretty small compared to boats, either ocean ports or across rivers…and overall I imagine the highest pct. of illegal alcohol sold in the US was stuff made in the US and distributed locally by car or truck.
Nevada County, in northern California pretty much ignored Prohibition (as did almost everyone else, LOL!). My grandmother had a small still in the basement of her house in Nevada City, where she made ‘root beer’, as did many other people in the town, for family consumption. However, she made two kinds of ‘root beer’, one of which was pretty darned potent from what I understand. The bottles were marked with different colored ribbons to tell them apart. Red and green. The green, of course, was the ‘real stuff’ for the adults, LOL!
The main distribution point of illegal ‘hooch’ was the basement of the Catholic church in the nearby mountain town of Allegheney. To transport the liquor to the site, many of the Model T’s in Nevada County were outfitted with a second gas tank, my father’s car included. According to him, he made a weekly trip to Allegheney with his older brother during the–er–‘season’.
Evidently the Nevada County Narrow Gauge railroad was known for hauling spare ‘gas tanks’ between Nevada City and Colfax in boxcars for distribution in Placer county. But then it also hauled parts for slot machines which were set up and assembled in the back rooms of several Nevada City taverns (which somehow magically became ‘restaurants’ when the “Revenoors” were in town).
It must have been fun up there, back then! [:P]
Tom [:D]