Illegal but Nobody Cared
Following Utah becoming “dry” in 1917 and before America’s entry into World War I, Ogden, Utah was an anthill of raucous activity. In 1920, President Wilson declared the country “dry.”
The 18th Amendment and Volstead Act began at a time when nearly every Ogden business was ostensibly connected to bootlegging.
When you meet soft-spoken Craig, he soon becomes a friend. By chance conversation, Craig told me about his grandma making homebrew in the barn when he was growing up in Utah.
Craig is too young to have lived during prohibition. Prohibition was legislated nationwide between 1920 and 1933, but Craig knows about its influence.
Idaho went “dry” in 1916 and new homebrew stills popped up near Utah’s northern border to supply the Idaho market. Once Utah became “dry,” bootleggers operated covertly while also increasing their production.
With World War I’s post financial slump, bootleg liquor was a tangible money maker. The ingredients were cheap. Vice here was at its peak and a stark contrast to Ogden’s unassuming beginnings as a small farming community.
The Volstead Act and Mann Act gave Federal agents authority to investigate [illegal] and enforce anti-vice laws. Prohibition turned otherwise honest people into lawbreakers
Craig gives a merry laugh reminiscing about his grandma’s [illegal] side hustle, “Prohibition turned my grandma into a lawbreaker and like her, most people ignored the law and those that imposed it.”
Crime fighting and the impossibility of enforcement created traction for prohibition repeal. Many farmers in a similar situation to Craig’s grandma, during prohibition (and long after its abolishment) made fruit flavored moonshine from produce peels and additional discarded fruit products. They sold their fermented beverage in canning jars.
In Utah, makers and suppliers often went undetected by law enforcement, as few outsiders suspected residents of the typically Mormon community to capitalize from the sale of alcoholic beverage. Craig chuckles as he tells this.
As we talked, Craig is animated and perhaps slightly embarrassed, but what an interesting bit of government and ancestor history he shared.
