Liquor running. It has a long history in our region.
As a result of prohibition in the United States, a chain of liquor warehouses was established in the Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Stocks of liquor running anywhere from 30 dollars to 100,000 dollars worth were kept in these warehouses. People from the United States would come over and buy this liquor to take back across the border. They took it as far south as Omaha and retailed it at enormous profits. This went on in 1920, 1921 and 1922 and when it first started, men most engaged in it were young chaps from the United States out of the army. Two warehouses in Estevan, two in Bienfait, one in Oxbow and one in Carnduff, Carievale and Gainsborough. These warehouses were called 'Boozoniums'. There was terrific traffic from Canada to the United States.
Another interesting fact of this era is that the involvement of the druggists. Druggists gave liquor for medical purposes but you had to have a doctor's prescription. You could get all the prescriptions you wanted but each one cost $2.00. The doctors and druggists had a thriving business.Prohibition has its own history in Manitoba, also.
From - Rum-Running Days
A regional liquor runner mentioned before here - Art Gould - was probably one of the fellows running liquor from the over-the-border warehouses down into the States...
The Prohibition Era is a particularly interesting period of history and one of my favorite areas of study. An interesting bit of trivia that many people are not aware of is that almost immediately after statehood in 1889 North Dakota became a "dry" state. By the time that national prohibition came to the USA in 1919, the local bootleggers already had many years of experience and a well developed network for smuggling.
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