%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en John R. Smith http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/john-r-smith <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">John R. Smith</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2020-07-06T16:17:29-06:00" title="Monday, July 6, 2020 - 16:17" class="datetime">Mon, 07/06/2020 - 16:17</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/john-r-smith" data-a2a-title="John R. Smith"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fjohn-r-smith&amp;title=John%20R.%20Smith"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>John R. Smith (1860–1927) was Colorado’s chief state prohibition officer during the years 1923–25. He successfully rooted out black-market alcohol crime but received harsh public criticism for his often-unconstitutional methods. He brought his friends on “booze” raids and did not shy away from using Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members to brutally enforce dry laws. Newspapers called his vigilante groups “purity squads.” These groups diminished public trust in law enforcement. While his time as state prohibition officer was short, Smith left a lasting mark on the state’s history, contributing to the public’s distrust of Progressive politics and morality-based law practices.</p> <h2>Early Prohibition Enforcement</h2> <p>Little is known about John R. Smith’s early life. He first appears in the historical record as a government internal revenue officer for Colorado, often dealing with cattle ranchers and agriculture. By 1919, three years after statewide alcohol prohibition passed, he was accompanying local police officers in alcohol raids on boardinghouses around Denver. By 1921 local newspapers began referring to Smith as a federal dry agent as his reach spread to Colorado Springs.</p> <p>During the state election year of 1922, Smith visited Western Slope towns such as Durango and Montrose on behalf of Denver banker and Democratic gubernatorial candidate William E. Sweet. Newspapers referred to Smith as Sweet’s “personal representative.” Both Sweet and Smith were Democrats in favor of making Colorado a “bone-dry” state, and Sweet employed Smith after admiring his work in prohibition-related arrests. Sweet also admired Smith’s visible campaigns against alcohol, such as publicly smashing seized liquor on the steps of the State Capitol with temperance groups such as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the Anti-Saloon League.</p> <h2>Chief State Prohibition Officer</h2> <p>When Sweet was elected governor of Colorado in November 1922, he immediately named Smith the state’s chief prohibition officer. Smith had no formal training, but the office had a history of being used for political favors. Governor Sweet appointed William Byron and James Melrose as Smith’s deputies. Smith brought his son Jack on raids, though he was not an officer. Melrose occasionally brought his son too, and the gang formed a semilegal vigilante group of law enforcers who called themselves the “Melrose-Smith Detective Agency,” as well as the “Melrose-Smith Investigating Bureau.” They operated out of an office at 828 Seventeenth Street (Boston Building) in Denver.</p> <p>Smith also had an office at the State Capitol, alongside other members of the state prohibition forces. Newspapers referred to Smith and his gang as a “purity squad.” When federal prohibition officers became skeptical of his authority, Smith defended his appointment and referred them to Sweet. The purity squad was most often at odds with federal prohibition director John F. Vivian and federal enforcement officer Robert A. Kohloss, who focused on individual arrests of bootleggers rather than mass raids. Kohloss disagreed with the publicity Smith’s raids garnered and his public destruction of alcohol. Smith, in turn, criticized Kohloss for letting alcohol evidence “disappear” from the prohibition offices.</p> <h2>Enforcing Prohibition</h2> <p>Soon after Smith’s appointment in January 1923, arrests for liquor-law violations came pouring into Colorado courts. Northwest Colorado newspapers claimed that Smith and his deputies had accomplished more in one month than their predecessor’s crew of fifteen had in a year. By July the The Denver Post boasted that Smith and his men had cut the state’s liquor supply by 20,000 gallons each month.</p> <p>Smith’s purity squad focused heavily on rural mining and industrial towns to make arrests, which also meant that Smith concentrated his attention on immigrant and working-class communities. The most notable raids occurred in Trinidad, Cripple Creek, Pueblo, Silverton, Durango, Longmont, and Denver’s Globeville neighborhood. These raids were never small operations; newspapers frequently reported that Smith and his men seized thousands of gallons during single raids in mining towns, often arresting up to twenty-five people.</p> <p>Smith became known for his vigilante-style tactics, which included breaking down doors with axes, digging up backyards with shovels, and arresting suspects by any means necessary, sometimes with up to thirty men. Lawsuits from across the state charged that Smith’s purity squad entered private homes and businesses without warrants. Besides private homes, popular targets included dance halls, soft-drink parlors, warehouses, barns, and other buildings with a reputation for making or selling booze. Once in a building, the purity squad would prevent anyone from leaving and sometimes tied people to chairs, insulting and whipping them until they confessed the location of alcohol. Busting moonshiners became a sort of sport-like activity for Smith’s purity squad. The governor publicly congratulated the men for their hard work, giving credibility to their tactics.</p> <p>For several years into the state prohibition experiment, it was common for judges and law enforcement officials to overlook women’s involvement in illegal booze production, sale, and consumption. Smith, however, quickly saw that women were taking advantage of new opportunities in the black market and arrested them too. Nearly half of Smith’s reported arrests involved women.</p> <p>Smith was also known for recruiting local KKK members for liquor raids, though it is unclear whether he was a member. On New Year’s Eve, 1923, Smith used “every available man in Denver” to patrol the city’s streets and dance halls, arresting anyone seen with alcohol on sight. The patrols consisted of both officers and civilians, with some reports indicating that members of the KKK were also involved. These patrols became commonplace during Smith’s service even as several newspapers condemned them as unconstitutional. Both the Democratic mayor of Denver, Benjamin Stapleton, and the chief of police, William Candlish, were members of the KKK, and supported Smith in his endeavors. Governing forces held illegal booze in such contempt that extralegal efforts to stop its production and consumption were allowed, even encouraged. Alcohol’s cultural association with marginalized communities in Colorado, such as immigrants and Catholics, provided a convenient excuse for policing bodies to exercise social control over them.</p> <h2>Reactions</h2> <p>On November 14, 1923, Smith and his deputies faced the first real consequences for their behavior. The state attorney general deemed the appointments of both Smith’s and Melrose’s sons illegal, and Smith risked losing his job if he continued to take them on raids. This, however, did not stop Smith’s son Jack from continuing to join raids through December.</p> <p>Week after week, headlines praised Smith and his purity squad for seizing hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of booze, each article claiming the newest bust was larger than the last. Yet the general distrust that Coloradans had for Smith’s quasi-legal lawmen increased with each raid. Locals were under no illusions that Smith was already abusing his power and knew his claims about the amount of alcohol he seized were often fabricated or exaggerated.</p> <p>While countless lawsuits mounted against Smith and his men, the only time he personally faced legal action was after an attack he made on one of his own officers. In September 1924, prohibition officer Robert A. Grund filed charges against Smith with the Civil Service Commission, claiming assault and battery. The commission discharged Smith on December 30, 1924, though his two deputies stayed on the force.</p> <p>After Smith’s dismissal, his predecessor and fourteen former officers were charged with corruption. Clearly, Colorado law enforcement was deeply corrupt and abused its power while enforcing prohibition. These charges and the open affiliation of state prohibition enforcement with the KKK only fueled the fire of local Coloradans to eventually repeal prohibition in 1933.</p> <h2>Later Life and Legacy</h2> <p>In 1925 newly elected governor and Ku Klux Klan member Clarence Morley appointed Lewis N. Scherf as chief state prohibition officer. Meanwhile, Smith returned to his role as a tax officer dealing with cattle ranches, an obvious step down from his headline-generating career that rocked Colorado for two years. He passed away February 1, 1927, at Colorado General Hospital after suffering a “nervous attack” three weeks prior.</p> <p>During his role as chief state prohibition officer, John R. Smith became a notorious figurehead of Colorado’s corrupt legal and political system. Receiving more publicity than any other leader in the fight against alcohol, Smith’s extralegal actions, abuse of power, and open utilization of KKK members for booze raids created immense distrust between Colorado citizens and the state law-enforcement system.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/richthofen-ted" hreflang="und">Richthofen, Ted</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/prohibition" hreflang="en">prohibition</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/john-r-smith" hreflang="en">john r smith</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/prohibition-colorado-0" hreflang="en">prohibition colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/police" hreflang="en">police</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/law-enforcement-history" hreflang="en">law enforcement history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/alcohol" hreflang="en">alcohol</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ku-klux-klan" hreflang="en">Ku Klux Klan</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/1920s" hreflang="en">1920s</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p><em>Aurora Democrat</em>, “Crisp Colorado News,” vol. 15, no. 14 (January 18, 1924).</p> <p><em>Boulder Camera</em>, “Maximum Penalty Meted to Joe Varra by Judge Ingram,” April 31, 1923.</p> <p><em>Craig Empire (Moffat County)</em>, “Here and There About the Town,” vol. 5, no. 22, June 26, 1915; “Neighborhood Gossip,” no. 9 (March 26, 1919).</p> <p><em>Cripple Creek Times-Record</em>, “Four Stills and Hundred Gallons of Whiskey Seized by State Prohibition Men,” September 22, 1924.</p> <p><em>Daily Journal (Telluride)</em>, “A Favor to Be Returned,” August 30, 1922; “ ‘Big Mac’ Quits Prohibition Job in Denver Today,” April 13, 1923; “Untitled,” July 19, 1923.</p> <p><em>Denver Express</em>, “Job in Question: Status of Dry Agent in Dispute,” December 27, 1923; “Dry Officials Still at War,” January 5, 1924.</p> <p><em>Denver News</em>, “State Dry Agents Lose Month’s Salary by Lawyer’s Ruling,” November 14, 1923; “State Dry Agent Rapped by Judge for Alleged Raid Without Warrant,” January 9, 1924.</p> <p>{PM: Appears again below.}</p> <p><em>The Denver Post</em>, “Sweet Takes Part in State Raid Upon Booze-Making Plant,” May 12, 1923; “Denver’s Liquor Supply Cut 20,000 Gallons Each Month by State Dry Officers,” July 10, 1923; “Denver Set to Greet New Year With Parties and Night Watches Despite Edict of Weather Man,” December 31, 1923; “Four Persons Are Jailed When State Dry Officers Stage Cleanup in Aurora,” March 11, 1924; “Pocket Still Discovered by Agents in Raid on Home of Denver Woman,” July 10, 1924; “Twelve Policemen Are Dismissed, Two Fined and One Exonerated” May 22, 1925; “Scherf Suspended Pending Hearing of Graft Charge,” September 8, 1934.</p> <p><em>Durango Herald</em>, “Hardboiled Methods at Law Enforcement at Silverton Breeds No One Any Good,” July 24, 1924.</p> <p><em>Fort Collins Courier</em>, “Booze Worth $25,000 and 2 Men Taken” June 5, 1923; “Five Seeking Smith’s Post as Dry Agent,” July 6, 1923.</p> <p><em>Herald Democrat (Leadville, Lake County)</em>, “Ask Hamrock to Resign,” January 12, 1923; “Thousands of Gallons of Mash Seized by Dry Agents,” May 4, 1924; “Prohibition Officer Resigns State Job,” October 25, 1924.</p> <p><em>Longmont-Times-Call</em>, “Boulder Bootlegger Files $8,000 Damage Suit Against State Officers in Searching Home Without Warrant,” January 10, 1924.</p> <p><em>Loveland Reporter</em>, “New Prohibition Agent,” no. 273 (July 2, 1921).</p> <p>Melrose Scrapbook, Western History and Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library, n.d.</p> <p><em>Pueblo Star Journal</em>, “They All Love Publicity; Even State Dry Law Director Will Stage a Raid for the Movies,” July 25, 1923.</p> <p><em>Raymer Enterprise (Weld County)</em>, “Pithy News from All Parts of Colorado,” vol. 12, no. 9 (July 7, 1921).</p> <p><em>Record Journal of Douglas County</em>, “Notice,” March 1, 1918.</p> <p><em>Republican-Advocate (Sterling, Logan County)</em>, “14 Are Arrested in Dry Raids in Silverton Monday,” vol. 39, no. 44 (July 24, 1924).</p> <p>Ted Richthofen, “<a href="http://digital.auraria.edu/IR00000098/00001">A People’s History of Alcohol Prohibition in Colorado: Labor, Class, Gender, and Moral Reform 1916–1933</a>” (BA honors thesis, Metropolitan State University of Denver, 2019).</p> <p><em>Steamboat Pilot</em>, “Oak Creek Raided: State Dry Agents Swooped Down on Mining Town Last week,” July 14, 1923.</p> <p><em>Trinidad Chronicle</em>, “State Dry Officers May Be Charged With Violence by Two Local Attorneys,” September 10, 1923.</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Betty L. Alt and Sandra K. Wells, <em>Ban the Booze: Prohibition in the Rockies </em>(N.P: Dog Ear Publishing, 2013).</p> <p>Lisa McGirr, <em>The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State</em> (New York: W. W. Norton, 2016).</p> <p>Daniel Okrent, <em>Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition</em> (New York: Scribner, 2010).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 06 Jul 2020 22:17:29 +0000 yongli 3362 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Prohibition http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/prohibition <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Prohibition</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--3296--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--3296.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/prohibition-still-near-greeley"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Prohibition-Media-1_0.jpg?itok=nrzmLm-W" width="1000" height="592" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/prohibition-still-near-greeley" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Prohibition, still near Greeley</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A group of men wearing suits and hats stand near a large still and barrels of liquor near Greeley (Weld County), Colorado. One man leans his arm on a pile of sacks with labels reading: "100 lbs, Cerelose, Product Refining Co., New York, U.S.A."</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2020-06-09T14:51:18-06:00" title="Tuesday, June 9, 2020 - 14:51" class="datetime">Tue, 06/09/2020 - 14:51</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/prohibition" data-a2a-title="Prohibition"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fprohibition&amp;title=Prohibition"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Alcohol prohibition in Colorado (1916–33) was a <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/progressive-era-colorado"><strong>Progressive Era</strong></a> experiment, based on reform-minded and religious sentiments, to completely ban the sale and transport of alcohol. While the intention of reformers was to reduce violence, drunkenness, and crime, outlawing alcohol instead created more issues than had been anticipated.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Prohibition in Colorado predated national prohibition by four years, and ended only months before national prohibition was also repealed. As it was elsewhere, the prohibition era in Colorado was marked by a sharp increase in organized crime, public flouting of laws, black markets, law enforcement and government corruption, and a growing distrust of Progressive politics. Despite the failure of prohibition as a movement, it introduced the state to new social and economic opportunities for women and fundamentally changed the way the public drank alcohol.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Origins</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>During the <a href="/article/colorado-gold-rush"><strong>Colorado Gold Rush</strong></a> of 1858–59, most mining camps and early towns used saloons as places for government, suppliers, grocers, and other official functions. Later, saloons served as locations for labor union meetings, money caches, and places where immigrant miners could buy foreign-language newspapers. They were also hot spots for gambling, boxing, and prostitution.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Because the rough-and-tumble saloon scene was a feature of its early communities, Colorado soon saw a push for alcohol prohibition. Legal and moral arguments for the control of liquor existed as early as the mid-1860s, when Colorado was still a territory. Conscious of the region’s saloon culture, some towns were established as totally dry from the get-go, including the agrarian communities of <a href="/article/greeley"><strong>Greeley</strong></a> (<strong>Union Colony</strong>) and <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/longmont-0"><strong>Longmont</strong></a> (<a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/chicago-colorado-colony"><strong>Chicago-Colorado Colony</strong></a>) in the early 1870s. However, the idea of turning the entire state dry did not gain traction until the end of the century. A state law passed in 1889 outlawed the sale or delivery of alcohol to American Indians. Further efforts to ban alcohol in the state followed this precedent and often corresponded with antiurban, anti-immigrant sentiments.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Building Support</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In the late 1800s and early 1900s, reform-minded Progressives often saw alcohol as the source of many problems. There was a popular belief among prohibitionists that alcohol was a slippery slope: one sip could lead to a lifetime of physical and financial ruin. They believed that alcohol consumption led to labor unrest and moral degeneracy. Reformers saw saloon culture as a product of urbanization and immigration, and hoped to keep Colorado free from what they called “un-American” activities. Several leaders of the <strong>Women’s Christian Temperance Union</strong> (WCTU) were also prominent members of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ku-klux-klan-colorado"><strong>Ku Klux Klan</strong></a> (KKK), and their stance on banning alcohol was based in strong anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic sentiments. They felt as if their frontier state were being overrun by unskilled foreign laborers whose taste for drink made them dangerous and unsettled.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Many of the antialcohol Progressives were also women with newly acquired voting rights, and they were especially concerned with drinkers and gamblers who left their families impoverished. Colorado men opposed the 1877 referendum on <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/womens-suffrage-movement"><strong>women’s suffrage</strong></a> out of fear that women would vote for prohibition. By the time women gained the right to vote in 1893, many men had changed their stance and had taken up the cause of prohibition as a quick fix for society’s ills. It was no longer a gendered issue but, rather, a unifying Progressive issue.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As a step toward full prohibition, antialcohol Progressive voters first worked to make drinking a male-only activity, reinforced by strict Victorian ideas of womanhood. These sentiments led to a 1901 law that prohibited women from entering saloons, working in areas that served alcohol, or purchasing alcohol. When saloon owners challenged the law, arguing that it was at odds with women’s suffrage, it was upheld by the state and federal Supreme Courts.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1907 the antiliquor campaigns of the WCTU and the <strong>Anti-Saloon League</strong> led to a state local-option law for prohibition, allowing cities to vote on whether to go dry. By 1909 <a href="/article/colorado-springs"><strong>Colorado Springs</strong></a>, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fort-collins"><strong>Fort Collins</strong></a>, <strong>Aurora</strong>, and Greeley used this law to ban alcohol within a mile of their borders.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The biggest divide over the legality of alcohol was between rural towns and urban areas (including mining camps). Besides <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>, the strongest antiprohibition counties included <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/teller-county"><strong>Teller</strong></a>, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/mineral-county"><strong>Mineral</strong></a>, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/la-plata-county"><strong>La Plata</strong></a>, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ouray-county"><strong>Ouray</strong></a>, <a href="/article/chaffee-county"><strong>Chaffee</strong></a>, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/alamosa-county"><strong>Alamosa</strong></a>, and <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/garfield-county"><strong>Garfield</strong></a>. All of these counties were home to major industrial centers, especially mining and <strong>smelting</strong> operations. They were also home to larger numbers of non-Protestants as well as higher numbers of immigrants than lived in the counties voting to go dry.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Prohibition Takes Effect</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>During the years leading up to prohibition, the WCTU, KKK, and Anti-Saloon League held several public demonstrations, toured the state with their campaign, spoke directly with lawmakers, campaigned door to door, and maintained a strong public presence to demand the banning of any and all alcohol. By 1914 the WCTU gathered enough signatures to get a prohibition referendum on the ballot. Donations from industrial leaders such as John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who gave large contributions to the WCTU and the Anti-Saloon League, aided the prohibitionist campaign, while a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment at the start of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-world-war-i"><strong>World War I</strong></a> stoked suspicions that German American brewers were leading an anti-American conspiracy. The culture of alcohol remained strong in Colorado, but there was not an organized campaign to keep it legal, and it was instead overpowered by the famous Progressive drive to “organize and agitate.” Called Measure 2, the prohibition referendum passed on November 3 with 52 percent of the vote.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On January 1, 1916, statewide prohibition of alcohol went into effect, four years before the federal Volstead Act brought prohibition to the entire country. The Volstead Act used language similar to the earlier Colorado prohibition referendum. For example, both defined “intoxicating liquor” as any beverage containing more than 0.5 percent alcohol. Both laws also banned the sale and transport of all alcohol, even for religious purposes. Thousands of breweries and saloons went out of business in Colorado, and many others scrambled to convert to soft drink parlors. By 1917 statewide prohibition had closed as many as 1,615 saloons and 17 breweries in the Denver area alone.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Enforcement and Corruption</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As in most states during prohibition, the problems of enforcing an alcohol ban became obvious within the first year of the law. Aside from closing cultural hot spots and other businesses that served and sold alcohol, dry laws quickly proved difficult to enforce, especially on individual citizens. Early on, Governor <strong>William Ellery Sweet</strong> appointed “dry agents” who routinely broke civil liberty laws in order to enforce prohibition. Colorado also became home to corrupt law enforcement practices. For example, many soft drink parlors still sold alcohol and simply gave free liquor to officers to stay in business. In addition, caches of liquor taken in raids on speakeasies and stills would often disappear from police evidence rooms.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Members of the governor’s “purity squads,” as newspapers called them, had an ambiguous legal status. These squads were often made up of men not formally trained as police officers. According to various newspaper reports, they viewed themselves as “crusaders” seeking to destroy the “demon drink.” These moral enforcers were known to frequently bust down the doors of people’s houses without warrants and arrest anyone on the premises, with or without evidence that they had been drinking. Suspected drinkers or bootleggers were sometimes tied to chairs and beaten, or otherwise publicly humiliated.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>This activity prompted many complaints against the state’s Chief Prohibition Officer, <strong>John R. Smith</strong>, and his vigilante groups (often composed of members of the KKK). Smith was frequently sued for violating civil liberties and using extreme force, specifically against the Italian American and Mexican American communities. Progressive judge <strong>Benjamin Lindsey</strong>, who originally supported prohibition, openly expressed his disdain for how marginalized communities were targeted with brutal enforcement and given unfair trials.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Lindsey also lamented that wealthy Coloradans seemed immune to the dry laws. Indeed, the wealthy drinkers of Colorado worked with corrupt cops to ensure that they always had as much liquor as they wanted. Newspapers gawked at various instances of police eagerly partying with rich people, often sipping on liquor seized from poorer communities.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Organized Crime</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As a result of alcohol prohibition, Colorado saw the rapid growth of organized <strong>crime families</strong> in the 1920s and early 1930s. Notorious gangsters appeared all around Colorado—including Joe Berry, Joe Roma, Joe Varra, and Sam and <strong>Pete Carlino</strong>—each of whom made names for themselves through the bootleg liquor trade. Prohibition laws did not decrease the demand for alcohol, so the market for illegal booze skyrocketed. In 1924, during a series of prohibition sweeps in the Italian American community of <strong>Globeville</strong>, at least eighteen bootleggers were arrested over the course of a week, and more than half of them were women.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Opportunities for Women</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Having previously been barred from the legal alcohol trade, women in Colorado took full advantage of new opportunities in black-market booze. They participated in both the consumption and creation of alcohol at unprecedented rates. During prohibition, Coloradans experienced a new diversity within spaces where people drank alcohol. Women and men of all ages now enjoyed an activity that had been primarily male.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Women held every sort of illegal job pertaining to booze during prohibition, from running kitchen stills to peddling booze, tallying sales records, and smuggling alcohol within and beyond borders. When police were tipped off to moonshine stills, they often found women operating them from their kitchens, a traditionally acceptable realm for women that served as a convenient cover.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Women also benefited from new opportunities in law enforcement. In the early 1920s, four women in Denver were appointed as deputy sheriffs to crack down on the alcohol trade. Throughout prohibition, several other police departments throughout the state benefited from hiring their first female officers. <strong>Edith Barker</strong>, a member of the WCTU, became Denver’s first accredited female police officer on May 2, 1920.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Repeal</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By the late 1920s, Coloradans seemed as eager to end prohibition as they had been to start it. In 1926 Colorado became the first state to hold a referendum calling for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. The referendum failed. <strong><em>The Denver Post</em></strong> hosted its own “Rocky Mountain Referendum on Prohibition,” in which the newspaper printed its own ballots asking readers whether they were for or against the continuation of prohibition. The consensus from 110,000 newspaper ballots was that Coloradans favored repeal. Because anyone could send in a newspaper ballot, <em>The</em> <em>Post </em>did not account for people who could not vote. This factor suggests that there was a strong sentiment to repeal prohibition in the state but that eligible voters still supported temperance after rejecting the official referendum.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After Colorado’s referendum, several other states, mainly in New England, began to agitate for repeal of prohibition. Soon several western states—including Arizona, New Mexico, and California—joined the call for repeal. Raymond Humphreys, chief investigator for the state district attorney’s office in Colorado, opined that “prohibition spawned corruption in law enforcement that undermined public confidence in the law as a whole.” By 1928 more than 12,000 liquor-violation cases were filed in the Denver courts, but only half of them had been heard. Clearly, the law had become a burden on the state’s executive and judicial branches.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In November 1932, Colorado voted once more on the repeal of prohibition, and this time repeal received 67 percent of the vote. Starting April 7, 1933, beer with a maximum alcohol content of 3.2 percent by volume could be legally sold in the state, though federal prohibition was still in effect nationwide. This loophole meant that beer could be bought and sold in Colorado, but it was illegal to travel with or ship it across state lines. Later that same year, the US Congress approved a constitutional amendment to repeal prohibition. By December 5, 1933, thirty-six states, including Colorado, had ratified the Twenty-first Amendment, repealing national prohibition.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>According to the <strong><em>Rocky Mountain News</em></strong>, beer sales alone made the newly revived alcohol industry more than $200,000 (roughly $4 million today) on the first day of statewide repeal. Equipment manufacturers, laborers, and railroads all benefited from the end of prohibition. The <em>News </em>anticipated that in Denver alone, more than 1,000 retailers would be issued liquor licenses during April 1933.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As the industry revived, alcohol quickly became a part of the public lives of Coloradans again. Former Colorado breweries returned to beer production, including the <strong>Tivoli Brewing Company</strong> in Denver and <strong>Coors</strong> in <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/golden"><strong>Golden</strong></a>, which had relied on producing other products (such as porcelain and nonalcoholic beverages) until prohibition was repealed. Meanwhile, mobsters who had profited from the illegal status of alcohol had the rug ripped out from under them. They were eliminated by legal and regulated competition within a few months. No longer did the law prevent women and American Indians from entering places that sold alcohol, as the Twenty-first Amendment also removed prohibitive laws that targeted individual groups of people.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Since prohibition took legal hold on the state between 1916 and 1933, Colorado has thoroughly reclaimed its saloon roots through the tradition of crafting and imbibing alcoholic beverages. As a state, Colorado currently hosts more than 400 established breweries, including famous national brands such as Coors, <strong>New Belgium</strong>, <strong>Left Hand</strong>, <strong>O’Dell</strong>, and <strong>Breckenridge</strong>. It is the top US state in microbreweries per capita, and in 2019 Coloradans voted craft beer as their state’s most iconic drink. Colorado is also home to vibrant spirit industry (including Stranahan’s, Montoya, Woody Creek, and Laws), as well as a celebrated wine industry based largely in the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/grand-junction"><strong>Grand Valley</strong></a>.   </p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/richthofen-ted" hreflang="und">Richthofen, Ted</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/prohibition" hreflang="en">prohibition</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/prohibition-colorado" hreflang="en">prohibition in colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/alcohol" hreflang="en">alcohol</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/saloons" hreflang="en">saloons</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/womens-christian-temperance-union" hreflang="en">womens christian temperance union</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/temperance" hreflang="en">temperance</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/cannabis" hreflang="en">cannabis</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/edith-barker" hreflang="en">edith barker</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-police" hreflang="en">denver police</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ku-klux-klan" hreflang="en">Ku Klux Klan</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/crime-families" hreflang="en">crime families</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/carlino" hreflang="en">carlino</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bootlegging" hreflang="en">bootlegging</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bootleggers" hreflang="en">bootleggers</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/speakeasies" hreflang="en">speakeasies</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/1920s" hreflang="en">1920s</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/beer" hreflang="en">beer</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/wine" hreflang="en">wine</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/spirits" hreflang="en">spirits</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/craft-beer" hreflang="en">craft beer</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Robert Annand, <em>A Study of the Prohibition Situation in Denver</em> (MA thesis, University of Denver, 1932).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>CF&amp;I Industrial Bulletin, “The End of the Saloon at CF&amp;I Properties”, vol. 1, no. 2 (December 22, 1915).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>John Whiteclay Chambers II, <em>The Tyranny of Change: America in the Progressive Era, 1890–1920</em> (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ernest Hurst Cherrington, <em>Standard Encyclopedia of the Alcohol Problem</em> (Westerville, OH: American Issue Publishing Company, 1925).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Rick Clyne, <em>Coal People: Life in Southern Colorado’s Company Towns, 1890–1930</em> (Denver: Colorado Historical Society, 1999).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Stanley Coben, <em>Rebellion Against Victorianism: The Impetus for Cultural Change in 1920s America</em> (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Colorado General Assembly, “<a href="http://www.leg.state.co.us/lcs/ballothistory.nsf/">Ballot Issue History</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Colorado National Guard, <em>The Military Occupation of the Coal Strike Zone of Colorado, 1913–1914</em> (Denver: Smith-Brooks Printing Company, 1914).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Colorado Springs Gazette</em>, “Rum Runners, in Jail Here, Profess Innocence of Crime,” October 13, 1924; “Olsen Sent to Prison on Rum Conviction,” January 22, 1915.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Colorado.com, “<a href="https://www.colorado.com/articles/colorado-breweries-defining-craft">Colorado Breweries: Defining the Craft</a>,” updated June 17, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Cornell University Law Library, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/192/108"><em>DANIEL CRONIN v. FRANK ADAMS</em></a>, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Cripple Creek Times-Record</em>, “Four Stills and Hundred Gallons of Whiskey Seized by State Prohibition Men,” September 22, 1924.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Daily Times (Longmont)</em>, “Woman Arrested in Booze Raid at Boulder Will Be Tried, Says J. E. Kirkbride,” vol. 33, no. 217, August 26, 1927.<br />&#13; <em>Denver Express,</em> “Job in Question: Status of Dry Agent in Dispute,” December 27, 1923.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Denver News,</em> “Three Are Arrested in State Dry Raid: Prohibition Charge Faces Owner of Italian Gardens Following Liquor Seizure,” December 10, 1923; “State Dry Agent Rapped by Judge for Alleged Raid Without Warrant,” January 9, 1924; “State Officers Jail Seven in Rum Raids: Hotel Proprietress and Clerk Arrested After Alleged Wild Party in Room,” January 10, 1924; “Anti-Rum Societies Aid State Officers Destroying Liquor,” March 19, 1924.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>The Denver Post</em>, “Liquor Sales Under New Law,” March 3, 1915; “Denver Policewoman Uses Jiu Jitsu to Rout Mashers,” March 6, 1921; “Woman Arrested as Bootlegger,” January 22, 1923; “Booze Raid Disturbs Revel of 200 Youths and Girls,” August 6, 1923; “Pocket Still Discovered by Agents in Raid on Home of Denver Woman,” July 10, 1924; “Wild Parties of Police With Women and Liquor Are Learned of by May,” April 21, 1925; “Wets Are Victorious In Posts Referendum,” February 23, 1926; “Pete Carlino Is Found Murdered on Lonely Road Near Pueblo,” September 14, 1931; “Denver Beer Drinkers on 3.2 Spree With Old-Time Saloons Open Again,” April 7, 1933; “National Prohibition Repealed,” November 8, 1933.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Denver Times</em>, “Women Barred From Saloons”, July 27, 1901.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Durango Herald</em>, “Hardboiled Methods at Law Enforcement at Silverton Breeds No One Any Good,” July 24, 1924.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Fort Collins Courier</em>, “Judge Lindsey Urges Prosecution of Rich Booze Law Violators,” October 8, 1921; “Five Seeking Smith’s Post as Dry Agent,” July 6, 1923.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Phil Goodstein, <em>Robert Speer’s Denver, 1904–1920</em> (Denver: New Social Publications, 2004).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>James Hansen, “<a href="https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2018/ColoradoMagazine_v50n1_Winter1973.pdf">Moonshine and Murder</a>,” <em>Colorado Magazine</em> (Winter 1973).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Hangovercure.org, “<a href="https://hangovercure.org/guides/most-popular-drink-by-state/">America’s Favorite Iconic State Drink</a>,” December 17, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Katherine Harris, “Feminism and Temperance Reform in the Boulder WCTU”, <em>Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies</em> 4, no. 2 (Summer 1979).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Herald Democrat (Leadville)</em>, “Women’s Rights: To Drink in Saloon to Be Heard Before U.S. Supreme Court,” July 31, 1902; “Their Life Belts Loaded With Booze,” August 1, 1919.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>R. Todd Laugen, <em>The Gospel of Progressivism: Moral Reform and Labor War in Colorado, 1900–1930</em>, (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2010).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Harry G. Levine and Craig Reinarman, “From Prohibition to Regulation: Lessons From Alcohol Policy for Drug Policy,” <em>Milbank Quarterly</em> 69, no. 3 (1991).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Carol Mattingly, <em>Well-Tempered Women: Nineteenth-Century Temperance Rhetoric</em> (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1998).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Montrose Daily Press</em>, “Sheriff Ducray Arrests Bootlegger Who Sought Protection by Bribery,” vol. 12, no. 206, March 4, 1921.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Thomas Noel, <em>The City and the Saloon: Denver 1858–191</em>6, 2nd ed. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 1996).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Pueblo Star Journal</em>, “They All Love Publicity; Even State Dry Law Director Will Stage a Raid For the Movies,” July 25, 1923.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ted Richthofen, “<a href="http://digital.auraria.edu/IR00000098/00001">A People’s History of Alcohol Prohibition in Colorado: Labor, Class, Gender, and Moral Reform, 1916–1933</a>” (BA honors thesis, Metropolitan State University of Denver, 2019).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Rocky Mountain News</em>, April 7, 1933.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>San Juan Prospector</em>, “Women Whiskey Merchants,” March 15, 1918.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Clark Secrest, <em>Hell’s Belles: Prostitution, Vice, and Crime in Early Denver: With a Biography of Sam Howe, Frontier Lawman</em>, rev. ed. (Denver: University Press of Colorado, 2001).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Trinidad Chronicle, </em>“State Dry Officers May Be Charged with Violence by Two Local Attorneys,” September 10, 1923.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>United Labor Bulletin, October 10, 1914, CSFL Collection, Colorado Historical Society, Denver.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“Up-to-the-Minute Bulletin of the International Reform Bureau,” July 9, 1918, Shafroth Family Papers, Western History Collection, Denver Public Library.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>John Dinan Wake and Jac C. Heckelman, “Support for Repealing Prohibition: An Analysis of Statewide Referenda on Ratifying the 21st Amendment,” <em>Social Science Quarterly </em>95, no. 3 (September 2014).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Elliot West, “Cleansing the Queen City: Prohibition and Urban Reform in Denver,” <em>Journal of the Southwest</em> 14, no. 4 (Winter, 1972).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“Women Named Deputy Sheriffs,” <em>Brush Tribune</em>, June 8, 1923.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Betty L. Alt and Sandra K. Wells, <em>Ban the Booze: Prohibition in the Rockies </em>(N.p.: Dog Ear Publishing, 2013).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Lisa McGirr, <em>The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State</em> (New York: W. W. Norton, 2016).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Daniel Okrent, <em>Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition</em> (New York: Scribner, 2010).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ted Richthofen, “<a href="https://www.historycolorado.org/story/womens-history/2020/03/12/openly-and-gusto-how-women-moonshiners-led-denvers-first-female-cop">Openly and With Gusto: How Women Moonshiners Led to Denver’s First Female Cop</a>” (History Colorado, March 12, 2020).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Rocky Mountain PBS, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbJtXMa0ZAQ">Colorado Experience: The Smaldones, Family of Crime</a>” (YouTube).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Erin Turner, <em>Rotgut Rustlers: Whiskey, Women, and Wild Times in the West </em>(Kearney, NE: Morris, 2009).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-4th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-4th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-4th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-4th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-4th-grade"><p>Prohibition in Colorado (1916–33) banned the sale of alcohol. The goal was to reduce violence, drunkenness, and crime. The prohibition era in Colorado saw an increase in organized crime and corruption.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Origins</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>During the Colorado Gold Rush of 1858–59, mining camps and early towns used saloons as places for government. Later, saloons served as locations for labor union meetings. They were also hot spots for gambling and boxing.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Because the rough-and-tumble saloon scene, Colorado saw a push for alcohol prohibition. Legal and moral arguments for the control of liquor existed as early as the mid-1860s. Some towns were founded as dry. These included Greeley (Union Colony) and Longmont (Chicago-Colorado Colony) in the early 1870s. The idea of turning the entire state dry did not gain traction until the end of the century. A state law passed in 1889 outlawed the sale or delivery of alcohol to American Indians. Further efforts to ban alcohol followed.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Building Support</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In the late 1800s and early 1900s, reform-minded Progressives saw alcohol as the source of many problems. They believed that alcohol consumption led to unrest and moral failings. Reformers saw saloon culture as a product of immigration. Several leaders of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) were also members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Their stance on banning alcohol was based on strong anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic feelings.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Many of the antialcohol Progressives were also women with newly gained voting rights. The women were concerned about drinkers and gamblers who left their families poor. Colorado men opposed the 1877 referendum on women’s suffrage. Men were afraid women would vote for prohibition. By the time women gained the right to vote in 1893, many men had changed their stance. They had taken up the cause of prohibition. Prohibition was no longer a gendered issue. It was a unifying Progressive idea.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Progressives worked to make drinking a male-only activity staring in 1901. They passed a law that kept women from entering saloons or buying alcohol. The law was upheld by the state and federal Supreme Courts.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1907, cities could vote on whether to go dry. By 1909 Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Aurora, and Greeley used this law to ban alcohol within a mile of their borders.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The biggest divide over alcohol was between rural and urban areas. Denver, Teller, and Alamosa counties were against prohibition. All were home to major industrial centers. They were also home to higher numbers of immigrants than lived in the counties voting to go dry.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Prohibition Takes Effect</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>During the years leading up to prohibition, the WCTU, KKK, and Anti-Saloon League toured the state with their campaign. They spoke with lawmakers. The groups demanded a ban on all alcohol. By 1914 the WCTU gathered enough signatures to get a prohibition referendum on the ballot. Donations from industrial leaders such as John D. Rockefeller, Jr. helped their campaign. The culture of alcohol remained strong in Colorado. However, there was not an organized campaign to keep it legal. The prohibition referendum passed with 52 percent of the vote.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On January 1, 1916, statewide prohibition of alcohol went into effect. That was four years before the federal Volstead Act brought prohibition to the entire country. The Volstead Act used language similar to the Colorado prohibition referendum. Both laws banned the sale and transport of all alcohol. Thousands of breweries and saloons went out of business in Colorado. Others changed to soft drink parlors. By 1917 statewide prohibition had closed as many as 1,615 saloons and 17 breweries in the Denver area.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Enforcement and Corruption</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Problems enforcing the alcohol ban started within the first year. The governor appointed “dry agents” who broke civil liberty laws to enforce prohibition. Many soft drink parlors still sold alcohol. They gave free liquor to police officers to stay in business. Liquor from speakeasies would disappear from police evidence rooms.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Members of the governor’s “purity squads,” as newspapers called them, had an uncertain legal status. These squads were made up of men not formally trained as police officers. They would break down the doors of people’s houses without warrants. Anyone at the home would be arrested, with or without evidence that they had been drinking. Suspected drinkers or bootleggers were sometimes tied to chairs and beaten.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>This activity prompted complaints against the state’s Chief Prohibition Officer, John R. Smith. Smith was sued for violating civil liberties.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Judge Benjamin Lindsey supported prohibition at first. However, he expressed frustration with how certain communities were targeted. Lindsey was also upset that wealthy Coloradans didn't obey dry laws. Newspapers reported police partying with rich people while drinking liquor taken from poorer communities.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Organized Crime</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Because of prohibition, Colorado saw the growth of organized crime families in the 1920s and early 1930s. Gangsters emerged all around Colorado. Joe Berry, Joe Roma, and Joe Varra made names for themselves through the bootleg liquor trade. Prohibition laws did not decrease the demand for alcohol, so the market for illegal booze skyrocketed. During a 1924 sweep in Globeville, at least eighteen bootleggers were arrested in a week. More than half of them were women.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Opportunities for Women</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Having been banned from the legal alcohol trade, women in Colorado took full advantage of black-market booze. They drank and made alcohol.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Women held every sort of illegal job related to booze. They ran kitchen stills, sold liquor, and smuggled alcohol. When police were tipped off, they found women operating moonshine stills from their kitchens.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Women also got new chances in law enforcement. In the early 1920s, four women in Denver were made deputy sheriffs as part of the crack down on the alcohol trade. Throughout prohibition, several other police departments hired their first female officers. Edith Barker, a member of the WCTU, became Denver’s first female police officer on May 2, 1920.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Repeal</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By the late 1920s, Coloradans seemed eager to end prohibition. In 1926 Colorado became the first state to hold a vote calling for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. The vote failed.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1928 more than 12,000 liquor-violation cases were filed in the Denver courts. Only half of them had been heard. The law had become a burden on the state’s executive and judicial branches.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In November 1932, Colorado voted on repeal again. This time, repeal received 67 percent of the vote. However, federal prohibition was still in effect. This meant that beer could be bought and sold in Colorado.  However, it was illegal to travel with or ship it across state lines. Later that same year, the US Congress approved an amendment to end prohibition. By December 5, 1933, thirty-six states, including Colorado, had ratified the Twenty-first Amendment. National prohibition was repealed.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Alcohol became a part of Coloradan's lives again. Former Colorado breweries returned to beer production. This included the Tivoli Brewing Company in Denver and Coors in Golden. Mobsters who had profited from prohibition were gone within a few months.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Since prohibition, Colorado has reclaimed its saloon roots. As a state, Colorado currently has more than 400 established breweries. There is also a celebrated wine industry based in the Grand Valley.   </p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-8th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-8th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-8th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-8th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-8th-grade"><p>Prohibition in Colorado (1916–33) banned the sale and transport of alcohol. The goal was to reduce violence, drunkenness, and crime. The prohibition era in Colorado saw a sharp increase in organized crime and corruption.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Origins</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>During the Colorado Gold Rush of 1858–59, most mining camps and early towns used saloons as places for government and other official functions. Later, saloons served as locations for labor union meetings. They were also hot spots for gambling, boxing, and prostitution.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Because the rough-and-tumble saloon scene, Colorado saw a push for alcohol prohibition. Legal and moral arguments for the control of liquor existed as early as the mid-1860s. Some towns were founded as dry. These included Greeley (Union Colony) and Longmont (Chicago-Colorado Colony) in the early 1870s. The idea of turning the entire state dry did not gain traction until the end of the century. A state law passed in 1889 outlawed the sale or delivery of alcohol to American Indians. Further efforts to ban alcohol in the state followed.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Building Support</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In the late 1800s and early 1900s, reform-minded Progressives saw alcohol as the source of many problems. They believed that alcohol consumption led to unrest and moral failings. Reformers saw saloon culture as a product of immigration. Several leaders of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) were also members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Their stance on banning alcohol was based on strong anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic feelings. They felt the state was being overrun by unskilled foreign laborers whose taste for drink made them dangerous.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Many of the antialcohol Progressives were also women with newly acquired voting rights. The women were concerned about drinkers and gamblers who left their families poor. Colorado men opposed the 1877 referendum on women’s suffrage. Men were afraid women would vote for prohibition. By the time women gained the right to vote in 1893, many men had changed their stance. They had taken up the cause of prohibition. Prohibition was no longer a gendered issue. It was a unifying Progressive idea.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Progressives worked to make drinking a male-only activity staring in 1901. The idea was reinforced by strict Victorian ideas of womanhood. Progressives passed a law that kept women from entering saloons or buying alcohol. When saloon owners challenged the law, it was upheld by the state and federal Supreme Courts.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1907, cities could vote on whether to go dry. By 1909 Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Aurora, and Greeley used this law to ban alcohol within a mile of their borders.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The biggest divide over alcohol was between rural and urban areas. Denver, Teller, and Alamosa counties were against prohibition. All were home to major industrial centers. They were also home to higher numbers of immigrants than lived in the counties voting to go dry.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Prohibition Takes Effect</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>During the years leading up to prohibition, the WCTU, KKK, and Anti-Saloon League toured the state with their campaign. They spoke with lawmakers. The groups demanded a ban on all alcohol. By 1914 the WCTU gathered enough signatures to get a prohibition referendum on the ballot. Donations from industrial leaders such as John D. Rockefeller, Jr. helped their campaign. The culture of alcohol remained strong in Colorado. However, there was not an organized campaign to keep it legal. The prohibition referendum passed with 52 percent of the vote.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On January 1, 1916, statewide prohibition of alcohol went into effect. That was four years before the federal Volstead Act brought prohibition to the entire country. The Volstead Act used language similar to the Colorado prohibition referendum. Both laws banned the sale and transport of all alcohol. Thousands of breweries and saloons went out of business in Colorado. Many others scrambled to convert to soft drink parlors. By 1917 statewide prohibition had closed as many as 1,615 saloons and 17 breweries in the Denver area alone.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Enforcement and Corruption</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Problems enforcing the alcohol ban started within the first year. The governor appointed “dry agents” who broke civil liberty laws to enforce prohibition. Many soft drink parlors still sold alcohol. They gave free liquor to police officers to stay in business. Liquor from speakeasies would disappear from police evidence rooms.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Members of the governor’s “purity squads,” as newspapers called them, had an uncertain legal status. These squads were made up of men not formally trained as police officers. They would break down the doors of people’s houses without warrants. Anyone at the home would be arrested, with or without evidence that they had been drinking. Suspected drinkers or bootleggers were sometimes tied to chairs and beaten.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>This activity prompted many complaints against the state’s Chief Prohibition Officer, John R. Smith. Smith was sued for violating civil liberties and using extreme force.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Progressive judge Benjamin Lindsey supported prohibition at first. However, he expressed frustration with how certain communities were targeted. Lindsey was also upset that wealthy Coloradans didn't obey dry laws. The well-off drinkers of Colorado worked with corrupt cops to make sure they had liquor. Newspapers reported police partying with rich people while drinking liquor taken from poorer communities.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Organized Crime</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Because of prohibition, Colorado saw the growth of organized crime families in the 1920s and early 1930s. Notorious gangsters emerged all around Colorado. Joe Berry, Joe Roma, Joe Varra, and Sam and Pete Carlino made names for themselves through the bootleg liquor trade. Prohibition laws did not decrease the demand for alcohol, so the market for illegal booze skyrocketed. In 1924, during a series of sweeps in the Italian American community of Globeville, at least eighteen bootleggers were arrested in a week. More than half of them were women.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Opportunities for Women</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Having been banned from the legal alcohol trade, women in Colorado took full advantage of black-market booze. They drank and made alcohol.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Women held every sort of illegal job related to booze during prohibition. They ran kitchen stills, sold liquor, and smuggled alcohol. When police were tipped off to moonshine stills, they often found women operating them from their kitchens.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Women also got new chances in law enforcement. In the early 1920s, four women in Denver were appointed as deputy sheriffs to crack down on the alcohol trade. Throughout prohibition, several other police departments hired their first female officers. Edith Barker, a member of the WCTU, became Denver’s first female police officer on May 2, 1920.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Repeal</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By the late 1920s, Coloradans seemed eager to end prohibition. In 1926 Colorado became the first state to hold a vote calling for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. The vote failed.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Denver Post hosted its own “Rocky Mountain Referendum on Prohibition.” The newspaper printed ballots asking readers whether they were for or against prohibition. Based on the 110,000 newspaper ballots, Coloradans favored repeal. However, eligible voters still supported temperance.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1928 more than 12,000 liquor-violation cases were filed in the Denver courts. Only half of them had been heard. The law had become a burden on the state’s executive and judicial branches.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In November 1932, Colorado voted on repeal again. This time, repeal received 67 percent of the vote. Starting April 7, 1933, beer with a maximum alcohol content of 3.2 percent by volume could be legally sold in the state. However, federal prohibition was still in effect nationwide. This meant that beer could be bought and sold in Colorado.  However, it was illegal to travel with or ship it across state lines. Later that same year, the US Congress approved an amendment to end prohibition. By December 5, 1933, thirty-six states, including Colorado, had ratified the Twenty-first Amendment. National prohibition was repealed.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>According to the Rocky Mountain News, beer sales alone made the alcohol industry more than $200,000 (roughly $4 million today) on the first day of statewide repeal. Equipment builders, laborers, and railroads all benefited from the end of prohibition. The News guessed that in Denver alone, more than 1,000 retailers would be issued liquor licenses during April 1933.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Alcohol quickly became a part of Coloradan's lives again. Former Colorado breweries returned to beer production. This included the Tivoli Brewing Company in Denver and Coors in Golden. They had produced products such as porcelain and nonalcoholic beverages during prohibition. Mobsters who had profited from prohibition were gone within a few months. The law no longer prevented women and American Indians from entering places that sold alcohol. The Twenty-first Amendment removed alcohol laws that targeted groups of people.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Since prohibition, Colorado has reclaimed its saloon roots. As a state, Colorado currently has more than 400 established breweries. It is the top US state in microbreweries per capita. In 2019 Coloradans voted craft beer as their state’s most iconic drink. Colorado is also home to vibrant spirit industry. There is also a celebrated wine industry based in the Grand Valley.   </p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-10th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-10th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-10th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-10th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-10th-grade"><p>Alcohol prohibition in Colorado (1916–33) was a Progressive Era experiment. It was based on reform-minded and religious ideas. Prohibition banned the sale and transport of alcohol. The goal of reformers was to reduce violence, drunkenness, and crime. However, outlawing alcohol created more issues than first thought.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Prohibition in Colorado predated national prohibition by four years. It ended only months before national prohibition was also repealed. The prohibition era in Colorado was marked by a sharp increase in organized crime, black markets, and government corruption.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Origins</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>During the Colorado Gold Rush of 1858–59, most mining camps and early towns used saloons as places for government and other official functions. Later, saloons served as locations for labor union meetings. They were also hot spots for gambling, boxing, and prostitution.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Because the rough-and-tumble saloon scene, Colorado soon saw a push for alcohol prohibition. Legal and moral arguments for the control of liquor existed as early as the mid-1860s, when Colorado was still a territory. Conscious of the region’s saloon culture, some towns were founded as dry. These included the communities of Greeley (Union Colony) and Longmont (Chicago-Colorado Colony) in the early 1870s. However, the idea of turning the entire state dry did not gain traction until the end of the century. A state law passed in 1889 outlawed the sale or delivery of alcohol to American Indians. Further efforts to ban alcohol in the state followed.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Building Support</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In the late 1800s and early 1900s, reform-minded Progressives saw alcohol as the source of many problems. They believed that alcohol consumption led to labor unrest and moral failings. Reformers saw saloon culture as a product of urbanization and immigration. They hoped to keep Colorado free from what they called “un-American” activities. Several leaders of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) were also members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Their stance on banning alcohol was based on strong anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic feelings. They felt as if the state was being overrun by unskilled foreign laborers whose taste for drink made them dangerous.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Many of the antialcohol Progressives were also women with newly acquired voting rights. They were concerned with drinkers and gamblers who left their families poor. Colorado men opposed the 1877 referendum on women’s suffrage. Men were afraid women would vote for prohibition. By the time women gained the right to vote in 1893, many men had changed their stance. They had taken up the cause of prohibition. Prohibition was no longer a gendered issue but, rather, a unifying Progressive idea.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As a step toward full prohibition, antialcohol Progressives worked to make drinking a male-only activity staring in 1901. The idea was reinforced by strict Victorian ideas of womanhood. Progressives passed a law that kept women from entering saloons, working in areas that served alcohol, or buying alcohol. When saloon owners challenged the law, it was upheld by the state and federal Supreme Courts.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1907, cities could vote on whether to go dry. By 1909 Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Aurora, and Greeley used this law to ban alcohol within a mile of their borders.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The biggest divide over alcohol was between rural towns and urban areas. The strongest antiprohibition counties included Denver, Teller, Mineral, La Plata, Ouray, Chaffee, Alamosa, and Garfield. All of these counties were home to major industrial centers, especially mining and smelting operations. They were also home to larger numbers of non-Protestants and higher numbers of immigrants than lived in the counties voting to go dry.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Prohibition Takes Effect</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>During the years leading up to prohibition, the WCTU, KKK, and Anti-Saloon League toured the state with their campaign. They spoke directly with lawmakers. The groups also publicly demanded the banning of any and all alcohol. By 1914 the WCTU gathered enough signatures to get a prohibition referendum on the ballot. Donations from industrial leaders such as John D. Rockefeller, Jr. aided their campaign. The culture of alcohol remained strong in Colorado, but there was not an organized campaign to keep it legal. Called Measure 2, the prohibition referendum passed on November 3 with 52 percent of the vote.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On January 1, 1916, statewide prohibition of alcohol went into effect. That was four years before the federal Volstead Act brought prohibition to the entire country. The Volstead Act used language similar to the Colorado prohibition referendum. For example, both defined “intoxicating liquor” as any beverage containing more than 0.5 percent alcohol. Both laws also banned the sale and transport of all alcohol, even for religious purposes. Thousands of breweries and saloons went out of business in Colorado. Many others scrambled to convert to soft drink parlors. By 1917 statewide prohibition had closed as many as 1,615 saloons and 17 breweries in the Denver area alone.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Enforcement and Corruption</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Problems enforcing an alcohol ban became obvious within the first year of the law. Governor William Ellery Sweet appointed “dry agents” who broke civil liberty laws in order to enforce prohibition. Colorado also became home to corrupt law enforcement practices. For example, many soft drink parlors still sold alcohol. They gave free liquor to officers to stay in business. In addition, liquor taken in raids on speakeasies would disappear from police evidence rooms.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Members of the governor’s “purity squads,” as newspapers called them, had an uncertain legal status. These squads were often made up of men not formally trained as police officers. According to newspaper reports, they viewed themselves as “crusaders” seeking to destroy the “demon drink.” These moral enforcers would break down the doors of people’s houses without warrants. They would arrest anyone on the premises, with or without evidence that they had been drinking. Suspected drinkers or bootleggers were sometimes tied to chairs and beaten.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>This activity prompted many complaints against the state’s Chief Prohibition Officer, John R. Smith, and his vigilante groups (often composed of members of the KKK). Smith was sued for violating civil liberties and using extreme force against the Italian American and Mexican American communities.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Progressive judge Benjamin Lindsey supported prohibition at first. However, he expressed frustration with how marginalized communities were targeted and given unfair trials. Lindsey was also upset that wealthy Coloradans didn't comply with dry laws. The well-off drinkers of Colorado worked with corrupt cops to ensure that they had as much liquor as they wanted. Newspapers reported police partying with rich people, often sipping on liquor seized from poorer communities.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Organized Crime</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As a result of prohibition, Colorado saw the rapid growth of organized crime families in the 1920s and early 1930s. Notorious gangsters appeared all around Colorado. Joe Berry, Joe Roma, Joe Varra, and Sam and Pete Carlino made names for themselves through the bootleg liquor trade. Prohibition laws did not decrease the demand for alcohol, so the market for illegal booze skyrocketed. In 1924, during a series of prohibition sweeps in the Italian American community of Globeville, at least eighteen bootleggers were arrested in a week. More than half of them were women.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Opportunities for Women</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Having been barred from the legal alcohol trade, women in Colorado took full advantage of new opportunities in black-market booze. They took part in drinking and creating alcohol.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Women held every sort of illegal job pertaining to booze during prohibition. They ran kitchen stills, sold booze, tallied sales records, and smuggled alcohol. When police were tipped off to moonshine stills, they often found women operating them from their kitchens.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Women also benefited from new chances in law enforcement. In the early 1920s, four women in Denver were appointed as deputy sheriffs to crack down on the alcohol trade. Throughout prohibition, several other police departments hired their first female officers. Edith Barker, a member of the WCTU, became Denver’s first accredited female police officer on May 2, 1920.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Repeal</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By the late 1920s, Coloradans seemed as eager to end prohibition as they had been to start it. In 1926 Colorado became the first state to hold a referendum calling for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. The referendum failed. The Denver Post hosted its own “Rocky Mountain Referendum on Prohibition.” The newspaper printed ballots asking readers whether they were for or against prohibition. The consensus from 110,000 newspaper ballots was that Coloradans favored repeal. However, eligible voters still supported temperance.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After Colorado’s referendum, several states in New England began to call for repeal of prohibition. Soon several western states—including Arizona, New Mexico, and California—joined the call.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1928 more than 12,000 liquor-violation cases were filed in the Denver courts. Only half of them had been heard. The law had become a burden on the state’s executive and judicial branches.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In November 1932, Colorado voted on the repeal of prohibition again. This time, repeal received 67 percent of the vote. Starting April 7, 1933, beer with a maximum alcohol content of 3.2 percent by volume could be legally sold in the state. However, federal prohibition was still in effect nationwide. This loophole meant that beer could be bought and sold in Colorado, but it was illegal to travel with or ship it across state lines. Later that same year, the US Congress approved an amendment to end prohibition. By December 5, 1933, thirty-six states, including Colorado, had ratified the Twenty-first Amendment, repealing national prohibition.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>According to the Rocky Mountain News, beer sales alone made the newly revived alcohol industry more than $200,000 (roughly $4 million today) on the first day of statewide repeal. Equipment builders, laborers, and railroads all benefited from the end of prohibition. The News guessed that in Denver alone, more than 1,000 retailers would be issued liquor licenses during April 1933.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As the industry revived, alcohol quickly became a part of the public lives of Coloradans again. Former Colorado breweries returned to beer production, including the Tivoli Brewing Company in Denver and Coors in Golden. They had relied on producing other products such as porcelain and nonalcoholic beverages until repeal. Meanwhile, mobsters who had profited from prohibition had the rug ripped out from under them. They were gone within a few months. The law no longer prevented women and American Indians from entering places that sold alcohol. The Twenty-first Amendment removed prohibitive laws that targeted groups of people.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Since prohibition took legal hold on the state between 1916 and 1933, Colorado has reclaimed its saloon roots. As a state, Colorado currently has more than 400 established breweries. It is the top US state in microbreweries per capita. In 2019 Coloradans voted craft beer as their state’s most iconic drink. Colorado is also home to vibrant spirit industry, as well as a celebrated wine industry based in the Grand Valley.   </p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Tue, 09 Jun 2020 20:51:18 +0000 yongli 3274 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org