Universally the product was bottled, poured into one gallon or five-gallon cans and taken by wagon or truck to the Chicago North Western or Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad. There were plenty of stops in Fremont County along the tracks of the two rivals. Bootleggers loaded their illicit hooch onto the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy at Lysite and Bonneville for shipment to Seattle, Chicago, or New Orleans.
The Chicago North Western had depots roughly every 20 miles from Lander. Hudson and Arapahoe were popular places to clandestinely load booze into hidden spots in boxcars. Riverton, Shoshoni, and Moneta all had their share of the trade as well.
Shoshoni Enterprise January 6, 1928
CHAINED LIGHTENING IS TAKEN BY OFFICERS IN RECENT RAID AT NEBLE
High-Powered Stuff That Would Make Rabbit Spit in the Face of Bull Dog
Last Saturday morning everything was peaceful and quiet at Neble, a little hamlet twenty miles southwest of Shoshoni, nestling in the protective bend of Big Wind River, surrounded by great, silent cottonwoods on one side, and beetling bluffs upon the other.
No portent of impending danger threatened; the air was hushed, no leaf stirred, nor bird stirred, not even a horse stirred, it was very quiet, when, suddenly the crunching of many feet upon frozen snow broke the deathly stillness, and Federal Officers C. A. Davis and J. H. Genny, accompanied by Under Sheriff Spencer Gaylord and deputy Jimmy Thompson made a forward tackle on a small shack near the section house.
Abruptly entering, they discovered a 30 gallon still, 5 gallons of moonshine, the kind that would make a jack rabbit spit in a bull dog’s face, or after two drinks, give a man courage to talk back to his own wife.
A little brown brother from Mexico answering to the name of Elias Valdez was in possession, and tamely submitted to arrest. The liquor had evidently been recently run as no mash was discovered.
The five gallons of chained lightening was in pint and quart bottles, cunningly concealed about the room, ready for the holiday trade.
The still, the moon and the Mexican accompanied the officers to Lander. Court being in session, Valdez asked permission to plead guilty and be on his way. Judge Fourt accommodatingly accepted the plea and presented him with a free pass to Rawlins, together with a forcible detainer of from 1 year to 18 months as a guest of the state, another evidence of too much government in business.”
Just before the federal dawn of prohibition, Wyoming was the only one among its neighbors where liquor remained legal. It created a reverse situation found between Wyoming and Colorado today. Marijuana is legal in Colorado, but still heavily prosecuted in Wyoming. The amount of pot driven up U.S. Highway 85, Interstate 25, or U.S. Highway 87 from Northern Colorado into Cheyenne and Laramie is anyone’s guess, but arrests made in Laramie and Albany Counties for possession are almost always traced back to a legal purchase in Colorado.
Colorado went dry on January 1, 1916, two-and-a-half years before Wyoming. For those 30 months, the border towns of Cheyenne, Laramie, Baggs, Mountain View, Lyman, Rock Springs, Green River, and Evanston did land office business with thirsty buyers from Colorado.
Business was brisk at Cokeville, Afton, and Jackson, with Idaho going dry at the same time. Lusk and Torrington had a bump for just a year with Nebraska customers.
Surprisingly, Utah didn’t enact prohibition until 1917, Montana the following year, and South Dakota grudgingly later.
The trend reemerged in the 1970s when Wyoming had a legal drinking age of 19, while Colorado was 21, aside from 3.2 beer, which was legal at 18.
The disparity created some interesting situations.
Annals of Wyoming Volume 54 – Spring 1962
“With prohibition came much more litigation before the Wyoming federal district court. A story about Judge Riner grows out of prohibition in the West. Like his successors, Judge Riner often sat in Denver. Colorado went dry before her neighbor to the north, and Wyoming became the main supplier of liquor to Colorado. In an attempt to control this illicit trade in “hooch,” Colorado placed guards at the border. Judge Riner was on his way to Denver in his new Cadillac when the state guard ordered him to stop. Either Riner was relying on “judicial immunity” or didn’t hear the command because he kept going. The guards opened fire, puncturing his new car in several places. Judge Riner was very angry in spite of the trooper’s apology and upon arriving in Denver he went to the state capitol and brought his complaint directly to the governor, a former judge and friend of Riner. He demanded that the state make complete repairs and a full apology. The State of Colorado complied with Judge Riner’s demands and his Cadillac was restored to its former condition.”
Men like Ed Young distilled apples into “Apple Jack” along the Popo Agie in Red Canyon. Ed had a huge orchard and hid a still in a cave on his property, back against a vertical ridge of dark red rock.
State Game Warden Nate Wilson, who later ran the Wyoming Highway Department, had a still near Lysite. He was prosecuted while running the highway department and didn’t even receive a reprimand.
Former “Wild Bunch” outlaw Clarence Woodard processed moonshine in the Owl Creeks and sold it in Shoshoni and Riverton.
Woodard and his old partner, with Butch and Sundance, Elzy Lay, using the alias William McGinnis, sold bootleg whiskey from their “soft drink emporium” in Shoshoni.
While consumption was widespread in Fremont County, much of the alcohol distilled here ended up in Casper.
Lamont, one of the most isolated little towns in Wyoming, was a haven for moonshine stills and active in bootlegging.
Jimmie Lamont was heavily engaged in the whiskey distilling business, maintaining several large stills around Lamont, one of which was southwest of his T Lazy T Ranch. Jimmie hid the still in a dugout cave, covered by greasewood.
He worked with a man named Lynch Tom Ryan, who had large hidden operations in the Ferris Mountains area and around Whiskey Peak.
They warehoused the liquor in Lamont and shipped it to Casper, where it was stored at the Midwest Refining Barrel Warehouse before being shipped east on the Chicago North Western railroad.
Jimmie was never charged, but his wife, Jensena, was arrested in a raid. Someone tipped off federal authorities, and a story that first appeared in the Cheyenne Tribune on November 12, 1924, went statewide.
CASPER VIOLATORS INCLUDED IN NINE FINED IN FEDERAL COURT
“CHEYENNE, Wyo., Nov. 12. “Nine written pleas of guilty of violation of the federal prohibition law were presented to Judge T. Blake Kennedy, in the United States court for Wyoming here, and sentences were pronounced as follows: Todd Morrison, Natrona county, $200 fine; Nick Battisti, Lincoln county, $125 fine; Will F. Mills, Natrona county, $200 fine; T. H. Baysinger, Natrona county, $150 fine; Jensina Lamont, Rawlins, $150 fine; Don Darnaby, Evanston, $200 fine; Ber Long, Lincoln county, $100 fine; Lola Watson, Natrona county, $150 fine. Fred Steffens of Cheyenne entered a personal plea of guilty of violating the liquor law and was fined $150. The Steffens and Long fines were paid; the other defendants were committed to jail.”
Casper was a rail hub. The Chicago North Western and the Chicago Burlington and Quincy both had big rail yards in the Oil City. Another 60 miles to the east, Orin Junction diverted the tracks even further to destinations north, east, and south.
Scandals rocked Natrona County during prohibition. The Casper mayor and chief of police, along with the Natrona County Sheriff, were all brought up on corruption charges tied to bribes made by bootleggers.
Casper was the largest town in Wyoming in the late 1920s, with a population of 17,000. It was an “Oil Town” filled with roughnecks, wildcatters, respectable businessmen, and some not-so-respectable entrepreneurs.
Gambling was everywhere, in cafes, bars, and in the back of stores. There weren’t many speakeasies in Casper; the bars and saloons largely ignored prohibition. Any raid by the police or sheriff was widely advertised in advance, and there were only arrests made if a bar owner hadn’t paid his fee to law enforcement or the mayor’s office.
The area along the North Platte River where motels and restaurants line Interstate 25 today had the heaviest concentration of bars, saloons, and houses of prostitution.
It was the theme of many a Sunday sermon, the focus of concerned citizens, and it was filled every Friday and Saturday night with eager customers.