A “Gibraltar of the Wets”
Though known as the Dairy State, Wisconsin might just as easily have been known as the Brewski State, since beer-making was a tradition in many of its German-American communities. When national prohibition went into effect in 1920, Wisconsinites begrudgingly went along with it for a while, but in 1926, they overwhelmingly voted to support an exemption for “near beer,” a beverage with 2.75 percent alcohol. Three years later, voters endorsed a second measure that called for an end to prosecution of prohibition violators.
By then federal officials were afoot in Wisconsin to assess conditions. Investigator Frank Buckley found that the state was “commonly regarded as a Gibraltar of the wets — sort of a Utopia where everyone drinks their fill and John Barleycorn still holds forth in splendor.” After ten years of prohibition, he found that in Madison, “The section of the city known as the Bush is made up of Sicilian Italians of the worst sort, most of whom are bootleggers. ... The queen of bootleggers, an attractive young Italian girl, caters exclusively to a fraternity-house clientele.” While in Madison, Buckley visited the local chapter of his national fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon, one morning about nine o’clock. He observed quite a commotion — the result of an attempt to induce two of the brethren, who had apparently imbibed well, but not wisely, the night before, to get up for morning classes.
Other cities were worse. At the opposite end of the state, Buckley wrote, Hurley “tucked away up in the wild lumber and iron section of northern Wisconsin, right on the Michigan State line, has the distinction of being the worst community in the State. Conditions in Hurley are not unlike those of settlements like Dawson City, Cripple Creek, El Dorado, Borger, and other boom communities. Gambling, prostitution, bootlegging, and dope are about the chief occupations of the place. Saloons there function with barmaids who serve the dual capacity of soda dispenser and prostitute.”