[0:00] sale of quote spiritous [0:03] liquor and it was an interesting vote 25 [0:06] people said no seven people said [0:10] yes there was 175 residents at the time [0:15] so 32 voted of The [0:17] 175 but the vote didn't pass the [0:21] following year the same question was [0:23] raised and the vote was very similar 25 [0:27] again said no this time there was 10 [0:30] that said yes they gained three but [0:32] still it was a no so wetta has voted [0:35] itself as a dry [0:37] Community now to just add a little piece [0:40] uh more to that is that this was not [0:42] uncommon at this point in time a lot of [0:45] the early settlers came from uh the East [0:49] and there was a lot of temperance [0:51] societies and a lot of the residents [0:53] didn't believe in alcohol and in fact [0:56] one of the leaders of wetta one of my [0:58] favorite early guys miles [1:01] was rather appalled when he got to wetta [1:05] and saw a community of three and a half [1:06] or four blocks long that had 14 saloons [1:10] or bars along its four blocks he was not [1:13] very happy about that so this was not an [1:17] unusual thing for communities to be [1:18] voted dry the other thing that's [1:21] interesting about that timing is that [1:23] 1884 and 85 is kind of the peak of our [1:27] Glory years and for those of you again [1:30] that have been here for a lot of our [1:32] programs you know that the glory years [1:34] was that 10 or 12 years in which lake [1:36] minaka was a Resort destination so think [1:39] about the fact that here we are a Resort [1:41] destination people are flocking to come [1:43] here 18 to 20 trains a day are dropping [1:46] people off here in wetta but yet we're [1:49] not allowing any alcohol to be sold so [1:52] it's kind of an interesting thing and [1:54] one of the kind of fun stories uh that [1:57] involves salafi at hotel was that for [2:00] the celebration of the opening of the [2:01] hotel James J Hill had ordered cases of [2:04] wine and champagne that he wasn't [2:06] allowed to open because it was dry so [2:11] just so you realize that this wasn't [2:12] such an unusual thing to have this vote [2:15] go as it [2:17] did well a quick little stray away from [2:19] y Zetta and to look at the bigger more [2:21] National picture so besides 1920 being [2:25] the start of the Roaring 20s we also [2:28] know the other thing about 1920 money [2:30] was Prohibition right so in [2:35] 1917 an uh amendment is proposed to the [2:38] constitution in which they are uh [2:43] considering not allowing across the [2:46] United States not allowing the [2:48] manufacturer the sale or the [2:51] transportation of intoxicating [2:55] liquor now another name that's [2:57] associated with prohibition is the [3:00] Volstead [3:02] Act so uh Congressman uh representative [3:07] house representative Andrew Volstead is [3:09] the name associated of course with the [3:11] Volstead Act and what he did was he [3:13] actually defined what intoxicating [3:15] liquor is and so what he said was liquor [3:18] hard liquor such as Scotch Voda Jin wine [3:21] and beer are all intoxicating Liquors so [3:24] that means all of them are going to be [3:26] included in this movement of [3:28] prohibition so that's kind a little bit [3:31] of background about behind the start of [3:33] prohibition the amendment is proposed in [3:35] 1917 that's ratified in 1919 and what [3:39] that means for something to be ratified [3:41] is there had to be a three4 vote in [3:43] favor of it of all the voting bodies so [3:45] in this case it's the United States so [3:47] there's 48 states that voted and 46 of [3:50] them voted in favor of prohibition two [3:53] didn't Connecticut and Rhode [3:56] Island [3:57] so this is not why Zetta or excelsia or [4:01] Mound just so we're clear this is not [4:03] local pictures but they were pictures I [4:05] found that I thought were very fun to [4:07] kind of just finish the story in the [4:09] case that last call Nationwide midnight [4:14] January 16th 1920 prohibition starts [4:18] 12:01 in the morning okay so people are [4:21] flocking to the bars and the restaurants [4:24] and the saloons and the liquor stores [4:26] now an interesting thing about [4:27] Prohibition is it said you could [4:29] couldn't manufacture you couldn't sell [4:31] and you couldn't transport but guess [4:33] what you could [4:35] consume as long as you did it at home so [4:39] people flocked to the liquor stores with [4:41] for last call because they could go [4:43] ahead and still drink at home right you [4:46] just kind of interesting right so [4:48] anyways prohibition ends December 5th of [4:53] 1933 so in looking through city council [4:56] minutes for [4:57] wetta I come across a couple things in [5:00] 1933 prohibition is not quite ended yet [5:03] at this point in time but what the [5:05] minutes say is that the wieda city [5:07] council has issued some 3-2 beer [5:09] licenses to the following establishments [5:12] first one is Hart's Cafe which is the [5:14] picture on the upper left which of [5:17] course is a restaurant that most of you [5:19] probably in this room recognize and are [5:20] familiar with they issued a uh license [5:23] to the Bay View cafe which was located [5:26] in the building that's in the upper [5:28] right and I'm going to make that a [5:30] little bit bigger and you may not be [5:31] able to read the sign but inside that [5:33] sign it says bayew [5:35] Cafe the picture on the lower left is [5:38] pedet and Kaiser [5:40] grocery the ad to the left is Hagberg IG [5:43] Grocery and the picture in the lower [5:46] right is the quote Old drugstore which [5:49] was uh at this time owned by Jerry [5:52] Manning and I'm going to make that [5:54] picture bigger also because notice the [5:57] signs there's a vertical sign that says [5:59] drug [6:00] right below it there's a horizontal sign [6:02] that says Hog's ice [6:05] cream and look at the sign below it says [6:09] liquor [6:11] right so that's [6:14] 1933 then the next thing that's noted in [6:17] the uh minutes is in 1937 there's both [6:20] some offsale and some on sale licenses [6:23] again why is that a pharmacy that we [6:25] just looked at uh community drug is open [6:28] so uh that's also getting a [6:30] license there's a store called the [6:33] wisett liquor store owned by Warren [6:36] hwit and I spent hours trying to find [6:40] out more about this cuz I had never [6:42] heard of this business nor had anybody [6:44] else that I talked to I talked to all my [6:47] friends at the other uh historical [6:49] societies pretty much everybody failed [6:52] me with that fact that none of us knew [6:54] who this person was nor could I find a [6:56] picture of it so that's why there's just [6:58] a name and no photo because I have not [7:01] yet found notice I say not yet CU it's [7:03] going to come but I have not yet found a [7:05] picture of what is at a liquor store [7:06] that I know assuredly is it and then uh [7:10] why that American Legion and Woodhill [7:12] Country Club also were issued licenses [7:14] that [7:16] year well now we're going to jump ahead [7:18] to [7:20] 1945 so in 1945 a question is proposed [7:25] to the residents of Wiis and this is an [7:28] article from The minaka Herald that came [7:30] out on November 22nd and I put in quote [7:32] marks because it's so small you can't [7:35] read the article very well but the [7:36] question posed is going to be shall the [7:39] city of wetta establish and operate a [7:42] municipal offsale liquor [7:44] store and one of the other things that [7:47] they say in this article is and again [7:49] it's in quot marks if the city is to [7:51] continue to render the services it has [7:54] been giving in the past it will be [7:56] necessary to either substantially [7:58] increase the tax levy [7:59] or find another source of [8:02] Revenue and then they also say the [8:04] municipally owned liquor store is [8:06] Advanced as a possibility for that added [8:09] source of Revenue so here's the first [8:12] initial thoughts coming for the thought [8:14] of a municipal [8:17] establishment well it goes to vote the [8:19] next week on December [8:22] 4th and it was turned down 171 to 106 [8:27] and the article in the paper there's the [8:29] headline for it the rest of the article [8:31] I didn't include because it was about [8:32] all of the uh officers elected across [8:35] the various uh communities and the only [8:37] piece in it was the first uh little [8:39] paragraph and you can see there the [8:42] proposal was rejected by a vote of 171 [8:44] to 106 so it did not pass in [8:50] 1945 well now it's [8:52] 1947 in January of that year there's a [8:55] meeting held at hars Cafe local [8:58] businessmen the firemen for our from our [9:00] fire department some of the fire uh men [9:03] involved with the Minnesota State Fire [9:05] Prevention Association are there the [9:08] meeting is run by Mr deard who is the [9:10] fire department engineer of the State [9:12] Association and basically what he says [9:15] at that meeting is that wetta you have [9:18] some amazing properties on the lake [9:21] they're rather [9:22] expensive and quote we don't feel that [9:26] the city of wetta has kept up pace with [9:29] Community growth and is not able to [9:32] provide adequate facilities for housing [9:34] the fire [9:35] department so hold that thought because [9:38] we're going to grow on that a little [9:41] bit so you might be saying well where [9:44] was the fire department located it was [9:46] located in the back of City Hall at this [9:48] time City Hall was built in 1904 a [9:52] beautiful building with the beautiful [9:53] columns in the front and the arched [9:55] doorway on the left was the library [9:57] which was the first permanent home for [9:58] the library [10:00] the arch door on the right was the post [10:01] office also its first permanent home the [10:04] door in the middle kind of behind the [10:06] column a little bit took you into City [10:07] Hall the upstairs was an open space that [10:10] the community could rent out for large [10:12] community events used very frequently by [10:15] the American Legion and the Masonic [10:18] lodge and in the back was the fire [10:21] department previous to the fire [10:22] department being there it was the jail [10:25] and the jail actually moved out in [10:26] 1935 and then the fire department was [10:29] was located there and also City Works or [10:32] public works or City Maintenance [10:33] whatever you want to call it was also [10:35] located there and then you can also see [10:37] behind it the kind of scaffolding [10:39] structure is actually the fire alarm the [10:42] Bell that is rung when there's a fire to [10:43] call the firemen