[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