Traces of light had barely appeared in the east when the buzz of an airplane engine fractured the early-morning silence.

Pilot Chick Brown eased his airplane onto the turf on the municipal golf course, where the Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind is today, recalled Howard Hooker of Great Falls.

"I was delivering Tribunes at the time," Hooker said. "They'd come in here at 4 o'clock in the morning."

Brown landed on the golf course where a waiting truck took banned booze to a nearby basement for storage.  The flights went on for some time.

Prohibition began in 1920 and continued throughout the '20s.  Officials knew they were fighting an uphill battle.

Not only would liquor come in by air, but also a ground route for rum-running stretched from Great Falls north to the Canadian line.  Dubbed Bootlegger Trail, a name still used, it allowed whiskey to flow illegally from Canada.

In addition, do-it-yourself violators were so numerous Phohibition agents could not keep up.  When they did bust a transgressor, the reception was chilly.

Just before Halloween in 1923, state prohibition officers entered the home of Mrs. Charles Wilbur (address listed in the original article) armed with a search warrant.   As Gene Van Wert, a state officer, bent over to examine two gallons of moonshine liquor, she knocked him behind the ear with an ax, then clubbed a Wert aid in the head as well.

"Her skill at swinging the ax is not up to the standards set by woodsmen, for which fact the officers give thanks," the Great Falls Tribune reported October 20th.   She was disarmed then arrested, then was released because she had several small children.

By March, 1924, a Tribune editorial bemoaned widespread violations of Prohibition laws, citing an estimate that half of Montana's liquor violations were flatly ignored.

"The way in which boys and girls in their teens have become addicts of the 'hip flask' shocks the federal authorities," the Tribune said.Montana's half-wet, half-dry status placed the state on a par with nearby Minnesota, North Dakota, Washington and Oregon in only half enforcing Prohibition laws.  The driest states were the Midwest Bible Belt, plus Idaho, Wyoming and strongly Mormon Utah, while the biggest violations came in New York City and most seacoast and Great Lakes states.

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By 1926, Montanans were fed up with the alcohol ban, passing a referendum that removed the state from the Prohibition enforcement business.  Federal agents would have to police liquor violations alone.

Cheating continued.  People at times would sneak their own bottles into dance clubs like the Green Mill Gardens, which opened in 1929 east of Great Falls near what is now the main gate to Malmstrom Air Force Base.

Opposition to Prohibition was particularly strong in the working-class ethnic communities such as the Gulch, which includes the communities of Stockett and Sand Coulee, and Black Eagle, formerly Little Chicago, home to many Anaconda Co. refinery workers.

Finding liquor in the Gulch was no problem; lots of people made their own "home brew and moonshine," recalled longtime resident Pat Merva.  "You could always get a bottle from somebody."

Qua;ity was something else again, said Merva, who later ran the American Bar in Centerville.  "Some had good (whiskey); some of them damn near killed you," he said with a laugh.  "You got sicker than hell on it."

Authorities were not very concerned about people doing their own thing in their homes, Merva said.  "My dad made wine and home brew right in the house."   But, "if you tried to sell it, boy, they'd get a hold of you," he said.   "It was a helluva big gamble."

Some Gulch residents might have needed a drink or two during the mid-1920s.   Scores of miners made a good living digging coal in the Gulch until Great Northern Railway switched from burning coal on its trains to using diesel fuel during the decade.   These mines suddenly were no more, and not being able to legally drink was an added insult.

Prohibition was an experiment that failed.  Given all the damage caused by alcohol, supporters thought they had a good idea.  But Prohibition failed to halt alcohol consumption, engendered disrespect for the law and gave a foothold to organized crime that lasted for decades.

After all was said and done, violation of Prohibition laws was not considered in the same light as other crimes.  "It was no disgrace after Prohibition if you bootlegged," recalled Jeannette Bowen of Great Falls.

Prohibition ended in 1933.  Merva said most people were happy to see the end to all of the sneaking around, smuggling and bootlegging.

"Who the hell wouldn't be?" he asked.

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