What did Anchorage residents drink during Prohibition?

Part of a continuing weekly series on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage or Alaska history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story.

The genesis of this column was a simple question: What did Anchorage people drink during Prohibition if not alcohol? At the national level, Prohibition, also known as the Volstead Act, took effect on Jan. 17, 1920, after the ratification of the 18th Amendment and banning the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol. However, Anchorage was founded in 1915 as a dry town, most definitely not a decision made by its inhabitants. From 1915 to 1920, Anchorage was not a democracy but a federally run town, the headquarters for the Alaska Engineering Commission that oversaw the construction and operation of the Alaska Railroad. Anchorage had soldiers instead of police.

The decades prior to national Prohibition were marked by a swell in reform efforts meant to curb the rampant consumption of alcohol in the United States. Across the country, towns, counties and some states chose to ban alcohol well before the 18th Amendment, a movement that did not pass over Alaska. In 1916, Alaskans voted in favor of a referendum to ban liquor in the territory. Approved by Congress in 1917, the Alaska Bone Dry Act took effect on Jan. 1, 1918, a happy new year for some and a harsh new reality for others.

So, what did Anchorage residents drink during the town’s early years, before and during Prohibition? The simple, if not wholly satisfying, answer is that most people continued to drink beer, wine and liquor, if less often. But there are shades to this answer. Beverage consumption in Anchorage, as elsewhere, was altered by Prohibition in ways that endured to the present day.

Even when and where Prohibition was strictly enforced, there were ways to legally imbibe. Churches that included wine in their sacrament still dispensed their samples on Sundays. Residents with pre-existing beer, liquor and wine collections could drain those bottles without fear. Again, the Bone Dry and Volstead acts prohibited the creation and sale of alcohol, not the consumption of already purchased party supplies. Some people hoarded supplies of liquor before restrictions went into effect, believing the law would be strictly enforced.

In addition, companies and drugstores exploited loopholes by creating and selling patent medicines with high alcohol content. In every drugstore in the nation, including in Anchorage, shelves were filled with quack cure-alls that promised to fix everything, from baldness to “women complaints,” and constipation to depression. One of the more popular options, widely advertised in Alaska, was Dr. Kilmer’s Swamp Root. Primarily marketed as a laxative, the 20-proof tonic was later flavored with cinnamon and peppermint.

During Prohibition, the most popular Anchorage drugstore was owned and operated by Z.J. Loussac, later a mayor and library namesake. And one of the most popular items at his Rexall-branded drugstore was Rexall Ninety-Three Hair Tonic, essentially a 48-proof liqueur.

Non-anecdotal documentation for Alaska alcohol consumption before, during and immediately after Prohibition does not exist. Research at the national level has used evidence including drunken arrests and incidence of cirrhosis to approximate alcohol consumption rates. Their findings suggest that drinking immediately after the implementation of Prohibition dropped to as low as 30% of pre-Prohibition levels, though quickly rising back as the years passed. There is nothing to suggest that at least this pattern of alcohol consumption, a drop and subsequent return to previous levels, did not also occur in Alaska.

Alcohol was easy to come by in early Anchorage, even after the Bone Dry and Volstead acts. Across the country, bar owners lightly transformed their establishments into supposed cigar shops, card rooms, soda shops or pool halls. In many if not most cases, little changed other than the facade. While there had been no legal bars before the Bone Dry Act in Anchorage, there was still a proliferation of operations that dispensed liquor with only minimal effort taken to hide the proceedings, just enough cover to avoid the ire of law enforcement.

As the years of liquor prohibition passed, these types of illicit businesses became more open in their illegal operations, which also included prostitution, drugs and gambling. In 1921, the Anchorage City Council passed its sixth ordinance, “regulating the use of curtains in cigar stores, pool rooms, and soft drink establishments.” In other words, these businesses were no longer allowed to hang curtains in their windows, an indirect way of curbing crime by hindering their ability to hide their less legal transactions. Anchorage businesses appeared to have largely ignored the curtain ban, as, in 1922, the city council added penalties for violations. A hung curtain carried possible fines of up to $100, about $1,800 in 2023 dollars, or 90 days in jail.

Anchorage residents of all classes, wealth and distinction drank frequently and often openly. Stills operated in downtown basements and beyond the farthest edges of town, along Chester Creek or in what is now Russian Jack Springs Park. The 1964 earthquake demolished several buildings on Fourth Avenue. When patrolman Brian Porter, later Anchorage police chief from 1980 to 1986, arrived, he discovered a basement still packed with moonshining equipment.

Bootleggers were so prominent that three neighborhoods are now named for them. Russian Jack is named after convicted bootlegger and murderer Jacob Marunenko, a Russian immigrant. Spenard is named after Joe Spenard, who trafficked liquor through town to his illegally built club at his namesake lake. And Bootlegger Cove is named for the many bootleggers who landed their wares south of town to avoid detection. Among the most notable was Ed Olson, the Phantom Swede, who was busted in the area with 120 gallons of “while mule likar” in 1925. Coincidentally, both Olson and Marunenko spent time as cigar shop and pool hall proprietors. Such businesses would have allowed them the cover to meet with customers and arrange for liquor handoffs.

[A secret steak marinade, an all-female social club and a signature cocktail: The bygone restaurants and recipes of Anchorage]

The minimal Anchorage police force and the sporadically present marshals were incapable of eradicating illegal drinking in town, even if they were so inclined. Instead, there was an unspoken agreement. Everyone wanted to drink, but so long as it was neither too public nor in aggressive amounts, then law enforcement tended to allow the local society to continue as it had.

Still, while variably enforced and of questionable at best design, Prohibition was the law of the land. Some people followed the rules, even if many neighbors did not. Others saw their drinking curtailed by more practical issues, such as limited options and an unreliable supply chain.

Prohibition was indeed marked by several changes to drinking options, inclinations and patterns, even in Anchorage. Many breweries, large and small, diversified their operations to produce legal products in order to survive. The easiest option was non-alcoholic and near beers, the latter required to be less than one-half of 1% alcohol by volume.

In 1916, Anheuser-Busch was ahead of the curve when it introduced Bevo, a non-alcoholic, cereal-based, malty beer alternative meant to taste just like the real thing. For a time, in the early years of Prohibition, Bevo was successful, the most popular of the near or non-alcoholic beers. A sign of rising liquor consumption, Bevo was discontinued in 1929. When the 1921 Maritime Strike closed most shipping on the West Coast, Anchorage stores began running short on essentials. The Brown & Hawkins general store ran an advertisement solely to announce its limited supply of Bevo, suggesting that customers come early or not at all.

Anheuser-Busch also produced a Budweiser near beer, simply advertised as Budweiser. It was also popular in Alaska. For those who have read 1920s Anchorage newspapers, the repeated mentions of Budweiser during Prohibition can cause some little dissonance.

The 1920s were also marked by a rapid expansion in sodas, soda flavors and ice cream. Ginger ales, root beers and fruit-flavored sodas were among the products that rapidly increased their share of a growing market. All of these were popular in Anchorage, ginger ales especially. Again, some breweries converted their factories to produce soda and ice cream. There were Miller-branded lime sodas and Yuengling ice cream. The Stroh Brewing Co. also tried its hand at ice cream, and Stroh’s Ice Cream is still available in the Midwest though no longer made by Stroh.

Menus from the era illustrate the most common — and likely popular — beverages of the time. Quiet but continued alcohol consumption was not an option for the more popular steamship lines. An Aug. 6, 1929 menu for the SS Northwestern, part of the Alaska Steamship Company’s Alaska Line, offers simple drink options: coffee, tea, green tea, iced tea and buttermilk. Alcohol was certainly not an option for the federally run Alaska Railroad. The 1920 drink choices for passengers included lemonade, “cold drinks of all kinds,” i.e., soft drinks, iced tea, fresh milk, coffee, hot cocoa, hot tea and a better brand of coffee for a little bit more.

The burgeoning status of soft drinks is partially explained by their convenient use as mixers. Cocktails certainly preceded Prohibition, by centuries in some instances, but they also grew increasingly popular during the 1920s. As alcohol bans lingered, poorer quality substitutes increasingly overwhelmed the black market: bathtub gin, pure grain alcohol and other rotguts. Mixed drinks were a way of masking the gut-wrenching taste. Notorious gangster and bootlegger Al Capone was himself in the ginger ale business since it was so closely associated with his other less legitimate enterprises. So, while mixed drinks were not new during Prohibition, their modern ubiquitousness dates to their use then.

A side note, many cocktails have been named for Alaska and Alaskans, before and since Prohibition. One older non-alcoholic example is worth sharing: a Hot Alaska Toddy, also known as a Klondike Hot. In a hot mug, pour 1/2 to 1 ounce of clam bouillon, 1 dram, i.e., one-eighth ounce, of liquid beef, and a half ounce of cream. Add four dashes of celery essence, one dash of spice extract, fill with hot water, and drink up!

[What was Anchorage like a century ago? A city with stark differences, but plenty of familiarities too]

The demise of the bar and club scene also disrupted long-lasting social patterns. Instead of hanging out at pool halls or cigar shops, many Anchorage residents headed for soda fountains and ice cream shops. Every ice cream and soda shop had a signature sundae. There were several soda fountains in Anchorage, but the most popular was at Loussac’s drugstore. As they advertised, “We serve only Pure Fruits and our Ice Cream is par-excellence. Try a Mount McKinley Special Sundae.”

Some Anchorage residents wanted to drink socially away from the rougher, criminal atmosphere of pool halls, so they repurposed and occasionally even remodeled their basements into full wet bars. In the privacy of a basement, Anchorage folk could mix their cocktails without worrying that someone from church might see them through the living room window.

The Bone Dry and Volstead acts were both repealed in 1933, ending the Prohibition experiment. Anchorage residents, and Alaskans in general, returned to drinking with the expected abandon, though one aspect of the older era lingers in many area homes. Over time, basement bars evolved from necessity to habit to desirable features. During the post-World War II housing boom, long after Prohibition had ended, the fad of basement bars was given legitimacy as a planned feature of many new homes. The design fad declined as more recent generations refamiliarized themselves with public drinking. When you review midcentury housing stock in Anchorage, don’t be surprised when they have a basement wet bar, a relic of unique historical pressures.

Key sources:

Dills, Angela K., and Jeffrey A. Miron. “Alcohol Prohibition and Cirrhosis.” American Law and Economics Review 6, no. 2 (2004): 285-318.

Dills, Angela K., Mireille Jacobson, and Jeffrey A. Miron. “The Effect of Alcohol Prohibition on Alcohol Consumption: Evidence From Drunkenness Arrests.” Economics Letters 86, no. 2 (2005): 279-284.

“Marshal’s Office Grabs 120 Gallons of White Mule Likar.” Anchorage Daily Times, June 23, 1925, 4.

“The Menu.” Alaska Railroad Record, May 18, 1920, 219.

Miron, Jeffrey A., and Jeffrey Zwiebel. “Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition.” American Economic Review 81, no. 2 (1991): 242-247.

“Officers Raid Still.” Anchorage Daily Times, August 2, 1923, 2.