In 1897, Patrick J. Quealy founded a town and coal company, naming them “Kemmerer” after his financial backer, Mahlon S. Kemmerer of Pennsylvania. Quealy made Kemmerer an “independent town,” meaning that the coal company sold land to businesses and residents. This attracted immigrant miners and business owners, including those from southern and eastern Europe. Drinking was integral to many of the immigrants’ cultures, which included Italian, Polish, Slovak, and Scottish. This influenced Kemmerer’s freedom-focused Prohibition culture. In 1919, Wyoming passed laws banning alcohol. Kemmerer and its neighboring communities of Diamondville and Frontier formed a triangle network for illegal bootlegging and drinking.
\nDuring Prohibition, many Kemmerer residents made little effort to hide their drinking, as it was a southern and eastern European cultural norm and popular with the white men who worked the area’s mines. Isabel Burns migrated to Kemmerer in the 1880s and later established the brothel she named the Southern Hotel, which catered to illegal activities like prostitution and drinking. Burns and her successors operated the Southern Hotel for seven decades, throughout all of Prohibition, and continuously offered drinking and prostitution, regardless of legality. For its size, Kemmerer hosted a disproportionately large number of saloons and brothels like the Southern Hotel, which testified to local positive sentiment toward alcohol and cultural autonomy.
\nIn addition to establishments like the Southern Hotel, well-documented arrests for alcohol possession and public intoxication highlight the prominence of drinking in Kemmerer during Prohibition. While police were generally tolerant of illegal alcohol consumption—acknowledging the town’s large immigrant population—the widespread nature of drinking still led to arrests, often for disrupting the peace. The Kemmerer Gazette reports indicate that authorities arrested people on alcohol-related charges, typically for public intoxication, operating stills, or alcohol distribution.
\nFor example, the 20 April 1927 issue of the paper reported two separate intoxication cases from earlier that month. Both men paid $25 in fines (around $450 today). According to the paper, the first man, E. L. Mitchell, “made his rounds, proceeding to hit the high spots,” and caused a “rucus” at the Kemmerer hotel, thanks to “the potency of Kemmerer’s supply of moonshine, which will give a jackrabbit enough nerve to defy a bulldog.” The second man, a railroad worker from Mexico, “got all corned up on moonshine [then] ran a muck on the streets of Kemmerer.” Authorities incarcerated both men not merely for drinking, but for disorderly public conduct.
\nKemmerer’s Prohibition history tells not a story of law, but a tale of western mining culture. As immigrants arrived for railroad and mining jobs, they brought customs wherein drinking was a way of life. When Prohibition criminalized that lifestyle, the law did not erase people’s culture. Places like the Southern Hotel thrived not because people wanted to rebel, but because they wanted to keep living as they always had. Kemmerer’s Prohibition history is one of colliding international and mining cultures withstanding the force of national reform.","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"Kemmerer, Wyoming emerged in the late nineteenth century when Patrick J. Quealy founded a coal company and a town to go with it. Kemmerer was popular among immigrant business owners who set up shops seeking financial and personal freedom. Their diverse cultures contributed to Kemmerer becoming a bootlegger’s haven when Prohibition began a few decades later.","website":"","related_resources":["The Kemmerer Gazette, Vol. 14, No. 33, 20 Apr. 1927. The Kemmerer Gazette April 20, 1927 — Wyoming Digital Newspaper Collection.
","The Kemmerer Republican, 16 Mar. 1923. MARC Bibliographic Record: The Kemmerer Republican. (Kemmerer, Wyo.) 1913-1924 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress.
","The Southern Hotel, from Southernhotelwy.com. “About Us,” available at southernhotelwy.com.
","U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, from bls.gov. “Consumer Price Index,” available at www.bls.gov.
","Wyoming Tales and Trails, from Wyomingtalesandtrails.com. “Lincoln County Photos,” available at Lincoln County Photos II--Wyoming Tales and Trails.
"],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/bc57fb9731bf760db28ae4ec4796ab05.jpg":{"id":3937,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"The original Southern Hotel building","description":"Built with brick and adjacent to the railroad, the Southern Hotel was the perfect place for railway workers and travelers to relax and enjoy concealed drinking and prostitution. Lincoln County Sheriff closed the building in 1967 because it violated Wyoming law. The Southern Hotel Group is restoring the site today. |The Southern Hotel, from Southernhotelwy.com. “Building her Back: Original Building,” available at http://southernhotelwy.com.
","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/bc57fb9731bf760db28ae4ec4796ab05.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/a64ddd1770636b455e039cdef7ea56d4.jpg":{"id":3938,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"A 1912 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Kemmerer shows approximately how Kemmerer’s Main Street Triangle looked when Prohibition began in 1919","description":"Buildings marked as “Sal.” designate saloons and make up about half of the buildings on the triangle’s east side on South Main Street. These became hot spots for bootlegging and illegal alcohol sales during Prohibition. |Sanborn Map Company, from The Library of Congress. Image Three: “Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Kemmerer, Lincoln County, Wyoming, 1912,” available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g4264km.g097641912.
","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/a64ddd1770636b455e039cdef7ea56d4.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/4d79c3a5e63bf0476e98704c9f3a00cc.jpg":{"id":3939,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"“The Triangle” in Kemmer was a greenspace situated between three triangular rows of entertainment buildings and shops","description":"In 1911, before Prohibition began, the eastern side of this triangle housed mostly saloons. While bars like these went underground, they continued to operate as speakeasies and brothels after 1919. |Wyoming Tales and Trails, from Wyomingtalesandtrails.com. “Lincoln County Photos Kemmerer Photos II,” available at http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/kemmerer2.html.
","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/4d79c3a5e63bf0476e98704c9f3a00cc.jpg"}}}