Fort Collins (un)Tapped: Local Stories of Prohibition, Bootlegging, and Brew Culture

Prohibition existed on the federal level from 1920 to 1933 with the 18th Amendment prohibiting the manufacturing, selling, and transporting alcohol. Prohibition movements had existed since the early 1800s as a response to the high levels of alcohol consumption in the United States. In 1830, Americans over the age of 15 were consuming seven gallons of alcohol on average each year. To compare present day Americans, consume on average 2.3 gallons of alcohol per year. After 1870, the number of saloons rose dramatically with the increase in working-class immigrants who used saloons as post-work gathering places and political centers. Temperance supporters blamed alcohol for damaging American culture through immorality, violence, domestic issues, and death. The National Prohibition Party, The Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the Anti-Saloon League, and many other organizations used local and federal political pressure to argue for laws limiting alcohol manufacturing, distribution, and consumption.

The prohibition movement began in the mid 1800s with towns, counties, and states choosing to become “dry” spaces. However, even in dry cities beer and liquor did not disappear; instead alcohol moved into illegal speakeasies or existed in bars outside city limits.

The lengthy period of prohibition in Fort Collins is similar to other western college towns in Colorado. In Boulder—home to the University of Colorado—city officials repealed the town’s liquor ban in 1967. In Greeley—home to the University of Northern Colorado—prohibition ended in 1969. The end of federal prohibition in 1933 with the ratification of the 21st Amendment placed continued prohibition in the hands of state and local governments. Some small towns, like Fort Collins, Colorado, only altered local laws to allow 3.2 beer in a handful of businesses. Other cities simply moved the speakeasies back into the open.

The intermountain west is now mostly “wet”; however, some areas remained “dry” well into the mid-1900s. The following tour tells the stories of the lengthy prohibition in Fort Collins, Colorado, from the beginning of the town’s prohibition in 1896 to the emergence of large-scale and microbrew beer manufacturing in 1990.