Earlier that year, Congress had passed the proposed 18th Amendment, for national prohibition, and sent it to the state legislatures for ratification. But Nevada was considering its state law first with the referendum. The dry side won with nearly 60 percent of the vote. As a result, the state went dry a month before the 36 th state ratified the 18th Amendment on January 16, Saloons across Nevada were ordered closed, including some historic ones from the 19 th century in Reno.
Bootlegger, this is your first and final notice from me. Your next notice will be a warrant for your arrest. All drugstore clerks should read this notice. Since Nevada no longer had a prohibition statute, Gay and other police officers in the state were not technically duty bound to enforce national prohibition laws. A fine from a city violation or a federal Prohibition conviction was considered the cost of doing business.
So, after , enforcement of Prohibition regulations in Las Vegas was more or less a federal matter, and local officers had the ready excuse of letting things slide. But Las Vegas would see many federal raids and investigations of illegal booze into the early s. Las Vegas had 2, residents when national Prohibition took effect in The city was established in when a company building the Union Pacific Railroad from Salt Lake City to San Pedro, California, needed a station, repair yard, housing and businesses for its employees.
Early Las Vegas had a mixed experience with liquor. Starting up first in canvas tents, then clapboard and brick buildings, a line of saloons on Block 16 included the Gem, Red Onion, Star, Arcade, Red Front and the finest in town, the Arizona Club. In February, A. Chamberlain was the first convicted in town for having several bottles of liquor in his hotel room on Fremont Street.
On March 4, Sheriff Gay executed search warrants at the Arcade saloon and arrested three women after finding whiskey, vermouth, wine and brandy in their rooms and a man possessing 48 pints of whiskey. Groesbeck was charged with having 23 pints of McBrayer brand America-made whiskey with U. What happened next to Groesbeck might have involved official corruption.
