Prohibition history
Prohibition in Idaho.
Idaho went dry under its own law in 1916, 4 years ahead of the federal ban, and ratified the 18th Amendment with the rest of the country. Today we list 6 speakeasies and hidden bars in Idaho.
Prohibition in Idaho, in order
| 1916 | Statewide prohibition takes effect in Idaho. |
|---|---|
| 1917–19 | Congress passes the 18th Amendment and sends it to the states. |
| 16 January 1919 | The amendment is ratified nationally. Idaho ratified it. |
| 17 January 1920 | National Prohibition begins. |
| 7 April 1933 | The Cullen–Harrison Act legalises 3.2% beer. |
| 5 December 1933 | The 21st Amendment repeals Prohibition. |
What Prohibition looked like here
Idaho went dry on its own account in 1916 and then voted for the national ban, which is the ordinary pattern: the 18th Amendment passed because most of the country had already decided the question. The practical effect of 1920 here was federal rather than legal — the same prohibition, now with agents, courts and padlock injunctions behind it.
What changed most was the supply. A dry state next to a wet one has a border problem. A dry country has a coastline, a Canadian frontier and an industrial-alcohol industry, and from 1920 those became the sources that mattered.
Dry from 1916
Idaho adopted statewide prohibition on 1 January 1916, four years ahead of the federal ban. It is mountainous, thinly populated and shares a border with Canada, which between them made enforcement a matter of luck.
The mining and timber towns drank as they always had, supplied from across the northern border and from stills in country where a federal agent could be seen coming for miles.
What Idaho’s own newspapers printed
The Library of Congress has digitised a large slice of the American press, and it is searchable. Between 1920 and 1933, papers published in Idaho used the word “bootlegger” 902 times, “blind pig” 14 times, “speakeasy” 6 times. Every link below goes to the scanned page itself, free and in the public domain — you are reading the primary source, not our summary of it.
One caveat worth stating plainly: these counts measure what has been digitised as much as what happened. A state whose papers were scanned in bulk will out-score a state whose were not, and a low number here is evidence about an archive rather than about how dry anybody was.
| Date | Term | Newspaper |
|---|---|---|
| March 19, 1920 | “speakeasy” | Clearwater Republican, Orofino |
| July 29, 1920 | “blind pig” | The Wallace miner, Wallace |
| August 6, 1920 | “blind pig” | Clearwater Republican, Orofino |
| September 22, 1920 | “speakeasy” | The Idaho Republican, Blackfoot |
| October 7, 1920 | “blind pig” | The Emmett index, Emmett |
| December 17, 1920 | “blind pig” | The Oakley herald, Oakley |
| December 24, 1920 | “bootlegger” | The Rathdrum tribune, Rathdrum |
| February 3, 1921 | “speakeasy” | The Idaho Republican, Blackfoot |
| January 11, 1922 | “blind pig” | The Challis messenger, Challis |
| January 26, 1923 | “bootlegger” | The daily star-mirror, Moscow |
| June 5, 1924 | “speakeasy” | The Nezperce herald, Nezperce |
| January 16, 1925 | “bootlegger” | Mountain Home Republican, Mountain Home |
Where to drink in Idaho now
We currently list 6 speakeasies and hidden bars in Idaho. The densest are Twin Falls (1), Moscow (1), Coeur d’Alene (1), Shelley (1), Filer (1), Hidden Springs (1). Those are present-day licensed bars — nothing on this site is illegal, and a modern hidden bar is a design decision rather than a legal necessity.
A handful of rooms in most states genuinely date to the period and can show it. Far more claim to. Where a venue’s page makes a historical claim, we label it Documented, Reported, Legend or Venue marketing, and we do not promote marketing into history because it makes a better paragraph.
Where they are in Idaho
Listings cluster where the building stock and the licensing both allow it. These are the Idaho cities and towns with the most in the directory today.
| Twin Falls | 1 listed |
|---|---|
| Moscow | 1 listed |
| Coeur d'Alene | 1 listed |
| Shelley | 1 listed |
| Filer | 1 listed |
| Hidden Springs | 1 listed |
The documented buildings in Idaho
1 of our Idaho listings sit on property recorded on the National Register of Historic Places. That is a federal nomination document with a reference number, written by somebody who had to show their working — a very different kind of evidence from a bar saying its building has a past.
It does not make the bar historic. It makes the building documented, which is the most we can honestly claim and more than most directories claim at all.
| Backstage Speakeasy | Nu Art Theatre, Moscow · NRHP ref. 01001304 |
|---|
Where this state fits
We group Idaho with the West for editorial purposes — regions tuned to drinking culture and Prohibition history rather than to Census divisions, because those are the lines that actually explain what happened. Its neighbours here: California · Colorado · Oregon · Washington · Montana · Hawaii · Wyoming · Alaska.
The parts of the national story that bear most directly on Idaho: Blind pigs and blind tigers · Canadian whisky and the northern border.
How to read these pages
Each state chronology sets the local dates against the national ones, because Prohibition was never one story. Thirty-three states had already banned liquor before the federal government did; two refused to ratify the amendment at all; and repeal in 1933 handed the question straight back to the states, which is why American liquor law is still fifty systems rather than one.
The newspaper evidence is drawn from Chronicling America, the Library of Congress’s archive of digitised American newspapers. It is public domain, it is free, and we link to the scanned page rather than quoting it, so you can check us.