Prohibition history
Prohibition in Iowa.
Iowa 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 16 speakeasies and hidden bars in Iowa.
Prohibition in Iowa, in order
| 1916 | Statewide prohibition takes effect in Iowa. |
|---|---|
| 1917–19 | Congress passes the 18th Amendment and sends it to the states. |
| 16 January 1919 | The amendment is ratified nationally. Iowa 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
Iowa 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 since 1916, and dry in habit long before
Iowa had been arguing about prohibition since the 1880s, when it first wrote a ban into its constitution, and had adopted statewide prohibition again in 1916. For a state like this the federal ban was a formality rather than a rupture.
What the trade looked like here was agricultural: stills on farms, grain that was easier to move as whiskey than as corn, and juries drawn from neighbours. Templeton, in Carroll County, produced a rye with a reputation that reached Chicago and has since been turned into a brand — the history is real, the modern bottle is a modern product, and the two are worth keeping apart.
What Iowa’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 Iowa used the word “bootlegger” 301 times, “blind pig” 10 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 |
|---|---|---|
| January 23, 1920 | “blind pig” | Evening times-Republican, Marshalltown |
| January 30, 1920 | “blind pig” | Decorah-posten og ved arnen, Decorah |
| February 17, 1920 | “bootlegger” | The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat, Keokuk |
| March 10, 1920 | “blind pig” | Evening times-Republican, Marshalltown |
| March 20, 1920 | “bootlegger” | Evening times-Republican, Marshalltown |
| May 6, 1920 | “bootlegger” | Evening times-Republican, Marshalltown |
| June 30, 1920 | “blind pig” | Evening times-Republican, Marshalltown |
| February 8, 1921 | “blind pig” | Decorah-posten og ved arnen, Decorah |
| October 6, 1922 | “bootlegger” | Svenska monitoren, Sioux City |
| November 2, 1923 | “bootlegger” | Svenska monitoren, Sioux City |
Where to drink in Iowa now
We currently list 16 speakeasies and hidden bars in Iowa. The densest are Des Moines (6), West Des Moines (2), Grinnell (1), Pella (1), Burlington (1), North Liberty (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 Iowa
Listings cluster where the building stock and the licensing both allow it. These are the Iowa cities and towns with the most in the directory today.
| Des Moines | 6 listed |
|---|---|
| West Des Moines | 2 listed |
| Grinnell | 1 listed |
| Pella | 1 listed |
| Burlington | 1 listed |
| North Liberty | 1 listed |
The documented buildings in Iowa
4 of our Iowa 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.
| Alleged Lee's | Baker--Devotie--Hollingsworth Block, Des Moines · NRHP ref. 78001256 |
|---|---|
| Blind Pig Cocktail Bodega | I.O.O.F. (International Order of Odd Fellows) Valley Junction Lodge Hall No. 604, West Des Moines · NRHP ref. 100001793 |
| Canary Underground Speakeasy | Merchants' National Bank, Grinnell · NRHP ref. 76000804 |
| Monihans Speakeasy | Savery Hotel, Des Moines · NRHP ref. 98001324 |
Where this state fits
We group Iowa with the Midwest 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: Illinois · Ohio · Wisconsin · Michigan · Indiana · Minnesota · Missouri.
The parts of the national story that bear most directly on Iowa: Blind pigs and blind tigers · Moonshine and backwoods stills.
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.