Prohibition history
Prohibition in Oregon.
Oregon 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 32 speakeasies and hidden bars in Oregon.
Prohibition in Oregon, in order
| 1916 | Statewide prohibition takes effect in Oregon. |
|---|---|
| 1917–19 | Congress passes the 18th Amendment and sends it to the states. |
| 16 January 1919 | The amendment is ratified nationally. Oregon 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
Oregon 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, and the Columbia
Oregon voted itself dry in 1914, effective at the start of 1916. Portland sat on a navigable river with a working port, which gave the trade both a supply route from Canada by sea and a distribution network already in place.
The state’s enforcement record was mixed and its politics on the question were divided between a dry countryside and a wet port city — the standard American pattern, in miniature.
What Oregon’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 Oregon used the word “bootlegger” 833 times, “blind pig” 10 times, “speakeasy” 5 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 19, 1920 | “bootlegger” | Capital journal, Salem |
| January 21, 1920 | “blind pig” | East Oregonian : E.O, Pendleton |
| January 22, 1920 | “blind pig” | The Hood River glacier, Hood River |
| January 27, 1920 | “bootlegger” | Capital journal, Salem |
| May 13, 1920 | “speakeasy” | East Oregonian : E.O, Pendleton |
| June 15, 1920 | “speakeasy” | The evening herald, Klamath Falls |
| September 15, 1920 | “speakeasy” | Capital journal, Salem |
| January 7, 1921 | “blind pig” | Capital journal, Salem |
| January 12, 1922 | “bootlegger” | The Hood River glacier, Hood River |
Where to drink in Oregon now
We currently list 32 speakeasies and hidden bars in Oregon. The densest are Portland (12), Salem (4), Carlton (2), Eugene (2), Pendleton (1), Happy Valley (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 Oregon
Listings cluster where the building stock and the licensing both allow it. These are the Oregon cities and towns with the most in the directory today.
| Portland | 12 listed |
|---|---|
| Salem | 4 listed |
| Carlton | 2 listed |
| Eugene | 2 listed |
| Pendleton | 1 listed |
| Happy Valley | 1 listed |
The documented buildings in Oregon
7 of our Oregon 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.
| Bit by a Fox Mobile Speakeasy | Carlton State and Savings Bank, Carlton · NRHP ref. 88000082 |
|---|---|
| Gils Speakeasy | Pallay Apartments, Portland · NRHP ref. 100006124 |
| Secret Grove | Meier and Frank Delivery Depot, Portland · NRHP ref. 01000936 |
| Secret Society | Hiberian Hall, Portland · NRHP ref. 05000826 |
| Speakeasy Tavern | Pallay Apartments, Portland · NRHP ref. 100006124 |
| The Upper Lip | Corbett Brothers Auto Storage Garage, Portland · NRHP ref. 96000999 |
| The Wexford Room | Chemeketa Lodge No. 1 Odd Fellows Buildings, Salem · NRHP ref. 88000275 |
Where this state fits
We group Oregon 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 · Washington · Montana · Hawaii · Idaho · Wyoming · Alaska.
The parts of the national story that bear most directly on Oregon: Blind pigs and blind tigers · Rum running and Rum Row.
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.