The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1920-11-18
WHISI>2,y RUNNERS MAX.
ING l.>%sT TRIPS NORTH


trips between the states and Canada
for winter weather is near at hand.
Equipped with high powered cars and
carrying loaded pistols, sawed of shot
guns and high powered rifles for pro.
lection, for months they have defied
the officers Of the law. True, many
of them have been captured, but they
have little to fear when one considers
that the whiskey runners usually
travel in stolen cars. With the big
six cylinder Bucks, Hudsons, MASKS
or the powerful eight cylinder Cadil-
laos, they are prepared to give the
officers a merry chase. The roads
are like floor and the drivers often
travel along at so miles an hour, TAX
ing desperate chances. The cars are
usually loaded to their fullest capa-
city. A runabout has frequently been
found with twelve cases or 240 bot
ties in the rear and as this whiskey
is worth $50 quart at it's destination,
the cargo is considered of great value.
Not long ago, Sheriff Scofeld and
Deputy jacobson arrested seven whis-
key runners two miles west of Minot.
In two cars, the men carried IS or 40
cases. They gave up without fight
only because the two cars used by the
Minot office completely blocked the
road at bridge and the runners were
made to throw up their hands before
they had an opportunity to turn their
machines around. One car that at
tempted to turn around, backed off
the grade and stalled in the ditch.
The whiskey runners generally
travel in groups of three or four cars
at time, using the head car for a
path finder. The head car is always
empty but the driver acts as though
he were carrying load OF whiskey.
If officers intercept the head car, the
alarm is given and many valuable
load has been saved in this way.
Whiskey runners have used women
as drivers much Of the time, realizing
that officers will hesitate to shoot a
woman, whereas man might get pep
pered, but since the cooler weather
has come, few women are now found
in the "whiskey SKIES.
Much Of the traffic has gone thru
Minot during the summer. Thous-
ands of cars have passed thru Minot
enroute to Canada empty and back
loaded. Usually the cars keep clear
of the city, but number of them VEN
turning into town have been captured.
The cars when landed by federal
agent. are turned over to the govern
ment to be sold and the whiskey is
either sent to Fargo to be sold to hos
pitfalls, or is ordered destroyed.
Drivers of "whiskey skies" get good
pay. It is said that they receive
Ill A. ,,xo,, IN IN &Enn for ssnn1o
trip, and some Of them manage to
make three or four trips a month,
coming from as far south as Nebras-
ka and Iowa. Cars from Oklahoma
and Texas have passed thru Minot
during the past summer.
A number of whiskey runners have
been doing business con their own
hook A former Minot man who
recently moved to a western state, is
said to have left with $4,000, plus
an eight cylinder Cadillac. A year
or so ago, he was poor taxi driver.
Others have cleaned up thirty or forty
thousand dollars apiece during the
past summer according to reports.
They have been making plenty of hay
while the sun shone, realizing that
the whiskey traffic with Canada would
soon be over.
Airplanes have been used to some
extent. The writer met an aviator
with big Curtis plane from Iowa,
while in Minnesota last summer. The
aviator was met by Buick car which
had come down from Canada with a
load Of the precious spirits, and plac-
ing it in his plane, started off for
Iowa at a merry pace. Airplanes
were used for transporting liquor to
some extent, but not great deal.
Should a heavy snow storm come
this way soon, blocking the roads, q
large number of whiskey cars would
be caught.