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Whiskey Runners

11/13/2004:

At about this time in 1920, news came from Minot that whiskey runners appeared to be making their last trips of the season.

A news article read, “The runners are carrying heavy loads on their return trips from the border this week, but the roads are frozen and where the going is smooth, the ‘whiskey sixes’ thunder along between 50 and 60 miles an hour. The cars are traveling three and four in a string and for the first time in several weeks they are traveling...without an empty car ahead as a ‘feeler.’”

There was another indication this trip was a rush job – no women in the cars. Whiskey runners usually brought along female passengers to keep authorities from shooting at them.

Dakota Datebook written by Merry Helm