Prohibition Raids in Hanford
A local man faces a heavy fine and jail time after officers force entry into his home to seize alcohol.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
James Brooks of Hanford was arrested Thursday morning for illegal possession of intoxicating liquor and was taken to Prosser that afternoon where he plead guilty to the charge and received a fine of $150 and a 10 day jail sentence, the jail sentence being suspended if the fine is paid. Up to Thursday evening Brooks was unable to raise the fine and unless he does he will have to lay it out in jail. The arrest was made by Sheriff James Shepherd and Deputy Clate Grewell of White Bluffs. Brooks was not at home when the officers reached his house near the outskirts of Hanford, and the sheriff found it necessary to break in the door when Mrs. Brooks refused to let them in. She had broken one bottle on the stove but the liquor was still running off the stove when the officers got in and a fair sample was caught in a basin. After a search another full bottle was found. Both Mr. and Mrs. Brooks were taken to Prosser but because Brooks assumed entire responsibility no charge was placed against his wife and she returned to Hanford Thursday evening with Deputy Grewell.
“She had broken one bottle on the stove but the liquor was still running off the stove when the officers got in and a fair sample was caught in a basin.”
This incident captures the heavy-handed nature of Prohibition-era enforcement in the rural Columbia Basin. Today, the site of Hanford, once a bustling community of farms and homes, has been fundamentally transformed by its role in the Manhattan Project and subsequent environmental legacy, erasing the very houses where such domestic raids once occurred.
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