Dry Ground for the Railroad Graders: Counties Refuse Liquor Licenses Along the Great Northern
King and Snohomish county commissioners banned liquor sales within five miles of the Great Northern construction line — a pre-emptive strike against drink and disorder in the work camps.
The commissioners of King and Snohomish counties have taken a decided step to prevent drunkenness and disorder among the men employed in the construction of the Great Northern railroad. Shepard, Henry & Co., the contractors, presented a petition to the Snohomish county commissioners to grant no licenses for the sale of liquor within five miles of the road at any point east of Wallace. The commissioners granted the petition and passed a resolution in accordance with it. They also resolved to grant no liquor licenses at any points along the Monte Cristo road between Hartford, Getchell and the Monte Cristo mines, or within five miles on each side of the line. President Gatch, of the King county commissioners, also assured H. C. Henry that the board would follow the same rule as regards the part of the road in this county. The line crosses the east line of King county on the south fork of the Skykomish, near the headwaters.
“The commissioners of King and Snohomish counties have taken a decided step to prevent drunkenness and disorder among the men employed in the construction of the Great Northern railroad.”
Washington went dry statewide in 1916, four years before national Prohibition — but here the counties were already experimenting, banning liquor near railroad camps to police a vast transient workforce. The same instinct to regulate vice around laborers and vulnerable populations still shapes fights over licensing today.
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