HISTORICAL SPOTLIGHT

When national Prohibition began in January 1920, Oregon residents were already familiar with life under a statewide alcohol ban. Voters had approved prohibition in 1914, and the law took effect in 1916.

Portland, long known for its saloons and busy waterfront, faced a major change. Legal liquor businesses closed, but demand for alcohol did not disappear. Smuggled Canadian whiskey and locally produced moonshine circulated through the city during the Prohibition years.

Oregon’s experience reveals that the struggle over alcohol was not simply a national story. It was already unfolding in local businesses, police departments, and neighborhoods years before the Eighteenth Amendment took effect.

IN THE NEWS

Nationwide Prohibition Takes Effect

January 17, 1920

The Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act established a nationwide ban on the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquor for beverage purposes.

Oregon had already been enforcing its own prohibition law for four years.

Historical retrospective, not a verbatim 1920 newspaper article.

FUN FACT

Portland police stored confiscated liquor in the department’s basement. A circa-1920 Oregon Historical Society photograph shows a temperance worker with police and 108 cases of liquor awaiting destruction.

OREGON HISTORY

Portland had depended on liquor-license revenue before the statewide ban. The Oregon Historical Society notes that the city had previously received about a quarter of its general operating funds from those fees, leaving a difficult financial gap when saloons closed.

READ THE HISTORICAL SOURCES

Oregon Historical Society — Temperance Worker with Portland Police

Oregon State University — Prohibition in Oregon

Library of Congress — Prohibition Begins

National Archives — The Volstead Act