South Dakota has always had an intermittent relationship with prohibition. Constantly changing legislation kept citizens, saloonkeepers, bootleggers and other scofflaws on tenterhooks, wondering what might come next. The scandalous indiscretions of the lethal Verne Miller and the contributions of "agents of change" like Senators Norbeck and Senn kept ne'er-do-wells on edge. In 1927, the double murder of prohibition officers near Redfield dominated headlines. From the Black Hills stills of Bert Miller to the Sioux Falls moonshine outfit buried under Lon Vaught's chicken house, uncork these oft-overlooked and tumultuous eighteen years in state history. In the first book of its kind, award-winning journalist Chuck Cecil delivers the boisterous details of an intoxicating era.

Born in Wessington Springs, Chuck Cecil has been a reporter, photographer, university administrator and editor/publisher of eleven weekly newspapers. Currently, he writes a prize-winning weekly column in the Brookings Register newspaper, has a short program on all of the Brookings radio stations and has written and published twenty-one books.

Do you have questions about Prohibition in South Dakota: Astride the White Mule

We would like to know. Contact us at: history "at" SouthDakotaCCC "dot" org.

Your purchases and donations help support the Civilian Conservation Corps Museum of South Dakota. Shop online now or make your purchase at the museum.