HISTORY · HISTORICAL MARKER
Prohibition Movement
History
1
By 1885 a reform movement had begun in this wild cowtown, and open saloons were being forced underground into "blind tigers," where liquor could be bought through a slot in the door but neither seller nor buyer could see the other. Accusations, threatening letters, and bad feeling raced through the city. Enos Blair, a local editor and prohibitionist, suffered a mysterious fire at his home that everyone blamed on the saloon crowd. Early on December 8, 1885, Frank Noyes, a blind tiger owner, was taken from his residence by vigilantes posing as law officers. He was found the next morning hanging from a crossbeam at the railroad yard one block east, with a note on his body naming others who should take warning from his untimely death. Although several of the vigilantes were recognized when Noyes was first seized, none ever faced trial.
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