Bootleggers found a niche in area during Prohibition

(It was on Sept. 30, 2000, that Erik Daarstad and I met with Bob Selle in his home to interview him for the “Sandpoint Centennial” movie. Bob relived the excitement of his life experiences and his words reflected his enthusiasm. In his way of speaking, them became ‘em, because often became ‘cause, and anything to be emphasized was done with a “yeah.” Today, Bob shares, in his own words, about the days of Prohibition and bootlegging in Sandpoint. Notice that he starts telling about the “other kids” but near the end he becomes an active player in the booze adventure. Bob Selle died on Sept. 1, 2004, at the age of 88.)

Question: Bob, what happened in Sandpoint to the booze trade during Prohibition?

Selle: Oh, they had bootleggers in Sandpoint. There were several families who were noted for being bootleggers.

Everybody knew they were bootleggers and every once in a while they’d raid ’em and arrest ’em but they made so much money they’d just pay the fine and they’d go right back into it.

These people also made home brewed beer.

I remember one time when I was a kid I noticed ’em (the police) breaking bottles of beer and they also were smashing bottles full of whiskey. They were breaking ’em out in this alley.

And I remember that it impressed me that they were picking up all these bottles and smashing and breaking ’em.

They were federal men out in that alley and they were working on Prohibition, yeah, working on booze.

Question: Were there any stills around?

Selle: Oh, I know of one still that I saw and remember. They had a pier that went out in the water that they called the Sandpoint Dock, you know. There was steamboats tied up out there cause the steamboats ran every day, you know, with the mail and stuff.

There were a lot of houses, and several families lived in these houses, and then there were some vacant ones. The kids found one that was anchored, tied to a piling off all by itself, and they went over there when they were swimming.

They swam over to it and they noticed it was boarded up and they tore the boards off of the windows and then they tore off the paper behind the boards.

They saw that there was a still in there and they saw it and all of these jugs of moonshine whiskey sitting there, so a lot of ’em took ’em, you know.

They would get hold of ’em and they’d put em on a rope and hang ’em in the water and swim back and take ’em home with ’em. Then they’d swim back over and tie up another bunch. I was there that day they found that still while swimming on the city docks.

I can’t remember how old I was — maybe 12 or 13, something like that — so I saw that still all right. The still that was there — had all the coils, like any other still, and you could see the burner where they put the mash to heat it up. And there were barrels of mash sitting there, too.

I went in; I crawled through the window in there and looked at it with the other kids.

Question: Get into any trouble?

Selle: Oh yes. There were some agents who came up out of Coeur d’Alene right away. Somebody had talked and they had heard, or got the information about me from somebody, that I was in on it. I remember my dad calling me in when the agents were there to talk to us, to me. And, of course, they wanted to know if I had any whiskey and I said, “No, I didn’t have any whiskey,” but I had to tell them about what I saw, you know.

I didn’t get in any trouble because I wasn’t old enough. If I’d been a little older, see, maybe I would have because some of the older kids sold that (whiskey) to the older ones and they re-sold it. It was worth money — you could get good money for moonshine.