One Of Minnesota’s Largest Prohibition Raids Happened Right Here In St. Cloud

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- One of the biggest Prohibition-era raids in Minnesota's history happened right here in St. Cloud.

Lacey Fontaine is the Executive Director of the Benton County Historical Society and Museum. She was recently asked to do some research on the building at 415 East St. Germain Street, which we told you last week will be a new Bodega.

Read More: St. G's Bodega Is Opening In St. Cloud This September |

Owner Marla Waseka wanted to know if that building, built in 1922, had ever operated as a speakeasy.

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Fontaine says she found an article from the St. Paul Pioneer Press from October 3rd, 1930.

And it talked about this massive raid that occurred in East St. Cloud, and it's actually called one of the biggest raids in state history at the time.  Fifty-two people were arrested as part of that raid.  The location where the raid primarily happened is where Village Hearth is today.

Fontaine says federal agents found dozens of barrels of whiskey in a five-block area that also included Beaudreau's Bar and the 415 building.

The St. Cloud jail was slammed.  The people were waiting in the lobby to be booked.  They ended up putting them in hotel rooms in order to make the process go quickly.

She says the building's owner at the time was G.H. Miller.

Miller was operating a pool hall, which we could assume maybe was a front for a speakeasy, because often pool halls were.  He listed the building for sale the night before the raid, and then the sale stopped.  We have no record of the sale going through, and he was just gone.

Fontaine says it's safe to say something illegal was probably happening there, but it is hard to say for sure if it was a speakeasy.

Sixty federal officers descended on both Stearns and Benton Counties that night, from North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota.

She says the next step for the 415 building is to look at the architectural layout and see if there were any changes made to the building, such as holes in the wall, or hidden spaces in the basement.

Read More: Beaudreau's: An East St. Cloud Staple Since the 1880s |

Fontaine says the raid makes sense because Highway 10 was a huge transportation hub for bootlegging operations during Prohibition, which lasted from 1920 until 1933.

As more buildings on St. Cloud's East End get revitalized, researchers are uncovering more about their interesting past.

Once a month, Fontaine is on the News @ Noon Show and talks about the forgotten history of Benton County.