SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is known for a few things, but alcohol consumption is not one of them.
Every year, Utah ranks close to the bottom of lists of states when it comes to alcohol consumption. It landed as the sixth least-drunk state or district in the nation, SafeHome.org reported in September. The website 24/7 Wall Street, using different metrics, named it the least drunk state in America a few months before that.
Utah is home to many bars and breweries, and also members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a faith that advises against drinking alcohol.
So it may surprise people Utah played the deciding role in repealing the nationwide ban on alcohol production and sales. Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment exactly 90 years ago on Tuesday, overturning the 18th Amendment that set up Prohibition, beginning in 1920.
Here’s a look back at why Utah ratified the measure and how Utahns reacted at the time.
Utah and Prohibition
Utahns backed the 18th Amendment, but the state was sort of late to the temperance movement that had moments but started to rise with the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union beginning in the 1870s.
The state’s delay was largely tied to concerns “about charges of church interference in politics,” according to Allan Kent Powell, retired managing editor of “Utah Historical Quarterly,” who wrote about the subject for Utah History Encyclopedia.
There were a handful of efforts to pass bills, but all of them either died in the Utah Legislature or were vetoed by then-Gov. William Spry, Powell wrote. The Church of Jesus Christ also never really lobbied the state on the issue. Some towns passed local laws, but the state seemed stuck on it.
The turning point came in 1916. The Republican Party adopted the movement on a national scale and it became more of a bipartisan issue in the state, Powell wrote. Utah Republicans ousted Spry in their primary, but their candidate lost in the general election to Simon Bamberger, a Democrat who had championed the cause in his campaign even without ties to the church.
State leaders passed Prohibition laws the following year, joining nearly two dozen other states that already passed similar laws.
As Utah police geared up to enforce the law, some governments were figuring out how to cover lost tax revenue in the days before the law went into effect. Ogden leaders, for example, started looking into an ordinance issuing a new tax on soft drinks, the Ogden Daily Standard reported at the time. Multiple local breweries and saloons also looked to join the trade as Utah went dry.
There was “hearty rejoicing ” from those behind the push when the law took effect on Aug. 1, 1917, according to the Salt Lake Herald-Republican. Celebrations were reported across the state.
Others reluctantly accepted it. One drunken miner told the outlet the night before: “I will crawl under the billiard table and sleep, and when I awaken I will be sober, and after tomorrow I will never drink again because I will live in Utah.”
Utah and other U.S. states ratified the 18th Amendment in 1919.
Utah ‘kills’ Prohibition
Prohibition officially went into effect nationwide on Jan. 16, 1920, and everything ran smoothly before it unraveled by the decade’s end.
The Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform, which formed at the end of the decade, argued liquor bans didn’t stop people from illegally drinking, Time magazine noted in a piece on the 18th Amendment’s downfall.
History.com, which also wrote about the end of Prohibition, pointed out that federal and state governments lost “billions in tax revenue” from illegal activities led by mobsters, bootleggers and underground speakeasies. Time also noted that it gained more steam as the Great Depression crushed federal tax revenue, which had helped governments overcome the loss of alcohol taxes.
Utah wasn’t immune to the nationwide issues. Bootleggers found ways to produce and sell booze to speakeasies in the Beehive State, too.
“Public officials were often frustrated in their attempts to enforce the law,” Powell wrote, noting studies that found people of all backgrounds participated in the underground trade.
Hundreds of illegal distilleries and stills were uncovered in the final decade of the state’s dry period, as well as tens of thousands of gallons of alcohol — likely a fraction of what was produced in this era, he added.
Prohibition sentiments flipped very quickly in Utah and nationwide, forcing elected leaders to revisit the conversation.
Congress passed the Blane Act in 1933, introducing the 21st Amendment as long as 36 states ratified it. Only two Utah lawmakers voted against a bill that set up a 21-person delegation to ratify the amendment around this same time before Utahns went to the polls to vote, John Kearnes wrote in a piece about this era for “Utah Historical Quarterly.”
Kearnes noted a coalition of religious leaders battled to retain Prohibition, which split the state on the issue. The two sides argued for months over the good and bad of prohibition before about 60% of Utahns voted in favor of ending it that November. They also voted to repeal the state law by a slightly slimmer margin.
It was now up to the delegation to finalize the process. The Salt Lake Telegram reported other states jockeyed with Utah to have the “honor of being the state to sign the death warrant” on Prohibition. Utah delegates weren’t going to let that happen.
“We are eager to end national Prohibition, but not until we are certain that Utah will be the 36th state to ratify,” one delegate said.
Ohio, Pennsylvania and Utah approved it on Dec. 5, but Utah’s vote came in the late afternoon, so it became the state that ended Prohibition. The Logan Herald Journal reported at the time that the vote was slated to be even later in the day, but was also moved up to appease national broadcasters and curtail Maine’s bid to be the 36th state to ratify.
One newspaper headline simply read: “Utah kills dry law.”
However, Prohibition’s rise and fall did spark a change Utahns see today. Ray L. Olson, one of the leading delegates, told the Logan paper he was “convinced there is a universal desire to promote temperance” through the right liquor laws.
Utah leaders rearranged their liquor laws as they started allowing alcohol, setting up state-operated stores in 1935 to replace independent stores that operated before 1917, according to Powell.
These stores, now operated by the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services, generated nearly $580 million in sales during the 2023 fiscal year, creating over $136 million in state revenue, $32 million in sales tax revenue and $3 million for the state’s anti-underage drinking campaign.
Agree: Utah played a significant role in repealing Prohibition, a historic milestone worth reflecting on. #CheersToThe21stAmendment
Good grammar, disagree: Utah’s role in repealing Prohibition may have been significant, but it does not warrant celebrating. The negative consequences of alcohol consumption cannot be ignored.
Agree: Utah’s role in repealing Prohibition should be acknowledged and celebrated, as it represents an important milestone in our history.