While I was researching my last book on the Adirondacks, I ran across a
couple of memoirs with neat anecdotes about prohibition in the north
country (in addition to those in Everest's _Rum Across the Border_).

Roy Higby, whose family ran a popular resort on Big Moose, recalled in his
_A Man from the Past_ (1974) that during Prohibition the family hotel
always had a good supply of Canadian ale on hand, always wrapped in "wet
and mouldy cloth feed bags."  Apparently, the ale was put into bags with
something that floated; then it was tossed into the St. Lawrence at a
point where the current would always carry it to the NY side of the river,
where it was picked up by a distributor.

And Herbert Keith, who lived for many years near Cranberry Lake, wrote in
_Man of the Woods_ (1972) that Sam Spain of Benson made his own liquor, a
distillation of such high quality that it acquired a state-wide
reputation.

cheers,
phil

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                          /  "Few fully understand what the Adirondack
    Philip G. Terrie      \  wilderness really is. It is a mystery even to
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