Roaring Rouses Point

By Nick Southwick & Jessica McCafferty • Photos Supplied

It was the roaring 20’s and the small community of Rouses Point was in its heyday. As the northeastern most village in New York, it was a hub for international transportation. During Prohibition (1920-1933), anyone traveling through might well have been part of the Rum Trail that ran from Canada to New York City and beyond.

Federal and state agencies struggled to find ways to control the flow of illegal alcohol. One of the hardest places to patrol along the border was, and still is, the waterways of the region. Lake Champlain was no exception. For Customs officers trying to enforce Prohibition, there were steamboats, canal boats and barges carrying passengers and trade goods up and down the lake and connecting to the St. Lawrence River.

Opportunities abounded to have crates containing contraband hidden among regular goods. Some brave souls even built and used wooden submersibles with periscopes to evade authorities during the warmer months. In the winter, when they couldn’t go under, they would go over, driving loaded cars without lights, through the night over the frozen waters from Canada.

The clothing of the time lent itself nicely to personal smuggling. Large overcoats for men allowed them to strap flasks to their bodies, button up their coats, grab their walking sticks — hollowed out and filled with liquor — and walk down the street with none the wiser. Women utilized specially designed corsets, garters, skirts, and aprons with numerous pockets for hidden flasks.

As a counter to the increased number of female smugglers — and because male agents were reluctant to search women — a full-time female Customs inspector, Geraldine Laundrie, was appointed to the Rouses Point border. In her first three-month assignment she seized 670 bottles of liquor from female tourists arriving from Canada.

During that period Rouses Point was heavily reliant on the transportation industry. The village saw trains from Delaware & Hudson (D&H), Canadian Pacific (CP) and Rutland Railway. Commodities passing through varied from high value items like silk fabrics headed to the cities, to more standard goods like coal, milk, vegetables, and livestock as well as passengers. South bound trains could have up to six and a half miles of box cars affording plenty of hiding places for contraband goods.

Many locals were employed as railroad men, Border and Customs agents and there were always self-employed bootleggers who were willing to pay them off to turn a blind eye to their enterprises.

Smuggling was profitable, with potential earnings of around $600 a run versus an average wage of $17/week. That, coupled with the small number of Customs agents at the time, was what gave bootlegging its appeal.

While boats and trains were important methods used for rumrunning, the majority of the smuggling was done in cars with false panels, fake gas tanks or, at night, under the cover of moonlight. With little light, bootleggers — both men and women — would drive the back roads at high speeds, not even daring to light a cigarette for fear it would give them away. High speed chases and violent confrontations involving gun fire were common.

With the burgeoning automobile traffic there could be as many as 9,000 cars crossing the border into Canada in a single weekend headed to places that offered alcoholic beverages. During prohibition the Rouses Point border saw over a million people crossing each year!

Close to the village of Rouses Point were “Line Houses” that straddled the border between the U.S. and Canada where liquor was still legal. They offered dining and dancing. Patrons would enter on the New York side and be able to cross a line in the building and partake in libations on the Canadian side. One such line house was a hotel called La Meridian situated just 100 feet from the border. Line houses represented an opportunity to make more money with less risk for people looking to benefit from the illegal sale of alcohol.

Once agents confiscated illegal alcohol, its disposal was often a public event that attracted hundreds. Bottle smashing was a common practice and doing so in public was meant to make a strong statement that smuggling would not be tolerated. Crowds would gather in the town square as millions of bottles were broken on the shores of Lake Champlain. Those sections of shore became dangerous with all the broken glass, but people would still sneak back under the cover of darkness to look for the bottles that didn’t break. The dumpsite was positioned across from St. Patrick’s Church. Was that to imply God was watching?

Today Rouses Point is a charming, relaxed village with a strong focus on the lake, its scenic pier and its rich history. It offers a variety of popular dining spots, special events; concerts and plays on its center stage, an indoor hockey rink, a civic center, and endless outdoor recreation. Its role in Prohibition may be a distant memory, but it remains part of its storied past.

Rouses Point-Champlain

Historical Society

68 Pratt Street

Rouses Point, NY 12879

518 297-6628

www.rousespointny.com