Prohibition in Southwestern Michigan

Even in law-abiding southwestern Michigan, the Eighteenth Amendment turned ordinary citizens into scofflaws and sparked unprecedented unrest. Betta Holloway reached her breaking point when her husband, a Portland cop, was shot pursuing a rumrunner. She relieved his pain with a neighbor’s homebrew. As farmers across the region fermented their fruit to make a living, gangsters like Al Capone amassed extraordinary wealth. Baby Face Nelson came to Grand Haven and proved that he had no aptitude for robbing banks. Even before the Volstead Act passed, Battle Creek bad guy Adam Pump Arnold routinely broke all local prohibition laws–and every other law as well. Meanwhile, Carrie Nation hectored Michigan with her hatchetations. Authors Norma Lewis and Christine Nyholm reveal how the Noble Experiment fueled a rowdy, roaring, decade-long party.