Cheers and Celebration
On December 5, 1933, America's experiment with Prohibition officially ended with Utah's ratification of the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (Washington voters had repealed the state's prohibition law a year earlier). The state's ban had come into effect on January 1, 1916, an experiment in social engineering that led to increased instances of crime, conspiracy, and corruption, which factored into the successful repeal.
Some scholars argue that the Prohibition movement really began with efforts to ban cigarettes, then expanded to alcohol and other "unwholesome" social behaviors. In 1893 Washington became the first state in the nation to prohibit the sale of cigarettes to anyone, adults as well as minors. The law was soon declared unconstitutional and a more carefully worded ban went into effect in 1907. It proved to be unenforceable and was repealed in 1911.
With the cigarette ban stubbed out, organizations like the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Grange increased their efforts to ban alcohol. Prohibition advocacy was strongest in rural communities, but quickly spread to the big cities. Leading up to the 1914 election that approved Prohibition in the state, Seattle's Reverend Mark Matthews held daily revival meetings that galvanized support among evangelical Christians.
The statewide ban allowed for small amounts of imported liquor, but after the 1919 ratification of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, all of America officially went "bone dry" for more than a decade. Soon after prohibition ended, breweries reopened, hop and barley suppliers prospered, the wine industry got a fresh start, and taps began to flow at bars and taverns throughout the state -- except on Sundays, because of Blue Laws that weren't repealed until 1966.
Valley Irrigation
On December 4, 1889, Walter Granger and a group of Minnesota investors organized the Yakima Land and Canal Company, which in turn created the Sunnyside Project, the valley's first commercial irrigation venture. Grateful landowners soon named a town after Granger, although the businessman lived in nearby Zillah. By the time Sunnyside incorporated in 1902, farmers throughout the region were seeing bumper crops of apples, peaches, plums, cherries, and more. Mabton later celebrated its abundance of alfalfa production by opening the Hay Palace -- built almost entirely of hay bales.
The transformation of the landscape also led to diversity among the people who lived and worked in Yakima County. Beginning in the 1890s, Japanese immigrants worked as hired hands, and many of them leased land and entered the farming business for themselves. Japanese Americans would most likely have had a greater presence in valley history had they not been forced to leave and sent to internment camps during World War II.
In replacement, Mexican nationals were hired in 1942 under the Emergency Farm Labor Supply program, nationally known as the Bracero program. After 1947, the Bracero workforce was supplemented by Mexican American migrants, and Hispanic workers continue to provide a substantial portion of the farm labor in Yakima County.
