A Couple Dollars From A Phohibition Era Juke Joint Cache

[Kace]

I like Cache Hunting Prohibition Era Still locations and Speakeasies just about as much as the Civil War era Caches.

Here's a couple dollars from two different Caches hidden at the same location. It kinda makes a difference Where coins are hidden. The darker one is 1922 in case it doesn't show up.

Kace

 

[Rick Dangerous]

Nice finds! How do you know where stills were? Wouldn't the woods be long overgrown?

 

[Kace]

Nice finds! How do you know where stills were? Wouldn't the woods be long overgrown?

Rick, Researching newspapers and then property records is how I do it if I don't know anyone that knew for sure where prohibition liquor related activities occurred. It's not hard to find out. Stills and runners weren't always in the country.

In KC proper like other cities, some immigrants made beer, wine and whiskey and some sold liquor out of their basements or were the runners. Most were related or came from the same part of the world. Many have tunnels still connecting homes... I knew that part ahead of time cause my family did it..lol!

Any river town that had legitimate businesses along or near the river a lot of times had a hidden speakeasy somewhere on the premises and liquor was delivered at night, by boat...if you're not near a river town, any city in the country had places where people made liquor and had places where folks went to eat, mingle and party in private.

If this type of hunting is something you'd like to do...After researching the alcohol related arrests or still operations that were broken up during prohibition then start with who had money, land, property and who were the local politicians in your area. You'll find larger caches. There's probably more than one or two if it was a fair size operation.

Good Luck...It's Fun!

Kace

 

[A2coins]

amazing post well done HH

 

[Obsessive]

That's awesome. I grew up in kc mo and my grandparents had many stories about the river market area during prohibition time. Gramps would often recall stories of stills hidden behind walls in basement and tunnels connecting secret places.

 

[Kace]

That's awesome. I grew up in kc mo and my grandparents had many stories about the river market area during prohibition time. Gramps would often recall stories of stills hidden behind walls in basement and tunnels connecting secret places.

I bet you heard some great and very true stories from your Grandparents Obsessive! Your Grandparents might of known mine! lol!

Your Gramps is right about the hidden rooms with stills, storage, distribution sites, speakeasies and tunnels connecting these places in Kansas City. The River Quay (River Market) was the hub of these activities in the area... working closely with river towns up and down the Missouri as well as the smaller towns around...one distribution site I've been to handled Nebraska exclusively.

I've been in tunnels in homes that led to underground party rooms (and hidden exits and another tunnel) that were decorated as nice as an upscale bar would be today. The tunnels and hidden rooms in legitimate businesses were the same... a little more added danger in some for being exposed depending on who owned them...Had to throw some of the law a bone at times...for publicity purposes. For the most part, where I've been, the Speakeasies hidden behind walls in nice restaurants were just like what was out front. It's really interesting to see.

During the times before and after the Volstead Act... Moonshining was going on and continued for a lot of folks to avoid liquor taxes. It was also a way of life for some immigrant ethnic groups. I usually hunt sites up to the mid 1940's-1951...not that it stopped then, but in these areas a lot of times homes and buildings stayed in the family. Now, a few of the areas have been taken over by immigrants that I have no ties to, wouldn't blend in and they would never let a stranger on the property...truthfully in some of these areas, I wouldn't go..even with 4-5 armed companions..lol!

I'm going to post some photos, taken from a VCR tape that I recorded of a site that I was at a long time ago...I knew it had been discovered long after I was there and was going to be on the news, so I recorded it. I normally wouldn't think about posting photos of these types of sites but since it was made public and on the news after the contractors discovered it and contacted them I'm not compromising anyone's home or identity.

The original owners (on paper) had died and a new owner was having some contractors do some work in the basement and they found one entrance to the hidden room while doing the work. There were two other entrances/exits but at that time they hadn't found them. I don't know about now. I haven't been back there..I hunted it then... although I didn't have a small coil at the time but I did get a few souvenirs. I'd love to go back now with this set up.

The photos will give an idea of what I was describing in my other more recent thread where I found the pop out Barber Half with my newly acquired AT Max with the 5x8 coil. These basements and/or cellar hidden rooms are pretty much the same type of rock foundations and rock and dirt flooring... Except the Speakeasies are much nicer and more brick,plaster and wood.

The photos, I'll post on the other thread 'She Was Eyeballing Me' if you haven't seen that one.

I'd love to hear the stories your Grandparents told you!

Thank You!
Kace

 

[Obsessive]

Sounds awesome. Look forward to seeing them. I'd bet we do have some common acquaintances, too.

 

[Noah_D]

Thats pretty cool. One of my relatives was a bootlegger during the prohibition era, I have a steel box that he used to put in the ceiling of his basement with coins and things in it. My great-uncle always remembers him bringing him down into the basement and giving him a small coin like a nickle or something. Anyway, when it was given to me it was full of coins from when my great-grandpa was in Europe in WWII and my great uncle was overseas in the navy.

 

[namxat]

"Researching newspapers and then property records is how I do it if I don't know anyone that knew for sure .."

Sometimes I follow my "gut feeling" and go jsut for fun on terrain I dont know jack of it. But if you really want results, an hour research is worth more than an hour boots on the ground. The early-19th-century-tavern-cum-horse-exchange-were-two-large-roads-crossed, yielded astonishing things. And I am not even done with it!


old road crossings, old sunken roads, taverns, mills, chapels, footfalls, livestock market sites, festival sites. Most hillarious and exhilarting story I ever been told was the old washing place and bleach that is now a sodden brush by the river. Nearly drooled when I did see what he pulled out.

Greets

Namxat

 

[MiddenMonster]

Sometimes I follow my "gut feeling" and go jsut for fun on terrain I dont know jack of it. But if you really want results, an hour research is worth more than an hour boots on the ground. The early-19th-century-tavern-cum-horse-exchange-were-two-large-roads-crossed, yielded astonishing things. And I am not even done with it!

Thanks for resurrecting this cool thread. But on the downside, it's apparent that @Kace never did post the secret room images from his/her video.

And by the way, congrats on having the scariest username on T-net...

 

[namxat]

Thanks for resurrecting this cool thread. But on the downside, it's apparent that @Kace never did post the secret room images from his/her video.

And by the way, congrats on having the scariest username on T-net...

No worries, thats just the name of a "tax helper" progam that lay on my desk several years ago spelled backwards.....

Q: Whats the difference between Al Quaida and the tax Authority?


A: Al Quaida has actually sympathizers.

 

[Kace]

Thanks for resurrecting this cool thread. But on the downside, it's apparent that @Kace never did post the secret room images from his/her video.

And by the way, congrats on having the scariest username on T-net...

You're right, I didn't get those pics up...life gets in the way sometimes. I'll try and do that soon. I had to take photos from a tape to post here.

I'll get them up as soon as I can.

Kace