100 years ago in Spokane: ‘Booze Special’ train trip from dry Spokane to wet Montana expected to be ‘some party’

From our archives, 100 years ago

A new kind of rail excursion – the “booze special” – was about to make its tipsy debut in Spokane.

At least 400 Spokane residents were expected to take a special train to Troy, Montana – where alcohol was still legal – for a day of revelry. Then they would hop back on the train after the saloons closed and be back in Spokane by 9 a.m. the next morning.

A Great Northern ticket clerk said that the regular rules of conduct would be suspended on the train and “anything will go.” The Spokesman-Review said it was “believed to be the first ‘booze-special’ train run from a dry state into a wet one.”

The organizer of the excursion, Arthur Baird, downplayed the drunken revelry aspect of the trip. In fact, he refused to call it the “booze special” and said he preferred the name “Old Timer’s Picnic.”

Baird, the “chief mixologist” at a Spokane soft drink bar, said that a local amateur baseball team would be part of the trip, and would play a baseball game against the Troy team in the afternoon. Then the Troy businessmen were organizing an evening dance. He said it would not be a men-only excursion, as erroneously reported earlier. He said he expected a lot of women to take the trip.

Baird also said it would “not be a trip for the purpose of bringing liquor into the state illegally.” He said they planned to make an announcement at the beginning of the trip, detailing the state laws on the matter. Only people who had a valid Washington liquor permit were allowed to bring in liquor from out of state.

However, Baird certainly didn’t want to make it sound like a staid affair.

“Yes, it will certainly be some little old party,” he said. “Some party, I say.”