I found two more pages that I liked on Chippepedia. They are entitled “The Pines Ballroom” and “Sokup’s Tavern and Dance Hall”. These are two dance halls that opened up right after prohibition.  This gives evidence to me that maybe prohibition had backfired? And now drinking was going to be at an all time high? That is what I thought these pages would give me a good lead into.

These buildings gained popularity very quickly, hosting weddings, gatherings, parties, etc. It is no surprise that the aftermath of prohibition would cause people to go party-crazy.  The Pines Ballroom would often be booked for years in advance on Saturdays for wedding receptions. These places would both host bands and dances that gave people something to do.

I like that these sources give information about dance halls and bars coming to be following directly after prohibition, but I would like to learn more about it. I want to know about other bars and more local to the Eau Claire area. I want to know what happened during prohibition, not only after. I will need to leave the Chippepedia website and look into other credible sources.

I found an interesting article on a website called “Chippepedia”, a website from the Chippewa Valley Museum. This seemed like a great place to get started because I took some of my classmates’ comments and looked into information on how prohibition effected breweries in the Eau Claire area. On this website, I coincidentally found information about the German vibe that came from immigrants and related closely to many of the breweries in the state of Wisconsin.

This article talks about many of the different breweries in Eau Claire, and Wisconsin as a whole. It focusses in on Walter’s Beer. This article reminds us that the time of prohibition was awhile back when technology and settlement was nowhere near where we are today. These breweries were made to serve locals, due to the inability of transporting it elsewhere. The article also mentions the German background of breweries coming from the heavy settlement of German people in the midwest at this time.

This article does a great job of talking about the rise and fall of alcohol and breweries throughout Wisconsin. It brings about the different breweries that existed, and how they merged, changed, or disappeared over the years. It also talks about the effects or prohibition and the before and aftermath that came along with it. I learned that technology also greatly affected the transformation of breweries. This article gives me great basic information to begin with, that I can expand on as I do further research.

This gives a great start to answering my questions. Yes, prohibition did affect Wisconsin, in more ways than one. This source, however, focusses just on Walter’s Beer, and I want to look more into different breweries and their backgrounds as well. I need to learn more about prohibition and the detailed effects, rather than the general concept that it shut down breweries and bars for a period of time. I think this website in general will guide me in the right direction, maybe even offering some primary sources.

My research question revolves around prohibition. I want to know how prohibition affected Eau Claire and Chippewa Valley. Often when I tell people I attend UWEC, they automatically assume that it is a party school and lots of drinking goes on because it is in Wisconsin. Wisconsin has been known for being a “drinking state” and I want to know why and where it originated.  If this state revolves so heavily around drinking, I want to know what happened when prohibition took place.

I have never learned about prohibition in detail, let alone to the extent of the impact it had on Wisconsin. I have only been taught about what it was and when it took place, but other than that, I know close to nothing. I am curious to see the effects of pre- and post-prohibition in Wisconsin. Was there a population change? Did alcohol taxes go up? Was the illegal sale of alcohol largely present? Questions like these are going to base my research and help me learn what prohibition really was and the actual toll it took on a city I am familiar with, Eau Claire.