Dr. Ben Hruska- Bootlegging on Block Island: Colorful Stories from Prohibition on the Great Salt Pond
Because of its geographical location, Block Island was a base for the rum runners, somewhat as it had been for pirates a few centuries earlier,” one historian of Prohibition wrote. Block Island had historically always been the outlier. Separateness has advantages, particularly when it comes to illegal activities. Winfield Dodge, owner and operator of The Yellow Kittens, took full advantage of this unique business model in the early summers of the Roaring 20s. Dr. Hruska’s talk will cover some of Block Island’s most colorful history that transpired on the surface of the Great Salt Pond in the wild days of Prohibition.
Dr. Ben Hruska currently serves as the Assistant Professor of Public History at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley located on the Brownsville campus. He is currently working on his third monograph tentatively tilted, “A Magic Refuge: Block Island in the American Imagination.” He also writes a weekly community history column in the Block Island Times and serves as a summer docent at the Block Island Historical Society and the Southeast Lighthouse