The Prohibition and Great Depression Years (1920 to 1939) at Ocean Isle Beach
The National Prohibition Act passed over Woodrow Wilson’s veto on October 28, 1918, and provided enforcement for the 18th Amendment outlawing liquor. The Act took effect on the federal level on January 29, 1920, and was not repealed until December 5, 1933. During these Prohibition years in America, it was illegal to produce, transport, or possess liquor. However, sailing vessels routinely used Tubbs Inlet to smuggle rum, whisky, and other liquor into Brunswick County from the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Canada. You will find liquor bottles scattered in the woods around the Ocean Isle Beach area even today, as locals in the 1920s transferred smuggled liquor into other containers because they would have been arrested if caught with the glass containers. Residents would quickly unload the contraband cargo at Seaside Landing and discard the glass liquor bottles in the woods around this landing area. The isolation of this area in the 1900s made Brunswick County ideal for smuggling liquor during the Prohibition era. Illegally smuggling liquor was big business in the Ocean Isle Beach area throughout the 1920s.
The hill on Ocean Isle Beach where the brick Odell Williamson house is located is called Gause’s Hill. That hill was originally part of the William Gause Plantation, stretching from the ocean to several miles inland. Gause’s Hill has always been the highest point on Ocean Isle Beach. In the late 1920s, E.J. Smith built a dance hall on Gause’s Hill. The dance hall on Gause’s Hill in the 1920s was just a honky-tonk, and people as far away as Whiteville would come to party. They would drive to Gause’s Hill in their Model A and Model T automobiles on clay and gravel roads. Ford produced the first Model T and Model A automobiles in 1907 and 1927, respectively. This dance hall operated at the height of the Prohibition era, so any liquor in possession of anyone would have been illegal.
Before 1934, when the Inland Waterway was dug through this area, you could easily walk or drive from the mainland to the ocean. So, Ocean Isle Beach was not even an island until 1934.
The Great Depression in the United States began with the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, and ended with World War II in 1939. During the Great Depression, farm prices fell 60 percent, construction halted everywhere, unemployment rates skyrocketed, and people suffered. Cities were a tough hit. However, in the Ocean Isle Beach area, people were already unemployed and almost poverty-stricken.
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Vern Bender
AUTHOR ARETURNING CHRISTIANITY TO IWHAT IT ORIIIGIONALY WASND HISTORIAN
The Prohibition and Great Depression Years (1920 to 1939) at Ocean Isle Beach
The National Prohibition Act passed over Woodrow Wilson’s veto on October 28, 1918, and provided enforcement for the 18th Amendment outlawing liquor. The Act took effect on the federal level on January 29, 1920, and was not repealed until December 5, 1933. During these Prohibition years in America, it was illegal to produce, transport, or possess liquor. However, sailing vessels routinely used Tubbs Inlet to smuggle rum, whisky, and other liquor into Brunswick County from the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Canada. You will find liquor bottles scattered in the woods around the Ocean Isle Beach area even today, as locals in the 1920s transferred smuggled liquor into other containers because they would have been arrested if caught with the glass containers. Residents would quickly unload the contraband cargo at Seaside Landing and discard the glass liquor bottles in the woods around this landing area. The isolation of this area in the 1900s made Brunswick County ideal for smuggling liquor during the Prohibition era. Illegally smuggling liquor was big business in the Ocean Isle Beach area throughout the 1920s.
The hill on Ocean Isle Beach where the brick Odell Williamson house is located is called Gause’s Hill. That hill was originally part of the William Gause Plantation, stretching from the ocean to several miles inland. Gause’s Hill has always been the highest point on Ocean Isle Beach. In the late 1920s, E.J. Smith built a dance hall on Gause’s Hill. The dance hall on Gause’s Hill in the 1920s was just a honky-tonk, and people as far away as Whiteville would come to party. They would drive to Gause’s Hill in their Model A and Model T automobiles on clay and gravel roads. Ford produced the first Model T and Model A automobiles in 1907 and 1927, respectively. This dance hall operated at the height of the Prohibition era, so any liquor in possession of anyone would have been illegal.
Before 1934, when the Inland Waterway was dug through this area, you could easily walk or drive from the mainland to the ocean. So, Ocean Isle Beach was not even an island until 1934.
The Great Depression in the United States began with the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, and ended with World War II in 1939. During the Great Depression, farm prices fell 60 percent, construction halted everywhere, unemployment rates skyrocketed, and people suffered. Cities were a tough hit. However, in the Ocean Isle Beach area, people were already unemployed and almost poverty-stricken.
