Butter, Booze & Bandits Program

Cokato Museum Director Johanna Ellison will present information about butter thieves from the 1920s and 30s during a program on Tuesday, November 19th at 6:30 p.m. The free event will be held in the Centennial Room in Cokato, and everyone’s welcome.

Ellison says what thief doesn’t get twitchy fingers when coming across golden bars – of butter, that is. She says throughout the 1920s and 1930s, gangs of butter thieves robbed Minnesota creameries and stole their transport vehicles. 

Ellison says around the same time, the Cokato villagers were divided into two groups the “drys” and the “wets,” battling each other over booze. She says not only was booze controversial and illegal for a time, but the lengths went to by these opposing sides to ban or distribute booze sometimes crossed the line into criminal.
 
The Centennial Room is located at 175 4th Street Southwest in Cokato (use the library entrance on Broadway Avenue). More information can be found on the Cokato Museum’s website at www.cokatomuseum.org or by calling the museum at 320-286-2427.