The bootlegger trail at the border

by Charles Francis

Two men trudged along the endlessly winding track that led under the dark cavern of enormous trees. A cold wind had followed them down from Quebec – a wind that skimmed pools with ice. At one point, the two passed over a corduroy road made of logs laid side by side – logs made slippery by mud and slush and even more slippery by the rotting vegetation in the swamp to either side of the road. They took extreme care here for there were places where a log had sunk into the swamp leaving a gap which could easily break a leg.

Their backs ached with the burden of the seventy-pound tanks they carried. Even though they wore padding as a cushion, and the tanks were formed so as not to leave sore spots, the tanks were still a strain to carry. Soon, however, they would be out of the swamp and able to rest for the night at the station at rum runner gap.

It is the era of Prohibition and the men are following a well-established route that runs from just over the Quebec border near Coburn Gore to the Rangeley region. This route was a major conduit for smuggling illegal alcohol into Maine during the 1920s. From the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919 prohibiting the sale of alcohol until 1933 when the Twenty-first Amendment repealed Prohibition, huge quantities of almost-pure Canadian alcohol were carried on the backs of men into Maine along the track that passed through rum runner gap and paralleled a portion of the route Benedict Arnold followed in his unsuccessful attempt to capture the City of Quebec.

The roaring twenties was the era of the speakeasy, bootleg liquor, and (cont. on page 50)

(cont. from page 49) bathtub gin. With the passage of Prohibition, the American drinking man was forced to use all his ingenuity to maintain his habit. In Maine, the poor made their own (generally) horrible-tasting homebrew by using spring water and varying amounts of malt and yeast. The wealthy bought expensive smuggled French wines, British scotch and gin, and Canadian whiskey at their private clubs and other respectable establishments with little fear of reprisal. For the middle-class working man on a limited budget, there was ‘Hand Brand’ that could be purchased from the local small-time bootlegger.

The expensive stuff entered Maine on speed boats so fast they could outrun the government revenue cutters or on fishing boats captained by men who knew the coast far better than the revenuers. The much cheaper Hand Brand was made from the Canadian alcohol carried through rum runner gap and along other trails leading into Maine from Quebec and New Brunswick. Bootleggers generally mixed Hand Brand by adding three parts water to one part alcohol. They then sold it in cans ranging from quarts to three gallons in size. The greatest quantity of alcohol used in making Hand Brand came through rum runner gap.

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The round-trip trek, which was always done on foot, took about eight days – four days up and four days back. The men who made the journey successfully earned seven or eight dollars a day for their labor, a substantial sum in that time period. Carloads of men in need of money came from as far away as the coast to make the trip into Quebec. The jump-off point was about fifteen miles northwest of the town of Rangeley. From here, the trail wound through forests, over mountains, and across streams and swamps until it reached Chain of Ponds and finally Coburn Gore on the Quebec border. Those who had any money would stop here at one of the line houses for a drink.

Line houses were resorts primarily frequented by wealthy American sportsmen who came to the area to hunt and fish. They were also meeting places for bootleggers and smugglers. The houses were built right on the international boundary and served liquor in the Canadian half of the building. If a state liquor inspector found someone drinking in the American half, all that person had to do was step across the room to be legal.

From Coburn Gore, the smugglers passed into Quebec to rendezvous with their suppliers. On the return trip, the now-laden smugglers avoided Coburn Gore with its sub-station of the Jackman port of entry and its contingent of state liquor inspectors and crossed the border in the general area of Arnold Pond. It was here that the Arnold expedition crossed the height of land into Quebec. The smugglers could see (cont. on page 52)

(cont. from page 51) mile upon mile of forested slopes lying ahead of them towards Rangeley.

There was always the danger of being apprehended by state liquor inspectors. However, as the roaring twenties became the Depression, more and more out-of-work men turned to smuggling alcohol. The Depression actually proved a benefit for those who carried the seventy-gallon backpacks. While they were not paid if their cargo was confiscated, they were seldom severely punished for their activities. Most smugglers were so destitute that they could not pay a fine, and judges were reluctant to impose sentences on ‘small fry’ smugglers because of the cost involved in keeping them incarcerated. One of the men was caught once. At his trial, the judge sentenced him to one day in custody and then dismissed him, saying this had been his day of punishment. If anything, Prohibition, especially during the early part of the Depression, provided out-of-work Maine men with an opportunity to make money carrying Canadian alcohol through rum runner gap.

Prohibition and the roaring twenties are but footnotes in the history books today. Rum runner gap appears on no Maine maps. The name survives only in the memories of the few remaining smugglers who passed through it. The line houses at Coburn Gore no longer sell liquor to deprived Americans. Near Arnold’s Pond, where smugglers passed from Quebec into Maine carrying seventy-gallon tanks on their backs, the State of Maine has erected several interpretative panels to welcome Canadian visitors. The panels are not in memory of the smuggler’s treks but rather Benedict Arnold’s march to Quebec.