Bootlegging days in Broadview circa 1916-1933
Broadview is a neighborhood North of Seattle and l ongtime residents share old stories of tunnels leading to secret underground rooms, midnight rendezvous at beaches north of town and houses on Greenwood burnt to the ground. These are the stories of bootlegging days in Broadview during prohibition. On January 1 st 1916 a state law was passed that prohibited sales of alcohol in Washington. On the very next day Rumrunner boats outfitted with oversized engines and large fuel tanks began making trips from Canada, flying through the dead of night heavily loaded with cases of whiskey. The distance between Canadian gulf islands and northern puget sound beaches is roughly 60 nautical miles and was covered in a little over an hour, in good weather, by the rumrunners. “Lazy-S” [a 28’ Baby Gar] was used to illegally smuggle liquor down the Pacific Coast from Canada. Powered by a big 1414 Cubic Inch 300 HP V-12 Kermath Sea-Raider engine and 310 gallon fuel capacity which ...