One hundred years ago, the cellar of what was then the new St. Louis County Jail in Duluth, and now is the Leijona apartment building, was jammed with hundreds of confiscated moonshine stills. It was the time of Prohibition. The March 30, 1925 Duluth Herald reported that storing all the stills was becoming a problem.

Below is the text of the story that appeared below the photo headlined “600 stills stored in the basement of new county jail.”

Bootleggers, bring out your kerchiefs! Here is a sight to make you weep. Piled in the cellar of the new county jail are more than 600 stills of all varieties, makes and reputations, but never more will they be used for the purpose for which they were made.

The stills are part of the haul which has been made by the county in the past year and a half. A pile as large as the one shown in the photograph is also at the courthouse at Virginia, sheriff’s office officials say. The stills are taken to the courthouse nearest their place of capture, and are kept there unless wanted in another city for evidence.

Storage of the pile of stills is getting to be quite a problem at the jail. Eventually they will be sold for the copper that is in them, and will bring 9-1/2 cents a pound, more or less, to the county. The number of pounds in the pile is uncertain; as the head jailer says, “your guess is as good as mine,” and it probably is.

Before being sold the stills must be “rolled,” that is beaten flat, so that they will be useless as stills. That in itself is quite a task.

In the meantime the collection is in the cellar of the jail, for all who pass there to see, and if it grows much larger is going to force either the building of an addition for its housing or the hiring of storage space.