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Carry Nation Smashed Here

Field review by the editors.

Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

Carry Nation was an early 20th century celebrity, famous for smashing barrooms with a hatchet. In July 1902 she traveled to Fond du Lac as part of an anti-booze crusade. She was harassing patrons in a saloon named "E.J. Schmidt Sample Room" and got into an especially heated argument with one customer.

"Every German in Wisconsin should be blown up with dynamite," she said, then pulled a hatchet from within her dress and smashed the whiskey bottle of her antagonist. The saloon owner quickly took the hatchet away from Carry, thereby saving his establishment.

The Sample Room, under a new name, is still in business. To the right of its entrance is a faded, peeling wooden sign: "Historic Schmidt Sample Room, Scene Of The Famous Carry Nation Hatchet Swinging Episode, July 18, 1902."

Carry Nation Smashed Here

Address:
2 W. Division St., Fond du Lac, WI
Directions:
Downtown, on the outside wall of JD Finnagans, on the northwest corner of Main and Division Sts.
Phone:
920-922-5500
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