Carry Nation Smashed Here

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 supposedly 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 -- which is still in business, under a new name.

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."