During the late 1800s the sound of clanging steel echoed all across America’s Heartland as thousands of miles of track were laid to accommodate the westward expansion of the railroad. Mile by mile, the tracks continued to inch west, with towns popping up in their wake. The development of these railroad lines brought an influx of pioneers and settlers, along with the rough and tumble crowd that followed the guaranteed work of laying track. That particular crowd, when not pounding steel in the hot sun, was looking for entertainment, often in the form of an illegal drinking establishment referred to as a blind pig.

Here, in Union, North Dakota, a grand opening of a blind pig was held in 1893, during the time of prohibition in North Dakota. The celebration was short-lived as the blind pig closed soon after. However, this particular pig was pretty persistent, and it reopened several times throughout the years. In 1905, with the law cracking down, Stephen Barlow, the proprietor of Unions’ Blind Pig, found himself behind bars for 90 days and slapped with a $400 fine for operating the illegal watering hole. Concerned citizens had had enough and hauled the building out of town with horses, but it always had a sneaky way of coming back to Union. In late 1905, in a last ditch effort to eliminate the blind pig, local citizens ordered the owner to burn it to the ground. However, by 1906, the blind pig was back in full operation, though it wasn’t over for establishment. Its doors were closed again shortly after until July of 1908 when it reopened just in time for harvest season and sold amber colored fluid to thirsty locals, proving this blind pig was nothing if not persistent.