In the summer of 1913, the quiet town of Mendota, Illinois, found itself at the center of a rather strange newspaper report.
When a local brewery was forced to shut down for failing to pay a federal tax, more than a thousand barrels of beer were dumped directly into a nearby creek.
What followed sounded less like reality and more like a drunken fever dream. Fish floated belly-up or swam in confused schools downstream, turtles behaved erratically, and local reporters claimed even the bullfrogs were staggering through town “arm in arm.”
Equal parts environmental disaster, small-town humor, and bizarre Americana, the story quickly spread through newspapers across the country — preserving for history the unforgettable tale of the day the fish got drunk.
Fish Intoxicated on Beer
Mendota, Ill. — There will be no more fishing in the Mendota Creek for months to come. It is improbably that the fish will be able to see the bait for several week. The banks recently were lined with hundred of dead fish and the creek was full of others dead drunk.
Because of failure to pay the government tax, the Mendota brewery was closed and 1,081 barrels of beer were emptied into the creek.
An hour later a conglomeration of queer sounds arose from the creek, from the mewing of cat fish to the deep bass of the bass. Several turtles were seen disporting themselves absurdly on a log and three bullfrogs staggered arm in arm down Main Street, until taken into custody by a policeman. They couldn’t hop, despite the fact that they were full of them.
Many of the fish imbibed too freely and climbed out on shore, where they were fatally prostrated by the heat. Those who survived followed the beer down stream in large schools.
Source: Turner County Herald. Hurley, Dakota, S.D. July 24, 1913.
