Talk:Dry county

Liquor Stores versus Bars & Restaurants ("Private Clubs")

"Dry County" is often a deceptive designation, an anachronism turned legal fiction, at least in the case of, say Denton County, Texas, which is 'legally' dry, but you will find beer & liquor for sale in the restaurants & bars of Denton, Texas, because they are classified (legally) as "private clubs" which can serve alcohol to "members only"...membership is often free, and a nominal fee must be paid to a 3rd party agency that keeps track of one's "memberships". It is cumbersome and rather silly...the county is kept "dry", in the legal sense, mainly to placate religious constituencies, but the legalistic work-around is pleasing to restaurant owners & bar owners. I suppose an argument can be made that this extra layer of legal bureaucracy helps to discourage underage drinking, but a scientific, sociological study would be in order to verify if this conjecture is true. It does nothing to stop the legal and copious consumption of alcohol by many University of North Texas students in the Fry Street district in this "Dry" county. -JohnRonald (talk · contribs) - 07:22, 22 May 2005

Dry Counties in Virginia

I wanted to point out that the map of dry counties in Virginia seems to be outdated. Take Mecklenburg County, for instance. There are multiple ABC stores in the county and several places that sell off-premise beer along with several restaurants that serve beer/liquor on-premise. As I know from living in VA for 11 years, Pittsylvania, Campbell, Appomattox, and Louisa are completely wet. The rest of the counties I do not know for sure, however. I would not be surprised if Southwest VA still has dry counties. Radio-x 06:24, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Heh, I think there'd be week-long riots if Roanoke ever went dry :D — ᚹᚩᛞᛖᚾᚻᛖᛚᛗ (talk) 10:25, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Agreed - I looked up the ordinances of one of the counties in Virginia marked as dry, Lunenburg County. It shows that alcholol sales are legal, save during certain hours. See: http://library.municode.com/index.aspx?clientID=13147&stateID=46&statename=Virginia 75.243.19.231 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 02:04, 4 August 2011 (UTC).

The above concerns have been addressed in the most recent version. Michelshock (talk) 23:29, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

Dry Counties in Alabama

The map is also wrong for Alabama; Jefferson County (home of Birmingham) is far from completely dry, as the map suggests. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lackcomm (talk • contribs) 14:37, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

In the northeast corner of the state, there is also a lot of wrong info. Jackson County was moist as far back as 1993, and Cherokee and Dekalb have both went moist in the last three. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.232.71.125 (talk) 00:11, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

New Jersey And Massachusetts

How is Cape May county dry. Yes, Ocean City is in Cape May County, and I think West Cape May borough is dry, but the Wildwoods are as wet as they come. Does anyone have a reason beyond the few dry municipalities in the county. because I don't think there is any county law specifically and significantly restricting alcohol further than state law.

And whats with the western 4 counties of Mass being dry. In fact, I have seen both beer and wine being sold in supermarkets in that part of the state, which is something that's not normally allowed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.230.232.48 (talk) 14:25, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Additionally the town of Rockport MA is dry (this municipality within Essex county only) though beer and wine are allowed as "bring your own bottle". One source says beer and wine can be sold in restaurants but only if purchased with a meal. There are no liquor stores.

Also, why is Massachusetts even mentioned in this article? Under its sub-heading it only lists towns, not "counties", since the Commonwealth is civilized enough that the "county" as a geo-political entity is almost entirely irrelevant in the arena of civic life. I'm aware that in other states people say things like "Mah mama/sister (same thing, more often than not I gather?) done make the best chitlins an' grits in this here Bocephus County", but in Massachusetts we have this weird setup where towns actually touch other towns and there isn't fifty miles of wasteland between each of them. The rest of the country should try it, honestly. Also, stop putting "ranch dressing" (whatever that is) on everything and thinking more Walmarts means higher quality of life. Wormwoodpoppies (talk) 01:31, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

In Massachusetts you still think that that your "Pahk yuah cah neah Havard yard" accent isn't funny, but Southern and Midwestern ones are, and also think that everything being completely adjacent to everything else is wonderful. Fortunately, we more rural states have such spaces, which mostly aren't in any towns but where are created and grown the things most needed for life, like FOOD. Good luck getting along without that. 2600:1004:B15C:351B:4C8B:75CE:F1EB:8234 (talk) 01:33, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

Map Image

In the map, it says: "Wet Counties" and "Wet Counties" for two different colors, what is the difference? Please fix. WikiDon (talk) 06:24, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

The grey colour is for states which have no dry counties and which aren't discussed in the article (except Louisiana and Alaska, which have very few), while the other colours are used for states which have a mixture of dry, wet, and "moist" counties. —Preceding unsigned comment added by PaulGS (talk • contribs) 05:21, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

I think the map image should really be removed from the article until it's brought up to some reasonable level of accuracy. It's selective and misleading as it stands. 96.235.85.251 (talk) 19:16, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

The map is inconsistant with other material in Wikipedia. The map clearly shows all 96 counties in Tennessee as no data, The article on Lynchburg, Tennessee states in reference to Moore County TN states that it is a dry county. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Revrevrevrev (talk • contribs) 20:39, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Use of the word "there".

"Wayne County, Michigan, whose county seat is Detroit, is notable in that one cannot buy alcoholic beverages in any gas station there..." If I lived in Wayne County (I used to) and read this article, it just doesn't sound right, because "there" is not "there" for me... it's "here". I think something more generic should be used, like "the state of _______" or "the county of _______" so that it works well for all readers. Thoughts? Kubel (talk) 10:09, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

Removal of potsdam.edu website references

Please see a discussion here as to why this website does not meet WP:RS as an objective, third-party source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam#About_400_links_to_the_two_sites_of_one_individual . The page notes that "The Wikipedia Encyclopedia’s entry titled “dry counties” is based on this page" -- but that was due to the author's COI's editing. Flowanda | Talk 01:29, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Colorado City, AZ

This page lists Colorado City, AZ as being as being a dry city. But according to the AZ revised statues, section 4-224, as listed further down as well, this would be legally impossible. Now, I'm well aware of the fact that due to the demographics of this community, any establishment selling liquor would have a hard time staying in business, making Colorado City de facto a dry community (and this will likely be the case in nearby Centennial Park, AZ as well), but the article doesn't state that. In my opinion these communities should be listed as "de facto dry" instead of "dry" Clint.hotvedt (talk) 12:57, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Navajo Nation, AZ

As far as I know, Navajo Nation is moist, meaning that no alcohol sales are allowed on the reservation. This is possible because the AZ statues exclude tribal land. Clint.hotvedt (talk) 12:57, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

As far as I know, having lived on the Navajo Nation, it is in fact "dry", meaning that alcohol is theoretically illegal. My feeling was that in fact, small scale private use, especially by non natives, was overlooked unless it created a problem. Furthermore, since the Navajo Nation extends into both Utah and New Mexico, AZ law counts for very little. Wschart (talk) 23:15, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

Nevada

What is the dry status of Boulder City? I know you can't gamble there -- is that the only vice prohibited?

Weston, Massachusetts no more 'dry'

As per Sept, 10, 2008, Weston, Massachusetts is no more 'dry'.
Cf. Casey Ramsdell, "Popping the cork in Weston", in The Boston Globe, September 10, 2008.
-- Bartvs (talk) 08:06, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

"three years ago" ?

In the Massachusetts section, one reads (i.a.): "Rockport, MA is a formerly dry town which became moist three years ago." (my stress added) I am afraid that this is unencyclopedical. Please have it superseded by a definite year instead.
-- Bartvs (talk) 08:16, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Dassel, Minnesota

Dassel, Minnesota is not a dry town. The Dassel Liquor store is located there. It's been there for quite some time. Perhaps you have confused it with the neighboring Cokato, which was dry until about two years ago. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.191.76.174 (talk) 23:03, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Article is confusing

Several parts of the article contradict each other. The opening paragraph states that most dry counties are in the south or utah, but at the end it lists Utah as a state that is entirely wet. There is also a map of wet and dry counties in kansas, but again, kansas is listed as a state that is entirely wet

It shows several dry counties in Oklahoma, where you can legally buy alcohol in any county in the state. It is confusing "dry laws" with regulations on the serving of alcohol in public places, which exist everywhere.107.133.158.129 (talk) 05:30, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Corbin, KY has went WET as a city

Corbin KY is now WET as of 2/15/2012. The city of Corbin, Kentucky. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.19.182.249 (talk) 10:03, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

off-premises / on-premises

The terms "off-premises sale" and "on-premises sale", which appear in the opening paragraph, are *not* self-explanatory, and not linked. I think they are common shorthand for "retail sale for consumption elsewhere" and "retail sale for consumption on-site". There should probably be a detailed discussion of this usage somewhere on WP, whether it varies around the US, what terms are used in other countries. Please improve the article. -96.237.7.74 (talk) 19:19, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

BBC Data

The BBC recently published an article which contains a map which is considerably more detailed and contains more data than the one here. Thought I'd share it, in case anyone wanted to update it. 75.154.66.79 (talk) 17:30, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

what is a partially dry county?

I assume that means that certain towns are dry, but that others are wet. But does anyone know for sure? It'd be pretty important to add, given that most of Texas is partially dry.Armadillo1985 (talk) 21:05, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Spencer County, Kentucky

As of 2009 Spencer County, Kentucky is now a wet county.209.12.208.55 (talk) 19:35, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

Louisiana and West Virginia

Why are Louisiana and West Virginia grayed out? Perhaps that information could be included in the caption. Tyrannophobe (talk) 23:52, 19 July 2013 (UTC)

Transport

It appears this section is related to the impact of state and local prohibition laws on interstate commerce. I've copyedited the text, but it needs additional content and citations for further clarification. It really needs someone with more knowledge of interstate commerce and transportation of alcoholic beverages than I do. It's not my area of expertise, so I just cleared up some of copyediting issues. Rosalina523 (talk) 22:26, 23 October 2013 (UTC)

Mixed

Why is the map on the article not explained when it comes to "mixed" counties? I've never heard the term. --Criticalthinker (talk) 06:07, 19 March 2015 (UTC)

Seconding this. The article makes no mention of this term so it's confusing. Does it mean that individual municipalities within said county are dry? --Tofurki (talk) 20:09, 13 December 2017 (UTC)

Update - This is apparently a "moist county" which Wikipedia does have a page for, so I've updated the map description and linked to said page. --Tofurki (talk) 20:21, 13 December 2017 (UTC)

External links modified

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Tennessee Counties

Could someone update Tennessee on the map? I know that Montgomery County, for example, should be yellow; it's not a dry county as of now. Soccer11147 (talk) 01:57, 14 May 2017 (UTC)

It hasn't been dry for many, many years and now even has a legal, licensed distillery. If the map is in error about something this flagrant, just how reliable is it really overall? 2600:1004:B15C:351B:4C8B:75CE:F1EB:8234 (talk) 01:28, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

External links modified

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Renaming to "Wet and dry counties"

Hello. I thought of renaming this page to the name mentioned above because I think it doesn't make enough sense to list only "Dry county" on the title of this page. Any consensus?

--2600:381:F1D0:8DB:38CD:5551:3F0E:319A (talk) 18:45, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

Edit please delete, I have made a mistake

Mississippi

The Mississippi update is inaccurate, as the new law only applies to beer. The previous status of each county should still be on the map. 2600:6C5D:4C00:3BA:9F5:519B:612F:AF08 (talk) 22:49, 3 December 2024 (UTC)