Whitey's Bar X Throwback T-Shirt

The Whitey’s Bar X Throwback T-Shirt puts a punchy, retro dive-bar graphic on a shirt found only at Dubuque Clothing Co. As with everything we print, it starts on a premium tee blank and finishes with soft, high-quality inks that keep the design looking sharp wash after wash.

Bar and tavern culture runs deep in Iowa history - the state actually enforced statewide prohibition in 1916, four years before the rest of the country followed with the 18th Amendment in 1920. Enforcement was a constant cat-and-mouse game: Sheriff Frank Christen of Winneshiek County reportedly confiscated 23 illegal whiskey stills in his first two weeks alone. When Prohibition finally ended in 1933, Iowa's corner bars reopened for good, becoming the enduring small-town social hubs that inspire throwback shirts like this one.

Reference: Iowa's Prohibition Years, 1920-1933 — Iowa PBS