Tulare           Tulare Was Once Known as 
                        'Moonshine Town on the
                                              Sunshine Trail'
                                     by Roger Kasa

Roy Dulany's parents left a good business in Sioux Falls and moved to Tulare in 1919 to begin a more lucrative career in farming.

After the bumper crops of 1918, farming was an attractive business, according to an article penned by Delany, who was a Tulare businessman for 40 years.

But, after nine years of farming and experiencing drought, hail storms, low farm prices and his father's failing health, the Dulany family moved into the town of Tulare and built the town's first gas station along Highway 281.  That business prospered for more than 40 years.

In 1922, Roy was transported to school in Tulare in a Model T Ford bus driven by Lee Gilby.  That year, he writes, Tulare was being served by three grocery stores, three barber shops, three farm produce stations, three cafes, three garages, two bank, drug store, butcher shop, harness store, furniture and funeral home, two hardware and machinery dealers, two lumber yards, three elevators, freight and passenger depot, livestock yard and a livery stable which also served as boot-legg4er headquarters.

Dulany writes that Tulare then "was known as the moonshine town on the Sunshine Trail."

"The businessmen in those years gave tickets for purchases of merchandise and on Saturday night a drawing was held for a fatted calf," he writes.  "The business people also supplied the community with free outdoor movies on Saturday night on the grass behind the bank where most of the young lovers found it convenient to meet for a free date while watching their favorite silent movie."

Other entertainment from this era was Chautauqua, which came to town for one week every summer and the dances held in the grove north of town and above the Bill Roeber store.

Another major drawing card in the early 1920's was the baseball team, considered to be one of the best in the state./  There were no leagues in those days, so the team played all over the state, seldom losing a game.

The team was managed by Jim Paulson and Mike Anderson and featured such players as the Lepley brothers, Sumner brothers, Art Avery, Art Gilby, Roy Binger, Lowrey, Soderquist, Stevens, Davis, Brobst, Pete McCoy and Lou Rose,

The town also had an independent basketball team with only five players, who practiced in Alfred Boyd's barn and played their games in the Redfield College Gymnasium.  The Modern Woodman Lodge met above Herman Otto's pool hall and the masons and Eastern Star gathered above McCoy Grocery store.