50 Strange U.S. Laws Still on the Books – Part Two (Montana to Wyoming)

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Strange History Podcast. I'm your host Amy,

0:03 Speaker 1: and tonight we're wrapping our cross country tour of America's

0:06 Speaker 1: weirdest laws that are still at least technically on the books.

0:11 Speaker 1: In part one, we met bouncing pickles and law abiding elephants.

0:15 Speaker 1: In part two, we'll find outlaw camels, suspicious butter bigfoot

0:19 Speaker 1: with legal protections, and a firm reminder not to lasso fish.

0:24 Speaker 1: Some of these rules are local oddities, some were passed

0:28 Speaker 1: for very specific historical reasons. All of them prove that

0:32 Speaker 1: the United States is not just the land of the free,

0:35 Speaker 1: it's the land of extremely specific municipal concerns. Let's finish

0:40 Speaker 1: the map.

0:41 Speaker 2: Montana, A sheep needs a chaperone in the cab.

0:45 Speaker 1: Montana Ranch country once had a problem cowboys hauling sheep

0:49 Speaker 1: up front in their trucks and making everyone else uncomfortable.

0:53 Speaker 1: So the rule emerged. If a sheep rides in the cab,

0:56 Speaker 1: it needs a human chaperone besides the driver. The point

1:01 Speaker 1: was less scandal and more safety. Livestock in your lap

1:04 Speaker 1: is not a great air bag strategy, and perhaps a

1:08 Speaker 1: wink at frontier propriety. Today, most folks stick sheep in

1:13 Speaker 1: the back where they belong, and a spare ranch hand

1:16 Speaker 1: ride shotgun instead.

1:18 Speaker 2: Nebraska. The doughnut without a hole.

1:22 Speaker 1: A small town Nebraska taboo long discouraged selling wasteful ring

1:27 Speaker 1: doughnuts with holes, make the whole pastry edible, or fill

1:30 Speaker 1: the center. Baker's got creative, jelly filled, cream filled, anything filled,

1:36 Speaker 1: and customers never looked back. What began as a thrifty

1:40 Speaker 1: stance against tossing dough cutouts helped popularize the very pastries

1:45 Speaker 1: people now crave. Nebraska, where fiscal conservatism accidentally invented the

1:51 Speaker 1: best part of breakfast.

1:52 Speaker 2: Nevada, no camels on highways.

1:56 Speaker 1: In the nineteenth century, the US Army tested camels in

1:59 Speaker 1: the desert West. When that experiment ended, a few animals

2:02 Speaker 1: lingered and became hazards on dusty wagon roads that later

2:06 Speaker 1: became highways. Nevada's solution was simple, no camels on the thoroughfares.

2:12 Speaker 1: It reads like a joke until you imagine cresting a

2:15 Speaker 1: hill outside Reno and meeting a one hump traffic cone.

2:19 Speaker 1: These days, the law mostly survives as desert folklore and

2:24 Speaker 1: an excellent bar trivia answer.

2:26 Speaker 2: New Hampshire no picnics and cemeteries.

2:30 Speaker 1: Victorian mourners once dined among headstones to feel close to

2:34 Speaker 1: their departed. Over time, the sandwiches got rowdier than the sentiment,

2:39 Speaker 1: and New Hampshire towns put their foot down. The modern

2:42 Speaker 1: expectation is quiet, respect, flowers, reflection, maybe a note with

2:48 Speaker 1: the potato salad saved for the park. It's a law

2:52 Speaker 1: about place and purpose, preserving cemeteries as spaces of memory

2:56 Speaker 1: rather than weekend potlucks.

2:59 Speaker 2: New Jersey murder while wearing a bulletproof vest.

3:03 Speaker 1: Wearing body armor during a felony, especially a violent one,

3:07 Speaker 1: signals preparation for violence and a willingness to escalate. That's

3:12 Speaker 1: why New Jersey stacks penalties if you commit certain crimes

3:15 Speaker 1: while armored. It's not the vest itself, it's the combination.

3:20 Speaker 1: The statute is a practical message to would be tough guys.

3:24 Speaker 1: If you're planning on getting shot at the court, plans

3:27 Speaker 1: on adding years.

3:28 Speaker 3: Have you ever been ticketed for selling socks on a Sunday,

3:31 Speaker 3: for hosting a bingo night that ran five hours and

3:33 Speaker 3: seven minutes, or for parking your elephant without feeding the

3:37 Speaker 3: meter You need Blue law insurance. The only coverage that

3:40 Speaker 3: treats bizarre local ordinances like hail damage. Our starter plan

3:43 Speaker 3: includes a laminated list of states where butter must be butter,

3:47 Speaker 3: a polite script for cemetery picnic dispersal, and a punch

3:50 Speaker 3: card for main dance permits upgrade to premium and will

3:53 Speaker 3: prefile your Utah no Siege Engines downtown compliance letter just

3:57 Speaker 3: in case your nephew builds a trebuche.

4:00 Speaker 2: Horse tripping is illegal.

4:03 Speaker 1: Rodeo traditions sometimes strayed into cruel spectacle, and one of

4:07 Speaker 1: the worst, roping a horse's legs to make it fall,

4:11 Speaker 1: was outlawed in New Mexico. The ban aligns with broader

4:15 Speaker 1: animal welfare reforms that swept through Western states. You can

4:20 Speaker 1: still ride, rope and ranch to your heart's content, but

4:24 Speaker 1: if your entertainment starts with yanking legs out from under

4:28 Speaker 1: a horse, expect to see a judge instead of a trophy.

4:32 Speaker 2: New York no flirting in public Schenectady's old moral codes.

4:38 Speaker 1: Turn of the century, Schenectady tried to legislate flirtation out

4:41 Speaker 1: of street life, ticketing, lewd winks, theatrical size, and amorous comments.

4:47 Speaker 1: It was part of a wider morality push that also

4:50 Speaker 1: targeted spitting and loitering. While enforcement faded with time and

4:54 Speaker 1: changing norms, the ghost of that prudish impulse lingers in

4:58 Speaker 1: local lore will still flirt. Of course, they'll just do

5:02 Speaker 1: it with better jokes and less paperwork.

5:04 Speaker 2: North Dakota, beer and pretzels don't mix on paper.

5:11 Speaker 1: An old North Dakota rule discourage taverns from serving salty

5:14 Speaker 1: snacks with beer, the worry being that pretzels would god

5:18 Speaker 1: patrons into ordering round after round, public health by way

5:22 Speaker 1: of dry pretzels. Today it's rarely enforced and widely ribbed,

5:26 Speaker 1: but it survives as a reminder that alcohol policy is

5:29 Speaker 1: nothing if not creative. Bars naturally prefer the modern interpretation.

5:35 Speaker 1: Pretzels are community service Ohio. No drunk fishing, Ohio. Wardens

5:42 Speaker 1: take the safety in outdoor recreations seriously. If you're noticeably

5:46 Speaker 1: under the influence with a rod in hand, you're a

5:49 Speaker 1: danger to yourself and everyone in the boat. Imagine the

5:53 Speaker 1: reports tangled lines, accidental hooks, and hats one very confused trout.

5:59 Speaker 1: Anglers can toast the day's catch after they dock, not

6:02 Speaker 1: while they wobble at the.

6:03 Speaker 2: Gunneal, Oklahoma, bear wrestling is banned.

6:08 Speaker 1: Mid Century roadside bars once advertised bouts with declaud muzzled bears.

6:14 Speaker 1: It was grim for the animals and occasionally disastrous for

6:17 Speaker 1: the patrons. Oklahoma closed the ring for good and made

6:20 Speaker 1: it illegal to own or stage a bear for fighting.

6:23 Speaker 1: If your establishment needs an animal to lose, you can

6:26 Speaker 1: win a crowd. The problem isn't the bear, it's your booking.

6:30 Speaker 2: Oregon. No whistling underwater.

6:33 Speaker 1: Some municipal codes are time capsule jokes that never got deleted.

6:38 Speaker 1: Oregon's classic is the underwater whistle rule, a line that

6:42 Speaker 1: reads like it escaped from a vaudeville routine. Consider it

6:46 Speaker 1: civic poetry, a gentle reminder that not everything in the

6:49 Speaker 1: codebook needs a courtroom. Some of it just needs a

6:52 Speaker 1: chuckle and a snorkel.

6:55 Speaker 2: Pennsylvania, don't tie a dollar to a string and yanket.

7:00 Speaker 1: The sidewalk gag of a dollar on a string was

7:03 Speaker 1: funny to pranksters and humiliating to passers by. Pennsylvania nuisance

7:07 Speaker 1: rules made the trick actionable, especially when it clogged up

7:11 Speaker 1: busy streets. The spirit of the law is simple, laugh

7:14 Speaker 1: with people, not at them, particularly when traffic is involved

7:18 Speaker 1: in tempers are short.

7:20 Speaker 2: Rhode Island margarine pats were a no no.

7:24 Speaker 1: During the Butter versus margarine wars, Rhode Island cracked down

7:28 Speaker 1: on restaurants serving margarine in butter style pats without clear labeling.

7:33 Speaker 1: The idea was consumer honesty and a nudge to support

7:37 Speaker 1: local dairy. Diners of the era found themselves sawing at

7:42 Speaker 1: suspiciously pale rectangles and wondering if the state would appear

7:46 Speaker 1: with a clipboard.

7:48 Speaker 2: South Carolina Sunday Sales and work limits.

7:52 Speaker 1: Blue laws once shaped Sunday so thoroughly that what you

7:56 Speaker 1: could buy or even do changed for a day. South

7:59 Speaker 1: Carolin line, as patchwork of restrictions softened over the years,

8:03 Speaker 1: still teaches a cultural lesson not every day is for commerce.

8:08 Speaker 1: If your errand list includes socks, power tools, and a

8:12 Speaker 1: spontaneous yard sale, the timing, not the items, might be

8:16 Speaker 1: the issue.

8:18 Speaker 2: South Dakota no sleeping in cheese factories.

8:22 Speaker 1: Food Safety and common sense meat in South Dakota's quirky

8:25 Speaker 1: prohibition on dozing where dairy is being made. The rule

8:29 Speaker 1: speaks to a time when night shifts were long, ventilation

8:32 Speaker 1: was optimistic, and a quick nap could turn into a

8:35 Speaker 1: sanitation nightmare. Cheese should be aged, not the employees on

8:40 Speaker 1: the clock.

8:41 Speaker 2: Tennessee. No lassoing fish.

8:44 Speaker 1: Tennessee protects its waters from improvised rodeo tactics. A rope

8:49 Speaker 1: around a trout is neither sporting nor safe. The state's

8:52 Speaker 1: message is clear, use a rod, a real and a

8:56 Speaker 1: license and tell your tall tales afterwards. If your fishing

9:01 Speaker 1: story starts with so I roped this catfish, it should

9:05 Speaker 1: end with then I paid a fine.

9:08 Speaker 2: Texas don't sell your eyes.

9:11 Speaker 1: Texas bands trafficking in human organs and the eyes are

9:14 Speaker 1: on that list for obvious reasons. This is one of

9:18 Speaker 1: those laws that needs no grand explanation. It's the solid

9:21 Speaker 1: legal wall between modern medicine and macabre markets. Donate through

9:26 Speaker 1: proper channels, save lives, and keep the jars out of

9:29 Speaker 1: the classifieds.

9:31 Speaker 2: Utah no catapults on main street.

9:35 Speaker 1: Young tinkerers once turned downtowns into impromptu physics labs, launching

9:39 Speaker 1: fruit rocks and whatever fit. The sling Utah Cities finally

9:44 Speaker 1: wrote the world's least medieval sentence, don't fire siege engines

9:48 Speaker 1: in town. Rural pumpkin chunkin on a farm, sure, pumpkin

9:53 Speaker 1: chunkin at a storefront.

9:55 Speaker 2: Please don't Vermont permission for dentures The relic.

10:00 Speaker 1: Vermont's most infamous historical rule said a woman needed her

10:04 Speaker 1: husband's written consent to obtain dentures. A perfect snapshot of

10:09 Speaker 1: another era's paternalism. The notion that dental choices required mail

10:14 Speaker 1: approval would be laughable if it weren't so revealing. Today

10:18 Speaker 1: it's cited as a kind of cautionary tale. Laws reflect values,

10:23 Speaker 1: and some values need to be retired with extreme prejudice.

10:27 Speaker 2: Virginia Sunday hunting with a raccoon exception.

10:33 Speaker 1: For years, Virginia banned most Sunday hunting, but carved out

10:37 Speaker 1: a quirky pass for raccoon hunters after midnight. The compromise

10:41 Speaker 1: balanced Sabbath traditions with a nocturnal pastime dear to rural clubs.

10:46 Speaker 1: As rules modernized, the raccoon exemption became a badge of

10:50 Speaker 1: cultural identity and a great way to confuse out of

10:54 Speaker 1: state guests.

10:55 Speaker 2: Washington, do not harass bigfoot in Scamania County.

11:00 Speaker 1: Scamania County took its local legends seriously enough to legislate

11:04 Speaker 1: messing with bigfoot up to and including trying to harm

11:08 Speaker 1: what might be a very large, very hairy neighbor could

11:11 Speaker 1: earn you fines or worse. Whether you believe or not,

11:15 Speaker 1: the ordinance is a charming piece of community storytelling backed

11:19 Speaker 1: by the force of law. Treat mysteries kindly.

11:23 Speaker 2: West Virginia, The Underwater Whistle reducts.

11:28 Speaker 1: Local code humor strikes again, a wrye prohibition on whistling

11:32 Speaker 1: underwater that reads like it was written during a slow

11:35 Speaker 1: council meeting. It persists because it harms no one and

11:38 Speaker 1: delights everyone, including the occasional reporter who tries to break

11:42 Speaker 1: it by blowing bubbles in a fountain. Consider it the

11:45 Speaker 1: state's official endorsement of practical impossibility.

11:48 Speaker 2: Wisconsin butter means butter.

11:52 Speaker 1: Wisconsin's dairy pride produced laws that long required restaurants to

11:56 Speaker 1: serve real butter unless a customer specifically asked for a substitute.

12:01 Speaker 1: Inspectors once checked counterpats like jewel appraisers. The principle was simple.

12:06 Speaker 1: If you're dining in the dairy state, your toast deserves

12:09 Speaker 1: the good stuff.

12:10 Speaker 2: Wyoming no drunk skiing.

12:14 Speaker 1: Wyoming's ski culture is glorious, and the state would like

12:18 Speaker 1: you to enjoy it, sober enough to remain upright. Impaired

12:22 Speaker 1: skiing endangers everyone on the slope. Celebrate at the lodge

12:26 Speaker 1: after you've turned in your lift ticket. The mountain is

12:29 Speaker 1: not impressed by your liquid courage, only your ability to

12:32 Speaker 1: stop before the fence.

12:34 Speaker 3: Charge with harassing Bigfoot because you thought he was your friend,

12:37 Speaker 3: Steve in a gilly suit, call Sasquatch legal Defense. We'll

12:41 Speaker 3: draft your apology, negotiate a photo from a far agreement

12:44 Speaker 3: with Scamania County, and send you a complimentary window cling

12:47 Speaker 3: that reads break for cryptids at our field, guide, polite

12:51 Speaker 3: conduct in the forest at night, and you'll never mistake

12:53 Speaker 3: Uncle Joe for a protected hominet.

12:55 Speaker 1: Again. That's the end of our fifty state legal safari

13:00 Speaker 1: between Montana's chaperone sheep and wyoming sober skiers. We've traveled

13:05 Speaker 1: a quirky continent of rules meant to solve very specific problems,

13:09 Speaker 1: some noble, some nutty, many now delightfully obsolete in practice,

13:14 Speaker 1: but still alive on paper. If you enjoyed this two

13:17 Speaker 1: part special, please subscribe to the Strange History podcast, leave

13:22 Speaker 1: a review, and share it with a friend who would

13:24 Speaker 1: absolutely fail. Connecticut's pickle test. I'm Amy, thanks for listening,

13:29 Speaker 1: and as always, stay strange.