WINONA, Minn. – Law enforcement agencies in Winona and Fillmore counties have been caught unawares of five huge and out-of-control beer parties in recent months. It’s a challenge to stay a step ahead, Chief Deputy Sheriff Jeff Mueller acknowledged. The parties, he said, are spawned on social media with word then spreading person to person by email. The draw can be huge. Do some scary math: Spike a high school geometry compass on a map at Elba and draw a circle out 70 miles. This past weekend’s beer-bast near Elba had an estimated 30 participants from Albert Lea, Browndale, Chatfield,iLewiston, Owatonna, Rochester and St. Charles, deputies said. And they were way too busy to talk with everyone about their hometown.
Obscure locations
Part of the challenge too is that these beer bashes have been in remote areas with low-population density. An early detection system with closer monitoring of socil media sites like Snapchat has been suggested, Mueller said. Also, law enforcement agencies may need to be more timely in sharing information and tips. For the beer-a-palooza in Whitewater Township over the past weekend, all three Winona County deputies on night patrol at the time responded but had no backup. Again, do the math: A risky 300 versus three. At a party a week earlier in the same Beaver Creek area, deputies found some support from the State Patrol, which happened to have a unit the area.
Lessons from 2022 rave?
They used to have what were called raves. That was a a quarter century ago. Inspired by Woodstock, entrepreneurs organized huge but secret music and drug fests. They advertised their events but were vague on the sites until the day of an event – like “within 200 miles of Des Moines.” Ticket holders were not issued driving instructions a day ahead and then told: “Don’t tell.” It worked. On an April day in 2022 the people who live up Chicken Valley at Bluff Siding across the Wisconsin-Minnesota border from Winona suddenly saw hundreds of cars going up their quiet road to the ridge. At the ridge-top on he Drazkowski farm, the ravers listened to bands and got high.
Multi-agency response
Gin Mill. The 2022 rave was near this clubhouse of the Mad Dogs bikers, a.k.a. the Gin Mill bar and an off-and-on stripper joint. Rave performances were on an adjoining farm
The event was well under way when the Buffalo County sheriff, 26 miles away in Alma, started getting calls from Chicken Valley people: “What’s going on?” Once on site, deputies from the tiny county-level agency called on any and all other agencies for immediate help. These included state police, city and county officers from Winona and beyond, state game wardens, and federal wildlife officers. As it turned out, there wasn’t much the officers could do but rescue the most stumbling drunk and dangerously high celebrants out of the fields and woods. Even so, there may be lessons on multi-agency cooperation to deal with Winona County’s latter-day progeny of the raves of an earlier time.
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