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Post by Clipper on Dec 29, 2011 19:48:27 GMT -5
This still they just busted was about 30 miles west of us in a little town where June Carter Cash's family still lives and plays music at Carter Fold in Hilton's Va. Its a little tiny hamlet about the size of Trenton Falls. In the other direction we had Popcorn Sutton, a legendary moonshiner that passed away a few years back plying his trade for years. He is buried about 90 miles from here, but he made shine as far north as Unicoi county which is about 20 miles Southeast of here.
Moonshine stills seized in Scott County, charges pending
By Wes Bunch
HILTONS � Agents with the Virginia State Police seized a pair of moonshine stills in Scott County this week as part of an ongoing investigation into the manufacturing of illegal liquor.
The seizure was made after agents with the VSP Bureau of Criminal Investigations executed a search warrant Tuesday at a residence in the Hiltons area.
Those with knowledge of the investigation said the stills were found in a section of Hiltons known as McMurray Hollow.
VSP Sgt. Michael Conroy said the stills were discovered in a barn on the property. Only one of them, however, was functional, Conroy said.
The other moonshine still was reportedly not assembled at the time it was confiscated.
While executing the search warrant, Conroy said investigators also recovered a "significant amount" of production supplies and approximately 100 gallons of mash that is used in the production of moonshine.
No arrests have been made as a result of the seizure and Conroy said charges were pending in the case.
Illegally manufacturing and bottling liquor is considered a Class 6 felony in Virginia.
Conroy said the still�s discovery could further investigations by state police into the manufacturing of the illegal liquor in the region.
Citing the ongoing investigation, Conroy declined to release additional details on the case or the identities of possible suspects involved.
Local authorities said cases involving moonshine stills have become increasingly rare over the past decade.
According to Scott County Commonwealth�s Attorney Marcus McClung, the working still confiscated Tuesday�s was only the second one that has been found by authorities during his three terms in office.
Conroy said anyone with additional information on illegal liquor manufacturing can contact the VSP at (800) 542-8716 in VA or (276) 228-3131.
All tips will be followed up on, Conroy said, and callers can remain anonymous if they choose.
Moonshine manufacturing is still quite prevalent around here. Those that I know who drink frequently buy the stuff from their favorite suppliers. It is a good idea to stay out of hollows and wooded areas that you are not familiar with or do not have permission to enter for hunting or whatever. If they aren't growing pot, they may be making shine up in those hollers, haha.
I bowl with an elderly man that is a retired ATF agent, who spent 30+ years as a revenuer in these hills around NE Tennessee and SW Virginia. I also know a guy here locally that bought a 66 chevy Impala a couple years ago from a fellow over near the NC border. He bought it to do a frame up restoration on it, and found that it had been modified with tanks to hold moonshine, but the tanks had been removed. The car had a souped up 396 Big Block with two four barrel carbs and some really expensive suspension modifications to allow cornering with a heavy load on curvy roads.
I just love some of the local lore here. Some of the old timers I know can tell tales of the old days when they lived off the land, and made extra money making shine or delivering it for those that did. I have great admiration for those that still are very self sufficient in growing and raising their own food, canning, baking, and preserving, while the men are working long hours in the coal mines and other places.
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Post by dgriffin on Dec 29, 2011 20:58:29 GMT -5
I remember jumping up and down at the Avon and throwing popcorn with the other kids when the the Revenooers were catching up with Robert Mitchum in "Thunder Road." 
 Notice that Mr. Mitchum, who plays a good ol boy from the Georgia mountains or thereabouts, is wearing a stylish poplin jacket of the 1950's, fresh checkered shirt and creased worsteds. Pretty nifty for backwoods rum runner! I love movie art.
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Post by Clipper on Dec 29, 2011 21:13:57 GMT -5
Gotta love it Dave. Robert Mitchum was a favorite of mine as a kid. He and Steve McQueen rocked the screen.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2011 10:31:14 GMT -5
This still they just busted was about 30 miles west of us in a little town where June Carter Cash's family still lives and plays music at Carter Fold in Hilton's Va. Its a little tiny hamlet about the size of Trenton Falls. In the other direction we had Popcorn Sutton, a legendary moonshiner that passed away a few years back plying his trade for years. He is buried about 90 miles from here, but he made shine as far north as Unicoi county which is about 20 miles Southeast of here.
Moonshine stills seized in Scott County, charges pending By Wes Bunch HILTONS — Agents with the Virginia State Police seized a pair of moonshine stills in Scott County this week as part of an ongoing investigation into the manufacturing of illegal liquor. The seizure was made after agents with the VSP Bureau of Criminal Investigations executed a search warrant Tuesday at a residence in the Hiltons area. Those with knowledge of the investigation said the stills were found in a section of Hiltons known as McMurray Hollow. VSP Sgt. Michael Conroy said the stills were discovered in a barn on the property. Only one of them, however, was functional, Conroy said. The other moonshine still was reportedly not assembled at the time it was confiscated. While executing the search warrant, Conroy said investigators also recovered a "significant amount" of production supplies and approximately 100 gallons of mash that is used in the production of moonshine. No arrests have been made as a result of the seizure and Conroy said charges were pending in the case. Illegally manufacturing and bottling liquor is considered a Class 6 felony in Virginia. Conroy said the still’s discovery could further investigations by state police into the manufacturing of the illegal liquor in the region. Citing the ongoing investigation, Conroy declined to release additional details on the case or the identities of possible suspects involved. Local authorities said cases involving moonshine stills have become increasingly rare over the past decade. According to Scott County Commonwealth’s Attorney Marcus McClung, the working still confiscated Tuesday’s was only the second one that has been found by authorities during his three terms in office. Conroy said anyone with additional information on illegal liquor manufacturing can contact the VSP at (800) 542-8716 in VA or (276) 228-3131. All tips will be followed up on, Conroy said, and callers can remain anonymous if they choose. Moonshine manufacturing is still quite prevalent around here. Those that I know who drink frequently buy the stuff from their favorite suppliers. It is a good idea to stay out of hollows and wooded areas that you are not familiar with or do not have permission to enter for hunting or whatever. If they aren't growing pot, they are making shine up in those hollers, haha.
I bowl with an elderly man that is a retired ATF agent, who spent 30+ years as a revenuer in these hills around NE Tennessee and SW Virginia. I also know a guy here locally that bought a 66 chevy Impala a couple years ago from a fellow over near the NC border. He bought it to do a frame up restoration on it, and found that it had been modified with tanks to hold moonshine, but the tanks had been removed. The car had a souped up 396 Big Block with two four barrel carbs and some really expensive suspension modifications to allow cornering with a heavy load on curvy roads.
I just love some of the local lore here. Some of the old timers I know can tell tales of the old days when they lived off the land, and made extra money making shine or delivering it for those that did. I have great admiration for those that still are very self sufficient in growing and raising their own food, canning, baking, and preserving, while the men are working long hours in the coal mines and other places.
Do the Walton's still live up in that area or am I in the wrong State |
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Post by Clipper on Dec 30, 2011 11:44:28 GMT -5
I don't know where the Waltons of TV fame lived Alan. I know the Waltons of modern day fame are from Bentonville, Arkansas and certainly don't worry about growing their own food or making booze from mash.  It's like stepping back in time to visit some of the rural areas around here. Not more than a mile from here there is a log cabin that goes back to the 1800's that is still lived in. It is backed up a against the side of the mountain, with a veggie garden and small tobacco crop each summer, a field stone chimney on one end, and in the summer you will find an elderly gentleman with bib overalls hoeing in the garden or cutting the grass. I have always favored the rural life and the serenity of living in the country. The people of Appalachia have lived a hard life for the most part, working in mines and scratching out crops from land that is less than optimal for farming, but for the most part are friendly, God fearing, and happy with their lot in life. Some may call it "backward", but with the economy such as it is today, I am sure they are much more likely to survive the ups and downs than most of us are. They grow a years worth of potatoes and bury them in sand in a pit in the yard, they can enough veggies to last until the following season, they raise chickens, gather the eggs and butcher the chickens for the freezer, along with a pig or two and a beef now and again. If they lost their job tomorrow, they would not need government assistance to survive. They would get by. I bowl with a man whose mom is still alive at 87. If he doesn't get over there early enough in the day during winter, she will be found carrying in her own firewood or splitting wood for the kitchen cook stove. She drives a pickup truck and feeds her own livestock twice a day. He says he hopes that when she dies, he finds her next to her truck in the pasture, dropping over while feeding her sheep and goats, and doing what she loves. No hospital, no nursing home. People may call it stereotyping, but for those that I know that live that lifestyle, I have nothing but the deepest respect and a sense of envy that they are happy with God and family, and don't have to worry about where their next meal is to come from. These people that folks call hill billies are actually a proud, respectable, and hardworking class of people, with more ambition and knowledge that actually can be put to use in everyday living than the average city dweller. When we drive through the mountains around here, if we see an old trailer and what one would call "trailer trash" sitting on the steps, it is usually the younger generation, and probably due to their own lack of ambition, not because they couldn't do better if they put down their can of Bud Lite and looked for a job. |
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Post by Clipper on Dec 30, 2011 12:51:22 GMT -5
Back on the subject of moonshining, here is an article I read on the MSN homepage this morning.
Moonshiners website
By: BROCK VERGAKIS, Associated Press | Lynchburg News and
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - Virginia alcohol regulators say the Discovery Channel's "Moonshiners" television show is misleading viewers into thinking the state is tolerating illegal booze manufacturing and that it wouldn't have participated if they knew how the episodes would turn out.
The television series is about people who brew their own moonshine and local authorities' efforts to track them down. The show includes actual western Virginia residents and state agents.
Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control spokeswoman Kathleen Shaw told The Associated Press in an email Thursday that viewers have asked why the state is allowing a crime to take place. Shaw said the show is a dramatization, and no illegal liquor is actually being produced.
"If illegal activity was actually taking place, the Virginia ABC Bureau of Law Enforcement would have taken action," Shaw wrote.
Earlier Thursday, the department issued a statement saying it would not have participated in the filming had they known how the show would've turned out.
"Virginia ABC agreed to participate in an informative piece that documents the history of moonshine and moonshine investigations in Virginia. Virginia ABC did not participate nor was aware of the false depiction of moonshine manufacturing, distribution and/or transportation in the filming, and would not have participated in the 'documentary' had it known of this portrayal," the statement said.
Shaw said the Discovery Channel had been asked to add a disclaimer "but the request was overlooked."
Messages left with a show publicist Thursday were not immediately returned.
Among other things, a Nov. 30 news release announcing the show's premiere says that "Viewers will witness practices rarely, if ever, seen on television including the sacred rite of passage for a moonshiner - firing up the still for the first time."
The release does not specify whether parts of the show are dramatized.
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Post by clarencebunsen on Dec 30, 2011 15:44:34 GMT -5
The Waltons was set on fictional Walton's Mountain in Virginia.
Earl Hamner, the creator of The Waltons, grew up in Schuyler, VA.
I always liked Bob Dylan's Copper Kettle, here's Chet Atkin's version
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Post by richmc on Dec 30, 2011 19:18:44 GMT -5
As Jimmy Durante used to say about his philosophy: "Why doesn't everybody leave everybody else the hell alone...!??" If making whiskey was OK for George Washington (along with raising hemp) it should be OK for anybody. The incredible waste of time and money and the criminalizing of folks is a national disgrace. War on Poverty - Lost, War of "Drugs" - Lost,
Endless foreign wars: Wasted and Lost. Why do these idiots keep getting reelected?
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Post by clarencebunsen on Dec 30, 2011 19:28:52 GMT -5
The Whiskey Rebellion, or Whiskey Insurrection, was a tax protest in the United States in 1789, during the presidency of George Washington. Farmers who sold their corn in the form of whiskey had to pay a new tax which they strongly resented. The tax was a part of treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton's program to pay off the national debt. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_RebellionDon't worry it's only a temporary tax, as soon as the national debt is paid off ... |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2011 11:49:44 GMT -5
Virginia alcohol regulators object to ‘Moonshiners’ TV portrayal
BY BROCK VERGAKIS
The Associated Press
NORFOLK, Va. — Virginia alcohol regulators say the Discovery Channel’s “Moonshiners” television show is misleading viewers into thinking the state is tolerating illegal booze manufacturing and that it wouldn’t have participated if they knew how the episodes would turn out.
The television series is about people who brew their own moonshine and local authorities’ efforts to track them down. The show includes actual western Virginia residents and state agents.
Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control spokeswoman Kathleen Shaw told The Associated Press in an email Thursday that viewers have asked why the state is allowing a crime to take place. Shaw said the show is a dramatization, and no illegal liquor is actually being produced.
“If illegal activity was actually taking place, the Virginia ABC Bureau of Law Enforcement would have taken action,” Shaw wrote.
Earlier Thursday, the department issued a statement saying it would not have participated in the filming had they known how the show would’ve turned out.
“Virginia ABC agreed to participate in an informative piece that documents the history of moonshine and moonshine investigations in Virginia. Virginia ABC did not participate nor was aware of the false depiction of moonshine manufacturing, distribution and/or transportation in the filming, and would not have participated in the ‘documentary’ had it known of this portrayal,” the statement said.
Shaw said the Discovery Channel had been asked to add a disclaimer “but the request was overlooked.”
Messages left with a show publicist Thursday were not immediately returned.
Among other things, a Nov. 30 news release announcing the show’s premiere said that “Viewers will witness practices rarely, if ever, seen on television including the sacred rite of passage for a moonshiner — firing up the still for the first time.”
“If illegal activity was actually taking place, the Virginia ABC Bureau of Law Enforcement would have taken action.”
Kathleen Shaw, Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control spokeswoman
Powered by TECNAVIA Copyright © 2011 Observer-Dispatch 12/31/2011
uticaod e-edition
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Post by dgriffin on Dec 31, 2011 20:38:07 GMT -5
The Whiskey Rebellion, or Whiskey Insurrection, was a tax protest in the United States in 1789, during the presidency of George Washington. Farmers who sold their corn in the form of whiskey had to pay a new tax which they strongly resented. The tax was a part of treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton's program to pay off the national debt. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_RebellionDon't worry it's only a temporary tax, as soon as the national debt is paid off ... I remember the Whiskey Rebellion from school vaguely, of course, but a couple of years ago I read of GW's horror at having to send soldiers to kill Americans. But this was a threat he felt he had to meet with unmitigated force and he sent over 10,000 troops into PA. He felt this was a test of the strength of the Union over state's interests and was necessary if the US expected to survive as a country instead of a group of loosely related states that would eventually start fighting among themselves. |
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Post by richmc on Jan 1, 2012 18:12:05 GMT -5
Lincoln should have said, ""With malice toward none, with whiskey for all..."
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