My Moonshining Kin

Guess whats In the Bottles !!!!!

They must be the Ones who Invented

 Bottled Spring Water  ;)

yep   Madison County Arkansas......Finest Spring water ever brewed!

Lemonade? 

[HOLY CRAP DONT SMOKE AFTER DRINKING IT YOU MAY SPONTANEOUSLLY COMBUST]

LIQUID GOLD  MY LASSE ,THE NECTOR OF THE GODS!!A SIDE NOTE HAD THE OPERTUNITTY AT A PARTY  BACK FEW MONTHS BACK TO "SAMPLE" SOME HOME BREW!!!HOLY CRAP DONT SMOKE AFTER DRINKING IT YOU MAY  SPONTANEOUSLLY COMBUST  BY THE WAY COOL PIC!!!

We were weaned on the stuff....honest  to god...I have seen grown men cry when taking a swig...My granny said when she was a liitle girl , her uncles had a still in the Ozarks...During "cooking season".Her and her siblings job was to sit on the side of the trail  and if they saw a revenuer coming..they would hoot and holler...she said it wasnt til she was "full growed" that she realized  the revenuers went up the mountain...but she  never saw any come back down 

Nothin' wrong with 'good' shine.It's still being cooked in the Ozarks and in Ala.The last I was presented with was in Okla.'Bout half- way between Ft Smith,AR and Muskogee.Corn liquor ranks right up there with the best of treats.

GEEEEZE- GH--------------- LOTTA HEADACHES IN THERE!

actually, my employee... well, his grand-dad used to make "old Grand-dad"... if you know what I mean... the same stuff. Well, they were digging out at the old house and found several gallons he had buried about 15 years ago. Well, the word got around and they sold those gallons for 300.00 a piece. I was astounded! That must have been some really good stuff or maybe it was the collectability, beat's me...

300.00   go figure...

Julien

My daddy used to have a still with his father in Georgia. Pretty cool. Vern

300 thats it?

Hey ?!.....................I 'll sell some for 300.00 ........305.00 if you dont bring your own jug......should be ready in about a month...nice and aged LOL....

And for any revenuers out there.....I was just kidding  ;)

Can't remember the volume number right offhand, but The Foxfire Books had a good diagram and instructions for building a small old-timey still and had the recipe for making the fixins. As far as revenuers go, a householder can get permission to make a bit for snakebites and such.
beeper, no such thing! good shine doesn't cause headaches. only problem is you have to drink it quick or it will eat the bottom out of metal, glass, or plastic containers.

grizzly bare

(This is ALL based on stories my daddy told me when he was able to talk after 2or 3 little drinks...you know, the pint sized jiggers)

Its the first volume of Foxfire. Whiich is so funny that you brought this up, because I have been reading the Foxfire books all afternoon.

gypsy,
sittin here thinkin bout you dear and I got a rush on looove.

Oh, wait...actually been sitting here watching it snow and reading back issues of TH magazines. Now about 5 inches of snow and it's starting to slow way down.
Love those books. Had them all at one time but they went South in the divorce, right now can't remember if it was first divorce or second.
Do remember one special night when me and an old drinking buddy were sitting around drinking some smooth shine his granddaddy had made and we were chasing it with Jack Daniels. One thing that made the night real special was the we finished off a half gallon of shine and I remembered it.
grizzly bare
(now you know why I'm so grizzly)

 Love the Foxfire books- especially the stories about how things used to be. The one about Aunt Arie ranks right up there, as you really have to slow down to read it, even if it is about hog curing, lol!


 I pulled a couple fellahs out one time. they were stuck up in the woods after a rain. Had an old flatbed truck with a load on it, all tarped up. After we were done getting them unstuck, the older fellah says "Here, have a swig of this" and hands me a little jigger of joy juice... musta been about two full shots. Went down like the sweetest water I ever tasted. It wasn't til I felt that warm glow that I realized what it was, and what they were doing up there!

 (I'm a bit slow on the draw sometimes!) 

Corn's good but don't forget about the rye, and don't forget to put a thumper down line from the cooker that way you will get a double run without havin to actually run it through twice and she will burn blue for ya . And last but not least through a little carmel in it so it don't look like white liquor in case you want to share it with the boys with the big hats. You know come to think of it , it never gave me a headache the next morning- I just woke up drunk as I was before I went to sleep. Now they call it gasohol or something like that and the govt. will sell you a licence to make it legally. And you must do a quality control test daily on it you know what I mean ...hic.. ya you guessed it I'm an old billhilly from WEST BY GOD VIRGINIA ...hic

Here in the swamps they use.. . uh...I mean... they used to use sugar cane. It was a big thing in Everglades City during prohibition. Al Capone ran some casinos and some smuggling operations out of the Big Cypress Swamp. They made a tourist attraction out of one of the old stills. I would like to use a MD on that old  casino site some day.
Neat picture Gypsy. Back then people didn't care about designer clothes. 

can,t you cook up a batch of moon on the stove? i heard of this but don't know if its true

Never tried it on the stove. The picture is of my great uncles and was on the front of a Museum brochure....all my Ozark kinfolk made shine...and they still do....oh  no   thats not true...they all go to church...yah thats what I meant  ;)

Never tried it on the stove. The picture is of my great uncles and was on the front of a Museum brochure....all my Ozark kinfolk made shine...and they still do....oh  no   thats not true...they all go to church...yah thats what I meant  ;)

a old land lord , hes dead now but he gave me a drink of shine years ago. wow, i really like,ed it. i cant drink any whiskey any more because of my wife and health but love beer.. nice pix,s gypsy

Jonny. 'Shine will stunt your growth. It is not good for your new teeth either. ;)

Jonny. 'Shine will stunt your growth. It is not good for your new teeth either. ;)

yes you are right  but hope it will be a few years for new teeth

Jonny. 'Shine will stunt your growth. It is not good for your new teeth either. ;)

If shines stunts your growth ,then its a good thing we all drank...5'10 now....Lord  I would have been a giant ! ;)

I descend from a long line of moonshiners myself. The moonshining trade is still alive and well here in Eastern Kentucky. Unfortunately greed has really popped up. People put Lye in the mash to speed up fermentation. They also use a lot more sugar ( what we call sugar liquor) Thats where you get more of a hangover if you over indulge. Personally I don't drink any whisky That I do not know the makers. Great picture.

I descend from a long line of moonshiners myself. The moonshining trade is still alive and well here in Eastern Kentucky. Unfortunately greed has really popped up. People put Lye in the mash to speed up fermentation. They also use a lot more sugar ( what we call sugar liquor) Thats where you get more of a hangover if you over indulge. Personally I don't drink any whisky That I do not know the makers. Great picture.

i would not mind about a quart or two just to keep a round to have a snort every now and then. but dont know were to get the good stuff. i dont know anyone who makes it and if i did i would not buy. like you said no telling what there putting in there.

googling ''white liquor'' or '' moonshine'' there are several stovetop methods displayed including small stills made from crockpots and steamer pots....oh and you can brew the stuff as long as it is for personal use and not sold........last i seen coming from the moonshine capital of  north wilkesboro was $280.00 a gallon and WELLLLLLLL worth the price.....soak it in some good blue damsons about 6 months and it will make any man cry..................gldhntr

googling ''white liquor'' or '' moonshine'' there are several stovetop methods displayed including small stills made from crockpots and steamer pots....oh and you can brew the stuff as long as it is for personal use and not sold........last i seen coming from the moonshine capital of  north wilkesboro was $280.00 a gallon and WELLLLLLLL worth the price.....soak it in some good blue damsons about 6 months and it will make any man cry..................gldhntr

i thought i heard of a way to do it on the stove years ago. i dont know if will google that or not . i would start a batch and most of the pots will be on my head along with a bump from my wife

Prices are much lower here in Eastern Kentucky. 10.00 per quart, 35.00 per gallon. Tourist pay more though.

    Moonshiners!!!!  It could be .... But I think were honored to be looking at the founders of the  (bottled water industry)!!!!!   

Fer shore that be tiger sweat! I make the stuff myself. Old family recipe. My old man has taught me how to make it. He's been making it for almost 60 years.  I like to filter the stuff through a Britta water filter about a douzen times, and it tastes just as smoooothe as can be!

Pick up a copy of "The Alaskan Bootlegger's Bible" it's got all the recipes you could ask for and instructions for simple to complected stills, well written and funny too. Page 108 for thin mash whiskey, very easy too make with NO side effects (headaches, hangover and such) It also costs almost nothing to make. Not that I'm doing any of this stuff myself of course!!

                                              kenb

My Grandpa ran a batch that was really bad.  He caught the Sheriff snooping around his still and made him drink some by holding a gun on him.  Then he  gave the gun to the Sheriff and had him hold it on him while he drank some.  ;)
Monty

Duh:  As most know I have been living a  very sheltered liffe and am a  Saint, soo I do have a few questions??

White lightning? shine?? hangovers? headaches? Just what is this concoction anyways?  What is it used for ?

Why is the law involved? Is this  a natural pre-treasure hunting, detecting  requirement?

Soo  many questions that I really don't know where to begin, but, will start with a very important one to me  sigh, does it loosen morals ?  - I hope.  I need all of the help that I can muster  sniffff.

Till Eulenspiegle de La Mancha

p.s.  5'10" eh gypsy love ? ok if I use 4" lifter shoes?

Hey Gypsy, what town is yer relatives from?  I'm 'bout 5 miles from Crosses.

Shinin' is still live & kickin' over here in Madison County, Ar

Last two quarts ran $7.50 each.  Cheaper than going to the liquor store!

DL

Hey Gypsy, what town is yer relatives from?  I'm 'bout 5 miles from Crosses.

Shinin' is still live & kickin' over here in Madison County, Ar

Last two quarts ran $7.50 each.  Cheaper than going to the liquor store!

DL

Huntsville, Aurora, Elsey Mountain

Gypsy, My wife lived in Aurora from 1962 to about 1968.  She worked at the Juvenile shoe factory as a secretary and since she had small feet, she modled their new shoe lines,  size 4 1/2 AA.  She moved to Monett and lived there until the 70's and then moved back to Tulsa area.  Her sister and bro-in- law still live in the area, Named Fulp.. He was the past mayor of Monett.  Monty

Monty, I think you are talking Missouri...and I am talking Madison County Arkansas
But My gg-uncle Thomas Elsey (married Susan Ledbetter) founded the city of Elsey Missouri.He and his brother Harrison ,were with the first group of pioneers into Arkansas in 1836

I do alot of research throughout Missouri  and that Fulp name comes up alot.

There's a treasure trail there...see the traingle? If you travel 400 yards North, then 400 yards East...




 

Well Gypsy, we're practically kin.  I grew up & lots of my family still live 'bout a mile & a half due east of Aurora.

Hmmm...Ledbetter Mountain just a hop skip to the south of us.   Know any Thomas's or Sparks?


Lots o history here in Booger County

DL

Well thats cool. Where are you at. I see the Sparks have been residents for a long time....been researching Madison County for many years.

I'm just east of Springdale.  Great old pictures, really shows off the old architecture of the original cabins.

relations:  Spurlocks, Drakes, Cornetts, Sizemore's

DL

Yes  Spurlocks,Ledbetters,Bowens,Cain........

No, I was talking Missouri.  Aren't Arkansas and Missouri the same place?   Monty

No, I was talking Missouri.  Aren't Arkansas and Missouri the same place?   Monty

Dang it Monty...now you had me confused...I did mean Missouri ...hahahah   ...not Oklahoma ....
And yes according to those living on the state line they are....hahaha

In the 60's and 70's, I use to give my Papa a crock bottle of Platt Valley Moon for his birthday...still made today.

In fact, I have had a 1/2 crock full that I pop the cork on ocassion...(optomistic view)

Gotta take your teeth out first unless you want to be known as Gummy.

In the 60's and 70's, I use to give my Papa a crock bottle of Platt Valley Moon for his birthday...still made today.

In fact, I have had a 1/2 crock full that I pop the cork on ocassion...(optomistic view)

Gotta take your teeth out first unless you want to be known as Gummy.

Monty, I think you are talking Missouri...and I am talking Madison County Arkansas
But My gg-uncle Thomas Elsey (married Susan Ledbetter) founded the city of Elsey Missouri.He and his brother Harrison ,were with the first group of pioneers into Arkansas in 1836

I do alot of research throughout Missouri  and that Fulp name comes up alot.

hey miss gypsy
is brother harrison...THE harrison....also love to talk about some stories in the huntsville area.

john in little rock

been reading forums on metal detecting and this is the first one I have find where there is a lot of people from Arkansas my relatives have been in Arkansas sense before the civil war uncle ran moonshine in the 40's

Thanks everyone...Would love to see any pictures of early Madison County Arkansas ,Especially.... Aurora,Huntsville,etc....People pics also....

Hey gypsy, my grandma was a Ledbetter. Traced them back to the Carolina's.

Hey gypsy, my grandma was a Ledbetter. Traced them back to the Carolina's.

Do you know what her first name was and who she married ....I have the Complete Ledbetter History .

Her name was Lucy, Her dad was George, His mom was Pheobe Coffin, Ledbetter. I have the history back to George and I found Pheobe's grave down by Richmond In (west river friends church). Pheobe died in 1878 I think and was born around 1806 if I remember right.

 My old gramps had shackle scars from some incident that was never described and we didn't ask. He and his partner made Brandy till the sugar burned in the railroad tie shed. One hot fire they said.  Gypsy I suppose this is off topic a bit but your pics conjured a memory. Went to see Rupe Wilcox in Reeds Spring Mo. I was invited to a shiveree that night but wasn't sure I wanted to go till I found out what it was I thought we were gonna need to take some axe handles. 
       
  I had a job once transporting movies to theaters and on my first run I was sent down in the MO hills there were 2 theaters 15 miles apart scheduled to open the movie on the same night. I would collect the ticket receipts and pay the theater owner his cut then drop the cash in the local banks night deposit in a bag obtained from the bank the afternoon before the show. Well the next morning when I went in to get the cash and transfer it to the home office everyone working at the bank was giving me the oddest looks like I was spooky or something. The teller helping me was sort of nervous so I had to ask em what's going on here something wrong ?  They had concluded that I was some sort of drug smuggler because I wore my hair a bit long then and they had looked in and seen a fair amount of cash in the bag. I think someone was in the process of calling the law when I told what I was doing there then we all had a good laugh and I sent the transfer.   

My Dad grew up in the City during the depression and had no garden or farm animals for food and nearly starved.  Grandma made hominy and sold it and grandpa made shine and sold it.  Until the day he died my Dad wouldn't eat cornbread because he said that's all he had to eat half of his life. My dad was a heavy man like me and said he didn't care because he remembered what it was to be really hungry and would never go hungry again even if it killed him.....and it finally did.  There was still a lot of moonshine made and sold here in Oklahoma because it was a dry state up even into the 1970s.  Every border town had drive in liquor stores on the strip just across the state line.  On Friday nights the cars would be lined up for a couple of miles. Of course there was a bootlegger in nearly every town of any size.  My uncle was a bootlegger when I was growing up.  He lived next door to my Grandma and we had strange drunk men walking through the yard at all hours.  None of them ever bothered me or my sister though because my uncle would have killed them. He was a mean dude and everyone for miles was afraid of him.  One of his peers across town turned him in to the feds for a plea bargain and they found the guy floating in the Arkansas River a few weeks later.  I don't know if Uncle Jake did it but he would just grin wickedly when anyone mentioned it.  One night he shot it out with the police, was shot through the chest and crawled nearly 3 miles through the brush and got away.  He hitchhiked to the hospital and lay in a coma for about a month but finally came around.  The bullet entered his chest, took out a chunk of his heart and exited between his shoulder blades. The doctors said it was a miracle he lived but Dad said he was just too damn mean to die. They never did prosecute him for the shoot out as none of the cops were hit and as uncle Jake said, " Well, they shot at me first!"  He kept his liquor in a big crock sitting on top of a trapdoor and if the feds came with a warrant he just tripped a lever and it dumped into the basement.  They never were able to make a case on him in at least 35 years I know of.  He never did learn to read or write but could sign his name perfectly.  I use to do his income taxes for him even though he never had much income to declare, according to his records and he always drove a new Cadillac paid for with cash!  By the time I was grown he was getting old and was pretty much harmless, but still no one who knew him would mess with him.  The few who did got the holy crap beat out of them by a 70 year old man!  When the state voted to go wet he was pretty much out of a job except that he ran a little parlay business on the side to supplement his social security.  He died in a car wreck in the mid 1980s and you wouldn't believe the number of mourning old ladies that showed up at his funeral.  He had three wives at last count.  He never was unfaithful, just forget to get divorced between wives.  I've got cousins I still have never met.  So, even though my life is comparatively mundane I still have a great deal of family history around these parts.  Hope you enjoyed my little Uncle Jake story, it's all 100% true except for the parts I made up.  No, it is actually all true in this case, just funning you.  ;) Monty.

I knew a man that use to do the deliveries. At that time they always had tail runners, there job was to wreck or crash any rev`s that were chasing the delivery vehicle. The driver of the delivery vehicle was the wild sort, he was a second generation mechinac having grown up in a garage working for his father. It was nothing for him to really hop up any vehicle, not many speed parts back then so everything was custom made, wasn`t odd to see a ford with a linc motor, or a chev with a caddie motor. Those caddies although heavy were hot machines big cubic inch engines, strip the weight out and stiffen the suspension and they made mean runner vehicles. Plenty of room for his deliveries, more deliveries more cash for him. Well he ran deliveries for some time, made friends with alot of tail gunners, his last run one of the tail gunners took out a rev`y in a high speed crash ended up as a fireball. That tail gunner had been a personel friend of the delivery driver having grown up together, so it hit the delivery driver real hard. They had, had many close run ins before but always eluding the rev`ys and no one got hurt, but this time was different. The delivery driver couldn`t shake off that his friend had died to protect him, he ended up parking the caddy in the swamp and walking away, never to run them again.
He took up mundane jobs to support his starting family, but that itch for speed never left him, you could always see it in his eyes as he would talk about speed and always wanted to race but by then his family was growing and he could not afford to. One of his future sons took up racing and he lived his life though his sons racing.

That delivery driver was a great man, I`ll always miss him, but recken a son should miss his father.

Looks like some good double rectified busthead in those jugs.  Wonder what kind a bead it held?

Pax Christi
Rev. Joel+

Fantastic photos and stories, Thanks.  I never imagined that moonshine was still being "cooked up"

Back when clear cutting of timber was fashionable, they clear cut a section next to a very busy state highway leading into a state park.  Sure enough right out in the middle of where the trees once were was a little hut and all the fixins for a moonshine still!  Someone had been cooking right there under the very noses of the law for no telling how long.  There is still some moonshine cooking going on, mainly for personal use now.  But if you contact the right people you can still get a jug if you can afford it.  What once was hidden stills is now marijuana growers.  Monty 

I already filled out my order forum for the Alaskan Bootleggers Bible. Figured I would kinda,,,,,look into it. ;)

Monty, anybody ever search around where they found that still and the hut? Caches are not uncommon around old stills.

Here is a design for a stove top still.Enjoy

Gasoline? White lightning, yes!!

[FAST]

Man-O-man I haven't had any "Tadder Shine" since I was in the USMC!!!! Tastes like crap but man it will get you drunk FAST, and at $5 a gallon you can't go wrong!!!!! LOL

Guess whats in the stills!!!!

I have to confess these are not my ancestors they are my wifes, the dark guy with the glasses on is her grandfather. He was half Choctaw I will try and post a picture of her gt grandma who was a Choctaw medicine woman. They were from Pyle mountain in Oklahoma. my wife is just finishing a book that her dad almost had finished before he died, so she has been going through the old pictures he had set aside for the book. In the book he went into detail about how they would run the shine.

   Gary

This is the old guys mother, Choctaw medicine woman, The picture was drawn by my wifes dad. In his book he writes about how she liked whiskey and would stop him from having asthma attacks by putting herbs in a bag around his neck.

Guess whats in the stills!!!!

I have to confess these are not my ancestors they are my wifes, the dark guy with the glasses on is her grandfather. He was half Choctaw I will try and post a picture of her gt grandma who was a Choctaw medicine woman. They were from Pyle mountain in Oklahoma. my wife is just finishing a book that her dad almost had finished before he died, so she has been going through the old pictures he had set aside for the book. In the book he went into detail about how they would run the shine.

   Gary

Very cool...thanks for sharing.....Great pics and drawing!

send me a bottle to sample to see whats really inside, thanks for sharing

and at $5 a gallon you can't go wrong!!!!! LOL
===================================================
I was told not too long ago, that if anyone not too far from here was making any
shine, which they wouldn't do because it's illegal, you know, it would cost about
$60 dollars a gallon. About twenty years ago there was a place where you would
drive down this dirt road, and there was this magic tree stump down there. You
pull up & the stump was on the right with a rock on it, if you put a $20 dollar bill
under that rock & drove down around the bend to turn around, when you came
back, that magic stump had turned that $20 into a gallon of 'corn squeezins'.
I never saw nothin like it & never saw anyone around. It had to be magic cause
I'm certain the good folks in that area would never do anything illegal.
                                             

They still make moonshine in Madison, North Carolina.

I got two bottles a few days ago actually. It is around 80 proof so it doesn't burn like most moonshine but its still plenty strong enough.

They also distill it three times and it is very smooth and easy to drink.