April 3, 2005
Moonshine Stills Thrived in Prohibition Days
Distilling “moonshine” has been a thriving business in these parts for many moons – so to speak. Where corn and sugar cane grew, whiskey was a favored by-product if not a principal objective.
The turpentine, logging and cattle camps were isolated and pretty much left alone to practice the delicate art of manufacturing spirituous liquors.
The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – ratified in 1918 -- made homemade booze a serious crime until the amendment was repealed 15 years later.
Commercial distillation ceased – as did rum running by international criminals. Homegrown distillation overcame these obstacles.
A test of wills vs. thirst ensued between local entrepreneurs evading penalties of the Volstead Act enforcing prohibition, zealous Federal Internal Revenue agents and local sheriffs.
With Internal Revenue commissions available, Charlotte County Sheriff James H. Lipscomb and Deputy Ira Atkinson cracked down on moonshiners and bootleggers in their jurisdiction.
A Duval County, Fla., Moonshine Still
(Photo courtesy Sate Archives of Florida)
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Big News
The Punta Gorda Herald reported in Dec. 1926:
“What is said to have been the biggest haul of contraband liquor ever made in Charlotte County – by local or federal officers – was made Wednesday night by Deputy Sheriff C.B. Blizard and Hoyt Carlton of the Punta Gorda police Department.
“They captured 610 gallons of alcohol which was being unloaded from a small boat and transferred to a Tampa bread truck.
“The capture was made in the vicinity of what is known as the old Long Dock, in the western part of the city, as the two men arrested were making the transfer from boat to truck. They were Percy Helveston and Charlie Longworth.
“The officers had been keeping an eye on the truck for some time – their suspicions having been aroused by the presence of the closed truck here without legitimate excuse or delivery of bread.
“The stuff captured is supposed to be pure, grain alcohol put up in 5-gallon tin cans encased in wooden boxes without markings.
“Those familiar with such matters state that alcohol may be bought in Cuba for 95 cents a gallon. However, it brings $10 a gallon in Punta Gorda and $12 in Tampa. At the Punta Gorda price, the shipment captured is worth $6,100.”
Biggest Ever
The two biggest moonshine raids occurred in late 1928. The Herald reported in its November issue:
“A 500-gallon still, used in one of the largest liquor plants ever unearthed in this section of the state, was confiscated by Sheriff Lipscomb and Deputy Atkinson. They were accompanied on their Sunday night raiding party by officials from DeSoto County.
“Operators of the distillery had left when the officers arrived, but the plant was in operation with a hot fire under the retort.
“The still was first found by citizens of DeSoto County on Sunday afternoon as they were wandering through the woods on the north side of Shell Creek near Burnt Bridge where they were having a picnic.
“Officers destroyed barrels containing over a thousand gallons of mash, and brought back a large number of 5-gallon demijohns of ‘shine for evidence.
“The loss to the bootleggers was estimated at over a thousand dollars. It is believed destruction of the plant will somewhat cut down the flow of Christmas liquor into DeSoto County where it is stated the bootleggers operating the still found a market for their product.”
New Location
Lipscomb’s raid did not put the moonshiners out of business for long. They simply moved across the creek. Location on the stream apparently was important for a copious supply of water and to move their finished whiskey to market by motor launch.
This second location was tipped off by someone who discovered it in 1930. Once again, Lipscomb and Atkinson raided the still. The operators had built a dirt causeway along a tributary of the creek up to high ground.
In addition to the usual equipment and 5-gallon glass jugs in wooden crates, the law officers noted an inscription carved on a tree: “I know you now, boys, so watch out, and where you live too. Mr. P.”
“Mr. P” alluded to Federal Revenue Commissioner Pinkerton at Tampa – before whom moonshiners and bootleggers were hauled for trial.
Tom Ray, owner of a large orange grove on the south bank of Shell Creek, has found remnants of the first bridge built across the stream about 1890 and a subsequent moonshine still.
The wooden bridge was a rickety affair replaced a mile downstream by a steel bridge in 1909 – perhaps when the old wagon bridge burned. The steel bridge was replaced by today’s concrete bridge carrying State Highway 17 over Shell Creek.
Ray and his father found several artifacts of the south-bank still – the door to a cast-iron stove, fire bricks from a furnace holding the retort, metal hoops of barrels long ago rotted away, a brass gas-tank cap for a motor boat, and the bottom of a large, glass jug imprinted with the date 1930.
Underwater logs that were part of the bridge are still visible.
Another Big Raid
The second big raid of 1928 occurred in December, noted the Herald:
“Two more big stills were found and demolished by Sheriff James Lipscomb and Deputies Ira Atkinson and Hoyt Carlton last week.
“The largest moonshine factory was located in the center of a swamp in Telegraph Cypress, near the southern boundary of the county.
“A plant of 500-gallon capacity had been constructed on an oak and palmetto island.
“It is thought that the still supplied an active trade in the Fort Myers territory. Not a single trail was found leading into it, yet apparently it turned out more product than any other still in this section of the state.
“There were no signs of life – except that some of the coals were still warm, indicating that it had been operating the day before.
“There were three vats of 500-gallon capacity all filled with mash. The worm (copper cooling coil for alcohol steam) is one of the most valuable arts of the equipment, had been taken away – either for repair or else hidden in case of a raid.
“The other still was discovered in a more open location close to Del Verde (a proposed development near the intersection of State Roads 31 and 74.)
“The Del Verde still utilized a 285-gallon gasoline tank as a boiler. Distillate was condensed in a long, tin pipe leading to a 5-gallon glass jug.
“Twenty-six barrels of mash were close to the boiler, each one buried within a few inches of the top of the ground to avoid detection by hunters and other wanderers in the woods.
“The still was declared by the sheriff as the filthiest he had ever seen. Later, a shallow well from which water was obtained for the mash was examined. Those inspecting the outfit found several dead rats and a decayed opossum in the bottom of the pit.
“It was concluded that the operators believed water with decomposed animal matter in it would create more active fermentation in the mash – thereby producing shine more readily, regardless of its deadly effect.”
Epilog
The 18th Amendment was repealed in 1933 upon urging by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Racketeering in smuggling and dispensing whiskey during the “Roaring Twenties” became irrelevant.
The bootleg production of un-taxed whiskey continued through World War II when sugar was rationed, and into the early 1950s before commercial whisky producers reached full production.
Today, competition and aerial infra-red detection has made personal-enterprise hooch just a memory.
Author: Lindsey Williams
CUTLINES
1—3 col – man by tree
Sun photo by Lindsey Williams
WATCH OUT: Tom Ray in 1995 points to tree carving that warned moonshiners at a Shell Creek whiskey still that they were known by Mr. Pinkerton, the Federal Revenue Commissioner at Tampa.
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Photos courtesy State Archives of Florida
2 – 2 col -- boiling kettle
Lakeland
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3 -- -- 2col – string of barrels
Tampa
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5 – 2 col. forest Still
Jacksonville
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