North Carolina Moonshine: An Illicit History by Stephenson Jr. Frank & Mulder Barbara Nichols

Author:Stephenson Jr., Frank & Mulder, Barbara Nichols [Stephenson Jr., Frank]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2017-01-09T05:00:00+00:00

Hertford County ABC officers Calvin Pearce (left) and L.R. Bridges setting a dynamite charge to blow a still in the Boontown section of Gates County in 1974. Courtesy of Calvin Pearce.

CHAPTER 5

ANATOMY OF A TAR HEEL MOONSHINE FACTORY RAID

THE MERRY HILL MOONSHINE CONSPIRACY

The citizens of Bertie County, located in the coastal plains section of North Carolina, awoke on the morning of May 3, 1972, to find that the peaceful tranquility of their beautiful peanut-producing county had been shattered by the discovery of a jumbo moonshine still during an 11:00 p.m. raid the night before in the Merry Hill section near Midway. As news of the raid quickly spread throughout this rural county and the region, spectators by the hundreds began showing up at the site. It very quickly became obvious that this was not an ordinary illegal whiskey still. It turned out that this rig was actually a huge moonshine factory with a mash capacity of sixteen thousand gallons that had been producing almost five hundred gallons of moonshine a day. It, no doubt, was one of the largest stills ever found in the history of North Carolina. The moonshine factory was sitting beneath and behind a large mobile home located on an attractively landscaped lot that was equipped with playground equipment and a dog, giving it a deceptive family appearance of just another mobile home like hundreds of others dotting the region. This amazing moonshine factory was located in the Merry Hill section just off U.S. 17 near Salmon Creek.

News of the seizure of the Merry Hill moonshine factory created a sensation in the region as over ten thousand people would come to view the thing before it was dismantled and hauled away. People in the region almost immediately began to ask many questions, particularly, how in the world did such a thing like this find its way to Bertie County? There has been, as you might expect, a lot of speculation and stories surrounding the still and how it got there and how it was discovered. Some of the stories have grown way beyond the truth while others have taken on a folklore or cult-like atmosphere that has made finding and telling the true story much more difficult.

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