In 1884, a group of angry coal miners, on strike as a result of a wage dispute, pushed flaming coal cars into a mine in the town of New Straitsville, causing a massive fire that began to relentlessly burn underground. Nearly a century and a half later, the flames still burn under the hills outside the village of just more than 700.
The fire — and the large plumes of smoke that came with it — necessitated the closure of the mines in what was, at the time, a young and burgeoning Appalachian coal town. But that smoke eventually became useful for one thing: moonshine.
The smoke from the mine fire provided a natural camouflage for the bootleggers and illegal distillers of “white lightning” in New Straitsville.
“That’s how the town survived in the '20s,” said Doug Nutter, co-owner of Straitsville Special Moonshine, a moonshine distillery and store in New Straitsville. “(Moonshine) wasn’t a novelty item — it was to survive.”
Nutter, who grew up in New Straitsville, said moonshine was the only thing that kept the town afloat during the Great Depression, a sentiment echoed by fellow moonshine producer and New Straitsville native Brian St. Clair.
“During Prohibition, (moonshine) meant everything,” St. Clair, co-founder of Hocking Hills Moonshine, said.
According to The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the average American annual salary in 1924 was $1,303 — one gallon of New Straitsville-made moonshine sold for about $120, St. Clair said. He said once the mafia entered the moonshine business, the money began to pour into the town.
“New Straitsville made the gold standard of bootleg whiskey, and it reached all the way to big cities,” he said.
While it often refers to whiskey specifically, the term “moonshine” can refer to any homemade liquor that is distilled. The term is often associated with liquor produced illegally — think of the mason jars ferried in The Dukes of Hazzard — but more recently has come to refer to a particular distilled liquor made with corn mash.
Corn mash is the primary ingredient for both Hocking Hills Moonshine, located in Logan, and Straitsville Special Moonshine.
“It all starts with the mash,” Nutter said of his moonshine recipe.
While good moonshine may start with corn mash, it is the water that sets the best liquors apart, St. Clair said.
“Fresh water is key to making good liquor,” he said. “Fresh water plus about 100 little trade secrets.”
Nutter emphasized that the only difference between modern moonshine equipment and those used in the Prohibition Era is the stainless steel that constitutes modern stills.
The tradition is continued with New Straitsville’s annual moonshine festival, which has taken place every Memorial Day weekend since 1971. The festival, while it revolves around moonshine, also features standard fair festivities like live music, fair foods and two parades. At the heart of the festival is a fully functioning moonshine still, but none of the moonshine can be consumed.
“It’s for education purposes only,” Nutter said.
All moonshine distilled at the festival must be discarded due to stipulations in the federal permit that is required to operate a still. The federal permit, issued by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, is one hoop moonshiners — and all other alcoholic beverage makers — must jump through to sell their products. But in Ohio, another such hoop was removed a few years ago.
In March 2012, a change in state law removed restrictions on the number of licenses that could be issued to distilleries producing less than 10,000 gallons of liquor annually. Since then, distilleries have been popping up across the state: Straitsville Special Moonshine opened in 2014, as did Flat Rock Spirits in Bath Township, about 11 miles east of Dayton. Hocking Hills Moonshine debuted its moonshine a year later.
“We work seven days a week,” St. Clair said. “Just like the old-timers spent time in the woods, we spend nights here.”
And “just like the old-timers,” some without permits still make moonshine illegally in southeastern Ohio, St. Clair said.
“The upside is not having the fear of being caught with it,” he said with a laugh.
Nutter said he believes moonshine will continue to be made — legally and illegally — in the region for years to come.
“I expect it’ll be made here in another 100 years,” he said. “It’s our heritage. It’s our culture.”
