Whiskey Springs in Cumberland County PA

This road is called Whiskey Spring road because many farmers in the area turned their corn into whiskey before taking it to market– it was easier and cheaper to transport in that form and brought more money.   This spring was on the road across the mountain, it was a place the farmers could stop, get a drink, water the horses and rest them before the hard pull over the mountain that goes up several hundred feet in a short distance.  The picture above shows the view of the road from the spring. 

Often whiskey was hidden in the woods above the spring if the farmers learned that the federals were in the area checking.The area behind the spring is rocky and rugged as shown in this view.

Here is the spring, not an impressive thing but it was the focus of this. A wider view of it is below.

Fifty years ago this was back woods, now it is the fancy digs of those who can afford to put nearly a mill into housing.  Look at this house through the woods.

The Adams, Cumberland county area still had moonshiners with working stills in the area in the 1960’s – a check of records of that time will show at least one found and the operator arrested near Aspers PA. 

The still was illegally on the property of the company my dad worked for and he found it while checking the water ponds – the man operating the still had a pipe into the pond and a battery pump to pull water for mash and cooling the still out of the pond.  My dad got a chance to see the still before it was dynamited and was pretty sure he knew the welder who built it for the moonshiner.  He worked as a welder for the company my dad worked for!  My dad told me, there are few welders who did that good of work in the area and could also do the brazing of the copper container for the actual still.  Building the still was not illegal, making moonshine is.  If he was right the man who built it went to school with me and grew up within two miles of where I did.