Sidney Creek
Beaufort County, NC

The Norfolk-Southern Railroad bridge crosses Sidney Creek at a deep pool where Bluegill and Largemouth bass rise to the hatch and leave concentric ripples expanding across the still water like raindrops.

There are few houses on Sidney Creek. Mostly the residents are blue heron, osprey, and wood ducks but in 1819 it was the site of a whiskey distillery.

North Carolina has a history of local liquor production rooted in colonial times. It was one of the few ways a small farmer could earn cash and far more profitable making liquor from corn than selling the corn itself. There was no stigma attached. Even Baptist ministers drank corn whiskey. It wasn’t illegal until the Federal excise tax on liquor was enforced after the Civil War.

Since the onerous tax was imposed by the Federal government on the defeated Southern states, moonshining became an overtly political act. It was even called blockade liquor at the time, reminiscent of those who ran the blockade of Southern ports by the U.S. Navy during the war.