While it's now probably made more for personal consumption, at one time moonshining was a way of putting food on the table for more than a few folks around here. During prohibition in the 1920's "Revenuers" came into the Ozark Mountains and worked hard at putting the shiners out of business. They would get a tip on the location of a still and head out into the forest to find and destroy it and arrest the operators if possible. This was no easy task. The shiners knew the area and most had their stills in places pretty difficult to find. They would make their brew at night and hound dogs would alarm them if anyone was nearby.

The revenuers must have been dedicated. They couldn't just drive up to a still and arrest everybody there. They had to hike deep into the forest on dark nights knowing that if they found a still it was likely to be guarded by men with shotguns who were inclined to defend their property. When they found a still they would destroy it by smashing it with baseball bats and leaving it completely useless.

In the Spring of 2001 my brother Sam and I decided to stretch our legs and do some off trail bushwhacking at the Mincy Wildlife Reserve just south of Branson, Missouri. This is a great little park that has a nice creek that runs through it to Bull Shoals Lake. Plenty of wildlife and lots of little hills and hollers to hike around.

On a previous hike Sam and I found a beautiful 20ft waterfall in a small wet weather creekbed. It was late when we got there the first time so we decided to go back and hike to the bottom and look around. This beautiful waterfall is just a few hundred yards from the shore of Bull Shoals Lake but it is completely hidden from view. We spent some time poking around at the waterfall and then decided to hike along a limestone bluff that rose above the Bull Shoals Lake shoreline. This area was new to both of us and we were soaking up the view of the lake as we hiked along the top of the cliff. After a mile or so we decided to head away from the lake and deeper into the woods in the direction of the little Suzuki Samurai we'd parked at the end of the road.

This is where this hike became interesting. After a few minutes of walking we came up to a stack of rocks about 4 ft. high and over a quarter mile long. These rocks were piled up like a crude wall and we both were puzzled as to who might have done this and why. My best guesses are that it was either done during the Civil War or by the Army Corps of Engineers when the lake was created. The stack of rocks did not look to me like they'd been there for over a hundred years but I could be wrong about that. One of these days I'll ask someone who might know. After exploring and pondering the reason for this huge stack of rocks we hiked on deeper into the forest.

We were really just meandering about, no trail, no destination, just roaming around the forest when I saw some debris that was definitely man made. Sam and I hiked over to the remains of what at first appeared to be an old campsite. But after looking around a bit I wondered if we hadn't found something a little more interesting.

We found an old washtub, lots of oil cans, an oil burner, a bunch of mason jars and even a couple of ceramic jugs like Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies used to keep her "Medicine" in. Everything was smashed to uselessness. This stuff has been there for awhile too. But why? Who would haul all this stuff all the way out here? There isn't even the remains of an old trail anywhere near here. If they were just dumping trash they went a long distance and worked mighty hard to put it here.

I was examining the lid to an "Atlas Mason Jar" when it dawned on me that this is what the shiners put their liquor into when in was ready to sell. I stood up and looked around. Nothing. Nothing but forest for miles. Now it began to make sense. If I was going to be making shine this would be a good place to do it. Far from any roads, above a high cliff and deep into the forest, but close enough to the White River to transport the product easily. This must have been an almost perfect spot for moonshining.

Almost perfect, but not quite. I sat back down and imagined what went on here years ago. Next to me was a piece of leather from a small woman's shoe. Hmm... Did women visit places like this back then? That's a stupid question. Everybody knows that "Girls just want to have fun". There was probably some partying going on here. I let my imagination go a bit further. Since everything was smashed and broken it seem possible that if this is an old still, it was one that the revenuers found.