Published November 21, 2007
Pickens County Progress
Days of moonshine, fast cars, night-time raids recalled
At historical society meeting, former Revenue Agent Warren Cagle
reminisces about illegal whiskey enforcement in North Georgia
By Dan Pool
Speaking to a full room, former Revenuer Warren Cagle told of
days combing the hollows of North Georgia hunting illegal moonshine
stills, during a presentation he made to the historical society at
the county library, November 13.
Cagle had graduated from Tate High School and was teaching at
Pickens High when local revenue "group leader" Duff Floyd recruited
him to join the three-man squad in pursuit of moonshiners in 1954.
Cagle said he, Floyd and state agent Roy Stancil covered all
of Cherokee, Pickens Gilmer and Fannin counties, considered " a very
small area but one with a lot of activity going on."
Within this area, the section around Stancil's Store, the
Yellow Creek Road area, and the area north of Lake Allatoona "were
quite prolific" in the presence of stills, Cagle said.
In addition to the rural area being ripe for moonshine
stills, Cagle said the Blue Ridge Judicial circuit had a judge with a
reputation for leniency toward anyone caught producing liquor.
"He had a standard fine of $250 whether you were the biggest
producer or made it in a coffee pot," Cagle said.
Among the still operations they raided, the largest was in
Cherokee County and had 56 barrels (each capable of holding 220
gallons of raw mash) as part of the operation. He said this still
could have produced 350 to 375 gallons per day, seven days a week.
However the total output for the operation ended after 13 gallons
when Cagle, Stancil and Floyd arrived. "We got it the first day," he
said.
He said another of the bigger busts involved a "conspiracy
case" with an Ellijay company as a front supplying sugar and other
ingredients in bulk to moonshiners as well as operating stills.
Cagle said it takes 10 pounds of sugar to make 1 gallon of
moonshine, and this company was thought to have bought and resold 3.5
million pounds of sugar before being caught.
Since the days for keeping their trade secrets out of the
public eye have passed, Cagle described basic techniques used in
locating stills.
He said about one-third of discoveries followed a tip. In one
case a wife phoned in the location of her husband's still and when he
would be there. Her moonshiner husband had promised to take this
lady to visit her mother that Sunday but balked, claiming he had to
run the mash through the still that day. His trouble with the wife
got him trouble with the law.
Once they suspected an area of harboring a still, Cagle said
revenuers would drive the roads looking for disturbed places on the
road bank about as high as a flatbed truck. Bringing in heavy
supplies and hauling out gallons of shine usually left a mark.
However, many experienced operators learned to hide still
locations by using planks placed on low saw horses that bridged the
vegetation. Revenuers responded, "by just walking an area. I put in a
lot of miles," Cagle said.
Another technique involved simply going to an area at night
and listening. "You would be amazed at how far you could hear a
vehicle in those days," he said. "There was not much traffic and
gravel roads."
"I put in a lot of hours looking at the stars, waiting on
something to happen," he said. "Sometimes it did."
Part of the moonshine culture was fast cars making runs to
Atlanta to sell the goods. During question and answer, Cagle said
most moonshine generated here ended up in Atlanta, sold in the poorer
communities there.
Cagle said Floyd or Stancil generally took the wheel and he
rode shotgun while running down "trippers", hot rodders paid to haul
the moonshine, usually packed in half-gallon fruit jars and stashed
in the back seat under a blanket.
"Sunday and Monday mornings, for some reason, was the
preferred time to trip whiskey to Atlanta," he said.
Cagle said the depiction of souped-up cars flying down dirt
roads with backwoods drivers, some of whom would later be NASCAR's
first legends, is largely accurate.
He said most roads were dirt or gravel then, and chases often
reached speeds of 60 miles per hour, "about as fast as you can go and
stay on a gravel road."
Often "trippers" had hot rods that would blow past anything
the revenuers drove until local government men acquired a tripper car
seized on an unsuccessful run.
Cagle said they would often head off a tripper at a bridge.
And while they "weren't allowed to shoot tires, somehow or the other
they'd go flat when we got close enough," he said.
Cagle said the life of a revenue agent was tough on a family
and for a wife who often didn't see her revenuer husband for several
days at a time.
"It was a way of life," he said. "I need to give our wives a
lot of credit."
Responding to numerous questions, Cagle said there was
practically never any violence associated with moonshine production,
even on raids.
"As a general rule, the moonshiners had no weapons, but we
were armed," he said. "Making liquor was one thing, but shooting at
an officer was something else entirely."
He said moonshiners usually ran when agents raided stills,
but if an agent could lay a hand on them, the shiners would stop.
He described a close and friendly relationship between group
leader Duff Floyd and the moonshine makers, including one who named
his son after Floyd.
Floyd's son Phil, who also spoke at the historical society
event, said he accompanied his father on raids while still a teenager
if other agents weren't available.
Floyd said some former liquor makers came to his father's
funeral to say Duff Floyd had always treated them fairly.
Cagle said the people making the moonshine were just looking
for a way to make a living, and moonshining was illegal only because
it deprived the government of taxes on their product.
"It wasn't a moral issue," he said. "It was wrong because
Congress said so." He often saw "pitiful situations" of poverty among
those making moonshine.
"90 percent of those in it were making it because they didn't
have any other means to make a living," he said. "Times were tough in
the rural mountain counties."
One way moonshine developed a bad reputation was when it was
"cut" after production by wholesalers and retailers trying to stretch
the product by adding water (or sometimes poisonous wood alcohol) or
other substances.
In one infamous case, a man named Fats Hardy cut a batch of
moonshine with wood alcohol, killing 35 people who drank it and
leaving more than 100 blind. Hardy went to prison for life but was
released much later when dying of cancer.
Cagle said he mostly found producers making the standard
moonshine. He only saw two stills used for "pure corn whiskey" and
only rarely found someone making "apple brandy" using fermented
apples.
He said pure corn whiskey operations (where the product
fermented without sugar) and apple brandy stills produced lower
volumes of product and took longer to ferment and cook.
A typical recipe for a batch of moonshine was a
bushel-and-a-half of rye, a half-bushel of malt, 200 pounds of sugar
and a Prince Albert can of dry yeast. Moonshiners put all this in a
220-gallon barrel and filled it with water. After waiting about four
days for things to ferment, they started cooking the "mash" in a
still.
Cagle said operation of a still was based on the fact that
alcohol "boils off," becomes steam, at 180 degrees. Water doesn't
turn to steam until 212 degrees. So the moonshine producers cooked
the mash between 180 and 212 degrees to steam off the alcohol and
leave the water in the cooker.
The steamed product rose into a coil, possibly a winding
copper line or maybe two car radiators connected together. When
cooled, steamed alcohol condensed into liquid and dripped out as
moonshine. Occasionally moonshiners ran the copper condensing line
under a dammed branch for quicker cooling.
Early in his speech, Cagle described the three types of
common stills. The "turnip," often shown in photographs, had a
turnip-shaped copper cooker with winding cooper tube at the top. He
said this was more the "family type" operation, usually holding about
50 to 75 gallons of mash. These were generally heated in a rock
furnace, the remnants of which can be seen in most hollows in this
area today.
The more industrial-grade still was the steamer. This used an
upright boiler furnishing steam to a metal tank.
Cagle said later in his career, in the late 1950's and
1960's, he saw more "groundhogs." These were basically homemade steel
barrels with wooden tops and bottoms. Here the mash fermented and
cooked in the same pot. He said these would quickly start to rust and
produced red liquor.
Most moonshiners made their own equipment, often displaying
some fine "metal working ability" with their cooper creations, Cagle
said.
When stills were found, Cagle and the other revenuers
destroyed the operations through a variety of methods including
dynamite and axes.
Following several years of work here, Cagle became a "group
leader" in South Georgia and then transferred to the law enforcement
arm of the Forest Service. He said he transferred when the federal
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agency became more focused on organized
crime in northern cities than on southern moonshine and started
transferring agents out of the South.
Commissioner holds public hearing
$19 million budget discussed for 2008
By Dan Pool
Few members of the public attended a hearing to discuss the
county's $19 million budget Friday.
Prepared with overhead projections, graphs and charts,
Commissioner Rob Jones and County Financial Director Mechelle
Champion explained some of the work, projections and planning that
went into preparing the 2008 budget. Those in attendance consisted
mainly of other county employees.
Jones said the county anticipates collecting $8.2 million in
taxes. Of this, $7.1 million will come from property taxes; the rest
is made up from car tags, plus taxes on mobile homes, timber and
equipment.
But, Jones noted, the total budget is $19,066,390. "The
departments bring in the rest [of the revenue]," he said.
Jones said he set a rough goal of allowing five percent
operating cost increases for the different departments. Some had
increases that were more and some less, but overall they had a five
percent increase, he said.
Jones said he used a line-item approach to review department
budgets, cutting single items where he felt it was necessary.
Champion said the county is projected to collect $2.55
million in (Local Option Sales Tax) LOST funds. This sales tax
revenue is used as part of the general fund. LOST is in addition to
and separate to the SPLOST sales tax used to fund specific
construction projects.
Champion said the projection is based on what they see coming
in at this time. Last year they collected $2.3 million.
Should the economy heat up and the county collect more than
the $2.55, the additional revenue can be rolled into the general fund
to make up for over-runs in other areas or shortfalls in other
revenue sources.
Jones said by far the biggest budget item and the biggest
increase is in public safety, a category accounting for 39 percent of
total expenditures. Jones attributed this to "growth in the county."
He said he would like to have funded more for countywide fire
protection and recreation.
For fire protection, they will try to hire additional
personnel after the first of the year. For recreation, it will be
largely up to future SPLOST to make significant improvements.
"Fire protection and recreation are two places where we are
really behind," he said.
Jones said he also believes that there will be more spending
next year on water as the drought continues and wells go dry.
Responding to a question, Jones said the county will not run
water lines for new developments without the developer paying. But
they may run lines to longtime residents who are near water lines
already and have dry wells.
"Water really takes a lot of our time," he said. "For people
who have lived here all their lives, and their well goes dry, the
county will help. They have paid taxes all their lives."
Major Sherman McEntire from the Sheriff Department addressed
the increase in that department. McEntire said they currently have 85
employees and 40 vehicles. They have budgeted funds for additional
hiring but are having difficulty filling open slots.
In the next year, some of their requested budget will go to
replace some patrol cars.
He said they have found that assigning a single car to each
uniformed patrol officer is the most efficient system. While it
requires more vehicles, the patrol cars last longer when not "hot
seated" - using the same car for all shifts.
McEntire said an earlier plan for the new jail to house
prisoners from other counties as a revenue generator has never really
worked out with any significant numbers. McEntire said other counties
have also built larger jails, so there are fewer counties now seeking
additional cells.
The airport is budgeted to take in $309,408 in revenue and
have the same amount in expenditures. But, a line of the budget for
the airport listed as other financing is actually $75,000 shifted
from the county's general fund to the airport.
When asked if this means the airport is making or losing
money for the county, Jones said the department is definitely not
making any. He said they hope to "wean the airport off [the general
fund] somewhere down the road."
He said the airport may not use the $75,000 in county funds,
but it is there as a buffer.
When asked about a fund balance or savings for the county,
Champion said for this year there is none. "We are projecting $19
million in revenue and projecting to spend $19 million," she said.
However, Champion and Jones both pointed to a line in the
budget titled, "Other Financing Sources" that is somewhat of a fund
balance, though not all in available cash.
Champion said some of this is uncollected revenue, and some
is used in the event of shortfalls.
Jones said he is trying to build a fund balance. Counties
should have fund balances, but here they haven't been able to build
up the additional revenue, he said.
"If we have any left over, we're going to build on it," Jones said.
He noted that most departments build in contingencies, and
often items or manpower (such as additional deputies) are budgeted
for but never bought or hired, creating some extra funds should an
unexpected need arise.
This was the last public hearing on the budget prior to its
adoption. It is scheduled to be adopted November 30 at 9 a.m. Copies
are available at the county admin building.
Regina Camp Named Pickens County Citizen of the Year
By Angela Mitchell
Regina Camp, named Pickens County 2007 Citizen of the Year,
tried to hold back the tears as she approached the podium for her
acceptance speech during last week's ceremony.
"I was not expecting this," she said.
Camp, a lifetime resident of Pickens, won the countywide
popular vote for the honorable title. However, Camp spent the
majority of her acceptance speech dolling out accolades to friends,
family, and other members of the Pickens community. "This is not for
me, it's for all of us," she said.
Camp recognized and gave thanks to the four other nominees
(Doug Brooks, Stan Barnett, Marjorie Lohman, and Thomas Lindsey) and
said that she has, at some point, worked with every one of them. "We
are so blessed to have the spirit of giving in this community," she
said.
The ceremony was organized by the Pickens County Chamber of
Commerce, and was sponsored by ETC, Pisconeri Studios, and Bojangles,
who provided the meal for attendees that evening.
After dinner, introduction speeches were given by the friends
and family of all five nominees, followed by remarks from the
nominees themselves.
Longtime family friend of the Camp's, Eliza Cagle, was asked
by Camp to speak on her behalf. Cagle, in her speech, gave the
audience some insight into the life of a "true giver" whose "voice
smiles."
Cagle recalled a line spoken by Camp in a theatrical
performance from her childhood. The line, Cagle said, speaks true of
Camp even now - "The sun rises in the east, sets in the west, and
ladies and gentlemen I have done my best."
Camp's list of humanitarian contributions to the Pickens
County community are, as her nominator Tanya Kyle said, a true
testament to her selfless generosity. Camp is the current director of
Community Relations and Volunteer Services at Piedmont Mountainside
Medical, has served as the Chamber of Commerce president, is a member
of the CARES board of directors, has served as chairwoman for A Taste
of Pickens, a member of the American Cancer Society and the Jasper
Lions Club - which is just scratching the surface of her local
involvement.
"When someone needs help and Regina hears about it," Kyle
said. "She always helps."
Marty Callahan, a member of the Chamber of Commerce's board
of directors, presented Camp with the award. In a final note, Camp
said of her newest title, "I will do my best to live up to what you
have bestowed on me."
The Chamber's Executive President Denise Duncan concluded the
ceremony by recognizing all nominees and Pickens County Residents.
"It is our responsibility to make our community the best it can be
for our children," she said.
A photograph provided by Pisconeri Studios was taken of Camp
following the ceremony.
From this photo, a portrait will be unveiled in January and
displayed at the Chamber of Commerce to honor Camp's ongoing
commitment and dedication to the Pickens County Community.
|
