Make mine Virginia shine: Backwoods brew becomes big (and now legal) business
Known variously as "white lightning," "mountain dew," or just plain "firewater," there's no denying that moonshine has been a part of Virginia history for almost as long as there has been a Virginia. No less an august personage than George Washington operated a still at Mount Vernon. When Pennsylvania tried to impose a tax on the brew in the late 18th century, Scots-Irish farmers fled to the Blue Ridge hills to continue making their corn-based liquor unmolested. And during the era of Prohibition, it was the backwoods moonshiners who kept Virginia's whistle wet with their cheap, easy-to-make brand of booze.
Now, even as the clear, syrupy contraband continues to run down mountainsides throughout Appalachia, moonshine has seeped its way into places it's never been before: local ABC stores.
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