Attraction's curious past is drawing crowds
There’s a whisky-linked silver lining in this cloud of sorts.
The Moonshine Explosion Museum – found in Virginia’s Franklin County, which cheerfully bills itself as the Moonshine Capital of the World – notes its unusual moniker is a reflection of a blast that nearly a century ago left the building now housing it left battered and bruised but subsequently becoming home to a popular tourist attraction.
July 11, 1930, saw what the museum – located in the town of Rocky Mount – labels a “salesman” pull into what was then a garage, explaining he was having car trouble. Mechanics decided to let the car cool and went home for dinner but the vehicle, carrying a full load of illegal liquor, caught fire, sparking an explosion.
Parts of wrecked vehicles still remain in the building’s basement, while exhibits throughout the museum both depict and celebrate the area’s moonshine heritage.
“Last year we officially opened the museum,” says Beth Graham, instrumental in the museum’s founding. “We opened (wine bar) Olde Towne Social House in March of 2023 and The Alley Cat (lounge) October 2023 and from the moment the doors were open, locals asked to go see the (wrecked) cars in the now museum. At that time, there were some stairs to the basement but no lights, the broken bricks from the 1930 explosion lay where they fell and the three cars’ remains. They either had seen the newspaper stories from 2015 when the previous owner found them or they had heard the stories from family and friends that knew of them,” Graham says of curious guests.
“The story is true and in my opinion, it is very entertaining to tell and hear,” she adds of the cause of the blast. “Again, it’s why we chose this building for the business. Ironically, the newspaper story from the Roanoke Times the day after the fire in 1930 only stated that they must’ve stored fuel at the motor company and that being the reason for the explosion. The Franklin County Historical Society also verified the story and there’s been scores of locals that remembered it. Most aren’t alive now but their descendants remember hearing of it.”
Graham says the museum serves as a commemoration of both moonshine and the explosion.
Photos by Jennifer Hayward
“Although people had heard the stories over the 85 years of the explosion, no one knew the cars were still hidden in a part of the basement that had walls four bricks thick,” she reports . “The explosion blew the roof off the building and something like 30 other cars were burned in the upstairs showroom of the motor company. The town had just acquired the 1930 Seagrave Fire Truck and this was its first fire. No one in the area that was involved or not involved in moonshine – better known locally as liquor – was not aware of the fact that the building sold supplies for moonshine or moonshine itself for years and years. Even as late as 1997 to 1999, Operation Lightning Strike (a raid aimed at makers of illegal whiskey) took place targeting the building for the sheer amount of sugar (needed for moonshine) that was sold there. Dixie Sugar Company in Savannah, Georgia reported they (the building’s then occupants) were their No. 2 customer, just behind Hershey Chocolate!”
Three main museum exhibits feature photographs and news stories telling of the 1930 fire, The Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial of 1935 – which saw 34 suspected bootleggers indicted, 21 of whom were eventually imprisoned – and then the 1997-1999 Operation Lightning Strike, a joint federal and state investigation targeting the building. The main exhibit is the audio and visual that plays an actual 1930s song and tells the story of the fire with lights and smoke. “So many people that aren’t locals will ask if the story is true because it simply sounds wild,” Graham reports.
Supplies people were buying for making moonshine were sold out of the back of the building that shares a parking lot with a courthouse and jail. The movie Lawless, based in the area, stated “at night the hills were lit up like a Christmas tree with all of the stills.” The Discovery Channel show Moonshiners features modern day moonshiners, including area resident Henry Lee Law, who recalls coming with his father – a well-known moonshiner in the past – to “buy feed and seed in front of the building and driving around back to pick up gallon jugs and sugar.” “He makes the legal version these days,” Graham reports of Law.
Graham attributes the illegal moonshine business to Prohibition – which lasted from January 1920 to December 1933 and the Great Depression. “It may sound unbelievable at first, but at the time, alcohol was being taxed almost dollar for dollar the amount it was sold for, so people that were trying to make a living did so in the only way they felt they could.”
Twin Creeks Distillery – in downtown Rocky Mount – started selling whiskey legally in 2015, actually selling the first legal batch of the alcohol in Franklin County.
Photos by Jennifer Hayward
Graham says visitors love the museum, and are enamoured by the county’s history of illegal alcohol production. However, before the museum’s opening there were few actual physical reminders of that past.
Some might think that a museum telling of illegal activity is somewhat curious, with Graham acknowledging that not all see eye to eye on people making a forbidden product.
But she adds that there’s no disputing that it’s part of the region’s past.
“Moonshine is controversial for that very reason and the area can still be divided on the subject,” Graham says. “The fact is, it is as much a part of the fabric of Franklin County and Rocky Mount as the people and the land. Good, bad or ugly, it happened and it is history. Anna Prillaman of Twin Creeks Distillery has a beautiful way of describing it as a way of life; it’s not just about drinking or alcohol, it’s about family and bluegrass music and culture and local agriculture, science and creativity. Most everyone that comes in our business wants to know the stories, see the museum and enjoy all of it. Dozens of books have been written on the moonshine history just in this area.
“In my experience, more people in the area are proud or positive than are embarrassed or negative about the history. Beth Worley of the Blue Ridge Institute at Ferris College told us that her grandfather bought a two-story home, a brand new vehicle and a new tractor one year in cash from his earnings. This was no small business. When locals go into the museum for the first time, or come in again and again bringing friends and family, they are clearly proud. Absolutely, people still make, share and enjoy moonshine. If you’re ever at a local party or gathering, there’s either a mason jar in the host’s freezer or someone brings it as a gift. It always brings smiles and some giggles.”
And Graham adds that the museum couldn’t be housed in a more significant structure.
“You can actually view the scene of the crime from 85 years ago,” she points out.
