All 150 coins have been claimed. The caches are still in place but the challenge has ended. Thank you for coming out and enjoying LBL Heritage.
This Geocache is part of an annual Geocache Challenge put on by the Heritage Program at Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area as part of our outreach to the public, to get people to explore their forest and their history, and to share the unique heritage of the families from Between the Rivers.
This Geocache is part of the “2024 Land Between the Lakes Heritage Geocache Challenge: Moonshine Heritage”. There are 6 geocaches placed across Land Between the Lakes related to the history of the moonshine industry between the rivers. If you locate each geocache, and collect a numbered aluminum tree tag from each cache, you can turn them in at the Golden Pond Visitor Center for one of 150 Challenge Coins created for this event.
The Geocache is a 6” x 6” orange watertight plastic box marked “Heritage Geocache” on the top. The geocache is placed under a fallen a tree trunk.
The Industry of Moonshine Geocache
Moonshine and bootlegging fulfilled many different needs. It helped people survive the Great Depression by providing alternate means of financial support. For women and African Americans, it provided opportunities for economic and social independence and advancement outside the constraints of prejudiced laws and cultural norms.
For some, moonshine provided an escape from the trauma of World War I. As a whole, making and drinking moonshine fostered a deep sense of community through a shared tradition. Communities relied on one another and had to exhibit resilience and determination to survive.
Moonshine Industry in Between the Rivers
The industry of moonshine and bootlegging goes back way before prohibition began (1920) and continued long after it had ended (1933). A former resident of Between the Rivers (BTR) as it was known then, stated in an interview with TVA that when they were kids, making moonshine was just a way of life, like cropping tobacco. After the Iron Industry ceased in 1927, people in Western Kentucky had to find other means of economic development. Making moonshine was ideally suited to the isolation and hilly terrain of the BTR. At one time when the Great Depression hit it was suggested that at least 90% of the people in the BTR had made a little shine to make their living.
Golden Pond Moonshine
Settlers “between the rivers” had always made whiskey from their surplus corn crop. It was another way of preserving food, not unlike drying beans or salting ham,---and the product brought pleasure to themselves and their friends. It was good whiskey 'too, made with skill and care, with a fine flavor that came from cold limestone spring water. Shipped by a few enterprising local entrepreneurs to speakeasies in Detroit, Chicago, and St. Louis, Golden Pond moonshine-quickly gained a national reputation.
All the geocaches in this challenge have been placed in locations that were frequented by moonshiners. Some are placed close to old moonshine distilling sites. Others are placed on ridgelines or hills that overlook areas moonshiners once hid their stills in.
As you walk through the woods on your way to find these geocaches, there are many subtle signs of the past and if you pay attention to them, you can get a glimpse of times gone by.
There are old road beds in varying states of erosion. Some are vibrantly apparent while others have faded into the landscape. You can follow these roads to the geocaches and imagine the moonshiners that once traveled it, keeping their heads on a swivel looking for interlopers and revenuers.
Other signs of the past are daffodils and wolf trees. Many times, you can see daffodils lined up next to a road or bordering the footprint of a homesite. Wolf trees can be any species but are marked by being larger and older than surrounding trees. Their identifying feature is that its branches stretch out parallel to the ground rather than at steep angles, or they have numerous nubbins that indicate their branches have fallen off. These nubbins and the horizontal branches indicate that the tree was once in a cleared area, it did not have to fight for sunlight and could stretch its arms wide.