Before there were cell phones and instant messaging, there was Shooting Creek.
As local legend goes, Shooting Creek got its name as a result of the moonshine trade.
“Revenuers” (special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) would come to Appalachia to prosecute unlawful distilling. Along Shooting Creek in Floyd and Franklin counties, locals would fire their guns to warn their neighbors that the revenuers were coming.
This real-time communication tool helped the independent local distillers to conceal or abandon their stills before the government authorities arrived.
Today, you can still hear gun shots in the vicinity of Shooting Creek. But those are from the guns of hunters. Mostly.
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