Francis Marion National Forest (FMNF) Still Sites
Berkeley County, South Carolina
University of Tennessee | US Forest Service
Upcoming Field School Opportunity
University of Tennessee ANTH 430: Field School in Archaeology
Winter Mini Term
January 3-20, 2023
Section 002: Main field school (no prior field experience required) - 3 credits**
Section 003: Advanced field school (prior field school or volunteer experience required by instructor approval) - 3 credits**
**Students needing to meet the credit requirements for TN Hope or other financial aid may enroll in both sections - contact the instructor for more information.
ENROLLMENT DEADLINE: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17
Associated Costs: Housing and transportation will be provided at no cost to all students participating the in the field school. The university 12-passenger van will be available to transport any students from Knoxville to the field site at no cost; alternately, students may make carpooling arrangements to travel in their own personal vehicles to the site (travel costs in personal vehicles not covered). Located on the Santee Experimental Forest Research Station, field housing will include a common living room space and full kitchen, shared bedrooms, free washer/dryer, showers, and restrooms, along with outdoor picnic tables and a fire pit. Students will be expected to cover the costs of their own food for the three weeks of the field school and will have easy access to a full kitchen at the field house. There are also a range of grocery stores, restaurants, and fast-food options in nearby Moncks Corner, South Carolina, located ~15 minutes west of the project area.
Field Equipment and Materials: All necessary field equipment, such as shovels, trowels, screens, levels, Munsell books, field notebooks, etc., will also be provided. Students are welcome to bring their own digging and mapping tools but are not required to. Students will need sturdy field clothing (hiking pants/shirts, Duluth or Carhartt-style work clothes, etc.) that is comfortable in temperatures ranging from 30˚F-65˚F and sturdy hiking or work boots.
Fieldwork will include pedestrian survey, shovel testing, and metal detector survey to locate additional archaeological sites from one of the largest moonshining operations in the country as well as test unit and feature excavation at the largest moonshine still from this operation. In addition to skills in a wide range of field survey and excavation methods, students will gain firsthand experience with mapping excavation areas and sites using traditional plan and profile maps, GPS, and total station. Students in this field school will emerge with the skillset needed to be competitive applicants for any entry-level field technician job in anthropology, including forensic fieldwork and CRM.
Advanced field school students will deepen their knowledge of archaeological survey, mapping, and excavation while developing new skills in project management, planning, and field instruction at the crew chief level. Students enrolled in the advanced field school will also receive additional lectures (optional for the main field school) on:
Applications of relational databases, GIS, and other technologies to anthropological field projects
Project safety and ethics
Professional development resources to prepare students to be competitive on the post-BA job market
For more information about the field school and how to apply, please email me: Katherine Parker (kparke38@vols.utk.edu)
Since 2018, I have been investigating the archaeological remains of moonshining, known as still sites, in the South Carolina Lowcountry. This project, which serves as the basis for my dissertation research, represents a collaboration between myself, the US Forest Service, and descendant communities to tell the story of this dynamic landscape’s transformation during the late nineteenth-early twentieth centuries.
Moonshine 101
Defining Moonshine
“Moonshine” is a word that has been appearing on labels of legal spirits sold in liquor stores across the country, leaving many to wonder what moonshine really is. While many associate the term with white (unaged) corn whiskey, moonshine actually refers to any spirit that is produced illegally outside of regulated channels. What we see today on shelves as “legal” moonshines are in fact neutral grain spirits, though many are made from older family recipes from back in those spirits’ contraband days.
Image via How Stuff Works
Making Moonshine
There is a vast range of styles, materials, and setups for making moonshine that vary based on region, resource availability, and producer preference. The key components of most stills, however, includes (1) the main still apparatus, or kettle; (2) thump keg; and (3), the condenser (for more information on the distillation process, click here to see the breakdown from How Stuff Works).
Archaeology of Still Sites
As archaeological sites, defunct or busted liquor stills are often mistaken for modern trash dumps; however, there are several key signatures that can be used to distinguish them. Still sites may have features (non-portable material culture) that are visible above ground, such as the furnace/firebox used to heat the still, rocks/architectural materials used to give the still clearance from the ground surface, or remains of any concealment structures around the edges of the still. Artifacts (portable material culture) that are typically found at still sites include broken stoneware vessels or container glass, metal nails/rivets, sheet metal fragments, metal/rubber piping and hoses, architectural materials such as bricks or cinderblocks, steel drums or barrel rings, buckets, personal/clothing items that were dropped or discarded, and dropped/fired ammunition.
Interested in learning more? Check out these great resources:
Online Resources
Print resources
Five Ways to Tell if that Pile of Garbage You Found in the Woods is a Moonshine Still - MoonshineHeritage.com
The White Lies of Craft Culture - Eater.com
Jack Daniels Embraces a Hidden Ingredient: Help From a Slave - New York Times
Temperance and Prohibition - Ohio State University archive
Documentaries and Television
Prohibition (2011) - three-part series directed by Ken Burns. Learn More
This is the Last Dam Run of Likker I’ll Ever Make (2002) - film featuring the famous Popcorn Sutton and his moonshining experiences. View Here
Moonshiners (2011 - present) - reality TV/docudrama series on Discovery Channel. Learn More
Lippard, Cameron D. and Bruce E. Stewart, ed. (2019) Modern Moonshine: The Revival of White Whiskey in the Twenty-First Century. First edition. West Virginia University Press, Morgantown.
Miller, Wilbur R. (1991) Revenuers & Moonshiners: Enforcing Federal Liquor Law in the Mountain South, 1865-1900. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.
Moss, Robert F. (2016) Southern Spirits: Four Hundred Years of Drinking in the American South. First edition. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley.
Stewart, Bruce E. (2011) Moonshiners and Prohibitionists: The Battle Over Alcohol in Southern Appalachia. New Directions in Southern History. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington.
Wigginton, Eliot, ed. (1972) The Foxfire Book: Hog Dressing, Log Cabin Building, Mountain Crafts and Foods, Planting by the Signs, Snake Lore, Hunting Tales, Faith Healing, Moonshining, and Other Affairs of Plain Living. Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, NY.
