A secluded clearing by a stream in the Catoctin Mountain Park in Thurmont, Maryland, was once the site of the notorious Blue Blazes Still, the largest illegal whiskey manufacturing enterprise to operate in Frederick County in the early 1900s. The clearing was also the location of an infamous raid that resulted in the shooting death of Frederick County Deputy Sheriff Clyde Hauver and the destruction of the operation. The practice of distilling whiskey in the mountains of western Maryland dates back to the original settlers in the early 18th-century. When…
