Blue Blazes Whiskey Still Trail

The Blue Blazes Whiskey Still Trail leads to one of the most evocative Prohibition-era archaeological sites in the National Park System — the ruins of a large illicit distillery that federal agents discovered and demolished in the Catoctin Mountains in 1929. The still, known as the Blue Blazes Still for the blue flames of its copper boilers visible through the forest at night, was one of the largest moonshine operations in Maryland at the time of its discovery, capable of producing hundreds of gallons of whiskey per day from a network of underground cisterns, fermentation vats, and copper pot stills. The site was chosen for its remote mountain location, reliable spring water supply from the Catoctin streams, and easy road access for distribution — the same qualities that led the federal government to establish a recreation area here a decade later. The trail loops through mixed hardwood forest to the partially reconstructed still site, where interpretive panels and preserved hardware explain the distilling process and the cat-and-mouse dynamic between moonshiners and revenue agents in the Catoctin region. Stone foundation walls, underground cisterns, and rusted metal components remain visible at the site. The surrounding forest shows evidence of Civilian Conservation Corps work from the 1930s in the form of planted conifers and constructed drainage features alongside older second-growth hardwood.