By 1847 four legal, tax-paying distilleries operated in Carroll County. Many more illegal stills were likely hidden in the hills by folks who refused to pay the alcohol tax. The manufacture of moonshine grew in the 1890s when the government raised alcohol taxes, and from 1915 to 1935 during Prohibition, when alcohol was severely limited nationwide.

After World War II, returning veterans found their county overrun with bootleggers. They re-sold alcohol illegally at a premium to folks who lived in a “dry” county like Boone which didn’t allow alcohol sales. Determined to put an end to the lawbreakers, one group pushed for the legalization of alcohol sales while another tried to rid local government of do-nothing officials. 

In the end, it took a double murder on the Harrison square in 1946 before the town’s sheriff and city administration finally dealt with the lawlessness.