By Mike Simmons
If a person were to begin in downtown Pensacola and travel northwest, he would encounter a creek about eleven miles out. The name of the creek? Eleven Mile Creek. Somebody thought long and hard about that one.
Eleven Mile Creek has been a part of Escambia County at least since its founding, but the name has been attached to it since at least 1889 – probably longer. The June 5, 1889 edition of the Pensacola News Journal (https://www.newspapers.com/image/352769935/?match=1&terms=%22Eleven%20Mile%20Creek%22) had an article on Page 4 that mentioned the creek, “Eleven mile creek bridge requires a few floor plank. The frame work is in a fairly good condition.” Three years later on January 16, 1892, a team working on a railroad were reportedly camping on the banks of the creek. The next year, a man from Eleven Mile Creek who raised fine birds sold them in Pensacola.
Over the years, the creek has been used for election district boundaries, as a reference for many directions given, as a dumping stream from the old St. Regis papermill, and for fishing, which was at one time a favorite spot. But, in the 1920s, it was also famous…or infamous, for something else – moonshining. The vast wooded area provided protection from the “revenooers,” and the supply of water made for a perfect location for the nocturnal business.
Don’t get me wrong, the act of making liquor which was outlawed in the early part of the 1900s was still carried out in hundreds – maybe thousands – of locations in the Florida panhandle. It was federal law, so it had to be enforced, but most people were perplexed at the passage of the law itself. Even those who didn’t partake thought, as a rule, that a law would not keep people from imbibing. It brings to mind the saying, “You can’t legislate morality.” Prostitution, drug abuse, alcohol abuse…all continue to exist, law or no law.
Moonshining was the manufacture of illegal liquor by the moonlight, or “likker.” Bootlegging was the act of transporting or carrying alcohol “in your boot.” “Speakeasys” were clubs that sold illegal alcohol but didn’t speak about it. Actually, NASCAR was made into a sport by cars which were carrying the illegal spirits trying to outrun local law enforcement.
The March 19, 1925, edition of the Pensacola News Journal reported that a still was seized by big Sheriff Mose Penton Deputy McArthur and Prohibition Agent R.F. Stearns. Most moonshiners would have some kind of signaling system set up to warn them when “the law” was coming. Sometimes it was a paid boy to keep a lookout, sometimes it was string with bells stretched across the trails leading to the still, but there was usually something. This bunch must have been no different, because they got wind of the lawmen coming early enough to grab some of the booze and run.
When the revenooers got there, they found a 75-gallon still and began to dismantle it. Realizing the men had run, they started after them. The bad guys dropped the other 26 gallons they were dragging, thinking, empty-handed freedom is better than being caught with 26 gallons of evidence.
Sheriff Penton and gang, seized the 75-gallon still, 26 gallons of likker, and eight barrels of mash ready for use. It was, like other evidence, taken to the sheriff’s office and destroyed.
And…moonshining continued. And the lawmen continued.
Interesting…