Due to COVID-19, please plan your trip ahead and confirm hours of operation before venturing out on a tour.
Please be patient and follow each businesses’ safety protocol while visiting.
Self-Guided Tours
Jump in your jalopy and embark on an authentic journey through our region's prohibition past, while filling up on some lively libations and tasty food served to you by our modern bootleggers.
Bring your personal tour to life by playing the accompanying audio tracks throughout each unique regional tour.
Begin your journey by listening to these special intro chapters:
From history to folklore, you are sure to pick up a nugget of information that you find fascinating.
York Story
Spiritual Days and Spirit-Filled Nights
Experience what it was like to turn the blind eye to the blind pig! During Temperance, many people pretended to be teetotalers during the day – only to cut loose at the underground gin joints at night! How did York’s flappers and hep cats balance this double life? Take the York tour to find out!
NORTH Durham Story
Trains and Bootlegging: Gooderham and Worts and the Need for Raw Materials
Ever wonder how the largest business in 19th century Canada, The Gooderham and Worts Distillery in Toronto, got enough raw materials to make their signature whiskey? Why, they built railways! Not only that, they got other folks to chip in and make it all legit . . . sort of. Take the North Durham tour and find out more!
SOUTH Durham Story
Drama in Durham: War on Whiskey
Antagonism and hostility sure put a damper on the nightlife in Durham! Take the tour for the inside scoop on this region’s scandalous past. Listen in on how the pressure mounted until the Bluenoses who supported Temperance openly clashed with the bootleggers and moonshiners who defied the movement every night.
Headwaters Story
Hidden Secrets: Swamps, Stills and Barnyard Moonshine
Psst – wanna quench your thirst without spending all your hard-earned clams? Take a wander down the backroads of Headwaters when restrictions from the feds and pressure from the Bluenoses gave rise to a thriving moonshine and bootlegging industry in the region’s nooks and crannies.
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