DRINKING AND REMAKING PLACE: A STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF COMMERCIAL MOONSHINE IN EAST TENNESSEE

Moonshine has undergone resurgence in recent years with the passage of the 2009 liquor laws in Tennessee, allowing for 41 counties to open and operate commercial moonshine distilleries. The rise of legalized moonshine is connected to broader economic changes and has already had a significant impact on the cultural landscape and the selling and remaking of place, in both East Tennessee and Appalachia, two historically underserved regions of the United States. Specifically this thesis research asks: How is place being sold, represented, and re-made through the proliferation of moonshine in East Tennessee? I address this question through an analysis of tourism and place-making scholarship. This research specifically engages concepts of authenticity and commodification in the targeted literatures. I use broadly conceived qualitative methodologies and illustrate my results through a case study of three specific moonshine distilleries in East Tennessee: Tennessee Hills Distillery (Jonesborough, TN), Sugarlands Distilling Company and Doc Collier Moonshine (Gatlinburg, TN). The results from this research illustrate the emerging “place” of moonshine production and consumption in East Tennessee through three themes: a transforming of sense of place, changes to a tourist landscape and the “making” of an “authentic” place of moonshine. This research directly contributes to literatures in Appalachian studies, tourism and place-making geographies.