Close view among trees of wooden barrels and a box vat connected by metal pipes, with a cloth draped over a pipe. — Open the full imageJPG, 1800 × 1433 px, 0.4 MB

Illicit still, Craven County, North Carolina: barrels and piping (30 November 1948)

A second Coast Guard photograph of the Craven County still of November 1948: barrels and a box vat joined by metal pipes among trees. The catalog credits the find to the Coast Guard and the Alcohol Tax Unit.

Date: 1948-11-30
Kind: photograph
Source: National Archives Catalog, Records of the U.S. Coast Guard (RG 26), Photographs of Activities, Facilities, and Personalities
Retrieved: 2026-10-12
NAID: 205590826
Rights: A photograph in the Records of the U.S. Coast Guard (Record Group 26), series "Photographs of Activities, Facilities, and Personalities" (NAID 513164), file unit "Prohibition Era 1924; Radio; Regattas & Parades; Refugees." The item reads "Use Restriction: Unrestricted." The series note says: "Fewer than one percent of photographs in this series are credited to commercial sources, and may have copyright or other use restrictions." No commercial credit appears on this item; a Coast Guard photograph is a United States government work, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The stored copy is an 1,800-pixel downsample of the catalog's scan.

The National Archives catalog title is “Illicit still,” local identifier 26-G-11-30-48(4), dated 30 November 1948. The catalog description is the same as for the other frames: “an illicit distillery located by the Coast Guard and Alcohol Tax Unit in Craven County, North Carolina.” This frame is a closer view, among the trees, of wooden barrels and a box vat connected by metal pipes, with cloth draped over the piping.

The catalog does not say whether the three frames show one still or several sites. No person, arrest or exact location is named.

itemIllicit still found by the Coast Guard and Alcohol Tax Unit, Craven County, North Carolina (30 November 1948)A Coast Guard photograph of 30 November 1948: wooden fermenting boxes and barrels among thin trees. The catalog says the Coast Guard and the Alcohol Tax Unit located the distillery in Craven County, North Carolina.

itemIllicit still, Craven County, North Carolina: barrels under a pipe (30 November 1948)A third Coast Guard frame of the Craven County still of November 1948: stained barrels joined by pipes under a horizontal pipe hung with a cloth, among tree trunks at night or in deep shade.itemATF historical article: the Alcohol Tax Unit, Bureau of Internal Revenue, 1934-1951ATF's history of its post-Repeal predecessor says "Machine guns continued to be the weapon of choice for these criminals" and that the Alcohol Tax Unit enforced the 1934 and 1938 firearms acts, "marking the first enforcement responsibilities for firearms."