Stearns County is getting ready to share the history of its moonshine-making glory days with the documentary filming of “Minnesota 13: From Grain to Glass” this summer. 

The Stearns County History Museum says the film will explore Elaine Davis’s book ‘Minnesota 13: Wet Wild Prohibition Days’. The plot will follow the illegal whiskey distribution of Stearns County and answers as to why Stearns County didn’t become the Jack Daniels producing area of the United States.

Documentarians Norah Shapiro of Minneapolis and Kelly Nathe from Los Angeles are co-directing and producing the documentary. The filming will take place at the Stearns History Museum and Research Center, Baker’s Acres in Avon, and other local community sites. Nathe has family ties to Holdingford and Little Birch Lake, both places where moonshine was made and American gangster Al Capone visited.

For more information on the filmmaking process, like the Facebook page Minnesota 13: From Grain to Glass.

For a more in-depth look at Elaine Davis’ book Minnesota 13: Wet Wild Prohibition Days, listen in to the Untold Stories of Central Minnesota Podcast "Another Sip of Minnesota 13" with Jeff Carmack, KVSC’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Producer.