Moonshine—The Town

Calling Moonshine a town is a bit of stretch. They advertise a population of 2 on their sign but it looked like a stretch to me when my sons, a couple of their friends and I stopped by for a cheese-moonburger earlier this week. We were on our way back from Terra Haute where we make an annual run to purchase fireworks that we’ll be shooting off on July 3rd from our boat dock. Stop by if you’re on Lake Sara.

The State of Illinois map doesn’t list Moonshine, but I found it on Microsoft’s Streets and Trips. I should have printed out the map, because we ended up getting lost trying to find this wide spot in the road. It is not a place that you are likely to stumble across…it sits at the intersection of two country roads about 8 miles from any cluster of homes that you might call a village.

But Moonshine has become a bit of a cult location where people from all over the world (all 50 states and 30 foreign countries) go for big, greasy, juicy moonburgers that they sell for $2. They’ll add a slice of American cheese for another quarter. The day we were there they’d served over 150, but had done 250+ the day before. Their record is 469, set earlier this year when several collector groups (antique tractors, Corvettes and Studebakers) stopped by for lunch. The grill is on from 10:15 to 12:30 (sharp). We got there at 12:20, but a family that arrived at 12:35 after us, was out of luck.

Helen and Roy Lee Tuttle bought the old country store in 1982 and haven’t done much to it since then. In fact I’m guessing that there hasn’t been a major renovation done to the building since it was built in 1912, other than a reasonably new wooden outhouse across the road. They call it “Sitty Hall.”

You can sit on one of the three church pews inside, on the three benches on the front porch or the dozen picnic tables on the lawn on the east side of the building under the shade trees. Moonshine is one of those places that you want to tell people you’ve been to. It has a very unique sense of place.