According to Joe Tennis with the Bristol Herald Courier, Boozy Creek got its name because moonshiners would get scared as federal agents approached. And to destroy evidence, they would topple over their liquid containers. Now, old-timers say that’s how the creek became “Boozy.”
Tennis shares how moonshine played a role in the naming of other places around the region.
(Shine was also instrumental in the 1913 naming my great-great cousin Lewis Ichabod Andrew Rockfort Jones. As the story goes, in order to ease the pains of labor, his mother was sipping therapeutic tonic. Being drunk as a monkey upon his arrival and subsequent naming, it never occurred to her that his initials would be LIAR Jones. However, LIAR grew up to be a horse-trader, and most say the name suited him to a T.)
