Page 35 - October Banner 2018_Neat

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by James Rada, Jr.
The Catoctin Outlaws and the Origins of Blue Blazes
Years before the Blue Blazes
became part of Thurmont’s
history due to the 1929 raid on
the county’s largest moonshining
operation, it made the newspapers
for another raid, but this one was
to capture wanted criminals.
In 1913, the Catoctin Clarion
reported “a gang of this character
has been in our midst for some
time; walking around town, making
purchases at our stores, talking
freely to citizens, and making
trips through the country at night
relieving people of feed, poultry
and other articles.”
The “outlaw gang” turned out
to be two men, but “one of them
known as a desperate character.”
They were camping on Catoctin
Mountain in a heavily wooded area
to the right of Blue Blazes and a
mile from the old Harman Mill. “It
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is said that so dense was the growth
of small trees that it was almost
impossible to see the camp up until
within a few feet of it,” the Clarion
reported.
In nearly every local story, Blue
Blazes refers to the massive still
that county deputies raided in
1929. The still is said to have been
named Blue Blazes after the color
that moonshine burned when it
was ready. The 1913 story does
not involve a still, and it is before
Prohibition. Blue Blazes was the
name originally given to a section
on Hunting Creek in the mid-
1800s. As the story goes, a group
of men was “gigging” in the creek
using torches to see by since it was
nighttime. One of the men slipped,
and his torch fell into the water.
The Clarion reported, “the party
was terrified at finding that it had
The Catoctin Banner Newspaper October 2018 Page 35
1913
set on fire the entire surface of the according to the Clarion.
stream as far up and down as they The men in the camp ran for
could see and that it burned with a theirs as the officers rushed in. One
Blue Blaze.” man gave himself up. The other
In 1888, the Clarion asked its man got away.
readers what could have caused The captured man was Sparon
the phenomenon. Some readers Gaugher, who, according to the
suggested it was burning coal oil Clarion, “It is claimed he has killed
from beneath Chimney Rock that a number of men, and it is thought
leaked into the stream. One reader he and his companion are the ones
wrote that coal oil wouldn’t have who assaulted a man at the ‘Blue
burned that color. He suggested Goose’ saloon near Pen-Mar a short
“the party might have broken its time ago.”
jug or decanted its keg of whiskey, The other man was named John
which the torches ignited, and in Toms and was wanted for escaping
their condition of exhilaration, the jail in Gettysburg for stealing
flames seemed more extended than chickens and other property.
they actually were.” The police found a stolen horse,
Whatever the scientific buggy, feed, and new clothing at the
explanation was, the name stuck to campsite. The prisoner was taken to
that area, eventually spreading to jail in Waynesboro.
include the area around that section Gaugher was convicted of horse
of Hunting Creek. stealing in Cumberland County,
Once the authorities located the Pennsylvania, and given a prison
camp near Blue Blazes, Thurmont term.
Police conducted a joint raid with His companion turned out to
Waynesboro Police. be wanted in three Pennsylvania
“Both men were there, but the counties. He had served time in
fine big bay horse they had in their the state penitentiary for shooting
possession put them wise that some a man at the Leland Hotel in
one was coming by neighing,” Waynesboro.
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