At the Blue Blazes Still, police discovered a large commercial whiskey operation rather than a small family still. They found coils, cooling boxes, hoses, and eighteen 500-gallon vats, the largest and best equipped still they had ever come across in Frederick County. During Prohibition, the economic incentive for making whiskey was great, as the price of backwoods grog rose from $2 to $22 a gallon in places such as Washington, Baltimore, and New York.