Our Family History
There is history in the heart of the Badlands that speaks to the pioneer spirit. South Dakota bootleggers played their part in that American History. We couldn’t be making our handcrafted distilled spirits today without thinking of the great uncles to Jim Herber, co-owner of Badlands Distillery.In the early 1920’s, federal revenuers caught the five brothers down on Sears Creek, in the Weta Basin, as they were attempting to stay one step ahead to destroy evidence of their distilling operation. Unfortunately, when the boys dumped their barrels of whiskey into the White River, they discovered that the kegs floated. They waded out into the river, to break some holes in, but some of the alcohol seeped into a nearby well. It didn’t take long for the revenuer’s to find that well and dip a little out to use as evidence to put Great-Uncle Joe in jail. Badlands Special Reserve honors the original recipe handed down through the generations.
