Whiskey Bottom Road largest remaining stand of woods in Laurel. The majority of these woods were cleared in 2010 for the North Laurel Community Center. The road name has been spelled Whisky Bottom Road" and more recently, Whiskey Bottom Road". Although both are valid spellings, the later name associates it with liquor distilled in America or Ireland rather than Canada, Japan or Wales. Western sections of the original road ran past the farm of the Scaggs family, in Scaggsville, Maryland, and have the name Scaggsville Road. Just like Whiskey Bottom, the name Scaggsville was considered distasteful enough to warrant a name change by
Whiskey Rebellion Farmers living west of the Appalachian Mountains distilled their excess grain into whiskey, which was easier and more profitable to transport over the mountains than the more cumbersome grain. A whiskey tax would make western farmers less competitive with eastern grain producers. Additionally, cash was always in short supply on the frontier, so whiskey often served as a medium of exchange. For poorer people who were paid in whiskey, the excise was essentially an income tax that wealthier easterners did not pay. Small-scale farmers also protested that Hamilton's excise effectively gave unfair tax breaks to large distillers, most of whom