07/22/2026
If you have ever come to the GMA on the first week of April to watch our turpentine still in action, or know someone who has driven here for many hours to purchase a bottle of our turpentine, we invite you today to witness the journey of that turpentine to the neat glass bottles you see for sale after the first Saturday of April.
While our still runs authentic to our museum's time period of the late 1800s, our process to get there is somewhat modern. Don't let this fool you, though. I still takes a literal village.
The process to prepare for next year's running of the still begins in early summer. A forest is scouted and decided on. For over 25 years, our team tapped trees in the forests surrounding Folkston, Hoboken, and Cecil, thanks to the generosity of friend of the GMA, George Varn. George's family has a rich, lasting legacy in the Naval Stores world. In recent years our team briefly tapped trees on farmland near Omega belonging to another friend of the museum. Most recently, as is the case today, our team will be tapping trees on 6 acres of ABAC's property, with thanks to Dr. Brundage and Grant Rentz. Bonus: forestry students will get to see the taps in action over the next few months.
These aren't just any trees.
In order to safely tap a pine tree for gum, we look for slash pine with DBH (diameter at breast height) of 10-12 inches. Once the trees have been picked, the work begins.
Step 1: Assemble a crew. Over the years, tapping trees and running the GMA still is only possible because of the generosity of a dedicated team. The team is led by GMA Restoration Specialist David King, and GMA Restoration and Maintenance Specialist Rod Smith. Over the years, staff members from our Education & Interpretation and Curatorial departments have joined the team. Georgia Forestry Commission staff members have also joined, alongside faculty members from ABAC's Department of Forest Resources. A core group of community volunteers makes it possible to assemble the group of 5-6 workers needed for one team, or the ideal 10-12 for two teams.
Step 2: Prep taps. We use the 1960s bore hole method to tap trees and collect gum. While modernized compared to the early ways of gum collection, this is still an extremely labor-intensive method. Our goal is to install 1000-1100 taps and bags, which will collect enough pine gum to fill 4-5 barrels, which is the minimum amount of gum needed in order for the still to run. Each one of the taps is cut out of PVC, and beveled, all by hand and one at a time. The taps are then organized in crates alongside special bags and stacks of zipties.
Step 3: Pick a day, load the trucks. In order to maximize our efforts, we pick a day after July 1st when the temperature is at least 80 degrees, the gum flows easily, and the life cycle of a certain type of beetle has come to a stopping point. All the supplies we need have to be carried into the woods, where our crew has to remain vigilant and share space with insects and critters whose home we are invading for the week.
Step 4: Assign roles to teams. The team leader will drill one or two holes per tree, depending on the tree's size. Behind him comes the Sprayer, who covers the hole in a mix of cotton defoliant and sulfuric acid, expertly mixed by Kitty Davis based on a formula developed by Department of Forestry staff. Behind him comes the Tapper, who will carefully hammer each of the 1000-1100 PVC taps in place. Behind him will come two Baggers, who will ziptie special gum collection bags to each tap. If we have extra people working, they can either serve as relief-this is intensely physical labor- or split into a second team to get done in half the time. It usually takes either a very long day in the woods, or two moderately long days with a hard-working crew to get the 1000-1100 taps installed.
Step 5: Wait on the gum to flow over summer and fall, assemble a gum pick-up team. Sometime between November and January, once we have had several days of frost and the gum has stopped flowing, we will assemble yet another team to go into the woods, collect the bags, and remove each of the 1000-1100 taps.
Step 6: Empty Bags. Once we have brough the gum bags home, yet another team of hard workers gets to one of the most time-consuming and tedious parts of the process-emptying each bag by hand into barrels. This process will take the rest of winter, and all of early spring.
Step 7: Charge the still. A few weeks before the Folklife Festival, the gum barrels will make their way to the still, up the ramp, and into the kettle.
Step 8: Run the still. Finally, on the first Saturday of April, during the GMA's Folklife Festival, the still will be fired up, turpentine will be distilled and collected, with rosin as the byproduct of the distillation.
We hope this gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the hundreds of moving pieces which have to come together in order for us to continue to preserve the tradition of gathering gum and distilling turpentine. Somehow, the shiny glass bottles of clear liquid you can purchase from our Country Store, fail to tell the whole story of what it took for this liquid to get there. Most importantly, today, we honor the people who make it possible.
And, we hope to see you for Folklife 2027 on April 3.
Turpentining crew July 22, 2026:
Chip Howard, Courtney Grist, Greg Tucker, David King, Charles Edge, Rod Smith. Not pictured: Loyd Busby & Family
