Our Story

As Idaho’s only farm based craft distillery, Mill Town is redefining “Farm-to-bottle.”  Mill Town is the farm.  From dirt, to seed, to amber waves of grain, we grow the grain and craft our spirits in the same place we have grown our family.  If we can’t grow it, we source it as local as we can.  All of our products, from booze to bottle and closures to labels, are made in America.  We live and breathe the Drink Local lifestyle, and you can’t get any more local than Mill Town.  

river-sunset

 The distillery land, nestled in the foothills of North Idaho, is steeped in a history of farming and moonshine.  Inspired by the history and traditions of the site, proprietors Victor and Jessie Vachon have built Mill Town Distillery from the ground up. Together, with partner Bryan Egland, they craft unique, excellent quality spirits using small batch methods, attention to detail, and quality ingredients.  

 By the light of the moon, two men quietly work, stoking a fire beneath a homemade copper still.  The smell of smoke, pure corn whiskey, and the damp of spring fills the night air…

Vic Inlander Photo It started with rumors, whispers from the past, repeated by the old timers who were here since the beginning, or pretty close to it.  A word here or there about the brothers, the still, and of course the ‘shine. Like the brothers and the owners of Mill Town Distillery, the mill town of Dover, Idaho was planted and grew on the banks of the Pend Oreille River.  Just upriver from where men and their families toiled, sweated, survived and struggled to thrive, the two brothers secreted away in the foothills and crafted their moonshine.  They sold their ‘shine to mill workers, farmers, and homesteaders forging their living from the forests, land and waterways of North Idaho.  Using the same spring water, the same land, overlooking the same hills used by the brothers, the distillers at Mill Town are continuing in the tradition started in this spot by the brothers many years ago.  Although the distilling operations at Mill Town are no longer clandestine, the products here are created with the same small batch, grain-to-bottle style of the brothers in the ’30s.