Tim Philips informs the exhibit opening attendees about the history of bootlegging in front of the Jefferson County Museum on Saturday. Courtney Bell

CHARLES TOWN — This past Saturday, the Jefferson County Museum held a prohibition tour on old bootleggers that resided in Charles Town many years ago. The group of tourists was swept into the history’s past and viewed the remaining buildings that were either restored to modern times or stood lifeless.

While there wasn’t much exploration done of the buildings on the tour, its guide, Tim Philips, kept the group engaged by not only recounting facts, but also by bringing the tour information to life with his vibrant personality. Philips has been working as a tour guide for the past six years, and how he presented the information to the group showed how much he loves his line of work.

As attendees waited for the tour to start, the museum encouraged them to walk around its lobby, which featured portions of the new “Prohibition in Jefferson County” exhibit. The exhibit inspired a number of questions, which they asked Phillips, allowing them to take in information before the official tour even started.

“[The tour] kind of happened serendipitously, because Tim Phillips did some work with the library a while back and was saying, ‘You know, I’d love to do a walking tour of Charles Town,’ and I said that I was working on a prohibition exhibit.” said Jefferson County Museum Director Lori Wysong, who started working at the museum in January.

To get more people excited about the “Prohibition in Jefferson County” exhibit, they created a series of events to draw in the crowd. The prohibition walking tour was suggested by Philips to be the the third event in the series, collaborated on together by himself and Wysong.

A tour group signs in at the Jefferson County Museum lobby on Saturday. Courtney Bell

To conclude the event, guests were able to enjoy a sip of cold, prohibition-themed beer at Abolitionist Ale Works. After gaining a slew of new information on the tour and being exposed to the hot sun, the guests took advantage of the chance to sit down with one another and relax, before heading off in separate directions.

Jefferson County Museum partners with many local businesses to support their work and bring their business names to the public. This event allowed those interested in history to walk past many businesses and envelop the rich history of Charles Town. Wysong said she hopes to expand the prohibition tours even more down the road and have a broader horizon of what is to come for more local businesses.

The new exhibit, “Prohibition in Jefferson County,” is open to the public on Tuesdays through Fridays, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

For more information about upcoming events, visit their website, https://jeffcomuseumwv.org; Facebook page; and Instagram page, https://www.instagram.com/jeffcomuseum/.