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SPRING 2019 ISSUE 01 / VOL . 04
Above , left : Before the Cumberland Gap Tunnel was completed in 1996 , travelers faced a harrowing ride over the mountain pass ; moonshiners called it “ shooting the Gap .” Above , right : This Route 25 sign is in downtown Cumberland Gap , Tennessee .
Above : Author Glen at Cumberland Gap . Below : Hack Ayers at the site where his father was shot during a moonshine raid in 1943 .
THUNDER ROAD
Earlier that day , I ’ d begun my tour with a Thunder Road Burger from Litton ’ s Restaurant in Fountain City , near Knoxville . Litton ’ s opened in 1946 selling groceries and hardware , and evolved over the years into a meat market and bakery . One day 35 years ago , a customer asked thirdgeneration owner Barry Litton if he could fix him a burger . “ I said yeah , and pulled out an electric skillet we used for our own lunches ,” Barry said . “ I cooked up eight ounces of hamburger meat with two strips of bacon . The next day , he brought three people back and they all wanted me to cook them burgers .” After that , Litton ’ s burgers became a Knoxville institution ; today the restaurant grills up around 3,000 of ’ em a