Dan will spend an evening discussing his family’s farming history from decades as tobacco-centric to small grains and currently to bourbon production. Topics will include the impact of the development of NAS Patuxent River on the farming community and his family, the tobacco buyout, the rise in popularity of bourbon – America’s spirit and the history of southern Maryland as bourbon’s true birthplace. For those of legal age, samples of Tobacco Barn’s currently released products will be made available as well as the opportunity to purchase bottles with a portion of the proceeds benefiting Historic Sotterley.

This event is FREE and hybrid, meaning you can join us in-person or virtually. Registration is required.
In-person participants are welcome to join us for a pre-reception at 6:15 pm.

Register to attend In-Person

Register to attend Virtually

Dan Dawson retired after a 39-year career in the defense industry, having risen from an entry-level engineering role at Veda Incorporated to a senior executive position at KBR. His career was largely spent with the same company through various acquisitions. Before his defense career, Dan made a mark in ethanol fuel production during high school and briefly afterward, becoming the third licensed fuel ethanol distiller in 1980. After a long hiatus, he re-entered the distillation world in 2014 by co-founding Tobacco Barn Distillery, LLC on his family farm in Hollywood, Maryland, which has been recognized as the Top Farm Distillery in the U.S. Dan and his wife, Susan, who is also a distiller at Tobacco Barn, have two adult children.

This event is made possible in part by a sponsorship from: