The Belle Isle Sports Bar and Grill had a direct line to Arlington Race Track near Chicago.
Highway 51 used to house "Trixies," the most famous whorehouse in the North Woods. Minocqua still has several places once allegedly frequented by gangsters, including Norwood Pines Supper Club, which had gambling and a brothel upstairs. 5 is where Baby Face Nelson holed up after the shootout at Little Bohemia, holding an Ojibwe couple hostage for three days. The rooms where Dillinger stayed have been turned into a little museum and left mainly as they were, with bullet holes intact.ĭillman's Bay Resort in Lac du Flambeau: Cabin No.
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Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters: Once a resort where the FBI botched a shootout with John Dillinger's gang and Baby Face Nelson, and recently immortalized by the movie "Public Enemies" with Johnny Depp, it's now a restaurant still called Little Bohemia. A tour of these historical places is a great way to see the state and learn about an era that affected the development of many small towns of the North Woods.Īmong the most well-known stops along the way: Scattered throughout the North Woods are the old haunts of the Capone brothers Al and Ralph, Saltis, Nelson and John Dillinger.Ī recent road trip took me back to the remnants of that time when the Roaring '20s, followed by the Great Depression, accentuated the "sin" in Wisconsin. When pressure from the law got hot in Chicago, some gangsters found remote, wooded northern Wisconsin the perfect place to hide out. With liquor no longer legally available, gangsters stepped in to fulfill the public's craving.Ĭhicago was well-known as a gangster city, with mob figures such as Al Capone, Baby Face Nelson, "Polack Joe" Saltis and others.
In effect, Prohibition forced the supply chain underground. Little did they suspect that Prohibition would create effects quite the opposite.īanning the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol from 1920 to 1933 did not cure Americans' thirst for it. It would solidify family life, get people back to work, and make society more respectable. temperance movement believed that eliminating the demon alcohol would cure society of many ills.