stills, brothels and trafficking

BTW, my great-uncle remembered finding old still-sites along the banks of the Brule while trout fishing back in the day. If you find any, please send me some pics.
 
Stevo-
I never knew of stills etc either. I always thought that Florence was just a cool place to fish and canoe until a friend told me about that area.
It was supposedly the roughest place in the midwest during that era.
The Brule is close as well. His land is on Brule Dam Road but it dead ends to the east at a persons farm/land. There is a small dirt road across from his driveway that leads to the river. It dead ends into what looks like 2 small houses/camps.


Sod-
That is a decent read. Jim, the guy who lives there, started reading it after I'd told him about it. Chase Osborn definitely had a flair for the dramatic. According to him, one of the girls who escaped there ended up at his house.


Big Treble-

I agree. I thought that it would be an inn/saloon either downtown or at the outskirts on the way in/out of town.
Florence is probably smaller today than it was back then. I should say less populated.
Outside of the highway (two lane that cuts to 30mph through town) and 6-8blocks north where it's mostly the original mining houses and scattered new builds, it's quite spread out and sparse.
All of the accounts I've read (I haven't looked up property records or plat records yet) say on Mud Lake or on the edge of Mud Lake and he escaped to the swamp to the east and was never heard from again(not true. he escaped).
Jim's land is the only place east of Mud Lake that's swampy and to get to it you have to go down a pretty sharp slope from almost all places. It's kind of like a bowl.

My guess would have been the west side of the lake where Toppe Rd is. The road to his house and the road south (Mud Lake Rd) is pretty much field and flat with small until you hit the east side of the lake.
So far, just going by what he was told by a few "old timers" he spoke with. The place wasn't raided and burned down until 1934.

I'll keep digging until I find out for sure.

I just read a pretty florid account in the Milwaukee Journal (sept. 7, 1934) that says:
"Today, a shallow depression at the edge of a swamp is all that remains of "Old Man" Mudge's establishment. "

I so need to have a week of freedom to stay at his house and explore...

Sanborn maps show 2 saloons and a boardinghouse on lots 11,12,13 block 7 just before the turn of the century. in 1904, one is a dwelling and the other two are vacant.
 
Haven't had a chance to get out there at all since the last go round. It's been really damp since I was last there and the amount of ticks this year is insane.
 
Any more news on this? Sounds pretty wild!

This thread was light years more interesting than my tales and potential adventures. :yes:

Let's hope that this site is still on the radar for our friend. :cool:

We'd all love to see some interesting finds come out of places like these.
 
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