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Capone's Cargo LbNA #7528

Owner:Wisconsin Hiker
Plant date:Mar 20, 2004
Location:
City:???
County:Waukesha
State:Wisconsin
Boxes:1
Found by: ???
Last found:Apr 18, 2017
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFOFFFF
Last edited:May 15, 2016
Box last checked/found: 16-MAR-12

Al Capone is America's best-known gangster and the single greatest symbol of the collapse of law and order in the United States during the 1920s Prohibition era. Capone had a leading role in the illegal activities that lent Chicago its reputation as a lawless city.

His operations included activities in Wisconsin and your mission is to first find the location of his bootlegging activities. Here is an excerpt from a local historical publication about his hideout, which is still standing:

“The house is a nice orange two-story brick building with churchlike windows and a backyard flower garden. In the late 1920’s, a whiskey still, operated by the most feared racketeer in Chicago’s history, was in operation here.

At that time, the area was a farm community of a few thousand people with no police department. Al “Scarface” Capone sent his cronies to the area to establish a hideout and illegal distillery. Thick woods concealed the house from view and isolated it from neighboring farms. Geese were kept to give the alarm when anyone approached, for they were excellent “watchdogs.”

“Capone used this hideout as a stopover point between Chicago, Illinois and Minocqua, Wisconsin, where he did a tremendous amount of gambling,” recalled a former resident of the house. A guard was posted 24 hours a day on a 40-foot lookout tower atop the house to spot federal agents. Upstairs in one of the rooms, distinctive for its terrazzo floor, was a $40,000 whiskey still. Pipelines carrying fuel oil led to the room and fed the burners of the still.

Shipping to and from Chicago went off like clockwork. On Tuesdays, truckloads of sugar, followed by large sedans loaded with four or five mobsters, came to this location. A day or so later the trucks were loaded with whiskey and made the return trip to Chicago, servicing speakeasies along the route. Capone’s thugs closed off the local road to other traffic at that time and camouflaged the trucks with trees and greens to prevent detections by federal agents.

The house was raided in the closing days of prohibition, and the closest neighbor recalled hearing the clatter and banging as the federal agents smashed the still.”


One of Capone’s trucks is still in the area and your mission is to find it! First locate Al Capone’s hideout and note the address number: ______________

After locating his house, go to the public place that is .25 miles to the north (not necessarily taking a direct route). Near the midpoint of the area, you will see an old sign buried in the treeline. Note the 1st, 8th, 9th, and 13th letters on the second row of the sign: ___ ___ ___ ___. Go to this side of the most noticeable feature in the area and walk on a short plank. Oh no! It seems Capone still has some of his “alarmists” in the area – use some caution! Take 145-150 paces along a path. Stop. (A bit farther down the path you will see a large stump on the right side of the path.)

Take a bearing of [first 3 digits of address – 16] _____ degrees. Take 25-30 paces along this bearing to reach a tree(now stump) with fungi, passing the root side of a fallen tree on your left along the way.

Next take a bearing of 134 degrees and take 34 paces to reach a tree with two trunks. You’re closing in on the bootlegger’s stash!

Take a bearing of: 1st digit of address, 3rd digit of address, 5th digit of address ____ ___ ___. Take the number of paces that is the legal drinking age in Wisconsin ( ___ ) and you’ll find the goods in the hollow upright tree. Keep a sharp eye out for the mobster’s thugs and federal agents as you raid the contents. Carefully conceal everything before you leave so they’ll never be able to track down this last remnant of Capone’s lucrative business.


Hike length: 0.5 miles