WAUSAU, Wis. — The buyer of a scenic property in northern Wisconsin will get more than just its bar and restaurant: The new owner will have a former hide-out of Chicago mobster Al Capone.
The 407-acre wooded site, complete with guard towers and a stone house with 18-inch-thick walls, will soon go on the auction block at a starting bid of $2.6 million.
Officials of the bank that foreclosed on the land near Couderay, about 140 miles northeast of Minneapolis, said Capone owned it in the late 1920s and early 1930s during Prohibition. Local legend claims that shipments of bootlegged alcohol were flown in on planes that landed on the property's 37-acre lake, then loaded onto trucks bound for Chicago.
"He spent a lot of time there," Chippewa Valley Bank Vice President Joe Kinnear said. "Whether it was for getting whiskey out of Canada or whoever knows. It is an incredible property."
The property was more recently used as a tourist attraction. It includes Capone's two-story stone home with a huge fireplace, two guard towers - reportedly manned with machine guns whenever Capone visited - a caretaker's residence and other outbuildings.
The bar on the property was built from what originally was Capone's eight-stall garage and still includes the portholes for weapons, Kinnear said.
"It's pretty neat," he said.
The bank will auction off "The Hideout, Al Capone's Northwoods Retreat" on the steps of the Sawyer County Courthouse in Hayward on Oct. 8.
The bank acquired the property after foreclosing on owner Guy Houston and his company The Hideout Inc. in April 2008, according to court records. The Houston family bought the property in the 1950s from Capone's estate and had operated it as a seasonal bar and restaurant, known for its prime rib, and offered guided tours focusing on the Capone lore.
The bank's bid of $2.6 million to recover its money is not expected to be the only offer, Kinnear said. Two or three other bidders are interested, perhaps to use it as a retreat, and there has long been talk about developing the property.
"It was appraised years ago at $3.7 million," he said.
Kinnear declined to comment on what led to its financial troubles. Houston's attorney, Todd Smith of Rice Lake, did not return telephone messages. Houston's telephone number is unpublished.
Capone - nicknamed "Scarface" - headed a giant bootlegging, gambling and prostitution operation during Prohibition and raked in tens of millions of dollars. He was widely suspected in several murders but never charged.
He was considered the mastermind of the gangland killing on Chicago's North Side in 1929, known as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Seven rivals of Capone's gang were gunned down in a garage, but investigators never could collect enough evidence to put anyone on trial.
Capone was eventually convicted of income tax evasion and spent part of an 11-year sentence at the infamous Alcatraz prison. He died in 1947.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 09/20/2009