All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.Hidden.America.S04E09.1080p.WEB.h264-FREQUENCY_track3_[eng]

[narrator] A suburban house
with an abandoned basement

full of secrets.

[woman] This has
to be one of the biggest stories

of police corruption
in American history.

[fast-paced music]

[narrator] A ruined resort
where one woman took on the mob.

[Dr. Kwami] Gangsters shot her
father, stabbed her brother,

but she never gave up.

[narrator]
And a forgotten training base
that helped save the world.

[woman #2] The sacrifices
that they made for this country,

boy, is it a story to tell.

[fast-paced music persists]

[chord strike]

[narrator] Hidden deep within a
forest in central Louisiana

lie the ruins of a site
that played a vital role

in American history.

[suspenseful pulsing]

[man] It's hard to believe
with all the trees here now, but

at one time you would have seen
over 7,000 structures.

[man #2] The built environment
is gone, and it leaves you

with a strange impression
of what once was here

is no more.

[narrator]
But if you know where
to look, hidden among the trees

are clues of a monumental
operation.

[Meigs] You see a lot
of concrete blocks --

they almost look like
overgrown tombstones lined up.

[Dr. Mitchell]
As well as concrete
ruins there are complete

buildings here jam-packed
with machinery and equipment

from a bygone era.

[narrator] These sites
joined forces when

America was called upon
to help bring an end

to the deadliest war
in human history.

[woman] These relics
and ruins that you see out here

played a significant role
in the history of

the United States.

[Dr. Mitchell]
This is where the US
war machine geared up to take on

the Nazi menace.

[Lisa] Growing up as a child
not far from here I never fully

understood or appreciated
the historical significance

of all that happened right here.

[narrator] Lisa Lewis now
works for the Forestry Service

and is one of
the leading authorities

on the extraordinary events
that took place here.

This here was
a parade ground.

Hard to imagine
with all the trees here now,

but this area was expansive,
and you could see literally

for about a half mile
in either direction.

[narrator] Thousands of soldiers
once gathered here to listen

to a rousing speech
from one of World War I's

greatest American heroes.

A man awarded the
Medal of Honor for

taking out a German
machine gun nest and capturing

130 prisoners,

Sergeant Alvin York.

[Lisa] He came back
to his old unit to basically

give them a pep talk
and to remind them

of what
they were fighting for,

for America's freedom
and America's future.

[narrator]
This is Camp Claiborne,

a U.S. Army training facility,

constructed in 1939 in response
to the outbreak

of war in Europe.

At first, the U.S.
had been reluctant

to get involved
in war in Europe.

The popular public mood
was one of isolationism.

[narrator] But President
Roosevelt foresaw

America's official neutral
stance coming to an end.

And he knew the country's army
was far from ready.

[Meigs] The U.S.
had the largest economy

in the world, but our military
was the 17th largest.

Our army was smaller
than that of Romania.

[narrator] To address this,
in October 1940, the draft

was brought back and hundreds
of thousands of new recruits

poured into the Army.

[Roosevelt] Our present program
will train 800,000

additional men this coming year,
and somewhat less than

a million men each
year thereafter.

To the 16 million young men
who register today, I say

that democracy is your cause.

[narrator] But boosting
numbers wasn't the only goal.

[Lisa] At that time,
the United States Army

was primarily an infantry force.
We had the mounted cavalry,

a lot of the ammunitions,
the howitzers guns,

were pulled with horses.
Hitler had tanks.

[rumbling]

[Meigs] The American army
was going to have to learn

how to fight
a war like this.

And they needed a place big
enough to train thousands,

hundreds
of thousands of troops.

[narrator] This sparsely
populated area of Louisiana,

cleared of trees after decades
of intensive logging,

was ideally suited for
large-scale war games.

They would become known
as the Louisiana Maneuvers.

-[rapid blasts]
-[man on radio] Zero Hour
in Louisiana,

the greatest field exercise

in American military history,
with over 40,000 motorized

vehicles and
half a million men.

One of the key things
was learning to work

with this relatively new
technology of the tank.

[Dr. Mitchell] General Marshall,
Chief of Staff, stated, "I want

the mistakes made
in Louisiana, not in Europe."

-[motor rumbling]
-[narrator] The 1941
Louisiana Maneuvers

revealed deficiencies
in Army training in this new era

of mechanized warfare.

[explosion]

[narrator]
Three military camps already in
the area rapidly expanded

to meet this new
demand for training --
Camp Livingstone,

Camp Polk, and
the largest, Camp Claiborne.

[Dr. Mitchell] In less
than one year,

over 8,000 construction workers

built hundreds
of semi-permanent buildings

and thousands
of pyramid-shaped tents.

[Lisa] Camp Claiborne
was massive.

At its zenith,
it supported over 50,000 troops.

And some called it the third
largest city in Louisiana.

[narrator] Predominantly made up

of temporary structures,
all that is left today

are remnants of the more
permanent constructions.

Doug Rhodes is an expert on
this site and knows exactly

where the remains are hidden
in this vast forest.

[Doug] We're here
at the rifle range.

In fact, we're
at the target pit.

As the soldier would raise
the target up,

the paper target would appear,
the soldier would fire at it,

and then they would
bring it back down

where they would grade it.

[narrator]
With over 500,000 soldiers
coming through Camp Claiborne,

and each having to qualify
with some sort of firearm,

the range saw constant action.

[Doug]
This is where all those bullets
that didn't hit the target land.

You can just walk along
and easily pick up spent rounds.

There were probably literally
millions of these embedded

in the berms here.

[narrator]
Two of the most famous
World War II Army divisions

were activated here
at Camp Claiborne,

the 82nd and 101st
Airborne Divisions.

[Morgan] Both of those divisions
are thrown into combat during

the Normandy invasion.

And then, my God,
the things that they go off

and accomplish during
the Battle of the Bulge.

Both of them are critical to
our victory in the costliest

battle the American military
fought in its history.

[narrator] But there were
some less heralded units

at Camp Claiborne that also had
a significant impact abroad.

A location nearby was a key
part of their training.

[Doug] Starting in around 1890,

Louisiana was known for
its timber industry.

There was vast acreages
of longleaf pine and many,

many mills popped up,
including this one.

[narrator] This is
the Crowell sawmill,

and the troops who came here

were part of
forestry battalions.

[gunshots blast]

[Morgan] When we think
of the Second World War

and the way the American
military fought it,
we think about

the M1 rifle
or the Sherman tank.

But the reality is that
probably the tool that paved

the way for more success during
the course of the conflict

was this large-scale,
U.S. Army-issued chainsaw.

[Meigs] You're building bridges,
you're laying railroad tracks.

They needed
fresh lumber for all of that.

[Lisa] These battalions
were trained in sawmilling,

because when you think about it,
once they got to, whether it

be Pacific, or over
in Europe, you just couldn't go

to a Lowe's or
a Home Depot to purchase your

building supplies.

[Doug] It was very important
to bring them here to see how

the whole operation worked.

[narrator] Another little-known
unit that trained at Claiborne

were the railroad battalions.

As well as maintenance
and repair, they were also

skilled in launching
deadly attacks.

[explosion blasts]

[narrator] In central Louisiana,
a World War II

U.S. facility called Camp
Claiborne once trained

a unique group
of soldiers,

railroad battalions,

and a neighboring sawmill
provided the locomotives.

[Lisa] They had several of their
own engines that they used

in their own logging
operations in the woods.

The actual 106 engine
helped construct

the Pope-Claiborne Railroad.

[narrator] This railroad,
as well as being used

for transportation,

was used to train troops
in the rapid repair of railroads

that in Europe would
be vital supply lines.

These troops also
practiced sabotage.

[Doug] They would blow up
different sections of track

because they wanted
to determine how much TNT

a saboteur would need

to damage the track to
the point to where it would

cause a train to derail.

[narrator]
Camp-Claiborne-trained soldiers
would first see action

on November 8th, 1942
during Operation Torch,

the successful
Allied invasion of North Africa.

-[water splashing]
-[bullets zipping]

[narrator]
Approximately 11 million
U.S. Army personnel would go

on to serve in World War II.

And half a million
of them trained here

in this Louisiana forest.

[Morgan] We pulled millions
of people into uniform,

trained them at places like
Camp Claiborne, and then

at the end of that conflict,
we went back to the business

of being at peace.

[Lisa] Camp Claiborne
was officially shut down

by the U.S. Army in 1946.

The Army sold the buildings
for scrap and then transferred

the 30,000 acres back to
the Kisatchie National Forest.

[narrator] The Crowell Sawmill
continued operating

as a private business
until 1969.

By this time, much of what
was left at Camp Claiborne had

been swallowed by the forest.

But thankfully,
ruins are still visible today,

places to remember
the heroes America produced

during the world's
greatest time of need.

[Lisa] Some of the most
storied divisions that fought

World War II trained
right here at Camp Claiborne.

And the sacrifices that
they made for this country

was to help win not only
the war in Europe,

but ultimately
in the Pacific as well.

[narrator] In Motor City,
an underground lair

fought the law and won.

[Bell] This is Detroit,
a city on the Great Lakes

that will forever be entwined

with the great
American car industry.

[narrator] On the east side
of the city,

an unassuming house
hides an astonishing secret.

[woman] When I first came
down here, I got to the door,

and it was screwed shut.

But this entire window was
painted over, so we couldn't

see what was inside,
and you got the sense

that nobody had really
been in here for years.

[narrator] Behind this door
lies an abandoned world.

[Dr. Thomas] This basement
is huge, and it's divided

into several different rooms.

[suspenseful music]

[Dr. Kwami] The furniture here
looks really old, like early-

to mid-20th century.

[narrator] Once, this
was a crucial cog

in a criminal network
that spread across America.

When I first came
into the room, I honestly got

shivers down my spine.

[narrator] Kimberly Holt bought
this house in October 2022.

At the time, she thought
it was a normal residential

property, but she didn't know
what was hidden below.

[Kimberly] Nobody
came down here.

Nobody really knew
what was in here.

This had been
a rental property for 70 years.

The people that lived
in the building never had access

through this door.

[narrator] As its new owner,
Kimberly entered the forgotten

world left behind.

-I knew exactly
what it was. I could feel

the history and the people
that had been in this space.

[narrator] Kimberly was certain
this was a clandestine bar

known as a speakeasy.

It would have kept Detroit wet
during Prohibition.

[Dr. Kwami] Speakeasy, actually
the word comes from,

"speak softly and easily."

These were illegal bars
during Prohibition.

[jazz music]

[Kimberly] I could see
the bar, I could see where

the liquor went.

And then over here
is an early refrigeration unit.

It's freezing down here.

[narrator] This house
was constructed in 1917,

a year before
Michigan banned alcohol.

[Kimberly] They knew
Prohibition was coming.

They built it
with a purpose.

[guitar strum]

[narrator] Michigan
banned alcohol two years before

national Prohibition, making
Detroit the first major city

to turn its alcohol taps off.

It's a period
Mickey Lyons has spent

the last 15 years studying.

When Michigan first went dry,
we were able to import booze

from neighboring
states like Ohio.

So folks would take
a day trip, grab some booze

and head right back up.

[Bell] So much illegal booze
came in along the Dixie Highway.

It was nicknamed
"The Avenue de Booze."

[narrator] The Avenue de Booze
didn't stay open for long.

In 1920, it skidded to a halt
when the 18th Amendment

ushered in national prohibition.

But that didn't turn Detroit
speakeasies like this one dry.

[Mickey] In Detroit,
despite the national

prohibition, the party
kind of continued unabated.

They just had to operate
with paying off cops

a little bit more, and
the criminal element came in.

[narrator] Detroit's criminal
gangs kept the booze flowing

by smuggling it across
an international border.

[Bell] Detroit's southern border
is the Detroit River,

which separates America
from Canada.

So booze was brought
in from Canada over the water.

[water splashing]

[narrator] Despite Canada also
being in the grips

of prohibition, its laws only
prohibited the consumption

of alcohol.
They were still allowed

to make booze and sell it abroad
to countries like America.

People in Detroit were pretty
ingenious on how they got

access to booze across
the river from Canada.

In addition to just
the regular speedboats,

motorboats, they
brought things over on canoe.

During the winter,
the water would ice over

and they would
drive cars across.

Detroit became the capital
of illegal booze in America.

Rum-running became the second
largest industry in Detroit

after the automotive industry.

[narrator] During Prohibition,
three quarters of all

the alcohol that came into
America was smuggled

across the Detroit River,
and much of it was sold

in speakeasies like this one.

It's estimated that 25,000
speakeasies operated

during Prohibition
in Southeast Michigan.

[narrator] But the operators
of this speakeasy were

sitting on a dangerous secret.

[narrator] On the east side
of Detroit, Kimberly Holt

discovered an abandoned
1920s speakeasy in the basement

of her new house.

And she thinks the evidence
suggests this establishment

was owned
by some shady characters.

I think that this place
was actually gang-owned.

I'm 95% there to tying it
to the Purple Gang directly.

[Bell] The Purple Gang
was an organized crime syndicate

from Detroit's Lower East Side
where this speakeasy

is located.

[narrator] The true origin
of the gang's name

has been
lost to time,

yet many believe it's
from their victims

describing gang members
as being tainted and off-color,

like rotten, purple meat.

The Purple Gang was founded
by the Bernstein brothers.

They were the children
of Jewish immigrants from Russia

and they ruled Detroit
with an iron fist.

[narrator] The Purple Gang
would become one

of the most feared gangs
in America, and the East side

of Detroit was ground zero
for their bootlegging business.

They were very prolific
in this area.

This was a gang gathering spot.

Across the street, I discovered
a hidden, secret boat dock

where they would
drop off the alcohol.

People were able to come right
in on their little speed boats

off of the Detroit River
and just tuck right into garages

underneath the houses.

[Kimberly] You could literally
walk across the street

between the little alleyways and
come in the back speakeasy door

and you would never be seen.

[narrator] While this might've
been a Purple Gang stronghold,

Another abandoned building
nearly three miles away

tried to stand in their way.

[Mickey] This is the Belle Isle
Police Station.

It's right here
on the island in the middle

of the Detroit River, halfway
between Detroit and Canada.

[narrator] This was America's
front line against Detroit's

rum runners, but despite
countless arrests, six years

into Prohibition,
the Belle Isle Police Station

took a unique approach.

In the spring of 1926,
the captain of the Belle Isle

Police Force,
Captain Burkeiser,

gave a really
strange order to his officers.

[Bell] He told them to lay off
the bootleggers and to keep

their police boat lights on
at all times, citing safety

as his reason.

But in reality, it meant
that the smugglers could see

the police boats
from miles away.

[Dr. Thomas] This wasn't
the only strange thing

that Burkeiser did.
At one point, the police

captured 100 cases of spirits,
but he only reported 64,

making sure that the rest of
that number got delivered

to his home.

It became pretty clear
that Burkeiser was crooked.

[narrator] With Burkeiser
turning a blind eye,

booze worth over
$200 million was smuggled

across the Detroit River
each year.

Yet in 1928,
the police captain's empire

came crashing down.

[Dr. Kwami] After some of his
own officers gave evidence

against him,
he was eventually removed

from the Belle Isle
Police Station,

demoted to being
a lieutenant, and fined $500,

a fraction of the money
he made being crooked.

[narrator] Over
the next five years,

the Belle Isle Police Station
fought a losing battle

against
the rum runners.

But in Michigan,
a new law turned the tide.

In May 1933, Michigan became
the first state to vote

for the 21st Amendment,
which repealed the 18th.

By December of that same year,
the rest of America followed

suit and once again became wet.

[narrator] As above ground bars
reopened their doors,

speakeasies like this
became a distant memory.

[Kimberly] After Prohibition,
this was just a rental property.

The door was locked, and the
tenants would not have had any

reason to use this space.

So decade after
decade, the disrepair

and disintegration began,
and it was totally forgotten.

[narrator] Today,
over 90 years later, the doors

to this speakeasy
have been opened once more.

And Kimberly is hoping it will
welcome visitors once again.

[Kimberly] My plans for this
speakeasy is to tell its story.

It should be a museum.

I am definitely not talking
about a stuffy museum.

I think this space is meant
for people to enjoy a cocktail

or two and have a good time.

[narrator] In the mountains
of Southern Colorado,

an elusive structure stands
as a testament to the ingenuity

and perseverance of humankind.

[man] A lot of people
wonder why he built it.

I think that there's
a presence of something greater,

a higher power at work here.

[Rodriguez-McRobbie] We're about
40 miles from Pueblo,

deep in the San Isabel
National Forest at about

9,000 feet elevation.

[narrator] A strange stone
building towers above the trees.

This looks like a marriage
between M.C. Escher

and Dr. Seuss.

[Meares] There's bridges, and
some of them don't even lead

to anywhere.
I mean, who built this?

Why?

[Rodriguez-McRobbie]
There's so much
intricate, ornate ironwork

all over this,
and despite the fact

that it does look like a sort
of mishmash of styles, it seems

to be very thought through.

[narrator] Each detail
is more puzzling than the next.

[Meares] There's a dragon
sticking out on the roof,

and there's a beautiful room
with a big stained glass window,

almost like you're
in a giant church,

but it's empty.

So why would someone
build this space up here

in the wilderness?

[man] This place symbolizes
what one man can do by himself

without money
if he puts his mind to it.

[narrator] Deep in the woods
of Colorado's wet mountains,

a mysterious stone structure
has cast its shadow

on the valley below for decades.

But when Dan Bishop's father
bought this plot in 1959,

this site was just
heavily forested parkland.

[Dan] My dad loved it up here.

He believed
his whole life that this is one

of the last true places
of freedom in America.

[narrator] In 1967, Jim Bishop
married his wife, Phoebe,

and he soon decided to build
a small cottage on the property

for his growing family.

Jim didn't have the money
to buy building materials,

so he used stones
from the forests around him.

[Dr. Davis-Hayes] The
building window was very short

because when working
with mortar, it cannot freeze,

and the summers in this area
are extremely short.

[narrator] It wasn't long until
a twist of fate would

send Jim Bishop on a path
no one could have foreseen.

[Rodriguez-McRobbie]
As the cabin progressed,
Jim decided to bring up

a water tank so that they could
have running water at the cabin.

[Meares] He put stone
around it, and hey,

it looked like a turret.

So people started saying,
"Are you building a castle?"

[Dan] In the fall of '68,
there was an article printed

in a local newspaper
about a castle going up

near Lake Isabel,
and it turns out that they were

talking about this
and he didn't even know it.

[narrator] This ignited a spark
in Jim Bishop's imagination.

And soon his humble cottage
turned into one of the most

incredible feats of engineering
in Colorado history,

built by just one man.

This is Bishop Castle.

[Dr. Davis-Hayes] Jim
undertook each task himself.

He hauled the rocks,
he felled the timber,

and he milled the lumber.

[Rodriguez-McRobbie] He built
the scaffolding himself

as the building progressed
and even devised a system

of pulleys to bring things up.

[Dan] It's all self-taught,
one thing at a time,

lots of balance. He never used
a plumb bob or a square.

Most of these walls in this
castle are three-foot thick.

It's not like stacking one rock
on top of the other when

the wall is filled with rocks.

[narrator] Jim would
seek inspiration from some

of the world's greatest
architectural wonders.

[Dan] Something like that,
he would read an article

on Neuschwanstein or Gaudi
and wake up in the morning

and start working
in a different spot that was

built without any blueprints
and there was no plan.

Whatever he decided he wanted
to do, he figured how to add it

on to the castle or build
a structure that would
support it.

[narrator] Jim would
add towers, buttresses,

and bridges to his
ever-expanding masterpiece.

But in 1988, his world
would be torn apart.

[Dr. Davis-Hayes] Roy,
Jim's third son, who

was only four years old,

was killed in a logging
accident on the site.

[Dan] The tower
that's not finished,

he was building
when my brother got killed.

He stopped working on it,
and it was too painful for him

to keep building
that one at the time.

[narrator]
But as Jim poured his grief
into the construction,

the project endured,
and soon people were flocking

to see the castle and meet Jim
Bishop, the man who had

dedicated his life
to building it.

I feel very proud.

There's not too many people
done anything like this.

[narrator] And it wasn't long
until word spread across
the globe.

[Jim] People, they come
from all over.

They come from
Siberia and Ukraine,

Vladivostok, Kathmandu.

[narrator] But as the castle
began attracting more and more

attention, not everyone
was rooting for Jim's success.

[Meares] Bishop finds himself
increasingly at crosshairs

with the government.

First, the Bureau of Land
Management says, "You can't just

"take stones from the national
parks and use them

in your building."

[Dan] He wasn't gonna let
them stop because

as far as he cared, they
were his rocks as much as they

were anybody's rocks.

And he was stacking them
on top of a place in the middle

of the same forest they came out
of and letting people climb

on them for free.

Then the county came
for him because his castle

was not up to code.

[narrator] But none of these
hurdles would get in the way

of Jim and his castle.

He would add increasingly
fantastical features like

a grand ballroom, an iron dome,
and a fire-breathing dragon.

[Dan] An old friend in Pueblo
that was running a trash truck

said, "Hey, I got a whole bunch
of stainless steel plates.

You think you could do
something with them?"

My dad's like, "Yeah,
I'll figure out something

to do with them."
He took a pair of tin snips,

and he cut eight
D-shaped scales out of them,

and they became
the scales on the dragon.

[narrator] But even
as the castle's popularity

soared, Jim was always
adamant on one thing,

keeping attendance free.

[Dan] He decided at a young age
that he wanted to do something

with his life that the poor
person could enjoy, as well

as the rich man.

[narrator] The castle
kept growing,

but hardship lay ahead,
which would test Jim

to his limits.

[narrator] Almost two miles high
in the mountains of Colorado,

Jim Bishop built
this castle alone.

But in December 2014, Jim
was diagnosed with a rare form

of cancer.
-[Dan] My dad spent
months in bed.

A lot of us didn't think
he was gonna survive it.

[narrator] While Jim would
beat the odds and make

a full recovery,

his wife, Phoebe,
lost her own battle with cancer

in August 2018.

Once again, working on
his castle would carry Jim

through his grief.

[Dan] He just kept on going.

I mean, all of his pain
that he ever suffered,

he just put it
into the rock work

in one way or another.

He talked about her
every day for a long time.

[narrator] In the past few
years, Jim's health

has been deteriorating,
throwing the castle's future

into doubt.

He hasn't stopped completely
working on the castle,

but he has slowed down.

[narrator] Today, the castle
is one of Colorado's

unique roadside attractions
and still draws people

from around the world.

But Jim Bishop's life's work
is not yet finished, and he

has now passed
the torch to his son, Daniel.

[Dan] You've handed
the reins over to me.

What do you expect me
to do up here?

What do you think
I'm gonna do up here?

-Whatever you want to do.
-Whatever I want to do.

You think I'll keep it open
free, like you've done it?

-I hope so.
-That's the plan.

It's been very successful
in the 50 years, like it

is right now.

It don't make anybody rich,

but it makes
a lot of people happy.

[narrator]
In rural Pennsylvania sit
the ruins of a groundbreaking

institution, where
strength in numbers overcame

a criminal underworld.

Oh my, look
at this, it's incredible.

I never thought this would
happen to a concrete building.

Like going back to a jungle.

[Rodriguez-McRobbie]
The Poconos is kind of
a perfect summer camp area.

It's full of lakes,
it's full of beautiful forests

and woods to explore.

And it used to be the kind of
place that people would go

on their honeymoon.

[Dr. Kwami] On top
of this mountain

is a loose collection

of large concrete buildings,
but actually it looks like

they're fighting a losing
battle with the forest.

[narrator] Inside these derelict
structures, echoes of the past

still ring out.

[Alcock] This place is massive.

I can see a bar,
an auditorium, tennis

courts and bedrooms.

Could this have been a hotel
or a resort of some kind?

[narrator] This was once
a haven for men and women who

worked hard in grim conditions,

but their lives
would be infiltrated

by organized crime.

[Rodriguez-McRobbie]
You'd never have guessed
that a group like this could

take down the mob,
but that's exactly

what happened.

[narrator] Arthur Bolger worked
here during the 1970s and '80s.

He remembers
the magic that happened here.

Over here was
the general manager's office.

Last five years I was here,
I was the general manager.

My door was always open.
That was my management style.

I loved working here.

It was like being
the mayor of a small town.

This place first opened in 1892
as a summer resort for German

Jewish people.

[Dr. Kwami] But 25 years later,

that all changed.

[explosion blasts]

[Dr. Kwami] The United States
declared war on Germany in 1917,

and that ushered in a huge wave
of anti-German hysteria.

[narrator] The resort
was shut down during

World War I, but it was soon

back on the market
and purchased

by an unlikely group.

In 1924, the resort was bought
by the largest women's union

in the country,
the International Ladies'
Garment Workers' Union.

[narrator] The International
Ladies' Garment Workers' Union

would use this place
as a vacation spot

and training center for tens
of thousands of its members.

This is Unity House.

The women were garment workers,
they'd come up for different

training sessions and they
would sing their songs.

They were wonderful people.

[narrator] Many of the garment
workers who came here

in the early 20th century
were escaping a difficult life.

The garment industry at
the time was a brutal one.

This was exemplified by
the Triangle Shirtwaist

factory fire of 1911.

[flames crackling]

[narrator] The sweatshop
practices at this lower

Manhattan factory would
lead to a terrible tragedy.

These women were locked into
the building that was producing

the garments under
the justification that

that prevented loss.

146 young, mainly
immigrant female workers

died in that fire.

They either burned to death
or jumped from the top floors

of the building.

[narrator] In the years
after this awful fire,

organizations like
the International Ladies'

Garment Workers' Union
gained thousands of members,

ensuring better
pay and conditions.

But Unity House gave them
something money couldn't buy.

[Rodriguez-McRobbie] For many
of these garment workers,

this would have been
the only vacation

that was affordable to them.

It would have
been life-changing.

The idea was to get workers out
of the city for a week or two

a year, get some fresh country
air, and educate themselves.

[narrator] And in 1956,

Unity House would
receive its crowning glory.

[Arthur] We have 1,152
upholstered seats, which

was pretty much
filled every night.

The union members came here,
and even though they were

almost minimum wage workers,
they came dressed up in all

their fine evening gowns,
and they looked beautiful.

[narrator] Yet, while
union members enjoyed

the entertainment here,

criminals were
lurking all around.

During the 1950s, the union
did not control the garment

industry here
in northeastern Pennsylvania.

It was in the hands of the mob.

[Rodriguez-McRobbie]
The local mob boss
was an Italian-American named

Russell Bufalino,
and his influence was absolute.

As well as
the garment industry,

he controlled the elections,
He controlled policing.

He controlled everything.

[narrator] Mob-run factories
offered a lifeline for many

in low-income Pennsylvania
towns, and the industry's

notorious sweatshop
practices began to return.

But Bufalino had underestimated
the union, and there was one

member willing
to take on his gang.

[narrator]
In the Poconos, the resort
of Unity House had become

a haven for
the International Ladies'

Garment Workers' Union.

But in the 1950s, one frequent
visitor was fighting a battle

against organized crime.

One member of the union
who will go down in history

was a fearless lady
named Min Matheson.

[Rodriguez-McRobbie]
Matheson grew up
in Chicago in a fiercely

progressive household.

Her father was a union activist
who had frequent violent

encounters with
thugs and racketeers.

[narrator]
Her bravery came in the face

of extreme personal danger.

Min's father was shot
by gangsters in Chicago

after speaking out
against Al Capone,

but thankfully he survived.

[Rodriguez-McRobbie]
But her brother,
who was a union organizer

in New York, was murdered
with an ice pick in 1949.

[narrator] Bolstered
by her family's history

of taking on criminals,

Min Matheson was tasked
by the union with signing up

garment workers
in mob-controlled workshops.

[Alcock] This led to her
being in direct conflict

with mob boss,
Russell Bufalino.

Apparently on one occasion,
she even pointed her finger

in Bufalino's face
and shouted, "I'm twice the man

you'll ever be!"

[narrator] Min Matheson was also
critical in striking a new deal

with factory owners,
using the facilities here

at Unity House.

[Dr. Kwami] In 1953,
the union organized a drive

for Pennsylvania workers, and it
culminated in a nine-week strike

and production ground to a halt.

Eventually industry management
agreed to meet Matheson

and other union leaders
at Unity House.

[Rodriguez-McRobbie]
Talks lasted all day,
but eventually the union won

a 6% increase in wages
for their workers and a decrease

in working hours.

[narrator] During her time
in Pennsylvania, Min Matheson

saved many from exploitation
in mob-run sweatshops,

and the union signed up over
10,000 new members.

But in 1969, many of these
workers were on hand to see

Unity House hit
by a terrible fire.

[flames crackling]

[Arthur] It burnt down
the whole building,

and really nothing
could be done.

People just came and
sat around here and cried.

[narrator] But Unity House
would bounce back,

and the main building that still
stands today was constructed.

[Arthur] This building opened
in 1972, and back then

the bar was popular.

Everybody came here and had
a cocktail before dinner.

[narrator] But during Arthur's
time as general manager,

attendance at Unity House
began to decline.

One reason was most of
the members who really enjoyed

using Unity House
had passed away.

[Rodriguez-McRobbie]
Union membership fell
from its peak of almost

half a million members
in the 1960s

to 160,000 members

in the late 1980s.

[narrator] Also, cheaper
airfares provided competition

for vacationing Americans,
and the resorts of the Poconos

began to close.
-[Morgan] When suddenly

Americans could jump
on an airliner that will

take them to Honolulu,
why have the Poconos?

And by that time,
the Poconos had a little bit

of an association
with working-class people.

[narrator] Unity House
shut its doors to tourists

at the end of the 1989 season,

and was slowly
overtaken by the forest.

Today, local event organizer
Savannah Rose is working

to bring parts
of the site back to life.

The history here just
makes you wanna restore it.

We bought the venue in 2022.

Ever since then, we've been
kind of renovating as many

buildings as we can.
We've upgraded the lake house.

At our amphitheater,
we host a variety of different

music events and festivals.

[narrator] While it's unlikely
the resort will be fully

restored to its former glory,
the memories made here

by thousands of people
will live on.

I love this job, and I did it
for 20 years, and I was happy,

and I was really sorry
to see that it closed.

As far as I'm concerned,
I could have gone on forever

with this job.