[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.