Grand Ole' Hurley

Hurley, Wisconsin: the original Sin City. A two-faced town with a rich mining history and ire for shit kickery. A town of 1,500 that boasts 25 bars, 6 of which are strip clubs, all confined to one glorious stretch of road – Silver Street.

Few are written, but those stories that are tell of the town burning down… twice… or the time 3% of the town was arrested.

On the surface, Hurley is home to one of the country’s largest iron deposits (hence its place in Iron County, WI), endless ATV and snowmobile trails, the gorgeous scenery of northern Wisconsin, and is a grouse hunters paradise.

The history outside the textbooks is where it gets good. In the mid 1800’s my great great great grandfather moved from Ireland through Canada to the grand ole’ town of Hurley, Wisconsin. He fought in the civil war where he was shot 3 times, stabbed, loses a finger, and ends up with a load of shrapnel lodged in his foot. He survives. This man, Celestin Reible, is worthy of a story I’ll write someday.

His son-in-law John Sullivan in 1893 became the first sheriff of Iron County and focused his efforts on the rugged mining town he called home. With a population north of 6,000 at the time, largely consisting of miners, lumberjacks, bootleggers, and prostitutes, he had his hands full. His sheriff’s rifle and side by side shotgun are draped on my wall – the stories these guns could tell might make even a Hemmingway blush.

The Yoopers (one who resides in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula) try to redraw the map and steal Hurley from us in 1926, but there isn’t a chance in hell Wisconsin let’s its problem child go to the mitten state.

The debauchery continued into the 1920’s/30’s when the gangsters roll in. Hurley became a gem of prohibition, with the likes of Al Capone and John Dillinger calling Hurley a second home due to its lax attitude towards just about everything.

Capone established a small booze and gambling operation but had a tough time gaining a foothold with the tight-lipped locals. He did, however, use Hurley as home base and training ground for ladies of the night to be sent all over the country.

At its peak there were said to be as many as 130 illicit alcohol ‘sellers’ – often disguised as candy shops or soda fountains. Tunnels connected many of these operations and even branched under the Montreal River that connects Wisconsin to Michigan’s upper peninsula. That on top of the estimated prostitute population that at one time equated half the town’s permanent residents.

If literal street fights (gentlemen’s rules, of course) weren’t enough for you, these women became so comfortable that they would gallivant topless through the streets soliciting themselves without care.

Feds raided the not-so-sleepy town on and off for half a century, but most of these bootleggers would simply pay their fines and go back to business as usual. That said, in 1931 they laid the hammer down. In one afternoon, they shut down 42 saloons and arrested 1 out of every 40 residents in Hurley. I came across a quote from one of these raids that brought about a good chuckle:

“Gambling, prostitution, bootlegging, and dope are about the chief occupations of the place”.

-Frank Buckley, federal prohibition investigator

Think Tombstone, AZ with 10 feet of snow.

Some in Hurley still grasp at her sinful roots, not a difficult task with one bar for every 60 residents. It’s not quite the rugged mining town of old, but still well worth a stop at the Iron Horse for a beer or the Silver Dollar if you’re feeling a little extra frisky.