Karen Wils photo An antique Escanaba Brewery beer bottle leans against an old barn.

ESCANABA — The secrets of years ago are sealed up with many vines and vegetation, in the U.P. summertime.

Trees hem in the past.

Yesterday is almost erased by a lush carpet of grass and weeds.

One hundred-year-old secrets are still slightly visible down some Upper Michigan back roads. Off the pavement, down dirt roads, beyond the urban sprawl and the last farmhouse, a bottle glistens in the sun.

Moss partially covers the dirty glass. For nearly a century the bottle lay empty, forgotten in the wilderness. Gray, weather-beaten boards are all that remain of the old homestead that once held warmth. Just beyond the house, in the thicket of pines, a still once bubbled away.

Moonshine making was a family secret hidden away in rural Michigan in Prohibition days. Alcohol use was illegal in our country from 1917 until 1933.

We’ve all heard stories of how alcoholic beverages were brewed by bootleggers and sold in the big cities. Gangsters like Al Capone made their fortunes and ruled the night life in Chicago in the roaring ’20s. Many people have claimed that Capone often took shelter in the remote Upper Peninsula.

Some historians believe Capone frequented the House of Ludington in Escanaba. Some say he even had a house in town. Close to the Canadian border and with lots of woods to hide in, did Al Capone hide out here?

I am told that my grandfather, who ran a neighborhood store back in 1930s, was visited by Capone. As the story goes Capone purchased cigarettes and left money for the local kids to buy candy. This is even mentioned in Russell Magnaghi’s book, “Prohibition in the Upper Peninsula.”

This book is great reading with lots of interesting and fun facts.

Alcohol is a part of our Northwoods history. I remember an old homestead near our camp being long abandoned and filled with all of the old glass bottles from the bootlegging days. Copperhead road was a term coined back then to describe a country lane, way back in the woods with a still at the end of it.

Escanaba is famous for its breweries. Back in the day the Escanaba Brewery made beer, as did Richter Brewery, and Delta Brewery. During Prohibition “near beer” was made.

North Escanaba is well known for its taverns. Did Sheridan Road really once flow with liquor that was confiscated by law enforcement back during the Prohibition?

Rum runners, bootleggers and good old homemade wine makers kept certain folks smiling a century ago.

Oh, how much things can change in several decades. Now we have cannabis shops all over.

My family and I are not much into drinking, but a cold beer on a summer night can’t be beat.

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Karen (Rose) Wils is a lifelong north Escanaba resident. Her folksy columns appear weekly in Lifestyles.