Elaina Nelson, “The Maribel Caves Hotel: Health Spa and Hotel of Hearsay”
Mentor: Nigel Rothfels, History

While compiling the history of the Maribel Caves Hotel, this project will frame it through the wider lens of the effects of prohibition and bootlegging within the area. There is a lot of local mythology around the hotel and its connection to bootleggers, prostitutes, and infamous gangsters such as John Dillinger and Al Capone. Built in the early 1900’s as a health spa by a priest and modeled after Austrian castles, the Maribel Caves Hotel is a unique locality Additionally, its location near a variety of intriguing caves has placed the hotel within a landscape that fosters speculation. However, there seems to have been little effort to explore this history in a comprehensive manner to determine the hotel’s actual role within this wider history. This project will utilize the archival resources available from the local museums, the Manitowoc Historical Society, the Sheboygan Historical Society, the Brown County Public Library, the Manitowoc Public Library, the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay, and other archives of newspapers and court records. By aggregating available data, this project will endeavor to provide a comprehensive portrait of the history of the Maribel Caves Hotel. In doing so, this project will attempt to contribute to the dialogue surrounding bootlegging operations in Wisconsin, their impact on local communities, and the part this Manitowoc county business played within that larger narrative.