Bootleggers, prostitutes, and gangsters in Rose Town

Legend has it, Al Capone, the Barker/Karpis gang, and wealthy businessmen looking for a discreet location to drink illegal booze and meet up with women stayed in lodgings on the south side of Lake Owasso, in what is now Roseville.

Stories have been passed down through the generations and between homeowners around the lake, at campfires and parties. Most of the original homes on Lake Owasso have been renovated, torn down, and rebuilt into modern lake houses, but the people who live there have deep roots on the lake. There are still people who lived on the lake in the first half of the twentieth century who have firsthand knowledge of those sordid days, and some of the old houses still have stories to tell.