In 1931, John Jurko literally created his own town. Today, we know it as Yankee Lake and his great-grandson, who carries the same name, wants to share the story.

These days when we think of Yankee Lake, Truck Night comes to mind. Years ago, though, it was just a lake, inn, and ballroom originally called Lingamore Lake, a bootlegger's dream turned reality. 

That bootlegger was John Jurko, who bought the property along with E.H. Stewart.

Now, Jurko's great-grandson, that carries that same name, is trying to bring those memories back to life.

"It was kind of a fun little family project. But once I started discovering all these stories and how involved he was in the area during prohibition, and even Yankee Lake in general with the community, it kind ballooned into a much larger project," said Jurko, II.

So large, that the film school graduate started working on a documentary. After all, not too many of us have a family tree filled with illegal booze and made-up towns.

"Originally, it was part of Brookfield Township, but at that time unincorporated areas would get fined on Sundays if they had dancing or served alcohol or anything like that," said Jurko, II. "So, there was a lot of bootlegging that happened in the 20s and 30s, and my grandfather, when he decided to take it over right around 1930, wanted to make it a little more legitimate and avoid the fines and stuff."

"I think the first election was 1931 and my grandfather was 21-years-old and won that election 12-to-2, I think. There weren't a whole lot of people here. It was a pretty tiny place," Jurko, II said.

That's what got the ball rolling. 

What followed were decades of swimming and water skiing, big band music and concerts featuring everything from Glen Miller to James Brown. In 1979, they had to drain the lake after issues with the dam starting yet another chapter.

 "They've had to reinvent it many times. The big bands died and they had record hops for a while in the 60s and 70s. It's just constantly changing, thinking of new things to do," said Jurko, II.

John says he'd love to see the actual lake come back at some point, even though he's not sure how feasible that actually may be.  Either way though, he's preserving the history of both his family and the village.

He's expecting the documentary to be done by the end of next year. In the meantime, he's releasing a historical mail series featuring all sorts of neat tidbits on Yankee Lake. You can find out more about that at YankeeLakehistory.com.