JAY RATH For the State Journal
Stay away from black cats and broken mirrors. Don't open that umbrella inside or walk under ladders. And especially avoid southern Wisconsin's 13 spookiest sites.
It's Friday the 13th.
The state is dotted with what paranormal investigators term areas of "high strangeness." We have alleged monsters of all types, from ghosts and lake monsters to a werewolf and a leaping vampire.
But why fear the 13th?
Some historians suggest it's a dread remembrance of Friday, Oct. 13, 1307.
On that day Pope Clement V ordered the simultaneous arrest of all Knights Templar. That monastic order is credited in fiction with the preservation of the Shroud of Turin, the Holy Grail and the secret bloodline of Christ, besides the creation of Freemasonry. Almost all were tortured and executed.
In truth, the order was founded to guide Christian pilgrims safely to Jerusalem and other holy sites. So in honor of those original tour guides of Friday the 13th, we give you 13 of the strangest and spookiest sites in southern Wisconsin.
13. American Institute of Architects-Wisconsin/ Wisconsin Architects Foundation
The 1855 Italianate sandstone home is apparently haunted by the ghost of one if its earlier residents, Varley Bond, vice president of the Manchester's department store once on the Capitol Square. He died in 1950, at home.
The ghost curiously has only one arm - just as Bond did in life. Passers-by have seen the figure in windows, and the foundation keeps a scrapbook detailing encounters.
Brenda Taylor, AIA- Wisconsin communications manager, says, "Every night I leave a list of things to do. In case there are any spirits, we'd love to have them help out."
12. Union Theater 800 Langdon St., Madison
Two ghosts supposedly haunt the theater in Memorial Union. One is the spirit of a laborer who died during construction, and the other is a percussionist with the Minneapolis Symphony who died during a concert.
"I, too, have heard the creaks and the squeaks in the wee small hours, found the lights on that should have been off, and the doors open that I know had been locked," says Michael Goldberg, acting president of the Overture Center for the Arts and former director of the Union Theater.
11. Bray Road Walworth County
Near Elkhorn there have been many sightings of what residents describe as a werewolf.
It has the nasty habit of jumping out at cars, as it is said to have done in 1992, when Lori Endrizzi and Doris Gipson of Elkhorn were traveling on Bray Road, apparently the creature's favorite habitat.
It chased their car and jumped on the trunk, leaving "deep claw marks."
Near Fort Atkinson in 1972 the Department of Natural Resources investigated a similar story, except in this instance the creature attacked a horse "and left a gash across the chest - 30 inches from one shoulder to the other," according to DNR investigator David Gjetson.
There have been so many sightings that journalist Linda Godfrey collected them into a book, "The Beast of Bray Road."
10. Lake Mendota Native Americans called it "Winnebozho." Later Madisonians called it a lake monster.
One of the best sightings was Oct. 17, 1892, when 12 men saw a 35-foot something. Another man saw it the same day in the Yahara River. It looked like a log, he said, except that it tried to overturn his boat.
In 1917 a fisherman on Picnic Point saw Winnebozho, and described it as having "a large snake-like head, with large jaws and blazing eyes."
On the other hand, that summer UW-Madison students saw something less fierce while they were sunning on a pier behind Langdon Street. They described a "huge snake or dragon" that fortunately "had a friendly, humorous look."
9. Hotel Boscobel 1005 Wisconsin Ave., Boscobel
The historic Grant County hotel dates to 1865, and is where the Gideon International group was conceived, leading to the placement of countless Gideon Bibles in hotel rooms worldwide.
Thankfully not placed in countless hotel rooms worldwide is its well-known ghost, that of Prussian founder Adam Bobel, who supposedly climbs into guests' beds.
8. Mineral Point cemetery In 1981, residents traded rumors of a 6-foot white-faced man wearing a cape, hanging around the cemetery.
On the night of March 30, police officer John Pepper spotted the figure. He called out, asking what the supposed vampire was doing. The phantom ran; Pepper chased. It then leapt a 4-foot-high barbed-wire fence and disappeared into the night. Police staked out the cemetery.
Said Lt. Bill Trott, "If this is somebody with a problem, I'd like to catch him before he plays out his fantasy."
7. Quarry Road Belleville
This otherwise quiet community is home to an annual UFO Days celebration, observed this year on Oct. 28. In fact, it calls itself the "UFO Capital of the World."
The hubbub is over two dozen UFO sightings in and around Belleville from Jan. 15 to March 21, 1987. The best viewing was from Quarry Road the first night, where police in four squad cars watched a clump of red, blue and white lights, "five or 20 times brighter than a normal star," said Belleville Officer Glen Kazmar. The object was also tracked on radar.
6. Taliesin Highway C, Spring Green
In 1909, Frank Lloyd Wright abandoned his wife and children in Chicago and fled to Europe with Mamah Cheney, the wife of a client. On their return Wright built the home he named Taliesin in Spring Green.
In 1914 a servant went mad and murdered Cheney, her two children and five others at Taliesin before setting fire to the estate. Wright later rebuilt, but the restless spirit of Cheney is said to occasionally be seen on the grounds, dressed in a long, white gown.
5. Bascom Hill UW-Madison campus
Long before the university was built, Bascom Hill served as Madison's first cemetery. As the town grew, the graves were forgotten.
In 1866 the loss of the tombstones, especially that of Samuel Warren, Madison's first pioneer fatality in 1837, was mourned by Judge J. Gillet Knapp.
He predicted that the grave would "be in some remote period brought to light, perhaps by a people who shall speak another tongue."
That remote period turned out to be 1922, when excavation south of the Lincoln statue revealed Warren's grave, and that of William Nelson, who had died a year later. The skeletons were photographed, the graves left in place, and the cement steps covering them today have two simple plaques bearing the men's initials.
4. Aztalan State Park Highway Q, near Lake Mills
Archaeologists theorize that Aztalan was a stockaded 21- acre ceremonial center belonging to the mysterious Mississippian Culture, the vanished race of mound builders.
Where they came from, and where they went, nobody knows. But they left behind stepped earthwork pyramids and evidence of cannibalism before disappearing around 1300 A.D.
Amateur scholars have linked Aztalan with the Aztec civilization and even to lost Atlantis. But Aztalan is strange enough all by itself.
3. Railroad trestle Monona Bay, Madison
The railway that crosses the bay parallel to John Nolen Drive is supposedly haunted by the ghost of a railroad brakeman who was killed in 1892.
He was seen fairly often in the late 19th century, walking the tracks and waving his lantern. Some railroad employees were so frightened that they sometimes refused to work. Others tried to chase the ghost, but he always disappeared into a nearby marsh in what today is Brittingham Park.
2. Eagle Heights Madison
The highest hill between Shorewood and Picnic Point was held to be sacred by the Ho-Chunk, or Winnebago. It was home to a spirit horse, who could be heard neighing and stamping its feet. It was glimpsed dimly on cloudy or misty days.
Another Native American spirit, that of a young brave and his pony, is said to be encountered every few decades along the winding path that became today's Seminole Highway.
1. Ridgeway This is Wisconsin's spook central. Over a century and a half, there have been countless reports of the Ridgeway ghost. Or ghosts?
Most of the legends are traced to the murder of two teenage boys in 1840. Historically, they leapt out at passers-by, loosened carriage wheels and even joined pioneer poker games.
Obviously this is a ghost with Wisconsin spirit. A favorite tale is how a Welsh settler encountered the ghost and turned back. He walked faster. The ghost walked faster. He started to run. The ghost started to run. He was chased until he could not go any farther. Exhausted, the pioneer sat down on a log to catch his breath.
The ghost sat down next to him, and said, "That was some good runnin' you were doin'."
http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/top/inde ... 24&ntpid=1
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