Haunted Wisconsin

147 haunted destinations cataloged across Wisconsin, spanning 61 counties. The collection features museum, haunted dining, and cemetery — every listing verified with family ratings, accessibility info, and practical visit logistics.

147 locations 61 counties 12 classifications 74 wheelchair accessible

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Featured in Wisconsin

Top 6

Wisconsin State Capitol building dome at Capitol Square in Madison, Wisconsin — site of haunted history walking tour

Ghost Tour / Walking Tour

American Ghost Walks — Madison

Madison, WI

American Ghost Walks runs three separately ticketed walking tours in Madison — Capitol Square Spirits, Lost Souls of State Street, and the UW Campus Ghost Walk — all developed by Mike Huberty, who launched the first ghost tour in Wisconsin's capital city in 2010. The routes cover Madison's oldest downtown blocks platted as territorial capital in 1836, the State Street entertainment corridor pedestrianized in the 1970s, and the University of Wisconsin's historic core chartered in 1848.

$$ 13+ (all three Madison tours) Family: Moderate

Haunted Hotel / Inn

Karsten Nest Hotel

Kewaunee, WI

The Hotel Karsten opened on Valentine's Day 1913 in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, replacing an earlier wood inn called The Steamboat House that burned in the early 1910s. Built and operated by William Karsten Sr., the 52-room Arts and Crafts hotel sits on the Lake Michigan shoreline and remains one of the few surviving hotels of its period in the region.

$$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Cream City brick warehouses lining the streets of Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward at twilight

Ghost Tour / Walking Tour

American Ghost Walks — Milwaukee

Milwaukee, WI

American Ghost Walks runs two separately ticketed walking tours in Milwaukee: the Third Ward Ghost Walk through the historic 'Bloody Third' immigrant and Prohibition-era district, and the Shadow of City Hall Ghost Walk through the downtown civic core anchored by the Pfister Hotel. Both were developed by lifelong Milwaukeean and paranormal researcher Allison Jornlin, the Milwaukee Paranormal Conference's 2016 Researcher of the Year, and the program has run continuously since 2008 as the city's longest-operating ghost tour.

$$ 13+ (both Milwaukee tours) Family: Moderate

Haunted Hotel / Inn

Walker House

Mineral Point, WI

Walker House was constructed in 1836 in Mineral Point, Iowa County, Wisconsin, making it one of the oldest inns in the state. The site began as a Cornish miners' cave carved from limestone in the 1820s, expanded into a stone house in 1836, and grew to a three-story structure by the late 1850s. On November 1, 1842, William Caffee was publicly hanged in the inn's yard after a murder conviction — the event most cited in the building's paranormal history.

$$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Cafe Corazon Riverwest distinctive triangular brick corner storefront at 3129 N Bremen St in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood, decorated with a heart sign

Haunted Dining / Bar

Cafe Corazon Riverwest (Auggie's Triangle Building)

Milwaukee, WI

The building at 3129 N. Bremen Street is a turn-of-the-century triangular brick storefront sited where Bremen and another street meet at an angle in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood. It has variously served as a general store, a 1930s tavern called Ye Ol' Triangle Tap, and later Auggie's Triangle Tap — an Outlaws motorcycle-club hangout owned by August 'Auggie' Notbohm. Cafe Corazon, a Mexican restaurant founded by chef Dana Eckmann, took over the space in 2009.

$$ All Ages Family: High

Museum / Historical Site

Dousman Stagecoach Inn

Brookfield, WI

The Dousman Stagecoach Inn was built in 1843 by Talbot Dousman at the corner of Bluemound Road and Watertown Plank Road in what is now Brookfield, Wisconsin. It served as a stagecoach inn from the 1840s until 1872, then as a private home. In 1981 the Elmbrook Historical Society moved the building to a 20-acre park at 1075 Pilgrim Parkway, where it operates today as a museum. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Historic American Buildings Survey.

$ All Ages Family: High

More in Wisconsin

Milwaukee — 19

Haunted Hotel / Inn

Brumder Mansion

Milwaukee, WI

The Brumder Mansion was built in 1910 by Milwaukee German-language publisher George Brumder for his eldest son. The English Arts and Crafts residence later operated as a Lutheran women's residence and, during Prohibition, as the cover for a basement speakeasy reportedly tied to local bootlegging networks. It has run as a bed and breakfast since the 1990s.

$$$ Adults preferred; check property policy for children Family: Moderate

Ghost Tour / Walking Tour

City Tours MKE

Milwaukee, WI

City Tours MKE is a Milwaukee sightseeing company founded by Milwaukee locals in 2013, running the city's only motorized ghost tour aboard small electric cruisers alongside a haunted pub crawl and a seasonal Theater District ghost walk.

$$$ All Ages for the Haunted History City Tour and Theater District walk; 21+ to drink on the Haunted Pub Crawl and to bring beverages on the Haunted History City Tour. Family: Moderate

Other Dark Tourism Site

First Unitarian Church of Milwaukee

Milwaukee, WI

The First Unitarian Church of Milwaukee is a Gothic Revival stone church built 1891-1892 at 1342 N. Astor Street for a Unitarian congregation founded in 1842. Designed by the Milwaukee architectural firm Ferry & Clas and dedicated on May 15, 1892, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

$ All Ages Family: High

Cemetery / Burial Ground

Forest Home Cemetery

Milwaukee, WI

Forest Home Cemetery was founded in 1850 as Milwaukee's first rural-garden cemetery, laid out by Wisconsin scientist Increase A. Lapham on the Mount Auburn model. Spanning roughly 200 acres on the city's south side, it became the burial place of the city's brewing and industrial dynasties including the Pabst, Schlitz, Best, Davidson, and Sholes families. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

$ All Ages Family: High

Haunted Hotel / Inn

Hilton Garden Inn Milwaukee Downtown (Loyalty Building)

Milwaukee, WI

The Loyalty Building was constructed in 1886 as the third headquarters of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company on the site of the 1883 Newhall House Hotel fire, which killed at least 71 people. Designed in Richardsonian Romanesque style by architect S.S. Beman, the building was acquired by Hilton in 2011 and converted to the 127-room Hilton Garden Inn Milwaukee Downtown by 2012. It is a contributor to the East Side Commercial Historic District.

$$$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Other Dark Tourism Site

Marquette University - Johnston Hall and Helfaer Theatre

Milwaukee, WI

Marquette University is a Jesuit, Catholic institution founded in 1881. Johnston Hall, opened in 1907, is a Gothic stone building on Wisconsin Avenue that served for much of the 20th century as the principal Jesuit residence and academic hall on campus; it now houses the Diederich College of Communication and the Marquette Wire student newsroom. The Helfaer Theatre is a performing-arts building serving the Marquette Theatre program. Both buildings remain in active university use.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Outdoor / Natural Site

Miller Caves

Milwaukee, WI

The Miller Caves are a 600-foot system of hand-dug lagering tunnels carved into a bluff above State Street in 1850 by the Best brothers, owners of the original Plank Road Brewery. Frederick Miller purchased the brewery and caves in 1855, and the caves served as the brewery's primary beer-aging storage until modern refrigeration replaced them in 1906.

$ All Ages Family: High

Museum / Historical Site

Milwaukee Public Museum

Milwaukee, WI

The Milwaukee Public Museum traces its origins to the German-English Academy's collection acquired by the city in 1882. The current building at 800 West Wells Street was constructed 1960-1962 and opened in 1963, housing the famed Streets of Old Milwaukee diorama. Dr. Stephan F. de Borhegyi, a Hungarian-born archaeologist specializing in Mesoamerica, directed the museum from 1959 until his death in a September 1969 automobile accident. A new building is under construction adjacent to the current site.

$$ All Ages Family: High

Theater / Performance Venue

Modjeska Theatre

Milwaukee, WI

The first Modjeska Theatre on West Mitchell Street opened in 1910, named in honor of Polish-born stage actress Helena Modjeska, who had died in 1909 with a substantial following in Milwaukee's Polonia neighborhood. Saxe Theatres acquired the property in 1920 and demolished it to build a 2,500-seat Rapp and Rapp-designed movie palace, which opened August 2, 1924. The Modjeska has operated as a movie house, vaudeville stage, community theater, and event venue across its century-long life.

$$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Outdoor / Natural Site

North Point Lighthouse

Milwaukee, WI

The first North Point Lighthouse was established on Milwaukee's east-side bluff in 1855 to guide Lake Michigan shipping. Erosion threatened the original tower by the 1880s, and in 1888 a 40-foot cast-iron tower was built 100 feet inland alongside a new Queen Anne keeper's quarters. The structure was raised to 74 feet in 1912 to clear the rising tree canopy of Lake Park, which Frederick Law Olmsted's firm designed around the lighthouse. Decommissioned in 1994 and restored as a museum in 2007.

$ All Ages Family: High

Flemish Renaissance Revival Pabst Mansion at 2000 W Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, seen from the street

Haunted House / Historic Home

Captain Frederick Pabst Mansion

Milwaukee, WI

The Captain Frederick Pabst Mansion was built between 1890 and 1892 for Pabst Brewing Company founder Frederick Pabst (1836-1904), designed by Milwaukee architects George Bowman Ferry and Alfred Charles Clas in the Flemish Renaissance Revival style. After Pabst family ownership ended in 1908, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee used the building as the archbishop's residence for nearly seventy years. In 1978 the nonprofit Wisconsin Heritages, Inc. purchased the property and opened it as a historic-house museum.

$$ All Ages Family: High

Theater / Performance Venue

Pabst Theater

Milwaukee, WI

The Pabst Theater opened November 9, 1895, replacing the Stadt Theater destroyed by fire that same year. Captain Frederick Pabst commissioned architect Otto Strack to design the German Renaissance Revival opera house, which was completed in just six months. The Pabst is the fourth-oldest continuously operating theater in the United States and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991.

$$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Theater / Performance Venue

Riverside Theater

Milwaukee, WI

The Riverside Theater opened April 29, 1928, as a vaudeville and movie palace inside RKO Pictures' twelve-story Empire Building on West Wisconsin Avenue. Designed by Milwaukee architects Charles Kirchhoff and Thomas Rose in the French Baroque style, the theater hosted vaudeville, big-band, and film bookings until United Artists vacated in 1982. Joseph Zilber's Towne Realty funded a 1.5-million-dollar restoration, and the Riverside reopened as a live-performance venue on November 2, 1984.

$$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Haunted Dining / Bar

Sabbatic

Milwaukee, WI

Sabbatic occupies a two-story 1890s cream-brick corner saloon at South 2nd and West Pierce Streets in Milwaukee's Walker's Point neighborhood. The building has a continuous tavern history that includes a working-class saloon, an early-20th-century boarding house and brothel for dock workers, a Prohibition 'soft-drink parlor' (a common speakeasy euphemism), and the old Union House tavern. Sam Berman opened Sabbatic in December 2009 as a DIY punk-rock bar and live-music venue.

$$ 21+ Family: Not Recommended

Haunted Dining / Bar

Shaker's Cigar Bar

Milwaukee, WI

Shaker's Cigar Bar occupies an 1894 building in Milwaukee's Walker's Point neighborhood, built as a cooperage for the Schlitz Brewing Company. During Prohibition the building reportedly operated as a speakeasy associated with Frank and Al Capone, with rumored brothel use on its upper floors.

$$ 21+ for the bar; ghost tours typically all ages with adult accompaniment Family: Moderate

Brick exterior of Shaker's Cigar Bar at 422 S 2nd Street in Milwaukee's Walker's Point neighborhood

Haunted Dining / Bar

Shaker's Original Historical Ghost Tour

Milwaukee, WI

Shaker's Cigar Bar occupies an 1894 Walker's Point building originally constructed as a cooperage for the Schlitz Brewing Company. During Prohibition the structure operated as a speakeasy reportedly tied to the Capone family, with a brothel on the upper floors. Bob Weiss converted it to its current cigar-bar configuration in 1986.

$$ 21+ inside the bar; ghost tour open to all ages with parental discretion Family: Low

Haunted Hotel / Inn

The Pfister Hotel

Milwaukee, WI

The Pfister Hotel opened in 1893, built to fulfill the vision of Guido Pfister, a German immigrant leather manufacturer who died in 1889 before completion. His son Charles Pfister oversaw the project to completion, spending approximately $1 million. Known as the 'Grand Hotel of the West' at opening, the 307-room building is known for its Victorian art; the hotel says the collection is the largest of any hotel in the world. Charles Pfister died in 1927.

$$$ All ages Family: High

Theater / Performance Venue

The Rave / Eagles Club

Milwaukee, WI

The Eagles Club opened on September 13, 1927, as the Milwaukee headquarters of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Designed as a civic social club, the 180,000-square-foot, seven-level granite block structure originally contained a grand ballroom, barbershop, bowling alley, and swimming pool. Three days before opening, 15-year-old Francis Wren drowned in the basement pool — the event that anchors the building's paranormal reputation. In 1991, the building became The Rave, a concert venue.

$$ All Ages (18+ for some events) Family: Moderate

Pabst Theater in Milwaukee — a stop on this tour.

Ghost Tour / Walking Tour

US Ghost Adventures Milwaukee

Milwaukee, WI

US Ghost Adventures operates its Milwaukee program under the local brand Brew City Ghosts, running a nightly downtown walking tour from the Milwaukee Public Market. The route covers the Riverwalk, the Pabst Theater, and a downtown hotel tied to a historic fire.

$$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Green Bay — 9

Haunted Hotel / Inn

Astor House Bed & Breakfast

Green Bay, WI

The Astor House was built in 1888 in Green Bay's historic Astor neighborhood, on land associated with John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company operations in the early 19th century. The property later came under the ownership of Dr. Julius Bellin, a prominent local physician whose tenure is cited in the building's paranormal lore.

$$ All Ages Family: High

Haunted Dining / Bar

Captain's Walk Winery

Green Bay, WI

Built in 1857 for politician Elijah Morrow, the Captain's Walk building passed to his daughter Helen, who eventually lost it to financial hardship. The foundation walls incorporate gravestones from relocated cemeteries.

$$ 21+ Family: Moderate

View of a downtown side street. Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Pine Street between Adams and Jefferson Streets.

Other Dark Tourism Site

Ferguson Family YMCA

Green Bay, WI

The Ferguson Family YMCA at 235 N Jefferson Street in Green Bay, Wisconsin was constructed in 1924 during the city's paper industry boom. The six-story Tudor Revival building served as a residential housing facility for decades before being converted to a fitness and community center. A $13 million renovation modernized the structure while preserving its historic character.

$$ All Ages Family: High

Ghost Tour / Walking Tour

Green Bay Walking Ghost Tour

Green Bay, WI

Green Bay Ghost Tours operates walking tours of downtown Green Bay's historically significant buildings, most of which carry independent documented paranormal reputations. The Astor House Historic District, Meyer Theatre, and Captain's Walk Winery are among the established stops.

$ All Ages Family: High

Museum / Historical Site

Hazelwood Historic House Museum

Green Bay, WI

Hazelwood was built in 1837 by Morgan L. Martin, a Wisconsin territorial legislator, first mayor of Green Bay, and federal district court judge. The Greek Revival mansion served as the Martin family home for generations and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

$ All Ages Family: High

Museum / Historical Site

Heritage Hill State Historical Park — Fort Howard Hospital

Green Bay, WI

Fort Howard Hospital was constructed in the 1830s as part of the U.S. Army garrison at Fort Howard, on the west bank of the Fox River at Green Bay. The original fort, established in 1816 to secure the region after the War of 1812, became obsolete by the 1850s. The hospital building was preserved and relocated to Heritage Hill State Historical Park in 1975, where it stands as one of the park's authentic military-era structures.

$ All Ages Family: High

Theater / Performance Venue

Meyer Theatre

Green Bay, WI

The Meyer Theatre opened in 1930 as one of Green Bay's premier entertainment venues, built in the Art Deco style during the height of the movie palace era. The building has operated continuously as a performance venue and anchors the city's Washington Street arts district.

$$ All Ages (varies by performance) Family: High

Captain's Walk Winery in Green Bay — a stop on this tour.

Ghost Tour / Walking Tour

US Ghost Adventures Green Bay

Green Bay, WI

US Ghost Adventures runs its Green Bay program under the consumer brand "Green Bay Ghosts," a nightly walking tour through the city's downtown Titletown historic district, meeting at the Brown County Library.

$ All Ages Family: High

Aerial survey view of Woodlawn Cemetery — Minahan Mausoleum

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Cemetery / Burial Ground

Woodlawn Cemetery — Minahan Mausoleum

Green Bay, WI

Dr. William Edward Minahan was a physician from Green Bay who booked first-class passage on the Titanic with his wife and sister. He died when the ship sank on April 15, 1912, and his body was recovered from the North Atlantic. He was returned to Green Bay and interred in a Neoclassical mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery. In 1985, trophy hunters broke into the mausoleum and removed his skull; police recovered it and it was reinterred.

$ All Ages Family: High

Eau Claire — 6

Aerial survey view of Banbury Place (Former Gillette Safety Tire / Uniroyal Factory)

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Other Dark Tourism Site

Banbury Place (Former Gillette Safety Tire / Uniroyal Factory)

Eau Claire, WI

Gillette Safety Tire Company built the plant in 1917 along the Eau Claire River; at peak output it produced 30,000 tires per day. During World War II the federal government converted it to an ordnance plant employing 6,200 workers — 61 percent women — and earning an Army-Navy E Award for production excellence in 1943. Uniroyal ran it through 1992, when 1,358 workers lost their jobs at closure. Developers Bill Cigan and Jack Kaiser purchased the property that same year and renamed it Banbury Place.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Forest Hill Cemetery and Putnam Chapel in Eau Claire — a stop on this tour.

Ghost Tour / Walking Tour

The Eau Claire Dark History Trolley Tour

Eau Claire, WI

The Eau Claire Dark History Trolley Tour is operated by the Chippewa River Trolley and runs September through November on Friday and Saturday evenings. It departs from The Local Store at 205 N Dewey St in downtown Eau Claire. The tour was developed to highlight the city's criminal past, Victorian underworld, and historic architecture, with the 1908 Putnam Chapel at Forest Hill Cemetery as its most distinctive stop.

$$ 18+ unless accompanied by parent/guardian Family: Moderate

Aerial survey view of Eau Claire County Old Orchard Cemetery (Former Asylum/Poor Farm Cemetery)

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Cemetery / Burial Ground

Eau Claire County Old Orchard Cemetery (Former Asylum/Poor Farm Cemetery)

Eau Claire, WI

This cemetery served residents of the Eau Claire County Insane Asylum and Poor Farm, established in the 1880s. Many buried here were patients or indigent residents of the county farm whose identities were not preserved. The asylum building was demolished in 1991 and the site transitioned to parkland. A historical marker was installed, and in 2007 the cemetery was formally renamed Old Orchard Cemetery.

$ All Ages Family: High

Cemetery / Burial Ground

Forest Hill Cemetery and Putnam Chapel

Eau Claire, WI

Forest Hill Cemetery was established in the late 1850s and is Eau Claire's oldest active cemetery, with more than 12,000 burials. The Jane E. Putnam Memorial Chapel was constructed in 1908 following a bequest by Jane Balcolm Putnam, who died in 1907. The Neogothic stone chapel was designed with 24 receiving vaults in its apse to hold bodies through winter months when the frozen ground prevented burial. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 7, 2000.

$ All Ages Family: High

Haunted Dining / Bar

Stone's Throw Bar (Cameron-Drummond-Slagsvold Building)

Eau Claire, WI

Constructed 1893–1894 as the Cameron-Drummond-Slagsvold Building, the Gothic-style structure served as home to the Chippewa Valley Bank and multiple commercial tenants before becoming a bar in downtown Eau Claire.

$ 21+ Family: High

Aerial survey view of Grand Opera House (Former)

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Other Dark Tourism Site

Grand Opera House (Former)

Eau Claire, WI

The Grand Opera House opened in Eau Claire in 1883 at a cost of roughly $60,000 (about $1.5 million today), funded by public money and private donations. With 1,500 seats, elaborate fixtures, and a 14-foot chandelier, it was considered one of the finest performing arts venues in the upper Midwest until it closed in 1930.

$ All Ages Family: High

Wausau — 6

Theater / Performance Venue

Grand Theater Wausau

Wausau, WI

The Grand Theater opened in November 1927 on the site of the 1899 Grand Opera House, which it replaced after the original structure was demolished. It serves as Wausau's primary performing arts venue and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

$$ All Ages Family: High

True Crime Site

McCrossen Block

Wausau, WI

The McCrossen Block at 501 Third St N is the oldest surviving commercial building in Wausau, constructed in 1875 in the Italianate Commercial style. On September 16, 1880, dentist J.C. Bennet shot rival dentist Dr. E.L. Hagel in his office inside the building. Bennet was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, making the case one of the first documented murders in Wausau's history.

$ All Ages Family: High

Aerial survey view of Shepherd & Schaller Sporting Goods

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Other Dark Tourism Site

Shepherd & Schaller Sporting Goods

Wausau, WI

Shepherd & Schaller Sporting Goods has occupied 324 Scott St in downtown Wausau since 1949, making it one of the longer-running retail establishments in the city. The building predates the sporting goods store and previously housed a J.C. Penney department store.

$ All Ages Family: High

Ghost Tour / Walking Tour

Wausau Ghost Tours (Wausau Paranormal Research Society)

Wausau, WI

The Wausau Paranormal Research Society was founded by Shawn Blaschka and has conducted documented investigations of Marathon County locations for multiple years. The WPRS launched its annual October ghost tours as a public outreach effort, combining its investigative record with theatrical reenactors to produce a walking tour circuit through downtown Wausau.

$$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Museum / Historical Site

Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art

Wausau, WI

The 1901 Colonial-style building was constructed as the Wausau Club, a private social organization for the city's business and civic elite during Wausau's lumber boom. It includes a Prohibition-era tunnel that connected the club to adjacent buildings. It is now the home of the Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art.

$ All Ages Family: High

Museum / Historical Site

Yawkey House Museum (Marathon County Historical Society)

Wausau, WI

The Yawkey House was built in 1900 for lumber baron Cyrus C. Yawkey in the Classical Revival style. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and operated today by the Marathon County Historical Society as a house museum.

$ All Ages Family: High

Appleton — 5

Haunted Dining / Bar

Appleton Curling Club

Appleton, WI

The Appleton Curling Club was established in 1939 and relocated to its present facility on Westhill Boulevard in January 1960. In 1967, fire damaged the clubhouse but did not destroy the ice rink or compressor room, necessitating rebuilding of the spectators' area.

$$ All Ages Family: High

Ghost Tour / Walking Tour

Appleton Haunted History & Mystery Tour

Appleton, WI

Spooks & Spirits Paranormal Tours runs commercial ghost tours of Appleton's historic downtown, centering on the city's documented dark history: Harry Houdini was born in Budapest but came of age in Appleton, and died on Halloween 1926 from a ruptured appendix after a punch to the abdomen. The tour also covers the Outagamie County Asylum — long since demolished — and College Avenue's roster of reportedly haunted commercial buildings.

$$ All Ages Family: High

Museum / Historical Site

Hearthstone Historic House Museum

Appleton, WI

Built in 1882 for Henry James Rogers, the Hearthstone became world-famous on September 30, 1882, when it became the first private residence anywhere to be lit by a central hydroelectric power station using Thomas Edison's system. The mansion later passed to the Priest family.

$$ All Ages Family: High

Aerial survey view of Outagamie County Asylum Cemetery & History Museum at the Castle

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Cemetery / Burial Ground

Outagamie County Asylum Cemetery & History Museum at the Castle

Appleton, WI

The Outagamie County Asylum for the Chronic Insane opened in 1889 and operated until 2001, when it closed as Outagamie County Health Center on the former Brewster Village campus. During its 112-year history, the institution housed hundreds of patients and generated two major scandals: a 1913 lawsuit over unauthorized castrations performed on patients by superintendent George Downer, who died by suicide in 1915, and an abuse investigation in 1943-44. Of the 133 patients buried in the asylum cemetery between 1891 and 1943, most were interred without family notification; headstones naming each person were installed in 2015 after a community rededication effort.

$$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Other Dark Tourism Site

Zuelke Building

Appleton, WI

The Zuelke Building was completed in 1932 for Irving Zuelke, an Appleton music merchant who built the 12-story neo-Gothic tower as Appleton's tallest building of its era. Designed in the American Gothic Revival commercial style, it dominated the downtown skyline for decades and remains a visual landmark on College Avenue.

$ All Ages Family: High

Kenosha — 5

Exterior of Kemper Hall at Kemper Center on the Lake Michigan shoreline in Kenosha, Wisconsin, listed on the National Register of Historic Places

Museum / Historical Site

Durkee Mansion / Kemper Center

Kenosha, WI

The Durkee Mansion was built in 1861 by Charles Durkee, an early Wisconsin settler completing his term as U.S. Senator. Beginning in 1865 the property was converted into Kemper Hall, an Episcopal girls school operated by the Sisters of St. Mary that ran for 105 years until its closure in 1975.

$ All Ages Family: High

Museum / Historical Site

Gilbert M. Simmons Memorial Library

Kenosha, WI

The Gilbert M. Simmons Memorial Library was designed by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham and opened in 1900, funded by the estate of Zalmon Simmons Sr. in memory of his son Gilbert. The neoclassical building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and remains an active branch of the Kenosha Public Library system.

$ All Ages Family: High

True Crime Site

John McCaffary House

Kenosha, WI

On July 23, 1850, John McCaffary drowned his wife Bridget in the cistern behind this Kenosha house. His 1851 hanging was so badly botched — he strangled for 20 minutes before 2,000 to 3,000 witnesses — that the public outcry helped propel Wisconsin to abolish capital punishment in 1853, making it the first U.S. state to do so.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Historic 1927 theater facade in downtown Kenosha, Wisconsin

Theater / Performance Venue

Rhode Center for the Arts (Rhode Opera House)

Kenosha, WI

Peter Rhode, a German immigrant and Kenosha hotelier, opened the original 1,000-seat Rhode Opera House in downtown Kenosha in 1890. The original theater burned in 1896, was rebuilt, and was demolished in 1927 by the Saxe Amusement Company, which constructed the Gateway Theater on the site. The Lakeside Players purchased the building in 1988 and operate it today as the Rhode Center for the Arts.

$$ All Ages (varies by performance) Family: High

Aerial survey view of SS Wisconsin Shipwreck Site

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Outdoor / Natural Site

SS Wisconsin Shipwreck Site

Kenosha, WI

The SS Wisconsin was an iron-hulled package freight steamer launched in 1881. On October 29–30, 1929, it sank in a northeasterly gale on Lake Michigan approximately 6.5 miles SSE of Kenosha, killing nine of its crew. The wreck was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

$$ 18+ (scuba diving; ghost tour all ages) Family: Low

Fond du Lac — 4

Museum / Historical Site

Galloway House and Village

Fond du Lac, WI

Edwin H. Galloway built this 30-room Italianate mansion in 1880. It remained in the Galloway family for generations before being donated to the Fond du Lac County Historical Society, which now manages it as the centerpiece of a living-history museum village.

$ All Ages Family: High

Museum / Historical Site

Octagon House

Fond du Lac, WI

Isaac Brown built this eight-sided home in 1856 following the octagon-house design promoted by Orson Fowler. The home features nine secret passageways and a tunnel connecting to the woodshed. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and is managed today by the Fond du Lac County Historical Society.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Haunted Hotel / Inn

Hotel Retlaw

Fond du Lac, WI

Hotel Retlaw opened in 1923 as a vision of Walter Schroeder, a Milwaukee-area hotelier who named the property by spelling his first name backwards. The Milwaukee firm of Herbert W. Tullgren & Son designed the eight-story neoclassical red-brick tower, which originally contained 265 guest rooms. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the hotel has survived conversion to a psychiatric facility and subsequent decades of varying uses before its restoration as a boutique hotel.

$$$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Cemetery / Burial Ground

Rienzi Cemetery

Fond du Lac, WI

Rienzi Cemetery sits on land in Fond du Lac County once associated with Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, a former U.S. Senator from New York who relocated to Wisconsin in the 1840s and became a prominent figure in the American Spiritualist movement, claiming to receive communications from the dead.

$ All Ages Family: High

Janesville — 4

Museum / Historical Site

Janesville Senior Center (Former Carnegie Library)

Janesville, WI

Built in 1903 with Carnegie philanthropy funding, the building served as one of Wisconsin's first Carnegie libraries before transitioning to use as Janesville's senior center. Local dark-history author Mitch Goth documented a child's death on the property around 1898–1899, prior to the building's construction.

$ All Ages Family: High

Museum / Historical Site

Lincoln-Tallman House

Janesville, WI

The Lincoln-Tallman House is an 1857 Italianate mansion built by abolitionist attorney William M. Tallman in Janesville, Wisconsin. Abraham Lincoln stayed here October 1–3, 1859, making it the only documented Wisconsin overnight of the future president. The Tallman family donated the house to the city in 1950 on condition it be preserved as a public museum; the Rock County Historical Society has operated it since.

$$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Cemetery / Burial Ground

Oak Hill Cemetery

Janesville, WI

Oak Hill Cemetery is Janesville, Wisconsin's oldest operating burial ground, established in 1851 by the Oak Hill Cemetery Association under an act of the Wisconsin Legislature. The cemetery has grown from 20 to 85 acres and contains more than 24,000 burials, including George Parker of Parker Pen, NPS director Arno Cammerer, and Medal of Honor recipient James E. Croft.

$ All Ages Family: High

Haunted Dining / Bar

The Looking Glass Bar

Janesville, WI

The Looking Glass Bar occupies a historic commercial building in downtown Janesville. It is one of three Janesville locations featured in the published book '30 Haunted Nights in Wisconsin,' which documented staff and patron paranormal accounts at the bar.

$ 21+ Family: High

La Crosse — 4

Haunted Dining / Bar

Bodega Brew Pub (Former Malin Pool and Sample Room)

La Crosse, WI

The building at 122 S 4th St operated as the Malin Pool and Sample Room under owner Paul Malin in the late 19th century. Malin allegedly died by suicide on the premises in 1901. The property has changed hands multiple times in the century since.

$ 21+ Family: High

Haunted Dining / Bar

Del's Bar

La Crosse, WI

Del's Bar is one of La Crosse's older operating saloons, with roots in the city's founding era. It sits in the downtown corridor that formed La Crosse's commercial and entertainment district along the Mississippi River waterfront.

$ 21+ Family: High

Haunted Dining / Bar

Freighthouse Restaurant (Milwaukee Road Freight Depot)

La Crosse, WI

Built in 1880 by the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway as a freight depot, the building served La Crosse's commercial rail traffic for decades before being converted to a restaurant. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

$$ All Ages Family: High

Ghost Tour / Walking Tour

Ghosts of Historic La Crosse Walking Tour (Footsteps of La Crosse)

La Crosse, WI

Footsteps of La Crosse operates ticketed ghost and dark walking tours through downtown La Crosse, a city with a well-documented history of riverfront commerce, saloon culture, and red-light district activity going back to the 1860s. The tour has been featured in Wisconsin Great River Road tourism coverage.

$$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Oshkosh — 4

Aerial survey view of Evans Hall — UW-Oshkosh

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Other Dark Tourism Site

Evans Hall — UW-Oshkosh

Oshkosh, WI

Evans Hall is a residence hall on the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh campus. Student accounts of unexplained activity began circulating at least as early as 2018, documented by the campus newspaper and a dedicated Tumblr archive maintained by students.

$ All Ages Family: High

Haunted Dining / Bar

New Moon Cafe (former Beckwith House Hotel)

Oshkosh, WI

The Beckwith House Hotel rose in 1876 as part of Oshkosh's reconstruction after the catastrophic fire of 1875. Four years later, a second fire started by a kerosene lamp killed several guests including a Mrs. Paige, whose death is tied to the cafe's most persistently reported haunting.

$ All Ages Family: High

Theater / Performance Venue

The Grand Opera House

Oshkosh, WI

The Grand Opera House opened on August 9, 1883 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and is the oldest continuously operating theater building in the state. The Victorian-era hall was designed by architect William Waters and continues to host performances under the management of The Grand Oshkosh.

$$ PG-13 for ghost tours Family: Moderate

Exterior view of the Winnebago Mental Health Institute campus in Winnebago, Wisconsin near Oshkosh, the state's public psychiatric hospital operated since 1873

Asylum / Hospital

Winnebago Mental Health Institute (Winnebago State Hospital)

Oshkosh, WI

The Winnebago Mental Health Institute opened in 1873 as the Northern State Hospital for the Insane, on a Lake Winnebago shoreline campus near Oshkosh. The original Kirkbride-plan main building was completed in 1875 with 500 beds and was demolished in stages during the 1950s and 1960s as the campus shifted to a cluster of specialized halls including Sherman Hall. The facility remains an active state psychiatric hospital under the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

$ All Ages (museum) Family: Moderate

Racine — 4

Haunted House / Historic Home

DeKoven Center

Racine, WI

Racine College was founded in 1852 under Rev. James DeKoven, an Episcopal clergyman who led the institution until his death on the grounds in 1879 and is buried in a marked grave there. The adjacent Evergreen Cemetery, established 1851, was incompletely relocated when the lakefront eroded — human remains were still surfacing as recently as 2017 as the bluff continued to erode into Lake Michigan.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Outdoor / Natural Site

Pritchard Park

Racine, WI

Pritchard Park is a 79-acre Racine County community park at 2800 Ohio Street in Racine, Wisconsin, containing the Racine County Veterans Memorial (dedicated 1993), restored wetlands, a 9-acre woodlot, sports fields, and the SC Johnson Community Aquatic Center.

$ All Ages (park closes at dusk) Family: High

Asylum / Hospital

Racine County Insane Asylum Site (High Ridge Centre / Pritchard Park)

Racine, WI

The Racine County Insane Asylum opened in December 1889 on the city's west side, housing patients from the county poorhouse system. On February 19, 1904, a fire destroyed the main building while 133 patients were inside; all were evacuated. The rebuilt facility later added the Sunny Rest Tuberculosis Sanatorium (c. 1913–1962). Renamed High Ridge Health Care Center in its later years, the campus closed October 1, 1986, and was demolished starting in October 1988. A pauper's burial ground — the East Meadows section of what is now Pritchard Park — was never fully cleared.

$ All Ages Family: High

Aerial survey view of Winslow Elementary School (Former)

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Other Dark Tourism Site

Winslow Elementary School (Former)

Racine, WI

Racine established its first official municipal cemetery at this location in 1842. In 1852–53, when the city expanded, the cemetery was ordered relocated and a school was built on the grounds. The exhumation was incomplete: at least two full skeletons and scattered bone fragments surfaced over subsequent decades, with children reportedly finding human remains in the schoolyard.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Waukesha — 3

True Crime Site

Hille Farm

Waukesha, WI

Established by German immigrant John Hille in the nineteenth century, the Waukesha County farm became the site of a documented 1918 tragedy. Siblings William and Hulda Hille, under threat of extortion from a farmhand who claimed they were German spies, killed five horses and a dog before William shot himself and Hulda died from poison and a self-inflicted wound.

$$ All Ages Family: Low

Haunted House / Historic Home

Putney House (Waukesha Chamber of Commerce)

Waukesha, WI

Frank Putney (1841–1914) built this house in 1901 after a career that included Union Army service at Vicksburg and Atlanta, Sherman's March to the Sea, and later stints as village president, postmaster, and county judge of Waukesha. The Waukesha Freeman called the house 'possibly the finest in the city' upon his death. In 1990 the building became the Waukesha Chamber of Commerce.

$$ All Ages Family: High

The Waukesha Fox River Riverwalk at night, with gaslit walkway path and downtown buildings illuminated in the distance, starting point of the Waukesha Ghost Walk

Ghost Tour / Walking Tour

Waukesha Ghost Walk

Waukesha, WI

Waukesha rose to national prominence in the 1860s and 1870s as Springs City — a destination resort built around mineral water claimed to have medicinal properties. Many of the route's downtown stops were constructed during that era; the Riverwalk now follows the Fox River through the historic core.

$$ 13+ recommended Family: Moderate

Beloit — 2

True Crime Site

Gallagher Building

Beloit, WI

The Gallagher Building at the corner of St. Lawrence Avenue and Hackett Street on Beloit's west side was once a grocery store operated by an Irish immigrant family. During the 1918 influenza pandemic, all of the family's children died. Local accounts have associated the building with paranormal activity ever since.

$ All Ages Family: High

Museum / Historical Site

Hanchett-Bartlett Homestead

Beloit, WI

Built in 1857 of locally quarried limestone, the Hanchett-Bartlett Homestead served as a working farm on the edge of Beloit for generations. It is now operated as a museum by the Beloit Historical Society, documenting 19th-century rural life and the Bartlett family's long tenure on the property through the influenza era and beyond.

$$ All Ages Family: High

Kewaunee — 2

Prison / Reformatory

Kewaunee County Jail Museum

Kewaunee, WI

The Kewaunee County Jail was built in 1875 in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, and served as the county's primary detention facility until 1969. The Kewaunee County Historical Society now operates the building as a museum, with the original 19th-century iron cells preserved and open to the public. The jail is among the older surviving county lockup structures in northeastern Wisconsin.

$ All Ages Family: High

Haunted Hotel / Inn

The Historic Karsten Inn

Kewaunee, WI

The Karsten Inn opened on Valentine's Day 1913 as Hotel Karsten, built by William Karsten Sr. on the site of an earlier wooden lodging known as the Steamboat House that burned in the early 1910s. The building featured 52 rooms, a 90-seat dining room, and a bar with its own entrance.

$$ All Ages (bar 21+) Family: Moderate

Madison — 2

Museum / Historical Site

Memorial Union

Madison, WI

Memorial Union at the University of Wisconsin-Madison opened in 1928 as both a student union and a war memorial honoring veterans of World War I. Plans for the building began in 1919 and groundbreaking took place on Armistice Day 1925 before a crowd of 5,000. The Union sits on the shores of Lake Mendota and remains one of the university's most visited public spaces.

$ All Ages Family: High

Ghost Tour / Walking Tour

US Ghost Adventures Madison

Madison, WI

US Ghost Adventures runs its Madison program under the Madison Ghosts brand, a nightly walking tour meeting at the Children's Museum, covering downtown Madison's historic theater, brewpub, and a former funeral home.

$$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Manitowoc — 2

Haunted Hotel / Inn

Dead by Dawn Dead & Breakfast

Manitowoc, WI

The building at 901 S. 8th Street in Manitowoc dates to 1851, making it one of the older commercial structures in the city. Dawn Dabeck, who operated a seasonal haunted attraction called the House of Bathory for 25 years, opened Dead by Dawn here in 2015 as a year-round alternative — the first establishment explicitly marketed as a Dead and Breakfast.

$$ 18+ Family: Low

Haunted House / Historic Home

Evergreen Inn (Manitowoc Place Apartments)

Manitowoc, WI

The eight-story building at 204 North 8th Street in downtown Manitowoc opened in 1906 as the New California Hotel. It later operated as the Evergreen Inn before standing vacant in the early 21st century. A $5.2 million historic rehabilitation completed the conversion to the Manitowoc Place apartments, an income-restricted residential building that opened in the early 2010s.

$ All Ages Family: High

Mineral Point — 2

Aerial survey view of Graceland Cemetery (Mineral Point)

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Cemetery / Burial Ground

Graceland Cemetery (Mineral Point)

Mineral Point, WI

Graceland Cemetery in Mineral Point, Iowa County, was established in 1863 and occupies land adjacent to the Iowa County Fairgrounds. The cemetery achieved regional notoriety as the site of the Mineral Point Vampire incident of March 14, 1981, when Officer Jon Pepper filed an official police report after pursuing a 6'5" figure in a black cape and white face paint through the grounds before it vanished over a four-foot fence.

$ All Ages Family: High

Theater / Performance Venue

Mineral Point Opera House

Mineral Point, WI

The Mineral Point Opera House was built in 1889–1890 at 139 High St in downtown Mineral Point, Iowa County. The building has operated continuously as a performing arts venue and retains much of its original Victorian interior.

$$ All Ages Family: High

Oconomowoc — 2

Outdoor / Natural Site

Fowler Lake

Oconomowoc, WI

Fowler Lake is a small natural lake in downtown Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, part of the city's chain of recreational lakes. It covers approximately 70 surface acres and is bordered by Fowler Park and the historic Oconomowoc downtown commercial district.

$ All Ages Family: High

Cemetery / Burial Ground

LaBelle Cemetery

Oconomowoc, WI

LaBelle Cemetery in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin was established in 1851 as the town's first official burial ground, originally known as Henshall Place. In 1864, the Wisconsin Legislature authorized the removal of all remains from the original Walnut Street cemetery to the current La Belle grounds. The cemetery now holds more than 8,000 interments and contains over 90 veterans of the Civil War.

$ All Ages Family: High

Washington Island — 2

Nelsen's Hall and Bitters Pub exterior on Washington Island in Door County, Wisconsin

Haunted Dining / Bar

Nelsen's Hall & Bitters Pub

Washington Island, WI

Nelsen's Hall has operated on Washington Island in Door County since 1899, founded by Danish immigrant Tom Nelsen as a dance hall. During Prohibition, Nelsen obtained a pharmacist's license solely to dispense Angostura Bitters as medicinal alcohol — a ruse that kept the establishment open and established the Bitters Club tradition still maintained today. Nelsen died at age 90 in an upstairs room in 1960.

$ All Ages Family: High

Pottawatomie Lighthouse on Rock Island, Door County, Wisconsin — Wisconsin's oldest lighthouse, 1858 limestone structure viewed from the west

Museum / Historical Site

Rock Island State Park (Pottawatomie Lighthouse)

Washington Island, WI

Rock Island, at the northern tip of Door County, holds Wisconsin's oldest lighthouse: the Pottawatomie Light, first lit in 1837 (construction began 1836) before statehood. The current 1858 stone structure replaced a poorly built original and served civilian keepers until automation in 1946. The State of Wisconsin acquired the island in 1965, creating Rock Island State Park; the lighthouse was NRHP-listed in 1979 and restored to its 1910-era appearance by 2004.

$ All Ages Family: High

Athelstane — 1

Outdoor / Natural Site

McClintock Park

Athelstane, WI

McClintock Park is a Marinette County campground on the Peshtigo River in Silver Cliff, Wisconsin. On July 9, 1976, campers David Schuldes, 25, and Ellen Matheys, 24, were shot to death here in a double murder that went unsolved for more than four decades. DNA evidence collected from the crime scene eventually led to the 2019 arrest and 2021 conviction of Raymand Vannieuwenhoven, who died in prison in 2022.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Baraboo — 1

Haunted Dining / Bar

Old Baraboo Inn

Baraboo, WI

The Old Baraboo Inn was built as a boarding house in 1864 directly across from the Baraboo railroad depot. Over a century and a half it served as a honky-tonk bar, a brothel, and a roadhouse said in local accounts to have hosted Prohibition-era figures including Al Capone. It now operates as a bar and grill at 135 Walnut Street and hosts regular ghost-hunt events.

$$ 21+ for bar service; ghost hunts typically 18+ Family: Low

Bayfield — 1

Wisconsin Highway 13 running through the Bayfield Historic District in downtown Bayfield, Wisconsin, showing the 19th-century commercial buildings along the ghost walk route

Ghost Tour / Walking Tour

Bayfield Ghost Walk

Bayfield, WI

Bayfield, Wisconsin, sits on Lake Superior at the gateway to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and was founded in 1856 as a port for shipping and brownstone quarrying. The Bayfield Ghost Walk meets at the Old Courthouse — now home to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore headquarters — at 415 Washington Avenue.

$ 10+ recommended Family: Moderate

Berlin — 1

Other Dark Tourism Site

Berlin Sanctuary

Berlin, WI

The Berlin Sanctuary complex comprises four structures built between 1908 and 1953 in Berlin, Wisconsin: a church, a rectory, a school, and a convent. The complex served an active religious community through most of the 20th century. American Hauntings, the investigation program founded by paranormal author Troy Taylor in 1993, has been hosting investigation events at the complex and describes it as one of the most documented sites in Wisconsin.

$$$ Check American Hauntings for current age requirements Family: Low

Boltonville — 1

Aerial survey view of Jay Road / Seven Bridges Road

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Outdoor / Natural Site

Jay Road / Seven Bridges Road

Boltonville, WI

Jay Road is a rural road in Washington County, Wisconsin that runs from Boltonville east to the Lake Michigan shore. A swampy section locally called Seven Bridges Road is closed seasonally for flooding and ice. The underlying hit-and-run incident anchored to the folklore is not confirmed in publicly searchable Washington County records.

$ All Ages (drive-by) Family: Moderate

Boscobel — 1

Haunted Dining / Bar

Hotel Boscobel (Central House)

Boscobel, WI

The Central House — now known as the Hotel Boscobel — was built in 1865 in Boscobel, Wisconsin by Prussian-born entrepreneur Adam Bobel, who constructed the original two-story limestone structure with a business partner for $5,000. A three-story extension was added in 1873. Fire gutted the building on January 7, 1881, but Bobel rebuilt; the hotel reopened by May 13 of the same year. Adam Bobel managed the property until his death in 1885. In 1898, two traveling salesmen sharing Room 19 conceived the idea that became the Gideons International, one of the world's largest Bible distribution organizations. The building is listed on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

$ All Ages Family: High

Burlington — 1

Aerial survey view of Burlington Public Cemetery

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Cemetery / Burial Ground

Burlington Public Cemetery

Burlington, WI

Burlington Public Cemetery serves as the primary burial ground for Burlington, Wisconsin. Behind the main cemetery lies an older pioneer cemetery approximately 40 years removed from public consciousness, containing the remains of early Burlington settlers and their families.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Canton — 1

Aerial survey view of Pioneers Rest Cemetery (Bandli Graveyard)

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Cemetery / Burial Ground

Pioneers Rest Cemetery (Bandli Graveyard)

Canton, WI

Pioneers Rest Cemetery, also known locally as the Bandli Graveyard, sits north of Canton in Barron County, Wisconsin. The cemetery serves the descendants of Scandinavian pioneer families who settled the area in the late nineteenth century. In 2008, the cemetery was the site of a documented grave robbery in which the remains of an infant interred in 1925 were exhumed and removed.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Caryville — 1

Aerial survey view of Old Caryville Church and School House

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Other Dark Tourism Site

Old Caryville Church and School House

Caryville, WI

Caryville is an unincorporated community in the town of Rock Creek, Dunn County, Wisconsin, on the south shore of the Chippewa River along State Highway 85. Once a busy late-1800s logging-era settlement, it dwindled to a near-ghost-town, leaving an old schoolhouse, a church, and the nearby Sand Hill Cemetery as its most visible remnants. These sites have become the focus of some of western Wisconsin's most widely retold ghost stories.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Cedarburg — 1

Aerial survey view of Founder's Park Cemetery

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Cemetery / Burial Ground

Founder's Park Cemetery

Cedarburg, WI

Founder's Park, on the east side of Evergreen Boulevard north of Western Avenue in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, served as the first burial ground for the Trinity Lutheran congregation in the mid-nineteenth century. Sometime before 1877, the original individual headstones were removed and replaced with a single consolidated monument listing the recovered names of those interred.

$ All Ages Family: High

Chippewa Falls — 1

Haunted Dining / Bar

Sheeley House Saloon

Chippewa Falls, WI

The Sheeley House Saloon was built in 1864 and stands as the oldest continuously operating saloon in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Originally a livery and boarding house, the building came into the hands of Irish immigrant James Sheeley and his wife Kate in 1905. Kate Sheeley died in the building in 1934, an event frequently cited in accounts of the property's paranormal reputation.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Cornell — 1

Museum / Historical Site

Cornell Public Library

Cornell, WI

Cornell Public Library occupies a building constructed in 1928 as the Cornell village hall at 117 N 3rd Street in Chippewa County, Wisconsin. The building's basement originally housed the fire hall, jail cells, and furnace room, while the upper floor served as library and council chamber. The building has undergone minimal remodeling since construction.

$ All Ages Family: High

East Troy — 1

Haunted Hotel / Inn

Cobblestone Inn (Buena Vista House)

East Troy, WI

The Cobblestone Inn, originally the Buena Vista House, was built in East Troy, Wisconsin by mason Samuel R. Bradley, completed in 1849. The largest known cobblestone building in the state, it was considered the finest inn in southeastern Wisconsin and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. After a multi-year preservation effort failed, the three-story building was demolished in May 2022.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Elkhart Lake — 1

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Outdoor / Natural Site

Lions Park

Elkhart Lake, WI

Lions Park is a community park at 319 Moraine Drive in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, maintained by the Village of Elkhart Lake and equipped by the Elkhart Lake Lions Club. No historical documentation of the childhood accident that underlies the park's paranormal folklore has been found through web search.

$ All Ages Family: High

Fifield — 1

Cemetery / Burial Ground

Forest Home Cemetery

Fifield, WI

Forest Home Cemetery is the primary burial ground for the Town of Fifield in Price County, Wisconsin. It succeeded an earlier cemetery on the north edge of town that was prone to flooding; most graves from the original site were relocated here. The cemetery is managed by the Town of Fifield and is surrounded by North Woods forest land.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Fish Creek — 1

Museum / Historical Site

Chambers Island Lighthouse

Fish Creek, WI

Chambers Island Lighthouse was constructed in 1868 on a remote island in northern Green Bay, serving as a navigation aid for vessels entering the waters between the Door Peninsula and Washington Island. First keeper Lewis Williams was appointed at the station's opening and served 21 years, raising 11 children on the island before retiring in 1889.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Genoa — 1

Big River Inn/Water View Inn in Genoa, Wisconsin

Haunted Hotel / Inn

Big River Restaurant

Genoa, WI

Big River Inn dates to either 1879 or 1896 (sources vary) in Genoa, Wisconsin. The building originally functioned as a restaurant before evolving into a combined inn and restaurant. It now operates as Water View Inn, maintaining its paranormal reputation while serving contemporary hospitality functions.

$$ All Ages Family: High

Glenbeulah — 1

Aerial survey view of Glenbeulah Cemetery

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Cemetery / Burial Ground

Glenbeulah Cemetery

Glenbeulah, WI

Glenbeulah Cemetery, also known as Walnut Grove Cemetery, contains graves dating to the early 19th century in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. The cemetery's remote woodland setting and its inclusion in a segment of the television program Unsolved Mysteries have made it the most discussed haunted burial ground in the state among paranormal researchers.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Green Lake — 1

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Cemetery / Burial Ground

Dartford Cemetery

Green Lake, WI

Dartford Cemetery is an old burial ground in the village of Green Lake, Wisconsin, holding pioneer-era burials including Civil War veterans and the relocated grave of Chief Highknocker — a Ho-Chunk leader born Henaga in 1820 who lived around Green Lake (Daycholah) and died in a drowning accident in 1911. His son moved his grave to Dartford in the 1930s.

$ All Ages Family: High

Greenbush — 1

Museum / Historical Site

Sylvanus Wade House

Greenbush, WI

The Sylvanus Wade House, built around 1851-1853 in Greenbush, Wisconsin, served as a plank-road stagecoach inn along the Green Bay to Fond du Lac plank road. It is now operated as a Wisconsin state historic site museum by the Wisconsin Historical Society.

$$ All Ages Family: High

Hartland — 1

The Inn (Hartland) dining room interior in Hartland Wisconsin, the 1906 Pabst-era hotel reborn as a wood-fired restaurant

Haunted Dining / Bar

The Inn (Former Hartland Inn / Max Meier's)

Hartland, WI

The Inn at 110 Cottonwood Avenue in Hartland, Wisconsin occupies a 1906 building that opened as a hotel along the Watertown Plank Road. Pabst Brewing Company owned the property during its hotel decades. The building reopened in January 2025 as The Inn after a 2019 kitchen fire closed the long-running Hartland Inn restaurant.

$$$ All Ages Family: High

Hayward — 1

Sevenwinds Casino Lodge and Conference Center exterior in Hayward, Wisconsin

Other Dark Tourism Site

Sevenwinds Casino, Lodge & Conference Center

Hayward, WI

The Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians operates Sevenwinds Casino on land in Sawyer County, Wisconsin. The property was previously a farmstead, and when casino construction began in the 1990s, the farmhouse was physically moved approximately one mile down the road rather than demolished. The casino, originally known as LCO Casino Lodge & Convention Center, rebranded as Sevenwinds Casino, Lodge & Conference Center when a new facility opened on September 21, 2018.

$ Casino floor 21+; lodge and restaurant all ages Family: Moderate

Hubertus — 1

Exterior of Fox and Hounds Restaurant in Hubertus Wisconsin, built around an 1845 log cabin in the Kettle Moraine near Holy Hill

Haunted Dining / Bar

Fox & Hounds Restaurant & Tavern

Hubertus, WI

The Fox & Hounds traces its origins to 1845, when the first clerk of Washington County constructed a one-room log cabin in the rolling hills north of Milwaukee. In 1933, equestrian Ray Wolf restored the structure, added a basement bar, and opened it as a restaurant centered on the fox hunts that had become a tradition at the site. The venue has operated continuously for over 90 years.

$$$ All Ages Family: High

Juneau — 1

Aerial survey view of Eagle Road Cemetery

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Cemetery / Burial Ground

Eagle Road Cemetery

Juneau, WI

Eagle Road Cemetery near Juneau, Wisconsin — also documented as Evangelical Church Cemetery and Tabor Cemetery — is a small rural burial ground along Eagle Road in Dodge County. It is a historic community cemetery associated with a local Lutheran congregation, though it has developed a separate reputation in regional paranormal accounts.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Keshena — 1

Exterior view of the Menominee Casino Bingo hotel building in Keshena, Wisconsin, photographed from Wisconsin Highway 55

Haunted Hotel / Inn

Menominee Casino Resort

Keshena, WI

The Menominee Casino Resort is owned and operated by the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin on tribal land in Keshena. It includes a 103-room hotel, a 13,000-square-foot convention center, and a full casino facility. The resort operates 24 hours daily and serves as the primary economic development venue for the Menominee Nation.

$$ All Ages (casino floor 21+) Family: Moderate

Kohler — 1

Haunted Hotel / Inn

The American Club

Kohler, WI

The American Club in Kohler, Wisconsin, was built in 1918 by Walter J. Kohler and the Kohler Company as a residence for the company's immigrant workers, complete with citizenship and English classes. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, it was renovated and reopened in 1981 as a luxury hotel and remains a AAA Five-Diamond resort and member of Historic Hotels of America.

$$$$ All Ages Family: High

Ladysmith — 1

Haunted Hotel / Inn

El Rancho Motel

Ladysmith, WI

The El Rancho Motel in Ladysmith, Wisconsin operates north of town along Highway 27 in the Northwoods region of Rusk County. The property has operated under several names — including Mondor's El Rancho and Northern Lights — and has a long local history that includes a period as a dance hall and, in earlier eras, a house of ill repute. A local newspaper account from 2013 documents the motel's history and the Peavey family's tenure as operators.

$$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Lake Geneva — 1

Late-19th-century Queen Anne mansion exterior on the Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, lakefront at dusk

Ghost Tour / Walking Tour

Lake Geneva Ghost Walk

Lake Geneva, WI

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, was founded in 1837 and developed in the late 19th century as a resort destination for Chicago industrialists. The Lake Geneva Ghost Walk meets at Seminary Park and covers downtown and lakefront sites including the 1856 Maxwell Mansion and the 1885 Baker House.

$$ 10+ recommended Family: Moderate

Linwood — 1

Outdoor / Natural Site

Boy Scout Lane

Linwood, WI

Boy Scout Lane is a 2,500-foot unpaved road in the Town of Linwood, Portage County, running through land that the Boy Scouts of America once intended to develop as a campsite. The camp was never built; the road was named for the BSA ownership and has remained a dead-end rural lane. No historical tragedy is documented on the property.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Maribel — 1

Collapsed limestone ruins of the Maribel Caves Hotel in the woods near Maribel, Wisconsin

Other Dark Tourism Site

Maribel Caves Hotel ("Hotel Hell")

Maribel, WI

The Maribel Caves Hotel was a limestone mineral-springs resort built in 1900 near Maribel in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. Developed by Father Francis X. Steinbrecher around the natural springs and caves on the family property, it drew well-to-do guests from Milwaukee and Chicago before declining into a tavern and eventually a fire-gutted, storm-collapsed ruin.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Mequon — 1

Haunted House / Historic Home

Concordia University Wisconsin

Mequon, WI

Concordia University Wisconsin's 102-acre Mequon campus was purchased on September 15, 1982, from the School Sisters of Notre Dame, who sold the property to the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod for $7.1 million. The sisters had maintained a high school for novices on the lakefront grounds; with diminishing enrollment and a community of 130 resident nuns, the campus was too large to sustain. Concordia moved from downtown Milwaukee to Mequon the following year.

$ All Ages Family: High

Monroe — 1

Exterior of the 1857 Ludlow Mansion in Monroe, Wisconsin, with rooftop widow's walk

Haunted House / Historic Home

Ludlow Mansion (Idle Hour Farm)

Monroe, WI

The Ludlow Mansion in Monroe, Wisconsin was built in 1857 by businessman and farmer Arabut Ludlow with his wife Caroline Sanderson-Ludlow. The estate was once part of the Underground Railroad and later became Idle Hour Farm, nationally known for champion trotting horses Peter McKinney and Calumet Delco. Granddaughter May Ludlow Luchsinger restored the home in 1937.

$$ All Ages Family: High

Mukwonago — 1

Fork in the Road restaurant exterior in Mukwonago Wisconsin, the neighborhood tavern formerly known as Inn the Olden Days

Haunted Dining / Bar

Fork in the Road (Formerly Inn the Olden Days)

Mukwonago, WI

The building at 215 N Rochester Street in Mukwonago, Wisconsin has operated as a tavern and restaurant since its early days, and for many years was known as Inn the Olden Days. It was renamed Fork in the Road and now operates as a popular scratch-kitchen American restaurant. A fatal fire in an upstairs apartment is part of the building's documented history.

$$ All Ages Family: High

Oak Creek — 1

Outdoor / Natural Site

Bender Park

Oak Creek, WI

Bender Park in Oak Creek overlooks Lake Michigan, offering recreational access to the shoreline. The park's location on cliffs above the beach creates natural hazard conditions. The surrounding roads—particularly Fitzsimmons Road and E. Oakwood Road—have acquired dark reputations from multiple tragedies.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Oneida — 1

Museum / Historical Site

Norbert Hill Center

Oneida, WI

The Norbert Hill Center in Oneida, Wisconsin occupies a campus that began in 1893 as the Oneida Boarding School, an Indian boarding school that operated under federal authority until 1918. The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay purchased the site in 1924 and reopened it as Guardian Angel Boarding School, later converting it to the Sacred Heart Seminary for Catholic priests in 1954. The Oneida Nation leased the space in 1976 and purchased it from the Diocese in 1984, renaming it for Norbert Hill Sr., a community leader.

$ All Ages Family: High

Park Falls — 1

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Cemetery / Burial Ground

Nola Cemetery

Park Falls, WI

Nola Cemetery is a small rural burial ground in Price County near Park Falls, Wisconsin, maintained by the City of Park Falls. The cemetery takes its name from Nola Dell Blackburn (1896-1902), a six-year-old girl whose 1902 death made her the first interment on the site and gave the cemetery its name.

$ All Ages Family: High

Phillips — 1

Mr. Knox and Oxen concrete sculpture by Fred Smith at Wisconsin Concrete Park in Phillips, Wisconsin

Museum / Historical Site

Fred Smith's Wisconsin Concrete Park

Phillips, WI

Fred Smith, a retired lumberjack and tavern owner born in 1886 to German immigrant parents, began building concrete sculptures on his property along Highway 13 in Phillips, Wisconsin, in 1948. He completed 230 figures before a 1964 stroke ended the work. The Kohler Foundation acquired the site in 1976 and it is now a National Register property.

$ All Ages Family: High

Plymouth — 1

The 1870 Gothic Italianate Henry H. Huson House in Plymouth, Wisconsin, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and part of the Yankee Hill Inn Bed and Breakfast

Haunted Hotel / Inn

Yankee Hill Inn Bed and Breakfast

Plymouth, WI

The Yankee Hill Inn operates from two historic Huson family homes in Plymouth, Wisconsin: the 1870 Gothic Italianate Henry Huson House (on the National Register) and the 1891 Queen Anne Gilbert Huson House. Both homes were built by affluent brothers in the Yankee Hill neighborhood and reflect the woodworking and stone-masonry craftsmanship of the period.

$$ All Ages Family: High

Portage — 1

Aerial survey view of Church Road Cemetery

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Cemetery / Burial Ground

Church Road Cemetery

Portage, WI

Church Road Cemetery is a small mid-19th-century rural burial ground at the end of a dead-end road off County Highway O, roughly six miles west of Portage in Columbia County, Wisconsin. The cemetery, with stones dating back to around the 1850s, no longer accepts burials and sits hidden in a thicket of trees.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Ripon — 1

Theater / Performance Venue

C.J. Rodman Center for the Arts (Ripon College)

Ripon, WI

The C.J. Rodman Center for the Arts is Ripon College's performing- and visual-arts complex in Ripon, Wisconsin. Construction began in 1971, with the Caestecker wing added in the 1990s, and it became the permanent home of the college's theater and music programs after earlier homes in the Red Barn Theatre and a temporary stint in the former Grace Lutheran Church.

$ All Ages Family: High

Sheboygan — 1

Outdoor / Natural Site

Lottie Cooper Shipwreck at Deland Park

Sheboygan, WI

The Lottie Cooper was a three-masted lumber schooner built in 1876 that capsized in Sheboygan harbor during a gale on April 9, 1894. One crew member drowned trying to reach shore; five of the six-man crew survived. The 89-foot center section of the hull was salvaged in 1992 and placed on permanent display at Deland Park.

$ All Ages Family: High

Sheboygan Falls — 1

Asylum / Hospital

Sheboygan County Health Care Center (Sheboygan Haunted Asylum)

Sheboygan Falls, WI

The Sheboygan County Health Care Center opened in 1939 as a psychiatric and developmental-disability facility. During World War II, from 1944 to 1945, it was commandeered as Camp Sheboygan, housing German and Italian prisoners of war. The facility operated until 2002. The still-standing original building now operates as a weekly paranormal investigation venue, marketed as Wisconsin's only real-asylum ghost-investigation destination.

$$ 18+ Family: Low

South Milwaukee — 1

The inscribed covered wooden entrance bridge to the Seven Bridges Trail at Grant Park in South Milwaukee

Outdoor / Natural Site

Grant Park Seven Bridges

South Milwaukee, WI

Grant Park is a 381-acre Milwaukee County park established in 1899 along Lake Michigan in what is now South Milwaukee. The Seven Bridges Trail crosses a wooded ravine system via a covered wooden entrance bridge — inscribed with the line 'Enter this wild wood and view the haunts of nature' — and six interior wooden bridges down to a Lake Michigan beach trail. The park is operated by the Milwaukee County Parks System.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Spooner — 1

Haunted House / Historic Home

Frank Hammill House

Spooner, WI

Frank Hammill (1857–1922) was a railroad engineer, newspaper publisher, and politician known as the 'Father of Spooner.' He moved to Spooner, Wisconsin in 1902, consolidated two local newspapers into the Spooner Advocate, served as the city's mayor from 1910 to 1918, and died at the home he built on Summit Avenue in February 1922.

$ All Ages Family: Low

Stevens Point — 1

Aerial survey view of Bloody Bride Bridge (Hwy 66)

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Outdoor / Natural Site

Bloody Bride Bridge (Hwy 66)

Stevens Point, WI

The Highway 66 bridge near Jordan Park in Stevens Point, Wisconsin has no documented tragedy in accessible historical records despite the persistent legend attached to it. No newspaper archives or police records confirm a bride's death at this location. The site sits in Portage County's central Wisconsin corridor and is a popular seasonal destination for folklore enthusiasts.

$ All Ages Family: High

Stockbridge — 1

Gravity Hill optical illusion on Joe road in the town of Stockbridge, WI. The road appears to be going down in elevation, but it is in fact gaining elevation.

Outdoor / Natural Site

Joe Road Gravity Hill

Stockbridge, WI

Joe Road in the Town of Stockbridge, Calumet County, Wisconsin is a documented 'gravity hill' site on the eastern shore of Lake Winnebago, where a slightly-downhill road appears to climb due to a surrounding-horizon optical illusion. The Stockbridge name reflects the historical presence of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican community in the region.

$ All Ages Family: High

Sturgeon Bay — 1

Museum / Historical Site

Sherwood Point Lighthouse

Sturgeon Bay, WI

Completed in 1883 on a wooded point on the western shore of Door Peninsula, Sherwood Point Lighthouse was the last lighthouse on all five Great Lakes to remain staffed by a human keeper, with the Coast Guard manning it continuously until 1983. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is now operated in partnership with the Door County Maritime Museum.

$ All Ages Family: High

Superior — 1

Museum / Historical Site

Fairlawn Mansion

Superior, WI

Fairlawn Mansion was completed in 1891 as the 42-room Queen Anne home of lumber baron Martin Pattison, a three-time mayor of Superior, Wisconsin. After his 1918 death, his widow Grace donated the house to the Superior Children's Home and Refuge Society, which ran it as an orphanage until 1962. The City of Superior acquired the property in 1963 and now operates it as a public museum.

$$ All Ages Family: High

Waterford — 1

Haunted Dining / Bar

Tichigan Lake Inn (What About Linda's, formerly)

Waterford, WI

The Tichigan Lake Inn at 28837 Beach Drive in Waterford, Wisconsin was constructed in the 1920s and operated as a Prohibition-era speakeasy linked to Chicago organized-crime liquor trafficking that moved barrels of whiskey by horse and wagon up to Highway 164 for shipment to Chicago. The building most recently operated as What About Linda's and is reported closed at that address.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Wauwatosa — 1

Muirdale Tuberculosis Sanatorium building in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin — 1915 Milwaukee County facility on Watertown Plank Road

Asylum / Hospital

Muirdale Sanatorium

Wauwatosa, WI

Muirdale Tuberculosis Sanatorium was built by Milwaukee County in 1914 and 1915 in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Named for Wisconsin-raised naturalist John Muir, it pioneered the centralized three-story TB sanatorium design that became a model nationwide. Muirdale ceased TB treatment in the 1960s and closed entirely in 1978. Its main building survives as the Technology Innovation Center within the Milwaukee County Research Park, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Weyauwega — 1

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Outdoor / Natural Site

Marsh Road

Weyauwega, WI

Marsh Road is a short rural road in Waupaca County, Wisconsin, running south from State Highway 54 on the east side of White Lake near Weyauwega. The road is paved for approximately one mile before transitioning to unpaved ground as it enters the wetland. It has no road markings. The county road is unremarkable by day; it gained a regional paranormal reputation in local oral tradition and through periodic documentation by Wisconsin paranormal researchers.

$ All Ages Family: Moderate

Wild Rose — 1

Aerial survey · USDA NAIP

Outdoor / Natural Site

Tuttle Lake

Wild Rose, WI

Tuttle Lake is a small lake in Waushara County, Wisconsin, near the village of Wild Rose. The Village of Wild Rose's official history records the Tuttle Lake shoreline as a longstanding Native American camping ground in the period before European settlement, when seasonal gatherings drew hundreds of indigenous visitors.

$ All Ages Family: High

Wisconsin Dells — 1

Haunted Dining / Bar

Showboat Saloon

Wisconsin Dells, WI

The Showboat Saloon building was constructed in 1907 as a tavern on the ground floor with railroad office space on the second floor. Originally called Stanton's Palm Garden, operated by William and Minnie Stanton, it survived Prohibition and resumed tavern operations until 1965, when it became the Showboat Saloon with a focus on live music. The building has since been associated with the Wisconsin Dells ghost tour circuit under the name Ghost Molly's Showboat Saloon.

$ All Ages Family: High

Wisconsin Rapids — 1

Haunted Hotel / Inn

Hotel Mead

Wisconsin Rapids, WI

Hotel Mead at 451 East Grand Avenue in Wisconsin Rapids has operated as a resort and conference center for decades. Its basement level, known as the Shanghai Room, served as a bar and gambling operation in the 1950s. The establishment continues in operation today as one of the area's primary lodging venues.

$$ All Ages Family: Moderate

By type

Museum / Historical Site (23) Haunted Dining / Bar (21) Cemetery / Burial Ground (18) Haunted Hotel / Inn (16) Outdoor / Natural Site (16) Ghost Tour / Walking Tour (14) Other Dark Tourism Site (13) Theater / Performance Venue (10) Haunted House / Historic Home (7) True Crime Site (4) Asylum / Hospital (4) Prison / Reformatory (1)