Lake Superior Storytelling Tour Through Apostle Islands Country
415 Washington Ave, Bayfield, WI 54814
Age
10+ recommended
Cost
$
$25 per person + tax; verify current pricing on the booking page.
Access
Limited Access
Sidewalks and historic streets; some elevation change near the courthouse
Equipment
Photos OK
Bayfield was platted in 1856 by Henry Rice and named for British naval surveyor Henry Wolsey Bayfield. The town grew as a port for the brownstone quarrying trade, lake shipping, and commercial fishing across the late 19th century, and it survived the decline of those industries to become the principal access point for the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore — the federally protected archipelago immediately offshore.
Many of the buildings on the ghost walk's route date from the 1880s and 1890s commercial peak. Le Château Boutin, an 1881 Queen Anne mansion, was built by lumber and brownstone magnate Frank Boutin. Greunke's First Street Inn opened as a German-American boarding house in 1886. The Old Rittenhouse Inn, an 1890 Queen Anne, has operated as a bed-and-breakfast since 1976. The Old Courthouse, completed in 1883 in Romanesque style, served as the Bayfield County seat until the county moved its administration to Washburn; it now houses the National Park Service's Apostle Islands headquarters.
The Bayfield Ghost Walk was originally developed and operated by local historian Virginia Hirsch, who published a book on Bayfield ghost stories and ran the tour for many years before retiring and selecting American Ghost Walks as her successor.
Sources
Greunke's First Street Inn has produced a long-running set of guest reports including phantom footsteps in upstairs hallways and the sound of an 1880s-era player piano in rooms where no piano stands. Le Château Boutin's reported phenomena cluster on the upper floors, and innkeepers and guests at the Old Rittenhouse Inn have described accounts of figures in late-19th-century formal clothing observed on the staircase and front porch.
Morty's Pub — operating in a historic Bayfield commercial building — produces frequent reports of object movement behind the bar and unexplained sounds in the kitchen during quiet hours. The tour also draws on documented Lake Superior shipwreck history, including 19th-century vessel losses in the Apostle Islands channel that produced multi-day rescue searches and well-recorded grief in the Bayfield community.
The operator presents these accounts as documented eyewitness reports rather than confirmations, in keeping with American Ghost Walks' broader research-led approach. The Bayfield Ghost Walk's narrative draws explicitly on Virginia Hirsch's earlier book of Bayfield ghost stories.
A 90-minute to 2-hour guided walk through Bayfield's haunted history, beginning at the Old Courthouse — now home to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore — and visiting Le Château Boutin, Morty's Pub, Greunke's First Street Inn, and the Old Rittenhouse Inn. The tour was developed by Bayfield ghostlore historian Virginia Hirsch and now runs under American Ghost Walks.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Madison, WI
American Ghost Walks is a multi-city tour operator founded around 2010, running guided storytelling walks across more than two dozen U.S. cities and territories, including five Wisconsin markets — Madison, Milwaukee, Waukesha, Lake Geneva, and Bayfield — plus stops in Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Louisiana, Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico.
Chicago, IL
Chicago Hauntings Ghost Tours, now operated under the American Ghost Walks brand, runs evening walking and bus tours through Chicago's Loop, Lincoln Park, and southwest suburbs. The company's flagship Original Chicago Hauntings Tour departs Saturday evenings from the Congress Plaza Hotel.
Chicago, IL
Ghost City Tours is a national ghost-walk operator with year-round programming in Chicago and several other historic U.S. cities. The Chicago tours cover documented haunted sites across the downtown core in three distinct format variants: family-friendly, adults-only, and pub-crawl.