Bascom Hill, Science Hall, and the Documented Folklore of UW–Madison
Madison, WI 53706
Age
10+ recommended
Cost
$$
$30 per person plus tax.
Access
Limited Access
Significant uphill walking on Bascom Hill; sidewalks and historic campus paths
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1848 · University of Wisconsin Heritage · Bascom Hill Cemetery Era · 19th-Century Madison History
The University of Wisconsin was chartered in 1848, and the central campus rose around Bascom Hill, the rounded glacial drumlin overlooking Lake Mendota and downtown Madison. Two settler graves — those of Samuel Warren, killed by lightning in 1838, and W. Nelson, who died in 1837 — remain on the hill, marked with simple plaques; they are the only burials known to have remained after the 1846 cemetery use was discontinued and the land later excavated to install the bronze Abraham Lincoln statue.
Science Hall, completed in 1888 after fire destroyed an earlier building on the site, is the most-cited location for reported paranormal accounts on campus. In the early 1900s, the medical school's anatomy department performed cadaver autopsies on the building's upper floors. When the medical school relocated to a new building in 1957, the Wisconsin Alumni Association and student newspaper coverage have separately confirmed that anatomical study specimens were left behind in storage and were rediscovered in the years after.
Bascom Hall — the limestone administration building atop Bascom Hill — has produced reports tied to the office of an early university president, particularly on the fourth floor. The Madison UW Campus Ghost Walk is operated by American Ghost Walks and runs select weekend evenings at 7:30 PM. The route also touches on Wisconsin Alumni Association–documented accounts of figures observed walking the hill at night.
Sources
The Bascom Hill graves of Samuel Warren and W. Nelson are the documented anchor for the most-cited campus folklore. The Wisconsin Alumni Association has published student and visitor accounts of two figures observed walking the hill at night, and additional reports describe whispered voices speaking the men's names within Bascom Hall, the limestone administration building immediately above the graves. Bascom Hall's fourth floor — once home to the office of an early university president — has produced its own line of reported phenomena including phantom footsteps and unexplained movement of office equipment.
Science Hall is the most-cited paranormal building on campus per the University of Wisconsin–Madison's own published coverage. The early-20th-century medical-school anatomy practices on the upper floors generated long-standing folklore around the attic and stairwells, augmented by the documented post-1957 discovery of leftover anatomical specimens. Reports include disembodied footsteps on the upper floors, unusual cold spots in the stairwells, and shadow figures observed by students and faculty.
The walking tour also touches on additional UW–Madison sites that appear in The Daily Cardinal's annual coverage of campus folklore, framing each account within the documented institutional record rather than as confirmed paranormal claim.
A 90-minute guided walk across the University of Wisconsin–Madison's historic core, with documented reports tied to Bascom Hill — where two early-19th-century settler graves remain — and Science Hall, where reports stem from medical-school anatomy practices in the building's upper floors during the early 20th century.
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.