Exploring Haunted Places in Central Wisconsin
There are two attitudes toward celebrating Halloween: the first focuses on the “treats” of a child-friendly and fun evening of innocent frights and lots of candy. But the other focuses on the ghoulish line between life and death, as fall slowly turns to winter.
Those inclined toward the former tend to stick to collecting and passing out sweets and appreciating the festive neighborly atmosphere. But for those of you inclined to balance your candy intake and civic pride with a healthy dose of fright, you may dare to explore the haunted sites of Central Wisconsin.
Unfortunately – or perhaps, for us day-walking mortals, fortunately – Marshfield does not have any listed haunted locations. However, there are several within a short driving distance.
No Halloween is complete without a graveyard, and Forest Hill Cemetery in Wisconsin Rapids will surely creep you out with phantom baby cries and other disturbances of unknown origin. Rapids is also home to a house on the National Registry, Elizabeth Daly House, where a ghost of a somewhat more likeable kind is known to move objects and to cause cooking smells that waft through the empty halls. If “REDRUM” rings a bell, you’ll want to take a trip to the Hotel Mead, which is also located in Wisconsin Rapids. The ghost of an unfortunate waitress, who was stabbed to death inside the hotel more than 50 years ago, is reported to haunt the hotel to this day.
For many, airports are a source of fear by themselves, with unsavory and overpriced food, screaming babies, stressful takeoffs and (hopefully) landings, but the Wausau Downtown Airport is a fright of a different nature. A former manager continues to haunt the terminals…And he’s not the only disgruntled night-walking manager in Wausau. The resident ghost of the Grand Theater is also a former supervisor who continues to act as the star behind many sightings and disturbances from the other side.
If “the phantom of the opera is there inside your mind,” and if you are willing to drive a bit farther away, the Victorian Grand Opera House in Oshkosh, which remains in use today, is reported to have mysterious footsteps and apparitions that keep theater-goers on edge.
While Marshfield is known more for its joyous Winter Wonderland festivities, we do have an appropriate haunted Halloween soundtrack, which is provided by the resident howling wolves at Wildwood Zoo. And although there are no reported haunted sites in Marshfield, it is never too late to report “something strange in our neighborhood!”
