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"An excellent example of the educational exhibits in the Interpretive Center is the albino buck. A 7 1/2 year old true albino whitewall buck like the one on display at the Florence Wild Rivers Interpretive Center is extremely rare. Few deer live out their potential life span of 11 or 12 years. Very few bucks even reach their prime of 4 1/2 years. A true albino occurs in about one of 100,000 births and very few survive beyond the first year of life. For an albino to live over seven years is extremely unusual. This albino whitetail buck that was seen near Florence between 1987 and the fall of 1992 and was killed on the last day of the 1992 deer/gun hunting season is a one in a million occurrence. All cases of true albinism are due to the lack of pigmentation in the hair, skin, and, in the case of deer, the iris of the eyes, pink or blue, and the hoofs a pale gray. This particular buck because of his unusual age weighed 225 pounds and had an eight point rack with a 22 inch spread, making it among the larger deer killed in the 1992 gun season. Since all white deer are protected in Wisconsin, the shooting of this albino was illegal. Recognizing the rarity of this whitetail as a biological specimen and the importance of this animal to the people of Florence, the conservation warden immediately took it to North Star Taxidermy to be properly preserved. He then contacted the agency heads at the Florence Natural Resources Center to determine if they would find it a home in the Interpretive Center. On November 6, 1993, at the Wild Rivers Interpretive Center the full seven foot mount was unveiled to the public where it can still be viewed today."
- section from the official website

"In this 40-acre forest preserve, 200 year-old northern hardwood trees stand as magnificent reminders of the old-growth forest that covered the county long before the logging era began."
- section from Explore Wisconsin website

"The artesian well was discovered while drilling for a new campground well in 1968. The water literally bubbled out of the 6 inch casing. Now a masonry and stone structure encases the well. The flowing artesian well produces about 15 gallons per minute of cold, clear water."
- section from Florence Official Site

Teenagers Hear Screams & See Ghost in House

"A few minutes later, a white-looking apparation (sic) appeared. Interested, we went to the front door for a closer look."
- section from The W-Files report

Lights in Sky Move in Strange Manner  (2001)

"This last object was pulsating like someone using a 'dimmer' switch. It also grew larger and smaller. The three objects hovered in a triangle formation."
- section from UFO Wisconsin report

Hunters See UFO Near Lake Emily  (2001)

"In all my years of star gazing I have never seen an event as strange as this object."
- section from UFO Wisconsin report

"Ghosts of America" Haunted Location Reports
(take with a grain of salt)

The reports on this site are presumably fiction, using random Wisconsin place names in the stories listed there.  Even so, you might get a kick out of reading them.

"The picturesque buildings, with red tile roofs, crenelated (sic) towers and elongated, arched windows, stand as solid reminders of the County's affluent lumbering and mining era."
- section from Explore Wisconsin website

  501 Lake Street
Florence, WI  54121
(715) 696-3700

hours:
(Mon - Fri)  8am – 5pm

"Once used to transport logs from the Goodman Timber tract, this historic railroad grade runs north/south through the entire county...The railroad grade is an impressive remnant of the area's logging era."
- section from the Explore Wisconsin website

"Early settlers of Commonwealth were mainly of Swedish and Finnish descent. The Swedish people built homes, each with their own gardens, in the town of Commonwealth . The Finnish families chose to settle on farmland in Finn Town , located at the crossroads of County Highways N & D in Commonwealth."
- section from North Central Wisconsin website