Wisconsinosity! - Rusk County

Rusk County Rail Displays

location: Ladysmith

conveyance of yesteryear

SWEET "SOO" & CABOOSE

near Ladysmith Chamber of Commerce
(2 blocks south of Highway 8 on Highway 27)

Soo Line Diesel 550R
Post Office Express Car 552
Passenger Baggage Car 358
First Class Coach 998
Caboose

OLD SMOKEY

Old Smokey, a retired Soo Line 2-8-2 Midado steam locomotive, serves as a reminder that Ladysmith was once a booming rail center. A 500-A, the first passenger diesel of the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railroad, and five other cars are also on display.

Westgate Plaza
(at Lake Avenue/Highway 8 & W 5th St N) next to Ace Home Center in Ladysmith.

- information provided by Rusk County Official Site (800) 535-RUSK

Rusk County Official Site
www.ruskcounty.org

Train Web
www.trainweb.org

Travel Wisconsin
www.travelwisconsin.com

Soo Lines Diesel Roster
sooline.dieselrosters.com

Field Fisherman

location: Ladysmith

roadside oddity

This fellow doesn't seem to mind the dry spell as he casts into the cattails.

(about 5 miles north of Ladysmith between N7154 & N7246 on Highway 27)
Ladysmith, WI 54848

Lost "Gates County"
1901 - 1905

ghost county

When a section of Chippewa County was to be formed into a separate county in 1901, a Milwaukee lumberman agreed to pay $10,000 if the new county would be named after him. Mr. James L. Gates did not keep his promise and so the name of the county was changed in 1905 to Rusk (named after Wisconsin Governor Jeremiah Rusk).

My Wisconsin Genealogy
mywisconsingenealogy.com

Ghost Counties
barusa.tripod.com/ghostcounties

Roots Web
www.rootsweb.ancestry.com

Haunted El Rancho Motel

ghost

location: Ladysmith

The ghost of a man murdered at a former bar on this site has been allegedly seen in and around the motel.

W8490 Flambeau Ave.
Ladysmith, WI 54848
(800) 359-4827

Official Site
www.elrancholadysmith.com

The Shadowlands
theshadowlands.net

Unexplained Research
www.unexplainedresearch.com

book:
"The Wisconsin Road Guide to Haunted Locations"
by Chad Lewis and Terry Fisk
Research Publishing Co. (2004)
pages 141 -143
buy it at Barnes & Noble.com

Landing Craft Observed (2001)

UFO

location: Tony

"was no doubt a solid craft of some sort ....surrounded by a cloud (hazy)....size was 5 times that of a full moon"
- section from UFO Wisconsin report

UFO Wisconsin
www.ufowisconsin.com

Devils Creek

hellish moniker

location: Bruce

The Weird Wisconsin website ponders the multitude of Devil-related place names in Wisconsin

Weird Wisconsin
www.weird-wi.com or (here)

Quite Possibly the Worst UFO Report I've Ever Read

UFO

location: Ladysmith

I'm not even going to quote it.
~~- section from UFO Wisconsin report~~

UFO Wisconsin
www.ufowisconsin.com

"The Trapper in the Tree"
(perhaps in Oneida County)

grisly discovery

tall tale?

location: ?

In the book "Northern Frights", author Dennis Boyer tells of the corpse of a man discovered inside a felled tree trunk in Oneida County.

Note: A very similar story is described in the book "Wisconsin Lore" which tells of the discovery of Captain Pierre D'Artagan's mummified corpse in a Rusk County tree.

The W-Files
www.w-files.com

History Buff
www.historybuff.com

book:
"Northern Frights"
by Dennis Boyer
Badger Books (second ed., 2005)
pages 105 - 109
buy it at Amazon.com
buy it at Barnes & Noble.com

book:
"Wiscomical"
by John M. Russell
Oak Point Press (2003)
page 43
buy it at Amazon.com
buy it at Barnes & Noble.com

book:
"Wisconsin Lore"
by Robert E. Gard & L.G. Sorden
Heartland Press (1962, 1987)
pages 276 - 279
buy it at Amazon.com
buy it at Barnes & Noble.com

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

ghosts

location: statewide

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 menacing ghost of a conquistador appeared at a public phone in Ladysmith talking on the phone. The arrival of the eye witness startled the phantom who then faded away."
- section from Ghosts of America website

Ghosts of America
www.ghostsofamerica.com

Bruce Historical Society Museum

location: Bruce

museum

"Displays include family history files, old census files, many old books and papers, artifacts donated and borrowed tram local families. "
- section from the Rusk County Official Site

(located in the old Bruce News Letter building)
East River Ave.
Bruce, WI 54819

hours:
Summer: (Mon & Wed) mornings / (Fridays) afternoons

Rusk County Official Site
www.ruskcounty.org

Rusk County Historical Museum

Little Red School House

location: Ladysmith

museum

"Wide variety of displays include logging history, antique farm machinery, rail history, WWI & II artifacts, antiques, medical exhibits, Little Red Schoolhouse and Log Cabin."
- section from the Rusk County Official Site

Ladysmith Fairgrounds on Highway 8
Ladysmith, WI 54848
(715) 532-6450 or (800) 535-7875

hours:
Memorial Day thru Labor Day (Sat & Sun) 12:30pm – 4:30pm

Official Site
home.centurytel.net/nclay/

Rusk County Official Site
www.ruskcounty.org

Rusk County & Ladysmith Visitors Center

location: Ladysmith

museum

"The Visitor Center depot established in 1998 is a faithful reproduction of a 1903 Soo Line depot. The Center contains rail memorabilia and artifact from bygone times. An operational telegraph station, telegrams, rail souvenirs, and historical maps are housed in the facility."
- section from the Rusk County Official Site

2 blocks south of Highway 8 on Highway 27
Ladysmith, WI 54848
(800) 535-RUSK

Rusk County Official Site
www.ruskcounty.org

updated 02-16-09 • all images excluding those attributed to others are property of Wisconsinosity.com




map provided by Delorme mapping software