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"Delavan has a storied history steeped in circus myths and legends...In 1847, Edmund and Jeremiah Mabie, proprietors of the U.S. Olympic Circus, then the largest traveling show in America, chose Delavan for their winter quarters, a year before Wisconsin attained statehood and 24 years before the Ringling Brothers raised their first tents in Baraboo, Wisconsin...As time passed, the circuses grew in strength and numbers; hundreds of clowns and circus performers from over 26 circuses set up their winter quarters in Delavan from 1847 to 1894. The P.T. Barnum Circus, 'The Greatest Show on Earth,' was founded in Delavan in 1871...Today, more than 250 members of the old Circus colony are buried in Spring Grove and St. Andrew’s cemeteries."
- section from Delavan Official Site

  Spring Grove Cemetery
N 7th St.
Delevan, WI  53115
(262) 728-1500

  St. Andrew's cemeteries
115 S 7th St.
Delevan, WI  53115
(262) 728-6211

In reverence to its circus history, Delevan has a statue of a giraffe in its downtown park near the water tower.  Another statue is of Romeo, a large beast even for  Indian elephant standards, who killed five of his handlers.  A more detailed story is here (scroll 3/4 of the way down to "Story of Romeo", which erroneously lists Delevan as being in Minnesota.

"There's no other place in America like Watson's Wild West. Try your luck pannin' for GOLD at the Tumbleweed Mine. Enjoy our Gift Shop and Guided Tour with Entertainment by a Cowboy Character, who presents continuous Daily Entertaining Tours, with Tall Tales, Dr. Quiggley's Medicine Show, Cowboy Poetry, Humor, a Historical perspective of those times and events, and the thoughts of Will Rogers. So all you whippersnappers, push through the Saloon Doors and belly up to the bar for a cold Sarsaparilla (Root Beer) slid down the bar; and be enthralled by your visit to this great place."
- section from the Official Site

  W4865 Potter Road
Elkhorn, WI  53121
(262) 723-7505

hours:
(Tues - Sat)  10am – 5pm  /  (Sundays)  11am – 5pm

Stemming from his own personal encounter with the famed Beast, Marv Kirschnik's bead store became home to his werewolf-related collection, much of it being creations of his own making.  Full story in the book "Weird Wisconsin".

  (near intersection of Millard Road & County Road A)
W6502 County Road A
Elkhorn, WI  53121
(262) 742-3557

"For your next getaway, leave the road behind and experience the thrill and history of electric railroading. Ride one of the museum's many restored trolleys or reserve space aboard their elegantly restored dinner train for lunch, dinner, meetings or parties."
- section from Milwaukee Official Site

"Dave and Pat Hanley, long time Lake Geneva residents thought of the idea of a caboose motel after purchasing a caboose and transforming it into a guesthouse. They purchased several more cars and placed them along the old Chicago & Northwestern tracks leading into Lake Geneva. Each caboose was completely stripped inside and remodeled with new plumbing, heating and electricity. The Hanley's also replaced most of the windows. The outside of each caboose was repainted in railroad style colors. New floors, walls and ceilings transformed the train car into deluxe motel rooms. While the motel started with fifteen "rooms", there are now forty-three cabooses on the property. Some of the cars have been joined to form suites."
- section from the Official Site

  301 E Townline Rd.
Lake Geneva, WI  53147
(262) 763-5596 or (262) 248-7245

hours:
mid-May thru mid-October

  Riviera Docks
812 Wrigley Drive
Lake Geneva, WI  53147
(262) 248-6206 or (800) 558-5911

hours:
mid-June thru mid-September  (Mon - Sat)  departs at 10am

  373 W. Geneva St.
Williams Bay, WI  53191
(262) 245-5555

tour hours:
(Saturdays)  10am, 11am, Noon

  (6 miles east of Lake Geneva on Highway 50)
W197 Highway 50
Burlington, WI  53105
(262) 539-3047

hours:
late August thru October  (Thurs - Fri)  5pm – 10pm
(Saturdays)  10am – 10pm  /  (Sundays)  1pm – 5pm

An actual boulder is used as the headstone for a local military veteran.  See "Weird Wisconsin" book for full story.

  2003 E Geneva St.
Delavan, WI  53115
(262) 728-8510

Elkhorn made a pretty cool decision when tearing down the old First National Bank by leaving the front of the building stand as an entryway to a small park where the structure once stood.

  W4149 Bray Road
Elkhorn, WI  53121

A century ago, large human skeletons were unearthed from within mounds constructed by Indians near the shores of Delevan Lake.  Today, the remaining mounds exist on the property of Lake Lawn Resort, where other artifacts found in the area are displayed.
Full story in the book "Weird Wisconsin".

The Beast of Bray Road

"For those who haven't read the book, the story first came to light around the beginning of the last decade; that something big, hairy and wolfish roams the country roads and woods of Walworth, Jefferson and Racine Counties. The first witnesses to come forward publicly saw the creature on or near Bray Road, a few miles outside of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, and so it became tagged, 'The Beast of Bray Road.'  I happened to be the reporter who broke the story while working as staff writer and artist for a Delavan-based newspaper, The Week, and the beast has followed me ever since.  Not bodily (I hope) but in terms of media and in people's undying interest in the stories."
- section from Linda Godfrey's CNB Scene ("see and be seen") website

Listen to Linda on her radio show "Uncanny Radio" -- Download the podcasts from uncannyradio.blogspot.com

Beast of Bray Road (2009 segment from Fox News' Hannity TV show)

double-click to enlarge video

Alleged Alien Abduction  (1991)

"Noticed strange short yet very thin beings standing around my bed... Fear ate me alive. I could feel myself begin to lift off of my bed, and leave my room. I could hear no noise, I couldn't scream or anything either."
- section from UFO Wisconsin report

Bigfoot Races Across Road  (1964)

"Ghosts of Black Point"

The 1888 Black Point mansion, privately owned, and its four-story tower has been the site of ghost sightings going back to a tragic boating accident in a 1885 storm.  Full story in the book "Weird Wisconsin".

Strange Object Over Highway D  (1999)

"The object was flying straight and true with no wiggling, wavering, shaking, etc. at about 65 mph when first seen. It appeared to have heat waves coming off the front and sides of it. It did not appear to be spinning."
- section from UFO Wisconsin report

Snakelike Monster in Lake Geneva

Phantom Train of Peck Station Road
private property

A phantom train has been heard in area that has been devoid of locomotive tracks for many years.  The old Peck's Station depot is now a private home.

Lake Geneva UFO Sightings

"I got up to check out the electrical system, and noticed a huge pulsating red-orange glow to the northeast appearing to be just beyond the tree line near the lake. However, no sound could be heard only the strange pulsating, flickering red-orange glow."
- section from UFO Wisconsin 11-28-97 report

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Wells Hall

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Fricker Hall

"Fricker Hall - a ghost of a student is seen walking in the basement on certain nights."
- section from The Shadowlands website

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Delta Zeta Sorority House

"Witnesses who have lived there have heard a presence creaking as walking down the large front staircase."
- section from The Shadowlands website

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Greenhill Center of the Arts

"Lots of strange occurrences after hours reported. Those I have heard have included hammering in the metals lab when no one is present within, reappearing ghosts, and chairs moving across the room by themselves."
- section from The Shadowlands website

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Clem Hall

"Clem hall - you can hear people running in the halls and look and no one is there. you hear a bathroom stall door slam at night and no one is in the room with you. people hear talking and laughing in the hall and no one in site. a figure is seen around homecoming week."
- section from The Shadowlands website

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Knilans Hall

"Supposedly haunted by a librarian who died there years ago. A student, was walking with her hands full when two doors, that require a key to unlock, opened by themselves. When she passed through the doors the elevator doors were also being held open by an unseen person."
- section from The Shadowlands website

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Halverson Log Cabin

"School officials deny reports the cabin is haunted, yet stories continue to circulate about a young ghost who can be seen looking out a window."
- section from "Ghosts of Madison, Wisconsin"

Delavan UFO Sightings

"I looked right up from under it and it looked like an orange type of circle in the middle of the UFO. I followed it as long as I could. It kept going the same speed."
- section from UFO Wisconsin 11-09-05 report

"Living With a Ghost"

Multiple Orange Objects Observed  (2000)

"They retained this formation as they flew from the south west to the north east at incredible speeds."
- section from UFO Wisconsin report

Walworth Elementary School

Mysterious Lights Seen Over Highway 12  (2000)

"The weirdest thing about this whole event was that, when the lights appeared to approach the oncoming cars, they stopped alternating and BECAME AIRBORNE, lifting off over a tree line to the left...they were headed in a northeast direction."
- section from UFO Wisconsin report

Multiple Fast-Maneuvering Craft Observed  (2003)

"Two of the objects looked as though they were heading towards each other. They were so close, we thought they might explode in the sky. It appeared as though they went thru each other, it was unreal. We couldn't believe our eyes."
- section from UFO Wisconsin report

"The Ghostly Ballroom"

"I was dragged across the room to the front door. I could make out a cloudy outline in front of me (it was in front of me and pushing me backward), but I could not make a sound...In my hallway was a sight I will never forget my whole life. I saw a ballroom from the late 1800s or early 1900s with people dancing."
- section from Ghost Village website

"Downtown Ghost in Culture Shock"

In her book "Strange Wisconsin", author Linda Godfrey shares the tale of a confused spirit in a Delevan store.

"Cobblestone Inn"

Now the Golden Dragon Restaurant, this unique 1849 cobblestone building has had its share of paranormal activity reported.  Owner Samuel Brady enjoyed a few years of running a successful hotel out of the building he had constructed himself.  He and his wife headed off for a visit to England, never to return.  Over the last century-and-a-half, the building has had several owners, but it was during the 1990s that stories of the paranormal sort began to intensify.  The building was being renovated at this time.  Strange events that have occurred here have led people to believe the Sam Brady and his wife may have returned to their inn after all.

The Poison Widow

"Myrtle Schaude had to be one of the most enigmatic murderers ever to walk the face of the Wisconsin earth. Raised a prim, religious country girl, she had what seemed the perfect marriage, perfect husband, perfect home and four lovely children in Whitewater, Wisconsin. Described as a "petite beauty," Myrtle was known for taking food to the sick in her community. Her husband sang in the Methodist choir and was a trustee of his church. They even provided room and board for students from the nearby Whitewater State Normal School, and that proved to be the family's undoing. He was a young veteran of World War I, the student boarder Myrtle fell inexplicably in love with. Tall, tubercular, and not brilliant, Ernst Kufahl was eight years Myrtle's junior. Within the year, his landlord lay dead in his bed of strychnine poisoning. Who poured the poison? A year and a half later, Myrtle's four children narrowly missed being simultaneously poisoned and mangled in a car crash thanks to their love-besotted mother. Myrtle and Kufahl were both put on trial, and each was followed in the national news, described as" sordid and shocking". Based on five years of research, hundreds of court documents including original love letters between Myrtle and Ernst, piles of old newspaper articles, and interviews with people alive at the time, The Poison Widow tells the whole amazing story."
- section from the CNB Scene website

"Little Green Men"

Hitchhiking alien?  Perhaps...  The story is told in the book "Strange Wisconsin".

Honey Creek Creatures

Several strange somethings have been spotted near Honey Creek since the early 1990's.  Some sasquatch-like, some giant-dog-like.  Read the full stories in Linda Godfrey's books, listed at the right.

"The Lady in White"

In her book "Strange Wisconsin", author Linda Godfrey shares the tale of a spectral figure seen in a home in the township of Bloomfield.

"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.

St. Killian's Cemetery

"St. Killians is a graveyard/church. [T]he church was burned down by the lake geneva fire department because it was condemned. they used the church as training for the fire department. there were stories of devil worship going on in the church basement and the stories are TRUE. A group investigated it several times before they put up the no trespassing sign. There are sounds of a bell while you are there but the bell seems to be coming from a house in the distance. While there they report seeing mist around a tombstone that disappeared when they approached. Also repo[r]ted, a shadow that moved across the tombstones and vanished. and there are strange smells it is believed they are coming from the swamp that is behind the cemetery."
- section from The Shadowlands website

"A diverse collection of artifacts and memorabilia donated by civic groups and individuals are displayed in their facades and galleries. Yachts and Nautical Vessels, Northwestern Railroad, The Private Mansions, Frank Lloyd Wright's 'Geneva Hotel', Yerkes Observatory, Andy Gump, Potawatomi Indian Lore, The Historic Riviera and of course, The Lake."
- section from the Lake Geneva Official Site

  255 Mill St.
Lake Geneva, WI  53147
(262) 248-6060

hours:
• March thru October  (Fri - Sun)  10am – 4pm
• Summer hours  (Thurs - Mon)  1pm – 5pm

"Nestled on a quiet street in the city of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, the Webster House Museum is a well maintained white clapboard house, containing Civil War and Victorian period items. The composer Joseph Philbrick Webster once owned the home. Both the structure and its famous owner played an important part of the history of Elkhorn."
- section from the Walworth County Historical Society website

  9 East Rockwell
Elkhorn, WI  53121
(262) 723-4248 or (262) 724-4306

hours:
mid-May thru mid-October  (Wed - Sat)  1pm – 5pm