Eerie Reasons Whitewater Is The Creepiest Town In Wisconsin
At first glance, Whitewater, Wisconsin seems like a sleepy college town. However, if you dig a bit deeper, you’ll quickly learn it’s anything but. Dubbed the Second Salem, Whitewater is teeming with legends of witches and other eerie happenings. Take a look:
A small town of about 15,000, Whitewater is most known as the home of the University of Wisconsin.
However, being a college town isn’t its only claim to fame. Whitewater has been nicknamed Second Salem because of a history that’s rife with tales of witches and other inexplicable occurrences.
Many believe Whitewater’s journey to infamy began back in 1889, when the Morris Pratt Institute was built. The institute taught spiritualism and allegedly had a room used to conduct séances.
As if one eerie educational facility wasn’t enough, Whitewater’s Andersen Library has an infamous reputation of its own. For years, stories have swirled about a book locked in the library’s basement.
According to local lore, the book is so wickedly dark that it drove three students and one professor to commit suicide and caused one person to be locked in a mental institution.
The positioning of the town’s three cemeteries only perpetuates the eerie tales associated with Whitewater. If you look at the map, you can see that Calvary Cemetery, Oak Grove Cemetery, and Hillside Cemetery form a triangle, which is associated with witchcraft.
It’s not just the locations of the cemeteries that make them creepy, though. There are several stories linked to the graveyards, such as the instance in 1970, when the coffin of a little girl from one of the local cemeteries was mysteriously relocated to the nearby college campus.
As the final resting place of Mary Worth, a murderess and self-proclaimed witch, Oak Grove Cemetery is teeming with tales of hauntings. In fact, it’s said that Mary’s apparition can sometimes be seen walking among the tombstones.
The spooky stories even extend to Whitewater’s Starin Park. Local lore says that witches used to perform nightly rituals around the park’s stone tower.
Eventually, an iron fence was built around the tower – only upping the eerie factor since it features barbed wire spikes that point inward, which make it seem as if the fence is meant to keep something in, as opposed to keeping people out.
Not far from the tower is Wells Hall, which has its own haunting past. In 1981, a group of sorority sisters heard strange noises coming from the building's basement. Upon entering the basement, it was discovered that bricks had been removed from the floor, revealing a hidden tunnel.
One of Whitewater’s strangest occurrences happened as recently as 1992 near Whitewater Lake. The story goes that three students witnessed some type of late-night ritual, which commenced with a huge object rising from the lake.
Though Daniella was born in New York and has lived in a couple of other states, Mississippi has been her home for the past 25 years. After graduating from the University of Southern Mississippi, Daniella began to hone her writing skills through various internships, working for The Royal Obsession and Anatomie clothing. In the years since, she’s had the privilege of having her articles appear in several publications, such as Parents & Kids Magazine and Girl Meets Strong. She’s also had the honor of interviewing actress Sela Ward for The Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience.
