Haunted Fond du Lac

In the historic Galloway House, the children who played there over 100 years ago still laugh and run through the halls of the grand manor they once called home. An old crone haunts the woods of Witch Road where she once lived. The distraught wife of a Union soldier killed in the bloodiest battle of the Civil War still wanders through the hidden rooms and secret passages of the Octagon House that was built for them as a wedding gift in 1856. The chilling screams coming from Room 717 in the Hotel Retlaw leave both staff and guests alike in horror. Parents warn children to beware the crumbling Witherell House on the outskirts of town because it is “cursed with death.” Rienzi Cemetery, where Spiritualist Nathaniel Tallmadge held seances to commune with the dead, is said to be a gateway to Hell and the final resting place of excommunicated nuns buried in a mass grave known as the Witches Circle.

Some cities are built upon the ruins of what came before. In Fond du Lac, the modern world weaves inextricably through the aging relics of its past and blurs the threshold between fact and folklore. The industrious city at the foot of Lake Winnebago is as much its history as it is the legends that have grown up through the cracks of its weathered facade.

Explore Fond du Lac history through the ghosts that still roam its buildings and streets, and through the perspectives of those who have had unexpected run-ins with those ever lingering spirits.