Cold Snap Got You Down? Try This Hot New Idea – A Haunted Road Trip!

Have you ever wanted your own ghost story? Here’s your chance. Just in time for Halloween, Caper Company makes it easy for you to explore fascinating local haunts for yourself. The inaugural Haunt Spots tour – A Hard Luck & Loss Caper – features a route of spirited destinations that begins less than 15 minutes west of Milwaukee. Milwaukee Ghosts staff participated in the beta-testing for this tour and thought it was a blast. We know a little something about local ghost stories and were thrilled by the new things we learned on our own haunted road trip!

Haunt Spots tours are self-guided road trips. You download the tour itinerary and audio stories from CaperCompany.com and explore at your own pace from the warmth and comfort of your vehicle. Haunt Spots tours are available 7-days a week. One low fee per tour and gas for your car make this one very inexpensive way to get your ghost tour fix this winter when Milwaukee Ghosts’ haunted history walking tours are on hiatus until May.

As you travel to each destination, you and your friends listen to an audio story filled with history and reported ghostly activity. Each tour also includes a detailed “Caper” which guides you through the step-by-step process of making your own personal paranormal connection. Each destination is personally explored and researched by Caper Company. With over 30 more Wisconsin haunts ‘ready-to-go’, Caper Company plans to add a new tour every 2 weeks.

Caper Company is the creation of Susan Scot Fry, former Entertainment and Public Relations Director for the Bristol Renaissance Faire. Susan draws from her passion for the paranormal and years of interactive entertainment experience to create this unique new ghost tour.

Intrigued? Check it out for yourself at CaperCompany.com or email SusanScotFry@CaperCompany.com for more information.

Who knows? The next ghost story you hear may be the one that happened to you.

Milwaukee Paranormal Calendar

If it’s weird and it’s happening in Southeastern Wisconsin you will find it on our new calendar of paranormal events! Conferences, lectures, investigations, tours, meetups and all manner of events relevant to ghost hunting, UFOs, magic, or cyptozoology will be listed on this calendar brought to you by http://www.milwaukeeghosts.com. Enjoy!

Have an event to add? Please email us at info@milwaukeeghosts.com.

Southeastern Wisconsin Hits the Paranormal Map!

Milwaukee and other nearby Wisconsin communities have been making the national news lately. If you don’t know how much about our weird and wonderful community, or just have a penchant for the strange read on.

PFISTER HOTEL GHOST PUTS THE GRAND SLAM ON MLB IN MILWAUKEE:

Is Pfister ghost picking on
baseball players? (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 11, 2009)

Pfister Hotel Website

SKYLIGHT IN MILWAUKEE MAKES THE LIST OF TOP HAUNTED OPERA HOUSES IN U.S.:

Skylight Opera’s Cabot Theatre is named # 8 on Top 10 Fridays: Haunted Opera Houses (Vancouver Opera Blog, June 19, 2009)

WEREWOLVES STALK THE SUBURBS:

Local author Linda Godfrey and werewolf witnesses are featured on FOX News.

If you’re interested in the paranormal, then Southeastern Wisconsin is the place for you!

Our New Facebook Page Offers Greater Functionality

Milwaukee Ghosts on Facebook

We are proud to introduce a new Milwaukee Ghosts URL: http://www.facebook.com/milwaukeeghosts.

Although we will frequently update milwaukeeghosts.com with ghostly tales we learn about on our haunted history tour throughout the summer, we wanted to take a moment to tell you about what we are doing on Facebook. We’re excited about this new Web presence because it brings together our daily Twitter feed, our blog articles, and a new discussions forum all in one easy to use interface.

Viewing each resource is as easy as clicking on the top navigation tabs. To view our tweets simply, click on the “Twitter” tab. To read our blog, click on the “News” tab. Access our new discussions forum by clicking on the “Discussions” tab.

Although our discussions forum is brand new, we already have four topics: “Ghost Stories from Milwaukee Metro Area”, “The Strangest Thing That Ever Happened To Me”, “Local Ghost Hunting Groups”, and “Weird Moments from the Tour”. We hope you enjoy reading the posts and look forward to reading your stories.

If you have a paranormal investigative group, we’d like to know about it, so we can contact you when we become aware of investigation opportunities that match your group’s skill set. We encourage you to use the Local Ghost Hunting Groups topic to promote your group.

Milwaukee Ghosts is always looking for more efficient ways to share information about local hauntings. That’s why we are so excited about this new opportunity to communicate with fellow Milwaukeeans as well as other students of the unexplained worldwide. We encourage you to join us on Facebook and ask your help to make our page a flourishing paranormal community.

Who ya gonna call? Make your first call to a CO professional.

Did you know that carbon monoxide poisonings can cause many of the same symptoms associated with hauntings? These symptoms include hearing footsteps and seeing apparitions. Carbon monoxide poisoning can be fatal, but at lower levels can still cause headaches and depression. Even after exposure ends, for some symptoms can persist for years.

If you suspect a haunting, before you call on your local paranormal investigators, call on an HVAC contractor or home inspector to have your our furnace, oven, and other gas appliances tested for carbon monoxide leakage. If you or other members of your family are also experiencing flu-like symptoms without a fever, get out of the house and call 9-1-1 immediately. If you know someone who believes their house is haunted, please pass on this information. You could save a life.

• CO Safety Fact Sheet
• This American Life Halloween 2008 Prologue (Audio interpretation of 1921 case)
• Buying a Haunted House: A Case of Let the Buyer Beware
• A Haunted House and Carbon Monoxide from Kentucky Ghost Trackers
• Human Consumption of Carbon Monoxide May Explain House Hauntings
• A True Tale Of A Truly Haunted House from Ghostvillage

Milwaukee’s Paranormal Groups

Milwaukee’s burgeoning paranormal field includes many ghost investigation groups serving the metropolitan area. These groups have investigative techniques and research tips to share. In the coming weeks, we will bring together the best of their insights and A/V evidence and blog about what we find. We will also feature a calendar of their upcoming public events.

Do know of a great ghost investigation group that is missing from our list? If so, let us know. Please use the comment form below or email us at info@milwaukeeghosts.com.

• Boo Busters: Milwaukee Ghost Hunters
• Greater Milwaukee Paranormal Research Group
• Milwaukee Area Paranormal Investigations
• Nothern Alliance Paranormal Investigators
• Paranormal Investigators of Milwaukee
• Paranormal Research Organization of Wisconsin
• South Wisconsin Ghost Society
• Southern Wisconsin Paranormal Research Group
• Tri-County Paranormal Group

Battle of the MPM Ghosts

In a recent Ghost Hunters episode, the TAPS team investigated the Titanic exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia. This led one of our contacts at Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) to wonder whether a different Titanic exhibit, currently housed there, might be haunted.

Our contact, a curator at the museum, mentioned to a co-worker that, to her knowledge, nothing like what was experienced in Atlanta happened at the exhibit in Milwaukee. To her surprise, her co-worker corrected her with references to numerous unusual accounts documented by museum staff.

After hours, three of the staff have seen the apparition of a man standing in the corner to the right of a display featuring a wrench recovered from the Titanic. The witnesses believe it to be the ghost of Charles Painter the man who owned the wrench and perished on Titanic. An unidentified woman in white has also been seen walking into the wall near the money display.

Various cold spots have also been reported in areas other than the iceberg room. Security staff also recorded an motion sensor alarm in the middle of the night right around Christmas time. The motion sensor alarm sounded on the computer in dispatch. When a guard was sent to check it out, he could find no reason for the alarm.

These recent reports are in addition to the 39 years of ghostly events attributed to former MPM director Dr. Stephan Borhegyi, who was killed in a car accident on his way to work on Sept. 26, 1969. The manifestations attributed to Borhegyi included apparitions of a dark figure in a cape (standard apparel in life for the flamboyant Borhegyi). Ethereal pipe smoke, spectral laughter, and surging cold spots that rush through the bodies of unsuspecting patrons and staff are also reported.

Most of the paranormal activity at MPM has taken place on the 3rd floor and 3rd floor mezzanine, where Borhegyi’s portrait and collections are kept. This is the reason given for the purported peculiar proclivity of the elevators to arrive and return to the 3rd floor without being called.

According to a security guard at MPM, these elevators have been the scene of something of a turf war between the ghost of Borhegyi and the newcomers. Perhaps this is an overstatement since MPM staff has not witnessed any ghostly fisticuffs. However, whatever the reason a shift of power has occurred, for now the elevators inexplicably stop on the 2nd floor, where the Titanic exhibit is located, until the end of its run here on May 25th.

Is it ever a good idea to admit your business is haunted?

Do you like sleeping in haunted hotels, dining with the dead, or shopping with shades? Or do you think it’s a bad idea? We’re curious because some Milwaukee business owners actually hide their hauntings.

Even staff at the Pfister Hotel have been reluctant to talk about their haunting, though locals know that cat escaped the bag long ago. All denials were cast aside in 2001 when L.A. Dodger Adrian Beltre told Sports Illustrated about his paranormal experiences while a guest. Carlos Gomez of the Minnesota Twins revealed another ghost story in 2008. However, even with all this press, the Pfister is yet to acknowledge their haunting on their website.

Last summer, when we began offering our haunted history tours of the Third Ward, one business owner requested that we remove his building from tour. Although we are under no legal obligation to do so, we obliged to protect the jobs of witnesses to the haunting.

It’s our opinion that hauntings are good for business and we routinely cite these articles as evidence:

How real hauntings can be good for business – AOL Small Business

Haunted Holdings: Don’t be afraid – ghosts and ‘things that go bump in the night’ can add value to real estate – Austin Business Journal

Are ‘things that go bump in the night’ good for business? – New Mexico Business Journal

However, we could be wrong. So we’ll leave it to you to answer the question of the exasperated Third Ward building owner who asked, “Is it ever a good idea to admit your business is haunted?”

We want to hear from you!

Welcome to our new blog!

Info on Milwaukee County haunted locations, the best evidence from local paranormal investigation groups, and your spooky photos and videos are just some of the things you will find here.  Because Milwaukee Ghosts offers haunted history tours, in the coming weeks we will blog about weird local history, Fortean folklore, and forgotten tales about some intriguing Milwaukee characters.  Lastly, we will also offer monthly round-ups of the best strange international news from our daily updates on http://www.twitter.com/milwaukeeghosts.

Would you like to have your best evidence featured here?  If you have photos or videos to share, please email them to info@milwaukeeghosts.com.  Don’t know how to prepare your evidence for the Web?  Please give us a call at (414) 807-7862.  We’d be glad to help you.  If you have some expertise in the field of historical research or ghost investigation and would like to be a regular contributor, please contact us.  We are interested in talking to you!

Local Haunt: Iron Horse Hotel

The Iron Horse Hotel at Night

LOCATION:  500 W. Florida Street
Milwaukee, WI  53204
1-888-543-IRON (4766)

YEAR BUILT:  1907 (commissioned)

REPORTS OF PARANORMAL ACTIVITY:  One hotel engineer felt a ghostly hand push him up against the wall on the 6th floor.  We are awaiting other accounts from this floor.  In the basement, staff has taken an interest in an usual watermark (See Flickr gallery.), which seems to resemble a Native American woman.  They report that the watermark seems to change in appearance depending on weather conditions.  At times, it looks like a young girl and, at other times, it looks like an old woman.

More details from staff are expected soon.  Check back for updates to this story.  Have you had a paranormal experience at the Iron Horse Hotel or elsewhere in Milwaukee County?  If so, please submit the share form at http://www.milwaukeeghosts.com/share.asp.

HOW CAN YOU VISIT?  Iron Horse Hotel has regular business hours and it’s a hotel so you can stay the night.  See http://www.theironhorsehotel.com for details.