Creepy College Town in Wisconsin

Whitewater, Wisconsin is home to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, but apparently, the town's witchy past is its real claim to fame.

The Spooky History of Whitewater, Wisconsin

For those of us that live in Northern Illinois, Whitewater, Wisconsin is just a short drive away. The town is located in Wisconsin's Walworth and Jefferson Counties and is a great place destination for a day trip, especially if you have a thing for eerie history and witches.

Yes, I said witches.

I was today years old when I learned that Whitewater, Wisconsin is often called "Second Salem", and after discovering that I HAD to know more.

One website called Cult of Weird says Whitewater, Wisconsin is infamously known for its history of "witches, spirits, lake monsters and Morris Pratt's School of Spiritualism", so let's break that down a bit...starting with this School of Spiritualism...

Commonly known as Morris Pratt Institute, students who attended this school studied general subjects like mathematics, history, grammar, and literature, but they also studied the Philosophy of Spiritualism and Psychic Culture.

An article from the Whitewater Historical Society says;

Spiritualism had, among its other beliefs, that people could contact the spirits of the dead to gain further understanding of God and heaven. This institution, which operated between 1889 and the 1930s, is the foundation for most of the supernatural stories that have fascinated Whitewater’s citizens for many years.

Kinda creepy, right?

Let's get into the "Second Salem" and witches part now.

Whitewater, Wisconsin's Witchy Past

Cult of Weird's website says Whitewater's past is plagued by many tales of witches, dark rituals, "a forbidden book that drives readers to madness and suicide", and a haunted triangle of cemeteries.

Let's start with the witches.

See this pretty tower? It's called "Witches Tower" because legends say a coven of witches performed many dark rituals within it, and the underground tunnels that surrounded the tower.

The tower also happens to lie within the "haunted" area between a triangle of cemeteries that people often call "The Witches Triangle", while others actually believe it is more of a "Witches Pyramid"...

One of the cemeteries that make up this triangle is Oak Grove Cemetary, which also happens to be home to one of Whitewater's most famous witch stories. According to Cult of Weird;

Legend says an old crypt in Oak Grove Cemetery is the final resting place of Mary Worth, an axe-murdering witch who not only cursed the town when she was executed for her crimes, but may have been the inspiration for certain Bloody Mary legends. Her ghost can be seen wandering among the tombstones on Halloween.

Need more tales of hauntings, witches, and paranormal activity that people have experienced in Whitewater, Wisconsin? Watch this video...if you dare.