Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Creatures people keep reporting and nobody has caught.
Elkhorn, WI
Bray Road became nationally known after reports of a large wolf-like or upright canine creature were collected around Elkhorn beginning in the late 1980s. The legend is now one of Wisconsin's signature cryptid stories. Treat the road as a normal public roadway: do not stop unsafely or enter private property.
Rhinelander, WI
Rhinelander's larger-than-life Hodag, sculpted by local artist Tracy Goberville and standing outside the Area Chamber of Commerce. The toothy green monster is the city's signature landmark and a free photo stop year round, celebrating a hoax from the 1890s that never quite went away.
Rhinelander, WI
The Hodag is Rhinelander's horned, tusked hometown monster, born from late-19th-century lumber-camp folklore and Eugene Shepard's famous 1896 hoax photograph. The Chamber grounds give travelers a permanent giant Hodag statue, visitor information and a concrete stop tied directly to the legend.
Stories a place tells about itself, passed down and still repeated.
Stevens Point, WI
Local legend says a bride died in a crash on Highway 66 near Jordan Park and still appears along the road, sometimes in mirrors or beside passing cars. The story is folklore rather than documented paranormal fact. Visitors should experience it only from lawful public areas and never stop in a dangerous traffic location.
Stockbridge, WI
Stop on Joe Road, south of Stockbridge off WIS 55, put the car in neutral, and it appears to roll uphill. The slope is an illusion — the surrounding land hides the true horizon, so a gentle descent reads as a climb — which has never once stopped anyone trying it with a bottle of water. A public road, so pull over sensibly and watch for traffic.
Shullsburg, WI
Stop on Judgement Street, just past Rennick Road, put the car in neutral, and it appears to roll uphill. The slope is an illusion — the surrounding land hides the true horizon, so a gentle descent reads as a climb — which has never once stopped anyone trying it with a bottle of water. A public road, so pull over sensibly and watch for traffic.
Fountain City, WI
Modern standing stones, stone circles, earthworks, a labyrinth and other monumental landscape features occupy this private garden overlooking the Mississippi River region. The structures are contemporary rather than ancient, but intentionally evoke prehistoric ceremonial landscapes.
Mount Horeb, WI
Mount Horeb has filled its downtown with carved trolls inspired by Scandinavian folklore, earning the nickname Troll Capital of the World. The figures line the Trollway and turn an ordinary Main Street stroll into a scavenger hunt of wooden creatures.
Hotels, theatres, prisons and back roads with a reputation.
Mount Pleasant, WI
Abandoned Haunted House Complex is a large seasonal Wisconsin scare destination combining multiple haunted houses, outdoor zones and additional Halloween activities at one property. It operates on select dates from late September into the fall, so access is seasonal and ticketed.
Neenah, WI
Burial Chamber Haunted Complex is a seasonal Neenah-area destination with several different haunted attractions, including high-intensity walkthroughs and darker maze-style experiences. The complex operates on select fall nights and bundles multiple scares into a single visit.
Hazel Green, WI
Dark Chambers is a seasonal haunted attraction in Hazel Green offering multiple themed walkthroughs at one location. The current official address is in Hazel Green, not Jamestown, so the city in the existing OddWay record should be corrected.
Green Lake, WI
This historic cemetery has become one of Green Lake's best-known paranormal folklore locations, with stories of strange lights, apparitions and unexplained sounds. The claims remain local legend, but the cemetery itself is a real historic site. Visit respectfully during lawful cemetery hours.
Wisconsin Dells, WI
This nighttime attraction carries visitors by boat into the sandstone landscape of the Wisconsin Dells before continuing through dark wooded and canyon environments built around regional ghost stories. It is a ticketed seasonal experience rather than an unsupervised haunted-location visit.
Marshall, WI
This Haunted House is a dark ride inside Little Amerricka Amusement Park in Marshall, not a standalone Halloween haunt. Visitors board a ride vehicle and pass through old-school spooky scenes and effects during the amusement park's operating season.
Sighting sites, crash lore and the towns that kept the file open.
Belleville, WI
Belleville commemorates a January 1987 incident in which local residents and police reported unusual lights in the sky. The village now leans into the story with UFO Day, alien decorations and community programming, making downtown a practical public stop tied to the sighting lore.
Elmwood, WI
Elmwood built an unusual civic identity around a series of reported UFO sightings, including a well-known 1975 account involving a local police officer. The village's annual UFO Days festival celebrates the lore with alien-themed events and gives OddWay a lawful public anchor for a story otherwise spread across rural roads.
Real events too strange to have made the textbook.
Lake Mills, WI
Large platform mounds and reconstructed stockade sections mark the remains of a major Mississippian settlement occupied roughly a thousand years ago. The state's most prominent archaeological park gives travelers a rare public look at monumental pre-contact earthworks.
Sayner, WI
Sayner celebrates Carl Eliason's 1924 motor toboggan, an important ancestor of the modern snowmobile. The local museum preserves early machines and Northwoods history, turning a tiny community into a pilgrimage point for snowmobile enthusiasts.
Lake Geneva, WI
A wealthy Chicago brewing family built this Queen Anne summer estate above Geneva Lake in the 1880s. Many visitors arrive by boat, climb a long staircase from the shore and enter a house still packed with generations of family objects.
Milwaukee, WI
Forest Home is one of Milwaukee's great historic cemeteries, filled with elaborate monuments and the graves of major figures from the city's brewing, industrial and political history. Local ghost stories have attached themselves to the landscape, but its stronger OddWay value is the dense collection of unusual monuments and Milwaukee history.
Appleton, WI
Built in 1882, Hearthstone became one of the first residences in the world powered by a centrally located hydroelectric station using the Edison system. Restored interiors preserve both Victorian domestic life and the startling early arrival of electric lighting.
Two Rivers, WI
Two Rivers claims that the first ice cream sundae was served here in 1881. A marker and the Washington House Museum preserve the local version of the origin story, which remains disputed by other communities but has become a durable piece of American food folklore.
Small, specific collections run by people who care far too much.
Superior, WI
A former church houses hundreds of accordions and related free-reed instruments from many countries and eras. The sheer density of ornate, mechanical instruments makes the museum both a music archive and an unusually specific visual collection.
Sheboygan, WI
This museum was built specifically to house artist-built environments and vernacular art that would otherwise be difficult to preserve. Entire rooms and large fragments from outsider-art sites are reconstructed inside, making the building feel like a warehouse of transplanted worlds.
Laona, WI
A vintage steam train carries visitors from Laona to a preserved logging-camp museum complex. Historic machinery, camp buildings and forestry exhibits make the ride feel like a functioning fragment of Northwoods industrial history.
Alma, WI
Rows of arms, armor and historical weapons fill this privately built museum overlooking the Mississippi River. Exhibits span centuries and cultures, including suits of armor, swords and polearms that make the collection feel more like a castle armory than a small-town museum.
Baraboo, WI
Baraboo was winter headquarters for the Ringling Brothers, and Circus World preserves historic circus buildings, wagons, posters, costumes and performance traditions on the original grounds. Seasonal live programming turns the site into both a museum and a surviving fragment of circus culture.
Sparta, WI
This small-town museum combines two subjects that rarely share a building: astronaut Deke Slayton's space career and Sparta's bicycle-manufacturing heritage. Space hardware, astronaut material and historic bikes make the pairing uniquely OddWay.
Giant objects, odd monuments and things built for no clear reason.
Poniatowski, WI
Near Poniatowski, the 45th parallel north meets the 90th meridian west—halfway between the Equator and North Pole and one-quarter of the way around the globe from Greenwich. A marker and small park turn an otherwise invisible grid intersection into a physical destination.
Sister Bay, WI
Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant became a Door County icon after goats began grazing on its sod-covered roof. The living rooftop spectacle, Scandinavian architecture and adjacent Goat Cam turn an operating restaurant into one of Wisconsin's most recognizable roadside attractions.
Baraboo, WI
Al Ringling built this ornate 1915 theater as a lavish gift to Baraboo. Its French-inspired interior, chandeliers, boxes and decorative plasterwork make the venue an unexpectedly grand movie palace in a small Wisconsin city.
Lake Geneva, WI
A bronze statue honors cartoon character Andy Gump and his creator Sidney Smith, who had strong ties to the Lake Geneva area. The public monument is a niche pilgrimage point for early newspaper-comic history.
Wauwatosa, WI
One of Frank Lloyd Wright's final designs reinterprets a Byzantine church through a low circular form and broad blue dome. The building remains an active place of worship, so visitors should use scheduled architectural opportunities or respectfully view the exterior.
Cornucopia, WI
Lake Superior has carved arches, chambers and cliffside caves into the Apostle Islands sandstone. In warm seasons visitors reach overlooks by trail or the caves by water; in rare safe winters ice can transform the formations completely. Conditions must be checked before attempting access.
