Horrifying Wisconsin Spots, Lore, Legends & Cryptids with Badgerland Legends & 3 Sheeps

Milwaukee Uncut

In this episode of Milwaukee Uncut, hosts discuss the rich tapestry of Wisconsin folklore, cryptids, and haunted locations with guests Jeff

Key takeaways

• Jeff Finup recounts a 1961 Eagle River UFO encounter where an occupant offered 'pancake-like' objects to Joe Simonton.
• 3 Sheeps Brewing is continuing its cryptid series with the release of 'Gnomes of Fifield' in November.

Main topics

• Wisconsin Cryptids
• Haunted Milwaukee Locations

Notable quotes

A resort town without a lake monster is behind the times.

Conclusion

A fascinating exploration of regional identity through the lens of the

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) I want to show you this video. I'm just sitting down on the train at the Milwaukee County Zoo and I don't hear anything. And then I listen back to the video and I'm like, what was that? Speaker 1 (0:13) But they have the story of this haunted railroad track and there's a paranormal dare involved. So you're supposed to drive and park on the tracks, put your car in neutral. And it said that ghost children are supposed to push you to safety. But what his encounter was, circular craft that he described as being brighter than chrome came down, out pops a latch, and an occupant steps out, and he's making what looks like pancakes. They're very thin. People have said these are pancakes from outer space. Speaker 2 (0:49) Hey, guys, welcome back to Milwaukee Uncut. If you love Wisconsin lore, horror stories, haunted places, and cryptids, we've got... A great episode for you. We've got just the absolute expert in this department. Doesn't get any better. We've got Jeff Finnup of Badgerland Legends everywhere on social media. He does a great job on those platforms, posts a lot of Wisconsin lore content. And he's also the author of a children's book, Wisconsin Legends for Kids. And we cover a lot of ground on this one, including... the most haunted places around Milwaukee and Wisconsin, many of which you are more than welcome to check out this spooky season, and topics and stories including the Hodag, Pepe, the Mississippi Monster, the Little People of Muskego, a potential alien encounter that happened in Eagle River. This is like a true story. I was not aware of this also. St. Joan of Arc Chapel right over on Marquette's campus, and a whole lot more. This episode is also co-hosted by Josh Aschenbacher, good friend who runs marketing over at Three Sheeps. And Three Sheeps did a whole Wisconsin Cryptid series this year. There were four beers total, including the Gnomes of Fifth Field, which is still coming out in November. So they've done three so far. Got that one coming out in November. IPAs, you got to get your hands on them. They're also running that series back next year. We love Three Sheeps, great people, and great beer up in Sheboygan. By the way, Taproom up there is a great place to check out this fall. And speaking of Three Sheeps, I do want to thank our other partners before diving into this one as well. Annex Wealth Management. The fall is a great time to get your life together, and that means looking at your finances. Annex is a holistic wealth management firm with offices in and all around Milwaukee that helps you with everything retirement planning, smart investing, estate planning, legacy planning, and tax strategies all under one roof. Annex. Know the difference. Next, we've got Nicolet Law, the Midwest law firm. Injured, get Nicolet and Russell, and the team will take great care of you, including... If you get injured when the gnomes of Fifth Field are tossing rocks out of the woods at you or any legitimate injury, call our good friends over at Nicolet Law. And if you're looking for a nice canned Old Fashioned this fall, I love a good drink, Wisconsin and Bleed Beverage Company. Canned Old Fashioned, best vodka, brandy, and canned cocktails in the game. Available at bars and liquor stores across the state, including... In the corner bar in right field, a damn fan perfect for hopefully a long Brewers playoff run. We were also at Sendex yesterday doing a shoot, and they got Drink Wisconsin, Bleed Beverage Company, and Three Sheeps right over there. So make sure to check those out. All right, let's dive in with our good friends, Josh and Jeff. Started Speaker 1 (3:52) at a young age for me. My mom was really into this stuff growing up. uh she kind of got me hooked on it she had a lot of stories of like angels and haunted houses where she grew up and you know just kind of caught the bug at an early age i was terrified of it at first i never wanted to see a ghost i didn't want to have any supernatural encounters but it seemed to have grown on me over the years and uh i've been doing the badgerland legends in official capacity for uh going on seven years now just trying to document all the spooky things of the Badger State, people, places, and things that make Wisconsin legendary. Speaker 2 (4:32) Very cool. Did your mom have any paranormal experiences? You Speaker 1 (4:36) know, Speaker 2 (4:36) she, after Speaker 1 (4:37) her mom died, her mom died at a young age. I was probably a baby at the time. And she was cleaning some of her stuff out, and she felt a profound presence while in her house and the smell of her perfume wafting over her. And I think that was... Kind of a compelling story to tell me as a kid. Speaker 2 (4:59) And have you had any? Or what's the most terrifying experience that you've had? You do a lot of this stuff now. Speaker 1 (5:07) Probably like Willie Street on Halloween. They shut that down, didn't they? Oh, no, Speaker 3 (5:14) that's State Speaker 1 (5:14) Street, right? State Street's no longer going. I mean, that was Speaker 2 (5:17) a Speaker 1 (5:17) banger back in the day. Yes, it was wild. But, yeah, I get that question all the time. And I wish I had a more profound story. So I would say that I'm still seeking out those experiences. I've had the opportunity to be in some of the most haunted places in the state. I visited across the country, several haunted locations. You know, I'm looking for that one moment in the paranormal field they call the Holy Grail, like a full body apparition. That's actually seeing the visage of like a full ghost or at least like torso up. of an unidentifiable ghost. I haven't had that opportunity yet. So Speaker 3 (5:58) what place gave Speaker 1 (5:59) you, Speaker 3 (6:00) what had the most intense feeling? You know what I mean? What was your spookiest Speaker 1 (6:05) or scariest? I would say there is a place in downtown Manitowoc. It's called Dead by Dawns. It is a scare B &B or a dead-in-breakfast. And you can spend the night there. So the dawn is the name of the lady. That runs the place. And she was a former haunted attraction person. So she ran like haunted houses. So all of her... The items that she had on display at these places are now inside of this building in downtown Manitowoc. And I got to hook up with a paranormal investigative group and spend the evening and into the late night investigating that place. And that place is very, very Speaker 2 (6:54) active. Speaker 1 (6:54) And since we have our friend here from Sheboygan, the Sheboygan Asylum, also a very active place. Speaker 2 (7:01) And Speaker 1 (7:01) you've been through that a number of times or before? Yeah, absolutely. I've gone on several tours and got to visit the property, go with some more experienced people. And the really cool thing is the tour guides there, they have their own relationships with whatever resides there, whether it's a ghost entity. I'm not really sure where to put that, but it seems like when they go there, they get responses on their equipment, knocks on the wall, different lighting. Triggers lighting up when they ask questions. Very, very active place. So dead and breakfasts are a thing. It is apparently in downtown Manitowoc it is. And Speaker 2 (7:44) people pay to stay overnight there. People spend the night there. Speaker 1 (7:47) They Speaker 2 (7:47) don't Speaker 1 (7:48) get paid to do it as a challenge or anything. You know, that would open up a new wrinkle in a reality show. Maybe we can get Mr. Beast on the horn and we could get into that. But yeah. They have a suite in there with three different rooms that you can rent for the night. A friend of mine took one of the... The rooms I actually slept out in the living room and just explored the place at night with the team and it's just Very a lot of activity no full-body apparitions a lot of hits on the equipment a lot of strange sounds strange feelings and just kind of strange place Speaker 2 (8:27) Do you are there lights on or do you have like a headlight and what is it? What's the equipment set up when you're you Speaker 1 (8:32) try to find something? So you want to get your eyes to adjust to the surroundings so you want to keep the lighting as low as possible so if you have like a tape recorder or some kind of EMF meter that's gonna have a little bit of background light to it so you can at least Get where you are but a lot of times people will do seances where they will just sit kind of vigil in the dark and wait for something to happen Josh Speaker 2 (8:58) viewed any paranormal experiences over there. Oh man Speaker 3 (9:05) I can't think of anything. Speaker 2 (9:06) Nothing stands out. No. Okay, I want to show you this video, both of you. So Bree and I were just peacefully recording a promo video for the Milwaukee County Zoo for their Cheers Holiday Lights event. And I'm on the train and then a weird sound comes up on this thing. I'm curious if you think it's something or nothing. You think it might be something, right? Or am I going to look like a complete idiot? Okay. Wait, give us the Speaker 3 (9:39) background one more time. Yeah. Speaker 2 (9:40) Bree and I are just recording a Milwaukee Uncut promo video for Cheers, which is like an adult's night at the zoo. They got the holiday lights out. Great, great event. We're going to do it again this year. And I'm just sitting down on the train at the Milwaukee County Zoo, and I don't hear anything. And then I listened back to the video and I'm like, what the fuck was that? Let's hear it. You can, I think the volume should be up. You can just press play. Speaker 2 (10:22) Or the train. Where you can ride the train with a beer. Speaker 1 (10:31) See ya. Speaker 1 (10:34) What is that? Speaker 1 (10:37) You're Speaker 2 (10:37) laughing at Speaker 1 (10:38) me. I'm not sure what that is. It's probably the paranormal. Speaker 2 (10:49) What is that noise? It was not me farting. I'd like to make that clear. See, I thought you were pulling our leg here. Speaker 1 (10:57) Or your finger. I Speaker 3 (10:59) think that's a haunted elephant, right? Okay. A haunted elephant at the Milwaukee Zoo? I thought you were putting Speaker 1 (11:06) us on because you kind of grunted when you sat down. Speaker 2 (11:10) Not like that. For me to squeeze into that type position, I'm a very stiff guy. Speaker 2 (11:19) Do you think that was something or no? Speaker 3 (11:20) I think it's pretty wild to air your flatulences online. Paranormal activity. Speaker 1 (11:28) Okay. Speaker 2 (11:29) Anyway, Josh, you came. Speaker 2 (11:32) So that was not a mind-blowing encounter to either of you two over there. Indetermined. Speaker 3 (11:39) Okay. Speaker 2 (11:40) I Speaker 3 (11:40) believe. Speaker 2 (11:40) I was looking for a little clarity on what happened there. Mystery is still out over at Speaker 3 (11:46) the zoo. Haunted Speaker 2 (11:47) bowels. Speaker 3 (11:47) In the haunted bowels of the zoo. Speaker 2 (11:49) Josh, before we get into some stories, how did you come up with this whole cryptid series? Speaker 3 (11:55) Yeah, I mean, you know, at Three Sheeps, we love to celebrate our Wisconsin-ness, and so we're always looking for, creative ways to do that. And you can only talk about, you know, cheese and sausage so much and, you know, all of our great sports teams. And so this is just another angle for us to kind of lean into our Wisconsin-ness. And Wisconsin is just full of awesome lore and stories. You know, I think the Northwoods of Wisconsin are just full of those, like, you know, those oral stories that have lived on for, you know, forever. And so, yeah, that's what this is all about. It's just a fun way for us to celebrate all the great stories in Wisconsin. And so we have a rich history of cryptids in Wisconsin. I've got to correct you. It's not cryptic. It's cryptids. They're called cryptids. And there's, I mean, there's just so many. And so that's what we're trying to do. So we had four this year. Obviously, the most well-known one is the Hodega Rhinelander. That's the one you see kind of all over Wisconsin. Wisconsin's claim to fame. But we'll have three more next year. We're going to do the Hodag again, but we'll have three more next year. So, yeah, it's just been a fun kind of series to work through. Speaker 1 (13:10) So you got jumped off with Hodag. Yeah. Speaker 3 (13:13) And then Speaker 1 (13:13) he followed it up with the other big guy, Bigfoot. Yep. We rounded things off with the Beast of Bray Road. Yep. And now you have the launching of the Gnomes. The Gnomes Speaker 3 (13:23) of Speaker 1 (13:23) Fifield, yeah. Speaker 3 (13:24) So we wanted to do... Speaker 3 (13:26) You know, the gnomes was kind of this lighthearted one, very obscure, but a fun one. So the gnomes are known for hiding in the woods and throwing stones at people if they get too close to kind of scare them away. So that's a fun one. But yeah, obviously, you know, Bigfoot, there's a ton of sightings of Bigfoot in Wisconsin, which has been fun. And then the Beast of Bray Road is one that is really well known. It actually was a Hollywood movie created about the Beast of Bray Road. I drove out there and it's a very unassuming just kind of country road. You wouldn't really think twice about it. But there is definitely like a feeling on that road. It was I don't know, maybe I like psyched myself out, but like just driving on that like empty road. I don't know. And there's kind of this like creepy umbrella of trees that come over the top. And then you kind of turn this blind corner. And so I could totally see like how at night you kind of go around this corner and your headlights could catch something, you know. in the tall grass there. So yeah, these have been fun for us. Speaker 2 (14:26) And in the last one, the gnomes, that beer comes out in November. Yeah, that's Speaker 3 (14:31) releasing in the first part of November. Jeff, Speaker 2 (14:34) do you want to dive into the gnomes over there? Have you ever heard about the gnomes in the field? I have, yeah. Speaker 1 (14:39) In the book, it was a book by Chad Lewis, Road Guide to Haunted Places in Wisconsin. He talks about the... It's kind of a paranormal nexus because there is so many legends built up just about this place. It's called Holy Cross Road in Fifield, Wisconsin. Where is Fifield, for those listening Speaker 2 (14:59) and myself? Speaker 1 (15:00) It's between Park Falls and Phillips in Price County. Is that way up there? So if you go up to Rhinelander, this is the Hodag. Instead of going right into Rhinelander on Highway 8, you take a left and you head east towards Prentice, and then you go up north towards Park Falls, and it's between Park Falls and Phillips. And a tiny little town, very unassuming, but they have this story of