Spooky Legends of Second Salem: Is Whitewater Really Haunted?

From witches, to ghosts, and to murder, it is safe to say that Whitewater, Wisconsin history is dark and mysterious, yet curiously interesting. But with a dark and sinister reputation comes with its own legends, spread by word of mouth. While some legends are simply the product of a creative mind, others might have some truth to them.

            Whitewater has three cemeteries located in town: Calvary, Hillside, and Oak Grove. They may seem like normal cemetery names, but when they are connected on a map, it is clear where the “Curse of Whitewater” came from. They form a perfect isosceles triangle, otherwise known as the “Witches Triangle.” While this may be a coincidence, others think that there might be something more to it. Solomon Foley, a student at the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater, believes that the triangle has a deeper meaning to it. “I really didn’t know much about the legends of Whitewater until I came here,” Foley says. “But the more I read about the “Witches Triangle,” among the other scary legends, it got me spooked out.”

            Two legends involving witches in Whitewater are located in Oak Grove Cemetery, where there is a small plot with unmarked graves, and in Hillside Cemetery, where there is an unmarked vault that is completely sealed off, and the legend goes is that an axe-murdering witch named Mary Worth is buried there, even there is no historical evidence to back up the claims. For ghosts, on the other hand, there may be some evidence.

            Morris Pratt, a Spiritualist who moved to Whitewater from New York state, constructed a temple for spiritualism that is widely known as “Pratt’s Folly” or “Spooks Temple” by locals back in the day. Spiritualists would communicate with the dead, and that is where the ghost part of it came from. “While I am on the fence on most of this,” Foley said, “I do believe that Morris Pratt opened up a portal to the spirit world.”

            Who is telling the truth, and who is not? No one seems to know.

(PowerPoint presentation and audio interview were unable to download onto the blog website.)