With Halloween approaching, there’s no time like the present to immerse ourselves in the spookiest of stories in movies, tv shows and Reddit posts—but what about the bone-chilling tales set in your own town?
Celebrate this year’s Halloween with Wisconsin’s urban legends bound to keep you up at night.

Ghost Zone: Watch for Spirits!
On Sept. 13, 1986, a woman was reportedly hit by a drunk driver on Vine St., located in Eau Claire, WI.
Legend says that every night in September, drivers will be able to see the ghost of the woman running on the sidewalk before she throws herself into oncoming traffic.
When the drivers look back? She’s gone.

Beware the Hodag
In the earliest days of Rhinelander, WI, many settlers reported sightings of a ferocious green creature with some gnarly teeth.
Although the settlers assumed they had hunted the hodag to extinction, some Rhinelander residents believe there are still hodag roaming around, aware of their own ugly appearance.
While it’s unlikely to cross paths with one of these tortured beasts, you can prepare yourself with the only three things said to be fatal to the hodag: chloroform, dynamite and lemons.

Haunting of Holy Cross Road
According to legend, a woman in a cluster of tiny towns in northern Wisconsin was killed by a train after her car stalled on the railroad tracks.
Now, it is said that if visitors at Holy Cross Rd. park their car in neutral over the tracks, the spirit of the woman will push their car to safety—uphill.
In addition, there have been reported sightings of gnomes around the area. Many say that if you throw a rock at the gnomes, they will throw it back.
The best part: The railroad track is located in the middle of the ghost town Coolidge, where the townspeople mysteriously disappeared

Ghost of Ed Gein
The notorious serial killer Ed Gein, a former Plainfield, WI resident, is said to continue haunting the area, even after his death.
Gein, known not only for his murders but for digging up corpses to make his own interior decorations with, inspired the infamous stories of Psycho (1960) and Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Residents in the area have reported shadows where there shouldn’t be, screaming and fatal curses brought on by the spirit of Gein.

The Creepy Grand Opera House
According to visitoshkosh.com, Oshkosh has a few haunted spots. The most well-known one is the Grand Opera House, which is home to many different productions and shows. The Opera House allegedly is haunted by several spirits.

The Dreaded Kemper Center
In Kenosha, the Kemper Center’s hauntings are said to have stemmed from a couple of legends.
Whether the initial story, although not verified, be the nun who was deemed crazy and tossed herself into Lake Michigan in 1900, a nun who fell down the spiraling staircase or a teenager who jumped off of the roof, witnesses claim the Kemper Center is haunted with disappearing apparitions.

Though these legends are fun to read about, we should always understand urban legends are purely for fun and entertainment.