The Restless Spirits of an Old Pioneer Cemetery
A Wisconsin legend trip
Local legend says that if you sit on top of this crypt, a ghost will push you off.
Dartford Cemetery lies on the outskirts of Green Lake, the final resting place of the area’s earliest settlers. Before that, the sparkling waters of the lake were believed by the native Winnebago people (now Ho-Chunk) to be a bottomless wonder of mystical energy, and home to a powerful water spirit.
They called it Daycholah.
“Every Winnebago was expected to come to Green Lake at least once in a lifetime to worship the Water Spirit,” Robert W. and Emma B. Heiple wrote in their 1977 book A Heritage History of Beautiful Green Lake.
They made the spiritual pilgrimage to the lake, and left behind burial mounds around the shore that are sadly long gone today.
The last Winnebago chief to rule the Green Lake area, Chief Highknocker, is also buried in Dartford Cemetery with a distinctive and unusual gravestone.
Beside his grave is a boulder taken from the lake.
The chief, as well as numerous children of the early settlers, are said to still haunt the old burial grounds.
Learn more about Dartford Cemetery »
Sonic Seedpod
If you read last week’s newsletter, you know I’ve been working with some collaborators on a new production company (Voyd Studios) dedicated to showcasing the talented and hardworking musicians of Wisconsin. We have several initial shows in the works, including Sonic Seedpod, which is the brainchild of my longtime friend Steve Madsen. Watch him talk about the show on Andrew David Weber’s Five Fire Minutes right here.
The first episode of Sonic Seedpod just premiered on our Youtube channel last weekend, featuring performances by newcomers Citrine. You can watch it now right here.
Getting Voyd off the ground and figuring out the production workflow has been consuming all of my free time lately, but I think we’re in a place now where I can get back to the Wisconsin Frights projects I had to put on hold, such as the updated travel guide, and a few others.
More on that later.
In the meantime, if you like to write about Wisconsin legends and want to contribute to Wisconsin Frights, hit me up.