Visit These Historic Hellmouths
Wisconsin's finest portals to Hell
The road to Hell, according to these legends, is a backroad in Wisconsin. And it’s probably paved with beer and cheese. Where can you dine at the Devil’s doorway or get sucked into Lucifer’s water fountain?
Let’s hit the road:
Chances - Rochester, WI
Built in 1843, this historic building has been the home of Chances restaurant for the last several decades and it may be the only place in Wisconsin where you can dine infernally. According to legend, renovations in the 1970s uncovered forgotten tunnels in the basement that had been sealed off due to unholy screams emanating from the darkness within them.
Do these tunnels lead straight to the underworld? And is the food better when you’re dining with demons?
I haven’t personally visited Chances yet—though I’d love a tour of the entrance to Hell—so let me know if you have and if you the the screams of the damned enhanced your dining experience.
Rienzi Cemetery - Fond du Lac, WI
in the mid-1800s, the land that Rienzi Cemetery occupies was the family farm of Nathanial Tallmadge, Wisconsin Territory’s third governor. And, being devout spiritualists, they communed with the dead on this land long before they buried their son at the top of the hill and donated the land to become the necropolis it is today.
My first excursion to this historic burial ground over two decades ago—the night before my doomed experience at the Witherell House down the road— was in search of the old receiving vault that’s said to contain a glowing gateway to Hell.
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Hotel Hell - Maribel, WI
Numerous legends have been swirling around the ruins of Maribel Caves Hotel for a long time, earning it the nickname Hotel Hell. Opened as a hotel and therapeutic spa in 1900, the unique stone structure was gutted by fire at least once, the final one happening in the 80s. Then, much of what remained collapsed during a storm in 2013.
Some of the legends surrounding it include:
Every guest died in their sleep during a fire in the 1930s
Skeletal remains of some of the victims could still be found on the third floor and in the basement before the structure was gutted.
A hotel guest once went psycho and killed everybody in the hotel during a mass-murder frenzy.
Ghosts of people who died in the hotel are sometimes encountered underground in the nearby Maribel Caves.
The spirits of those killed in the hotel have lingered in the building. This spiritual activity attracted a group of local black witches, who conducted secret rituals to curse the hotel, and in the process they opened up a portal to Hell through the old fountain (or well, depending on the story) in the front of the hotel. This unleashed a horde of evil spirits that terrorized the town of Maribel. Fortunately, a white witch came to the rescue, sealing off the portal and confining the demons to the boundaries of the hotel and the surrounding property.
If you look in the old well, the portal to Hell will open up and try to swallow you.
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