Find out about the bizarre and mysterious creatures living in Wisconsin.

The United States has a rich haunted history not often recounted in school. Beyond the Liberty Bell and right under the presidential noses on Mount Rushmore exists a dark and sinister world, which harbors secret creatures, beings both malevolent and benevolent, that inhabit the nation--ghosts and monsters unwilling or unable to abandon the American landscape. Hitchhike along on this transnational road trip with excursions to the most haunted American locations, including the home of Lizzie Borden, the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, and the Winchester Mystery House. Close your eyes through Ohio, purported to be the most haunted state in the nation. Watch out for the Frozen Bodies in Lake Tahoe, the Werewolves rumored to roam a lone stretch of road in Wisconsin, and the Bell Witch of Tennessee. And don't venture too close to the colonial era cemetery in Leicester, Massachusetts, for as the story goes, the only way out is through Hell.

Wisconsin is a land rich with stories. It was the "mother of all circuses," a place of buried treasure and home to eerie ghosts and monsters. Native American legends, tall tales told at lumberjack camps and taverns, ghostlore and modern urban legends all form the wonderful mythology of the Dairy State. Many know of Rhinelander's famous Hodag, the Beast of Bray Road in Elkhorn, Milwaukee's haunted Pfister Hotel and the Ridgeway Ghost. But few have heard obscure tales like the Christmas Tree Ghost Ship of Two Rivers, the Goatman of Richfield's Hogsback Road and the legend of the Witch's Tower of Whitewater. Author Tea Krulos, an expert in all things strange and unusual, digs up Wisconsin favorites and arcane lore.

Explores humanity's fascination with lake and sea monsters and separates fact from fiction by examining ancient legends and myths, contemporary eyewitness accounts, and the latest scientific discoveries.

Highly entertaining and richly informative, Wisconsin Folklore offers the first comprehensive collection of writings about the surprisingly varied folklore of Wisconsin. Beginning with a historical introduction to Wisconsin's folklore and concluding with an up-to-date bibliography, this anthology offers more than fifty annotated and illustrated entries in five sections: "Terms and Talk," "Storytelling," "Music, Song, and Dance," "Beliefs and Customs," and "Material Traditions and Folklife." The various contributors, from 1884 to 1997, are anthropologists, ethnomusicologists, historians, journalists, museologists, ordinary citizens reminiscing, sociologists, students, writers of fiction, practitioners of folklore, and folklorists. Their interests cover an enormous range of topics: from Woodland Indian place names and German dialect expressions to Welsh nicknames and the jargon of apple-pickers, brewers, and farmers; from Ho-Chunk and Ojibwa mythological tricksters and Paul Bunyan legends to stories of Polish strongmen and Ole and Lena jokes; from Menominee dances and Norwegian fiddling and polka music to African-American gospel groups and Hmong musicians; from faith healers and wedding and funeral customs to seasonal ethnic festivities and tavern amusements; and from spearing decoys and needlework to church dinners, sacred shrines, and the traditional work practices of commercial fishers, tobacco growers, and pickle packers. For general readers, teachers, librarians, and scholars alike, Wisconsin Folklore exemplifies and illuminates Wisconsin's cultural traditions, and establishes the state's significant but long neglected contributions to American folklore.