Haunted Fond du Lac

My interest in the history and lore of the Fond du Lac area began with the Witherell House. But the more I dig, the more fascinating the city becomes. Like many haunted places, the true history is often told through the stories of the spirits that still roam its halls, and those local legends become conduits through which we can touch the past.

From the screaming ghost of Hotel Retlaw’s room 717 and the many secrets of the mysterious Octagon House, to Rienzi Cemetery on the outskirts of the city where Wisconsin Territory’s third governor communed with the dead in the mid-1800s, Fond du Lac is full of these old ghosts keeping its history alive.

I’m in the early stages of a potential new project, so I recently set out in the rain on a scouting mission to photograph some of the more storied locations of Fond du Lac’s haunted history.