The Witches of Whitewater

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I was born and raised in Whitewater, WI, where my family still lives. That's right, a full blown townie, just as my father and grandfather before me, all of us residents of Whitewater. Growing up in Whitewater, ghost stories where a dime a dozen, but it wasn't until I attended World Affairs Seminar in 1985 that I realized that this was not typical. The seminar was held in Whitewater on campus, and I was one of two attendees from the home town. As our badges presented our home towns, I had some other students at the seminar come up to me and ask about Whitewater being the "Second Salem." While ghost stories where not uncommon in my childhood, I had never heard the comparison to the infamous Salem.  Now I see they are making a movie about "The Witches of Whitewater."
I was able to take the curious up the hill to the haunted water tower in Starin Park which I had always known to be a haunted spot in town. The water tower is spooky because the fence around the tower has the barbed wire turned inwards as if to keep something inside. The "Witches Tower" is like this supposedly to keep the spirits trapped inside.
Another common haunted story is the "School of the Black Arts." They are referring to the Morris Pratt Institute for spiritualistic studies. This school, which still exists today opened in 1903 in Whitewater. Interestingly enough, Mr. Pratt made his money in mining speculation in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, which has it's own chain of folklore and mysticism about the area going back to 3000BC, but more on that in a bit. His decision to invest there was due to a medium's recommendation.
There is also the story of the witches book.  Ted Sullivan, of the Janesville Gazette, points out that an article on the Weird US site mentions the book is now at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater's Library.  If the book exists, I'm surprised that it didn't end up at the new library on Center St. as the Platner's house that previously stood on the site of the new library was also haunted, according to a school mate that lived there.
The story about the mystic book I have heard since I was a kid, but I always understood it to be in a room under the old library on Main St. which is now home to the Whitewater Arts Alliance.   This doesn't surprise me as the building next to the old library is the Hamilton House, once a stop on the Underground Railroad. While the Underground Railroad was not actually an underground train, many of the homes that served as safe houses along the network did have secret underground rooms.  This would include the nearest stops to the north and south of Whitewater. The Milton House has a secret passage to a cabin behind the main house, and a house at 323 Merchants Ave. in Fort Atkinson also has an underground room and tunnel. The Merchants Ave. house is the house that my mother grew up in and it was my uncle that discovered the secret room and tunnel. Oddly enough, that house was also haunted as some of my aunts befriended the ghost who lived there.
Whitewater does have tunnels.  My father just confirmed this last week with his daily coffee clutch.  A couple of the fellows in the group are retired city workers and they have been in the tunnels and supplied the pictures.   The tunnel connecting the Hamilton House to the First English Lutheran Church across Main St. is still there, but it is all bricked up on each end.  The tunnel system apparently also connected to a bunch of the churches and homes all in the Church St. area. These pictures of a tunnel section under a parking lot were taken on the other side of the church. I wish I would have known this when I was in the basement of the church learning to be a boy scout!
Whitewater also has a bunch of indian mounds and burial grounds that unfortunately got partially developed a while back.  This isn't so mystic, though, as there are mounds all over southern Wisconsin. A mere 30 miles towards Madison and you will arrive at Aztalan, a place loaded with ethereal power. Aztalan was supposedly a trading post a long time ago which traffiked in copper coming out of the mines in Upper Michigan. It is also a Native American burial site with many burial mounds. A stones throw away from Aztalan is the location of the submerged pyramids in Rock Lake. It makes sense since Aztalan is in the perfect location in the driftless area between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. As the history statement on the Rock Lake Research Society site suggests.
Most of the haunted locations in Whitewater I am aware of do reside in the haunted triangle, but that makes sense as the house I grew up in was right on the triangle line. Whether there is meaning to this or not I don't know.  What I do know is that I have been hearing these stories for over 30 years.  The existence of spirits has just never been in question for me.  While I cannot define any supernatural occurrences in my experience, This triangle area is where I grew up, and I do definitely believe there is something special about my childhood home.

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Links:
Whitewater has been referred to as the "Second Salem."
Whitewater - The Second Salem
Whitewater, Wisconsin Ghost Tales
The Witches of Whitewater
Halloween: Creepy Whitewater
Legends of paranormal