Wisconsin Legends Podcast

The 2026 Milwaukee Paracon will be held on October 17th at Kochanski's Concertina Beer Hall in Milwaukee.

The festivities will begin at 10am with speakers, vendors, food, and plenty of spirits. Admission is free. So, come and get spooky with us!

This recording is from last year's Milwaukee Paracon featuring Josh Hughes of Waukesha Ghosts and Weird Wisconsin.

Pick up a copy of his book at Amazon

Enjoy the episode and see you at Milwaukee Paracon 2026!

Wisconsin Rapids native, Jeff Finup is the mind behind Badgerland Legends, which explores Wisconsin's mysteries and fascinating history, a post at a time. Legends, lore, history, cryptids ,and more from the Badger State. Find his work on Instagram and Facebook.

Mike Huberty, hailing from the town of Big Bend, near Milwaukee, is the owner of American Ghost Walks, a haunted history tour company with locations in Maine, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and started in our very own Badger State of Wisconsin - with tours in Lake Geneva, Milwaukee, Madison, Waukesha, Bayfield, and the Wisconsin Dells. Find out more at AmericanGhostWalks.Com.

It seems as though Wisconsin has had a hand in almost all of the major American UFO incidents of the modern era.

Mike and Jeff discuss Wisconsin UFO history from the 1970s to 2023.

What role did Wisconsin play in the Roswell mythos?

What landed at the Baker's farm in Wisconsin's Northwoods?

Did William Bosak encounter a fly cow humanoid? And what happened two years to that day?

What is Wisconsin's role in the latest round of UFO disclosure?

We cover all of this in more on Wisconsin UFOs: Part Two - The Conclusion

With special guest, Dean Bertram to talk about Raymond Palmer and The Shaver Mystery.

• Grothman: Lack of Transparency on UAPs has Eroded Public Trust - United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability
• UFO Hearing Wisconsin
• Jeff's UFO Sighting 2004 in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin
• The Roswell Slides: Anatomy of a PR Debacle
• The Roswell Slides
• Roswell
• Roswell: The Ultimate Cold Case
• Lake Monsters of Wisconsin- Chad Lewis
• Lake Michigan Triangle - Wikipedia
• Magonia Syndrome
• Håkan Blomqvist´s blog: Charlotte Blob And The UFO Education Center
• George Wheeler- Suddenly, the Chief Believes
• George Wheeler
• Baker UFO- Mellen, WI
• Bosak Cowman | Paranormal Strange Wiki | Fandom
• Bosak Humanoid- Cryptonauts Podcast

Wisconsin Rapids native, Jeff Finup is the mind behind Badgerland Legends, which explores Wisconsin's mysteries and fascinating history, a post at a time. Legends, lore, history, cryptids ,and more from the Badger State. Find his work on Instagram and Facebook.

Mike Huberty, hailing from the town of Big Bend, near Milwaukee, is the owner of American Ghost Walks, a haunted history tour company with locations in Maine, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and started in our very own Badger State of Wisconsin - with tours in Lake Geneva, Milwaukee, Madison, Waukesha, Bayfield, and the Wisconsin Dells. Find out more at AmericanGhostWalks.Com.

Wisconsin has played an outsized role in the history of ufology.

Mike and Jeff discuss the early years of Wisconsin UFO sightings with the "airship" flap of 1897. Can these be dismissed as hysteria or was something otherworldy appearing in the skies over Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, and as far north as Wausau?

How did a solitary building on the shores of Lake Geneva play a role in the life of the "Father of Ufology"?

How did a chance sighting in Barron, WI directly inspire the work of MUFON?

Did aliens really bring pancakes to a plumber in the Northwoods?

We cover all of this in more on Wisconsin UFOs: Part One

• 1897 - Milwaukee Airship Mystery
• The Edge of reality : a progress report on Unidentified Flying Objects
• Eagle River Plumber (With Good Reputation) Tells of Flying Saucer
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF MUFON – MUFON
• The Close Encounters Man: How One Man Made the World Believe in UFOs
• Ground Observer Coral Lorenzen UFO Flying Saucer - Green Bay Press Gazette Archive
• Report on the UFO Wave of 1947 by Ted Bloecher

Wisconsin Rapids native, Jeff Finup is the mind behind Badgerland Legends, which explores Wisconsin's mysteries and fascinating history, a post at a time. Legends, lore, history, cryptids ,and more from the Badger State. Find his work on Instagram and Facebook.

Mike Huberty, hailing from the town of Big Bend, near Milwaukee, is the owner of American Ghost Walks, a haunted history tour company with locations in Maine, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and started in our very own Badger State of Wisconsin - with tours in Lake Geneva, Milwaukee, Madison, Waukesha, Bayfield, and the Wisconsin Dells. Find out more at AmericanGhostWalks.Com.

Madison is best known for being a college town and the state capital of Wisconsin.

It's usually characterized by raucous crowds at Camp Randall, its lakes, reveling on State Street, and the picturesque backdrops of photo-ops like the Capitol Building, the Monona Terrace, the Union Terrace, and Bascom Hill.

But, few know that Madison was the setting for a string of unsolved murders not too long ago.

"The Mad City Murders" or "Capital City Killings" spanned fourteen bloody years from 1968 to 1982.

Mike and Jeff take a deep dive into the string of murders and speculate who might be responsible and what set off the phenomenon.

Sources:

Mad City: The True Story of the Campus Murders That America Forgot by Michael Arntfield

• The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime
• David Kahl pleads guilty in death of UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmerman
• FBI - Serial Murder
• Capital City Murders — A Killer Emerges — Crime Library
• How Lead Caused America's Violent Crime Epidemic
• Wisconsin Homicides Up Over Last Decade
• Evidence lost in at least 4 Dane County cold cases | Local News | captimes.com
• Portage County officials rule Janet Raasch's 1984 death accidental
• Kelly Nolan family offers new reward in unsolved murder case
• What to know about Diane Olkwitz, Terri Lee Erdmann cold case murders
• Wisconsin’s Capital City Killings
• Stabbed, beaten, garroted and two gloves shoved down her throat: University murder is 'solved' 50 years on as expert suggests there were more victims

Wisconsin Rapids native, Jeff Finup is the mind behind Badgerland Legends, which explores Wisconsin's mysteries and fascinating history, a post at a time. Legends, lore, history, cryptids ,and more from the Badger State. Find his work on Instagram and Facebook.

Mike Huberty, hailing from the town of Big Bend, near Milwaukee, is the owner of American Ghost Walks, a haunted history tour company with locations in Maine, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and started in our very own Badger State of Wisconsin - with tours in Lake Geneva, Milwaukee, Madison, Waukesha, Bayfield, and the Wisconsin Dells. Find out more at AmericanGhostWalks.Com.

Live from the Milwaukee Paranormal Conference

The Devil in Milwaukee w/ Allison Jornlin (American Ghost Walks- Milwaukee)

Allison joins Mike and Jeff to discuss three curious cases from her hometown.

Recorded live at the Irish Cultural and Heritage Center in downtown Milwaukee, October 14th, 2023.

Outro: Halloween Pumpkin by PurplePlanetMusic

Wisconsin Rapids native, Jeff Finup is the mind behind Badgerland Legends, which explores Wisconsin's mysteries and fascinating history, a post at a time. Legends, lore, history, cryptids ,and more from the Badger State. Find his work on Instagram and Facebook.

Mike Huberty, hailing from the town of Big Bend, near Milwaukee, is the owner of American Ghost Walks, a haunted history tour company with locations in Maine, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and started in our very own Badger State of Wisconsin - with tours in Lake Geneva, Milwaukee, Madison, Waukesha, Bayfield, and the Wisconsin Dells. Find out more at AmericanGhostWalks.Com.

Spawned from the lumber camps of the Northwoods comes the Hodag, Wisconsin's most fearsome critter.

From bunkhouse tale to worldwide phenomenon.

Discover who or what created this mythical creature and how it became so popular.

Why is Rhinelander the "Home of the Hodags" and who is carrying on the tradition of the beast.

Hodag

Hodag 125th Anniversary

Hodag - wiki

William T Cox

Snallygaster

Capture of the Hodag

Eugene Shepard

Rhinelander

Lakeshore Kearney

PT Barnum

Mishipeshu

Piasa Bird

Whiskey Jack/Wisakedjak

JK Rollins - Hodag

JFK's Hodag

Hidden Headlines of Wisconsin - Chad Lewis

Hodag Country Music Festival

Pioneer Park Historical Complex

The Hodag Store

The Hodag Show

Hodag Heritage

I Saw a Hodag - Kerry Exotic

Carmen San Diego - Hodag Store

Best Highschool Mascot in America

Long Live the Hodag! 

Bumper Music

Spend the Night - Sunspot

Folk Polk 

Wisconsin Rapids native, Jeff Finup is the mind behind Badgerland Legends, which explores Wisconsin's mysteries and fascinating history, a post at a time. Legends, lore, history, cryptids ,and more from the Badger State. Find his work on Instagram and Facebook.

Mike Huberty, hailing from the town of Big Bend, near Milwaukee, is the owner of American Ghost Walks, a haunted history tour company with locations in Maine, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and started in our very own Badger State of Wisconsin - with tours in Lake Geneva, Milwaukee, Madison, Waukesha, Bayfield, and the Wisconsin Dells. Find out more at AmericanGhostWalks.Com.

On March 8th, 1921, the remains of a young boy were found floating in a pond near the O’Laughlin Stone Company’s Waukesha quarry.

The boy was dressed in a gray sweater, black stockings, a blouse, patent leather shoes, and Munsing undergarments. The quality clothing and fancifully dressed suggested the young man was from means.

The newspaper writers gave the unidentified boy the nickname, Little Lord Fauntleroy after the literary title which depicted a young well-dressed boy who was adopted into aristocracy.

Who was this little boy and how did he end up at the quarry?

Mike and Jeff are joined by Josh Hughes from Waukesha Ghost Walks to discuss the tragic tale of Little Lord Fauntleroy. Josh gives his insights on the case as they discuss the motives behind his killing and his possibly identity.

Josh Hughes

Waukesha Ghost Walks

Waukesha, WI

Little Lord Fauntleroy (literary character)

Little Lord Fauntleroy (victim)

Waukesha Quary

King Ralph (1991)

Spotted Dick

Milwaukee Ghost Walks

Fisherman John St. Croix River (Stillwater, MN)

Stillwater Ghost Walks

Change.org Exhumation Petition

Slenderman

Slenderman Stabbing

Mound Builders of the Mississippi Valley

Cahokia

Scientific Studies/Papers

Filicide in the US: Indian Journal of Psychiatry- Resnick

Filicide/Suicide Common Factors in Parents who kill their children themselves- Resnick, Susan Hatters Freidman- Journal in the American Academy of Psychiatry 2005

Child Sacrifice in the Western World- David Medeema (2004) Journal of Critical Thinking and Bioethics - CedarEthics, vol. 4, pp. 5-7. ISSN 2333-9713

Keith Reyes- UTEP- Filicide as Child Sacrifice in the Judeao Christain Worldview of the US- Dissertation

Munchausen by Proxy

Wisconsin Rapids native, Jeff Finup is the mind behind Badgerland Legends, which explores Wisconsin's mysteries and fascinating history, a post at a time. Legends, lore, history, cryptids ,and more from the Badger State. Find his work on Instagram and Facebook.

Mike Huberty, hailing from the town of Big Bend, near Milwaukee, is the owner of American Ghost Walks, a haunted history tour company with locations in Maine, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and started in our very own Badger State of Wisconsin - with tours in Lake Geneva, Milwaukee, Madison, Waukesha, Bayfield, and the Wisconsin Dells. Find out more at AmericanGhostWalks.Com.

Mentioned in this episode:

See us in person at the 2023 Milwaukee Paracon for a live podcast recording of Wisconsin Legends Podcast! Registration is free. More details at https://www.milwaukeeparacon.com

In the conclusion of the Frank Lloyd Wright saga, we find Frank dealing with the loss of his beloved Mamah.

Wright finds love in an unusual way, but his first wife, Kitty stands in the way refusing to file for divorce.

After another ill-fated marriage, Wright finds a new mystically-inclined woman in his life.

What events led to Wright's arrest in Minnesota?

Who was this mystical stranger from the East?

Was Wright running an institution or a cult?

What are Wright's links to Joseph Stalin?

Does Wright's ghost reside in a Dallas theater? What stigmas are associated with Wright's properties?

Jeff and Mike cover it all in Part 2.

Miriam Noel

Minnetonka Arrest

Olgivanna Wright

The Mann Act

Georgie Gurdjieff

Why Not Both Meme?

P.L. Travers

Notre Dame de Paris

Victor Hugo

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Objectivism

The Fellowship (book)

Gurdjieff Visit's Taliesin

Wes Peters

Stalin's Daughter- Svetlana

American Ghost Walks

Prairie School Movement

Dallas Theater- Coleta Humphries Theater (Notion article)

Institute of Mental Physics

Edwin Dingle

Swedenborg Memorial Chapel

Black Dahlia

John Sowden House

Brian O'Doherty ogham script

Ennis House

Manly P Hall- The Secret Teachings of All Ages

The Pauson House

Maribel Caves Hotel (Wisconsin Legends Podcast)

Esoteric America - Spring Green

Esoteric America - Madison

Steven Snider

Bumper Music:

Mania-663

Sunspot- I'll be seeing you

Pony Trek

Sunspot Acoustic Duo #2

Sunspot Acoustic Duo #1

Wisconsin Rapids native, Jeff Finup is the mind behind Badgerland Legends, which explores Wisconsin's mysteries and fascinating history, a post at a time. Legends, lore, history, cryptids ,and more from the Badger State. Find his work on Instagram and Facebook.

Mike Huberty, hailing from the town of Big Bend, near Milwaukee, is the owner of American Ghost Walks, a haunted history tour company with locations in Maine, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and started in our very own Badger State of Wisconsin - with tours in Lake Geneva, Milwaukee, Madison, Waukesha, Bayfield, and the Wisconsin Dells. Find out more at AmericanGhostWalks.Com.

Mentioned in this episode:

See us in person at the 2023 Milwaukee Paracon for a live podcast recording of Wisconsin Legends Podcast! Registration is free. More details at https://www.milwaukeeparacon.com

Join Jeff and Mike for the kickoff of Season 2 of the Wisconsin Legends Podcast

In this episode they discuss Frank Lloyd Wright who is known today as “the greatest American architect of all time”.

Wright’s career in architecture spanned 73 years and he is credited with many incredible works as well as the progenitor of a movement that reshaped how American’s live within their homes.

His humble beginnings in rural Richland and Sauk County, Wisconsin and how it informed much of his style and aesthetic.

The guys discuss the tragedy at Taliesin, the esoteric underpinning found in Wright's work, and the tragic and supernatural aspects linked to his projects and properties.

Frank Lloyd Wright

American Institute of Architects

Froebelian Games

Victor Hugo

Gothic Architecture

Unitarians

Science Hall

Madison Ghost Walks

Adler & Sullivan

Unity Chapel (F.L. Wright Del)

Charnley House

Statue of the Republic

The Devil in the White City Tour

Wisconsin Statue

Unity Temple

Fredrick C Robie

Cheney House

Mamah Borthwick Cheney

Taliesin (poet)

Esus

Taranis

Teutates

Solar Cross

Wickerman Cults

Kieran Murphy

Charles Fort

Archeoastronomy

Helena Blavatsky

Theosophy

Exploring the Legacies of Theosophy -  Johanna Petsche

The Secret Doctrine

Hilla von Rebay 

https://thecultural.me/the-legacy-of-hilla-von-rebays-mission-to-new-york-148909

Solomon Guggenheim

Guggenheim Museum

The Red Square

Susan Lawrence Dana House

Bumper Music:

Waltz for a Cat

Pony Trek

Spooky Music Theme

I'll be seeing you- Sunspot

Celtic Loop

Spend the Night - Sunspot

Mania

Bewitched

Sad Ballerina Waltz

Wisconsin Rapids native, Jeff Finup is the mind behind Badgerland Legends, which explores Wisconsin's mysteries and fascinating history, a post at a time. Legends, lore, history, cryptids ,and more from the Badger State. Find his work on Instagram and Facebook.

Mike Huberty, hailing from the town of Big Bend, near Milwaukee, is the owner of American Ghost Walks, a haunted history tour company with locations in Maine, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and started in our very own Badger State of Wisconsin - with tours in Lake Geneva, Milwaukee, Madison, Waukesha, Bayfield, and the Wisconsin Dells. Find out more at AmericanGhostWalks.Com.

One of the Dairy State's most notorious hauntings, The Ridgeway Phantom, terrorized the Old Military Ridge Road that ran from the Fox Valley in the Northeast to Prairie du Chien in the Southwest of the state. From the 1840s, residents of the Driftless area near Ridgeway have spoken about the phantom, who acts more like a troublemaker and trickster than a traditional ghost as he stalks the road. But how could the Ridgeway Phantom have been influenced by the traditions of the Welsh and Cornish lead miners who had been coming to the area by the tens of thousands? And how similar was it to a contemporary legend happening on their home island at the exact same time. Over a century later, reports of a strange creature starting happening in Mineral Point just a few miles away.

How are the cases connected and are there any recent eye witness reports of the Ridgeway Phantom? And what if it's not the spirit of a deceased human, but something completely different? From shapeshifter to vampire, this is the definitive guide to Wisconsin's most famous ghost, The Ridgeway Phantom.

Mike Huberty, hailing from the town of Big Bend, near Milwaukee, is the owner of American Ghost Walks, a haunted history tour company with locations in Maine, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and started in our very own Badger State of Wisconsin - with tours in Lake Geneva, Milwaukee, Madison, Waukesha, Bayfield, and the Wisconsin Dells. Find out more at AmericanGhostWalks.Com.

Wisconsin Rapids native, Jeff Finup is the mind behind Badgerland Legends, which explores Wisconsin's mysteries and fascinating history, a post at a time. Legends, lore, history, cryptids ,and more from the Badger State. Find his work on Instagram and Facebook.