The Witches of Whitewater Film Festival

About

Whitewater, WI, Sleepy Midwestern town or hot or strange paranormal activity? With a population of slightly more than 10,000 the city has an unusually high number of reported paranormal incidences, all stemming from legends of witches, devil’s towers, and a unique school meant to train psychics and other spiritualists in the late 1800’s.

Many believe that the tales started in 1889 when the Morris Pratt Institute was built. The Institute specialized in many spiritualism and held regular lectures on a variety of psychic subjects. It is said they had an “all-white” room that was used to conduct séances.

In truth stories were circulating before the Pratt Institute was built. It is said that well into the late 19th century Whitewater was home to an active coven of witches. The witches would use a system of underground tunnels that connect a number of the cities old mansion homes. Although many argue that these tunnels were used in the Underground Railroad, there is one story that goes to support the paranormal past.

In 1981 the members of the Alpha Sigma sorority were having a meeting when they heard a loud explosion come from the basement. The girls rushed downstairs to find the wall in front of a hidden entrance to the tunnels (which had been boarded up) had been blown out. To this day many members who live in the house claim it to be haunted.

Another intriguing legend comes from the location of Whitewater’s three cemeteries, which from a triangle, also referred to as the witches triangle. Inside the triangle there are a higher number of reported hauntings.

Whitewater Lake is another home to unusual happenings. In 1909, large ice floes were found floating in the lake in June. In 1923, some fisherman said that their boat turned over and they were dragged underwater by a creature with long tentacles. They had a hard time getting back up and when they resurfaced they were covered with small bite marks. Also in 1992, three people that had rented a house on the lake said that they saw a gathering of black-clad people chanting and dancing on the beach and a strange creature began to crawl out of the water.

One Halloween in the 1970s the grave of a young girl recently buried was exhumed and placed on the mall of the University campus. Many outraged citizens called the event a prank. The previous night however two fishermen had seen strange lights floating in the cemetery from which the body was exhumed.

The last of the legends involving the witch’s legacy revolves around the water tower located on the University campus in Starin Park. It is said that the land the park is on was used by the witches for ceremonies, using the water tower as a magnet for malicious spirits. An iron fence is built to contain these spirits with the spikes pointed inward to keep things in, rather than pointing outward.

The most intriguing aspect of this story revolves around the covens book. The contents of the book have driven four people to kill themselves. Three university students and one local resident were found with their wrists cut. Only one person remains alive to this day, locked in a mental hospital. Because of the books dark contents, it is now kept hidden under lock and key in the University Library.

Although there are many more stories surrounding Whitewater, these stories are the roots of the legends that have given the city its nickname of The Second Salem.

By Jarred Harkness