Local Legends Explored: Walking Ghost Tours and Haunted Sightseeing in Wisconsin and Illinois

Oct 19, 2023

We’re loving this chilly fall weather and early autumnal nights. It has us feeling the Halloween spirit to the fullest! Those whistling winds, whispering trees, and crunching leaves make us think about things that go bump in the night. For today’s blog, we thought we’d enjoy some seasonal scares and thrills with a selection of wonderful walking ghost tours and haunted sightseeing in Wisconsin and Illinois. If you’ve been to any of the places on our list, let us know in the comments!

The Shakers Ghost Tour 2.0 is a grittier, spicier, and much longer tour than the Shakers Original Ghost Tour. You’ll experience a hands-on ghost tour in one of the most haunted bars, along with a history lesson, decades worth of scandal and drama, and a chance to use some good ol’ fashioned divining rods.

The Ghosts of Madison is a fully immersive tour of Madison, Wisconsin’s most haunted locations: The Capitol Building, Majestic Theatre, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s house amongst them. This 2 hour walking tour serves up some seriously scary historic tales and true tidbits, along with tall tales and legends of local lore and cryptids.

The Lake Geneva Ghost Tour is a unique way to explore the city of Milwaukee. Your knowledgeable haunt guide will give you a new perspective of the city as you walk around Lake Geneva, spinning tall tales and frightening true stories of the local hauntings. Groups are kept to 9 people maximum, providing a uniquely intimate setting.

The Dells Trolley Haunted Tour explores the darker side of the Dells, revealing hidden secrets, dark mysteries, and terrifying truths about the nearby haunted locations. You’ll go orb hunting, ghost spotting with EVPs and meters, tour a haunted cemetery, and so much more…if you dare!

American Ghost Walks: Waukesha Ghost Walks Edition is an exhilarating two hour tour featuring stories of murder, mystery, curses, spiritualism, and even an exorcism! Learn about what the locals have seen and heard (a UFO?!) and hear about the weird, wild, and gross tales of the area. Be forewarned, it is not for the faint of heart as some of the stories and legends can get pretty scary and gory!

American Ghost Walks: Aurora Ghost Walks Edition takes you through the most interesting local haunts and ghost stories in Aurora! You’ll hear about mysteries as far back as 1881, when the city got the nickname “The City of Cemeteries” due to a high volume of graveyards. You’ll lear about the first burials in Mount Olivet Cemetery, listen for the alerts on your EMF detectors, and stand in the spot of some truly chilling events.

American Ghost Walks: Woodstock Ghost Walks Edition will send you back in time to learn the real story behind Woodstock’s most famous spirits, recounts stories and information about local UFO sightings, hear strange but true tales from locals who lived there, and so much more.

The Bayfield Ghost Walk provides a haunted history of the area. Learn about recent and past paranormal events and sightings, haunted pubs and grocery stores, and all manner of mysterious bumps in the night. This 90 minute tour runs nightly through October 31st.

Weird Chicago Tours offer multiple themed excursions throughout the metropolitan area! Choose from tours such as “Devil & the White City Tour” exploring H.H. Holmes and his infamous Murder Castle, or the “Haunted HIstory Tour” which provides a first-hand look at some of the city’s most terrifying sights, or even the True Crime and Mystery tour which takes a grisly look at the murders and crimes that have shaped the darker side of Chicago’s history.