Spooky Door County is Full of Ghosts

When John Bartzen arrived in Door County in 2010, he didn’t much believe in ghosts or the paranormal world. 

But after more than a dozen years of working for the Door County Trolley Company and hosting some of its haunted tours, he’s changed his tune. 

“There’s more out there than meets the eye, and even some very odd things that you can sometimes see,” said Bartzen, now manager of the Trolley Company.

His company offers two narrated Door County tours focused on things phantasmagorical, which are some of the best ways to learn about otherworldly life (and death) on the peninsula. 

The first is the Trolley of the Doomed tour, which includes a stop at the Lundberg House - now a White Gull Inn property - on Fish Creek’s Maple Street. In 1901, the oldest child of grocer Charles Lundberg, Ruth, contracted tuberculosis and died on Christmas morning with a fully decorated Yule tree in the parlor. 

Locals say Ruth’s ghost sometimes appears in that room and her second-floor bedroom. Lundberg never again put up a Christmas tree in the parlor.

Another stop is the 10-room Alexander Noble House, which was built in 1875 on the corner of Main Street and Egg Harbor Road in Fish Creek. One of the town’s oldest residences, it’s owned by the Gibraltar Historical Association and is filled with costumes and memorabilia — and the occasional specter — from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

When visitors take photos at night, strange images sometimes appear. More chilling, temperatures can plunge rapidly and doors slam unexpectedly. Outside, mists and shapes often form where a cabin once stood. 

But the most unnerving part of the ghostly tour, which this writer and his family took a while back, was in the Blossomberg Cemetery in Peninsula State Park, where we visited several graves of the dearly departed. In the distance, beyond the glow of our flashlights, I saw flickering yellow, blue and orange luminescence’s. Honest.

The second Trolley Tour is the Haunted Pub Crawl, which features stops at four watering holes where guests learn about wraiths - friendly and otherwise - who inhabit the drinking establishments. One of them, the Blue Ox Bar & Grill on Highway 57 in Baileys Harbor, was a former butcher shop where its owner was killed with a meat cleaver. His bloody ghost sometimes appears around closing time. Fortunately, he’s harmless, Bartzen said. 

Here are some other ways to experience the spooky side of Door County:

The Shipwrecked Brew Pub & Restaurant, on Egg Harbor Road in Egg Harbor, burned down in 2017. But that didn’t drive out the paranormal activity, which returned when it reopened a year later. Oddities include rattling doors, shaking walls, unexplainable mists and pennies standing upright in weird locations. 

Shipwrecked is also rumored to be haunted by a collection of spirits, ranging from rugged loggers of the 19th Century, gangster cohorts of Al Capone, an illegitimate son of Capone’s and federal agents who stopped by and were never seen again. Unlike other haunted spots in Door County, Shipwrecked is wheelchair accessible with an elevator to reach a second-floor dining area. 

Several of Door County’s lighthouses have also been reported to be occasionally inhabited by spirits.

• Lewis S. Williams, the first keeper of the Chambers Island Lighthouse (which is open by appointment) is said to return to open and close doors, remove and replace objects and shake beds.
• Pottawatomie Lighthouse on Rock Island, which is open from Memorial Day through Columbus Day, was first built in 1836 and is the state’s oldest lighthouse. Guests have reported an “eerie vibe,” strange lights, unusual noises and the ghosts of small children playing.
• Sherwood Point Lighthouse, which is not open to the public because it serves as a retreat for active Coast Guard members, is home to the ghost of former lighthouse keeper Minnie Hesh. Though she died in 1928, her spirit remains, occasionally filling the lighthouse with cheerful laughter. She’s also something of a cleanliness nut, reportedly tidying up after visitors who have also noted the clanking of teacups and glassware, as well as apparitions on the staircase. 

Explore more haunting tales from Door County lighthouses and find more spooky activities throughout Wisconsin.