Many Whitewater residents are familiar with its eerie moniker “Second Salem,” but few know the history that earned the city that name. The Whitewater Chamber of Commerce seeks to change that, as well as draw in tourists to this spooky city with another annual Whitewater Spirit Tour.

Tourists have the option between a bus tour and a walking tour. Guests are brought to a variety of supposedly haunted locations throughout the city where they are met by actors in historical garb portraying figures from Whitewater’s past. They share their spooky, unsettling, and even paranormal stories.

“All of the stories are based on real history in Whitewater,” said Jeanine Fassl, one of the actors on the tour. Fassl portrays Myrtle Schaude, a Whitewater resident who, in 1923, was convicted of murdering her husband and attempting to murder her children with poison.

“It’s all about real history, [and] some of our history is not pleasant,” Fassl said. She notes that there are “lots of other things that this country did, but every little community has their skeletons in the closet. That’s what we’re trying to highlight on this tour.”

Some of the locations included in the tour which are allegedly haunted include Oak Grove and Hillside Cemeteries, St. John’s Masonic Lodge, the Hamilton House Bed & Breakfast, and the very close-to-home Starin Park Water Tower.

The Starin Park Water Tower, constructed in 1889, is the second oldest operating water tower in the state of Wisconsin. The actors informed the tour that the water tower is also one of the most haunted places in the city. According to legend, witches are buried around the tower in upright positions, along with a mystic altar used in coven rituals.

The tour was also joined by The Ghostly Gumshoe, a non profit paranormal investigation group, who put on a presentation sharing a number of their investigations across the state as well as audio clips depicting possible paranormal encounters.

The Whitewater Chamber of Commerce has been hosting these tours since 2014, and they often sell out or nearly sell out each year.

“It was a labor of love,” said Fassl, “we decided that there were a lot of these types of tours going on, and the [Chamber of Commerce] is always in need of a little extra funding, so we thought this would be a really fun way to raise some money.”

The participants and organizers of the Whitewater Spirit Tour are all volunteers, and any money raised goes to the city’s Chamber of Commerce.

Members of the Whitewater Spirit Tour Committee want to draw a large audience of locals as well as out-of-town residents. Denise Maple, who is on the committee and a member of the Whitewater Chamber of Commerce, says that Whitewater is a “great place with much to offer.” Maple explains that bringing in people from other communities helps direct them to the city’s many other attractions, like hiking trails and restaurants.

Kristen Burton, another Spirit Tour Committee member and Business Outreach Operations Manager at UW-Whitewater said, “it’s a pleasure to do [the tour].” Burton explains that “it’s a good way to bring people into our community to check out what makes Whitewater special.”

Burton said the tour is also a great way “to understand Whitewater’s spiritualist history. It sheds a lot of light on some of these legends that are floating around. I would say that it’s a big part of Whitewater’s past.”

Fassl notes that the tour is all about getting “a feel for the diversity in our lives” and understanding the world around us. “Enjoy the stories,” she said, “and try not to become one.”

For more information about the Whitewater Spirit Tour, visit its page on the Whitewater Chamber of Commerce website or the Whitewater Spirit Tour Facebook page.