In Wisconsin, the forests press close and the roads seem a little too quiet, even in daylight. The Beast of Bray Road still prowls the edges of forgotten fields, and along the empty highways, the Ridgeway Ghost waits with a thumb out and a grin you don’t want to see too clearly. Summerwind Mansion rots deeper into the earth every year, but the echoes of broken promises and colder things still cling to its stones.

The Great Lakes stretch wide and gray, swallowing the horizon, while the northwoods grow thick with stories of men who walked into the mist one evening and were never quite seen the same again. Even the old jails, like the one in Washington County, still rattle with unseen footsteps when the snow falls heavy enough.

Here, they like to say “Forward” — but in the deep woods and along the frozen shores, it’s hard to shake the feeling that something is just pulling behind you.

Ghost Stories and Scary American Folklore from Across the United States