RSS
Home
Ghosts of Grant Park
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Covered bridge to the entrance of the Seven Bridges Hiking Trail
I only had to visit once and I was certain. Milwaukee’s Grant Park, with its antiquated lannon stone paths and rustic wooden bridges, situated along the shores of Lake Michigan, was haunted. There was no doubt about it in my mind. Grant Park, covering nearly 380 acres in South Milwaukee, is truly a local haunt, in its own right.
I had heard the stories and legends about Grant Park, and the Seven Bridges Trail in particular. Some claim that since the early 1900s, a number of people have committed suicide along the trails, and at night you can still hear screams and footsteps and witness strange lights deep in the ravines. Allegedly there is a ghost woman who haunts the area searching for her sons who were drowned. One story also claims there are odd human-sized creatures, almost like insects, that stalk the forest.
Being adventurous on the days before Halloween, I thought I’d check it out for myself.
The drive through Grant Park, coming from Lake Drive on the west, is a beautiful sight. Autumn trees frame the road, and the lake comes into view below the bluffs. The road winds past the golf course and picnic areas, until the parking section by the covered bridge which marks the entrance to the Seven Bridges Hiking Trail.
This covered bridge over the entrance really captures the truth of it all. Inscribed on the wooden arch above the entryway is – “Enter this wild wood and view the haunts of nature.” At that moment, I should have known that once I crossed the bridge into the forest, I would know the truth.
Before hitting the trail, I had stopped to talk with a woman who was standing along the upper bluff looking out over Lake Michigan, with her bike parked beside her and water bottle in her hand. I asked her if she had heard about the stories of ghost sightings in the park. She went on to tell me that she had been coming to Grant Park since she was a child, and that of all the Milwaukee County Parks, this was her favorite. She said it is safe and peaceful here, where she can view the wild side of the lake. She explained that workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps had constructed the Seven Bridges Trail in the 1930s, as they were designed by Mr. Frederick Wulff. And…she told me that she can sense the ghosts here from time to time.
As I entered the Seven Bridges Hiking Trail I expected the forest to be entwined with dark undergrowth and spooky apparitions. Instead I walked into a golden autumn sanctuary, with babbling creeks and worn footpaths and stairs up the bluffs above Lake Michigan. The bridge that accesses the lake was closed due to disrepair, but I walked a different route, and suddenly stumbled upon the open beach and the crashing waves of the lake.
It was an amazing sight, and on this particular late October day I was not the only one who came to experience this phenomenon. The park that day was alive with visitors, relishing the sunny weekend and taking in the Midwest’s colors. There were couples walking their dogs, families taking in the brisk air, and photographers using the rare autumn backdrop.
I stopped to chat with a young couple who had come to the park to take some engagement pictures. The young man said he had spent time at the park as a teenager, trying to catch a glimpse of the ghosts. But, draping an arm over his wife-to-be, he stated that today his thoughts were on other things.
I also met a gentleman who was enjoying time in the park with his son taking pictures of the autumn scenery. He knelt on the pathway to capture the water babbling over the rocks in just the right sunlight. He told me that he likes to come to the park at 4 a.m. to experience the solitude of nature at sunrise and listen to the music of the forest streams and the waves of Lake Michigan.
But there among the afternoon visitors, I also found the ghosts. As the sun was dropping lower in the sky, I wandered further along the paths, strewn with fallen leaves. I knew I should turn around and head back to the main entrance bridge, before getting lost in the tangle of forests and valleys, but something kept beckoning me on. The ghosts of the park, their whispers barely audible over the trickle of the creek, whispered to me along the wooded paths.
There were no screams or heavy breathing or footsteps racing through the underbrush. There were no strange creatures lumbering down the trails. But what I witnessed along the walkways of the Seven Bridges Trail were the ghosts that we leave behind. In a place so enriched with nature our spirits roam free, throwing off their urban encasements and troubled chaos of each day.
As I finished my hike along the Seven Bridges Trail, I noticed the words above the wooden bridge, on the opposite side, inscribed for the exiting visitor:
“May the God given peace of this leafy solitude rest upon and abide with thee.”
I looked back over the bridge into the golden forest, as the last afternoon sunlight danced through the trees. For a moment, all was silent. The visitors seemed to have disappeared and it was just me alone with the ghosts of Grant Park.
I was satisfied with my conclusion as I left the park that day: in the daylight Grant Park is simply haunted by the spirits of nature, but, truth be told, I really wouldn’t want to stay and wander the footpaths in the forest after dark. Whatever spirits linger there in the hours after the park has closed, are better left alone.
Related Articles:
Comments
.jpg)
