Goatman and Other Wisconsin Mysteries in This Month’s Milwaukee Magazine
Wisconsin’s unsolved mysteries in Milwaukee Magazine
The ghost walks that Wisconsin author and paranormal investigator J. Nathan Couch leads around downtown West Bend have become, in my opinion, legendary in their own right. While strolling past historic buildings like Washington County’s old jail, where legend says a sheriff once murdered a prisoner and buried him in the earthen basement, or the theater where the deceased manager was known to still wander the halls with his jingling keys, Couch shares tales filled with dark history and eerie encounters he dug up from the local history books, as well as personal accounts that were shared directly with him by those that experienced them.
Most interesting, perhaps, is that every once in a while the subjects of these local legends make a personal appearance.
But one of my favorite stops on the walk has nothing to do with downtown West Bend. It’s when Couch takes a moment to discuss the two nearby Goatman legends – the goatman of Hogsback Road in Hubertus, who lures cars off the steep shoulder to their death, and the goatman of Kewaskum’s South Mill Road. Both seem to be nothing more than quirky old Lover’s Lane legends, where couples parked on backroads encounter a murderous creature that puts a bloody damper on their midnight tryst. Rarely do these legends have witnesses.
Which is what makes the story of S. Mill Road’s angry goatman, a firsthand account shared with Couch while he was researching his book Goatman: Flesh or Folklore?, all the more intriguing.
Milwaukee Magazine, May 2018
Read about this bizarre encounter in the Kettle Moraine, as well as other Wisconsin mysteries like Oak Creek’s road to nowhere, the underwater pyramids of Rock Lake, the cross-dressing corpse found in a Madison chimney, and relocated cemeteries where some residents got left behind, in the May 2018 issue of Milwaukee Magazine. Get your copy right here.
Learn more about Wisconsin’s local goatman legends, as well as similar stories across the country, in J. Nathan Couch’s book Goatman: Flesh or Folklore?
Have you had an encounter with a goatman or something else unexplainable? Share your story in the comments below or send us a message.
