Wonewoc Spiritualist Camp

Known locally by old timers as “Spook Hill,” the Wonewoc Spiritualist Camp in Wonewoc, Wisconsin is one of the state’s oldest surviving centers of the Spiritualist movement, a religious tradition based on the belief that communication with spirits of the dead is possible through mediums. The camp traces its origins to 1874, when Spiritualists from Erie County, New York settled in the Baraboo Valley and began holding meetings in the area. Led in part by teacher Jerome Potter and other early believers, the group gradually organized formal gatherings and purchased wooded land along the bluffs in the 1890s to establish a permanent meeting place for conventions and lectures. By 1901 the camp had been formally incorporated, eventually becoming known as the Wonewoc Spiritualist Camp and operating under the Western Wisconsin Camp Association.

Like many Spiritualist camp communities that flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Wonewoc developed into a seasonal village devoted to spiritual study and psychic practice. Early visitors arrived by train and stayed in rented tents that later evolved into small cottages and cabins scattered across the grounds. The camp became a regional gathering place for mediums, trance speakers, and healers who hosted lectures, séances, and demonstrations of psychic phenomena. At its peak, hundreds of visitors attended summer programs and religious services while participating in workshops and social events such as dances and campfires.

Today the camp still operates as an active Spiritualist community affiliated with the National Association of Spiritualist Churches. Situated on roughly 30 wooded acres, it opens each summer season with classes, workshops, church services, and scheduled readings with mediums and healers. Visitors can walk the historic grounds free of charge, attend events, or book private readings, while online services and remote sessions continue year-round. More than 150 years after its founding, the Wonewoc Spiritualist Camp remains one of Wisconsin’s enduring remnants of the nineteenth-century Spiritualist movement and a rare example of a historic psychic camp that continues to function in the present day.