
If you’re looking for unusual and unique things to do in Milwaukee, our travel guide to the Cream City (so called because of the cream-colored bricks produced here until the 1920s) is sure to provide many new adventures for haunted history enthusiasts, fans of true crime, and anyone looking for something new to explore in Wisconsin. Milwaukee is full of the curious and quirky: Notoriously haunted hotels, ghostly Great Lakes shipwrecks, historic cemeteries where an English murderer and a famous exorcist lie, and other oddities like the site where Teddy Roosevelt was shot.
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Milwaukee FAQ
Is Milwaukee worth visiting?
Yes! Milwaukee is the home of Summerfest, Harley-Davidson, the Fonz, the International Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum, and beer history as Pabst, Miller, Schlitz, Blatz and more were all created here. The Milwaukee Beer Barons have left their mark on the city with their historic mansions and breweries that you can tour (such as the Pabst Mansion) and you can visit the Barons themselves at their impressive funerary palaces in Milwaukee’s historic cemeteries.
How can I have fun in Milwaukee?
There is an endless supply of fun things to do in Milwaukee, and it can be hard to decide. Here is a selection of things we recommend if you don’t know where to start:
- Take a self-guided tour of the famous graves in Forest Home Cemetery
- Find the snake button, the creepy Grandma, and the haunted mummy at the Milwaukee Public Museum
- Order a Great Spytini at the SafeHouse
- Spend the night (if you’re not too scared) in the Dead Hooker’s Bed of Shaker’s Haunted Penthouse
- Locate a lost casque from “The Secret” treasure hunt that many believe is buried in Milwaukee
What’s the most haunted place in Milwaukee?
The Pfister Hotel is the most notorious haunted place in Milwaukee, as numerous pro baseball players and celebrities have publicly shared their paranormal experiences there. Other contenders for the title of “most haunted” include Shaker’s Cigar Bar and the Brumder Mansion.
What is Milwaukee famous for?
The short answer: Beer, taxidermy, 70s sitcoms, and cannibalism.
- As mentioned above, many of the beer brands we still drink today were created in Milwaukee.
- The world’s first habitat diorama was created by the legendary Carl Akeley while he worked at the Milwaukee Public Museum from 1886-1894, shaping what became known among taxidermists and museum curators as the “Milwaukee style.”
- 1970s television shows Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley were both set in Milwaukee, hence the reason why the Bronze Fonz can be found giving two thumbs up along the Milwaukee Riverwalk.
- Finally, true crime enthusiasts and dark tourists know that Jeffrey Dahmer committed most of his horrendous crimes here, including murder and cannibalism of many victims. Though his apartment building was torn down years ago, the empty lot where it once stood is still a popular spot to visit.