What’s under Dundee Mountain?
Dundee Mountain always seems to be looming above the tree line when you’re in the northern part of the Kettle Moraine State Forest. Some locals believe the 270-foot tall glacial formation – a pile of dirt and debris left behind when the glacier melted 10,000 years ago – is the nexus of the UFO sightings, crop circles, strange creatures and other bizarre phenomena that’s been happening in the area for decades.
Bill Benson, proprietor of the alien-themed bar on the shore of Long Lake, has witnessed enough over the years to believe that to be true.
Bill’s ancestors arrived in the area in the mid-1800s, settling just down the road from his bar where Benson’s Campground is today. They lived alongside the Native Americans who already occupied the land.
According to stories passed down through Bill’s family, even the indigenous people back then believed the mountain had power. They called it “Spirit Hill.”
“Something is under there,” Bill says.
But what?
When I spoke with him at the 33rd annual UFO Daze earlier this month I asked Bill what exactly is under Dundee Mountain.
“A pyramid,” he said.
Dundee Mountain
As Bill then pointed out, there is some precedent for such a claim.
Lost Pyramids
One of the world’s largest known pyramids, the Great Pyramid of Cholula, is 180 feet tall and hides inside a massive hill in central Mexico. It is shorter than the Great Pyramid of Giza, but its base is three times as wide. It rises out of the surrounding flatlands much the way Dundee Mountain does.
Further south, in the pre-Columbian Maya settlement of El Mirador, is the La Danta pyramid. Its construction dates to around 300 BCE, it reaches a height of 236 feet from the forest floor, and it takes nearly an hour to ascend the thousands of stairs to the top.
It is one of the most massive ancient structures in the world and may be the largest known pyramid by volume.
But it was concealed beneath layers of earth and vegetation for hundreds of years, blending in with the surrounding jungle.
Wisconsin even has a few pyramid-shaped archeological oddities of its own, if the legends are true.
The sun sets behind a mound in Aztalan
Earthen Mounds & Underwater Pyramids
At the archeological site near “Legendary” Lake Mills, the Mississippian culture built important structures such as the public temple and mortuary on earthen mounds. The city was abandoned around 1250 AD for unknown reasons, so when the early settlers found the site, it was a mystery.
They thought the platform mounds must have been constructed by the Aztecs, a civilization said to have originated in a mythical homeland in the north called Aztalan.
In nearby Rock Lake, some researchers believe there are underwater pyramids that may have been built by the Aztecs. Even more incredibly, some claim the Rock Lake pyramids are part of an advanced, unknown culture from the Bronze Age with ties to the lost continent of Atlantis.
Dundee Mountain as seen from Benson’s Hide-a-Way on Long Lake
For decades, Dundee residents and visitors alike have seen mysterious lights hovering around Dundee Mountain, objects moving in and out of the lake, and many believe they have been in direct contact with extraterrestrial beings.
When strange things happen, it’s almost always in the shadow of the mountain.
Is there a pyramid inside Dundee Mountain, and if so, what is its influence on the swirling vortex of weird we call the Kettle Moraine?
