Tickets on sale now for Cedarburg Cultural Center's Gothic History Tour

Well, a beloved tradition is returning in this Halloween season. Oh boy, Nicola is joining us from Cedarburg Cultural Center with a preview of this year's What Gothic History Tour. Alright, you have our attention. Yeah, hey guys, good morning to you. We are here live at the Cedarburg History Museum. This is just one of the stops on the Gothic History Tour, which is back for another year in Cedarburg after taking a year off. Now during this time, Shannon Diamond, the chair of the Gothic History Tour, was really busy coming up with new tales, new stories to feature on this year's tour. Shanna, good morning to you. Good morning. So walk our viewers through that process. When you're coming up with a tour, what are you looking for in terms of interesting kind of Halloween-y stories to feature? We like something that has a local tie or a tie to Wisconsin. We like something that we haven't explored before. So taking a year off allowed me and the rest of the writing team, Peg and Mark, to do a little research, comb a little microfiche. microfiche. If you don't know what microfiche is, it's a really old way to research at the library and come up with some new connections and new tales to tell. Now, this is not a traditional ghost tour. That's what people probably would think of when they think of Gothic history. This is a real historical tour. So explain to our viewers how this is different than something that they might see, I don't know, elsewhere this time of year. Sure. So it's different because it's an hour and a half walking tour. We feature six sites along the route, each one featuring a scene led by a docent who gives some of the background historical information and then actors who bring that history to life we like to call it historical fiction we try and use the basis in facts and then make it entertaining and and that's of course for a good reason now later on in our show guys we're going to give you a little sample of what one of those scenes look like but for now i kind of want to feature um this place because this place shannon as we know you know this all too well it's been in the cedarburg community guys for 170 years and these walls have seen some stuff you could say there's a lot of history a lot of lore going on with this location which is why which is why of course it's a stop on the gothic history tour and nobody knows that better than Joel Williams you were telling me some very um spooky stories during our last commercial break and i thought that we've got to get this into our live segment because it really stuck with me so this place can confirm is haunted uh we've had quite a number of people um say that they sense things or have seen things or heard things uh yes very much so now obviously now this is the history museum what did it used to be was it a general store it originally was the very first general store here in Cedarburg yes okay so can we tell our viewers the bathroom story okay okay are you guys ready this one's it's it's really something so about two years ago on October 8th just like Like today, I had a desperate call in the morning from one of our volunteers. They had seen in the men's bathroom floor, the entire floor was filled with blood. So I thought, well, maybe they used fake blood on the Gothic History Tour last night and just didn't clean it up or something. Or maybe it was water. Came through bone dry. Now, I did have to tell the volunteer that the reason they may have seen it is many, many years ago, the bathrooms were not there. But there was a person that they found deceased in that area of the parking lot at that time. So ever since then, that person apparently haunts the bathrooms, especially both the men's and the women's. I mean, do you blame them? My gosh. Wow. OK, so this is a volunteer really said this. Oh, yes. Yes. Yeah. They said, I'm not joking. I really saw it. I didn't just see red over my eyes or anything. in the mirror like it was it was definitely blood you know just like in a movie or something like that did they clean it up well no they they ran to call me and then it was gone yeah when when i came like i said there there was nothing it wasn't even water they were just like no i i i'd say i saw it i went into the ladies and no no there was nothing in that one yet at the time so um i did not see it thankfully didn't have to clean anything out that is an image that i think would really stick with somebody all right joel thank you so much for sharing that little uh taste of lore here this is just one of the examples of the different kind of stories that you might hear on the gothic history tour or really just diving into Cedarburg history in general um yeah that is one where you know i don't you guys know i'm i it's not i don't know if i believe in ghosts but if i did i i can't say i would trust them and um there apparently is a ghost right here right now maybe they're watching Real Milwaukee who's to say well maybe nick before your next hit going to the bathroom check it out let me see take the holy ghost with you go on a quick trip there you go all right well just don't say candy man in the mirror we'll see you in a bit all right guys i promised i would report back so now i'm live inside of the ladies bathroom at the Cedarburg History Museum and as you can see the ghosts are giving us a break this morning there's no dry blood on the floor there's no other spooky paranormal activity going on here the coast is clear for ghosts for now now with stories like the one that we heard in the last hit that make this the perfect venue for these gothic history tours they kick off next week on October 23rd, 24th and 30th and they're led by docents who are locals in this community they're volunteers like Michael Freymark here hi Michael how are you good morning doing pretty well how you wonderful thank you okay so you are one of the docents on this gothic history tour yes what has this been like for you uh it's just a lot of fun you get to see a lot of your friends you get to i don't know see a lot of the uh uh other scenes in years past docents walked around and this year we're staying put so it might be a little bit more fun have a lot more fun with the actors involved with scenes yeah it's a good opportunity too for folks to learn about the place that they they live and that is of course Cedarburg here which has so much history so much lore um i mean we just have a lot of history we've been around a long time and with that you know you kind of get all the history with ghost stories and paranormal activity all right well sounds good okay so i understand that you are part of a um one of this one of the stories that are going to be featured on the tour yes one of the scenes right here in the history museum okay great and And I guess, if you'd like me to start? Oh, yeah, yes, yes, yeah. All right, Cedarburg has had not one, but three similar cases, all where men tried to kill their wives. Do you have a personal connection to the recent tragedies in Cedarburg that you would like to share? Come on, chew the fat with me. Who are you? You have quite the big mouth. I am Holly Hotfoot, Cedarburg Weekly News crime reporter. Cedarburg has enough crime that they need a reporter for it? Lately we have. What, with the livery murders? Headline, a livery, special delivery. Oh, and the butcher case. That one got me the front page above the fold. Meet your maker at the butcher, spelled M-E-A-T. So you're the one causing all that disruption with this sensational journalism? You think my reporting is sensational? Why, thanks. No, you're missing the point. You are profiting off of reporting on terrible events. The crap. I enjoy writing a corker of a story, adding some razzmatazz. I'm just giving the people what they want to hear. Anything you want to add? No comment. What about you? Anything? Anything for me? As you can see, some things will never change. That was awesome. Okay, so that was just a small sample of some of the stories that you can hear for this Gothic History Tour. Again, it is running next weekend, guys, October 23rd, 24th, and 30th. You can get tickets on their website. That is cedarburghistorymuseum.org. This is, oh, cedarburgculturalcenter.org. Thank you. I'm so sorry. Cedarburgculturalcenter.org. And tickets are still available, but they do sell out. They do sell out. We advise you to get them well in advance. But you do get to visit the History Museum and the Shinery and the Keefess House and a lot of other great places. Beautiful. Okay. And now when do they run? Like what times a day are we talking here? We start at 6 p.m. and tours leave every 10 minutes. Please show up in advance. Great advice there, Shannon. Thank you so much. And thank you to everybody here at the Cedarburg History Museum. It's been so fun to hang out with you guys this morning. I'm just so impressed, guys, at the work, the research, the detail that goes into developing a really fabulous tour. So, yeah, that's the Cedarburg Gothic History Tours. They're back for another year after taking a little bit of a hiatus last year, but they got brand new stories, brand new content, brand new research to really help guests understand the history and some of the lore and really get folks in the Halloween spirit. All right. Who's going to ask it? Okay, well, I want to know. Okay, Nicola, you didn't see anything in the bathroom. Did you feel anything? That's what I want to know. Oh, wait. Did I go in? No. We saw you kind of, you know, do your pee. No, I did not. Did you feel anything? Any spirits? Any vibes? Did I feel anything? Oh, should we go back? Yeah. Should probably make sure nobody's in there. At your own risk. No, I didn't. But you know what? Shannon was telling me that the blood on the floor is just one example of some of the stuff that goes on here. Apparently, people will also report hearing toilets flushing out of nowhere. The paper towel dispenser will go off when nobody's in there. So it's that kind of stuff that really makes you question. Even if you don't believe in ghosts, you hear some of that and you think, well, maybe. because we don't know what we don't know. We're noticing how you didn't go back in the door. Yeah. Yeah, no. Coast is clear for now for ghost guys. She's like, uh-oh. She's like, so is my soul. Nicola's like, I'm not going back. See you later, Nick. I was waiting to see like a reflection, that little thing right next to her on the door. I was like, don't pop up. I noticed she was not trying to reopen that door. Not at all. All right. Well, coming up, a new children's book by a local author, the story behind the crush coming up next understandably