I received this interesting correspondence from a 'Beyond the Edge' Radio listener recently:
Hello Lon,
I am writing about something that happened to me about 20 years ago.
I live in a small lake area called Bohners Lake, just outside of Burlington, Wisconsin. At the time of this tale I lived on the opposite side of the lake of where I live now about a half mile away from a boy scout camp called Camp Oh-Da-Ko-Ta. This camp encompasses 185 acres of beautiful rolling hills and woodlands on Dyer Lake.
It was a beautiful summer day and I decided to take a walk with my dogs, a Golden Retriever and English Setter. I went a different way than usual and happened upon the back trail to the camp. It was chained off, but I chanced it anyway and hopped over to check it out.
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| The area indicated by the witness (noise came from largest building in middle of inset) |
The trail was very quiet and peaceful and we walked a while enjoying ourselves greatly. After a bit we came upon some buildings. One was a large pole barn type that had it's doors chained shut. Curiosity overtook me, as usual, and I went up and pushed on one of the large doors allowing a crack of about 6 inches. I tried peering inside and couldn't see much but a floor and empty space.
I was shocked when an earsplitting roar came out of the barn. It sounded like a scream but deep, guttural and bearlike.
Well, my dogs took off running, and I took off running after them terrified. We ran back to my house and, shaking like a leaf and out of breath, I told my (now ex) husband what had happened. He of course told me that what I had heard was a crane........ I just stared at him incredulously. I knew better, but I wasn't going to argue the point with him and just pondered on it for a bit by myself, attempting to calm down.
The day went on and nothing else was said about it until just after dark when we both heard the same scream coming from the back yard!
The house I lived in at the time had a huge back yard. At the very back we had a garden by a small wooded area, and it was from there that we heard the scream. Well, my ex grabbed his rifle, and the dogs and headed down to the garden finding nothing.
He came back to the house, eyes wide, and acknowledged that what I had heard was not a crane.
After that we went about our night talking about it, with the dogs nervously prancing about, and eventually went to bed.
Being summer, the bedroom windows were open and about 3 am, I was shocked awake when "it" was just outside the window and screamed into it. The dogs didn't even bark, they just cowered, whining.
My husband again jumped up and grabbed the rifle and went outside, without the dogs as they didn't want to have anything to do with it,to investigate...again nothing.
Well the story would end here as we didn't hear anything after that, and I was too scared to investigate the building again, but it just happened that about 3 weeks later my husband and I went away for the weekend on a camping trip and my mother, younger sister, and her two daughters spent the night at our house to watch the dogs while we were gone.
The following morning my sister was in the kitchen cooking breakfast when my niece Sandra came in. She looked at the kitchen window and noticed a long smear mark on the kitchen window.
She was about 9 at the time and looked up at my sister and said, " I know what did that." My sister looked at it and asked Sandra what she thought made it.
Sandra replied, " Ooooo, it was the Swamp Monster"... My sister chuckled and asked her why she thought that.
Now, I was always teasing the girls with stories about a swamp monster that lived out by me so they just knew that there was a creature out there. This of course was before my own experience and it wasn't cute and funny anymore.
Then she said, "I saw the Swamp Monster last night."
My sister said chuckling still, "Oooooo, what did you see?"
Sandra just looked at her and said, "I saw a huge white hairy arm and it ran it's claws across the bedroom screen." (my bedroom)
My sister said, "Wow, what did you do?"
Sandra said, "Aw, I just rolled over and went to sleep, I knew it was Aunt Tina trying to scare me."
Of course, we were camping.
So, what did she see? I haven't a clue to this day. But I wonder, were they keeping something out there, or was there something living in that barn unbeknownst to them at the camp and did it follow me home?
Last summer my brother, sister-in-law and I tried going back there, but we got stopped by the person living across the road before we could go across the chain that is still there.
One more thing about that camp. Before this situation, a group of us had gone in the front entrance to the camp by car to check out Dyer Lake that is at the center edge of the camp hoping to sneak in some late night swimming. This was of course after dark and we of course were not supposed to be there.
We arrived at the trail to the lake and got out of the car with our flashlights to walk. We tried following the trail but ended up going off somewhere along the line. We went over a hillside and there, at the bottom of the hill was a beautiful raw iron gate about 6' tall. There was a hole dug into the side of the hill, and this gate was covering the opening.
We opened the gate, and found ourselves in a 12'x12' cave of sorts. Inside were candles, a dead rooster, and a sythe. There was nothing else. No altar or other signs of occult practices, just the things we found haphazardly laying about the room. My sister's now ex-husband took the sythe (which I told him to leave there) and we left and never went back. That is until I went for my walk that summer day.
Tina Caskey
NOTE: there has been some interesting cryptid activity in the general area previously - The Bray Road Beast - Bigfoot Tracks Discovered in Farmington, Wisconsin? - Wisconsin Werewolf: Adaptation or Supernatural? - Strange Encounter in Cheboygan County, Michigan - Is The 'Dogman' Back?. Tina joined Eric and I on the 'Beyond the Edge' Radio show last evening (March 27th) and described her encounter...Lon
