Monday, October 31, 2011

Wooooooo... scary

In honor(?) of Halloween, here are two scary facts about UW Madison.

1. There are two people buried at the top of Bascom Hill near the statue of Abraham Lincoln.

That grey thing in the middle of the picture is Abe.
According to the University News,

"One is the grave of Samuel Warren, of Middlesex, England, who was killed by lightning in Madison in 1838. The other plaque memorializes William Nelson, who reportedly died of typhoid fever in 1837.
The remains of the men were discovered during an excavation in 1918 that moved the Lincoln statue from further down the hill to its current location, but were not removed."
2. The UW Science Hall *might* be haunted.
Seriously, how could this place NOT be haunted?
"With its creaky, maze-like hallways, bat-infested attic, underground tunnel system, and a basement that was once a morgue, University of Wisconsin’s Science Hall has all the ingredients for a haunted house. The original Science Hall burned down in 1884 and the current building was rebuilt upon the same foundation. One man was killed and several were injured during the construction of the building. Frank Lloyd Wright worked his first construction job as an architect’s assistant for the rebuilding of Science Hall, which was designed to be fireproof.
When it was completed in 1887, the Hall became home to the UW Anatomy Department and human cadavers potentially outnumbered the living in the building’s corridors. Medical students were allowed 24-hour access to the cadaver laboratory in order to practice their surgical skills, and they disposed of dissected corpses by way of a four-story body chute."

Um. ew.

"During the 1970s, rambunctious UW students would climb up the body chute in the dead of night for the fun slide down, perhaps unaware of the chute’s morbid function. As late as 1974, students were finding human bones in the attic of the building, which now serves as a storage room and a home to many bats."

Um.  Double ew.  FYI Science Hall is now the geography department.

Are there any scary stories related to buildings/places near where you live?  Do you like being scared, or are you a wimp?

I am a wimp.
For something Halloween related that is cute and non-scary, I give you the marching band practicing in costume.


  1. I hope the band danced to Thriller while in costume.

  2. is that true that people are buried under abe?!? crazy..