The Old Caryville Schoolhouse

Location:  Caryville, Dunn County, Wisconsin

Correction:  The proper name of the schoolhouse is "Spring Brook School."

• There was a young boy who attended school there who died in his desk under mysterious circumstances.
• A second version of the story is that on a chilly winter day a little boy refused to go home to his drunken abusive father, and hid in the schoolhouse.  The next morning, the teacher found his frozen little corpse sitting at his desk. 
• A third version is that a preacher killed all the school children, then hung himself in the belfry.

The Investigation:  

• There was indeed a seven-year-old boy, David James Grohn (born May 27, 1949), who died while attending the school.  He passed away at 11:45 p.m. on September 24, 1957, not during a cold winter day.  His death occurred at Luther Hospital in Eau Claire, not while sitting in his desk at school.  An autopsy determined the cause of death to be bulbar poliomyelitis (i.e., polio), and  the examining physician, C.H. Falstad, M.D., found nothing mysterious or unexpected about his death.  Furthermore, there is no reason to believe that his father was ever abusive to him.  
• There is no evidence that a preacher ever committed murder or suicide in the school.

• Many creepy events have occurred in the schoolhouse.
• In the last window, on the right-side of the schoolhouse, a pair of black eyes has been spotted staring out.
• A girl was raped by a ghost inside the schoolhouse.   Later blood was found splattered on the walls.
• The school grounds are haunted by "Blackie," a shadowy demon who will sometimes shake your vehicle when you are parked near the school.  This may be the same shadowy creature reported to have been seen at both the Caryville Cemetery and Meridean boat landing.
• A familiar in the form of a three-legged, one-eyed, black cat guards the school and will stare at you with its evil eye if you approach the building.
• A rope with a noose hangs in the belfry.
• People report feeling a mysterious gust of air inside the school.
• The Dare:  If you sit in the desk that the young boy died in, you will feel something strange pass through your body.

• Nothing paranormal has been substantiated.
• The story of a girl being raped by a ghost is unsubstantiated.  There is no evidence of any blood stains on the walls.
• The existence of the cat is possible, but we have not observed it.
• We spoke with a witness who claimed to have observed the noose, but we have not seen it for ourselves.
• This witness also claimed to have felt a mysterious gust of air inside the school.
• It is doubtful that anybody would know precisely which desk young David Grohn used to sit in, since it was almost 50 years ago.   Investigators found that sitting in each of the desks resulted in nothing out of the ordinary.

Designed by Terry Fisk
Copyright © Unexplained Research. All rights reserved.
Revised: September 28, 2004