|
Chad Lewis started compiling his book,
“Hidden Headlines of Wisconsin: Strange, Unusual and
Bizarre Newspaper Stories 1860-1910,” almost by
accident.
He dug
through the Eau Claire newspaper’s archives, looking
for a date and noticed lots of “weird” news stories.
He said to himself, “I
really gotta start looking for these.”
So he did.
Out of the 108 Wisconsin
cities in Chad Lewis’ “bizarre” headlines book,
“Hidden Headlines of Wisconsin: Strange, Unusual and
Bizarre Newspaper Stories 1860-1910,” River
Falls made it in because of a story from the March
25, 1902, Milwaukee Journal:
Pyramid Near River
Falls Peculiar Geological Formation
“RIVER FALLS- On the
farm of Mr. Johnson, four miles north of River
Falls, is one of the most peculiar pyramids to be
found in the state, if not in the United States. It
is a huge monument 45 feet across at the base, and
65 feet high, and looks as though it has been formed
and fashioned by the hand of man. There is no other
stone or rock formation in the immediate
neighborhood.
“The first forty feet is
composed of sand stone, but the cap is of hard
granite, which has protected it from the storms
through all the ages, and if located in New Mexico
it might easily be taken for the work of a
prehistoric race.”
Lewis, coauthor of
“The Wisconsin Road Guide to Haunted Places,”
said he likes the odd, unusual and strange. He found
the book research fascinating.
“It took me about five
years of digging through papers to come up with
these (275) stories,” the author said. “I could do
it about two hours a day and my eyes were gone.”
History’s mystery
Lewis said about the
peculiar pyramid/monument: “We haven’t been there
yet, we’re planning to try and look for it this
summer.”
Intrigued, the
Journal sought and found what’s known around
River Falls as “The Monument.” Although some
information exists at the UW-River Falls archives,
people generally don’t know a lot about the
monument’s history.
The River Falls Public
Library displays a nice, clear picture of it, and
employees say they get lots of questions about it.
Some estimate it to be the most asked-about item in
River Falls history.
While dense woods
surround it today and time has eroded some of its
detail, the monument is definitely real, still
there, and probably not formed naturally.
The 1902 news story
gives the right approximate dimensions of the
monument’s size — much too big and now too overgrown
to photograph in its entirety.
It sits about five miles
north of River Falls on private property between
Hwy. 65 and Monument Road, near the intersection of
Hwy. 65 and County Road J. Land owner Shirley Kurtz
said she and husband Fred moved into the farmhouse
near it in the 1950s.
She can remember a few
times in the last half century when people have gone
poking around to find it. She said she doesn’t mind
that but wishes people would ask her before hiking
onto her land and not park cars on the road.
“We just don’t want it
to be defaced,” said Kurtz about the monument.
Classifying weird
Lewis said his book
features eight chapters of odd headlines and
stories: Bizarre deaths, ghosts, medical anomalies,
mysterious creatures, oddities, peculiar people,
psychic phenomena and UFOs.
A girl yawned herself to
death; a man dropped dead during his wife’s funeral;
a white boy turned black; a pig grew elephant tusks;
and someone claims to have seen a half-boy, half-dog
creature.
“You know,” Lewis said,
“things they can’t explain.”
One lady made the papers
after she had her dead husband’s false teeth removed
and fitted for herself. He saw a story about a
“spook union of mediums formed” and about bright
lights or hovering disks in the sky.
One of his favorite
comes from Madison and tells the story of a young
girl who proudly wears new shoes — made of human
skin. A medical-student friend had taken the skin
from a research corpse. Lewis said the friend
planned to make a matching purse if she had enough
skin left.
Lewis stated, “This is
the tip of the iceberg as far as weird stories that
are out there…there were times I thought: ‘It can’t
get any weirder than this,’ then it does.”
He said the language in
old newspapers also made his book research
interesting. He said papers back then had more
detail, a different style of writing and didn’t
avoid gossip or advertisement in news stories.
Weird is wonderful
Lewis said, “I think I
have a different view than a lot of people. I like
the bizarre and see weird as a good thing.”
He said his book,
“Hidden Headlines of Wisconsin: Strange, Unusual and
Bizarre Newspaper Stories 1860-1910,” contains
photographs from corresponding time periods and
tidbits of information from around the state.
Lewis said the book came
out last Wednesday and people can purchase it from
most major retailers.
“I want people to get
this book and enjoy it, to really bask in
Wisconsin’s uniqueness…” Lewis said. “Many people
think everybody up here is weird, but we really have
an interesting history.”
He said in many ways, he
thinks the 163-page book brings more color to the
state.
Lewis welcomes people to
contact him if they have more information about the
odd stories in his book or to report others he may
not have seen yet.
Contact him at
chadlewis44@hotmail.com or visit his Web site:
www.unexplainedresearch.com.
Contact Debbie
Griffin at
dgriffin@rivertowns.net or 426-1048. |
