There is no end to tales about Lake Superior, from deeply spiritual creation stories of the people who first lived along its shores thousands of years ago, to that incredible fish that an annoying relative won’t stop talking about. Many have a message or moral, but some defy explanation of occurrences on the “Big Lake” and can’t be explained scientifically — or that can be, and we simply haven’t figured it out.
“I always encourage people to go to these places and see for yourself,” said Chad Lewis of Eau Claire, author of “Supernatural Lake Superior.” “If you put science to use while you’re there, combining it with folklore, you’re going to have a fun road trip.”
Lewis joined WPR’s Robin Washington on “Morning Edition” to talk about stories he’s collected in his latest book.
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The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Robin Washington: What makes these stories particular to Lake Superior, rather than being urban legends that are told about any body of water? I know you’ve searched for the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland, yet she apparently has cousins all over the world, including Lake Superior.
Chad Lewis: There’s something magical about Lake Superior. People feel drawn to it, whether it’s on a vacation or they feel like they just have to move there and live on the lake. And that’s been going since the first Indigenous peoples that set up camps around the lake when there were much safer places they could have chosen. There was something about the lake, a mysterious pull, which also seems to be more of a paranormal beacon for weirdness to take place.
RW: What can you tell us about our local sea serpent?
CL: I spoke with a gentleman in Two Harbors who was at his dentist’s office, which happens to have a wonderful overlook of the lake. He saw what he thought looked like dolphins in the water with their dorsal fins. So he got up, took a closer look, and realized they weren’t fins, but the humps of a giant lake monster. And as he tried to get his camera out, it simply submerged into the water and vanished. He believed he had seen either an unknown species or one that we think is extinct, but maybe it’s not quite extinct.
RW: Is it possible he could have just had too much novocaine? I have read that mermaid sightings over the last millennia turned out to be attributed to manatees — that if you see the back half of a manatee and you’re fantasizing about the front half, you can put a mermaid together.
CL: Yes, and mermaid stories are a bit different. We do have one from Lake Superior going back to the 1700s, of what appeared to be a young boy sitting on a rock with a mermaid-like tail. But I think mermaids kind of stretch the belief systems of a lot of people.
RW: Do you have stories from the Wisconsin side?
CL: The most common question I receive is, “Where can I go to spend the night in a haunted place?” And if you have that macabre sense of adventure, you’re in luck because in Wisconsin, we have all sorts of haunted lodging options. One of my favorites is Greunke’s First Street Inn in Bayfield. It’s old. It’s historic, one of the oldest buildings in Bayfield, and they believe there are many spirits there.
Guests will come in and claim that when they’ve been out for the day on the lake, they’ll come back and the room’s been rearranged. They’ll see apparitions of people that they think are fellow guests, but who simply vanish into a wall or disappear right before their eyes. They often ask the staff, “This is going to sound strange, but have you ever heard of anybody reporting this?” And the staff have to gently tell them, “Yes, we have a long history of ghostly, spooky stories.”
RW: My early career was in science journalism, and a hallmark of science and journalism is skepticism. As you’ve searched the paranormal, particularly on Lake Superior, what spooky situations have you debunked?
CL: My background is in psychology, so I’m always looking at why people believe in these stories. What is it about belief systems that make people believe they’ve seen a UFO or an unidentified creature in the woods?
One of the stories of Lake Superior is the old Bete Grise singing sands. It holds that a woman lost her lover to the sea, and she was so heartbroken that she waited every day on the beach for her lost love to return. And you can go out to the beach and hear the sand singing. Then science steps in and says, no, it’s the shape and the exact size of the sand that kind of squeaks as you step on it. So even though people believe that it’s the woman in the sand crying out for her lost love, science says it’s a little bit different.
RW: That reminds me of a story about the writer James Thurber, who was famously nearsighted. He was once looking at a window and saw a cute puppy sitting there. He knew it was actually a paper bag and if he put on his glasses, he would confirm it was a paper bag. But it was much more fun to have a cute puppy in the window. Is that what you’re saying?
CL: Exactly. I can’t tell you whether these things are real or if they’re actually happening, but to the witnesses, they believe that it actually happened. For me, half the fun is just exploring these places, getting caught up in the moment, enjoying the folklore, really soaking in the whole legend and atmosphere of the entire lake. It adds a little more mystery and fun to any adventure.
If you have an idea about something in northern Wisconsin you think we should talk about on Morning Edition, send it to us at northern@wpr.org.
