A Paranormal Investigation of Plainfield and Spiritland Cemeteries in Wisconsin

This past August brought more paranormal investigations for us. Along the way to some of our destinations was the now infamous Plainfield. We decided to pay Ed Gein and his family a visit once more. Both cemeteries are in the Plainfield, WI area, with Spirit Land located just outside of the Plainfield town limits.

The gravesite for the family and for Ed has not changed since our other two journeys out there. There's still no marker for Ed to be seen.

Bernice Worden, his last victim, is buried just a few short feet away from the Gein family plot. The previous two visits did not turn up her grave, but we did locate her this time around. (She's off to the right side of the Gein plot)

The cemetery felt a bit less creepy to me this time around. I'm not sure if it was because I was more familiar with it on this, our third trip out there, or if it was because I was distracted photographing certain things around the cemetery. (flowers and decorations and such.) However, my husband noted in his journal that he had creepy feelings here once more. The back of the cemetery on the east side in particular held creepy feelings for him. He also reported that the woods had a real creepy look all around the cemetery.

While out in Plainfield we decided to visit a new place also connected to Ed Gein's grave robbing deeds: Spiritland Cemetery. This cemetery is located just outside of Plainfield in the town of Almond, and is reportedly haunted as well as having been the site of at least one grave robbing by Gein.

The cemetery is quite small and quaint. Some of the graves are quite old and many are decorated brightly with lawn decorations, wind chimes and things of this nature.

The graves that the haunting is connected to are to the front left of the cemetery. The graves of Dewitt and Jesse McLaughlin. It's reported that Dewitt's wife, Jesse, died before he had. Dewitt would visit her grave and Jesse's spirit was said to have visited Dewitt. However, a glance at the graves shows that Dewitt McLaughlin died ten years before Jesse did. (Dewitt died in 1925 and Jesse in 1935.) Given this information it would have had to be Jesse visiting his grave rather than what the lore or local legend suggests.

While we were there a care taker was present. We were able to speak to him about the reputed phenomena and about the Dewitt family. He said he's been mowing lawns there for years and has not seen anything out of the ordinary. He did offer up a story about the town as it was when it was known as Spiritland (presumably where the cemetery derived it's name) the home next to the cemetery was once a restaurant. There was a small store on the corner as well (both of these locations now appear to be abandoned.)

He also told of a story years ago where his father heard a train while in the cemetery. The thing was that there was no train track near there at the time. My husband did a bit of digging in an atlas and discovered that there indeed are train tracks to the north of the cemetery, although they are abandoned.

What really happened, or perhaps continues to happen at Spiritland is a bit of a mystery. The one thing we do know is that the cemetery is a quiet, pretty place with a bit of a spooky air about it. It would be a place where one would almost expect to find a ghost story attached to it. Whether or not the haunting is factual remains to be seen.