MILWAUKEE — It's getting scarier and spookier out there every single day as we get closer to Halloween. That doesn't mean people are shying away from the supernatural. In fact, across Wisconsin ghost hunters and tours are happening every day in hopes of encountering the spirits.
No one knows ghost hunting quite like Allison Jornlin. The Milwaukee woman founded American Ghost Walks. The company hosts haunted tours throughout the city. It has been so successful, that American Ghost Walks has expanded to more than 30 cities in 7 states and Puerto Rico.
Jornlin's walking tours celebrate local history, people, and folklore. Jornlin extensively fact-checks each story. Tour guides bring thick binders with newspaper articles and photos on each ghost walk. Some stories are historical like the sinking of the Lady Elgin boat in 1860 in Lake Michigan or the Third Ward Fire of 1892. Others are more folklore like lake monster sightings.
A brief story on the Lady Elgin. The steamer was on its way back from Chicago when it collided with another boat. Roughly 300 passengers on the Lady Elgin were cast into Lake Michigan. Most people did not survive. Since then, there have been numerous ghost sitings around the Third Ward said to be the ghosts of passengers on board the ship.
A brief story on the Third Ward Fire. In 1892 a fire started in the Third Ward that destroyed about 400 buildings, left thousands homeless, and four people died. It's unclear how it started, but as the story goes, there was one lady who predicted the fire.
American Ghost Walks started in 2009. Ever since Jornlin was a child she was interested in ghosts and local haunts. Her mom would the family listen to Richard Crowe tell stories of haunted Chicagoland locations. Later in life when Jornlin was a teacher, she would research local ghost stories during her summer breaks. She and her brother started hosting ghost tours shortly afterward. In 2019 after receiving a lot of positive feedback, she quit her teaching job to pursue American Ghost Walks full-time as a 'professional weirdo' as she called herself.
The company has been able to expand so much given its reputation among customers and its competitors. If another tour group is closing, Jornlin will pay for the rights to tell those stories.
Watch the interviews below to learn about the 132nd Anniversary of the Third Ward Fire and the tragedy of the Lady Elgin boat...
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