hitman97
New Member
"When there's no more room in Hell...the dead will walk the earth."
Posts: 40
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Post by hitman97 on May 23, 2008 10:59:33 GMT -6
I'm planning a visit to the ruins of Summerwind Mansion later this summer. Has anyone visited the remnants, and if so, please share your story/stories here. Thanks!
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swigs
Full Member
Posts: 215
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Post by swigs on May 23, 2008 11:20:17 GMT -6
watch out for police
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Post by LadyOfTheLake on May 28, 2008 21:03:15 GMT -6
I'm planning a visit to the ruins of Summerwind Mansion later this summer. Has anyone visited the remnants, and if so, please share your story/stories here. Thanks! There are many threads on this same topic on this site. Check them out! Perhaps Chad or Terry, you could move this one to be on another Summerwind one? I have yet to go there... some day, I hope.
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Post by vampiremistress on Jun 3, 2008 7:26:47 GMT -6
i saw this on a show called the haunting on the discovery channel this one freaked me out
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swigs
Full Member
Posts: 215
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Post by swigs on Jun 3, 2008 12:36:50 GMT -6
That was a great episode
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Post by vampiremistress on Jun 3, 2008 18:15:53 GMT -6
it was a great episode me and my uncle both love the paranormal stuff
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Post by ghostbuster13 on Jun 27, 2008 19:44:01 GMT -6
summer wind looks like it would be great and yes watch out for the cops love to see your pics and hear ur stories when you get back
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hitman97
New Member
"When there's no more room in Hell...the dead will walk the earth."
Posts: 40
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Post by hitman97 on Jun 30, 2008 20:57:53 GMT -6
Before I begin my story.....not being from the Northwoods, I wanted to go through the proper channels of being able to see the mansion in person, so about a month before my trip, I made a chain of phone calls and ended up with the answering machine of the property owners, so I left a message, expecting that would be the end of that. To my absolute surprise, I got a call on the evening of June 21 from the owners, who granted me permission to visit the ruins. When I returned their call the next day, we had a very pleasant conversation for about 15 minutes or so, and they said that they wanted to personally show me around the property if we'd be up at the same time (unfortunately, we wouldn't). But having permission to go was the "golden ticket" of the call, and if you want to talk about perfect timing, the call came a week before I left for the Northwoods.
So, my story....Saturday morning, June 28, 2008. I stayed overnight in Boulder Junction and checked out of the motel, leaving around 6:30am. It was pretty overcast and 55 degrees, but my only concern was that the impending rain would hold off. Part of why I chose this date to go is because it came about a week after the 20th anniversary of the mansion's destruction, and because I'd have a full week (plus the 3-day Fouth of July weekend) for my vacation. So I'm driving north on County "M" and then east on County "B", and remembered the notes from reading about "the end all directions to Summerwind", so I kept an eye on the left side of the road when I passed Palmer Lake Road and then Big Lake Road, and sure enough, there on my left came Helen Creek. I turned left onto the gravel....and just to keep with the whole Summerwind theme, I slipped my Frank Sinatra CD into the dashboard player and set it to "Summer Wind" (appropriate, huh?). Made the curves, then noticed the turnoff to private homes (and the "Private Property, No Trespassing" signs) on the left, so I made the hard turn, stayed on the fork, and went around the good hard bend (with the dropoff on the left), and after that, saw the neighbor's property in the clearing (with what appeared to be a dead end), and to my right I saw the familiar gate post, with the driveway (and weeds about mid-shin high sprouting in the middle of it). I knew I'd found it......and on my first try!
I got a quick picture of my car in the gateway (it's now just after 7am), and pulled ahead probably a hundred yards or so, when the ruins came right out of the grove of trees, like a pop-up book. What struck me immediately is how much SMALLER it was (seeing it in person) as compared to seeing it in photos and on TV (where it seemed massive), though the house was large for its era. As I pulled into the courtyard, I scared off a couple deer, so I pulled in and turned the car around, so that I could drive straight ahead when I was ready to leave. I also notice the absolute swarm of mosquitos, but fortunately I've packed a can of Off. I jumped out of the car, and am immediately hit with the aroma of orange peel. Thing is, I'm too focused on getting on my bug spray to be afraid or anything. I took pictures on my camera, but with it being so overcast, I had to use my flash, and hoped it wasn't disturbing the neighbors, espcially this early on a Saturday morning (fortunately, it didn't...or if it did, they didn't come out to confront me). And yes, the property to the right IS very close, I'm surprised at how close!
I had been forewarned that the terrain on the property was a big rugged, so I was watching my step---though I was more concerned about the weeds, wondering if there would be a snake or something (there wasn't, thank God). There was so much shrubbery overgrown (even some trees now!)....it was amazing to see (in person) what nature and the elements had done in 20 years.
I was also surprised (again, in regard to size) of how low the arches under the terrace were---I had to duck to enter the cellar area (I'm 5 foot 10; I'm not used to ducking for THAT low!). But my favorite part of the property was easily the terrace and stairs---the fieldstone still intact and gorgeous as ever, despite the shrubs and weeds (and vandalism). Standing on the terrace, you could look out at West Bay Lake, and feel the breeze come in (yep, the "Summer Wind"). It was even kind of fitting (and eerie) to see a split and charred chunk of wood still sticking out of a space in the left-side chimney.
The bugs were more or less the worst thing out there.....just kinda annoying. Now, remember when I got that scent of orange peel when I first got there? After being there about 30 minutes or so, it was back---and this time, accompanied by a good hard headache. I took that as to mean that "they" were telling me to leave, now. So I walked back to my car (where the headache dulled a small piece), took one last picture, got in the car, and left. When I got onto the gravel road, the headache dulled some more....and after an hour, it was completely gone---you'd never have known I'd had a headache. Driving on to Land O'Lakes, I kept all 4 windows open a crack, so that the mosquitos that had gotten into my car (about a dozen of them) could find their way outside (if I wasn't batting at them). I had about 6 exposures left on my camera, and figured I'd use them up later on in my trip.
My only regrets about my trip to Summerwind: 1. I'd gone alone, so I couldn't get a picture of myself with the ruins---would have LOVED to have gotten one of me in the arches, on the stairs, or on the terrace. And 2. that I couldn't have been there to meet the owners and get a personal tour/account from them. They seemed like really, REALLY nice people over the phone!
I got some more info on Summerwind later on in the day, from area residents I'd spoken to prior to my trip, so I was allowed to photocopy several photos and articles I'd not seen before (including one photo from August 1988---something I'd been inquiring about for some time now).
One final note: out of respect for the owners and their privacy, I will not give out contact info. Otherwise, I'll be happy to answer just about any other question about my excursion that you may have. When my photos are developed, I'll figure a way to see about posting them.
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byrd
Junior Member
I am not evil...I just look that way!
Posts: 53
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Post by byrd on Jul 14, 2008 15:17:56 GMT -6
Have you gotten the photos developed yet? I think we would all like to see those. Strange little story about Summer Wind. I was online one day and I was monkeying around a site that had SW on it. I was really getting into it when my monitor took a dump on me (later to find out that my cable had come disconnected)...well, I was bummed. So, I shut the rest of my PC down and went down stairs to watch some TV and low and behold, SW was on the discovery channel. I thought that to be a little strange cause I had never even heard of SW until I found it surfing the net that day and then to go watch some TV and it's on. Weird! Ta~Ta
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Post by darkone on Feb 26, 2009 0:38:41 GMT -6
can anyone please message me the current owners names and where they live, how to get in touch with the current owners, or the best way to get legal permission to explore the ruins??? you can message me on here or my email is in my profile!!
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Post by omw on Mar 14, 2009 17:11:44 GMT -6
I'm so excited... I visited Summerwind while it was still standing. I was like 4 or 5 years old, I was with my family. I can barely remember it, but I do remember bits and pieces. Well I talked to my mom about it and a friend of our family has a whole binder full of photos taken over several different visits to Summerwind. My mom picked up the binder yesterday and my sister is going to bring it down to Madison from Appleton next Thursday. My sister was looking through and she said there is a photo of me, Circa 1982 in a little hoody, that was taken inside of Summerwind. I can't wait to see the binder and share some of the photos with you all.
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Post by darkman on Mar 18, 2009 19:40:32 GMT -6
I can't believe its been almost 5 years since I've been there.
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