Oddsconsin Blog

This is the 3rd part of a 3-part series. Read part 1 here and part 2 here.

After the magnetic experiments ended, UW-Madison’s underground observatory lay dormant until 1896, when Professor Harry L. Russell was given permission by the UW Board of Regents to use it to conduct experiments on cheese curing. [1]

Russell, a native Wisconsinite, came to the University of Wisconsin in 1893 to head dairy-related bacteriological work at the Agricultural Experiment Station. In 1896, William A. Henry,...

This is the 2nd part of a 3-part series. Read part 1 here.

UW-Madison’s dermestarium was not always full of beetles. It was built in 1876 as an observatory to conduct measurements of the earth’s magnetic field. In 1875, the US Coast Survey – a federal scientific agency – approached the University of Wisconsin about establishing the observatory. What attracted their interest was Professor John E. Davies and his work on magnetism. Davies (1839-1900) taught science at Lawrence College, his alma...

Since 1950, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has operated a dermestarium in a small underground chamber on campus. What’s a dermestarium? The word is derived from Latin and roughly translates into “a place for eating skin.” The university’s dermestarium is home to a colony of thousands of dermestid beetles, whose job is to clean animal skeletons so that they can be preserved for study and research.

The existence of the dermestarium is hardly a secret. [1][2][3][4][5] What makes the facility...

Nineteenth-century water towers still stand in several Wisconsin communities, including Sun Prairie [1], Clinton [2], Beloit [3], Benton [4], Monroe [5] and Burlington [6], to name a few. These towers were built to supply the water needs of growing communities, including fire-fighting, steam locomotives and residential and commercial uses.

These towers typically consisted of a large, elevated tank containing thousands of gallons of water. Water was pumped into the tank from a nearby source,...

Watch World War III on pay TV
Before your television melts away
- The Crown City Four,
Watch World War III on Pay TV, 1960

This is the final part in a series about M-74, the Nike nuclear missile site in Waukesha. [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]

While there are remnants of the former M-74 Nike missile site at Hillcrest Park, there seems to be little at Missile Park except a meadow. The former launch pads are either gone or covered by weeds. It would take more digging (metaphorically and perhaps...

Uranium fission’s
Protecting the vision
Of freedom we’ve cherished so long
- The Brothers-in-Law, The Flowers that
Boom in the Spring, 1969

This is Part 3 in a series about M-74, the Nike nuclear missile site in Waukesha. [Part 1] [Part 2]

During their active years, the locations of Nike bases in the US were not secret and are clearly visible on air photos from the era. The August 1963 US Department of Agriculture photo heading this post clearly shows M-74’s battery control and launch areas in...

Einstein can't be classed as witless
He claimed atoms were the littlest
When you did a bit of splitting-em-ness
Frightened everybody shitless
- Ian Dury, There Ain’t Half Been
Some Clever Bastards, 1978

This is Part 2 in a series about M-74, the Nike nuclear missile site in Waukesha. [Part 1]

The first-generation Nike missile, called Ajax, was 12 inches in diameter and 21 feet in length. It weighed over a ton and carried three high-explosive conventional (non-nuclear) warheads. (A warhead is the...

So long, Mom
I’m off to drop the bomb
So don’t wait up for me
- Tom Lehrer, So Long, Mom
(A Song for World War III), 1965

What is this place? It’s a public park, but there are no swings or slides. A few grim cinder-block buildings are scattered on the grounds. There’s a large, circular concrete pad behind a chain-link fence. Nearby, a hexagonal metal platform sits atop a cylindrical tower. It’s encased in corrugated metal painted in vile shades of military green.

The mystery is solved by a...

All those people, all those lives, where are they now?
- Steven Patrick Morrissey, Cemetry Gates

Wisconsin is a giant boneyard. Cemeteries dot every corner of the state. But because there’s no central registry of cemeteries, no one, not even the Wisconsin Cemetery Board, is sure where they all are or even how many exist. Some cemeteries are maintained by churches, others by cities and villages, and still others by towns. And these are only European cemeteries. Added to this are Native...

South Greenville Grange, also known as Grange No. 225, is the oldest continuously active Grange in Wisconsin. Organized on October 24, 1873, it is one of over five hundred Granges that once dotted the state. [1] The Grange Hall, built in 1928, sits at the corner of State Hwy 76 and County Road BB in Outagamie County. The two-story brick building is the fifth in a series, each one larger than its predecessor. [2]

South Greenville Grange Hall is listed in the National Register of Historic Places...

A rustic stone tower sits atop a hill on the north side of Elk Mound, a small village in Dunn County. Visible from I-94 just west of Eau Claire, it resembles a 12th-century Norman fortification. Crowned by a crenellated parapet wall, it seems to have been designed to fire projectiles at attacking armies. Did the Normans invade Wisconsin after conquering Britain?

The tower is accessible by an asphalt road. With an elevation gain of 200 feet, the road is steep and surprisingly long. The tower...

Wisconsin has more UFO sightings per capita than any other state in the upper Midwest. The National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) lists 2,544 sightings in Wisconsin since 1947. With a 2020 population of 5.9 million, that means 4.32 sightings per 10,000 people. Compare that number to Iowa (4.00), Minnesota (3.88), Michigan (3.78) and Illinois (3.45). Wisconsin is clearly a destination for visitors from other planets.

In the US, the highest numbers of UFO sightings per capita occur in the west...

Wisconsin’s only oil refinery is located in Superior, on 24th Ave. E., about a mile southwest of Superior Bay. The refinery, owned by Cenovus Energy, processes crude oil from North Dakota and Western Canada. [1] With a capacity of 50,000 barrels of oil per day, it produces over 740 million gallons of gasoline, diesel fuel and asphalt per year. [2]

The refinery opened in 1951, when it was known as Murphy Oil USA. It was purchased in 2017 by Husky Energy of Canada for $435 million. [3] Cenovus,...

Just a country boy, he combed his hair,
Put on the shirt his mother made
And went on the air
- Gillian Welch, Elvis Presley Blues

An obscure marker labeled “Elvis Presley Fight Scene” sits on the northwest corner of East Washington Ave. and Stoughton Rd. in Madison.

The marker explains that, around 1:00 am on June 24, 1977, Elvis Presley was riding in a limousine that had stopped for a red light in front of what was then the Skyland Service Station. He had just landed at Dane County Regional...

Continued from Oddsconsin 19.

We’re halfway through a three-hour paranormal investigation in the Sheboygan County Comprehensive Health Care Center, colloquially known as Sheboygan County Asylum. After leaving the morgue, we take a bathroom break. There’s a porta potty in front of the building’s main entrance doors. It’s about 8:30 pm and pretty dark. I wonder if the porta potty is home to any spirits, and what kind of spirits would find that an attractive home.

After the break, we visit the...

Continued from Oddsconsin 18.

We’re in the tunnels of the Sheboygan County Asylum, hunting for spirits. A matrix light throws tiny green dots over the tunnel walls, to detect movement. Suddenly, the green dots flicker on and off. “Did you see that?” someone asks.

But it’s only a bat. Everyone shrieks as the bat flutters around their heads. A tour guide mentions that bats can carry rabies. The guides offer to buy the spirits a case of beer if they talk, but there’s not much happening. We take a...

I realize the tour is not going to be what I expected when our guide says, “This is not a history tour. We’re here to do a paranormal investigation.” Sheboygan County Asylum is reputed to be haunted, and a local company offers ghost tours. Ghost tours usually involve spooky stories, some real, some not. This tour is taking a more direct approach. We will be attempting to communicate with the spirits who inhabit the building.

Sheboygan County Asylum’s real name is Sheboygan County Comprehensive...

“It doesn’t smell all that bad,” says Mike, a friend from work. We’re on a tour of the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) Nine Springs plant on Moorland Road in Madison. We’re standing next to the settling tanks, the first stage of treatment for raw sewage – called wastewater or influent – where solids are separated from liquids. Mike adds, “It helps that we’re outside.”

Our tour guide, Catherine, explains the treatment steps. First, the settling tanks, then the aeration tanks where...

The term “continental divide” conjures up images of a ragged line on a map, running down the spine of the Rocky Mountains. But Wisconsin has its own continental divide, near the city of Portage, where a narrow strip of land separates the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. Water in the Fox flows north into the Great Lakes and then into the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence River. The Wisconsin River runs west into the Mississippi, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico (now known officially in the US...

Oddsconsin...where we explore peculiar and sometimes mysterious features of Wisconsin’s human landscape.

The Great Pyramid of Giza. The Great Wall of China. The Roman aqueducts. How do we explain these historic marvels, built centuries ago when engineering and mathematical knowledge was less advanced than today? This question has led some to conclude these structures were built by advanced civilizations that have vanished, or even by aliens from other planets.

The 400 State Trail poses similar...