A house Called summerwind
in remotest wisconsin, whispers still of one of history’s most haunted houses
Summerwind.
The name itself seems to cast a spell on all who first hear of this storied estate, now in ruins, on the shores of West Bay Lake near the town of Land O’ Lakes, Wisconsin. Originally a fishing resort, then a rich man’s retreat, the house was christened by a poetic later tenant. The name change—and the tales he went on to tell of the enigmatic Northwoods villa—would combine to carve into immortality one of the greatest of all American ghost stories.
Humble
The land from which Summerwind rose was originally owned by a Ohio native named John H. Frank, whose family moved to Michigan in 1877. Frank worked on farms as a young man, then relocated to Washington State, where he learned the blacksmithing trade. Returning to the Great Lakes area, he traveled between Wisconsin lumber camps and sawmills practicing smithing and eventually settled in the Northwoods on the idyllic shores of West Bay Lake at the Michigan border. Seeing the potential of his stunning homestead, he transformed it into a summer resort, building a hotel and four cottages and christening the site West Bay Lake Resort.
After years of devotion to the retreat, Frank decided to retire, and it was then, in 1916, that he sold the resort to Robert Patterson Lamont, who would later serve as secretary of commerce under President Hoover. At the time of the purchase of the West Bay Lake property, Lamont was the busy CEO of the Simplex Railway Appliance Company, a firm he’d joined almost two decades earlier.
Chicago architecture enthusiasts are well acquainted with Lamont’s west View Farms estate in the North Shore community of Lake Forest, Illinois, which was designed by noted architect Howard Van Doren Shaw in the 1920s, but it was another Chicago firm—Tallmage and Watson—that Lamont tapped to build his earlier Northwoods retreat. Construction was completed in 1918; when the last receipts were logged, it had cost a whopping $125,000 (the equivalent of almost three million dollars in 2023).
Haunted
As in all good haunted house stories, the 20-room dream retreat soon became a nightmare. Shadowy figures, footsteps and an uncanny feeling of unease plagued Robert and his family’s attempts for a little peace and quiet. When Robert hired workers to add on to the house, he discovered that the old adage to “measure twice, cut once” couldn’t be followed. The rooms of the mansion seemed to change size and shape as they labored, as if the building itself were alive.
One night, as Lamont walked through the house before bed, he opened the basement door to check for lights burning and was confronted by a larger than life specter on the other side. Lamont slammed the door and fired two shots into it. When he regained his nerve to reopen it, there was no one there. The bullet holes, however, remained as long as the door did. It was stolen by vandals soon before the mansion burned to the ground. After his midnight encounter--as in all good haunted house stories--, Lamont and his family fled, never to return.
The Lamont mansion sat vacant for four decades. Then came the Hinshaws. Arnold and Ginger bought the property and moved in with Ginger’s father, Raymond Bober, though the latter lived in a trailer outside the house and, they say, never spent a night under its roof. It was Bober who renamed the mansion “Summerwind” and who would later document the sequence of events that (at least according to him) led up to the haunting of this now immortal manse.
The Hinshaws quickly commenced their own renovations, but labor was not forthcoming. Indeed, they found that no workers would come near the house, let alone accept their generous offers of pay to labor there. The source of their fear was soon revealed when haunting incidents began to occur, including the appearance of a filmy male figure in colonial garb, the alleged discovery of a walled-up corpse, and noises, smells and feelings of every menacing variety. Among the tales told of this legendary locale, it’s said that Arnold and Ginger Hinshaw were so terrorized by whatever walked the halls of Summerwind that Arnold suffered a nervous breakdown there and that his wife tried to kill herself.
Notorious
Bober became fascinated by the supernatural dimension of Summerwind and set about digging to the root of its preternatural personality. After long days and nights of study, he published a book on what he claimed to have discovered. The Carver Effect details Bober’s contention (inspired by Wisconsin legend) that a British soldier and explorer named Jonathan Carver was deeded a huge tract of land in Wisconsin and Minnesota by admiring Sioux Indians who made him one of their chiefs. He later abandoned his American family and returned to Britain and married again. After his death, the deed disappeared, though seemingly countless descendants attempted to cash in on it. Though The Carver Effect has long been out of print, doesn’t seem to be held by any libraries (and because I can’t afford the $400-$500 price tag for a second hand copy), I’m going to guess that Bober came to believe that the deed was somehow stashed on the Summerwind property, as an old story tells of him ransacking the mansion’s basement for it during his time there with the Hinshaws. It would follow, I suppose, that Carver’s restless spirit was a bit miffed about the “stolen” land and the lost deed--and probably also about how every historian has called him a teller of tales or outright liar since the day he set foot in Wisconsin.
That is, every historian but Raymond Bober.
Many Northwoods residents claim that no one thought of Summerwind as haunted until Bober’s book was published in 1979—an event which brought Life magazine itself to the Northwoods to document the story in a photo essay. Though the book was far from a bestseller, the Life spread turned Land O’Lakes into a paranormal bucket list destination overnight. With horror, West Bay Lake locals watched their idyllic resort area become a ghost hunting circus. It wasn’t long before vandalism, burglaries and arsons followed.
Immortal
After five years of battling interlopers, Land O’Lakes officials in 1985 decided to burn down Summerwind, but the plan never transpired. The mansion stood for three more years, attracting regular hordes of legend-trippers, psychics and ne’er do wells.
Then, on June 19, 1988, during a storm raging across West Bay Lake, Summerwind was struck by a bolt of lighting. The crack of it startled neighbors from their sleep. When arson investigators came to call, they all concurred that no human hand had caused the conflagration.
When the smoke cleared, all gathered to gape at the ruins of the house that had long lived in legend among the towering pines. The house that had brought so much unwanted—and, some say, unwarranted--attention to this sleepy little corner of Wisconsin. The house that will forever live in memory as one of the world’s most haunted places.
The house called Summerwind.
(Please note: the ruins of Summerwind stand on private property. Do not trespass.)
Eternal Rest Grant Unto Them,
And Let Perpetual Light Shine Upon Them.
May Their souls And The Souls Of All The Faithful Departed
Through The Mercy Of God Rest In Peace.
Amen.
St. Michael The Archangel, Defend Us In Battle. Be Our Protection Against The Wickedness And Snares Of The Devil. May God Rebuke Him We Humbly Pray. And Do Thou, O Prince Of The Heavenly Host, By The Power Of God, Cast Into Hell Satan And All The Evil Spirits Who Prowl About The World, Seeking The Ruin Of Souls.
Amen.
Thanks for taking this supernatural journey to Wisconsin with me. You can help have Masses said for the souls of Summerwind by becoming a Patreon supporter at any level (but check out the higher tiers, too, and this month’s exclusive Summerwind tees, pins and retro chain frame mini prints in the Supernatural Shop.
I’ll see you here next month for another visit. In the meantime, remember to #prayforghosts!