For the past few months, I’ve been playing around with a blog over on Substack. Ginny’s Odd Tonics is a fun way for me to share some of the rabbit holes I’ve jumped down while researching my writing projects. The vibe is kind of like your favorite librarian nerding out about really weird history once a month in your inbox.
I reposted a couple of my early essays here in full until someone told me that’s not a great idea for SEO or something? I dunno. But this time I thought I’d entice you to sign up for more (it’s free! it’s infrequent! it’s mildly amusing!) by compiling some tidbits from a recent series of Wisconsin-based posts. I had no idea how weird my hometown was until I started to write about it…
The Nike Site
Nike Sites were open secrets throughout the United States, part of the Cold War arms race left to the dustbins of history, and my little rural hometown had an abandoned one where we kids used to play. The reasoning was that large cities like New York and Chicago would be likely targets, so rural areas outside major metropolises were the perfect place for anti-aircraft missile defense sites. That way, if Chicago or Milwaukee was obliterated, little Muskego, Wisconsin, could retaliate. And the missiles were so shiny!
The Abandoned Amusement Park
Sounds like a Scooby-Doo episode, doesn’t it? But Muskego had a long history as a playground for city dwellers and Illinoisians looking for escape. When I was a kid, though, all that was left was the skeleton of a rollercoaster towering over the town like a dinosaur of better days. What was its story? Why did it shut down? Why was it left hanging there for so many years before it was taken apart? Check out my post to find out!
The Haunchies: Urban Legend or Buried History?
This is where things get really interesting. Muskego had its very own urban legend (or that’s what they want us to believe, bwa ha ha) about a murderous band of circus folk who lived in secret at the swampy, foggy, creepy edge of town. Of course, everybody in southeastern Wisconsin heard of them, so they weren’t too good at keeping secrets…
