Captain’s Walk Winery Investigation
If you’re a paranormal investigator, then you should already know Green Bay is one of the more haunted cities in Wisconsin. Considering the founder built homes atop Native American burial grounds, some of the older homes in the area have serious haunts within their walls. Our story today though is more bittersweet; it involves one of the oldest homes in Green Bay, but it comes with a happy ending. This, my friends, is the story about Helen coming home.
Built in 1857, what is now known as Captain Walk’s Winery is the old home of Elisha Morrow. He came from the East Coast in the 1840s and was involved with lumber and politics. From 1843-1851 he ran a stage line from Green Bay to Sheboygan, Madison, and Milwaukee. He was even a delegate to the Chicago Convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for presidency.
Elisha married twice in his lifetime. He had a son with his first wife. After she passed, he remarried and had another six daughters in the 1857 home. Out of the six was Helen, who was the second oldest child but the oldest of the daughters. She was the only one of them to never marry, so when Elisha passed away, the home was given to her.
Helen wanted nothing other than to finish her life in this home. It was a staple to her childhood, and her life revolved around it. The upkeep was too much for her though, and without the aid of a husband, Helen had to make the sacrifice to give up the house. She always swore to others she would come back someday, but she passed away in a nursing home a few blocks down in 1952.
But alas! Helen’s story doesn’t end here. Most people would assume when Helen said she’d come back that she meant in her lifetime. Truth of the matter is Helen did come back to her childhood home, just not in the way everyone expected. It only took the opening of the Captain’s Walk Winery in 2007 for others to notice.
Helen can appear in multiple forms ranging from child to elder, depending on the person she’s encountering. She has been seen at the top of the stairs and down in the cellar, where she is rumored to appear the most. The bartender at Captain’s Walk Winery (who is also a Tarot reader) said her readings are done in the basement, and Helen will go as far as moving curtains to prove her existence down there. For dead girl, she’s pretty lively, huh?
We had only discovered the winery recently, but made the trip on July 6, 2024. We wanted to get there late afternoon, and we did. Fortunately for us, we got there before more people decided to show up. We were one of the only cars in the lot, and we were able to converse with the staff. They told us about themselves, the history, and the paranormal activity.
During the breaks in conversation, the girls and I were off wandering. We were told we could go to the second story, which meant we got to walk up the blue, carpeted staircase that greeted us when we walked in. At the top of the stairs were original hardwood floors, the Captain’s quarters, and the library. Everything else was preserved and blocked off, but evidently, we didn’t need a whole lot for Helen to appear.
After we looked around, we decided to settle in the library. We got cozy in some seats, but we also set up a cat ball on one of the chairs for Helen before we summoned her. When we asked her to come forward, she set the cat ball off before anything else. The room had even gotten colder, and each one of us took turns with goosebumps.
To warm her up to us, we introduced ourselves one by one. We also joked around with her and brought up random topics to discuss. At one point we even asked her to say a happy early birthday to Nicole (which comes back to us later).
Once she was comfortable with our group of three, we told her we were going outside into the parking lot for an Estes Method session. We asked her if she would like to join, and then we asked her to set off the cat ball if she accepted the invitation. Instead of setting the cat ball off, she said her own name on our Necrometer device. We finished the session by screaming in jubilee and going in for a group hug.
We scurried back downstairs to visit with the staff and purchase bottles of wine to take home. When we got back into the vehicle, we prepared for the Estes Method session. (For those new here, we often perform sessions in the car versus outside to prevent the camera from picking up on external noise. This is also easier for spirit box sessions because when a spirit touches the device, the beeps can be awfully loud. This keeps everything controlled in a confined space in places we don’t want to attract attention.) We invited Helen into the car and reiterated to her that we asked her to come down. The Necrometer we had going said, “Sit.” See, Helen gets it.
With Helen already in our vehicle, we did our best to efficiently set up the cat ball, video camera, and EVP while prepping for the Estes. While Swan fiddled with the spirit box, I asked Helen to set off the cat ball. When she didn’t, we explained the devices to her and how she could communicate with Swan. Her Necrometer response to us was “Audio,” telling us she understood how the spirit box worked.
At last, we finally started our session with Helen in the car. Swan hit the button to sweep through radio stations, but the volume wasn’t working. Little did we know, Helen was already fiddling with it; after Swan acknowledged it, the device started blaring. We laughed really hard, followed by holding our stomachs crying when Helen said, “MEEEEEE.” What an entrance.
We asked Helen if she’s done an Estes before, and she said she has done it once. We’re not sure how many have investigated here or have used this same equipment, but our spirit friend was already incredibly smart with the device. We wouldn’t doubt she has used it before. She was smart enough to even know that she could change the spirit box colors from red to blue.
There were many things we discussed throughout our session, and there were many laughs shared in between. We found out Helen adores the staff and thinks they’re “sunny.” Her favorite parts of the home are sections we were unable to explore, one of those areas being the basement. She told us she protects the space down there. We assume this is because of the monthly tarot readings being performed and the mounds of storage downstairs.
While we’re still on topic of the basement, there was a part of the conversation where Helen explained what the basement looked like. She told us she was our eyes and explained it reminded her of summer.
Helen then changed the subject and said happy birthday to Nicole. This was remarkable evidence because we had a recording of us asking Helen about Nicole’s birthday during our session in the Library. She didn’t respond to this request while we were upstairs, so her bringing it up in the parking lot later validated she’d been with us the whole time. This response was followed by, “I see you.”
The rest of our conversation consisted of her father, Helen touching Swan’s wrist, and Helen asking us to come back inside. We told her to tell the staff to bring us back and we would, and she said she was getting around to it. Time will tell if we make it back up to her neck of the woods, but until then, the girls and I can relish over the new friend we just made.
Until next time! Thanks for reading.
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