Return to the Old Baraboo Inn Investigation (Overnight)

This blog post was written by Whitney Dankemeyer, one half of Two Halves of a Soul.

On the dark, crisp night of November 26, 2022, Two Halves of a Soul and company were welcomed back by the haunted presence of the Old Baraboo Inn. The streets were dark, cool, and damp glistening under streetlights; however, the weather wasn’t the only bone chilling thing we encountered that evening... it was what was also on the inside.

The first time we visited the Old Baraboo Inn, it was a Sunday afternoon this past October. We were given a private tour of the bar and upstairs, but we were unable to scope out the basement. Our venture back to the OBI not only included an actual downstairs investigation, but we also stayed through the night in the old brothel upstairs.

For those who’ve already read our first investigation of the Old Baraboo Inn, you may already be aware of the building’s history and the paranormal activity it entices. For those of you who are new here and are learning about the Old Baraboo Inn for the first time, here is a rundown of OBI’s history from our first blog post back in October 2022:

In Baraboo, Wisconsin, on the corner of Lynn and Walnut Street, there sits the Old Baraboo Inn of 158 years in age. This establishment was first opened as a Tavern and Brothel in 1864 by George Bender, a German immigrant seeking the inception of a brewery and boarding house. Where the bar and restaurant is now was the tavern, and upstairs where tenants reside in apartments is where the brothel used to be. There used to be a playroom for the children in this establishment when the prostitutes would bring their children to work, and on Sunday the place would hold church services for these mothers and the kids. This historic treasure holds so much history you can feel it reverberating through the walls. But that’s not all the Old Baraboo Inn is known for... this building also houses ghosts.

In the 1880s, the Old Baraboo Inn had a railway station across the street called the Baraboo Train Depot. This railway station was a straight shot to Chicago, the form of transportation that brought mobs to and from the area. They were especially drawn to this location during the prohibition, where they ran a Speak-Easy out of the Old Baraboo Inn. Owners of businesses weren’t given much say when their establishment was chosen, as most times they were murdered if they denied the mobs access to their building. So, most would allow them entry, but it was merely to stay alive.

It is said there was a particular individual who would execute people in the basement of the Old Baraboo Inn when Speak-Easy rules were broken. He was the one who would finish the job the mobs started when they would beat and torture specific individuals. An execution pole still sits in the basement where the designated killing area was located. Bullet holes can still be found within it.

Al Capone was one of those frequent visitors of this establishment during the prohibition. He is rumored to still come and go even after death. Paranormal investigators have captured evidence of this former mobster communicating with them through their devices. However, he’s not the only one who’s come forward at the Baraboo Inn.

An evil entity resides in the basement that to this day scares people out. Some say it’s the spirit of the one in charge of executing others for breaking the rules, but there’s no solidifying proof of that theory. Regardless, there is a thick and heavy energy lingering in the air that gives people the feeling of impending doom. Most steer clear of it when they can. If one should ever be so lucky though, the current owners do occasionally offer special tours that include a walk-through of this basement.

Believe it or not, that is not all. Aside from the rumored drunk cowboy and Cybil who dances to the jukebox downstairs, there is also the spirit of a prostitute who teases people upstairs. She was apparently killed in the Baraboo Inn and now likes to interact with guests. This sex worker goes by the name of Mary, and she’s found in one of the rooms upstairs with a little boy and a little girl who stay in the playroom. Other paranormal activity in the building includes lights turning on and off by themselves, Tupperware and utensils being thrown around in the kitchen, doors opening and closing by themselves, and objects being found in different places than where they were left.

In 1988, the Old Baraboo Inn set fire and business shut down. At this time the Inn was running as a brewery/winery and the building then remained vacant for ten years. After a decade, the next and current owner B.C. Farr purchased the building and began full restoration of the first and second floors. Online documentation says Farr retired in 2018 and that the business is owned by the Food Network now. This information is in fact false, and you will still find B.C. Farr at this establishment, waiting to share its history with whoever comes through the door.

It took four years for B.C. to restore the Old Baraboo Inn. Part of this renovation included moving the hidden stairs to the brothel to the outside of the building so the renters of the upstairs apartments had easier access. Once the second floor was renovated, the downstairs was transformed into a restaurant and bar.

And now for our investigation.

When we arrived at the Old Baraboo Inn, it was roughly 9:00 pm. It took a minute to work up the motivation to get out of the car considering the cold and the fact that we could see the ongoing investigation through the window of where we’d be staying. There was a public tour going until 8:30 pm, but we could transparently see that it was running past its scheduled time. I looked over to Swan. Must be an active night.

We got out of the car and walked around the perimeter to scope out the night and snap polaroids. Given that my body temperature dropped within a nanosecond, I hauled butt inside of the bar without hesitation. Scurrying up to the bartender, we introduced ourselves to our new acquaintance and tour guide, Matt. There was the exchange of money, drinks, and experiences at the OBI while settling into the seat of our stools. We actually chatted with him for a good half hour until Shelly, our gracious host, concluded her tour and gathered us up to sign waiver forms. We signed our lives away, hiked our bags upstairs, and once we were all checked in, there wasn’t much else to do other than begin our first overnight investigation... so Matt led the way to the basement.

The first time we came to the Old Baraboo Inn, Shelly mentioned that the basement wasn’t usually included on tours unless it was a special event in October for Halloween. Once we all set foot in the basement that evening, we could understand why. The energy downstairs of the building was entirely different from the rest. We were aware of the negative entity that resided down there through Shelly, BC, and other online sources, but to physically feel the heaviness in the air downstairs made it almost completely unbearable.

We first made an entire loop of what was underground, examining the items, the walls, and the memories. When we ended our tour of the basement, we ended at the execution pole. As soon as we all laid eyes on it, the air filled with O’s and quickly simmered to a deafening silence. This was the real f*cking thing.

The execution pole was still filled with stains, stab marks, and bullet holes. This was the very pole Al Capone had used when he ran mob-related businesses out of the establishment, and the evil entity residing in the basement is rumored to be the one who tortured the victims to death. This was something we were hoping our investigation would be able to solve for us.

Our EVP session had been foiled during the basement excursion, but this was due to appliances kicking on a minute and a half into the recording. We did, however, still conduct a spirit box session that was documented and recorded via video camera, which did capture some compelling responses for us. When we asked the spirit box if there were any bodies buried underneath the Old Baraboo Inn, the device responded with a “Yeah.”

We then asked the spirit what its name was, hoping to possibly get the name of one of the victims rumored to be buried underneath the establishment decades ago. We got the answer Nicholas, but we also quickly discovered through a few follow-up questions that Nicholas killed other people at the OBI instead. Now, is Nicholas the man who tortured victims for Al Capone? We are not sure. Did the dark entity in the basement named Nicholas still kill other people in his waking life? That answer is yes.

We quickly moved our investigation to the old brothel upstairs, not only because there were multiple rooms to be explored, but because we were only given so long to investigate the basement.

When we first got upstairs, we did a sweep of the area because two of our crew members were visiting OBI for the first time. There’s a main living room and a small kitchen leading into the hallway where there were two bedrooms and a bathroom at the end. Again, if you read our first investigation of the Old Baraboo Inn, you would know that a prostitute named Mary resides in one room, and there are two trapped children and a negative entity in the room adjacent to it. Now that we were in the building late at night as opposed to a Sunday afternoon, the dark entity from the room was making people in our group sick. The energy of the room he hid in was nauseating and uncomfortable; most of us were afraid to even turn our backs to it.

We decided to set up camp in the living room first, communicating with any spirits who currently lived there and wanted to come forward, including John Dombrowski, one of the original owners of OBI; Mary, the prostitute; Al Capone, former mobster; and so forth. We began with the Estes Method, us asking questions to the spirit box while Katie in our group wore the headphones.

When conducting the first session, we didn’t get much for connecting evidence. Of course, we got a bunch of random words and responses, but we couldn’t piece anything together well enough to tell a story. It will make much more sense later why this is, but at the moment, we were just as confused as you may be reading this right now.

Without wasting time, we got up from our first session and made our way to the back bedroom towards Mary. Although it took grave courage to waltz down the hall and slither past the negative entity to get to it, we were far more curious to see if Mary had anything she wanted to say.

In our session with Mary, we initiated conversation with the use of the dowsing rods. Asking yes or no questions, Mary answered “yes” by crossing the rods and leaving them uncrossed for “no”. She told us that she was more comfortable communicating in her room than outside of it, and it is because of the presence in the other room. There were times the dowsing rods would point to the direction of the closet on the other side of the wall and just sit there. (For those of you who don’t know this, the entity in the adjacent room is known to hide away in the closet, where the door usually always remains closed unless you dare to open it.) When we asked her if this is where she stays to hide from the entity in the room next door, the rods did not cross, and the spirit box session we had then started said “cannot.” This indicates that even if she tries to stay away, she can’t. It was later into the session we discovered that she knew the mother of the children trapped here, and she feels obligated to protect them. Although the entity is the reason why the kids cower in fear in the afterlife, she keeps him at bay. It is said by Mary he attacked the children in his breathing years, and he even seemed to be fixated on them during a later Estes session when we confronted him.

Further into that same session with Mary, we asked her if the entity had been at OBI for a really long time. The rods again stayed where they were without crossing, and it was at that moment when we captured a man on the EVP going, “Hm” in a stern tone. We didn’t realize the entity from the other room came forward and said something, but because we hadn't, we just assumed Mary chose to not answer the question. We also didn’t realize that this could be why the entity’s presence suddenly became overwhelming, and we even had to work up the courage to close the other bedroom door.

At the beginning of our session with Mary, we placed money on the vanity to “pay” her for services. Nicole, Swan, and I were all sprawled on the bed and took possession of the dowsing rods. With me sitting in the middle, I held the tools while we continued talking to Mary. We tried our best to stay focused, but Mary kept trying to give us our money’s worth by resting the dowsing rods on our… bosoms.

Now that it was 2:00 am, we decided to take a small break and then go back into the living room to conduct another session. We didn’t want to enter the other room just yet, especially because you could feel the energy in that room worsening, slowly seeping out from underneath the door.

Our next session in the living room is where we actually got the most compelling evidence. Looking back at our photographs, we captured a blue orb tracing at the top of the ceiling. In later film photos, a blue flash can be seen in another photo in the same spot. Following evidence included EVP recordings of spirits sighing, huffing, and whistling into the speaker. We also captured a spirit shuffling the phone two different times on two different cellular devices.

Although we have yet to look at historic documents to solidify the following evidence we captured, we believe we spoke with the entity from the closet, Al Capone, and other spirits we will explain momentarily. The first one we spoke with is who we believe to be the entity from the closet. This is the one who gave us a name, and that name was Philip.

Philip was a nasty spirit to speak with from the beginning, one who had us praying in the middle of an investigation to ensure our protection through the rest of the night. You could tell that despite his sufferings, he feels no remorse. He’s stuck in a dark time of his past, and the reason why he's trapped and so negative is because he refuses to accept what happened to him. He simply does nothing to move on. I even had to take initiative at one point in the conversation to set boundaries because Philip was being manipulative and demeaning.

When the conversation started, we asked for a name and our response was “Philip.” Following that question, Philip said “cars,” “any cars,” “clout,” and “you want to quit..but”. When we muttered, “But you didn’t,” we also asked if he had gotten into trouble and what happened to him. Philip responded with “bad".

We really wanted to go into what happened to Philip now, so our next question was a little more detailed, asking if his death was his own doing or if someone did something to make him angry. He said “bright,” and being as open-minded as we could, we automatically assumed bright meant headlights and that he was referring to a car. We asked, “Did you get hit by a car? And immediately the response was “absolutely.”

Throughout the rest of the session, Philip wouldn’t stop interrupting the conversation by bringing up the kids. It was "kids," "the children," "two," etc. At times it felt as if the children were trying to come through and communicate with us, but they were quickly overrun with other voices coming through the device and sputtering random words. One of those random words we captured ended up being “Syphilis.” At the same time, we all made the connection from the word to Al Capone. We had discovered earlier that he actually had Syphilis, a disease that slowly spread to his brain and gave him the mentality of a 12-year-old boy by the time of his death. Nicole whispered that we hadn’t tried to speak to Al yet throughout the night, and the spirit box response was “I know”. We apologized to Al for not having asked to speak with him yet, and said we were open to talking to him if he was. He then said “pizza” which gave us the connection to the Old Train Depot that was used to get him from Baraboo to Chicago. When we responded back with “Chicago?” he said “journey”.

It was hard to keep a steady conversation going at this point, and this was because we were nearing the witching hour. We didn’t make the connection right away that the mirror in the living room was facing another mirror directly across the room, making a massive portal in the area we were conducting these sessions in. This was a spiritual freeway for spirits to come and go through, so because it was almost 3:00 am, multiple spirits were coming through at this time trying to get a story in. This was making it difficult to ask questions or understand entirely what they were trying to get across to us.

We decided to put on brave faces and do the final thing that needed to be done… go into the bedroom at the end of the hall. We were all frightened of Philip in the beginning but knew now he was merely an unhappy spirit in the afterlife taunting the living. It was still hard to enter the room without keeping our backs to the wall, so we all still did just that. However, we didn’t get any EVP, video or photographic evidence in that room that night. We didn’t even feel the presence of the children in that room, just the negative, lingering energy of the evil spirit from the closet. It was then we noticed the closet light was on at the foot of the door. Unsure whether or not it was on from the earlier investigation, we took it as our sign to make an exit.

Now that it was after 4:00 am and we were all still awake, we decided to conclude our overnight and make the trek home instead of going to sleep. I’m not sure that I would’ve been able to fall asleep anyways, despite how exhausted I and everyone else were feeling. Although the place was welcoming and inviting, I think I speak for all of us and the spirits when I say we overstayed our welcome for the night.

We are incredibly thankful to have been given this opportunity by the owners of OBI to conduct our first overnight investigation at their establishment. It may not have been our first investigation, but it was memorable. To say this is our final investigation of the Old Baraboo Inn would be a lie, but who’s to say when our next return will be? Until the spirits call…