Jon Solo Sebastian 08/03/2026:

“Small town with a big history.” It seems every haunted story starts with a title like this. More often than not, the “big history” part has more to do with the cryptid or creature of the night than it has to do with any type of prosperity in the town. Mineral Point, Wisconsin is no different. It was one of the hubs for mining in the early 1800’s where settlers discovered large quantities of zinc and lead. The town and its people had a bit of artistic and architectural charm to it, and it also has connections to the supernatural and paranormal with sightings as recent as 2008, according to one source.

Above quote (“small town with a big history”) from: wisconsinfrights.com

The Vampire

There isn’t much in the way of name or description for the Mineral Point Vampire. Most of the legends of folklore that I’ve researched and written about have more detailed descriptions, but what do you really need to know about a vampire hunting the dark depths of the night? Witnesses say: he’s a male, a little over six-foot tall, pale white face (some say painted white), dresses in black, and in some cases wears a Dracula-like cape. Honestly, anyone can go out dressed like this, and some people do, so what makes this guy a vampire?

None of the sightings follow up with any murders or missing people; unless that stuff goes unreported to not draw a lot of attention to town. We see this in television and movies—where the local law enforcement tries to keep things under wraps and localized so they don’t cause panic or have the town flooded with hunters and all of that. I’m not saying this happens in the real world, but it’s possible.

Sightings

In 1981, a police officer was routinely checking the Graceland Cemetery due to multiple reports of overnight vandalism, and reports of a pale faced man lurking throughout the grounds. The officer spotted the “vampire” and chased after him. Why is a deadly creature of the night running from the police? Anyway, the vampire escaped by allegedly leaping over a six-foot-tall fence. The officer found footprints in the snow leading up to the fence, but no footprints on the other side. Did the vampire fly away? Who or what was the officer chasing… or did he make up the story? Sadly, until we find actual proof of a vampire living there, we’ll never know.

While there are other sightings, I don’t want to get too long winded here. In 2008, in what sounds like it came right out of an opening to a horror movie aside from the killer catching his victims, the vampire was harassing a young couple who were out fishing on a pier at Ludden Lake. They began to hear noises coming from underneath the pier that sounded like knocking or scratching. The male began stomping on the boards hoping to scare off whatever was making the sounds. He tried shining his flashlight into the cracks between the boards of the jetty to see if he could see what it was when they suddenly heard splashing of water behind them as if something rose from the water… and something did indeed do that. The couple turned around to see a wet pale faced man dressed in black staring at them. They stated he was wearing a Dracula styled cape and was giving them an unsettling glare. With the flashlight held on him, the male told his girlfriend to run to the car. He stayed a little behind her to keep an eye on the vampire as they made their escape. The vampire gave chase. The male threw his flashlight at him as a last-ditch effort to slow the creature. The girl was already in the vehicle, she unlocked the doors so her boyfriend could get in, and they sped off.

In most of the reported sightings, the vampire was either running away from police or essentially just trying to scare folks. This encounter at Ludden Lake hit differently because the vampire was trying to catch them. Was he actually a vampire, and was he going to drain their blood? Anything is possible, but another question… what was he doing under the jetty/pier? Why was he in the water? I wonder if he’s a vampire like Angel from the Buffy universe. Maybe he was getting his blood from fish rather than humans, and he was chasing the couple away because they were trying to “steal” his meal. What do you think happened here?

Mineral Points Other “Creepy Crawly’s”

Before the vampire, there was the Ridgeway Phantom. The short story is about a ghost that took on various forms to terrorize the towns people of Ridgeway and Mineral Point. Some forms used were its normal ghost form, headless man, and a ball of fire—all of which give me Scooby-Doo vibes.

The town is also well known for the haunted Walker house. In 1842, a public execution took place at the Walker House. William Caffee, a murderer, was executed there, and reports of hauntings began to stir shortly afterwards. While the claims of the hauntings have been shrugged off by the latest ownership, folks in the past that either worked there or visited the house had claimed to have seen a ghost inside and outside the location. One sighting in 1981 reportedly witnessed a headless man inside the building.

A werewolf and a vampire walk into town… In 1987, not long after the vampire had been spotted, “In Hunting the American Werewolf: Beast Men in Wisconsin and Beyond, Linda S. Godfrey says a woman she identifies only as Kim contacted her in 2004 about a 1987 werewolf sighting in Mineral Point. Kim says that in the middle of a spring afternoon, just before the full moon, she saw a werewolf running as it was transforming. She says the creature sprinted into a building, clutched a railing, and turned back into it’s human form. She said a group of about 15 to 20 people also witnessed the incident, although Godfrey couldn’t corroborate Kim’s story with any additional sources.”

A fun fact to end with:

The infamous Vincent Price has some roots in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. His mother, Marguerite Cobb grew up in the town. Cobb’s grandfather was a local merchant and worked for the railroad there. Many members of the family are buried in the cemetery called Graceland Cemetery, which is where the first sighting of the vampire had been reported.