DryHeatBlog The Creepiest Abandoned House Ever in Navarino, Wisconsin
I shot these photos while visiting Navarino, Wisconsin during the winter of 2004. They were originally published to the old Dry Heat Blog in August of 2019. Why the fifteen year gap? Long story short, these photos were officially missing for over a decade before I rediscovered their whereabouts in 2019.
Winter in Wisconsin looks like a Stephen King book. Everything looks old and creepy and haunted, whether is actually is or not. But this place is all of those things.
According to the 2000 census the population of Navarino, Wisconsin was 440. Chances are it’s less than that now. Navarino isn’t a place people move to. It’s a place they move from.
I couldn’t tell you how to get to this location other than I think it was somewhere off the 156. It’s probably not standing anymore anyway.
A possible crime scene
This house was not a normal abandoned house. It was also the manager’s office and sat in the middle of a huge junk yard of discarded appliances and cars. At the time of my visit, half the structure had already collapsed and it probably wasn’t safe to enter the other half, not that that stopped me from going in.
One day they left and didn’t come back
The house was still full of the family’s belongings, as if they left not knowing they wouldn’t be coming back…. But I don’t think they just left, I think something happened to them. In addition to the sinister vibe wafting from all the religious paraphernalia, there are blood rusty knives waiting on the kitchen counter and the unmistakable feeling that their lives here didn’t end well.
Walking around the property, the dirt roads are lined with junked out cars, literally hundreds of them. Car trunks in the middle of nowhere sure would make a handy place to stash a few bodies. My personal feeling has always been that the guy killed his family and then killed himself out in the woods somewhere or maybe in the van pictured below. I think everyone who lived in this house could have disappeared and no one in town would’ve known the difference.
At the time of my exploration, this house had been abandoned for at least 24 years – judging from the 1978 calendar still clinging to the wall.
The Mirror
Fun Fact: My (now) ex-husband wrapped this mirror up in a trash bag and brought it home with us. His plan was to refinish it, minus the bird nest. He was later so creeped out by it that he never would unwrap it or bring it in the house. I’m pretty sure it was still in the garage when I sold the house eleven years later.
Of all the abandoned places I’ve visited, this one really stands out. The midwest and east coast have a whole different vibe than the southwest.
