CLIMB ABOARD – IF YOU DARE! The Chippewa Valley Trolley Co's latest venture is a tour of Eau Claire's Dark History. (Photo by Ma Vue)

Since the summer, the Chippewa River Trolley Co. has been offering tours in Eau Claire, giving riders a look at the city’s most scenic spots paired with fascinating stories of the community’s past and present.

More recently, tours have been added to the mix that focus on wine, beer, and cocktails. Now, the Chippewa River Trolley Co. has something new brewing – something more in keeping with the growing darkness and chill of autumn.

Welcome to the Eau Claire Dark History Tour.

The latest tour, which will launch later in October, will take trolley riders on a nighttime journey through the darker corners of the City of Eau Claire and its long history.

While the Signature Eau Claire Tour offers a sunnier view of Eau Claire’s story, the Dark History Tour will take passengers deep into the city’s seedy side. There will be stories of crime and mayhem, from events ripped from recent headlines that made national news to tales older than the city itself (including the odd story of Eau Claire’s first documented murder).

Photo by Tina Ecker

There will be stories of scandal, from the bizarre hypnotism craze that gripped Eau Claire in the 1890s to the mysterious – and unsolved – murder of a lumber baron.

There will be accounts of paranormal phenomena, from disembodied voices and phantom horses to eerie tales from an abandoned sanatorium.

Like the Signature Eau Claire Tour that’s been popular with tourists and townies alike since launching last summer, the Eau Claire Dark History tour will include experiential elements, including an off-trolley stroll across an iconic railroad bridge.

Perhaps most intriguingly, the tour will offer visitors a rare and exclusive experience inside – and under – a normally off-limits cemetery chapel with a fascinating history all its own.

All this will be led and narrated by the Chippewa Valley Trolley Co.’s own George House, an award-winning radio personality and lifelong Eau Claire resident, who will add his unique take on these tales.

To step out from behind the shadowy literary curtain for a moment: As the person who’s spent weeks delving into the dim corners of Eau Claire’s history to assemble the tour, it’s been surprising (and a bit spooky!) to unearth so many obscure oddities. I honestly thought I knew Eau Claire’s history pretty well, but I uncovered a number of tales I had never heard before.

Delving into history books and century-old newspaper archives has revealed plenty of strange and chilling information. Without giving too much away, I’ve read about a “mad dog killer” who struck just before Christmas to what a newspaper dubbed “one of the bloodiest one-night criminal careers ever known in Wisconsin.”

Hopefully, you’ll have a similar reaction if you’re brave enough to board the Chippewa River Trolley some evening this autumn for an exploration of some of Eau Claire’s eerier history.

Learn more about the Eau Claire Dark History Tour and find out how you can book your tickets at chippewarivertrolley.org.

Photo by Tina Ecker