McKillip's
McKillip's was the name of another, even more notorious, tavern about five miles west of Ridgeway on what is now Highway 18-151. Some accounts of the origin of the Ridgeway ghost stem from a horrifying incident at this saloon in the early 1840's.
Two teen-age brothers, ages fourteen and fifteen, ambled into the establishment one winter day and promptly became the subject of jest by the drunken customers. The ridicule soon turned to murder when one boy was grabbed and thrown into a blazing fireplace. He was burned alive. The other youngster managed to escape out the door but was never seen again. The next spring his frozen corpse was found in a field.
After the boy's murder, a small, gray-haired woman would be seen wandering aimlessly along the road near McKillip's. She would vanish as soon as a stranger approached. Those who saw her speculated that she might be the mother or grandmother of the murdered boys looking for their bodies.
Variations of a female specter abound in the Ridgeway vicinity.
A retired railroad man, Lyle Kramer, told a story passed down by his father. The older Kramer said he often saw two old women on an isolated section of the railroad tracks flagging down a passenger train as it moved along the Ridge Road. When the train stopped to pick up the women, they would float away into the forest.
On another occasion an unidentified man was driving his team of horses along near Ridgeway when he sighted a woman walking in the road directly ahead. She was going in his direction, in the center of the road. He yelled at her to move but she didn't respond or turn. She continued to walk. The horseman drove to the side of the highway to pass, but as he did so the mysterious woman moved to block his approach. He whipped his team into a faster gallop. The woman somehow managed to stay ahead. He reined his team to a halt. And she stopped. After several miles of this frustrating exchange the woman vanished.
Others said an old woman would appear shuffling along the road. She would then disappear into a ball of fire.
Note:The information used for this and many of the other Ridgeway pages is borrowed from Haunted Wisconsin, by Beth Scott & Michael Norman.