SALEM, MA (WFRV) – It’s the spookiest time of the year in arguably one of the scariest places in the world.
Salem, Massachusetts, has come to terms with its witchcraft trial history and is jam-packed in the weeks leading up to Halloween.
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Two sisters from Neenah, Wisconsin, were among the throngs attending the recent Zombie Fest.
Beverly Cloudman and Mary Jane Hartley grew up not too far away.
Bev was especially excited to get her hands on some Salem-made spiced rum.
But there were also some scares they didn’t expect as they walked the streets with folks dressed up as witches, zombies, and every scary character from horror films that you can imagine.
“Even though we’ve been gone 40 years, we’re back,” exclaimed Beverly. “But we feel more like Wisconsinites, definitely. Very much Packers Fans!”
They are not the only Wisconsin connection to this haunted harbor city.
Long before the Mather family moved to Wisconsin and Channing Mather began cheese production in Sheboygan County, his ancestor, Connor Mather, walked the streets of Salem and wrote extensively about the infamous witch trials.
The whirlwind visit to this wicked place was part of a fall color bus tour with a couple dozen other Wisconsinites, including Local 5’s Michele McCormack.
The group managed to step into some history after first landing in Boston.
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The group met the artist restoring historic angel paintings inside the Old North Church. This is the same church where Revolutionary Paul Revere warned with lanterns of the British attack.
“What’s exciting is that after 2 and half centuries, we’re revealing something that’s been buried for all that time,” said Gian Franco Pocobene. “Because it’s so time-consuming, we can’t do all of them. After we’ve uncovered four of them, we’re taking high-resolution images, and we’ll make replicas of them on canvas and adhere them to the spaces where they belong.”
