Boy Scout Lane is an isolated road located in
Stevens Point, Wisconsin
Stevens Point is a city in Portage County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. Its population was 25,666 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It forms the core of the Stevens Point micropolitan statistical area, which had a p ...
. A number of ghost stories and urban legends have become associated with the road, including the fictional deaths of a troop of
Boy Scouts
Boy Scouts or Boy Scout may refer to:
* Members, sections or organisations in the Scouting Movement
** Scout (Scouting), a boy or a girl participating in the worldwide Scouting movement
** Scouting America, formerly known as Boy Scouts of America ...
. The area has been the subject of several
paranormal investigations, and is a popular destination for youths hoping to experience a paranormal event. The land surrounding Boy Scout Lane is now privately owned and is off limits to the general public.
Overview
Boy Scout Lane is in the
Town of Linwood,
Portage County,
Wisconsin
Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...
. It is located west of the Wisconsin River Golf Club, on West River Drive (West), and is situated between Cemetery Road and Little Chicago Road. It is unpaved and about long.
The road was named Boy Scout Lane because the land that it is located near was once owned by the
Boy Scouts of America
Scouting America is the largest scouting organization and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including nearly 200,000 female participants. Founded as the Boy Sco ...
, who planned to use the land to build a Scout camp.
Although the camp was never constructed and the land remains woodland, the name was still used.
Urban legend
According to a local
urban legend
Urban legend (sometimes modern legend, urban myth, or simply legend) is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual (usually scary) or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not.
These legends can be e ...
, the road is named for a troop of Boy Scouts who were killed while on a camping trip in the 1950s or 1960s. In some variations the murderer is the troop's Scoutmaster, in others their bus driver;
in some versions, a small group of Scouts leave their camp during the night and accidentally drop their lantern, resulting in a forest fire that kills the entire troop.
[
Other variations of the story exist including one in which the Scouts are killed after their bus crashes or accidentally catches fire. There is also a version in which the Scouts vanish without explanation and are never found. In some versions of the legend, two Boy Scouts escape the fate of the rest of the troop and try to find help, only to become lost in the woods where they die of starvation and/or exposure. In most variations of the legend it is said that the dead Scouts haunt the forest where they died and can be heard hiking through the undergrowth, or their lights can be seen at night as they seek help or their fellow Scouts.][
Stories circulated in "haunted travel guides"][ include visitors reporting a strong sense of foreboding or "being watched", the sound of footsteps or breaking branches coming from multiple directions, red or white lights sometimes described as resembling swinging lanterns or flashlight beams, ghostly buses or figures, and "childlike hand prints" on cars stopped in or driven through the area.
]
See also
* Scouting in Wisconsin
References
External links
Boy Scout Lane Urban Legend
{{Urban legends
American folklore
Urban legends
Central Region (Boy Scouts of America)
Reportedly haunted locations in Wisconsin
Tourist attractions in Portage County, Wisconsin
Roads in Wisconsin