Menasha, WI - 5/3/2015
A seemingly out of control bicycle makes its way onto a narrow bridge on the Trestle-Friendship trail, a scenic walking trail in the quiet community of Menasha, Wisconsin. The bicycle stops, the rider steps off and peers over the side of the bridge. His eyes explore the surroundings, a few people fishing, a family having a picnic, a jogger runs directly below with an unruly, barking german shepherd along side, urging his owner to move quickly. The rider spits over the side of the bridge, mumbles, reaches into his waist-band with both hands, now wielding two semi-automatic handguns - he begins firing at random at the people below. The shots strike a father and his young daughter, his wife (who survived), and a lone fisherman.
The victims are pictured below, the shooter will not be pictured in this article out of respect for the families of these people.
Three dead, one wounded - the gunman turned the gun on himself as the screaming sound of nearing sirens filled his head, he died on the scene.
Reports state that the gunman, Sergio Valencio Del Toro, a 26 year old air force veteran, had a fight wih his fiance earlier that day and simply snapped...but was that all that happened that day? Let's take a look at the eerie history of the Trestle-Friendship trail..
Boogie on back to the time of cowboys and indians folks...or, french soldiers, fur traders and indians, to be exact. In the early 1700's, a village belonging to the Fox band of indians sat on the banks of Little Lake Butte Des Morts, very close to the sight of the shooting. One day, a fleet of canvas covered canoes slowly approached, a common practice of fur traders of the day to protect the goodies inside - a group of braves went to check it out, expecting a generous donation from what they thought to be passing french fur traders, a toll for using what they considered to be their waters after years of being pushed around the nation by foreign armies. The canoes drew closer, the braves gathered...and gunfire erupted from the canoes. There were no fur traders, only French soldiers. A hail of musket shot decimated the braves, the survivors fled back to the village, gathering their families and fleeing into the nearby woods - they had done exactly what the French commander wanted them to, they had run straight into a trap.
A Menominee war party had been approached by the young French commander earlier that day, seeking help in ridding the area of their mutual sworn enemy - the troublesome Fox, the menominee were more than happy to oblige. They waited anxiously for the retreating fox, hiding in the woods for hours. The fox were completely decimated, fleeing survivors shot down by French musket fire, chased down by Menominee braves, the village burned to the ground. When it was over, the victorious French and Menominee piled up the massacred Fox, threw a light layer of dirt on top of them, and let time and mother nature do the rest.
They named the area Butte Des Morts, French for "Hill Of The Dead". The entire population of fox indians in the fox river valley area of Wisconsin, was eliminated that day, estimates ranging from 300 to over 1000. For years after, an 8 foot high, 60 foot long, and 35 foot wide burial mound could be seen by migrating pioneers..that is, until 1863.
The Chicago-Northwestern Railway needed a bridge over the lake, the site they chose was within feet of the burial mound. A. Lapham, a state appointed scientist at the time, made one simple plea - That the mound not be disturbed, that the bridge be built elsewhere.
His plea's fell upon deaf ears, the project went forward, the workers began digging into the mound...within days, human remains were openly exposed. There were no artifacts found in the mound, which was unusual during burial mound discoveries - this is because the raiding french and menominee ransacked the village, there was nothing to bury with the former inhabitants. The workers, after disturbing the over 100 year old burial mound, then proceeded to use the earth from the mound as fill for the rails.
Now, some of you may have gathered by now, I love a good ghost story, and I love anything supernatural in general..but I live very close to this site, and even passing it sends a chill up and down my spine. The trestle trail (which if you hadn't guessed by now, is built over the now defunct railroad) is a beautiful place to take a walk or a bike ride...but could the spirits of the massacred Fox, so rudely disturbed and never properly laid to rest, actually be haunting the area? Could they have driven the the shooter to go through with what he did that day? There is certainly no shortage of stories of Indian spirit posession throughout the Americas, the classic American horror scenario of moving into a house built atop ancient burial grounds, the inhabitants becoming haunted, possessed and tormented by angry spirits goes back as far as modern literature can recall...however.
Eeriely enough, reports of cold spots, gunshots, the sound of drums, and bone tingling screams are quite common for the Trestle Trail area, and they date back to times long before the shooting of 2015. Shadowy apparitions have been spotted by many a walker, some report a sudden "Sickly" feeling coming over them as they walk along the tree line - the same tree line that the Fox desperately fled into now 200 years ago, the same tree line in which many of them met their fate.
Interesting little story, just thought I would share it...the trestle trail is a nice place to take a walk, on a bright sunny day.
And only on a bright sunny day, maybe you should bring a dog..it seems they can sense things that we can't.
P.S. Ancient burial grounds all over the world are desecrated daily by modern man. These souls deserve the same rest that we all wish for when the timer runs out. These were fathers, mothers, soldiers, inventors, thinkers and so forth - it could have been you in another life, who really knows?
Do what you can to preserve history in your local area, it's the least we can do for those who came before us. We all live forever through history.
Thanks for reading,
Mega
P.S. I do not own these images, full credit & thanks goes to whoever they belong to.