Candy Cane Park – Hatchet Park

Brewbaker's Pub in Green Bay, Wisconsin occupies a peculiar space in the city's folklore—ostensibly an ordinary tavern situated on North Washington Street, yet bearing the weight of a violent tragedy whose shadow lingers long after the building itself has fallen silent. The pub's location near the urban merry-go-round and park benches that characterize downtown Green Bay places it in the heart of the city's recreational district, a vibrant area that gives little indication of the dark history embedded within its walls. What makes Brewbaker's Pub particularly significant in paranormal circles is not merely the ghost stories that surround it, but the specific, documented event that catalyzed those stories and suggested that some forms of trauma might transcend the boundary between life and death.

The pivotal moment in Brewbaker's history occurred in 1983, when a murder of unusual brutality and visibility transformed the establishment from an unremarkable drinking establishment into a location marked by tragedy. Dana DuMars, a figure whose name would become permanently associated with the pub's haunted reputation, was killed using a hatchet—a weapon choice that speaks to the savage nature of the crime and the emotional intensity surrounding it. This was not a crime that faded quietly into history; it was the kind of violent event that creates fractures in the fabric of a place, particularly when the violence occurs in a public or semi-public space where the trauma could be witnessed by multiple people and discussed endlessly afterward.

Following the 1983 murder, Brewbaker's Pub began to develop a reputation as a location of significant paranormal activity. These reports were not vague or nebulous; witnesses consistently described hearing disembodied voices emanating from within the building during hours when it was closed to the public. Staff and investigators reported footsteps echoing through the empty interior with no visible source, the kind of deliberate, purposeful sound that suggests ambulatory movement rather than structural creaks or environmental noise. Some observers reported witnessing shadow figures moving through the space, dark human-shaped forms that would disappear when observed directly, characteristic of the shadow entity phenomena that paranormal researchers have documented in other locations associated with violent death.

Additional accounts described unexplained sounds occurring throughout the building—not the normal ambient noise of an old structure, but distinct auditory phenomena that appeared to have no rational source. During investigations, some observers reported experiencing flashing lights when the building was secured and all electrical systems should have been dormant. These light anomalies were localized rather than building-wide, suggesting concentrated energy centered on specific areas, possibly connected to the location where the tragic 1983 event transpired or to spaces frequently occupied by the deceased.

The pub eventually closed, as did many establishments that carried the burden of widely-publicized violent tragedy. Yet the building itself remains, and with it, the accumulated weight of the trauma that occurred within its walls. Brewbaker's Pub represents a case where documented historical violence preceded and arguably catalyzed the development of paranormal activity, providing one of the more historically grounded examples of locations where grief, violent emotion, and sudden death might have left impressions powerful enough to manifest as ongoing supernatural phenomena. The consistency of accounts regarding disembodied voices and shadowy figures across multiple investigations suggests that Dana DuMars's violent and untimely death may have created conditions under which some form of consciousness remains tethered to the location of the tragedy.