Well over a century later, the tale had been stretched, exaggerated and twisted.
Carl came to Wisconsin leaving his true love behind, promising to come back and get her once he found success in his new home. He did return to Hanover, only to find his fiance had died during a diphtheria outbreak only weeks earlier. The only survivors were her younger sister Louise and her mother. Carl would take them back to the States to care for as if they were his own family.
Two years later Carl and Louise were married and as their first daughter Minnie was on the way, odd things began to occur around the homestead, but it wasn’t until the birth of Louis that things really began to get out of hand. Carl had a knack for dismissing most of these occurrences, but as storm clouds loomed on the horizon, on this particular afternoon, Carl would have to face what he had suspected all along.
The intense storm, the bolted windows and doors as well as the missing children are all the same. But in this version, when Louise woke, she didn’t find the children on the front stoop, she found them half way up the steep mound behind their home. The wolves that had kept Carl awake were circling the children, who were huddled beside a large outcropping of limestone. As the couple rushed up the hill against the torrent, wolves snarled and snapped at their heals. Upon reaching the children, Carl and Louise wrapped them in blankets and carried them back down the hill and into the house. The two of them were soaked to the bone, but as they began to care for the children they were as dry as if they had just come from their beds, even Minnie’s hair clips were untouched. Astounded, the couple began to question Minnie about what had happened. Now, the family had fully embraced their new home in Wisconsin, including only speaking English in their home, but when Minnie responded, she did so in German. The more she spoke the more frustrated and confused she seemed. She would have to learn English all over again, Louis on the other hand would never speak again.
The Nodolf Incident
The story of a strange occurrence, a stormy night and a secluded homestead in SW Wisconsin in the late 1800s. Over the years the story has evolved, so I thought I'd start with the tale retold from first hand accounts from the Nodolf family themselves, Carl, Louise, Minnie and Louie.
The family home was located at the foot of a large unglaciated mound of eroded limestone, several of these formations dot the landscape of what is known as the Wisconsin Driftless. On this particular evening, a storm was rolling in and as night fell the family prepared by shuttering windows and bolting doors before tucking the children safely into bed, at which time Carl and Lousie also retired for what would be a restless night.
As the storm raged on, sheets of rain battered the shuttered windows. Carl would recall hearing wolves howling, he would later recall that he had never heard them as close to the house as he did that night. A tremendous thunderclap woke Louise from a light slumber and as she put her head back to the pillow she thought she could hear Minnie crying for her, and as she listened more closely she could tell it was coming from outside the house.
The storm continued to rage as the couple ran to see what was going on with the children. Louise checked the room and Carl ran to the door, unbolted it and threw open the door to find his two children standing on the front stoop. He rushed to get them indoors and out of the torrent, Louise went for towels and dry clothes to warm them, but in an instance she realized she wouldn't need them. Although Minnie and Louie had been standing on the uncovered in a driving rain, both were bone dry. The couple quickly began to wonder how the children got out in the first place, the front door was bolted, and as Carl ran from bolted window to bolted window, none presented itself as a way for the children to have gotten out. One final oddity, as Minnie tried to explain what had happened, the more she talked the more she stuttered, and although she had never stuttered before, both her and Louie would continue to stutter for the rest of their lives