MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - The Death Song | Campfire with MrBallen

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

In today’s episode, we are doing something a little different. For the first time ever, I’m taking the "Strange, Dark, and Mysterious" stories outside to a literal campfire to bring you a tale that is as unsettling as it is historic.Hundreds of years ago in what is now Richland County, Wisconsin, a search party from the Ho-Chunk Nation followed the tracks of three missing hunters deep into a remote ravine. What they found was a dark cave and a haunting sound echoing from the depths—a sound that signaled they were no longer alone.Be sure to WATCH this episode on my YouTube channel! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So today's story is a very creepy one. In fact, it's so unsettling at times that you're very likely going to think it's just fake. But there was a pretty incredible discovery that was made in the early 1900s that very likely means this story is true. But before we get into that incredible campfire story, as you can see, I'm literally sitting by a campfire. And honestly, it was just because, you know, what I sort of do is I tell scary campfire stories a lot of the times. But I never actually sit by a fire. And so we decided why not literally make a campfire and tell a spooky story by it? And if this vibe is something you guys like, I'm more than happy to do more of these because this sort of breaks it up. It's cool.

It sort of adds a new flavor to the channel. And so let us know if you enjoy this vibe and we'll do more. And I think that generally speaking, when we do campfire, literal campfire stories, I'm going to lean towards the stories that are of the spookier variety. But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you come to the right campfire because that's all we do. And we upload two, three, even four times every week. So if that's of interest to you, please invite the like button to come to your campfire and cook some s'mores with you. But don't tell them, you've secretly put firecrackers in their marshmallows. Okay, let's get into today's story.

Hundreds of years ago, there was this young indigenous warrior who was on his way to the center of his village. And his village was located in this heavily forested rolling hills area of modern day Richland County, Wisconsin. He was a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation. It was this indigenous tribe, and that's where they called home. And as this young warrior, the strong, brave young man is walking towards the village center, he had been called there by his tribal chief. He sort of had an idea of why he was being called there. And sure enough, when he got to the village center and he sees his tribal chief,

who's standing there with nine of the other strongest and bravest men of the tribe, this warrior knew his hunch was correct. So two days earlier, three teens, boys that were members of this tribe, they had gone out deer hunting in the wilds right outside of their village. Again, this is a heavily forested, beautiful rolling hills area. And these teenagers had not come back. They had just been gone now for 48 hours, and their respective families were worried. And they had been, you know, telling the tribal chief that they really needed to send out a search party for them.

But the chief had sort of held off in part because it wasn't entirely. uncommon for hunters, even young hunters, to go out for a couple of days at a time. But the family, they just had a bad feeling about it. And so finally, you know, the tribal chief relented two days in, and he was calling a search party together to go look for these young men. And so the warrior who's walked into the village center here, he was being asked by the tribal chief to lead this search party effort. He was going to be in charge of these nine other men. And so, you know, The warrior, in truth, he sort of felt like it was overkill to put together this huge search party for these teenagers that in his mind he really did think they were just fine, but he didn't want to undermine the tribal chief. And so he said, of course, I'll go do it.

And so the warrior, along with the nine other strong, brave members of the tribe, they gather up some weapons and some food and water because they didn't know how long the search was going to take. They said goodbye to the members of the village, and then they exited the village in the same direction that basically all the hunters would go when they would go on hunting expeditions. There was like sort of a well-worn path that led out into the wilds of the forest. And so the warrior, who's, again, leading this search party, you know, he was a skilled hunter himself. And as he's walking along this well-worn trail, he quickly found the tracks of these. teenage boys. So they identify the tracks and you know right away the warrior's thinking you know this is going to be you know no big deal we're going to follow these tracks we're going to find the kids they probably are out

camping somewhere we'll give them a stern talking to and bring them back home and that'll be that but you know as they're they're following the tracks along the well-worn trail eventually the tracks they deviate and they leave the trail and they start kind of veering off into not really uncharted territory but certainly areas that were not necessarily known for good hunting. You know, this tribe were, they were prolific hunters, and so they knew this area extremely well, and they really had the designated areas that were the best.

And so already they're seeing that these boys, they're doing something different, or they're doing something that's not advantageous for hunting. But either way, they're following these tracks that are going for miles and miles just into the wild. And also, as they're moving along here, they start to notice that there's no point at which the boys stopped. There's no tracks that indicated they came to a stop and rested

or stood still and tried to kill a deer or something. It was like they were just on a mission hiking deep into the wilds. And so, you know, the warrior's keeping a lot of these insights to himself and he's just following the tracks. But after hours of this, when they still have not found the boys, They eventually found themselves at the top of this ravine. And as they're looking down into it, they realized that they've gone so far,

not only away from their village, but so far off the beaten paths that they were familiar with from all their hunting, that they knew this was an area that they really had never been to before, and they had no idea what was down in the ravine or what was beyond. I mean, this is sort of uncharted territory for the warrior and the search party. But what they did know is that the tracks, of these teenage boys continued down into this ravine.

And so down the ravine they went. And then when they got to the bottom of this, this steep ravine, the trees kind of cleared out a little bit, and right in front of them, where the tracks continued, is this opening to a cave. And it's so dark inside that they really have no sense of how far back it goes or anything, but they see the tracks that they're following of the teenagers

lead into that cave. but there are no tracks coming back out again. And so presumably, the teenage boys, for reasons totally unknown, have hiked all the way out here, have gone into that cave, and that's where they are. But again, from the outside, the warrior and the others, they can't see these teenagers. And so naturally, you know, the group, they walk up to the mouth of the cave,

and even up close, you know, it's starting to get a little bit dark outside, but there's still some daylight. Even up close, they really, they can't see. very far into the cave. It's just very dark. I mean, it's clearly big enough inside that you could walk for a great distance or a pretty decent distance, but at some point it must sort of bend off and go in a different direction. And they can't see the teenagers inside of there. And so the warrior at this point, you know, has a level of apprehension here because he doesn't, he doesn't know this cave. He doesn't know this area. He doesn't know what's happened to these teenagers. He

doesn't know if they're okay or not in there. He doesn't know if there's a predator or something inside of this cave. And so what he does is he does is he doesn't know what he does is he's decides, okay, I'm going to send two of my men of the search party in there to scout this out and the rest of us will stay out here and just wait. So he designates the two who say, okay, and they go into the cave. And so the warrior and the seven other men that he's with are just standing outside of the cave and they're really, they're listening intently because these two men that are going in, they're calling out the names of the missing teenagers.

They're yelling and, you know, all they can hear from, from the the outside is just the sound of the two men yelling. They're not hearing any response from the teenagers. It's just quiet inside of the cave. And again, from the warrior and the other search party members' perspective, they can only see the two men that have gone in for a little while, and then they kind of disappear into the darkness, but they can still kind of hear them. It's they're calling out for the boys' names. They're calling and calling. And then around the same time that the warrior and the others he was with lost sight of the two men that went in looking for the boys at the same time that they lost sight of them, they stopped making noise.

It's like the cave went completely silent. And so for about five minutes or so, the warrior and the others, they're just kind of anxiously waiting, you know, what's going on in there, but it's completely silent. Ten minutes goes by, and then 15, and still, it is dead silence, there's nothing coming out of the cave, it's just eerily quiet. And so the warrior at this point, he tells the others to stay put. And he just steps a little ways into the cave, just enough that, you know, he was sort of inside the entrance of the cave. And he began calling out the name of the two men who went in.

Now they're missing as well. He's calling their names out. As he's yelling their names and sort of echoing through what appears to be a vast cave system. But there's no response, at least not at first. You know, if there had been no response, it would have told him at least, okay, maybe they're hurt or they're too far away. I can't hear them. But instead, he did get a sort of response, but he couldn't make any sense of it. He heard what sounded like a wailing sound coming from deep inside of this cave, way, way deep

inside, this wail, that at first it sounded like one voice, and then it sounded like multiple voices, kind of layered on top of each other. And then, with this sudden realization, the warrior understood what he was hearing. It was not, it wasn't a cry. He was hearing a chant. And it was a very particular chant, very particular to the Ho-Chunk Nation. It was the chant that warriors did before they died. It was literally known as the death song.

And as soon as the main warrior is hearing the death song being chanted deep inside of this cave, the other men he's with, the seven others who know exactly what that song is, they all sprung forward and said, what do we do? We have to go in. There's something wrong. And before the lead warrior could tell them what to do, six of the other men just charged into the cave, you know, chasing down their brothers because they believe they're about to die. They would never be singing that song, chanting that song, if they weren't in real danger. And so the lead warrior and the one other guy that stayed back, they stayed put, you know, just kind of waiting to see what would happen and they're listening to these six others, you know, go running into the cave

and they disappear into the darkness and they're yelling over and over again for their brothers and they can still hear that chanting, that death song reverberating off the walls. But then suddenly the cave goes silent again. The chanting stops, all the calling from the six men that went in, that stopped too. It's silent again. And it's just the lead warrior still in the mouth of the cave next to the one guy. Now they're scared. And they're just listening for anything, but it's just completely quiet. And then, before the lead warrior or the other guy could do anything, that rhythmic chanting began again, the death song.

But now it was clearly far more than just a couple of voices. It was this rhythmic, loud, multiple voices layered on top of each other deep inside of this cave, chanting the death song over and over again. At this point, the lead warrior and the other, he had a decision to make. Deep down he knew it was his responsibility, you know, his moral responsibility here. It was code to go in there and if you have to sacrifice yourself to get these guys out of there. But he also thought, logically, something bad is happening inside of this cave. And if me and the other go in there right now, we're not coming out again.

And no one's going to know what happened. There will be no saving. Everyone's just going to perish. And so even though it sort of went against every fiber in his body, The lead warrior, as this death song is reverberating off the walls, he and the other, they turned and they ran miles and miles all the way back to their village. And by the time they got there, it was dark out and they breathlessly told the tribal chief what had happened. And he said, tomorrow, first thing in the morning, first light, we're going to go back to that cave and we're going to get those boys out of there. And so sure enough, the next morning at first light, the tribal chief, the lead warrior and the other man that he was with,

with the two that had come running back from the cave, they, along with about a hundred other members of this village, they banded together and out into the wild they went, retracing these steps all the way back to the cave. And when they got there, the cave was still, it was quiet, there was still light outside, but there was no sign that anybody had come back out of the cave. All the tracks that went into the cave still had not come back out again. So they believe at this point, still, you know, their loved ones are in this cave. They don't know what's happened to them, but they're in there and they have to figure out what's going on.

Now, at this point, the lead warrior didn't really know what the plan was. I mean, he remembered what happened the day before, and really anybody who went into the cave was seemingly swallowed whole. And so he didn't really have a sense of how they were going to do this. But the tribal chief, he spoke up and he said, I have a plan. We're not going to break up into groups and go into this cave one zee-to-z and see what happens. We're going to go as one big group. We're going to lock hands in one big line so that we're always connected. Never let go of the person's hands that are left and right of you.

And the lead warrior and the other man, they're going to lead us into the cave in the direction of where they heard their brothers when they went in there. And we're all going to trail. And as one, we're going to walk into this cave until we find our missing people and we're going to get them out of there. And so the lead warrior thought this was actually a brilliant idea. You know, we'll all be together. We'll be holding on to each other.

Nothing can happen to us this way. And so the lead warrior was second in line. The man who was leading the line was basically the other guy he was with, the two that had run back. He was the other guy. So he's in front. The lead warrior is second. He's locked hands with this guy.

And then behind him is basically about a hundred other people, all, you know, holding on to each other's hands, one big line. When they were ready, the lead warrior and the man in front of him, they began moving. into this cave. And so into the cave they went. And as they're walking, they can tell pretty quickly that the cave, it sort of turns to the right. You have to walk in, you know, maybe 50 or so feet into the cave, but then it sharp rights. And so there's enough light coming in that you can basically walk all the way up to that turn. But then when the lead warrior and the man in front of him made that sharp right, and they began walking that way, it was utterly pitch black.

no light reached that section of the tunnel. But, you know, they're leading the line, and so they're still just moving along, and the whole line's following them pretty slowly. And as they're walking, the lead warrior, it's like he kept trying to blink his eyes to just try to capture anything, but he can't see anything.

And it's pitch black, and he's just gripping on to the men in front and behind him as tight as he can to show solidarity, like we're here together, we're going to be okay. And as they're walking, the lead guy kept calling out the names of the many men at this point that were lost in this cave, but there's no response.

And as they're walking and shuffling along, again, they can't see anything, the walls are getting tight. They hear from somewhere deep in the cave the death song. The chant begins low and slow, and it begins to build and gets louder and louder and louder. And at this point, because they're all locked together, you can't really get out very quickly. They're well into the cave at this point. see anything and it's like the walls are echoing and it's booming in their chest, this chant, this chant that's only done when you're on the brink of death. And so as they're walking along,

you know, the lead warrior, he's trying to grip as hard as he can to the man in front and behind him, showing them keep going. It's going to be okay. But then he felt the hand of the man in front of him. The line leader goes slack. And before he could grab it again, the man's hand was out of his and he's reaching out in front of him and he can't see him, but he can't feel him either. It was like he vanished. And so now the lead warrior, he's the front of the line. He has no idea what's going on. And he wants to just stop and turn and leave. It's getting so overwhelming. And he's about to do that. But he just feels like there's this force pulling him deeper into the cave. And then before he can do anything else, he opens his mouth and he begins

to chant the death song. At the same time this is happening, deep inside of this cave, The tribal chief, along with a couple of others who had not joined the line, they were still outside of the cave. They've heard something going on in the cave, but it's dull. They can't really hear too much. You know, there's something going on, but there's a hundred people walking into the cave. They presumed there'd be noise. But suddenly, there was this obvious commotion, panic erupting from deep inside of the cave. And before he knew it, all these people are coming running out of the cave, scared to death.

They come bombing out of the cave. And at this point, the tribal chief knows something horrible has happened. As we rounds everybody up, he does a headcount and realizes over a dozen people are gone. They did not come back out again. And the cave that minutes ago was full of this death song and chaos and panic is silent once again. At this point, the tribal chief sort of designated that it must be the case, that there's something evil inside of this cave. There's an evil spirit. There's something in this cave that is taking a...

our people and they're vanishing. They're being swallowed whole by this cave. It's evil. And so from that moment, he forbid anyone from the tribe of ever stepping foot in this cave again. We cannot lose anyone else. Our best bet is to go back to the village and hope that these men, these brave warriors eventually find their way out again. And so the tribal chief and the rest of these These devastated villagers back to the village they went. And over the next couple of days and weeks, no one came out of that cave. And as weeks turned into months,

it's like the villagers, they just, they couldn't really move on because they were not able to collect their loved ones' bodies or get any sort of closure. It's just this unbelievable mystery, this terrifying mystery that had ripped the entire tribe apart. And so eventually, after months and months had passed and still no one has any idea what's happened. No one's come out of that cave.

The tribal chief finally just said, we are going to basically board up the cave. We're going to cover it with rocks. Effectively, it is now a tomb, and that'll be that. No one will ever go back in. This cave will never claim another life. So that's what they did. They used huge boulders,

and they completely blocked the entrance, and that was it. Now, that was the story that the whole chunk nation passed down for generations about what happened to all those people, the warriors and the teenagers and all these people, that they were swallowed alive by this cave. And over many years, I mean, many members of this tribe, you know, that heard the story, they didn't know what to make of it. You know, is it real? Is it just folklore? You know, we don't know.

But then in 1930, so hundreds of years later, a chilling discovery was made. So in 1930, there was this guy named Paul Seifert, who, In Richland County, Wisconsin, he was sort of a well-known antique dealer. And something he really liked to do was he would go hiking in the forests of Richland County, the Rolling Hills, and he would look for indigenous artifacts that were left behind from, you know, like the Ho-Chunk Nation and other indigenous tribes that were in the area. Sometimes he'd find, you know, an arrowhead or something on the ground or pottery or whatever it was. But he liked hiking. He liked being out in nature, and this was something he would look for.

and, you know, if he found something good enough, he could sell it in his antique shop. And so he's out walking the hills of Richland County, and he's well off the trail. He's sort of out in the sticks. And he finds this ravine. And he walks down the ravine, and it comes to this clearing of sorts. And he notices on the other side of the ravine, the slope that goes back up, he saw what looked to be almost like a memorial or something, like a stack of rocks that looks sort of out of place. And there was like moss and grass that sort of grown over it. But he immediately identified that there's a mound of something here that looks a little bit out of place.

And so he walks over and he begins sort of pulling off some of the rocks. And he realizes pretty quickly that this was put here on purpose, this pile of rocks, these boulders and all this, this was put here on purpose. And so after pulling off enough of these rocks, he realizes that there is a cave on the other side. Now, it would take quite a bit of work to pull off enough rocks that he could actually get himself in the same. inside of this cave, but eventually he did. And once he was inside of this cave, the same cave, the Ho-Chunk Nation, had dealt with hundreds of years earlier. He's like, wow, like this, this cave, it's been blocked off.

I wonder what's inside of here. Maybe there are incredible indigenous artifacts inside of here. And so feeling really motivated to explore this cave, he left, went back, got some basic supplies, including a lantern, and then he came back another day, you know, because this is well off the beaten path, No one's going to stumble upon this. And into the cave he went.

And so he's in this cave and he walks, you know, all the way to the end where banks to the right. He turns and he starts walking. And the ceiling of this cave begins to come down and it's getting really tight on him. But he's so excited to see what's in here because he knows this has been blocked off on purpose. There's something in here. And so eventually the ceiling gets so low that he's crawling with this lantern. And right as he's thinking, this is so name. I don't know if I can fit.

He pulls himself under this one really low section, and everything just opens up. It's like this grand cathedral in the middle of this cave. And he holds out his light. He kind of stands up and he holds out his light, and it's just this massive, massive space. And right away, he sees something on the ground. There are all these neat rows of human skeletons.

And they're all positioned the same way. same way. It's like they're kneeling with their hands over their head, like they're bowing, all of them. He couldn't even count how many skeletons are all positioned here, right in the middle of this cavern. And so he's looking at all of these bodies, he's gasping, he can't believe it, and he brings the light sort of in the direction that all these bodies are aiming towards, all the bodies are praying towards, and carved into the rock as this enormous chair, like a throne. And there was nothing on the throne. And Paul, when he saw that and all these bodies and just the fact that he's deep inside of this cave, he was spooked.

Even though there could have been a sea of artifacts he could have taken, he just turned, and he bolted. He crawled out of there and he left the cave as fast as he could. And the reason we know about the story is because Paul, after this experience, he got in touch with a local newspaper. It's called the Milwaukee Journal. And he spoke to a journalist about what he saw. And they reported it. They reported that he found these skeletons and this throne and it's inside of this cave that was blocked off. And, you know, there's allusions to the story of the Ho-Chunk Nation.

It's like this totally cryptic story. But in 1930 and even still today, we're left with a couple of distinct questions. One, what happened to all these people? And two, who or what was sitting on that throne. Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what you thought of today's episode in the comments. And remember, we have hundreds of videos for you to binge right now. But if you're looking for a recommendation from me of that one video that's worth your time,

well, it's this one right here. So give it a watch. All right, until next time, see ya.