Best of CASE District V Award
 

Institution: University of Wisconsin Madison

Title of entry: UW Mysteries, Secrets, and Hidden Places

About this entry: “UW Mysteries, Secrets, and Hidden Places” takes readers to fascinating corners of the University of Wisconsin–Madison that are hard to find or completely inaccessible to the average person. Writer Preston Schmitt ventures down into tunnels, up into attics, and even out into the woods in search of legendary campus spots. To find these shadowy spaces, Schmitt needed help from university staff, who not only unlocked doors, but also told intriguing stories about campus’s bygone days. Readers learn about the three-mile network of walkable tunnels that snake under the university, some built in the 19th century; a climate-controlled lab crawling with beetles that clean bones for a zoological museum; and a utopian subdivision whose remnants are concealed within the university’s arboretum, among others. Schmitt fills in the details with vivid descriptions and archival research, bringing each location to life. The story has garnered nearly 20,000 page views since it was published, making it the alumni magazine’s most-read online story of all time. It also became one of the magazine’s most-shared articles on social media and generated numerous letters in which alumni recounted their own memories of hidden campus locations. The story attracted so much attention in Madison that Schmitt was commissioned for a public lecture, and alumni have asked for a tour tracing its featured spots.