Last October, we traveled 5 hours up north to Merrill, Wisconsin, for the opening of a Bill Rebane Museum at the Merrill Historical Society, which we reported on HERE. There was talk of some directions to some of the filming sites of some of his movies, since he pretty much stayed in and around Gleason, Wisconsin, which is where his Shooting Ranch film studio was located, but it just never happened. Fast forward almost a year, and Brandon Johnson, the man behind the exhibit, lets me know that they are planning sort of a Bill Rebane scavenger hunt, called the 2023 Merrill Historical Society History Hunt, where teams will be given sort of a scavenger hunt map to visit different locations, and even interact with people that worked either on the films, or were in some way part of them. Without putting much thought into it, I sent out the emails to those that joined me last time and see if they’d be up for it again, which they all agreed!
So, Aaron Christensen and I left my house at 4:15am on Saturday the 9th, drove about 90 minutes just outside of Milwaukee to pick up Dave Kosanke, and then drove another 3+ hours further north into Merrill, getting there around 9:30am, meeting up our last team member, Gavin Schmitt.
We checked in at the Historical Society front desk, once again recognized for being the “Chicago people”, even though we were only half-Chicago, half-Wisconsin, but that’s fine. We got to see Brandon once again, who thanked us for coming all this way up once again! Sure, it’s a crazy idea, but we figured it would be a lot of fun. We filled out a little Rebane trivia contest to receive our official packet and then we were on our way.
At each stop, there was a sheet of historical facts about the location, giving us some insight on which film it appeared in and any other pertinent information.
This really was a good, old-fashioned scavenger hunt, because the directions we were given were not google map locations, where you could easily punch in the address and off you go. These were directions like “turn left on so-and-so street, go past the church on the right, then turn left at the next road. So, Aaron was the full-time navigator while I did all the driving. And yes, with these directions, it really was a full-time job! We stopped by a house that was seen multiple times in the film Devonsville Terror (not directed by Rebane but shot in and around his Shooting Ranch facilities). The current owner, Cara Stockman (pictured below), worked on The Giant Spider Invasion (1975), sewing the “fluff” on the spider’s costume, had to wrangle the real spiders from the film, as well as being life-long friends with the Rebane’s. She was very friendly and had some great stories from her short time in the show business world.
Also, we couldn’t visit the actual Shooting Ranch location since it has new owners and they stated in no uncertain terms, they did not want any visitors on their property.
We then got to see the church that was also used in Devonsville Terror, the railroad station that was used in both Invasion from Inner Earth, as well as The Alpha Incident. Driving through Bradley Park, we got to see the stone cabin that is featured in quite a bit of Invasion as well. We passed by the Cosmo Theater which can be seen in Giant Spider.
We then stopped at what is now 17 Scoops, an ice cream/sandwich shop which was used as the Sheriff’s Office in Blood Harvest. While we were there, we decided to get some food to hold us over on the rest of the trip. As we were going back to our car, a truck pulls up to the antique place next door and Aaron says, “That’s Bill in the truck!” Sure enough, Bill gets out and walks over to this bunch of bewildered film fans yelling out “Hey Bill!” He comes over and chats with us, as we tell him we’re on the Rebane history hunt, and even takes some photos with us. Then we’re off back on the hunt.
We got to the field that was the baseball field used in Giant Spider when the titular beast comes stopping through the ball game. While the field was gone, you could see still the surrounding buildings to know it was there. We tried to reproduce a scene from the film but kept getting bothered by a local giant spider.
Now, a lot of these locations look very little like they did 40-50 years ago, but in many of them, you could tell or see it was the same building or location. While these might not be as exciting as seeing the graveyard from Night of the Living Dead or the stairs from The Exorcist, it was damn cool to visit these places, knowing that these cult films were shot on the very location we were standing. The other cool thing was the people in the area. Some of them were around at the time of the shooting and shared their stories of being in the movie business or just getting to watch an actual movie being filmed in their hometown. They all felt honored and proud of those memories. That alone gave this whole trip a new meaning. Just as it does for us crazy film fans, who drove all this way to take this little escapade, to the locals, it still meant a lot to them, and then getting to share those stories and memories with others seemed to be a lot of fun.
Of course, there was Paul Proulx, who was the Deputy Sheriff at the time of Rebane shooting Giant Spider, and had a few stories about then, especially the . . . let’s say “difficulties” working Rebane, but they were entertaining stories, nonetheless.
After we finished the hunt, we headed off to the local pub for the afterparty, which featured some raffles for some cool prizes, including some Rebane movie memorabilia, as well as some local prizes. To make it even better, Mr. Rebane himself showed up to take photos and sign whatever for the people that came out.
The people from the Merrill Historical Society had gone through great lengths and trouble to put on this little adventure, and coming from way out of state, all I can say is that it was a lot of fun to be part of it. All their hard work was more and worth our time and drive. It shows that even if they are not celebrating some huge Hollywood film, to these folks from a small town in Wisconsin, it still means a lot. And we were honored to be allowed to join in the fun.
A huge thanks out to Brandon Johnson, and all his helpers, and the Merrill Historical Society for making something that I know I will remember for years to come. Getting to visit the locations and area of where some films that not all share their love for, it meant a lot for us crazy movie fans.
By the time I finally pulled into my driveway, after dropping Dave and Aaron off at their homes, it was around 11:15pm. Yes, I was beat. But it was more than worth it. Crazy as it might sound, but I’ve realized more and more in my old age that it is experiences like this, especially with friends, that make not only being a movie fan special, but just being able to have these memories and to say, yeah, I drove up north for over 5 hours to see the baseball field that was invaded by a giant spider. It all comes down to creating those adventures and life experiences.
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