*All photos and video shot by Walker Jaroch.

Forty-four years ago today, police officer Jon Pepper claimed to encounter what’s become known as the Mineral Point Vampire while on his nightly patrol of Graceland Cemetery. Last week, on the sunny afternoon of March 22, my wife and I ventured out to Graceland Cemetery to bring back images from the site of this local legend.

I’ve written about the vampire at length in the past. But for those unfamiliar with the legend of the Mineral Point Vampire, I’ll provide a quick synopsis:

On the night of March 30, 1981, Pepper was on routine patrol when he drove past Graceland Cemetery, located in Mineral Point, WI, and noticed someone inside. As the cemetery had been recently vandalized, he went to investigate what this person was doing there at such a late hour. But as he approached them, he began to suspect they were no person at all. Whatever stood among the tombstones was ghastly white, abnormally tall and dressed like Dracula. When it saw Pepper approaching, the figure took off through the graveyard. It was faster than the athletic patrolman and quickly outpaced Pepper. Eventually, the two came to the cemetery’s barbed wire fence, which the creature jumped in a single leap to escape into the rural Wisconsin countryside. When Pepper reported what had happened, the newspapers dubbed it a vampire and Mineral Point was soon filled with people dressing up as Dracula on April Fools’ Day to mock him. However, Pepper never recanted his story nor admitted to hoaxing it, and no one has ever come forward to claim responsibility for pulling a prank. If you believe the story, Jon Pepper had a genuine encounter with something supernatural 44 years ago today.

I’ve previously mentioned that one of the more fun and interesting aspects of stories like the Mineral Point Vampire is that you can visit the actual spots where they happened. For example, you’ll never be able to visit Gotham City and stand in the same spot as Batman, but with stories like this, you can literally retrace the footsteps of the characters involved. It’s a unique aspect of folklore that most other modern narrative storytelling lacks.

So, with that in mind, I hope you enjoy the images I captured and the video pulled from our car’s dashcam as I retrace the footsteps of the Mineral Point Vampire.

You’ll notice two immediate things about Graceland Cemetery — its age and location.

The cemetery is right on the edge of Mineral Point and located directly next to the Iowa County Fairgrounds, with residential houses on the other side of it. The cemetery is essentially the end of its side of the city. Traveling further down the road, you soon hit Highway 151 and can either turn to head back toward the city or leave it entirely.

Pepper is said to have spotted the creature from the road, and at the bottom of this piece, you’ll find a video showing the cemetery from the outside, as Pepper might have approached it that fateful night.

As for its age, the City of Mineral Point website lists Graceland’s establishment as 1863. This means it has a smattering of headstones of different shapes and sizes. This is notable because, according to the story, Pepper chased after the vampire as it ducked and weaved effortlessly between the tombstones in the dark.

Eventually, the vampire jumped a 4-foot-tall fence and escaped into a pasture housing several Angus bulls. Today, there is no such fence at the cemetery and I spotted no bulls near it, but the farmland around the cemetery could easily have been home to such livestock in 1981.

The below image shows the direction the vampire likely fled.

As previously noted, fairgrounds and residential homes buttress the other ends of the cemetery. Additionally, Graceland Cemetery is quite close to St. Paul’s Cemetery, which can be seen in the background of the following photo.

Since the newspaper reports make no mention of the vampire heading toward the fairgrounds or St. Paul cemetery, it likely headed due south.

To better understand the terrain the vampire escaped toward, we traveled to the other side of Mineral Point, where you can see Graceland Cemetery from the far road overlooking the landscape. I’ve added red arrows to indicate where the cemetery and road are in each photo and to mark the vantage point from which the other picture was taken.

Ultimately, after walking the grounds of Graceland Cemetery for myself, I came away with a few thoughts about the Mineral Point Vampire. I’m inclined to think it was likely not a hoax being put on by someone. The location is too remote to be a good place for a hoax. Why go through all the trouble of getting dressed up to scare people when there’s a good chance no one will pass by to notice you? Especially when St. Paul cemetery is just as close by but on a main thoroughfare. So, unless the hoaxster knew when the police patrolled the area and explicitly targeted them, it seems unlikely this was a prank.

That doesn’t rule out more mundane explanations — like Pepper making the whole thing up. The cemetery’s remoteness could have made it the perfect place to invent a story no one could easily verify. However, the reasons this might not be the case still stand, as outlined in our main feature on the vampire.

Overall, Graceland Cemetery is a nice spot as far as cemeteries go. It’s not eerie, nor does it give off any malicious or unsettling vibes. In fact, it’s somewhat of a tourist spot thanks to actor and gameshow host Allen Ludden being buried there. There are even directions to Ludden’s grave at the entrance of the cemetery.

If you’re ever in the area, it’s worth stopping by to check out the famous gravesite and walk in the shoes of a modern myth. Just don’t expect to see anything supernatural for yourself.

Alternatively, view the below video from our dashcam, taking you around the cemetery. The video shows a short loop inside the cemetery followed by a drive along its perimeter.

All in all, legends like the Mineral Point Vampire don’t always come with answers — but they do leave footprints. Some are in old newspaper clippings, others in grassy paths between worn headstones. And while I didn’t find any vampires, I walked in the shoes of a good story. For a legend like this, maybe that’s enough.