Winoka Lodge (torn down)

Haunted Lineage note:
Information from the Springfield News-Leader newspaper article clipping-
Winoka Lodge was the country home of Fred and Mabel Schweitzer. It is said Winoka is a Native American word for “Great Spirit,” and the site was used by the Osage tribe for centuries as a camping ground. The estate consisted of 54 acres, and each heavy rain would expose “archaeological treasures” such as spearheads and stones used for tomahawks. Eleven springs ran down a valley by the house, which at one time provided power to a cotton gin, once referred to as the “Cotton Gin Springs.” The property had been a summer home since the 1890s when Edward Shepard bought the land.

Other people maintain that the property started this journey around the same time as a hunter's club. One of the springs was called Big Boiling Spring that was considered to be the largest in Greene County and is now somewhere under Lake Springfield.

After the cotton gin, the springs were used to provide the drinking water for the lodge, and then to fill the swimming pool.

The lodge changed hands several times over the last century, and suffered devastating fires in 1977 and 1978. As a result, the three story lodge was almost completely destroyed in one of those fires, and today it is reported that no structures remain on the property.



Imported from The Shadowlands Database