Mary Schlais was a beautiful young artist with her entire life ahead of her. A veteran hitchhiker, one bad ride in 1974 changed her life forever.
Sources
Stromberg, Joseph. The forgotten art of hitchhiking – and why it disappeared. www.vox.com, Jun 10, 2015
Ganzel, Bill. Wessels Living History Farm. www.livinghistoryfarm.org, 2003
Pfleger, Paige. Thumbs Up, Then and Now: Hitchhiking Stories From the Road. www.npr.org, August 9, 2015
Osberg, Molly. The End of the Open Road: The Inside Story of How Hitchhiking Died. www.talkingpointsmemo.com, May 11, 2015
O’Brian, Christena T. Cold murder case not forgotten. Leader-Telegram, Jun 29, 2003
Rupnow, Chuck. Looking for Leads. Leader-Telegram, Jan 14, 2007
Car used in slaying may have been found. Leader-Telegram, Feb. 19, 1974
1FromTheRock1. Mary K. Schlais – 30 years unsolved – trailer. www.youtube.com
Lewis, Chad. Unexplained Research: Elk Lake Dam. www.unexplainedresearch.com
Larch, Terry. The Ghostly Story of Mary K. Schlais. www.freaklore.com, 12/24/2019
Elk Lake Dam, Wisconsin. Theresa’s Haunted History of the Tri-State, 09/29/2012
Another good read! This jogs a long-forgotten memory!
I have a believe-it-or-not happy hitchhike story from the early 50s. I was born in northern Minnesota and my oldest sister’s husband was in the Navy. She and their little girl came home to live with us while he was stationed in Norfolk Virginia. He came home on furlough and as he left to go back, Dressed in his navy uniform, proceeded to Highway 53 in International Falls Minnesota, One block away from our home, and hitchhiked. He was picked up there and safely taken all the way to Norfolk Virginia! As you can believe we were all amazed! True story!
Thank you, Nancy, both for the compliment and the story! I was always taught that hitchhiking was a bad thing, but, as the story about your sister’s husband shows, it didn’t always end poorly.
My hitchhiking story is a good one too. Some friends and I went to Iowa City to party with friends at Iowa. Our car broke down on the way back (pre cell phones). No one could come get us until later in the day so I decided to hitchhike. Got to the bottom of the ramp and a truck with a horse trailer pulled over…..ran to the truck and a black man and his wife ask where I am heading and I tell them Davenport. Tell me to jump in and after a while the man asks me if I knew why he stopped. I let him know I didn’t….told me he grew up in Peoria and in the early 70s he went to college in Nebraska. He and a buddy decided to hitchhike back to Peoria and he stated two black dudes hitchhiking in Iowa in the early seventies……I assure you we walked across the whole damn state! We all laughed and I got a great story out of it!
That is a great story, John! Thank you for sharing it with me.