They did not live in this house, no. Apparently up the road a bit. This town does not even have a police department, so I’m not sure which authorities I’d call to remove it.
Well, I can’t make the link work either. Curious!
That’s exactly what I would do if it were on my property.
Imagine this: they asked permission from the previous owner and it was granted.
The link isn’t working for me? 
Edit: I tried clicking it multiple times, and no luck. A blank picasa mobile search page.
Wouldn’t that have to be declared during the sale though?
It was bank owned for years per the OP, so I imagine even if someone had mentioned it when the bank took it over that such a relatively minor detail would have slipped through the cracks.
Does this work?
With a bank-owned sale, you really don’t get much info on the property or its history.
So, do the parents of the deceased child live just up the road still? Because, I hate to say it, but I think you’re stuck with it for another 10 years or so.
With no local police and a bunch of outraged neighbors and a couple dead bodies, I can see this turning into a Stephen King story real quick.
Good plan. They ran the joint in the 1920s.
What I was describing has nothing to do with a town, city or village or a permit. The DNR is a state department that has jurisdiction over the entire state with special attention to rivers, streams and lakes, including wetlands, lumbering, agriculture, and just about anything else. The equivalent department in Maine may be the Dept. of Conservation or Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. There might be others with jurisdiction.
If you build a house, dock or even a patio too close to a stream or in violation of regulations in Wisconsin, no matter what permits were or were not required by other government levels, I absolutely guarantee that you will be forced to remove it if the DNR finds out.
I was one of the ones who couldn’t see the pictures before but I can now. That is much more tacky than I imagined. It looks like you scored yourself a beautiful property though.
It well could be that the bank had no idea about the memorial.
That one works.
Is the creek dry? I don’t see any water
That worked. I see the bench, the cross, the pink cross on the white cross, and the Spongebob stuff. I didn’t see the ropes, though.
I grew up in a small town - you don’t want to first make your reputation as the person who tore it all down.
Random Recommendation:
Take all of the excess stuff (pink cross, spongebob, etc.). Put it in a box for now - don’t toss it yet.
Repaint the existing cross - even if with a quick can of white spray paint.
Now - wait awhile to see if anyone reacts. If someone comes to talk to you about the stuff - tell them it was getting destroyed by the weather, and you saved it and would happily give it to the family.
If nobody reacts - then you know that the memorial is no longer watched or noticed.
Yes, that works. Seems like red was the child’s favorite color. 
It looks to me like someone does visit there. If you do take the cross down, I’d find a way to incorporate the momentos into the memorial you install. Preserve them at the least. (I’d bet the kid loved those hats…) Someone came out at Christmas, see the mistletoe and bells? I think I’d wait, and check back after Christmas to see if anything is added. If they are adding momentoes you might want to find a way to include some kind of out of the way/out of sight shelf where they can keep doing so. I suspect they are visiting the spot where the car came to rest, and that is why the cross is there. Investigate what happened further, the local library or local newspaper archives ought to be able to help you.
I’m not sure that the pink cross is excess. I think the white cross is for the Mom and the pink one for the kid.
I think the “pink” cross was originally red, myself.
I would go out late tonight and dig some soil from under the leading side of the cocnrete base. The storm will almost certainly dig out enough to make it tip over, or at least lean a good bit. You probably won’t have such a good chance in the next few months.
If the storm doesn’t hit you it will take longer, but the water will do the job.
Then put an ad in the paper inviting folks to a BBQ and installation ceremony for the replacement memorial you’ve ordered. I LOVE the bench idea.
This should have the effect of cementing you as a good neighbor, and giving you the opportunity to meet everyone without too much expenditure.
If you just take it down, you will not have a happy life there. Don’t do it.
For some people, the place where a loved one had their last living moments is as important, if not somewhat more than their grave. They go there to think of them alive, maybe? I think maybe that is what is happening here, just looking at the toy, and the hats, and the figurines. You might gather those things before the storm for the family. Research about if you have to take the memorial down or not too. (Reading Musicat’s post.) But for now, preserve the momentos, and consider ways to build a quieter memorial when you can. I do think a cubbyhole of some kind for them to leave momentos would be very kind.
I knew I had seen that SpongeBob before: the SpongeBob figurine in the pic was given away in McDonalds Happy Meals in conjunction with the 2012 London Games.
http://favorite-toys.kas10900.com/happy-meal-toys/spongebob-squarepants-2012-happy-meal-toys
So someone has visited and added to the memorial within the last two months.