Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery: Chicagoland
There is no one location in the Chicago area that has more reported sightings and more heart stopping stories than Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery. This small, frequently desecrated and nearly forgotten cemetery lies at the edge of a large forest preserve near the Chicago suburb of Midlothian. The cemetery was established in the 1830’s. It was used as a final resting-place for many German immigrants who worked on the construction of the Illinois-Michigan Canal. The work was dirty and the hours were very, very long which is why many of the workers were not married, giving rise to the cemetery’s name.
Access to the decaying plot, is provided by a long and narrow gravel roadway. The cemetery has been abandoned since 1965 and is said to now be a ritual site for occult and satanic groups. Over the years many of the tombstones have been vandalized or stolen, only to mysteriously return. While it is not certain how the grave markers manage to get back to the graveyard, this unusual phenomenon lends a chilling intensity to the legend that the gravestones in Bachelor’s Grove move on their own.
One of the most consistent stories is of a white farmhouse that sits just off of the gravel road. Many have reported seeing the house, with a soft light burning in the window. When observers attempt to approach the house it slowly vanishes into thin air. Park rangers have reported seeing a phantom farmer with horse and plow slowly moving into the mist and then vanishing. One of the more well known, and frequent sightings is of the “Madonna of Bachelor’s Grove” said to be a woman buried next to her infant son in the 1870’s. This vaporous lady, shrouded in white mist, is often seen moving through the dark shadows of the trees cradling an infant in her arms.
Inexplicable noises, such as horses, crackling sounds, and human voices are reported frequently as are mysterious lights, very strange mist and dramatic shifts in temperature. Just beyond the graveyard is a small turgid pond. In prohibition years, the pond was allegedly a favorite dumping ground for the bodies and cars of unfortunate individuals who ran afoul of infamous Chicago gangsters. Reports of (spectral) bodies floating in the pond and phantom headlights beneath the surface of the dark water are numerous. In fact in one story, a couple was driving down the lane in late evening, hearing the sound of a loud speeding car getting closer and closer, they stopped their car. To their horror, they found themselves in a head-on collision with the speeding car, with horrific sounds of bending metal and breaking glass. After a few minutes of recovering from their shock however, and to their amazement, they realized that they were alone on the road, there was no other car. They were both fine and their car was unscathed as well.