A visit to Bachelor's Grove Cemetery

As an avid reader of Illinois local legends, I knew that Bachelor's Grove Cemetery is supposed to be one of the most haunted places in the Chicago area.


So, of course, I wanted to visit with some friends in anticipation of Halloween. I met Jackie and Faron at the Rubio Woods parking lot and walked over into the woods. The cemetery wasn't hard to find, but it was back a little ways from the main road.

We didn't see anything haunted - no famous floating orbs or the like - but the cemetery was creepy indeed. Whether the hauntings are caused by the vandalism or whether the disturbances make the place feel more haunted than it otherwise might, the place definitely gives you the chills.


Many of the tombstones had graffiti or were knocked over, for instance.


The cemetery was also a little smaller than I expected. I think the boundaries of the old cemetery pass beyond the current fence, though, because we did see some tombstones outside the fence.

And here's the pond where the mob supposedly dumped bodies in the 1920s:


At any rate, I was kind of disappointed not to see any floating orbs, mists, ghosts, or other spooks. However, I'm not really sure I actually expected to see any, and I wonder what would have happened if I did. I guess I'd have to re-think that agnostic philosophy!