Road Trip Pit Stops: 4 Haunted Destinations in Illinois
Besides stunning fall-foliage routes, Illinois also offers quite a few scary places worth driving to this autumn, if you’re craving a Halloween thrill. Here are just four desitnations worth adding to your itinerary as you plan your road trip.
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Showmen’s Rest
Located in Chicago’s Woodlawn Cemetery, Showmen’s Rest marks the resting place of between 60 and 110 circus employees and circus animals who perished during a train wreck back in 1918. Today, circus performers are still buried in this section of the cemetery. Witnesses have reported sounds of phantom elephants, as well as other signs of paranormal activity.
Acid Bridge
Head to Collinsville to experience Acid Bridge, one of the spookiest sites in the state. It is comprised of a road with seven gates underneath, which are actually a series of railroad trestles. Legend has it that if you walk through all seven gates, passing through the last one at midnight, a portal to Hell itself will appear.
Ashmore Estates
Built in 1916, Ashmore Estates was an almshouse.. It was then renovated in 1959 and used as a private psychiatric care center until it closed its doors in 1986. Then in 2006, the building reopened as a haunted site that paranormal enthusiasts can tour for a chance to see ghosts. Elva Skinner is one of the primary apparitions that guests have seen; she was a former resident of the almshouse who died in a fire.
Confederate Mound
Located within Oak Woods Cemetery, Confederate Mound has the reputation of being one of the largest mass graves in the Western Hemisphere. It entombs more than 6,000 of named and unnamed Civil War-era soldiers. Many of them died from diseases like smallpox they contracted while in Camp Douglas, a nearby prisoner-of-war camp. The bodies were originally buried in Chicago City Cemetery near the camp’s hospital. When this area flooded, the cemetery relocated the coffins to Oak Woods in 1866. It’s no wonder that Confederate Mound has history of specter sightings.
For more spooky destinations in the Midwest, check out these four in Indiana. Or journey to Wisconsin to experience even more places that’ll scare your pants off.
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News Sources: Only In Your State, Haunted Rooms, Haunted Journeys, Atlas Obscura
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