Stream Bordering Bachelor's Grove
A cool, overcast morning seemed perfect for a trek to Bachelor's Grove Cemetery and Settlement. Arriving just before sunrise, there was very little light - especially hiking through the dense, wooded trail that leads to the cemetery. A small stream brushes the border of the cemetery, and feeds a still pond on the north end, between 143rd street and the cemetery.
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Pond Adjacent to Bachelor's Grove
Legend has it that Chicago mobsters dumped bodies in this pond in the 20's. It's certainly secluded and dark enough, and the old Midlothian Turnpike used to pass a few hundred feet to the south providing the necessary transportation to get the bodies close enough to dump.
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Fall Color
Unfortunately, most visitors to the oldest cemetery in Cook County are thrill seekers or vandals who tend to damage what's left of the cemetery. Most of the gravestones are missing, dumped into the pond or at local police impound rooms.
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Vandalized Gravestones
Bachelor's Grove
A small group of people are attempting to restore Bachelor's Grove Cemetery and settlement to a respectful, historic place in the south suburbs. It seems however, that Cook County would rather forget it ever existed.
http://www.bachelorsgrove.com/
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Path Toward Pond and Stream
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Infant Daughter Gravestone
with Offerings
Bachelor's Grove Cemetery is considered by some to be a very haunted place. From Ghost farm houses to balls of light, to ghostly figures sitting on gravestones. There are over 100 documented sightings in this small cemetery.
Read on:
http://www.prairieghosts.com/bachgrov.html
http://www.ghostresearch.org/sites/bachelors/
1 comment:
I'm glad I'm not the only one who takes pictures of supposedly haunted cemetaries!
And regardless of truth or non-truth, that pond is just plain creepy.
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