Bachelor's Grove Cemetery

The Story: There are numerous stories about Bachelor's Grove.  Here's a list of all that we could find:

The White Lady (Mrs. Rogers or The Madonna of Bachelor's Grove):
The lady dressed in white is known to walk the grounds of the cemetery during a full moon. The deceased woman rumored to be the White Lady is buried in the cemetery beside her son and can sometimes be seen holding a baby in her arms.

The Phantom Farmhouse:
Not all ghosts are confined to the cemetery, and not all ghost are people. On the path leading to the cemetery, a picturesque white farmhouse appears and then quickly disappears. Most reports of this phenomenon happened around the 1950s.

The Farmer and his Horse:
In the 1870's a farmer plowing the land near the cemetery got too close to the famous lagoon, proving to be a fatal mistake. The horse fell into the water first, pulling the plow and farmer in with him. Almost 100 years later, two forest rangers reported seeing the same farmer still plowing his land by the lagoon.

The Two-Headed Ghost:
No substantial information can be found on this strange apparition. The sinister background of the famous lagoon is known for making this ghost; the reason for its two heads is open to interpretation.

Lights and Orbs:
This site has common sightings of blue colored lights and orbs that fly about the cemetery. Some other accounts talk of reds comet-like lights flying over the graves.

Ghost Cars:
Drivers passing through on the turnpike outside of the gravel path will come up to a sharp curve in the road. When coming around the curve, they collide with what seems to be a vintage 1940's gangster car. What they learn after the first shock has past is that there is no damage, no pain, and no other car.

The Woman sitting on the Grave:
One of the most famous sights is the woman sitting on a gravestone. What makes this account so famous is that it was caught on camera and featured in the Chicago Sun-Times. A very real picture shows the transparent image of a woman sitting comfortably and staring away from the camera out into the woods.

Location:  On 143rd Street in between Ridgeland Ave and Central Ave in Midlothian, Illinois.

Directions: Take I-94 West.  Merge onto I-294 North.  Go 7 miles and then take the US-6 West/159th Street Exit.  After about 3 miles you will see Cicero Avenue.  Turn right onto Cicero Avenue.  Stay on Cicero Avenue for 2 miles and you will see the Midlothian Turnpike.  Turn left onto the Midlothian Turnpike.  Go for about .5 a mile and you will see the Rubio Woods Forest Preserve on the right side (North).  You can park there (only from sunrise to sunset) and it's better to park in the front of the parking lot to shorten the walk.  After parking your car, you will need to go directly across 143rd Street (Midlothian Turnpike).  After crossing the street head West for about 500 feet and you will see a dirt/kind of paved path.  Follow that path and it will lead you right to the front gates of the cemetery.  It's about a 5 minute walk from your car to the cemetery.

We visited Bachelor's Grove Cemetery on October 2, 2003.  We arrived about 6:45 p.m. right before the sunset.  The temperature was about 40 degrees with no wind.  When we arrived we saw a bunch of people leaving the cemetery, probably around 8 people or so.  We only saw two other people heading to the cemetery and almost as soon as they got to the it, they left.  The cemetery was actually in better shape than we thought it would be.  There really wasn't that much garbage on the ground, the only thing that made this cemetery look different from all the others were the knee high weeds.  We looked around and then started the video camera and took some pictures.  We really weren't getting too much at all.  Around 7 we still hadn't got anything and were hoping that maybe it's just because it's not dark enough yet, so we kept on taking pictures.  About 7:15 it was pretty dark outside and we couldn't walk around the cemetery without using a flashlight, but we still hadn't got anything.  Then a couple of minutes later we were able to get a picture of an orb.  We were actually pretty excited just to get anything after 30 minutes in the cemetery and about 50 pictures.  After the orb picture we decided to sit on a tree that had fallen down in the cemetery and see if the ghosts would come to us (and our hands were freezing cold).  After about 5 minutes of sitting and nothing we figured that they weren't coming.  By then it was after 7:30.  So we decided to walk around the cemetery again and take some more pictures.  After another 30 pictures or so and nothing we were about ready to leave.  We were in the back of the cemetery, so we started walking to the gate taking while stopping every now and then to take some pictures.  Then we were able to get a picture of a mist, which made us pretty happy since the only other picture we got was just that orb.  We made our way out of the gates and down the path back to the car.  By then it was almost 8:00.  Just as we were about to cross the street we noticed flashing lights next to the car.  T-Bone took off to make sure the car wouldn't be towed away.  When he got there, he was greeted by an unfriendly cop.  He asked for an id and then wanted to know what us "knuckleheads" were doing out here.  We told him that we were just checking out the cemetery.  He said well this place closes at sunset and you guys shouldn't be here.  He told us to have a seat in the car before he arrests us.  So we sat in the car while he checked our id's.  About five minutes later he decided to be easy on us and just give a $25 parking ticket. 

A picture of the front gates, or what's left of them, that the path leads you to.

A picture of the lagoon, which smells quite bad.

Could this be the shoe of a bowler who never made it out of the cemetery?

This is picture of the only orb we were able to get at the cemetery.

A picture of a mist that was oddly at the same grave were we got the orb, only this picture was taken 30 minutes later.

Here's a picture of the ticket for illegal parking after hours.