Haunted Lake County: Cuba Road residents share tales of late-night graveyard visitors

BARRINGTON – When something's strange in the neighborhood ... you probably live on Cuba Road.

But rather than calling Ghostbusters, the residents around 200-year-old White Cemetery in Cuba Township are more likely to assume that strange night-time happenings are caused by local teens.

Cuba Road is included on many lists of the most haunted places in Illinois due to ghost stories about White Cemetery, east of Old Barrington Road. The cemetery dates back to the 1820s, according to Lake County Discovery Museum records.

When Carol (last name held for privacy) moved into the house across from White Cemetery 15 years ago, she hadn't heard the vague tales of ghostly lights, phantom cars, a woman who walks along the road, or other supernatural sightings.

It may have impacted her decision to move there if she'd known about "the little haunted cemetery," she said. While she hasn't seen any ghosts, she does notice teens on late-night escapades, she said. "They'll park on our street and run around screaming a little, then leave," she said.

Carol understands how the cemetery can be alluring to thrill-seekers, she said. "There are a couple nightlights [grave markers] that glow, and driving by at night you might think, 'What's that light in the cemetery?'"

She said the fog in the Cuba Township marshlands just adds to the creep-out factor of the area. "People say there's lots of young people buried there. It's definitely got the ambiance [for a haunting] – it's quiet, sort of hidden. This time of year, it does kind of seem like spirits are on the move."

Her neighbor, William Furlong, who’s lived on Cuba Road kitty-corner to White Cemetery for 13 years, said "I've yet to see anything creepy there."

Last winter, Furlong once gave a couple kids the scare they were looking for, though it wasn't his intention. He walked over to a car parked outside the cemetery late at night. "I had my hood up and I was carrying a flashlight, and I knocked on the window and said, 'Hey, you can't be here!'" He said they were so scared that they wouldn't put the window down.

Anthony Machiavelli, 25, of Fox River Grove, said he once walked through graveyard late at night with a couple friends. They didn't see any ghosts, but just like in Furlong's story, a mysterious real person ended up being much creepier. "An SUV pulled into each entrance and just parked for a while, flashing lights like they were taking photos or looking for something," he said. He and his friends went home after that.

While Carol thinks teens visit the cemetery "mostly in good fun," she worries about their safety. "I worry that kids are drinking over there, and people [drive] over the speed limit all the time." She doesn't want anyone to be hit while running across Cuba Road in the dark, she said.

In the past, vandalism was a big problem for the little cemetery. In 2004, a 140-year old headstone that had been stolen from White Cemetery was discovered in a closet at Prospect High School. The grave, which had been missing since the 1980s, belonged to Caleb Davison, an early settler credited with building Ela Township's first schoolhouse in 1838, according to records from Lake County Discovery Museum.

At the time, Cuba Township officials estimated up to 21 headstones were missing from White Cemetery.

Carol said there isn't as much criminal mischief these days. "The teens pretty much respect our home – we've been 'ding-dong-ditched' and they put our [lawn decoration] deer in interesting positions," she said. Occasionally, someone will pull the no parking sign on her street out of the ground. She said the Lake County Sheriff nightly patrols the area.

Carol said every place has its quirks, and she doesn't see anything wrong with teens visiting the cemetery "as long as they are not hurting themselves or tearing up gravestones."

"It's a resting place for people's loved ones. If you're interested, come by and see it, but not in the middle of the night," Carol said, adding that Halloween isn't the best time to visit either.

"The highway department parks there all night with their floodlights on every Halloween, or else we'd probably have hundreds of people there," she said.