Drivers motoring through a rural area near Woodstock might see what looks like a nice wooded area.

But what’s spooky is those woods have grown over and obscured the burial sites of people who were early European settlers in McHenry County.

County Treasurer Donna Kurtz said the company that handles abandoned real estate sales for the county, Joseph E. Meyer and Associates, did some research into the the Hartland Township property and discovered why it could be a nightmare for potential owners: It’s an abandoned cemetery established in the 19th century.

The cemetery was deeded as Hartland Union Burying Ground by Daniel Blair on March 31, 1854 – seven years before the start of the Civil War – to “permit the internment of the sacred relics of the dead,” according to the deed.

But 1854 wasn’t the beginning of the cemetery.

Kurtz said “additional historical research” found that many people had been buried there before then.

“The cemetery has many unmarked graves spread throughout the 1-acre plot. Even more ghastly is evidence that over the years vandals have not only destroyed gravestones but have even attempted to excavate graves,” Kurtz wrote in an email.

In recent decades, the cemetery has changed hands multiple times, but also has been in several of the county’s tax sales.

An investment company currently owns the cemetery but hasn’t paid taxes on it since 2022, Kurtz said.

The county has a tax lien on it and Kurtz anticipates the county will be able to take possession of it next year and record a tax deed around August 2026.

Kurtz suspects some previous owners may have purchased the property without knowing there’s an old cemetery there.

To prevent that from happening in the future, she intends to remove the parcel from the tax rolls “to ensure unsuspecting buyers do not buy a property that could literally be a nightmare to own,” Kurtz said in an email.

The parcel would be designated as a cemetery and exempt from property taxes as well, Kurtz said.

If the owner pays the taxes, the county will not be able to take possession of it. But if it does, Kurtz hopes to find a caretaker or organization interested in restoring and maintaining the cemetery.

Among those buried at the cemetery is at least one Civil War veteran, but there could be other significant people buried there as well. Kurtz said the cemetery also carries historical and religious significance.

The county would help with grants, but Kurtz said that she wants to reach out to local McHenry County organizations “to find sponsors and grants so this piece of McHenry County legacy will be protected for generations to come.”