10 Creepiest Places in Chicagoland that You Should Be More Afraid Of
It's October and it's the season of seeking out spooky spots in the neighborhood! Everybody in Chicagoland knows their Resurrection Marys and their Cuba Roads and their Bachelor's Groves, but  here are some lesser-known spook-spots that you should show more fearful respect to. Now, we here at [this website] don't condone or encourage trespassing⌠but there's no reason we can't make you curious!
 In the Cook County Forest Preserve between Rosemont and Norridge, people in ghost-hunting circles have been wondering how Robinson Woods isn't more infamous amongst us normal people. A family of Native Americans had had their home there as the area was built around them, and they were buried on the propertyâas for their actual house, it mysteriously burned down so thoroughly that nobody is even sure where it used to be. Reports include strange lights, oddly sweet smells, and, maybe the weirdest thing, overly-friendly animals. The deer are actually known to follow you aroundâor are they stalking you!? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW1Tz0hxLoE]
 2. Sunset Memorial Lawns
 This cemetery in Northbrook was a favorite for local teenagers looking for a spookâ"was", because the owners have put in a gate and changed the closing time to well before sunset (so much for the name). Reports include black figures, floating lights, uneasy feelings, and streetlights going on or off by themselves, all in unison, and in a way that makes it clear that it's not some automated thing. Perhaps the scariest thing though? This cemetery has a Yelp page⌠with a one-star review
[https://www.yelp.com/biz/sunset-memorial-lawns-northbrook]
 Last cemetery for awhile, I promise. Fans of ghost-photography know of this Buffalo Grove burial ground from a pair of famous photos snapped here in 1997. A general sense of uneasiness is still reported at this graveyard behind the namesake church.
[http://www.prairieghosts.com/stmary.html]
 4. "The Best Buy House"
 Famous with anyone from Niles or Des Plaines, this house stood at the end of a frontage road and was next to the Best Buy store from which it got its name. Local youth would often throw rocks at the abandoned house, only to have the front door slam on them and the rocks thrown right back! Faces and swaying curtains were also seen in the windows⌠until they were boarded up. But now nobody can see any of those since the house was since torn down circa 2012 (the namesake Best Buy is also goneâreal bad foundational issues). But locals still say that orbs can still be seen on the now-vacant lot, which give off not just light, but a distinct feeling of dread. Or maybe that feeling is just knowing that you're trespassing in an area where that law is actually enforced.
[https://www.google.com/maps/@42.0545105,-87.8413126,3a,37.5y,225.69h,87.22t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1seaLV3d1xBazRA202XNWooQ!2e0!7i3328!8i1664?hl=en]
 5. Lincolnwood Town Center (The EXPRESS Store)
 One particular store in this mall has a reputation for being haunted. While this may seem like the most sarcastic entry on this list, it has a very real story behind itâin 2003, a 6-year-old boy was tragically killed by a falling mirror, which was not properly glued to the wall, in the Express. These days, employees of this store and its neighbors say you can still hear screams and children laughing late after closing.
[http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-06-02/news/0306020067_1_fitting-room-shopping-mall-limited-brands]
 This road in Libertyville gets overshadowed in popularity by its similarly-spooked neighbors, like the Gate and Cuba Road, but the locals know its infamy just fine. The road is said to be haunted by a homeless man from downtown Chicago whose body was found along the road some years agoâbut there's some confusion over how many years. Dubbed "Tom", a common theme of his story is that he was picked up by some bad people who were trying to practice new ways to get rid of their enemies, but as this legend has only picked up steam in the last couple of years, nobody agrees whether they were 1930s mobsters, seventies mafiosi, or nineties gang-bangers. In any case, it's said that they succeeded, and there was no evidence of even a struggle when they found himâwhich leads to the fourth version of the story: that he was walking nonstop to nowhere and just collapsed there of exhaustion. It's said that Tom shows himself with extremely thick fog, and on cold nights, some have reported seeing handprints on their car windows, only to find that the moisture is on the inside, as though he were trying to escape!
 This resort and convention center in St. Charles might not be so relaxing, what with the employees complaining under their breath about how bogus it is that they have to work the creepy middle levels. People say that they feel watched all through the night in their hotel rooms, and more classic cases of young kids at the resort finding "imaginary" friends, but also there have been reports of people getting phantom text-messages from people standing right next to them when that second person clearly isn't using their phones. At least these specters are tech-savvy!
[https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g36648-d88055-r127490064-Pheasant_Run_Resort_and_Convention_Center-Saint_Charles_Illinois.html - https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g36648-d88055-r274556427-Pheasant_Run_Resort_and_Convention_Center-Saint_Charles_Illinois.html]
 8. The REST of the Midlothian Turnpike
 Famous for being the road off which lies the Bachelor's Grove Cemetery, people often forget the rumors that the road itself is said to have some paranormal residue. On the Turnpike, which was long ago a Native American trail, phantom mobster-cars can be seen, either alone or in groups shooting and crashing with one another (after all, those mobsters used the cemetery to dispose of enemies). Some of the living have even gotten into accidents with these cars, especially by the intersection with Central Avenue, only to get out and see no signs of damage their vehiclesâand no sign at all of the other vehicle!
[http://www.hauntedplaces.org/item/midlothian-turnpike/]
 9. Jerome Huppert Woods
 We never said we were only dealing with ghosts. In these woods near River Forest, where Cumberland/1st Avenue and Thatcher split, local youths who go drinking in the woods have said that there is a monster living in the forest preserve, and have been saying so for decades. It seems to be nocturnal, so nobody's ever gotten a good look at it, but a recurring description is that it seems to be a bipedal creature that looks like a reptile roughly the size and shape of a bear. Oh, and it has three arms and three legs and leaves three-toes footprints. That's kinda hard to forget.
 10.  Read-Dunning Memorial Park and the Old Dunning Hospitals
 This one might only be unpopular because it's a pain in the butt to research. But the site of the current Read-Dunning Memorial Park is over a mass grave of mental patients from the old hospitals that were all over the area between Irving Park, Narragansett, Montrose and Forest Preserve Drive at different times. These included the since-torn-down Maryville Center for Medically Complex Children, as well as the still-standing Read-Dunning Mental Health Center, formerly the Cook County Insane Asylum; while it seems like all old mental hospitals had bad histories of patient abuse, Dunning was actually bad enough to lose its accreditation after a century of infractions. Neighboring houses are also said to also be afflicted with the un-rested souls.
[http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-forgotten-cemetery-dunning-20141021-story.html]
