Story sent in via email May 25, 2007

My time at Bachelor's Grove

I was distracted by my beautiful girlfriend Natasha and a couple shots of brandy to help keep warm when I visited Bachelor's Grove and I never saw a sign for the place. Until a few years ago, I'd been telling everyone that the haunted place I visited as a teenager was called Rubio Woods. I learned the truth about the name around 2001. Back in December of 1986, when we were all still in high school, my girlfriend (who would later become my wife) convinced me and my two friends Ken and Jon to take what she called a "freaky detour" to our Chicago road trip from where we lived in southern Wisconsin. She grew up in parts of Chicago and knew all the great spots, so we figured, "what the hell, you know". Of course, the three of us guys had never heard of the place, so we didn't even think about being creeped out as we approached. I wasn't even driving, so I had no real idea of how we even got there or where I was. We went in at around four in the afternoon and the sky was really grey that day with what we call 'snow clouds'. I never noticed a chill in the air on account of it was already cold, but the place did seem to be 'not empty'. You could see beer cans and cigarette butts everywhere so I kinda just assumed that this was one of those places teens like us went to 'get away', and I guess I shrugged the 'watched feeling' to other kids in the woods. Truthfully, I didn't give it much thought. The place wasn't making a large impression on me as we looked around. Saw the gate, the vandalism, the Rippet stone, the Newman stone, and the pond and of course the big Fulton stone (I remember thinking about Robert Fulton of steamboat fame). We walked around, took a few pictures, but the winter chill in the air kept us from wanting to stick around too long. As we were almost to the car, I noticed that Jon and Ken hadn't been talking for a while and seemed to be almost hurried. I thought it was my imagination until Jon squealed the tires as we drove out of the parking lot. I asked what was up and he said that the guy in black kinda freaked him out and he just wanted to get out of that "creepy ass place". I was surprised and told him truthfully that I hadn't seen anyone but us there. That's when all three of them looked at me strangely. They had just assumed I'd seen him too, as he was, as Natasha said: "You could see him plain as day." When I said: "Plain as day? I never saw anyone. What did he look like?" not one of them could describe him other than he was wearing black with a large black hat. They said they didn't want to look at his face because just looking at him watching us leave was too creepy. Jon said he saw him at least three times on the trail behind us as we were leaving. The evident fear in Ken and Jon made me take them seriously, as both were big, football-playing athletes (and not prone to frights). The part of this that I find most disturbing is that I'm the only one that didn't see him and I'm the only one that is alive this day. Ken fell asleep at the wheel of his car and died in June of '88. Jon was killed in a firearm accident in my house four months after Ken. My wife Natasha was killed in an auto accident almost a year later. All I know is you'll never get me into Bachelor's Grove again.