w i g h t h o u s e

A-ha, didn’t think you’d ever read how my adventures in Decatur turned out, did you? It did take a rather long time, but I’d like to finish things off before the details slip from my mind entirely. Let’s see, where were we…ah, yes. As previously noted, my sister Kim and I held a failed Ouija board session, but that was after we’d traipsed around Decatur’s dead.

You might recall that we checked out a cemetery the previous night, whose gate had quizzically been left open. We figured, if Decatur was that lax with one cemetery after dark, maybe there were more where that came from. Our first stop (after noshing at a pizza joint near the Lincoln Square Theatre), a mysterious little cemetery I found later to be named Mt. Gilead, was open access all the way. It was near dark when we arrived; many headstones had small lights on either side, beckoning us to go in further. Unfortunately most of our good equipment — and dark clothes — were back at the hotel, so we didn’t stay too long. However, on the way inside, I thought I saw a stone all by itself in a large, empty swath of grass. I marched back to see if I could find it. I almost wish I hadn’t.

sad, sad, sad.

After a brief return to pick up our goodies, we headed to Salem Cemetery. Its gates, too, were open, though the church adjacent had a blinding spotlight bearing down on most of the property. Kim’s the camera aficionado, so I let her take most of the pictures while I tried to get EVPs. From Salem, we tried to go to a small graveyard named Hudelson, with little luck; we found the sign, but it was way off the road in the middle of farmland, without so much as a gravel trail. We moved onto Brown Cemetery, a more hospitable place for banging around at night, but it did have a constant buzzing sound nearby, like that of machinery. We paid our respects and sussed out one more boneyard called Muirhead, but that ended up much like Hudelson: too far inland, too risky.

We decided to call it a night after that. The next day, we traveled back to Calvary Cemetery, the place we’d discovered the first night. Lovely place with many beautiful monuments, including a long row of nuns. You can see my Flickr set for Calvary here.

part of the nun row.

That’s about all for Decatur. It was really a great time; (generally) nice weather, great food and unlocked cemetery gates. Who could ask for more? Despite the oddness of being in a graveyard at night and the constant threat of being caught, the whole thing was rather peaceful. The cemeteries we ended up in were pleasant and well-kept with no ill sensations. If we’d stumbled upon a more neglected burying ground, things might have turned out very different…

PS – The entirety of my Decatur photos (including pics from the Lincoln Theatre) can be seen here.
PPS – I didn’t catch much EVP-wise with my digital recorder, but this did get my attention: it’s an 8-second clip (171 kb) taken from my pocket when I accidentally forgot to put the “hold” switch on, preventing it from recording. Listen for the strange, male-sounding grunt amid our garbled conversation.