Aux Sable Cemetery: Scariest, Creepiest Cemetery In Illinois?

MINOOKA — When it comes to Halloween, many people love decorating their yards with scary creatures. Others enjoy visiting haunted houses. I'm fascinated with ghost stories.

In years past, I've written Halloween-themed stories about the legendary ghost of Joliet Catholic High School, Father Kellen Ryan. I also wrote about the supposed ghost haunts inside downtown Joliet's Rialto Square Theatre; there are two: Vivian, the vaudeville performer, and Little Colin.

But I had not done any ghostly sleuthing inside an area cemetery. That all changed Tuesday evening as I made a visit to the Aux Sable Cemetery at the end of Brown Road as the sun set.

I've been planning to do this story for more than a year.

Since the summer of 2023, I've ridden my bicycle to the Aux Sable Cemetery from my house in Shorewood three different times. But those visits were always on weekends, during daytime. Restless spirits don't suddenly spring back to life inside a scary cemetery while the sun is shining.

They wait until dark to make their presence known.

Aux Sable Cemetery is one of the oldest rural burial grounds in the entire Joliet area. Many of the headstones date back to the early 1800s. Hundreds of people are buried here, including dozens of people who were born during the late 1700s! I also noticed a number of headstones from the past 10 to 15 years in the newer part of the cemetery.

There's a long, narrow gravel road that takes you through a forest before you reach the iron gates at the entrance of Aux Sable Cemetery.

As many of you already know, Aux Sable Cemetery has a reputation as being one of the creepiest, scariest, most frightening cemeteries in all of Illinois.

YouTube is filled with a collection of videos chronicling adventurous and determined ghost hunter efforts to explore the Aux Sable Cemetery in rural Minooka.

Some people suggest that the windowless maintenance shed near the back of the cemetery serves as the portal to hell.

In addition, one of the small children buried inside Aux Sable Cemetery is also said to haunt the cemetery grounds, often messing with electronic gadgets, notably car windows, of people making a visit.

During Tuesday night's visit, I made a call to Shannon Antinori, Illinois Patch regional manager, to make her aware that I entered Aux Sable Cemetery in case something dark and mysterious happened to me, such as being swallowed into the earth or being sucked through the concrete windowless shed and discarded into the dreadful fiery inferno known as the portal to hell.

When I reached the supposed portal to hell, I realized there was a metal latch, keeping the door shut. Should I try to open it?

I called my editor and asked for her advice. She advised me not to, remembering the awful story she wrote in 2017 involving a pair of teenage girls who sneaked inside the abandoned Old Joliet Prison and suddenly became trapped inside a locked cell at the 1858-era prison.

Realizing I didn't want to test my luck with the multitude of supposed spirits and risk that type of humiliation either, I took her advice and chose not to open the latch that keeps the evil spirits safely locked away, inside the portal to hell, at the back end of the Aux Sable Cemetery.

As I watched the sun set upon the beautiful and rustic cemetery, I had a flashback to one of my many visits to the Haunted Mansion in Florida at Magic Kingdom in Disney World. Remember the dark amusement ride where your moveable chair takes you through the entire mansion, and at one point you see hundreds of ghosts gleefully dancing to music inside the ballroom?

Does that happen at Aux Sable Cemetery? Do the ghosts emerge from their graves once it gets dark and dance under the night sky?

During Tuesday night's visit, I did not witness or experience any firsthand ghost activity. But then again, I didn't bring along one of the Joliet Slammers baseball team owners, either.

Perhaps that was my biggest mistake. Maybe I should have brought along Hollywood icon Bill Murray and his high-tech ghost-busting equipment.

Even though I failed to spot any signs of ghosts or paranormal activity, other people who have visited Aux Sable Cemetery in recent years beg to differ.

"This cemetery is rumored to be haunted by a young girl's ghost, who is quite mischievous. She has been known to play pranks, such as lowering electrical car windows when the key is not in the ignition. The site is also believed to be a portal from a ghostly dimension," declares the Illinois Haunted House website.

Here's a sampling of comments posted on the Illinois Haunted Houses website:

Not Right posted: "As soon as went through those gates the whole energy changed, this was at around 11 at night. You just knew we were not supposed to be there. I was doing a spirit box, and I’ll never forget what it said, Thomas crash die. At the time didn’t take it seriously, but two years later a buddy of mine name Thomas crashed and passed away, and it makes me think."

My Knowledge And Experience wrote: "I’ve had friends go out there and were demonically attacked. A blue glowing dog jumped on the hood, car engines die, the windows going up and down, and the gate closes behind you after you cross the bridge and come into the cemetery. These were some bad-ass guys, and they still to this day will not go back into that cemetery. I have more info, I don’t want to post it, but I think much worse happened out there. My advice would be, all those spirits need to be left alone, and I truly hope they cross over or find some kind of rest, salvation, or find their way home to heaven."

Awesome remarked: "Went during the middle of the night with a group of like 5. We absolutely 10000 percent saw a ghost car come down the narrow wooded road."

Handprints And A Welcoming Feeling Wrote: "Handprints in the dust on my buddies previously clean car. We go all the time. Using a box, the spirits like to speak to us, as we’re younger, both 17. They seem to remember us. I wore pink the first time I went and every time I go they seem to say 'he’s back, pink' over and over. It’s surreal, but I don’t feel weird being there. I feel like I’m welcome, it’s odd."

There's Something Off About This Cemetery commented: "I go to a lot of cemeteries because I find them peaceful, and I like to take photos of the cemeteries I've been to. I have never felt that any of them were haunted or had a weird feeling, even at Bachelor's Grove, until I went to this one. I went twice in the same day because a friend wanted to come along later, and I caught a glowing white orb and a transparent dark orange glow with my professional camera. One in the day, and one at night ... I am officially spooked out. When I was here alone in the day, I had a really weird feeling. I heard crying twice from the forest and lots of shuffling and footsteps behind me. When I walked up to the rusty door, there was a loud bang once coming from inside, and it scared the shit out of me because it was completely quiet until I walked up to it. I'm not blowing smoke. I have NEVER encountered anything unusual in cemeteries before this one! Really weird!"

Related Joliet Patch Halloween columns:

Joliet Catholic Ghost Anniversary Has Arrived For Kellen Ryan

Rialto's Many Ghosts Include 'Vivian' And 'Little Colin'