North Central Illinois: Spring Valley

Spring Valley  - "Hatchet Man"

Andy wrote: "I can't believe that you had the story of 'Hatchet Man' posted on your site. I always thought it was a local story that basically only locals knew. My friends and I are pretty informed of these things because a lot of our parents would drive us out to these places to scare us. Well, the story goes that the Massock Mausoleum (sp) (which is inhabited by the 3 butcher brothers) was always getting vandalized by local youths. One night a couple of kids came to the site to vandalize it and the Mausoleum was warm (or hot). The kids looked up and there was a guy on top of the Mausoleum with a hatchet. The legend is that he either chased the kids always (we always heard that he killed the kids but I don't think there's any documented thing on kids getting killed there). So the thing is, if you go there and the Mausoleum is hot or warm, that means that 'Hatchet Man' is out of the Mausoleum and he's looking for vandals.
-Everyone's got their own story about it back home (my friend lived in the subdivision right on top of the hill from the spot). (My roommate just told me about one of our friends that said he touched it one night and it WAS warm in the middle of winter) There's a whole bunch of creepy shit going on here.
-A few Halloweens ago, my friends and I went out there with candles and an Ouija board and weird shit was going on with the board. Spirits going in and out.
-If you know the spot, the way to get back to Peru (from his house) is a straight shot down the valley through 'Hatchet Man' territory. Right after the Mausoleum, it goes further down (very steep, like 45 degrees steep) down to a fork in the road. One goes out to the interstate and one goes towards Peru (on the right is a culdisac where the Massock house was). Almost right there is a little wooden bridge. It was said if you stand on the bridge at midnight and yell out that a troll of some sort will come out and kill you. We would always yell going out there and nothing has happened, but it usually wasn't the stroke of midnight. If you keep going up the hill, you will come to a train bridge that goes over the road (very narrow, only one car can get through at a time). After the bridge immediately it turns 90 degrees to the right to go up the hill. On the left is a foot trail that leads into the woods. If you go back there about 100 feet there is this natural spring (a pipe sticking out of the ground) with water coming out. Ever since I was little we would go back there to take a drink out of it. Even now when we are coming back from the golf course by the interstate, we stop to get a drink of the ice cold water. This spring is still going constantly. A few years ago we got chased out of there by two big dogs. It's pretty weird, you should check it out.
-Further up the hill, there's the creepy cemetery to your right that looks like it's straight out of "Night of the living dead". And then up the road towards Route 6 there's this big house on the left that has a huge animal pen. When we were little this guy had LLamas and Ostriches and shit. Real weird. I think all they have now is peacocks and turkeys and stuff. That has got to be the scariest road in the area. Like I said my friend lives up passed "Hatchet Man". There's two roads going back to Peru, the Hatchet man one, and the long one through Spring Valley. Let's just say that when I'm out there at night by myself, I always fucking take the long one.
-I heard you guys talking about that Cemetery in Spring Valley on the way to Depue. Well when you're going to Depue, there's a V in the road right by Hall High School and a McDonald's. Take a left instead of going to Depue. Go down the road a ways and take a left and then a right. I'm not sure of the exact spot. It's in the middle of a neighborhood, and if you look you'll find it no doubt. Well, we always heard that that's the cemetery of the "glowing grave". If you go down there sometimes, there actual is a grave that looks like it's glowing. Some say it's from the moonlight or something. I have a friend that lives back there and we would always look and you would swear you would see it back in the cemetery as you drove by." Thanks Andy!

Spring Valley - Help Road

Lindsey wrote: "There is this road in Spring Valley called Help Road. I'm not exactly sure where it is but I do know that it's windy and close to the woods.

A while ago (I'm not sure when), this guy and his girlfriend were driving on this road after prom and the boyfriend had a motorcycle. They were coming around a curve when something ran out in front of them. He was driving really fast and swerved to miss the animal. They got into a pretty bad accident, and since they were in a motorcycle, that didn't help either. They were thrown pretty far from the motorcycle.

When the guy finally woke up, he was in the ditch. He tried looking everywhere for his girlfriend, hoping she was still alive. When he found her, it was worse than he thought. She wasn't just dead but also ripped apart in different pieces. In hopes of being rescued, the guy took his girlfriend's blood and wrote "HELP" on the road, crawled back in the ditch, and died.

It's said that the word that the guy wrote on the road can still be seen to this day but only at night when the headlights are flashed across it. People thought that at first it was just blood that never came off the road and so they paved over it. It still showed through. It has been paved over lots of times but you can still see the word "HELP" that was written there so long ago.

I've never seen Help Road, but I know people that have seen it and they say that it's real."

An Update, thanks Tracy Jo!...

"I know where "HELP" Road is. I've been there many times, and I can even get pics of it, if you'd like. It's not in Spring Valley. It's in DePue (hope I spelled that right). Instead of turning to go into DePue, you go straight. You'll come to a "Y" in the road with a bar in the middle of the "Y". If you take the left, there's a really neat cemetary up that way, but if you go to the right you'll be going up "HELP" Road. The first time me and my friends went, we drove over it a few times. About half way up the hill you have to go really slow and it helps to have your brights on. At the time we had a spot light to help us, now we just stand out the sunroof with a flashlight."

"Oh....here's an added bonus about the area of "HELP" Road. The surrounding woods were and are used for occult rituals. And if you go to the top of the hill and take the first right hand turn you can take, and go to the end of that road you'll be in the place that has "Dracula's Tomb." The big cross there is, we found, to be interesting. The glass, at the time, wasn't broke, but the cross on the inside was broken. We didn't find the tomb, but someone said it was out in the woods and you can only find it at night, but it wasn't night when we went and we haven't been there in a while. BTW do you remember the article that the NewsTribune did on some Ghost Town in Illinois? They had a map and everything, but I lost my copy of it before I could go."

Bridget G. retorts:

"The help sign is something you not only see at night, but can clearly see in the day as well. It seems to be made of tar. I don't know how real the story is, but it is very similar to the one I've heard of. My mother grew up in Spring Valley and told us of the story. She said she knew some of the construction workers who have worked on that road and they simply used tar to write "help" into the road after the rumors of the accident began wearing off. People like to start controversy there because there almost never is any."

Lindsey later visited help road and wrote:

(9/5/01) Recently three of my friends and I visited Help Road for the fifth time. Well, three of us had been up there previously four times, and this trip was a first for another. We heard that Help Road was paved over and wanted to see if it was a true legend and not just a word. However, Help Road isn't the only thing we visit when we go up there. We also check out St. Mary's cemetery, the place with the broken cross that Dracula's Tomb is supposed to be. These two things are truly connected since they are less than a quarter of a mile away.

When we got up there, we realized that HELP was paved over as well as the whole road. Knowing where HELP is, we weren't even able to distinguish its place on the road. And since there were always cars behind us, we weren't able to stop and look to be totally sure. Just a side note--we also had a video camera and taped most of the stuff I am about to tell you.

After realizing HELP was no longer there, we ventured into the cemetery. The first thing we did was, after locking the doors, drive up to the broken cross. This is when things started getting interesting. We noticed a red light--like a dot--moving back and forth across the cross in all different directions. We then left and realized that the little taste of "the paranormal" we had experienced wasn't enough. So we went back...

This was the most interesting. The guy that had the video camera (Joe) claims to have a strange, sixth sense about weird things like this. And, after experiencing the cemetery the first time, believed that there is really something creepy about this place. Joe told us that since it was a full moon, we were able to see everything in the cemetery. We then began to see strange shadows in the trees, white orbs all over, and I even saw laser red beams of light in the trees. Joe opened the door while we were in the cemetery. Then we freaked out and left.

We decided to start heading home. I was talking to Joe and we both looked down and realized that his Indiglo watch was glowing, even though he didn't even press the button. It then went off, and he tried to get it to light it up again and it wouldn't. It finally lit up when we got out of the area.

The night after, we got to watch the tape. When we got to Help Road the first time that night, someone in the car asked where exactly HELP would be located. One of my other friends said, "Right here", and at the same exact time, the tape went cloudy, almost like a white film over the lens that you could still see through. Once we got out of the area, the tape went back to normal. It was very freaky. There were also parts of the film that were completely missing, like in the cemetery when we saw the orbs. Surprisingly, the only thing that showed up was when Joe opened the door, and then we were all screaming, telling him to close it.

On the way home, when we were still filming, we were all talking about scary stories that have happened to us in the past. All of the sudden, on the tape, you can vaguely hear the name Connie called out very softly and in a high-pitched childish voice. It was said two more times after that, each time a little louder than before. After the third time, Joe turned off the camera. All of us swear up and down that we didn't say it. We think that Joe let something into the car when he opened the door. This was the freakiest part because we didn't even hear it in the car, just on the tape.

This is probably the last time any of us will travel to Help Road.
As phony as this may sound, it was very real and very scary.

.Shannon C. added an interesting addition to the saga...

"Now it has been a few years since I have been out there, but I did notice on your web site for the story that no one was really for sure on how it got onto the road. Well it seem I can remember this story growing up that long ago probably about 30 or so (even though I do not know for sure) they were paving that section of the road. The story goes that one of the workers somehow got stuck underneath the road and they paved right over him. They say that he spelled the word HELP out in the asphalt before it dried. I guess by the time the people realized he was down there they figured that he was already dead, so they never dug him up. I was reading the site and I saw someone mention a motorcycle accident and they said it was the blood from that. The thing is I seem to remember something about a motorcycle accident but the HELP sign was already there because I remember someone saying it happened right by there. Now I really don't know about the weird stuff people claim happen there, because all the times I have been out there nothing weird has ever happened. I even went there Halloween night at midnight. And on all those occasions I have also stopped the car and gotten out. I also felt the words, and the thing is I am kinda apt to believe that burial story because the words were raised, like someone underneath the road and pushed them up.
I didn't know if you would want to know anything about that or not, but there you go"

Spring Valley - Witch's Road

"There is this one road just south of Spring Valley called "Witch's Road." All I really know about it is that you go far enough done the road there is an old shack hidden in the woods that a witch or witches live in. I heard that if you go on a certain time you will see the witches out. But I have never seen them firsthand though. If anybody goes out there in the middle of the night past all the houses and lights, turn your car and lights off and listen closely and look deep into the woods. You will hear stuff and not seen anything or you will see stuff but not hear anything. Maybe it's just animals or maybe it's ghosts. To get there go to Spring Valley and go south over the bridge. Then you will see a white picket fence, turn right at the road right by the fence. Once the road turns to gravel, that is the start of Witch's Road." ~thanks Jackie

Spring Valley - The Old Lithuanian Cemetery

"I heard on WGN Radio an interview with Richard Crowe about an incident in Spring Valley, at a local cemetery. He indicated that this was an event that was the most un-nerving of any he had encountered personally. A resident contacted him about strange events taking place in that cemetery and he visited there, and if I recall correctly, something very strange happened there. The events centered around a grave or graves involving Eastern European immigrants that were butchers in the local area. It has been 12-15 years since I heard him talking about this event, and am not sure which cemetery."

Tracy wrote: I have got of info on the graveyard in SpringValley. I've been there
several times and have seen several strange things. I also have pictures of
the object in the graveyard that's haunted. I've been studying it for a long
time now (the past 4 years) ...

update 2/27/01 "I promised to tell you more about the Spring Valley Mausoleum. If you've been there, you might want to go again after reading this. There's several things about that small area that are great for ghost hunting. There's the two graves down along the creek ( if you're going down the big hill by the BIG cemetery you'd head to the right of the creek). Haven't seen that one for myself, but my friends saw them when we ran out of the "Panic Park" as I call it. It's the road to the right when coming down the hill by the BIG graveyard. There were several murders back there, and that's why it's closed....or so I've heard. The Mausoleum in the other hand is a little more easy to find, although I wish it wasn't. after you cross the little bridge (go under it actually) you'll come to a "Y" in the road. Take the road to the left. After the first turn going up the hill, keep your eyes to the right hand side of the road. The drive is blocked by a wire rope, but you can pull far enough off the road that you won't get hit by any cars. You can't miss the Mausoleum. It's the biggest thing in there. The Blood on the door has only been there for about 3 years. We were there the night it happened. My brother in law and his next door neighbor were two of the local boys the had called the police about the Mausoleum. He saw decapitated dog head on the steps of it. I've laid fresh flowers on the steps and came back an hour later and they were dead. At night (not all the time, but alot of the time) all Hell breaks loose. I remember the time something jumped onto my fiancé's truck and got pulled off when we hit the graveyard's end. He doesn't have that truck anymore, but all 3 of us saw this yellowish orange shape on the hood, crawling up towards the window. After we got to safety there was paint missing in the spots where the sweat or slim from the thing. It was eaten down to the metal, but almost like someone put clear coat on after it. There were scratches all over the body. Going around the whole truck, like it was trying to hold on. The set that scared us the most was in the metal on the top of the tail gate. If it would have been straight scratches it would have been fine, and we could have came up with an excuse, but they were diagonal in this direction \ \ \ \. Almost like it grabbed on and got pulled off. My friend was in the bed at the time and took a few pics...we're still trying to find that roll. Any way...that's the Massock Mausoleum. There's 3 brother in there. Younger like in there 20's. There's also a girl that walks around the graveyard. The rest of the family is in the graveyard a little ways down the road. If you keep going up the Mausoleum hill, you'll come to a intersection just after the little subdivision. turn left. It's the only cemetery on the road. My friends and I say that that was truly a family that loved money more then anything. But if you don't got to this cemetery, and turn around and go down the hill to the stop sign, pull over in the little half circle and take a walk back into those woods a little ways. You'll come to an old foundation. That is where the Massock's use to live. It burned down the night that Mr. Massock died, or so the story goes." thanks again to Tracy.

I found this on a Troy Taylor message board...

Rumors of vampires and of dead dogs drained of blood persist at a cemetery in Spring Valley, Illinois. In 1967, two teenagers broke into the crypt of three well-to-do bachelor butchers, the Massock brothers, and stole the head from one of the corpses. Police arrested the teens, but incidents continued. In “The Complete Vampire Companion“, author Rosemary Ellen Guiley reports that in the 1980s, a Vietnam veteran and friends encountered a gaunt, pale figure in the graveyard. The veteran shot the figure at point blank range five times, to no effect. It approached them and they ran. Later, a Chicago writer gathered a party and investigated, and turned to the crypt. They rapped on the crypt's door and received no response. They poked a stick into a small vent. A black and wormy thing shot out from the hole and coiled up on the ground, whereupon the party fled. They returned at dusk, with holy water, and emptied it into the hole. To their astonishment, a "painful groaning" was heard from within.

yeesh

an update: (7/19/01)
"We live in Peru, Illinois...about 4 miles from the Massock Mausoleum. After
reading about this area....we just had to see it. Because we are all fraidy
cats...we decided to go today...during the daylight. We found it no
problem...passed by a few times...and decided to pull over and look. We did
not get out of the jeep because the area is unbelievably creepy! There is an
area right in front of this place to pull off and see it well. It was sunny
outside and the entire area was dark. It is embedded in forest. We looked
at the actual mausoleum for about 2 minutes...and something made me pull
away.........fast. I cannot explain it, but when we pulled up .. there was
nothing on the door......and then I saw blood coming from the front of
it...and it kept getting more red and seemed like it was dripping down the
front. I did not say anything to my sons and I just pulled away,
however....as we left the area...my sons both said at the same time "Mom...It
looked like the blood got more red and dripped"....I was so scared...and this
was 11:00 am .. that the hair on my arms stood straight up!!! THERE IS
SOMETHING OUT THERE!!!!!! "

thanks to LoveColliesCAS

(07/19/01)Well, I finally made it out there myself. The Mausoleum is just off of the road, just as Tracy said-- not hard to locate at all. Someone has thrown red paint on the door, thus freaking out poor "LoveCollies" who wrote me earlier. There were other vandalized grave sites nearby, to my dismay. People seem to forget that this is someone else's loved one that they are desecrating when they break head stones and spray paint them. Also, the local police department drove by twice in the 5 minutes I was there, so I'd avoid going in after dark if you don't want to go to jail. The scan I have taken is of a Polaroid, so when I get the other film developed, I'll post those.

On this trip, I also had the opportunity to visit the Massock house ruins, which are only about 1/2 mile from the gravesite. The teenagers in the 80's used to come to the area and explore the ruined old house, which they called "Hatchet Man's House" (I have yet to hear why it was called this) until it was demolished in the late 80's. Basically, it is a pile of old wood, a foundation and a lot of trash that people have dumped there today. Sort of spooky, though. The area is thickly wooded and the weeds are slowly eating away at the old TV's, chairs, and tires that have been left behind. My camera's battery went dead while I was trying to take pictures-- I don't know whether to blame Energizer or the ghosts. --Sancho

Tracy Jo wrote: The Hatchet Man was supposed to be the grounds keeper to the Massock mansion. Which is the place you were talking about, and that I told you about before. That place burned down. My friend's dad told me and showed us an article about it. It went up the day that he went down so to speak

Jessi B wrote, regarding Traci's story: "My friend Joe and I were there for every thing that happened. She left out that one of our friends developed a mysterious cut of an upside down cross in the palm of his hand and of me seeing some strange girl standing next to me when there was no one there...As for hatchet man, I have seen his ghost dog out there. My father used to work at the golf course just down the road."

11/01/02 A friend at work, after seeing the article in the local paper about this site, let me know that the name of the Massock cemetery is "The Old Lithuanian Cemetery"  Thanks Marianne!

Another friend, after seeing said article, said that the "Hatchet Man" legend came about from a murder in the thirties or forties of a woman by a man with, you guessed it...  an axe.  She used to come to the Hatchet Man's  house in the mid to late 60's , and that was how the story went then.  Thanks Debbie!

found on "shadowlands" :

"Spring Valley- Massock Mausoleum - People have reported seeing an apparition of a man dress in a suit standing near the mausoleum. Voices have also been heard here when no one is around"
 

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