Spooky Locations In Illinois To Visit This Halloween Season

No matter where you live in Illinois, it's currently the "Spooky Season," as we make our way toward Halloween a couple of weeks from now. More decorations are going up every day as people attempt to make their home and the areas around those homes seem a lot scarier for the season.

Every October, the Midwest gets into the spirit with pumpkins on porches, skeletons in yards, and the occasional fog drifting over the cornfields. But some places don’t need decorations to give you goosebumps. Their names do all the work.

Illinois has several to choose from, and our neighboring states have them, too. So, save money on your Halloween decorating budget by checking out a few of these places.

Sorry, you'll have to go to Australia for this one. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Let's Start With The Spot That A Popular Website Has Called Illinois' Spookiest Named Place

MentalFloss.com has picked a Northern Illinois spot along the Rock River near Dixon as our state's spookiest named place: Bloody Gulch Road:

Bloody Gulch Road, in Dixon, Illinois, has an appropriately bloody story behind it. According to the tale, in 1885, a teenage Bible salesman named Frank Thiel was found buried in a shallow grave off the roadside there, having had his throat slashed so violently his head was almost cut from his body.

Some other Illinois places that would fit the bill for spooky names:

Dead Man’s Curve (Peoria County): A warning, a legend, or both. The curve’s been claiming headlights and headlines for decades.
Grave Hollow (near Murphysboro): Peaceful name, right? Until you realize it sounds like a place where nothing stays buried for long.
Skeleton Road (Lake County): The kind of address that makes your Amazon driver say, “You sure about this?”

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Here Are Some Of The Spooky Named Spots You'll Find In Our Neighboring States

Turns out Illinois isn’t the only one with a spooky side. Our neighboring states are full of places that sound like they were dreamed up by Edgar Allan Poe after too much pumpkin spice.

Wisconsin: Dead Horse Bay near Green Bay: Either horrifying or a really great name for a punk band.

Iowa: Skull Hollow near McGregor: Word has it that the bluffs whisper on windy nights.

Missouri: Murder Rock near Branson: Rumored to have been a bandit hideout. It’s scenic by day...not so much after sunset.

Kentucky: Graveyard Hill near Bowling Green: I'd say that's the worst place for a picnic, unless you like people digging out of their graves to eat a sandwich with you.

Indiana: Gnaw Bone: It's the name of a town, or a really creepy and inappropriate command.