11 Disturbing Unsolved Mysteries In Illinois That Will Leave You Baffled

In the mid 1970s, Gilbert and Trudy Woods unearthed a strange stone in their backyard that had odd etching and symbols that included a serpent. Soon after, disturbing instances plagued them. Gilbert experienced a heart attack and Trudy unexplainably went blind for three months, and was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Once this happened they offered the stone to a friend who also experienced creepy happenings: Lights that turned off and on by themselves, and bees that swarmed her home in the winter. Unfortunately, no one knows where that mysterious stone is today (you better check your backyard!).

In the late 1800s a group of friends were picnicking near the cave when a storm sent them running into the cave for refuge. There they reported seeing a man dressed in a long, draping black robe and a dead woman all in white laid out among candles like a funeral. You better believe they immediately rushed out of there and reported their findings to the Quincy authorities, who ventured out the next day and found no trace of the robed man or the dead woman.

In Jacksonville in 1945, police found an unidentified teenager who was deaf and mute wandering around the town. No parents claimed him so he was sent to a state mental health facility. His medical records stated that diabetes had taken his eyesight and that he was severely mentally challenged.

But the nursing home in Peoria where his spent the last six years of his life reported John Doe scribbling down the name "Lewis" on multiple occasions, as well as physically reenacting experiences with circus parades and lively foot-tapping jazz bars. While no one will ever know the potentially amazing life this John Doe had experienced as a youngster, you can now visit his gravestone, which was purchased by the famous singer Mary Chapin Carpenter.

It was 1885 and two local men went out fishing along the river on a small island near the rural town of Hardin. At midnight they reported seeing a bright fire ball that shot through the trees and into the air where it hovered. When town got word of this weird phenomenon, a local gathering went out to Diamond Island to see for themselves. It didn’t take long for them to witness the whole island immersed in glowing light. A flaming ball rose out of the trees and into the air where it then landed in one of their boats, pushing it out into the river. Within the flames the ghost-hunting team said they saw an old man in overalls standing on the boat as it was carried away. After a few more months of fiery terror in this small town, the "Hardin Monster" was never seen or heard from again.