Get a Spooky Look at the Chicago Southland on Bus Tour

A friend of mine was recently having a milestone birthday and I asked her what she wanted to do to celebrate. Her reply was “something spooky or haunted.” So, I started on an internet search for some possibilities in the Chicagoland area or Northwest Indiana to fulfill her birthday wish. I soon found myself on AmericanGhostWalks.com viewing tours from this company that operates in 8 states, including Illinois.

I found that they offer a dozen different tours - some by foot and some by bus. My friend immediately was drawn to the Resurrection Mary 4-Hour Bus Tour and Pub Stop since she has relatives buried at Resurrection Cemetery and grew up not far from there.

Our group met in Justice near Resurrection Cemetery at Commissioners Park to board our bus. And while Resurrection Mary is a big focus of the tour, at least the first half covered other cemeteries and spooky spots in the southwest suburbs. 

Our tour guide, Diane, has been doing ghost tours for more than two decades and she did a phenomenal job in giving us the shivers as she told her tales, starting with one of a woman killed by her husband decades who is said to haunt the area near the police station. Diane has actually once owned a local haunted tour company that was later bought by American Ghost Walks and she has continued leading tours.

We went on to stops at several cemeteries, a lake, two taverns and other spots where we listened to chilling ghost stories. Five minutes in I realized I was glad that we were taking a daytime tour because I would have really been spooked if I had been on the tour in the dark.

Among the stops were Archer Woods, Sacred Heart Cemetery, St. James of the Sag Bridge Cemetery, Maple Lake and The Irish Legend. Aside from the tales of places where hauntings have been reported, there were significant bits of Chicagoland history included, like the construction of the I & M canal. I enjoyed the history lessons as much as the ghost stories. 

During our stop at The Irish Legend in Willow Springs, we had time for a pint and some appetizers - and we each had to make a trip to the women's restroom, where unusual occurrences have been said to have taken place.

We were transported around on a comfortable, air-conditioned bus on a sweltering summer day, which also made me grateful that we hadn’t opted for a walking tour. For anyone who is intrigued by ghosts, spirts, cemeteries or histories, it makes for an interesting outing.

As we move into October and closer to Halloween, tours will be filling up fast, so if you want get a spot on an upcoming tour, you’ll want to make your reservation soon. For more information on tours, visit AmericanGhostWalks.com.

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