Haunted Haunts: Spirits Haunt Barrington's White Cemetery?

Have you ever driven down Cuba Road in Barrington and thought you saw something out of the ordinary? Even ghostlike? You aren’t alone. Dozens of people have claimed to see ghosts and other paranormal activity along Cuba Road, specifically around White Cemetery.

The so-called haunted cemetery dates back to the 1800s, and its past is teeming with spooky legends. Chicagoland ghost researcher Dale Kaczmarek explains the paranormal activity associated with this spot.

“There are a lot of old local legends associated with the cemetery, first of all, including one that was actually started in the 1960s by a Palatine school teacher of a hooked spirit, a man with a hook, that’s been seen out here. It’s an urban legend, it’s nothing more than an urban legend, and also a legend of the tombstones that apparently move by themselves," he said. 

Although Kaczmarek says the urban legends aren’t true, there are some real ghost stories of White Cemetery and Cuba Road that he’s collected over the years.

“One is an older legend of a woman that was actually killed on horseback or on a carriage, and her ghost is said to haunt this stretch of Cuba Road.”

Many people have claimed to see “spook lights” or balls of light bouncing around the cemetery. Kaczmarek says this is common in haunted locations, but there is something out of the ordinary about the lights in White Cemetery.

“They seem to float over the cemetery fence, bouncing off the road and kind of ricocheting off to the woods sometimes, which is really kind of unusual.”

One of the most terrifying sights seen along Cuba Road is the phantom car that seems to appear and quickly vanish near the gates of White Cemetery.

“Others have actually claimed to have been chased by the phantom car down Cuba Road past the cemetery in either direction. Some that have been chased say it’s been kind of a scary thing, and then all of a sudden they look behind them and the car isn’t there anymore.”

The most recent ghostly tale Kaczmarak has heard surrounding the cemetery is the sighting of two apparitions or ghostly figures.

“These are actually seen sometimes in broad daylight. They look like two shadow figures kind of walking hand in hand. You don’t see the actual apparition, all you see are the shadows that have been cast on the road itself.”

It is still unknown what has attracted all of the ghosts to Cuba Road and White Cemetery, but Kaczmarek said his research has proven that spirits are certainly here.  

“I haven’t been able to uncover anything historically to ascertain why there’s so many ghost reports here, but it is a very active area.”

Check back at Patch.com on Thursday for part two of our series on haunted venues in the Chicago area when we talk to a handyman who says he encountered the ghost that reportedly haunts the Country House Restaurant in Clarendon Hills.