Haunted Rails

Everything on this site starts with the Foote journal. Without it I would have no way to establish the compass anomaly, no way to locate the Connell parcel precisely, and no primary-source documentation of what happened on August 13, 1879. I want to be transparent about what I have and what I've done with it.

Working session, 2002. The Foote journal open on my kitchen table alongside the TriField 100XE and my research notes. I was photographing the bearing pages for the Chicago History Museum archivist when I noticed the compass deviation columns.

The journal was found in September 1998 in the crawlspace of my home on Barron Blvd, which was built in 1904. It had been there long enough for water damage and the leather to partially separate from the spine. I had it examined by a document authenticator in 2001, who confirmed the paper stock, ink composition, and binding method were consistent with a field journal from the 1870s-1880s. He said the handwriting appeared consistent throughout all three volumes. He reviewed the margin notations and said he couldn't identify anything that suggested a different writer, though he noted he's a paper and ink specialist, not a handwriting analyst.

The original journal is in my possession. I have shown it in person to: a document examiner (2001), an archivist at the Chicago History Museum (2002, Dr. Patricia Wendt), and a railroad historian at the Newberry Library (2004, name withheld on request). All three confirmed its general authenticity. None of them were asked to opine on its paranormal implications and none of them did.

I will show the journal to any credentialed researcher who contacts me and arranges to visit. I will not mail it. Contact page.

TriField 100XE at Washington St. crossing, Oct 11, 2008. Reading in the mid-40s mG. Background a couple hundred feet north: around 2 mG.

I've been taking EMF readings at the Washington Street corridor and at the Rollins Savanna marsh edge since 1999, probably fifty-some sessions at this point. Equipment: TriField Model 100XE gaussmeter and a Lutron EMF-823 for cross-reference.

Most sessions have produced elevated readings within the Connell corridor. A handful haven't, usually in summer, usually during the day. I've verified there's no power infrastructure within a few hundred feet of the peak location using a Commonwealth Edison service map and a licensed electrical contractor I know. The contractor said there's nothing he could identify that should explain it, but also said he couldn't rule out an unknown buried conductor without doing actual subsurface investigation, which isn't something I can afford to commission.

The highest reading I've gotten was somewhere in the mid-40s milligauss range, at a point I've tried to locate against Foote's 1878 survey notes. As best I can tell it's in the general area of where the Connell cabin stood, though I wouldn't put a number on how close.

Seasonal Variation

Readings fluctuate significantly by date. The highest reading I've ever recorded was on Samhain 2002 (October 31), when the TriField pegged at its 100 mG maximum. The lowest readings occur near midsummer.

On most of my nighttime sessions, the air at the peak EMF location reads a few degrees colder than a reading taken a couple hundred feet away in the same conditions. It's not a dramatic difference, and my infrared thermometer isn't that precise, but it's been consistent enough that I started noting it in my field log. The corridor is flat, open ground. I don't have a ready explanation for it.

The cold air reported by the February 1887 passenger before the coach separation, and by passengers on the Metra NCS train before the June 2003 derailment, is consistent with what I've measured instrumentally. I'm not claiming a causal link. I'm noting that what they reported experiencing matches what I can document.

I've taken over 220 photographs at the Washington Street corridor and at the Rollins Savanna preserve margin since 1999. Most of them show nothing unusual: dark tracks, empty road, cattails. Fourteen showed something I couldn't immediately account for. Of those fourteen, I've subsequently found ordinary explanations for nine: lens flare, reflections from water on the rail, one instance where I'm fairly sure I photographed a plastic bag. The remaining five I can't explain. Two of those are shown below.

Photo A: Washington St. corridor, looking north. May 1, 2003, 11:22 PM. Fujifilm FinePix S1 Pro. There is something visible between the rails approximately 300 feet ahead. When I walked to that point, nothing was there. I've looked at this photograph many times trying to identify a mundane explanation. I haven't found one. That doesn't mean there isn't one.

Photo B: Rollins Savanna, northwest marsh edge. October 31, 2002, 2:44 AM. Canon AE-1, Kodak 800. There is a luminescence on the water surface that I can't account for. I was alone. I had a flashlight in my coat pocket that was off. I've considered the possibility of bioluminescent algae, which does occur in Illinois, but the DNR told me no bioluminescent species are known in this marsh system. They also said that's not the same as ruling it out.

Photo B, center-cropped and contrast-boosted 300%. Processed in Photoshop, no filters added, only level adjustment.

When Photo B is contrast-boosted, some people see a human-shaped silhouette within the luminescence. I've shown this to maybe a dozen people without prompting them. About half say they see a figure. The other half say they see shadows and processing artifacts. I am in the second camp most days. What I can't explain is the light source, not the shape in it.

The following accounts were collected through personal interviews, email correspondence, and historical records. Witnesses are identified by initials or first name and last initial unless they've given explicit permission to be named.

"She was standing between the rails, maybe sixty feet ahead. Dressed like someone from a long time ago, long dark dress, some kind of shawl. She didn't move at all as we came toward her. I hit the emergency brake. By the time we stopped she was gone. Not stepped aside. Just gone. There was nothing there. I told my supervisor and he wrote it up as fatigue. I was 29 years old and I'd slept eight hours. I knew what I saw." -- Harold Byers, Soo Line engineer, October 31, 1944 (account confirmed by David Byers, son, interview 2000; David Byers gave permission to be named)

"I was coming back from Waukegan on Washington Street. I drive that road every night. There was a figure standing between the rails, north of the crossing. I slowed down thinking someone was in trouble. When I got to the crossing and looked back there was nothing there. The streetlight covers the whole area. There's nowhere to go that fast. I'm not a person who believes in this kind of thing. That's exactly why I'm writing to you." -- R.T., Round Lake, email received September 2008

"The engineer put it in emergency stop. I went forward to ask what happened. He said there was someone on the tracks. We walked the line for maybe 200 feet ahead of where we stopped. Nobody. What I remember, and I've never told my supervisor this, is that the air smelled different in that section. Like something very old and wet. Like a marsh, but we weren't near any standing water. It lasted maybe thirty seconds." -- B.W., NCS conductor (initials only), written account provided 2001

"We were walking back on Washington Street late at night. At the crossing we both saw the same thing at the same moment: a greenish light, low to the ground, about 50 feet up the track. It was moving slowly, almost drifting. Maybe ten seconds. Then it was gone. We have not gone back that way at night." -- J. and P.V., Grayslake, reported in person 2001; full names on file

In October 2008, I placed a Sony TCM-150 cassette recorder on the rail between the tracks at the Washington Street crossing and let it record for about 45 minutes while I sat in my car. Roughly halfway through the tape, a sound appears that I can't identify. It's low and rhythmic. The closest description I can give is someone humming below the range where you can pick out a melody. It goes on for maybe a minute and a half and then stops.

There's a Metra train earlier on the tape. The anomalous sound is nothing like rail noise.

I played the recording for my neighbor Jim Parella, who spent 22 years as an audio engineer at AT&T. He listened twice. He said he didn't know what it was. He suggested it might be a mechanical vibration traveling through the rail from some distant source, a pump or an HVAC unit or something underground. He said he'd need a spectrum analyzer to say more. I asked if he knew someone who could do that analysis. He said he'd look into it. He never followed up and I didn't push. We've been neighbors for twelve years and I didn't want to make it weird.

I have the original cassette. I will make a copy for any serious researcher who contacts me through the contact page.