March 2006.  

Volume 1, Issue 1

Airtight Bridge

A notorious rural bridge where a woman's headless torso was found in 1980.

April 2006.    

Volume 1, Issue 2

Lake Charleston

This deceptively-peaceful spillway has taken 4 lives since 1981.

May 2006.    

Volume 1, Issue 3

St. Omer Cemetery

Revist the legend of a defunked village and an alleged witch's grave.

June 2006.    

Volume 1, Issue 4

Ashmore Estates

One of the most legendary of Coles County's unusual attractions.

October 2006.   

Volume 1, Issue 8

Pemberton Hall

This EIU dorm, the oldest all-woman dorm in the state of Illinois, is haunted by ghosts of the past.

Sept. 2006.    

Volume 1, Issue 7

Bethel (Ragdoll) Cemetery

A rag doll haunts this rural cemetery south of the Coles County Airport.

August 2006.   

Volume 1, Issue 6

Hitesville

A second long-lost village in Ashmore Township.

July 2006.    

Volume 1, Issue 5

Lafler-Ennis Cemetery

An obscure cemetery and a werewolf make the Charleston Stone Quarry a very strange place.

November 2006.    

Volume 1, Issue 9

Morgan Township

This Coles County township is home to a variety of strange places and odd happenings.

Coles County is a small, rectangular county in east-central Illinois.  It is the home of Eastern Illinois University, the towns of Charleston and Mattoon, and a gigantic fiberglass statue of Abraham Lincoln.  It is also home to a disproportionate amount of ghost stories, eerie locations, and local legends from the ghost that haunts Pemberton Hall, to the Mad Gasser of Mattoon.

The goal of this photo-newsletter is to highlight some of the local legends and obscure historical events of Coles County in a vivid format that allows the reader to have more complete access to them, rather than having to relying on hearsay, rumor, or sketchy historical details offered by other sources and websites.  All issues have been researched, compiled, and written by Michael Kleen, with occasional selections of text from appropriately-cited additional sources.

Each issue is available to download in pdf format for private use.

Welcome to the Legends and Lore of Coles County, Illinois