Contents From the Author 1 Your Letters 1 A Quick and Dirty Guide 2 The Fallen Investigate 3 Personal Experiences 5 Trivia 5

A Short Message From the Author

Usually when I go to these haunted places I at

least expect to see something interesting, if not a ghost,

maybe some clever cemetery art. Once, I found an old

outhouse that looked like it was a relic from the 1920s.

Dug Hill Road (Lane, more precisely) had none of these

things, except for an old barn, but it was on someone’s

property.

If it weren’t for the fact that it gave me

something to write a new issue about, the trip would

have been a colossal waste of time. When Troy Taylor

wrote, “the more sinister aspects of the passage have

vanished and the road is unrecognizable from the way

it once was,” (Haunted Illinois, 50) he wasn’t kidding.

It’s possible that I misinterpreted the directions

to the site located in the Field Guide to Illinois Hauntings,

but since the most specific description of the

thoroughfare seems to be “road cut through a hill about

five miles west of Jonesboro” (Haunted Heartland, 39),

This sinister road sign guards the gateway to the nine levels

of Hell, maybe.

and this lane was the only road labeled “Dug Hill”

five miles west of Jonesboro, I’m going to have to go

with my gut instincts on this one. g

Your Letters

In subsequent issues, we hope to print your letters

commenting on what you have read. Only the best

(shortest) letters will be published. Here are two

examples of the kind of letters we’re expecting:

Legends and Lore of Illinois, Your electronic serial is an inspiration to us all. Your word usage is amazing. I am personally going to wallpaper my cell with it.

Bud, Joliet State Prison

Legends and Bore of Illinois, The only thing that keeps your electronic serial from actually being crap is the fact that I printed it out and used it as toilet paper.

Annoyed in Cicero

Please e-mail your letters to

thefallen2@gmail.com and we will try to publish

them. Also, we will read your personal experiences,

but we do not publish unsolicited experiences.

Page 1

I don’t see any

man-beasts

around here…

A Quick and Dirty Guide to Dug Hill Road

Both Haunted Illinois (2004) and Field Guide to

Illinois Hauntings (2001) erroneously place “Dug Hill

Road” (it’s actually called Dug Hill Lane) off of “State

Highway 126.” It is, in point of fact, located off of

Highway 146 in the western portion of the Shawnee

National Forest, nearer to the tiny town of Berryville

than Jonesboro. To be fair, Highway 127 (not 126)

splits off from 146 in the vicinity of that point, so there

may have been some confusion over the numbers.

At any rate, this serial isn’t about cartography,

it’s about ghosts. To picture what this road must have

once looked like at the time of the hauntings would

take an active imagination, since the banality of its

flowering fields, woods, and serine pond seem to

evaporate any sense of foreboding.

There are several strange stories concerning

the area. The first is a classic haunting, and according

to Beth Scott and Michael Norman’s Haunted

Heartland (1985), it is “the most notorious ghost in

Southern Illinois.” As they describe the incident,

Union army deserters ambushed and killed a provost

marshal named Welch in 1865. There are two

versions of the story, one involving three deserters,

the other involving a dozen or so. In the second

version, Welch’s own friend betrayed him and led

him into the ambush.

Welch’s ghost is occasionally seen along the

road. A man driving a horse-drawn wagon,

presumably in the late 1800s, happened upon the ghost

lying face down in the road. According to Scott and

Norman, the man unsuccessfully attempted to pick up

what he thought was the body of a flesh-and-blood

person. He then returned to his wagon and drove over

it.(!) He never looked back, they wrote, but the authors

of Field Guide to Illinois Hauntings claim that when the

man looked back the body had disappeared.

Also, a “half idiot” named Bill Smith reportedly

witnessed a spectral wagon pass over his head along

Dug Hill Road. (Haunted Heartland, 41) The wagon was

a typical ghoulish fare― pulled by a pair of black

horses. This is the only reported encounter with this

particular phantom.

A third story pertaining to the Dug Hill area

concerns a creature known as “the boger.” The boger,

or the boger-man, was something cooked up by parents

who want to scare their children, according to Haunted

Heartland. Two men have reportedly seen this boger

along Dug Hill Road in the past. The creature appears

as a nine-to-eleven foot tall man who wears black pants,

a white shirt, and a long scarf. No one has yet come

forward to explain where this creature found someone

to tailor his gigantic clothes.

Today, according to Kristina Dailing in her

article “A Hill of Haunts,” (Daily Egyptian, 2002) Dug

Hill is used as a local drinking spot. Many who live in

the area are skeptical of the stories. Paul Morgan, a long

time resident of Jonesboro and on whose testimony she

relied heavily for her article, said he believed the stories

had been simply invented.

From what I saw, I couldn’t agree more. g

This is the most interesting thing on Dug Hill Lane

Page 2

The Fallen ― Investigation file 005

“This can’t be it,” Greg yelled from the front passenger

seat of the Fallen’s ancient Toyota Corolla as gravel cracked

beneath its wheels and picturesque scenery rolled past the

window.

“Look at the sign,” Mike replied. He turned the hard,

plastic steering wheel and the car passed under the unassuming

green road sign that proclaimed ‘Dug Hill Ln.’

Halting laughter erupted from the back seat, where

Emmer sat beside Aurelia but distantly enough to avoid

physical contact.

“We must have made a mistake somewhere,” Greg

insisted.

“Do you see any other Dug Hill Road around here?”

Mike asked. “Look at the friggin’ map.” He tossed a folded

sheet of paper at Greg, who made a halfhearted attempt to catch

it.

Greg threw the piece of paper at the floor once it was in

his grasp. “What do you want me to do with that?” he asked

without expecting a response.

“Hey, there’s an old barn,” Aurelia announced. “Is that part of the story?”

“No,” Mike shot back. His knuckles turned white as Greg and Emmer continued to laugh. Suddenly, he

jerked the car over to the side of the one-lane, gravel drive within site of a wooded hill and abruptly depressed the

breaks. “We’re getting out,” he announced.

“But what if that booger― or whatever― thing attacks us,” Greg snorted. “It’s a good thing I brought my

cane.”

“You’re going to have to be more worried about me in a minute,” Mike grumbled under his breath as he

threw open the door and slammed it shut.

“What is this thing supposed to be anyway?” Emmer asked. He stumbled down the grassy incline on the

right side of the car, but quickly regained his footing. “Is it like Bigfoot?”

“No,” Mike replied. “It was an unnaturally tall man wearing normal clothes. It could have been an

Archfay. John Michael Greer says in his book Monsters that they sometimes inhabit hills like this.”

“Yeah, or it could have been just some guy

who was hitchhiking,” Emmer interrupted.

“Anyway, there are also ghosts along the

road.”

“Well, where are they?” Greg asked

impatiently. He cupped his hands around his

mouth and shouted, “heeere ghosty-ghosty-ghosty!”

Aurelia gave him a sharp kick in the shins

with her black, platform shoes.

“Maybe it would help if we went to these

places at night,” Emmer suggested as he removed

his baseball cap and smoothed his hair. “Or, maybe

we would see these ghosts if we smoked some

Page 3

Captain’s Log,

supplemental:

remember to

start selling

bone marrow

for gas money.

Who could imagine the horrors that take place on the road

alongside this murky pond?

weed beforehand.”

“No,” Mike spat. He removed his 35mm camera

from his pocket and began taking pictures of the area.

“Relax, man,” Emmer said. “I was just kidding.”

“Here’s an idea,” Aurelia interrupted. “Let’s go

in the woods. Didn’t that article you found say

something about the woods?”

“I don’t remember,” Mike replied. “But that’s

not a bad idea. Greg, do you have the video camera?”

“Yeah, I got it right here.” Greg raised the

camcorder up in his right hand. His left hand rested on

the cane he had bought in New Orleans several years

before. He believed it contained powers of attraction,

but it seemed to be faulty of late.

The quartet trudged into the sparse woods, but

the thrill of discovery seemed to lag far behind. After

about five minutes Mike, Greg, Aurelia, and Emmer stumbled upon a pile of empty beer cans and an old, moldy

sleeping bag.

“Ew,” Aurelia announced.

“I don’t see any ghosts here, Mike,” Greg said as he zoomed the camera in on the sleeping bag. “Except

maybe the ghost of virginity.”

“I can’t believe we drove all this way to see this,” Emmer laughed.

Mike wasn’t amused. “Damnit,” he cursed. He hunched his shoulders and walked toward the car.

“Stop!” Greg yelled. “We must have made a mistake somewhere. Maybe we misread the directions.”

Mike halted just inside the forest perimeter. “No,” he responded. “No. This is the only road called Dug

Hill anywhere around here.”

“But the book says Dug Hill Road was a short cut to the Mississippi River,” Greg explained. “That means it

had to run east-west. This road goes north-south. Maybe the old Dug Hill Road was a part of the highway.”

“That’s impossible,” Mike shot back. “If it was why didn’t they just say that? Why do these books have to

be so damn vague all the time?”

“Maybe we should just wait until the ghosts show up,” Emmer interjected with a grin. “Then we’ll know

if we’re in the right place or not.” His attention was

only partially focused on the conversation. He tried to

lift up the discarded sleeping bag with a branch, but

the branch, which was quite rotten, broke.

“Man,” Greg continued. “If this was Buffy the

Vampire Slayer some creature would jump out of

nowhere right about now. No one can have a

conversation on that show without something crazy

happening.”

“Well this is real life,” Mike replied bitterly.

“What about that time in the cave―”

Mike cut Greg off with a deadly glance before

he could finish his sentence.

“What cave?” Emmer asked, but neither Mike,

Greg, nor Aurelia answered. Instead, they turned and

walked silently back to their car. g

Page 4

True! Amazing! Unbelievable!

Personal Experiences

I’ve lived on Dug Hill for several years and yeah,

I saw that boger one night. It was dressed just like the

story, in black pants and a white shirt. It came to my

door and started talkin’ ‘bout Jesus and askin’ me if I

was “saved.” Scared the bejeezes out of me!

Bill, 32, Berryville

I go to SIU in Carbondale, and sometimes me

and my… well, me and some guy I was seeing would go

up to that hill with our friends. It was a half an hour

drive, but it’s super out of the way and no one really

cares what we do there.

Anyway, we had a fire going and we were all

sittin’ around drinkin’. Suddenly we hear these

branches snappin’ like someone was walking around.

At first we thought it was the cops, but we were near

the road and hadn’t seen any lights.

So that guy I was with went to check it out. He

disappeared into the woods and didn’t come back for a

while. My friends got worried, so we took our

flashlights and went to look for him. Well, it was dark

and cold, so we didn’t want to stick around lookin’

forever or nothin’. We left and figured he’d been eaten

or something.

Turns out he just passed out and had to hitch a

ride back to campus. What a dumb ass. Hehe.

Aimee, 19, Carbondale

Trivia

In this new section, tough questions will be asked. It

is up to you to uncover the clues and determine the solutions.

Sometimes you will find the answers buried in the current

issue; other times you will need to go to the location itself.

The answers to this month’s questions will be posted in next

month’s issue.

1. What small town is nearest to Dug Hill?

2. What is the highway number that Troy Taylor

incorrectly places Dug Hill near?

3. What were the names of the two men who

supposedly encountered the boger?

4. Who was Welch the ghost in his former life?

5. How tall was the boger supposed to be?

6. Dug Hill Ln is paved with what material?

7. In what county does Dug Hill lie?

8. What did The Fallen do wrong during this

investigation?

Go out and explore, and good luck!

Answers to last month’s questions:

1. Chinese Daylilies 2. ML 3. Korner Café 4. The Kaskaskia

River 5. 3.6 miles from the edge of Arcola 6. Amish and

Mennonite 7. Douglas 8. Plank’s

Page 5

Is this the mysterious road described by many to be haunted

by gruesome specters?

Perhaps a boger man or boger men lurk in these woods…