Explore the chilling SS Eastland disaster in Chicago, where 844 lives were lost on July 24, 1915. Uncover survivor stories, hauntings, and paranormal events.

Only one building remains standing on the old 1893 Fairgrounds in Chicago’s Jackson Park today: the former Palace of Fine Arts which now houses the spectacular Museum of Science and Industry. After the Fair ended the building first became the Field Columbian Museum, today’s Field Museum of Natural History. While most of the Fair buildings—some of them much larger—were built of something called staff--a medium comprised of concrete, woven jute and plaster--,the Palace of Fine Arts had been built with a base of stone to protect the priceless masterpieces inside, which had come from collections around the world.

The building of the Drake Hotel in Chicago was a monumental endeavor. The hotel, which is located at 140 E. Walton Place, was conceived by architect Benjamin Marshall and financed by John and Tracy Drake. Construction began in the early 20th century and the hotel finally opened its doors on New Year's Eve in 1920. The building's architecture reflects the grandeur and elegance of the Jazz Age, making it a prominent landmark on Chicago's Magnificent Mile. Since its opening, the Drake Hotel has hosted numerous distinguished guests, from celebrities to royalty, adding to its rich history and reputation.  A Pink Neon Beacon on Michigan Avenue

Join us in exploring the vibrant traditions of the Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, a celebration of the departed widely observed in Mexico and Latin America that is a fusion of cultures.

Trigger Objects and Hauntings Paranormal trigger objects are a fascinating subject that has been discussed for many years in the paranormal community. These objects are believed to have the ability to elicit supernatural activity and are said to have a strong emotional or historical connection to a particular person or event. Many people believe that these objects can attract spirits or entities related to that person or event, and that they can be used to communicate with the dead. Examples of alleged trigger objects include personal items like jewelry or clothing, or items associated with traumatic events like weapons or toys. When you combine a trigger object with a location where haunted history has happened, you just might get a recipe to stir up some ghostly fun. That’s why the Medieval Torture Museums in Los Angeles and Chicago are so perfect to look for a number of different types of paranormal phenomena. These buildings are connections to the fascinating pasts of the city and now you can explore these buildings as well as join us for a haunted history tour for one low price.  Both museums are in historic buildings that have a real connection to the city, so let’s talk about how some of the terrifying trigger objects at the torture museum could connect to real life haunted stories…

Someone told me recently, "No matter how great my Chicago ghost experiences are, Ursula, you always have a better story." Well, I don't know about that, but I do know that us old timers have some pretty cool stories pre-dating a lot of stuff you find online.Typical is my experience of the famously haunted Peabody Estate at Mayslake--which I first went to check out in 1995 for inclusion in Chicago Haunts  --and ended up, essentially, living at.

By the year of the Great Fire, 1871, the U.S. Custom House had operated in Chicago’s present-day Printer’s Row area for a little over fifteen years. The building housed not only the Collector of Customs but the equivalent of the IRS, the Steamboat Inspector, the U.S. Commissioner, the U.S. Marshal and the postal clerks’ offices. On the top floors were the federal courts, district attorney and clerks of court. Wryly, the Custom House was one of several so-called “fireproof” buildings that would be decimated by the Great Fire in 1871. After the Great Fire destroyed the Custom House, the U.S. government moved their various orphaned offices into Congress Hall, an old hotel at Michigan Avenue and Congress Boulevard which had survived the Fire. A decade later, the building would be razed to build the new Auditorium Annex Theater (today’s notoriously haunted Congress Plaza Hotel), for visitors to the World’s Fair of 1893. But just after the Fire, by December of 1871, the new Custom House headquarters were already known as haunted. Soon after their tenancy began, stories of phantom footfalls and other strange sounds began to be reported by government workers, and—not long after-- a chilling story surfaced to explain the strange events, which were tied to a porter who had worked in the old Congress Hall Hotel. The dead porter’s former roommate told the tale of an evening when his friend had gone out to bathe in the Lake. When the porter came back later, his friend saw that he was pale and distressed, and he got into bed with his clothes on, falling asleep without a word. In the morning, the porter was gone. Later that afternoon, while his friend stood chatting with an associate in the lobby, the body of the porter was brought in on a stretcher. He had drowned the evening before in Lake Michigan. Not long after the man’s death, the housekeepers at Congress Hall Hotel began to report strange noises in his former room and a feeling of unease. Then, one night about three months after the drowning, several people saw the dead man appear, dressed in soaking wet clothing, standing in the doorway leading to the yard of the hotel. The night watchmen at the hotel also reported hearing the sound of walking between 9pm and midnight most nights, and the engineer claimed to have heard someone snoring in his room when he was quite alone. On another occasion he went into the basement, where the porter used to nap on his duty nights, and found the chairs turned upside down, inkstands overturned, and papers and other items strewn about the room. Another night watchman was driven nearly crazy, reporting that he was constantly followed by phantom footsteps while making his rounds, the footfalls walking when he walked and stopping when he stopped. Today the site where the Congress Hall Hotel once stood is occupied by the looming Congress Plaza Hotel, known as one of the most haunted hotels in the world and—for my money—the most haunted building in Chicago. Myriad spirits roam these halls, the victims of so many tragedies that occurred here over many, many years, including those of numerous accidental and purposeful drownings in the lake. Whether the porter who suffered here so many years ago is part of today’s gathering of ghosts is anyone’s guess. If he still walks the halls, however, he has a lot of company. Find Your Next Paranormal Experience

Lori Miarecki, who owns the storied Cherry Tree Inn B&B in Woodstock, Illinois, owns yet another Woodstock haunt. Many will recognize the Cherry Tree Inn, as the B&B where Phil Connors stays in the 1993 movie Groundhog Day. The Cherry Branch Guest House just around the corner at 220 E. South Street also boasts ghosts and has lesser-known stories to share. We know less about the history of this location, but in the short time Lori has owned it, the house has amassed quite a treasure trove of spooky tales. Built in 1910, the former boarding house, which later became the Bundling Board Inn, will open its doors on July 8th to paranormal investigators wishing to put its supernatural claims to the test. The previous inhabitants made themselves known in January 2022 shortly after the Miarecki's took occupancy. Two weeks before they opened, when Lori was the only one working in the house, lights began switching on and off right in front of her. She suspected electrical problems, but when she called in an electrician everything proved to be in order. Then doors began to open and close on their own. Most alarmingly, after Lori installed an eye-latch with a J-hook on a basement door to keep it closed, she heard the door rattling. When she went to check on it she found that the latch had come loose, extricating itself from the wood.  Just this year a shadow figure was also seen in the house. The apparition was spotted by Lori's friend Lincoln one day while he was preparing the Petunia Room on the second floor at the top of the stairs. As he was making the bed, the doorknob turned, and the door to the room suddenly opened a few inches. Lincoln looked up and briefly glimpsed a shadowy figure at the door, which immediately slammed shut and locked.