Tour Lantern Lane, a Haunted Backroad in Watseka, Illinois

Lantern Lane is a country road that is miles from nothing in the farmlands of Central Illinois with a creepy legend tied to it.

Southwest of Watseka in Iroquois County along 1200 North along a seemingly out-of-place grove of trees is the remnants of a demolished house and a spirit that owns the road at nights.

According to the local blog, Hoopseton Cornjerkers, (the very original name for the local high school mascot):

The best way for seeing the lantern, I'm told, is to park the car in the middle of the road and wait. I would recommend turning the car off. After a while, you will see an amber light in the distance getting closer. I've heard people say they look out to see it sitting on the trunk of their car.

So who is said to be the spirit who searches the road at night? Haunted Hovel picks up the story:

A farmer and his wife lived in a two-story house to the right of the road. One night in the winter the farmer went outside with his red lantern to check on his cows. After hours of waiting for her husband to return, the wife went out to look for him but she to did not return to the house. When spring came and the snow melted, the mutilated bodies of the farmer, his wife and his cows were all found not far from the house.

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The Legends On Film

Central Illinois filmmaker Justin LaReau shot a movie based on the ghost story during the 2020 COVID pandemic and lockdown, telling the Kankakee Daily-Journal,

“We hope it does play off of people’s traditional fears,” LaReau said of the film’s plot. “Most people, if you’re out in the middle of nowhere stranded and there was an intruder, there would be fear, essentially, and with the fear of claustrophobia and not being able to find a way to safety, most people would be at the edge of their seats.”
“Lantern’s Lane” stars Brooke Butler (“Ozark,” “Animal Kingdom,” “CSI Crime Scene Investigation”), Andy Cohen (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “Ray Donovan,” “NCIS”) and Lisa Roumain (“Yellowstone,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Westworld”).

The film is slated for a 2021 spring release.

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