Watseka Spooklight 1991 Investigation

The GRS visited this site and Jo McCord from the Kankakee Journal in June of 1991 to observe this light. With the help of locals we were able to narrow the location where the light is between a one-lane bridge and a stone mailbox.

We began our excursion on the road at 1500E, about three miles west of Happy Hollow intersection at 4pm.

Interviews with local residents found few positive responses when asked if they had seen the light. I attributed that to the fact that the area is sometimes used as a ‘party area’ by local teenagers and several stop signs and other traffic signs showed indications of bullet holes! So, I assumed, even if local residents had seen something either natural or supernatural, they probably wouldn’t have attested to the fact, just to keep the population around the area at night down to zero.

Address/directions: Eastern Illinois, 50 miles south of Chicago on Hwy, light is seen on 1200N between 1980E and 1500E.

Starting from Watseka, turn left (South) on S. Second Street.
Follow this road out of town, all the way to Woodland. Body Cemetery will be on the right.
Take a right turn (West) at the cemetery, then immediately take a left turn (South) on 1980E for 2.1 miles.
The road will curve twice, and after the second curve, turn right (West) onto 1200N. This is Lantern's Lane.
The site of the demolished house is 2.4 miles west, and the mailbox is 2.5 miles west.

Hauntings: This light is known as “Red Lantern Road.” The light is said to travel down the road, carried by the ghost of an old woman who lived on the farm behind the curtain of trees south of the road. She’s said to be searching for her husband who went out one winter night and never came back.

Those that had an encounter described the light as round and some attribute various colors to it. it is unlikely swamp gas because that source would produce a vertical vapor rather than a round light. There could be a legitimate phenomenon here, but I would speculate that the majority of the sightings are nothing more than car headlights in the distance that appear to be much closer that they truly are.

Lantern's Lane has two main attractions. The first is a stone mailbox which supposedly has no back. You can reach inside and your arm will never find the other end. This is untrue.

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

The house that was the supposed residence of the vanished couple was demolished. It was always rumored to be haunted, and was frequently visited by thrill-seekers until a man living at the house allegedly shot someone for trespassing.

Supposedly a girl entered the house with some friends. They tried entering the basement, but felt as if an "invisible force" were holding them back. As they made ready to leave, the girl picked out a sewing pattern she had found on the floor to keep as a souvenir.

On her way out, she reported that the pattern felt hotter as she approached the door. It became so hot; she had to leave it inside the house. When she got outside, her hand was imprinted with red burn marks from the pattern.

Several of the above stories could be nothing more than urban legend but sound kind of interesting.

Equipment setup: Equipped with two-way radios, sound and video recording equipment, a one-million candle-power spotlight and compasses, we used a car’s odometer and found that the lights people have been seeing down the road can actually be seen over a mile away even though there were some trees in between.

Experiments preformed: Members drove down the length of the road and shown a very bright spotlight back towards the observation spot to see what that natural might look like in comparison to the past reportings. Those back at the observation point reported a bright light from almost 1.1 miles away.

The Ghost Research Society investigated the Watseka Spooklight on June 1, 1991. Team members included: Howard Heim, Jana Norwine, Wayne Kaczmarek, Bill & Roselle Zaszczurynski and Dale Kaczmarek

Personal experiences:

Dale Kaczmarek: I did not have any personal experiences nor did I see any unusual lights during our time there. There were some suspicious teens in cars that were milling about the area and seemed to follow us wherever we traveled. We finally lost them after pulling into a public gas station.

We decided to call it a night anyway because no lights had been seen. We traveled back there in 2022 during a visit from Paul Adams from England. We were unable to find the stone mailbox but were able to find the approximate viewing location to set up. Again, nothing was observed besides car headlights.

Evidence collected: None!

Conclusions: This alleged Spooklight sounds quite a bit like others that the GRS has investigated including The Moody Light and Watersmeet Light (Paulding Light), as those were later identified at automobile headlights that looked light they appeared in the road, only to disappear in a few minutes. This was always caused by intersecting or angular roads that ordinary cars were traveling before disappearing as they cars either turned left or right or the road itself swung away from the observers.

This light should be re-investigated one more time with scientific equipment to absolutely identify what the cause of the lights seen on the road actually is.