Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainConsecrated 1872 alongside Crooked Creek Woods, home to the Archer Avenue corridor's grey-haired baby legend and a disputed werewolf burial
101st St. & Kean Ave, Palos Hills, IL 60465
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Cemetery is publicly accessible
Access
Limited Access
Small rural-style cemetery; adjacent forest preserve trail; uneven ground
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1872 · 1872 Catholic Cemetery · Archer Avenue Haunted Corridor · German and Polish Immigrant History · Cook County Rural History
The land at 101st Street and Kean Avenue in what is now Palos Hills was farm country in 1872, and the Catholic community there established Sacred Heart Cemetery that year to serve the German and Polish immigrant families working the area's rich soil. An original log church served the mission before burning down; the current structure dates to 1904.
The cemetery's small footprint — roughly an acre — reflects the dispersed agricultural population it originally served. It abuts Crooked Creek Woods, a forest preserve that runs along the creek bottom toward Archer Avenue. The area became part of the broader Archer Avenue folklore corridor over the 20th century, a stretch of southwest suburban Chicago road associated with Resurrection Mary and a cluster of additional haunting legends collected and promoted by paranormal researcher Richard Crowe beginning in the 1970s.
Crowe documented the Sacred Heart Cemetery in his research on the corridor, identifying it as a southern anchor point for Archer Avenue folklore. The cemetery is administered by the Archdiocese of Chicago through its Catholic Cemeteries office. Ghost tour operators running Archer Avenue itineraries include Sacred Heart as a stop, typically pairing it with the adjacent Crooked Creek Woods and the grey-haired baby legend.
Sources
Richard Crowe, who spent decades mapping the haunted folklore of greater Chicago, identified Sacred Heart Cemetery as a node in what he called the Archer Avenue haunted corridor. He traced the grey-haired baby legend to the 1950s. The tale: a couple died in a vehicle collision near the cemetery, and their infant was thrown from the car and survived in Crooked Creek Woods, feeding on local wildlife. Over subsequent decades, passing motorists reported seeing a hairy, pale creature in their headlights along the wooded stretch of road. Equestrians using the adjacent forest preserve trail have described horses being spooked by unseen presences near the cemetery perimeter. No independent documentation of the car accident that supposedly started the legend has been produced.
A separate strand of lore emerged in the 1970s around a belief that a werewolf was buried somewhere in the cemetery. A witness identified by Crowe as Terrie described a small, nondescript stone set noticeably apart from the other graves, with the surrounding fence bent downward at that point — reportedly so the werewolf could get out. Crowe included the account without endorsing it. The bent-fence detail has been repeated in tour literature since.
Both legends are firmly in the category of regional folklore rather than documented events. Sacred Heart remains an active Catholic cemetery with no formal paranormal programming of its own.
Notable Entities
Sacred Heart Cemetery sits at the edge of Crooked Creek Woods at the southern end of the Archer Avenue haunted corridor. The cemetery is one of the oldest in the area, consecrated in 1872, with over 400 interments on roughly an acre of ground. Several ghost tour operators include it as a stop on Archer Avenue itineraries that originate in Chicago.
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