Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainA crumbling one-room 1901 country church and cemetery near Burlington Junction in rural Nodaway County, long the most notorious haunted site in northwest Missouri's legend tradition.
Rural route near Workman Chapel Cemetery, Burlington Junction, MO 64404
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
No admission; the chapel and adjoining cemetery sit on a rural road. Respect the active cemetery and any posted notices.
Access
Limited Access
Remote gravel/dirt road; uneven ground around the structure and cemetery.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1901 · Built in 1901 by Pastor John Workman · Most notorious haunted-site legend in northwest Missouri / Nodaway County · Adjoining cemetery with 340+ documented burials, including two Civil War veterans · Long associated with Northwest Missouri State University student folklore
Workman Chapel was built in 1901 by Pastor John Workman and stands just off a rural road in the far northwest corner of Missouri, in Nodaway County near the town of Burlington Junction (the legend is often associated with nearby Maryville, home of Northwest Missouri State University, where students have long made pilgrimages to the site). The chapel takes its name from the Workman family rather than from any fraternal lodge or organization.
The single-room frame church served a small rural congregation before falling out of regular use. Over the decades the building deteriorated, losing its steeple and much of its structural integrity, leaving the crumbling shell that draws visitors today. The adjoining Workman Chapel Cemetery remains a documented burial ground with more than 340 recorded memorials, including, according to the family, two Civil War veterans said to have belonged to a cavalry unit.
Lester Workman, a descendant of the original family who served as informal caretaker until his death in 2011, spoke to reporters and researchers about the site over the years, consistently stating that he could recall no evidence behind the violent stories attached to the chapel. The chapel has been featured in regional newspaper coverage by the Maryville Forum and the Northwest Missourian, and has been the subject of books and amateur paranormal investigations tied to the Maryville college community.
Sources
For generations, students at nearby Northwest Missouri State University and area residents have traded ghost stories about Workman Chapel. The best-known legends, as documented by the Maryville Forum and the Northwest Missourian, claim that a preacher stabbed a woman in a white dress and concealed the murder weapon beneath the floorboards, that a voice will reveal the knife's hiding place to visitors, and that a woman was hanged from one of the great old trees beside the chapel - her spirit said to drag booted toes across the roof of any car parked beneath the branches. Other accounts describe a fire that left the building untouched, a phantom horseman, and figures glimpsed hanging in the trees or inside the church.
According to the family caretaker Lester Workman, who spoke with reporters before his death in 2011, none of these violent events can be substantiated; he could recall no record of a murder, hanging, or fire matching the stories. Workman offered one grounded possibility for the ghostly soldiers and horse sounds: two Civil War veterans, reportedly part of a cavalry unit, are buried in the chapel cemetery.
The site has been documented in regional newspapers and explored by amateur ghost hunters, including author Josh Heard, a former Northwest Missouri State student who described being unable to see inside despite bright moonlight and recounted companions being pushed or thrown - claims that remain anecdotal. The weight of local reporting treats the Workman Chapel stories as durable rural urban legend rather than documented haunting, even as the abandoned chapel remains a magnet for the curious.
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