Stull, Kansas: Gateway to Hell

[Warph]

I grew up in Lawrence, Kansas, which is about fifteen miles away of the town of Stull. Everyone where I came from had heard the rumors of the evils of Stull, and many of us made trips to the cemetery there to experience it firsthand.

With only a handful of residents and a few buildings within its borders, Stull seems like a quiet, lonely little peaceful town. If you believe the stories about Stull, however, you will find that it is actually as far from peaceful one town can get. Stull, Kansas is actually one of the "seven gateways to hell."

The basic premise of the legends regarding Stull go like this: somewhere within the tiny, run-down Stull cemetery is a set of hidden steps which descend directly to the netherworld itself. The steps are nearly impossible to find, and are covered by a hidden seal which only opens on Halloween and the Spring Equinox. If one does manage to find these steps, they should never venture down them, for it is impossible to ever return.

The entire cemetery, even beyond containing a gateway to hell, is supposedly quite an evil place. The main focus of this evil was a dilapidated, crumbling church that stood up until last year. This church was used by witches and occult groups for worship. The church had no ceiling, but it was said that rain would never fall inside it. If one were to take two bottles and hold them in the formation of an inverted cross, it would be impossible to break them against the walls of this church. Last year, the church was bulldozed without the consent of those who owned the land it stood upon. No one is sure who knocked down the church and why they chose to do so.

Also within this cemetery was an imposingly tall pine tree, which stood until 1998, when it was destroyed to dissuade thrill-seekers. Even though the tree was perfectly healthy, it was cut down the day before Halloween. This tree grew directly through a headstone, splitting it in half. Local lore held that the tree was used to hang witches before the land was allotted as a memorial ground. Both the church and tree were considered landmarks of evil, which would help lead the way to the mystical steps to hell located nearby.

In Stull's history there have been a few strange facts which speak to its long reputation of being a cursed area. First, in the early 1900's, a boy was accidentally burned to death by his own father.  A few years later, a man in town was found hanging from a tree. Both of these took place near a road known as "Devil's Road," which appears on old maps of Stull, although it no longer exists today. In short, Stull, Kansas has long been a place of mysterious deaths and associations with the Dark Prince.

Today, mysterious people guard Stull from disturbances.  Stories abound of curious people being terrorized and chased out of Stull by pick up trucks.  Some stories say that these trucks would trail intruders for over twenty miles!  This had lead to further speculation that there is something going on in Stull that someone wishes to hide.

...Erika Satterfield


Still Scary in Stull, KS
There is a cemetery in Stull where a pine tree stood stoic, sentinel on sunny, bright, winter days and would appear as a silhouette at sunset. A tombstone has been split by the enormous trunk and has become embedded in the roots. Tales of a witch being hung from the branches of the pine have been passed down through the generations. Other witches subsequently have flocked to the cemetery on May Day Eve and Halloween to hold black masses. The witches have been known to dance around the tree.

On October 30, 1998, the pine was cut down that had previously loomed over the cemetery. Kedrich Blacwood of The Lawrence Journal-World quotes the official position of the town citizens that the tree had to be removed because it had died during the summer. Authorities have made no indication that the pine had played a role in legends of demonology that surround the cemetery or that it had anything to do with why the tree was cut down.

The ruins of the church in Stull consist of four walls and a pile of debris that used to be on Emmanuel Hill that served Stull until 1922. Since then, the legends concerning the church and the surrounding cemetery have grown as the church has decayed. The church was allegedly used by Satanists who used to, and may still use the church to have rituals.

There are many rumors of a staircase that is behind the church on the right hand side of the church if you are facing the church. The staircase is difficult to find because grass has overgrown the lid that covers the stairwell. The stairs are supposed to lead to a gateway to hell. One rumor says that if one goes down the stairs, it will take two weeks to get back up to the ground level, although it seems like only a few moments have passed. After starting to descend the stairs, it feels as if the person is being dragged down the stairs by an unknown force!

One of the most important legends is that the church serves as one of the seven portals to hell. The devil reportedly makes a personal appearance in the cemetery on Halloween at midnight to visit the grave of a witch with whom the devil had a child. Their child is said to materialize in the surrounding woods, taking on the form of a werewolf.

Visitors who have made midnight trips to the cemetery have fallen victim to various mysterious phenomena—many of them have reported experiencing missing time. They have found that although according to their watches they have spent several hours in the cemetery when all they remember is next to nothing!

For those who dare to camp out behind the church for a night or two, they will hear weird and awful noises! People who are brave enough to are encouraged to spend the night behind the church to avoid patrols performed by local police that occur every hour or two. People are encouraged to bring lots of extra batteries for their flashlights because they will have lots of problems with their flashlights going out mysteriously. It would also be a good idea to bring warm clothing, a tent and a cell phone (not to mention, telling a friend where you will be in case the devil tries to take you down to hell with him)!

...Adam John Ketzner


Campout on the "Threshold to Hell"
There are "stairs" that lead somewhere down. They are behind the church on the right side if you are facing the church. They aren't easy to find, however, because they are well covered by the grass that has grown on top of the lid that covers them. It is not easy to find them, it took a friend and I about three hours of snooping around. We came upon this about six years ago.

If you really want to see or hear awful and weird stuff, try to campout behind the church for a night. Do this behind the church to avoid the patrols that do drive by there at night every hour or two. Take a flashlight and plenty of batteries, because you will have a ton of trouble keeping the flashlight working and it will go out a lot, trust me, I know.

...Ryan Smyth

[Warph]

HAUNTED KANSAS

THE GHOST STORIES OF KANSAS

Like many other states and regions which have appeared on this web page, devoted to ghosts, hauntings and the haunted history of America.... there are a number of tales that simply are not long enough to be able to devote and entire section to them. There are also the tales which stretch credibility to the point that they lie just beyond the realm of the ghostly and somewhere in the land of the "urban legend". Many of these tales are nearly as chilling as their documented counterparts, and yet I have always found that truth is stranger than fiction. If there are any stories that haunt the landscape of Kansas that I have not mentioned on the pages that follow, then it may be because they either seemed to good to be true.... or that I missed them altogether.
Regardless, the stories below were all good Kansas ghost tales... they just were not long enough for a separate page. Take a moment to read them over though because you may just find that some of these stories do not have to be long to give you goosebumps!

----- There is said to be the ghost of an old Indian man who appears along the Saline River in Ellis County. The ghost once appeared to a cowboy who was camping there in 1879. The spirit was doomed to roam the banks of river until he found the skull of his father, who had been murdered by white men in the 1840's.

----- There is a section of Kansas City known as Morningside Park where houses have been effected by strange phenomena like odd noises, moving furniture and smoke which appears and disappears. The land was once known as Hinkle's Grove in the early 1900's but a century before, it was used as a rest stop on the Santa Fe trail. A house burned down on the site in 1876 and may be the source of the strange phenomena.

----- The Johnson County Industrial Airport in Olathe is haunted by unexplained noises, strange sounds, whistling and phantom footsteps. They have plagued Hangar 43 for more than 50 years and employees and staff members have dubbed the elusive spirit who haunts the place the "Commander". They believe that he may have been one of the 54 men killed at the navy flight training base, which was located there in 1942.

----- The ghost of a former band student is said to haunt the Paola High School. The boy was killed on a  steep metal stairway while entering the building and his ghost has apparently been there ever since. Today, students and visitors claim to hear the sound of a single trumpet playing in the building, even while no band members are there.

----- One of the most enduring legends of Kansas is that of the Albino Woman. When I looked into the story, I found so many versions of it that it smelled suspiciously like an urban legend... or at least the Kansas version of the "Hook". The woman is said to haunt the city of Topeka and has appeared in various places and guises over the years. According to Haunted Places: The National Directory by Dennis William Hauck, the ghost was especially active in the late 1960's and seemed to be attracted to young people. She was also said to frequent Rochester Cemetery in Topeka and trace her path from the graveyard to her home some distance away. I have not been able to discover just how much of the story is true.

There are dozens and dozens of ghost stories in Kansas, far too many to mention here, but if you have a story of a location that has been documented to be haunted, please contact me via this web page. If you would like to read about many more Kansas ghosts, then see the book Haunted Kansas by Lisa Hefner Heitz. She does the state justice in a way that no page on the Internet can do.

http://www.prairieghosts.com/ksstories.html

[Warph]

Ghost stories from Kansas.

The most basic form of communication we have is word of mouth. All types of things have been handed down through generations in such a manner including recipes, nuggets of family history, and local folklore. Ghost stories are another form of verbal repetition used for entertainment purposes or to recount a few eerie, unexplainable truths.


Atchison, a city located in eastern Kansas, has been proclaimed the most haunted city in the State. The town is full of stories about the paranormal. While some have been expanded on to the point of urban legends, there are several that remain without much of an explanation.


Gargoyles were traditionally used to scare evil spirits away from a building and keep the inhabitants within protected. Such is not the case with the "gargoyle house", according to local telling. B. P. Waggener was a railroad lawyer and politician in the late 1800's and collected one of the largest law libraries in the State. Rumor has it that he amassed his wealth by making a pact with Satan and erected the two gargoyles atop his home as a symbol of his deal. Supposedly, the home is blanketed by an evil curse as attested to by an attempt of a later homeowner who fell to his death on the staircase after climbing it to remove the gargoyles.


There is a home on Riverview Drive that houses a couple of frequent travelers. They store their suitcases in a space just at the top of the stairs leading to the attic. Apparently, the space is envied by a particular spirit who doesn't like the placement of the suitcases, so it isn't uncommon for the couple to fetch the baggage only to discover they've been tossed to the bottom of the stairs. Other strange occurrences have happened in the home as well. The television and stereo have been known to come on unexpectedly at full volume. Noises from other areas in the house where noone is occupying space have been heard. On such an occasion, the woman living in the home thought the odd noise was her dog and called out to him. At her holler, a figure of an elderly woman wrapped in a shroud entered the room faintly illuminated, smoothed a place on the bed, and sat down. The resident screamed upon seeing her and the figure immediately scurried out of the room. A few moments later, the attic door slammed shut.


A home on North 3rd Street once was owned by an elderly, single school teacher named Nellie Trueblood who died on the site. The house has been under renovations for quite some time because the current owner is unable to maintain a work crew. The crews have reported seeing a circle of light that they suspect is Nellie with a diameter of 18-24 inches which appears and hovers just out of reach. If approached, the light moves away.


Located on Kearney Street resides a friendly ghost, or so the former owners claim. They have several stories of unexplained incidents. The couple was on the first floor in separate rooms and heard someone walking around upstairs. In preparation for an evening out at another time, someone helped the man of the house shrug into his jacket. When he turned around to thank who he thought was his wife, noone was there. One of the most peculiar incidences happened while the couple was away on a trip. On the way home, the female half of the couple mentioned that she would love a cup of tea when they arrived. When they entered the locked house, a tea kettle was hissing and a cup, saucer, tea bag, and spoon were sitting on the counter.


At the turn of the century, the Munich House was the site of extravagant galas on Saturday nights. Due to the large group of people gathered for a party, it was customary to borrow a maid from another household. One Saturday night, a party ran into the wee hours and a maid was kept from her bed. Having overslept the next morning, she rushed down the back staircase toward the kitchen to attend to her duties, slipped, and fell to her death. Reports of some visitors claim they have seen the light in the maid's former room flicker on Sunday mornings, then a light on the back staircase turns on. Soon after, the aroma of sizzling bacon can be scented, even though the kitchen is completely empty.


The current owners of a home on R Street purchased the home fully furnished, including several paintings. They found a few of the paintings not to their taste, removed them, wrapped them up neatly, and placed them in storage in the basement. The next day, they awoke to discover all the paintings back in their original locations.


Atchison Street traverses down one of the steepest hills in the city and was once known as Ferry Street because it ended where the street met with the Missouri River and locals could board the ferry. A woman traveling by buggy lost control of the horses due to an unknown spook. She struggled to regain control but the horses became unhitched from the buggy and it plummeted over into the river. Trapped inside, she drowned and her body was never recovered. Men strolling along the riverbank have said they feel a feminine presence calling for them to join her below the murky water.

[Jane]

They have tore the church down and put a chain link fence up with locks. They also made a movie about going to Stull to meet the devil. I only saw it once and cannot remember the name. Only remember to plane crashed before they got there.