Looking For the Bars
Witness: Cathy Shaffner
Location: Williamsburg Hill, Illinois
Date of Encounter: April 14, 2006
My husband Jerry and I were mushroom hunting by Williamsburg Hill Cemetery. There was a town there in the 1800s and now there are only a few houses, communication towers, and a lot of ghost stories. But my husband and I were looking for the scrumptious morel mushrooms and I was leaving the timber area next to the cemetery to go back to the truck to get a drink when I encountered a man. I'd say he was in his 60s, dressed in a silk shirt, creased and cuffed dress pants, with wing tipped shoes. He was standing by our truck when I closed the truck door after getting my drink. He looked away from me and I heard him mumble something. I said, "Excuse me?" Not only did I not understand him, he startled me. But I did not feel threatened by him, so I said, "Excuse me?" He looked away from me again and all in one like long word he said, "Can you tell me where the bars are at?" But the strange thing was, his mouth did not move! My husband saw that I was talking to someone and said, "What's the matter?" I told Jerry that the man wanted to know where the bars were at. Jerry started telling him where the bars were, and the man just looked off and smiled. I walked over to my husband and he said, "Who is that? Do you know him?" I said, "No." We thought that it was odd that a man of his age would be out in the country dressed like that and no vehicle! Ours was the only one there. But when we turned around to look at the man, he was gone! Just like that. Poof… and he was gone. We even went through the cemetery to see if he was there. He was nowhere to be seen! I told Jerry that the man talked so fast that it was really hard to understand him, but he was very friendly. After that happened, we kept it between ourselves, then we heard about some other people that had been in the same area that had encountered a man fitting the same description as the man we had encountered. They also said he was looking for the "bars." I am very curious to find out about him. But I do believe he was a lost soul.