A Harrowing Trip Along Blood’s Point Road

Blood’s Point Road and Cemetery in rural Boone County, Illinois are settings for a variety of well-known local legends.

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As you drive along this lonely stretch of Northern Illinois road, you’ll first notice something out of the ordinary: there are no street signs. Even the graveyard on that furtive highway appears unnamed, as though local residents wanted to erase it from existence. Fortunately, maps still bear its unusual moniker: Blood’s Point Road.

Blood’s Point in rural Boone County, Illinois is a well-known local legend but has only been written about sparingly. The road and cemetery of the same name are home to a cornucopia of stories and myths, each one a variant on the last. The name of the road itself is enough to excite one’s imagination. What kind of event would leave such a name upon the landscape? A gruesome murder or massacre? An ancient battle?

Its origins are actually quite mundane. According to The Past and Present of Boone County, Illinois (1877), Blood’s Point was named after a prominent local family, the Bloods. Arthur Blood was the first white settler in Flora Township; a pleasant area that derived its name from the abundance of flower-covered fields.

One could say that ever since its christening, the area has been stained by Blood (sorry, I couldn’t resist). Digital and print media articles contain a myriad of tales relating to the cemetery and the railroad bridge that lies about a mile to the west. The road itself is said to be patrolled by phantom vehicles, most notably an old pickup truck, but also a big rig and a disappearing cop car.

Depending on who you ask, around four to eight people have hung themselves or have been hung from the railroad bridge: a witch, her children, three anonymous women, and even Arthur Blood along with his wife and their entire family! A busload of elementary school students is also said to have plummeted from the bridge.

One interesting legend concerns a witch called “Witch Beulah” who (allegedly) lived in the area. Storytellers assert Arthur Blood’s children once encountered her under the railroad bridge and were enthralled by her ability to produce fire from her fingertips.

Afterwards, the locals grew suspicious of Arthur Blood’s family and drove them to suicide. Other people say that Beulah hung her children from the bridge, or that she committed suicide in an identical fashion. The legend of Witch Beulah, however, originated west of Rockford along Meridian Road and migrated to Blood’s Point. Author William Gorman documented both Witch Beulah and Blood’s Point in his book Ghost Whispers: Tales from Haunted Midway (2005).

On the Shadowlands Index, an anonymous contributor reported that a crumbling foundation exists in the woods off Sweeney Road (which intersects with Blood’s Point). Red lights supposedly dance around the area, and an old farmer chases trespassers off with a shotgun.

The cemetery itself is said to be visited by a wide variety of phenomenon, from orbs, to a phantom dog, to a vanishing barn, to the disembodied laughter of children and electrical malfunctions. Residents along the road are mystified by its reputation, but that hasn’t allayed its popularity.

Some of these stories can be easily dismissed as transplanted urban legends, but some of them are detailed enough to, perhaps, have been rooted in fact. One thing is certain: naming an area “Blood’s Point” is a good way to attract attention!