There is not only one ghost story from Morgan-Monroe State forest and the Stepp Cemetery in the middle of it, there are many. Legends about creatures and ghosts keep the silent forest and burial ground alive.
Morgan-Monroe State Forest stands as a silent witness to a myriad of chilling tales that have woven an enigmatic tapestry of supernatural lore. The forest in south-central Indiana is more than 25 000 acres and has steep ridges and deep valleys.
From inexplicable deaths to whispered rumors of satanic rituals and elusive encounters with mythical creatures like Yeti and Bigfoot, the Morgan-Monroe State Forest has earned its reputation as one of the most infamous haunted woodlands in the United States. It is in this forest most reported sightings of the Sasquatch in the state and there is a large and active group investigating these claims.
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There are also said to be UFO sightings as well as more classical tales of something mysterious and ghostly lingering in the Morgan-Monroe State Forest.
The Draper Cabin in the Morgan-Monroe State Forest
In the midst of the Morgan-Monroe State Forest itself, there is a cabin where hikers can spend their night. Draper Cabin offers a night of spine-tingling encounters for those daring enough to spend it within its timeworn walls – all for the modest price of $25, throughout the year.
It is said that many hikers have to give up on staying in Draper Cabin through the night though, as they hear loud footsteps and weird noises outside, coming closer and closer to the cabin.
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What the source of these hauntings varies. One version includes a murder that occurred there quite a long time ago. Another story states that from the time of the cabin’s existence over 130 years ago, a murderer still stalks their premises and waits for the next guests to arrive and rent out the cabin.
However, the true heart of the forest’s haunting reputation lies in the ethereal realm of Stepp Cemetery where legends and urban legends of ghosts and mysterious religious sects never let the buried rest.
Stepp Cemetery
In the middle of the Morgan-Monroe State Forest you will find Stepp Cemetery, the source of many of the haunted legends of the forest. The cemetery in the Morgan-Monroe State Forest dates back to the early 1800s and is found just north of Bloomington.
There are not many graves in the cemetery, perhaps only around 30, (other sources say 114) or so, but they surely have some stories connected to them.
The Crabbites and their Snake and Sex Rituals
According to historians, Stepp Cemetery might have been used by a religious sect to perform rituals that came in the early 20th century. The group’s leader, William Crab, had strange practices like getting people to be bitten by a snake. A snake handler himself, he held more circus-like sermons and claimed that a true believer would not be bitten or die from the venom.
The sect known as Crabbites had strange beliefs, like that the earth was squared because of a part in revelations in the bible. They also had to be chased away from the cemetery because of performing a ”ritualized sexual license.” They were apparently participating in these orgies while handling the snakes as well as giving animal sacrifices.
It is also said they believed in resurrection and that the reverend could wake people from the dead. Once they were even arrested after trying to stop a burial of a woman who was once one of them.
It is worth noting though that the sect went largely undocumented and it is difficult to say today what was true and what was hearsay. But they said that there were roughly 600 of them in Brown and Morgan counties in 1912.
The Crabbites didn’t stay in the area of Morgan-Monroe State Forest and Stepp Cemetery for long as they are said to have moved over to Brown county, but they undeniably left an enduring mark on the cemetery’s reputation. Some even say that their mocking of the cemetery and strange rituals evoked some spirits to come back and haunt the place as they left the cemetery with a dark energy.
Teenage Parties on Stepp Cemetery and the Birth for Local Legends
Most of the stories from Stepp Cemetery are said to have been developed or happened from the 1950s to 1970s. Then the cemetery had become so remote and forgotten and was more as a gathering place for youth than for mourners. More people had access to cars in the following decades and used the place to party.
Many stories that were told were about the ghost of someone that had died in a car crash in the surrounding area, but also the cemetery itself became a part of the stories.
During the Great Depression the cemetery fell into the hands of the Civilian Conservation Corps and they carved a tree stump in the cemetery into a chair. This tree stump is today called the Warlock’s Chair, although it is gone now that it was burned down in 1974.
In many stories the chair was cursed and whoever sat on it would be so as well. It also became a part of the haunted legends as well, even after it was gone.
Some of the ghosts
It is also said that an old woman is haunting the Stepp Cemetery within the Morgan-Monroe State Forest after some fraternity boys hanged her beloved German Shepard from a tree. What they didn’t know though was that she apparently was a witch and cursed them as well as the cemetery.
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One of the other legends speaks of a young girl who was murdered in the Morgan-Monroe State Forest close to Stepp Cemetery and that her body wanders through the trees in search of justice and her way home because her killer was never found.
The Woman in Black
By far the most told story is about people seeing the ghost of The Woman in Black. The air thickens with an eerie stillness as the ghostly apparition of a grief-stricken mother dressed all in black is said to materialize on the haunted Stepp Cemetery at night, sitting on a hauntingly familiar tree stump crying over her dead child.
There are many stories about what happened, and this is also a tale we can trace back to the 1950s. Some say she was a woman named Anne, and that her man died in a dynamite explosion in the quarry and her daughter died in a car crash. The mother is said to have rarely left the grave of her child, who was the only thing she had left in her life. After she died, she is still coming to the grave to grieve.
There are also people saying that the child was a newborn and that she never recovered from the loss. The variations and details surrounding the legends are endless. Even in 1972, there were around 30 different versions of them.
There are some details that keep popping up though, like the tree stump. Sometimes the woman in black is only sitting on it, weeping close to her child’s grave. Sometimes she was a witch and murdered her husband after he murdered their child. Sometimes she has two white wolves by her feet mourning her child’s death after she was hanged for taking revenge.
The most horrendous tale though are the stories where people claim that she is sometimes trying to exhume her dead child from the grave to hold his bones, before burying him again and leaving.
The Story of Baby Lester
But what grave and who is she grieving? Sadly, there are plenty of graves belonging to children in Stepp Cemetery and the Morgan-Monroe State Forest. For some reason, the grave most associated with the legend of the Woman in Black at Stepp Cemetery is the grave of Baby Lester. His grave is in the back in a corner and has been there for many decades now. The faded letters on the grave say 1937. He was the child of O’Leatha Pryor Lester and Harley Lester for only a few hours before he passed. They named him Paul.
Still to this day, some people place little toys on the grave. In respect perhaps, but the urban legend of Baby Lester really hurt the family of the stillborn child. On several occasions the grave has been vandalized, broken or the headstone removed so they had to cement it down. On July 24 in 2021, the toys were set on fire by some vandals, or by accident after a candle set fire to them on accident.
The mother was only 16 when she gave birth and went on to live a long life with more children after. When she heard about how her child’s grave was the center of this urban legend, she was distraught, horrified and disgusted. Although the family tried to shield her from the legend of Baby Lester and the Woman in Black, it had come in many forms until she died in 2007.
The Dangers of Ghost Stories
As night descends upon Morgan-Monroe State Forest, the line between the living and the otherworldly blurs, leaving those who dare to explore its depths to grapple with the unsettling mysteries that lurk in the shadows and the whispers that echo through the ancient trees.
Is it Bigfoot, the Woman in Black? Perhaps a remnant of the strange cult that used the cemetery all those years back. Perhaps there are just a couple of teenagers that can’t comprehend how stories about the dead can still hurt the living.
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References:
Stepp: A Small Rural Cemetery That Looms Large In Hoosier Lore | news-2018 – Indiana Public Media
Gallery: Baby Lester grave at allegedly haunted Stepp Cemetery set on fire – The Bloomingtonian
Paul “Baby” Lester (1937-1937) – Find a Grave Memorial
Stepp Cemetery — Astonishing Legends
Paul “Baby” Lester (1937-1937) – Find a Grave Memorial
Let Baby Lester Rest in Peace | OrangeBean Indiana
Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology Site of the Month | WBIW
A Requiem For Baby Lester — The Hauntings of Stepp Cemetery – PARAHOLICS®
https://www.bloomingpedia.org/wiki/Draper_Cabin
