With Halloween in just a few days, students across campus are looking for scares.

Many will head to haunted houses and watch horror films; however, few know about the interesting places with eerie pasts located in Coles County.

Michael Kleen, a 2006 history graduate of Eastern, found these places when he was a student and began to write short stories about the places that intrigued him.

Always having an interest in the paranormal and history, Kleen began to scour the county for interesting places beginning with the Airtight Bridge.

Named for the stillness of the air around the Embarrass River passage, the airtight bridge was the location of a gruesome discovery in 1980. A body was found on the bank of the river, near the bridge without hands, feet, or a head.

“No one I had talked to knew much about what had happened there, so it took a long time to go through the newspaper archives,” Kleen said. “It was really the first place I had to investigate with such extent.”

From this research, Kleen became interested in other areas within the county, including Ashmore Estates and haunted cemeteries.

“I was always interested in the unusual side of things and found out a lot of places that had never been written about or researched,” Kleen said.

Along with being interested in the unusual, he was also intrigued by the Charleston Riot in 1864, which occurred on the square.

“I’m also a huge Civil War buff; so researching the Civil War was exciting to me,” he said.

It took Kleen a year to complete his research, and it took him three months to write the book. Kleen used newspapers and published articles to find information about the locations he was going to write about.

“Finding the history was more difficult for me because writing has always (come) naturally to me,” Kleen said. “It wasn’t like there was a book that told me everything I needed.”

Kleen’s book “Tales of Coles County,” the 2010 edition, is a two-part book filled with a mixture of fact and fiction about the lesser-known areas of the county.

“I came up with the concept when I was still at Eastern over a summer break,” Kleen said. “I was working at the park district (in Prospect Heights) and had a lot of time on my hands while I was mowing. I thought of the stories to pass the time.”

Between the history background and haunting fiction, Kleen’s book educates readers by tricking them into reading about ghost stories.

“As I was learning about the places in the area, I wanted to write a book that appealed to people,” Kleen said. “I wanted to entertain and educate people at the same time.”

The characters are varied throughout the “Tales of Coles County,” and most of them are from Kleen’s imagination.

“The Charleston Riot section of the story was based on the actual dialogue from the depositions,” Kleen said. “The only made up characters in that section were the two central characters, the two friends.”

With the second battle of the Embarrass short story, Kleen could not find much information about one of the characters, General Samuel Whiteside.

“So a lot of that I had to draw form my own imagination,” Kleen said.

The original edition, published in 2004, was only the fictional stories, “Tales of Coles County.”

However, the newer edition he has added the second book, “Legends and Lore of Coles County,” was originally published in 2006. This is filled with short snippets about the areas he has researched within the county, and highlights locations mentioned within the story, in the “Tales.”

“With this (edition), I have totally revised the stories. This is the best version to read the stories,” Kleen said.

Also in this newer edition, Kleen has listed the resources he used while he completed his research.

“It should be a great resource for anyone doing research on these topics,” Kleen said. “It has the newspapers and articles I read listed to make it easier for people in the future.”

Kleen has also added a prologue, which describes why he chose Coles County for the book and how he got started on his research. With his adventure in Coles County complete, Kleen continues to write now as he resides in Macomb, Ill.

“I’m always writing new stories,” Kleen said.

He has written “Paranormal Illinois” which contains three chapters on places in Coles County.

“Tales of Coles County” was my farewell to the county,” Kleen said. “I will not be writing anymore about Coles County, and not because I don’t like it but, because I think I have written everything there is to write about the area.”

Kleen’s recent edition can be purchased at Amazon.com and Kindle, e-book and paperback editions can be purchased at colescountytales.us.

Kayleigh Zyskowski can be reached at 581-7942 or dennewsdesk@gmail.com.

“Tales of Coles County” explores real and fictional stories that take place in Coles county (submitted photo)

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