Illinois Improbable: A Story of Upending Expectations

I begin by visiting The McPike Mansion, built in 1869 in the Italianate-Victorian style, obviously once grand, but now looking sinister and derelict. Like all good haunted houses, it hovers atop a hill surrounded by large gnarled oak trees. There are broken windows with little fragments in the jambs, like transparent teeth. There is an iron fence; a graveyard in the back; and a nimiety of ghosts. Nylon camp tents are scattered about the front yard, a little Resurrection City. I arrive to find an old Ford truck with a Ghostbusters logo parked in the driveway. There is a sign on its side: “Paranormal Investigation On-Site Vehicle,” festooned with a pumpkin cutout, colored Christmas light strung along the top, and plastic skulls attached to the bow. Its owner, Jerome Minkes, introduces himself as a “paranormal investigator,” a popular occupation in this town. With a demeanor that might be colored indigo, he sets about explaining some things to me: “Our energy after we pass, after our physical body dies, what we were in life becomes a ball of energy. And usually that can be recorded because it gives off a phosphorescent glow, and I have recorded many of them here.” I go in to take a look. The place is falling apart. There are 16 rooms, 11 marble fireplaces, carved stairway banisters and a vaulted wine cellar, but everything broods, as though remembering a former glory. It was long abandoned, but in 1994, Sharyn and George Luedke picked up the place in auction for a song (not Ray Parker, Jr.'s) Their dream was to restore it, then turn it into a B&B. But it has turned out to be a more expensive enterprise than imagined, and going has been slow. To help finance the restoration the Luedke's hold ghost tours, and overnight campouts in the front yard. ” title=”141027_077 by Didrik Johnck, on Flickr”>” title=”150430_034 by Didrik Johnck, on Flickr”>“>