Devil’s Gate
Devil’s Gate – Libertyville, IL
By Michael Kleen
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The truth behind the mysteries of Devil’s Gate, located near the Independence Grove Forest Preserve in Lake County, is elusive. What may or may not have happened there has been lost in the minds of the older generation, who have so far not come forward with the real story.
According to legend, sometime in the distant past a school stood behind the set of iron gates off of a sharp bend in River Road, about a mile north of Libertyville. One day, a maniac broke into the school and abducted several of the girls. He killed each one and mounted their severed heads on the spikes of the gate. Every full moon, the heads reappear on the rusted spikes.
Like most legends, there are very few facts to back up the story. However, there is no doubt that an institution once stood on those grounds. According to the Chicago Daily Tribune, construction on what was known as the Katherine Kreigh Budd Memorial Home for Children began in the early spring of 1926. Britton I. Budd, the president of the Chicago Rapid Transit Company, funded the project. It had been his recently deceased wife’s dream to build such a home. The institution itself was to be run by the Sisters of St, Mary, an Episcopal organization, and was expected to house around 150 children in its first year.
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