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Lakey’s Creek – McLeasboro, IL
By Michael Kleen

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The headless horseman of Lakey’s Creek is quite possibly one of the oldest ghost stories in Illinois.  Passed down as an oral tradition until John W. Allen put the story on paper in 1963, the mysterious man named Lakey, as well as his untimely end, has been immortalized in the folklore of Southern Illinois.  Like Seaweed Charlie, this ghost story may be preserving the memory of an unsettling event in local history.

Long before a concrete bridge spanned the shallow creek 1.5 miles east of McLeansboro, a frontiersman named Lakey attempted to erect his log cabin near a ford along the wagon trail to Mt. Vernon.  One morning, a lone traveler stumbled upon Lakey’s body.  Lakey’s head had been severed by his own ax, which was left at the scene.  According to legend, his murderer was never found.

But his story doesn’t end there.

For decades after the murder, travelers reported being chased by a headless horseman that rode out of the woods along Lakey’s Creek.  “Always the rider, on a large black horse, joined travelers approaching the stream from the east, and always on the downstream side,” John Allen wrote.  “Each time and just before reaching the center of the creek, the mistlike figure would turn downstream and disappear.” (Legends & Lore of Southern Illinois, pg. 59)

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