Lakeview Castle in Illinois near St. Louis

[Machinist]

Hi everybody!

Saturday afternoon I finally found the Hartford/Lakeview Castle! The place was built by a wealthy Frenchman in 1897 and later, during Prohibition, was a speakeasy and an occasional haven for gangsters like Capone and "Buster" Workman. I have been looking for it on and off for like two years now. The "castle" itself burned down in 1973 but the grounds around the castle had multiple gazeebos (sp?), fountains, weird concrete statues of lions, and multiple little concrete bridges and walkways. The whole castle grounds were surrounded by a moat (now dried up).
The whole place is located in a wooded area so dense that no part of it is visible from the road. In fact, you won't see it until your practically right on top of it. I don't believe many people know about this place. For great information and pictures visit:

http://dailyabuse.typepad.com/odd_midwest/2005/04/the_first_trip_.html

The "Castle" is also mentioned on one of those Haunted Illinois websites (HauntedAlton? Prarieghosts?).

[Nicotti]

I'm bored so I'm going thru old threads.

Found the location for this one:

[Kit]

it had a moat?

[the_p0ssum]

Cool spot!

More pics & bit more info in this article --> Click Here

[the_p0ssum]

Cool spot!

More pics & bit more info in this article --> Click Here

[crazydrummerdude]

Hey, I bought something off craigslist off the property right next door to it and didn't even know it was there.

Any pics of it from back in the day?

Whatever happened to Machinist?

[Nicotti]

Well, I nearly froze to death out there while exploring the place today, due to a bad assumption. Tell you all about it after I have myself a nice warm bath.

[Nicotti]

So if you look at the inset map I posted you can see two covered round structures. Well the one near the tracks has a concrete floor and no sides, but the one in the upper right of the pic has a five foot high wall around it, but you can get a foot on the outside decoration of it and scale the wall. On the inside it goes back down about 6 feet then there was solid ice (all the water was frozen over to about 2 inches thick everywhere) and a bunch of logs and branches. There were some 3"metal pipes that went across the inside and another set of 1" pipe or rebar that came out of one wall then bent down into the water. On the side I was on there were rungs set into the wall, but it was 2 down then it moved over a foot and went 3 more.

My assumption was that there was a concrete floor probably 6" under the ice, not that I was really worried about the ice cracking cause I'd walked over other ice on the property without much cracking. So I climbed down the ladder and stepped on to the ice. No problem. no cracking sound. Shuffled over to a hole in the wall the size of a softball and took a couple of pics out of it at a cool lion statue. Shuffled to the other side took some more pics. Then shuffled back to the ladder to climb up and out.

This is where stuff started to go wrong, I don't have much upper body strength. I could climb up the 3 steps but I couldn't make the transition to the left for the top two, nor could I get a hand hold on the lip of the wall to help pull myself up. What I should have done at this point was call Mandi over and asked her to give me a hand. Instead I decided to get back down and to climb on to the pipes that stretched across, since they were just above my waist. Cause if I could stand on them I could sit on the wall edge. So I slid over to it, like I said it was slightly higher than my waist so I had to jump slightly to get on to it.

Well when I jumped instead of jumping up, the force cracked the ice under me and pushed the ice down. So I was leaning over the pipes as much as I could but slowly sinking into the water until I ended up hanging from the pipes with the water at my knees, still not feeling a bottom under my feet, only slabs of ice and dead branches and logs. At this point I had maxed my upper body strength so I let go of the pipe and fell in to the water up to just over my belly button. I was able to put my feet at an angle on to a large section of ice that I'd pushed down and it stuck on some submerged branches, but I still couldn't feel a concrete bottom so the water had to be at least 5' deep if not deeper.

The water was friggin cold, but I wasn't too worried about it, cause I had recently read that a person can survive in freezing cold water for about two hours if they're submerged up to their neck and I wasn't quite that deep. I just knew it was going to be a pain in the ass to get myself out cause I was wearing multiple layers of clothing that were now wet and heavy, the cold water meant I had to stop and rest frequently between my moving cause it sapped me of energy quickly, and I had gotten my gloves wet which meant I had to take them off, so my hands were actually getting colder faster than my body in the water.

So while I was in there Mandi was looking for one of the deer stand ladders we'd seen on our wanderings so maybe I could climb up that to get out, though I had no idea how deep the water was at that point, I was hoping that the ladder would touch the bottom, but she couldn't find them. I also had her snap a few pics of me.

Over the course of 2 or 3 exertions and rests I was able to make my way over to the bent 1" pipe and get my side on to it, then my butt just out of the water. Then after a rest scrambled up it so that my butt was where it connected with the wall (about a foot and a half out of the water, then I rested, then pulled myself to a sitting position on the 3" pipes and rested. Then stood up sat on the wall, swung my legs over and jumped down on to solid earth. It probably only took 20-30 min but if felt alot longer.

My jeans, boots, socks, wallet, and camera were totally drenched. Hopefully the camera drys out and works again, otherwise my dunking was for no reason what-so-ever. The bottom 4 inches of my shirt, jacket, and thermal were wet.

I hadn't shivered any in the water, but after I got up and out I started to. I took off my wet jacket, shirt and thermal and put on Mandi's jacket that she handed me. My leg muscles were tight from the cold so the walk back to the car was slow.

So lesson of the day, nobody go in that structure. It's deeper than it looks and the ice won't hold..for very long.

[Nicotti]

I'll post my pics if & when my camera works again. I told Mandi she needed to post the pics of me in the water here.

[crazydrummerdude]

It takes a braver man than me to admit when he's messed up.

Can't wait for the pics!

[Mandi Milenko]

I thought I was gonna have to call 911 on your ass for a minute! Lol! You're a trooper though. You will still down for a little more exploring even after all that! Now that it's all over though, it was pretty funny. You're gonna have one hell of a cold from that shit though! Since your camera is broke for the moment, I will post a few pics I took...

















The well he got stuck in...


I felt the smiley faces were appropriate for these pics

[Mandi Milenko]

BTW, apparently we should have been looking for Bigfoot while we were there...lol...

http://www.examiner.com/ufo-in-memphis/bigfoot-announces-his-presence-big-time-little-known-illinois-gothic-hotspot

[Nicotti]

You'd think Bigfoot could help a guy outta a hole... but noooo.

[Nicotti]

Too bad you didn't get any shots of me while I was down in the water, but then again that whole looking for a ladder was more important to us at the time.

I figured if I was stuck in a well I might as well smile and give the ol' thumbs up for the camera... especially since I was in the better position of 'out of the frigid water' at that point.



I dunno about getting a cold, but I'm definitely sore, my leg muscles tightened up so badly on the drive home that I could barely walk up the stairs to my apartment.

[crazydrummerdude]

Well, that looks like a hoot!