Axe-Man’s Bridge
A bridge has collapsed into the creek below it, two concrete slabs stand alone. The rusting metal
sits in the water, unmoved by the current. It has only recently fell, the eerie feeling of the air flows throughout your body. This bridge is none other than axeman’s bridge.
The legend that follows the bridge has two different stories of the horrendous events that took place. In the small town of Crete with a population of only 8,171 people, a vicious man took innocent lives with an axe.
One version of the story, the man killed his family and set fire to his house. Two police officers who showed up to check out the burning building, also lost their lives to his evil. In the other version of the story, he killed a bunch of children for trespassing on his property as they ran across the bridge.
“It creeped me and my friends out when we were younger. We always went there on Halloween night. I never witnessed any ghosts or anything, but I always got a creepy feeling when I was there, day or night,” Said Jeff LeMere, a local man from Crete.
He also stated that while he lives in town now, he still gets a creepy feeling while driving down that road. The original bridge has collapsed, but the one connected to road, was built to replace it in 2004. The new bridge was built before the original had gone down.
“I would do it in the heartbeat,” he says speaking about finding the house mentioned in the legend. “I wanted to go find it one time, none of my friends wanted to do it with me.”
LeMere stated that he was very into the local history, and that he even has a couple books about the history.
“I’ve heard bits and pieces mostly. Something about a couple kids got murdered near that bridge by a man who lived in the house with an axe. I do believe there are two or three versions of the story.”
The fallen bridge stands about 100 to 200 feet from the newer bridge, you have to follow along a narrow path in the forest preserve. There are a lot of things that scream creepy about the area- empty beer cans and a lot of things that don’t belong near a forest preserve.
There are smashed pumpkins that have been discarded on the edge of the trees, and inappropriate graffiti covers the bottom of the replacement bridge. The area altogether is a beautiful piece of the town’s history, followed by a horrendous story.
