Spooky Stull Cemetery

12/26/2024

by M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Over forty years ago a small town in northeast Kansas got the unwanted attention of occultists and vandals, when stories started to surface that one of its cemeteries was a hotbed of dark paranormal events.

Remains of Stull church c.2000

The town of Stull is separated from the church and cemetery by a highway. The headstones are etched with German surnames such as Stull, Hildenbrand, Bittinger, Wulfkuhle among others. There is one place on the grounds that is supposed to be the portal to hell, and ironically it's the burned-out ruins of an Evangelical prairie church, which in truth did not burn down.

The church built in 1867, on an elevated area known as Emmanuel Hill, became vacant in 1922, because it grew too small for the congregation. A new, wooden-framed church was built across the road.

The old church was boarded up. Once abandoned the limestone structure deteriorated and the six windows, and the front door fell away. Trees eventually grew inside the structure.

The ruins were supposedly used by satanists and witches during those years it stood vacant and falling in on itself. This practice, whether it holds true to the Stull church, is not unheard of.

Supposedly there were rumors of a long history of occult activities in the area, however it wasn't until the 1970s that these stories started to circulate, which is when a wave of interest in demonic stories flourished in the wake of the films Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist.

Then in 1974, an article authored by Jain Penner appeared in the University Daily Kansan titled "Legend of Devil Haunts Tiny Town".

Far removed from the horrible story of The Exorcist or the bizarre black masses recently discovered in Los Angeles, and tucked away on a rough county road between Topeka and Lawrence is the tiny town of Stull. Not unlike the town of Sleepy Hollow, described by Washington Irving in his famous tale, Stull is one of those towns motorists can miss by blinking. Stull and Sleepy Hollow have another thing in common. Both are haunted by legends of diabolical, supernatural happenings.

According to legend, this graveyard is one of the two places on earth where the devil appears in person twice a year... [Stull] is haunted by legends of diabolical, supernatural happenings, told and retold, although it has probably never been recorded... some people say they heard it from grandparents and great-grandparents.

Stull Cemetery, Kansas c.2019

The book, Haunted Kansas (1997) describes where a student from Bonner Springs related to the newspaper that her grandmother told her of the devil's annual visit to Stull. Once when driving by the cemetery she had seen a house that glowed red and seemed to be on fire.

A University of Kansas junior told of his experiences in Stull Cemetery. He was accompanied by two fraternity brothers, and as they made their away among the tombstones he felt cold fingers grab his arm. Thinking it was one of his friends, he turned around but found they were standing a distance behind him. The space around him was empty.

Another student described going "devil-hunting" in Stull after which 3 or 4 of them experienced "memory lapses". There was also mention of witches gathering in the cemetery.

In 1978, about 150 people, most of them university students gathered at the cemetery to await the arrival of the devil. As noted in an article about the gathering, "the only spirits that showed up at Stull Cemetery Monday night, during the equinox, were in beer cans and liquor bottles."

The history that allegedly precedes the building of the church was a story that the people who settled in what would become Stull practiced witchcraft. One woman was hung as witch from a tree, which would eventually become the graveyard.

Halloween is the date when supposedly the devil visits the grave of his infant son, or a witch that was the mother of his child. The child makes an appearance as a werewolf.

There were other urban myths with unknown origins, but nonetheless fed into the cemetery's eerie reputation. Two men supposedly were walking in the graveyard when a strong wind blew around them. When they returned to their auto they found it had moved to the other side the of the highway, and was facing the opposite direction.

Part of the story is that either on Halloween or the Spring Equinox (February) the seven gates of hell open up. If you enter, then you cannot return. Which begs the question, why would you try to find this anomaly, much less enter it?

Urge Overkill album cover for "Stull" c.1992

In truth the area that was settled in 1857 by six Pennsylvania Dutch farmers was known as Deer Creek until 1899, when the first postmaster was Sylvester Stull, and the town adopted his surname. The post office closed, but the town kept its name. German farmers also settled in the little community.

In 1867, the German built the Evangelical Emmanuel Church, where sermons were preached in German

Even into the 20th century, the area was scarcely settled, however there were a couple of tragedies.

In 1908, Oliver Bahnmaier a toddler was burned to death in a prairie fire. His father had gone to burn the hay land and a strong wind was blowing from the south. His two sons, Oliver and his older brother that was 5 years old followed him, and were caught in a patch of high grass. The older boy was able to climb on top of a stone fence and save himself, but Oliver could not make it.

Another tragedy was the discovery of a missing man who had hung himself.

In the late 1980s the words "kill the cross" and "satan" were carved on an interior wall. In those years at least 500 people would show up on the grounds for Halloween. It got so bad that police would stand guard to make sure they didn't trespass and vandalize the cemetery. Headstones in the cemetery had been broken and toppled.

In 1992, the rock group Urge Overkill put out an album titled Stull, and used images of the cemetery on the cover. Another tale is connected to dead rock star Kurt Cobain, who supposedly came to the church ruins to break bottles against its wall and scrawl his name.

The Bidinger family were the owners, and several of the family members are buried on the grounds. During the 1980s they owned the Stull Bait Shop. By 2000, the shop and a nearby auto repair shop had closed. Most of the houses in the town were abandoned and there were only 20 residents.

Mound View Cemetery Also known as Mound Cemetery, Old Stull Cemetery Stull, Douglas County, Kansas, USA

In 2002, the ruins of the Stull Church came tumbling down. What was mysterious was no one knew who used some type of demolition equipment to push the walls into the middle of the church.

The land was owned by Harvest Hills LLC, who had recently bought it from Dennis McCarthy. Major Weiss one of the members, said he had not authorized it, and he refused to name the other landowners.

The prior owner said, "It needed to be knocked down a long time ago. It's caused a lot of trouble and headaches. It's cost the county a lot of money, sending deputies to sit there every Halloween. It costs taxpayers a lot of money for that old church to remain standing."

The cemetery caretaker who refused to give his name, said he had not been notified any part of it would be bulldozed. Only the week prior, four headstones were knocked over by vandals.

Barely 100 tombstones surrounded it. Was it destroyed by satanists or someone in the town who was tired of the vandalism taking places on the grounds?

Later it was revealed that John Haase, who owned the land upon where the church was located, had authorized the demolition after the Douglas County sheriff's department informed him that it was a safety risk.

In pop culture Stull Cemetery has been used in the plots of movies including the villainous character in Turbulence 3, and in the finale of Supernatural's fifth season, in which an apocalyptic confrontation happens on the grounds.

In July, 2022 the new Stull Church caught fire around 1p.m., however the origin was a mystery and was attributed to a lightning strike to the bell tower. There were no injuries reported.

Present day a fence surrounds the cemetery, and you can be fined for entering it when you're not supposed to. The local townspeople help the police patrol.

A recent addition to the urban myth is that Mound View Cemetery also known as "Old Stull Cemetery", located just one mile south of Stull, is the "real" Stull Cemetery. Did the otherworldly events attributed to what some might call a decoy, really occur here?