Heading west from Jonesboro on Highway 146, the driver follows the approximate route of the Trail of Tears, passing a sign commemorating the route about 3 miles from the city. Another two miles and the driver sees a low hill rising out of the Mississippi bottoms. Another 30 seconds and the car drops back into the bottomlands on the other side, never realizing they have passed through what was once a major trade route for the region and one of the most haunted spots in southern Illinois: Dug Hill.
Although no one is quite sure, it is likely Dug Hill received its name from the original road dug through it by the early settlers, allowing them easier trade access to the Mississippi River. The original roadbed is still visible, though not drivable, by travelling about 50 yards north on a gravel road named Dug Hill Road, which runs parallel to the hill but has naught to do with the stories.
The original hauntings date back to the time of the Civil War and a provost marshal named Welch, whose first name is lost to history but who captured Union deserters and turned them over to the Army for the bounty paid for them. He was so successful at this that Southern sympathizers lured him to Dug Hill with a report of a group of deserters hiding there. According to Carl Stanton's book They Called it Treason, Welch was murdered on April 15, 1863 while hunting for them on the hill.
For years after that travellers along the road reported hearing the sound of a man moaning in agony but a search found no one there. At least one driver reported seen a body lying in the road ahead of his wagon, but when he stopped to offer assistance, the body vanished.
The "boger" another of the Dug Hill haunts, has been variously described as a extremely tall man dressed in black or a large black dog, both of which would follow the traveller who would naturally speed up his horse but to no avail as the boger would easily keep pace, vanishing when the rider reached the base of Dug Hill.
Reports of both haunts have vanished with time and those living in the area say they have never heard or seen anything but that could be due to Highway 146 running parallel to the haunted area rather than through it. Or maybe cars just move too fast today for a boger to keep pace.
