IL Neighborhood Completely Abandoned Due to Toxic Chemicals

WARNING: Under no circumstances should you enter this property. By doing so you risk bodily harm and/or prosecution for trespassing on private property.

According to movies and books, zombie apocalypses start in a couple of different ways. Many stories portray a virus that kills off humans and turns them into brain-eating monsters, while other stories blame a toxic spill for the creation of zombies.

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For today's terrifying zombie story, we're going to zero in on the toxic chemical angle.

In all seriousness, zombies may not be real, but what happened to this neighborhood in one Chicago suburb totally is, and toxic chemicals are the culprit.

An Entire Illinois Neighborhood Was Abandoned Due to Toxic Chemicals

Like a lot of other people, I am completely fascinated by anything abandoned, especially old houses and buildings. I recently fell down a rabbit hole of abandoned building videos on YouTube when I came across this fascinatingly terrifying video by Kaizer Glick...

After watching that video, I was left with so many unanswered questions. First off, in which Illinois city or suburb is this neighborhood located? The video never specifically says, but some commenters suggest it's either Crestwood or Riverside Lawn, Illinois, but neither suggestion was confirmed by the video's creator.

I did find a Chicago Tribune article from 1989 about the toxic well closing that revealed the neighborhood's name and better insight into its location. The article said;

The EPA has tested the private wells in the Hickory Lane Estates subdivision and some wells in Oak Brook, just across the Du Page County line to the west.

Now, for my second big question. The video says that a toxic landfill located directly behind the neighborhood, which was abandoned in the '80s caused the contamination of the water, but clearly, many of the homes featured in the video have not been abandoned for several decades....so what gives? One YouTube commenter named Chris Petropoulos who used to maintain one of the homes in this neighborhood said;

So after the chemical was found in the private wells, a water line bringing city water was put in. However, this didn’t keep all the people.

The white house with the pool has been empty the longest, others more recently. The neighboring prairie wants to keep the land free of development, and the houses should be torn down soon.

Before you run off to explore this creepy Illinois neighborhood for yourself, please be aware that it is regularly patrolled by law enforcement, and no one wants to get busted for trespassing...or get their brains eaten by a zombie.

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