Stull is a small unincorporated community in Douglas County, Kansas, about seven miles west of Lawrence and roughly 13 miles east of Topeka. The area was settled in the mid-1850s by Pennsylvania Dutch (German-speaking) immigrants and was originally known as Deer Creek. By 1857 a handful of families lived there. In 1859 they organized the Evangelical Emmanuel Church (also called the Evangelical Emmanuel and Deer Creek Mission). In 1867 they built a stone church on land donated by Jacob Hildebrand (or Hildenbrand); a cemetery was established beside it the same year or shortly afterward. Sermons were delivered in German until about 1908. A post office opened in 1899 and was named Stull after its only postmaster, Sylvester Stull; it closed in 1903. In 1922 the congregation moved to a new wooden church across the road. The old stone church stood empty, gradually deteriorated, and was demolished in 2002 after decades of decay and vandalism. Only its foundation remains. The cemetery is still in use by local families and is private property with no-trespassing signs.
One documented local tragedy is the death of two-year-old Oliver C. Bahnmaier (sometimes spelled Bahnmeier). On April 6, 1908, he followed his father into a field that was being burned and died in the fire. He is buried in Stull Cemetery. Other ordinary rural deaths and burials make up the cemetery’s recorded history. There is no historical evidence of a mayor, a hanging tree for witches, or organized satanic activity in the 19th century.
Ruins of the 1867 stone church beside Stull Cemetery (historical photo).
Modern view of Stull Cemetery.
Reported Hauntings and Folklore
The cemetery’s national reputation as a “gateway to hell” is a modern urban legend that began with a November 5, 1974, article in the University of Kansas student newspaper, The University Daily Kansan, titled “Legend of Devil Haunts Tiny Town.” The piece presented local student stories claiming the Devil appeared in Stull on Halloween and the spring equinox. Historians and local researchers have concluded the article was intended as Halloween fiction or a light feature; it contained no contemporary historical sources. After it circulated, the tale grew rapidly among University of Kansas students and later spread online and through popular culture.
Common versions of the legend include:
- The cemetery (or the ruins of the old church) is one of the seven gates to hell.
- A hidden staircase appears on Halloween and the spring equinox, leading to the underworld.
- The Devil visits the grave of a child he fathered with a witch; a stone marked “Wittich” is sometimes cited.
- Witches were hanged from a pine tree that once stood in or near the cemetery.
- Pope John Paul II ordered his plane to divert around Stull in the 1990s (no supporting evidence exists).
- The site inspired elements of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural.
Celebrities such as Ariana Grande have mentioned visiting and sensing something negative. Local residents, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, and historians have repeatedly stated that the stories have no basis in fact. The main real-world consequence has been vandalism, trespassing, and disruption of a private pioneer cemetery. In 1978 a large group of locals waited on Halloween to see whether anything would happen; nothing did. The demolition of the old church in 2002 reduced some of the visual atmosphere that fed the tales.
What is documented is a mid-19th-century German-speaking settlement, a stone church built in 1867 and abandoned after 1922, a cemetery that has served local families for more than 150 years, the 1908 accidental death of a toddler, and a 1974 student-newspaper story that launched a durable urban legend of a hell gate. The supernatural claims remain unsubstantiated folklore.
Relevant links
Clio: Stull Cemetery — short historical overview
Wikipedia: Stull, Kansas — settlement history and the origin of the legend
Snopes: No, the Kansas Town of Stull Doesn’t Contain a Portal to the Netherworld — detailed debunking of the 1974 origin
Kansas City Star: Devilish urban legend about scary Kansas cemetery is dying — recent local reporting on the legend and its impact
Find a Grave: Oliver C. Bahnmaier — documented 1908 burial
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