{"id":2568,"slug":"ss-eastland-disaster-site-chicago-illinois","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Eastland is the rolled — the '844 gone' that's the dockside toll, the '20 feet' that's the water's depth. The 'picnic waited' is the boarded — the 'Western Electric' that's the workers' trip, the 'first ship' that's the early rose. The 'listing joked' is the missed — the 'rocking laughed' that's the warning ignored, the 'no alarm' that's the captain's late.","The 'lifeboats added' is the caused — the 'Titanic law' that's the top weight, the 'irony killed' that's the safety's cost. The '22 families' is the wiped — the 'whole lines gone' that's the census erased, the 'forgotten fast' that's the memory's shame. Eastland is the faded — the 'worst Chicago' that's the toll kept, the 'eclipsed' that's the war's shadow.","The file keeps Eastland: the rolled ship, the added boats, the wiped families, and the faded memory.","Eastland's site is the archive's Illinois file — deadlier than Titanic, forgotten faster."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Eastland's site is the archive's Illinois file — the ship that killed more than Titanic at the dock.","A river keeps its dead — the file's suggestion being that Eastland's hold is the forgotten: the '844' that's the toll kept, the 'lifeboats caused' that's the irony made, and the 'faded fast' that's the memory's wrong."]}],"name":"SS Eastland disaster site","aliases":[],"type":"SHIP","type_label":"Ship","cats":["DARK_HISTORY","LOCAL_FOLKLORE","HAUNTED_PLACE","MARITIME"],"groups":["dark-history","hauntings","legends","maritime"],"desc":"The 1915 capsize that killed 844—the city’s deadliest day.","full_desc":"SS Eastland disaster site is a ship in Chicago, Illinois. The 1915 capsize that killed 844—the city’s deadliest day. Its accounts name only a collective — the eastland dead. The dossier holds 1 reported claim, 1 legend, 1 documented fact and 1 named or described presence — documented record and retelling kept side by side. It operates as a museum open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Chicago","county":null,"state":"Illinois","postal":null,"region":"Midwest","lat":41.837045,"lon":-87.684939,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"MUSEUM","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":"Museum ship/memorial","research_notes":"Ships batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":59.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":2069,"type":"NAMED_GHOST_LEGEND","description":"The dead are said to cry from the river. The lore files them collectively as the Eastland dead. Crews leave marks on vessels long after they muster out, and SS Eastland disaster site in Chicago, Illinois had crews enough. Local lore carries the account; no documentation has ever caught up with it. The report is preserved in sources like 'SS Eastland site'. A ghost with a name outlasts a ghost without one; the reports keep it employed.","evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","evidence_label":"Local folklore","entity":"The Eastland dead","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"SS Eastland site","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Eastland","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The July 24, 1915 capsize killed 844. The vessel's documented service record is the record the rest of the file stands on. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. Sources including 'SS Eastland site' carry the record. The record keeps it — history, not lore. The file stays open on it.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":"1915-07-24","confidence":null,"source":{"name":"SS Eastland site","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Eastland","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"The dead are said to cry from the river. A vessel with SS Eastland disaster site's service record gives the reports an unusually crowded roster to draw on. It survives as local folklore, which is to say it survives because people keep telling it. The account appears in 'SS Eastland site'. As folklore it's unkillable: the story is too good, and the place too fitting, to let go.","earliest":null,"evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","source":{"name":"SS Eastland site","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Eastland","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"The Eastland dead","claimed_identity":"The Eastland dead","verified":null,"summary":"The dead are said to cry from the river. The accounts name only a collective — the Eastland dead. Crews leave marks on vessels long after they muster out, and SS Eastland disaster site in Chicago, Illinois had crews enough. Named presences persist where anonymous reports fade — the file's name here is The Eastland dead.","behavior":"The dead are said to cry from the river.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"SS Eastland site","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Eastland","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Site access varies; verify before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"SS Eastland site","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Eastland","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":1,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}