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Local Tours Shed Light on Alton’s Haunted History
Story and photos By Nichole Richardson
With just a quick jaunt across the Mississippi River, you can find yourself traveling back in time to the Civil War days, fraught with mystery, intrigue, and violence. It seems the growing limestone river town of Alton, IL., has secrets and a dark past lurking around every historic corner. And since 1992, all its little intricacies have been on proud display through Alton’s famous haunted tours.
For a quarter century, this “ghost town” has played host to those looking for a little creepiness in their lives. Beginning with the town’s local psychic, Antoinette, along with Marlene Lewis, Alton’s Haunted Odyssey tours have spanned decades and are now at the helm of self-proclaimed “ghost catcher,” Gary Hawkins.
Hawkins, along with Lewis, and the Alton Convention & Visitors Bureau collaborate to offer several haunted tours to various destinations throughout the city. I was able to snag two tickets to one of their most popular tours, Eating with the Entities. The tour began at 6 p.m. and lasted until roughly 10:30 p.m. The evening began at the quaint little restaurant My Just Desserts, located at 31 E Broadway, just a few blocks from the riverfront.
The restaurant itself is gorgeously comfy, with an old-time candy bar look, and located inside the infamous Simeon Ryder building. The décor could not have been cuter with all its Mason jars, handmade quilts, and fragrant homemade soaps in fabric bags.
There were no spooky vibes, although the building is known for spirits dragging chairs through the dining room and the basement was once a morgue. Oh, and did I mention the fact that Abe Lincoln was once an attorney holding court there during the mid 1800s?
After a warm welcome from the restaurant’s owner, Ann Badasch, a wonderful dinner of Autumn salad, chicken tetrazini, homemade sweet rolls, and either a Toll House brownie with ice cream or a house-made pecan-pumpkin pie slice was served.
Then it was up to the second floor meeting room to initiate guests on the history of Alton’s haunted roots. Turns out, the key is limestone. The majority of the city is built upon, or out of, limestone. The stone is believed to have the ability to hold residual energies from its past. Our guide passed out electromagnetic field readers and dowsing rods to a handful of people and off we went.
Tour Stops on Both Sides of the Mississippi
A cute little trolley picked our group up outside of My Just Desserts and drove us back across the Clark Bridge into Missouri to the Lincoln Shields Recreation Area, also known as Sunflower Island, in West Alton. As we gathered round we were told about the site’s past and learned that the island was temporary home to a tented hospital which housed Confederate prisoners dying of smallpox from the military prison in Alton. Victims were buried on the island and a monument now marks the grave site of 260 people.
The site also marks the location of the infamous “Lincoln-Shields Duel” of 1842, in which Abe Lincoln avoided a duel with, then State Auditor of Illinois, James Shields, over a proclamation that ordered county tax collectors to accept only gold and silver for payment of taxes and school debts. Lincoln disagreed and penned public letters under the name “Rebecca.” Right before the duel began, Abe swung his broadsword and cut a high willow branch as a warning to Shields, of his reach. Lincoln wrote a note acknowledging authorship of the letters, and the rest, as they say, is quite literally history.
From there our second stop was back in the heart of Alton, called the Piasa Masonic Temple, located at 300 State St.
The building looks old and spooky but nothing that peculiar from the outside. We were led up the stairs, past a dilapidated elevator shaft, to the second floor. We first entered a room that was formerly known as “Spirit’s Lounge,” and was a rather creepy looking mirrored bar at one time. I was immediately reminded of the scene in The Shining where Jack Nicholson was told by the imaginary bartender that he “corrected” his wife.
The next room we entered was even more strange, with gigantic woven tapestries enframed by trim on the walls. Here too, was another smaller mirrored bar, under a balcony that was said to have been haunted in the orchestra pit area. Hawkins explained that there was a figure seen before floating in front of the balcony. Speculation is it’s a Confederate soldier and fellow mason who died at the nearby Old Alton Prison. Interestingly, our EMF meter spiked 10 points on the third floor.
From the Masonic lodge, we went to the McPike Mansion. This house was designed in 1869 by architect, Lucas Pfeiffenberger and has been featured on TV as one of the most haunted in America.
It is thought to be haunted by Native American ghosts who roamed the property before the mansion was constructed. The mansion was rumored to have been an Underground Railroad stop.
Since the building is under restoration, you can only peer in the front door to the wooden staircase and hallway but even that is creepy enough. I can only imagine the ghosts of previous owners, Henry Guest McPike and his wife Elanor, along with their staff, watching us.
Today the mansion is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is owned by Sharyn and George Luedke, who generously open their arched, stone, wine cellar for many haunted tours. According to Hawkins and his associates, or “trolley trolls” as he likes to call them, it is common to discover balls of light, orbs, or even figures in photographs after they’re taken. I didn’t see anything in mine, but as they switched off the lights in the cellar and you are surrounded by complete darkness, it’s easier to believe.
Ghost catching or no ghost catching, the night was a success either way. The tours are great opportunities to learn of local histories while having fun and getting a thrill at the same time.
There are a variety of tours still running through the beginning of November. Depending upon the tour, it may or may not visit the places this article describes, so check with your guide to confirm locations. There are many more tours to choose from than what’s included here. Most are between $45-60 per person.
For more information call 618-462-3861 or visit AltonHauntedTours.com or VisitAlton.com.
