NEW! STORY IN STONE TOUR
FROM ALTON HAUNTINGS AND 301 MERCANTILE
HOSTED BY SAmantha smith, pHD
DEPARTS FROM THE AMERICAN ODDITIES MUSEUM
301 PIASA STREET IN ALTON
$25 PER PERSON
Join us for a brand-new tour that has never been attempted before — an immersive trip back in time to reveal a “history they don’t want you to know”: the dark, corrupt deals that built the city of Alton, shaped the city, and created the first Illinois Penitentiary. Walk where the early prisoners labored, stand where riots erupted, where men suffered and died, where the last surviving structures from the old prison still stand. You may know some of the ghostly legends of the old penitentiary, but we can promise you that the rest of the story is even worse!
We’ll introduce you to the businessmen and politicians who built their fortunes on the backs of the men who were locked up here, hiring out the prisoners as slave labor, along with the social reformers who tried to save their lives. As the years passed, the violence and terrible conditions led to death, illnesses, starvation, and epidemics at the penitentiary, finally leading to its closure in 1857.
And then came the Civil War — and even greater numbers of deaths and a deeper degree of horror than ever before. The history of the penitentiary’s time as a Confederate prisoner of war camp was widely and graphically reported in newspapers across the nation and remains one of Alton’s most shameful periods of history.
Join us for this fascinating and gut-wrenching tour and see a side of Alton’s history that you have never seen before! (Available in the Spring, Summer, and Fall Months / This is a Walking Tour)