Troy Taylor's Walking & Bus Tours of Riverfront Alton
Alton, IL
Research updated July 2026
Age
All Ages for walking tour; pub crawl 21+
Cost
$$
Haunted History Walking Tour $25 per person. Alton Hauntings Bus Tour $46 per person. Pub crawls and Dinner & Spirits events priced separately.
Access
Limited Access
Walking tours cover historic riverfront blocks of Alton on hilly streets and uneven brick sidewalks; bus tours include short walking stops
Equipment
Photos OK
Mississippi River-Corridor Paranormal Tourism · Author-Operated Tour Company
Alton Hauntings Tours is the Alton, Illinois walking and bus-tour arm of author Troy Taylor's broader American Hauntings paranormal-tourism operation. Taylor has published more than 100 books on American hauntings, true crime, and historical paranormal research, with a particular focus on the Mississippi River corridor between St. Louis and Alton.
Alton itself is the operator's primary ground. The town's riverfront history includes the Civil War-era Alton Military Prison, where roughly 1,300 Confederate prisoners died and where a smallpox epidemic forced a quarantine on a nearby Mississippi River island; the McPike Mansion (one of the most-investigated private residences in southern Illinois); and the Mineral Springs Hotel — all of which appear on the company's standard walking-tour route.
The Alton Hauntings Walking Tour runs from April through November. The Alton Hauntings Bus Tour covers a wider geographic arc through Madison County. Year-round programming includes Dinner and Spirits events at the Pere Marquette Lodge, the Great River Hauntings Dinner Tour from Alton to Grafton, and pub crawls in downtown Alton.
Taylor leads many of the high-profile events personally; trained guides cover the regular walking-tour rotation. The operator publishes its full schedule on altonhauntings.com and dinnerandspirits.com, with most events ticketed in advance through the company's website.
Sources
The standard Alton Hauntings walking-tour route concentrates on a half-mile arc of downtown and riverfront Alton, covering several of the most-reported paranormal sites in southern Illinois. Stops typically include the McPike Mansion, the Mineral Springs Hotel, and the Confederate prisoner-of-war cemetery associated with the 1862 smallpox outbreak.
McPike Mansion, an 1869 Italianate built for Alton mayor Henry Guest McPike, is the route's most-cited residential site. Witness reports collected by Troy Taylor and his researchers describe full-body apparitions, organized object movement, and direct voice responses recorded during decades of investigation. The current owners cooperate with the tour and host occasional public investigation nights.
The Mineral Springs Hotel, built in 1914, operated as a luxury resort for travelers seeking the spring's reputed health properties. The building now functions as an antique mall; tours stop on the sidewalk while guides describe the hotel's documented suicides and the long-running witness reports of an apparition associated with the original swimming pool.
The Civil War Alton Military Prison and its smallpox-quarantine island mark one of the largest concentrated death events in southern Illinois history. Roughly 1,300 Confederate prisoners are documented as having died there; the North Alton Confederate Cemetery memorializes them. Tours present the site with archival neutrality.
A walking tour through downtown Alton's riverfront blocks led by author Troy Taylor or his guides. The route covers Civil War-era smallpox quarantine sites, the McPike Mansion, and the Mineral Springs Hotel, blending documented history with local witness accounts collected over three decades.
A bus-based tour visiting a wider arc of Madison County paranormal locations than the walking tour can reach. Stops include sites researched by Troy Taylor for his published Alton-area collections.
A guided pub crawl led by Troy Taylor visiting at least five downtown Alton bars, with paranormal and true-crime stories told between stops. 21+ event.
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