A spook-tacular vacation destination: Inside America's 'most haunted small town', whose cast of ghostly characters inhabit an eerie mansion, an abandoned hotel and an Irish pub

If you're in the market for a spook-tacular vacation, then make a beeline for Alton in Southwest Illinois. If you dare.

Alton has a deserved reputation as the most haunted small town in America, with a long roll-call of ghostly residents, from phantom nuns to a bank robber who haunts the local Irish pub and hotel guests... who can never leave.

We asked Cory Jobe, President & CEO of Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau, how long Alton has had the reputation as a hauntings hotspot.

He said: 'Situated on the banks of the Mississippi River, Alton was founded in 1818, but its history is much older with Native Americans having inhabited the land prior to the town being founded. When exactly we became known for being haunted is up for debate. I would say as far back as we have recorded history. The area has a storied history of death, disease,violence... from old Civil War prisons, to people traveling the underground railroad trying to escape to freedom.'

(Alton has a deserved reputation as the most haunted small town in America, with a long roll-call of ghostly residents)

ALTON'S CAST OF GHOSTLY CHARACTERS

Troy Taylor, Founder and Investigator of Alton Hauntings Tour and American Hauntings, outlined the key ghostly characters in Alton.

(Troy Taylor -above)

The 57-year-old said: 'I think the best way to talk about the "ghostly characters" of Alton is to define them by the places where their spirits linger behind. In other words, Henry McPike was a prominent resident of Alton in the late 19th and 20th centuries and remains a prominent figure in our haunted history, lingering at his former mansion - McPike Mansion - on Alby Street.

At the old Mineral Springs Hotel, you have guests who have tried to check out but can't ever leave, like the "Jasmine Lady”, who was a real woman named Pearl Sons, who took her own life there in 1965.

Another ongoing resident is a man named L.M. Harwood, who shot himself because of his inability to stop drinking and died in the hotel's bar in 1916.

Tragically, a young man named Clarence Blair drowned in the swimming pool and is believed to haunt that area of the building still today.

'A pastor named Phillip Mercer took his own life at the First Unitarian Church on Third Street in 1936. The reason for his suicide remains unknown, but for decades, church members and visitors to the church have encountered his spirit there, sometimes as an apparition or as the smell of a man's cologne. A bank robber, whose identity is unknown, haunts Morrison's Irish Pub, which was once Alton's First National Bank.

On Halloween night, 1868, a patrolman named L.H. Filley surprised a group of men who'd broken into the bank. Filley was killed – he haunts his former home on State Street – and the bandits made off with only the coins in the teller's cages, not the money in the safe. Since the pub opened in 2015, coins have been mysteriously appearing throughout the entire building, as if one of the bank robbers is trying to make amends for the crime he committed.

(At the old Mineral Springs Hotel (above), which closed in 1971, there are 'guests who have tried to check out but can't ever leave,)

(Situated on the banks of the Mississippi River, Alton (above) was founded in 1818)

(McPike Mansion (above) is a popular historical and paranormal destination in Alton)

(Soul Asylum at Mineral Springs Hotel is 'a provocative collection of oddities and esoteric artifacts')

(Soul Asylum owner David Nunnally (above).There are times I need to take a break from some of the items on display in the museum, particularly the haunted objects and especially the collection of haunted dolls')

(David Nunnally told MailOnline: 'My goal is to encourage guests to question what they have been taught, particularly things that defy empirical explanation, such as the paranormal and hauntings')

(A pastor named Phillip Mercer took his own life at the First Unitarian Church (above) on Third Street in 1936)

(Cory Jobe, President & CEO of Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau, said: 'We have seen visitors come from all over the world. For paranormal investigators, both within the states, and international, Alton is a must-stop destination')

Ref: A spook-tacular vacation destination: Inside America's 'most haunted small town', whose cast of ghostly characters inhabit an eerie mansion, an abandoned hotel and an Irish pub (dailymail)

Photo Credit: dailymail