THE STORY
Reported Haunting
The surviving site of the former Alton Military Prison is associated with reports of phantom footsteps, voices and other unexplained sounds linked in local lore to prisoners once confined there.
The Alton prison complex was used as a state penitentiary and later as a Union military prison during the Civil War. Thousands of Confederate prisoners passed through the site, and disease caused many deaths during its wartime operation. Most of the prison was eventually demolished, although a surviving section of wall commemorates its location. Local ghost traditions describe phantom footsteps, voices and other unexplained sounds around the former prison grounds. The marker represents the historic prison site and surviving ruins rather than an intact prison building.