Beat the Heat By Visiting These Chilling Southern Illinois Haunts

Murphrysboro, Jackson County. The Big Muddy Monster made a brief appearance in 1973 in Murphrysboro. It's believed the Bigfoot-type creature spent several days transiting the area, generally following the Big Muddy River, a tributary of the Mississippi River, which skirts the town. He disappeared completely after the brief visit, last seen along the river banks. One place where the creature was sighted was in Riverside Park bordered by the Big Muddy travels.

Lewis-Clark Community College, Godfrey. The ghost of Harriett Haskell, one-time principal at Monticello Female Seminary, still walks the grounds of the community college that succeeded the two-year women's college. From time to time, janitors smell lilac perfume in the late night hallways of the upper levels of the main building where Haskell once had her third floor office. Her living quarters were inside the main entrance on the first floor. A librarian once saw the Haskell ghost in what was once the chapel where Haskell lay in state following her death. The moment she saw the tall woman in the old high-necked dress at the front desk. the figure began to fade from view.

Giant City State Park, Makanda, Jackson County. Noted for the rock formations which resemble the blocks played with by giants, as Native Americans suggested, the park is with site tourists with a great restaurant at the lodge noted for its Sunday chicken dinners. It is also home to a segment of stone wall created by prehistoric Indians contemporary to the early Cahokia Mounds civilization. No one knows what the mysterious stone walls...at least ten such segments are charted on bluffs across Southern Illinois...are for. Best guess is that they helped fill some ritual religious function. Part of the Giant City stone wall, located on a hilltop overlooking the park entrance, was reconstructed by researcher, most of it appears as an elongated pile of rocks from one side of the bluff to the other.

Fort de Chartres State Historic Site, Randolph County. The magnificent rebuilt fortress at Fort de Chartres is a partial reproduction of the third of a trio of forts built on or near the site, the first two swallowed by the encroaching Mississippi River. A front wall with gateway and guard tower have been rebuilt, a rear structure houses barracks, museum, and chapel, with partial reconstructions of barracks buildings in the courtyard to demonstrate building techniques. The Fort de Chartres ghost story stems from a tale of the sighting of an eerily silent late night funeral processsion on what is now the state highway linking the fort to nearby Prairie du Rocher where the cemetery lay. Since it was seen on Friday, the 4th of July, by three people, it's said the procession appears only under those precise circumstances.

Chester, Randolph County. This small town of 4,000 located along the Mississippi River hosts numerous ghost stories. There's the public library which is reportedly haunted by its founder who died shortly before it opened, the female ghost seen along the highway just south of town, the haunted bar along the river road not far from the Chester Bridge, and many more. And there's Menard Correctional Center, where serial killer John Wayne Gacy was held prior to his execution, his legacy his Chicago home site haunted by his victims.

Okawville, Washington County. Original Springs Hotel. The mineral springs baths available at the Original Springs Hotel put Okawville on the map, making it popular with health-conscious vacationers from nearby St Louis. In recent years, a visitor woke in his bed to see a lady standing at the foot of his bed. As he looked, she turned and walked to...and through...the door of his room. He immediately followed into the hallway, but, except for the desk clerk looking down the hall towards, him he was alone. There are other reports from the hotel and even a photo that author Troy Taylor has published that shows a misty, female shape on the walkway overlooking the hotel's indoor swimming pool.

Alton, Madison County. Haunted Prison Ruins. Author Troy Taylor has written about people encountering thin, rag-clothed men on the darkened streets around the old prison ruins in downtown Alton who disappear...apparently the ghosts of Confederate prisoners. A massive prison closed by reformers was reopened during the Civil War to handle Confederate prisoners under conditions little improved from the previous civilian prison days. In the overcrowding, the prison was swept by smallpox. Those removed for treatment to a nearby island in the Mississippi River eventually dubbed Smallpox Island, were certain not to return. Bodies were hauled by wagon up Hop Hollow Road to North Alton where they were buried. Ragged figures have been seen on occasion around the remains of the prison which was dismantled by people looking for free quarried limestone for their walls and other structures. There've even been similar ghostly figures seen along Hop Hollow Road where some believe wagon drivers dumped the bodies in the weeds at the roadside rather than complete the journey. A memorial to the Confederate dead marks the North Alton Cemetery.