Alton paranormal hotspot to be featured on 'Ghost Hunters'

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Alton paranormal hotspot to be featured on 'Ghost Hunters'
September 25, 2010 12:00 AM
By FRED POLLARD
The Telegraph

ALTON - Just in time for the Halloween season, the River Bend will be giving chills to viewers nationwide.

On Oct. 6, the SyFy Channel will air an episode of "Ghost Hunters" featuring the old Milton School and Antoinette's Haunted History Tours.

"They contacted us out of the blue," Haunted History Tours guide Alixandria Andrews said. "I asked the producers how they heard of us and the Milton School, and apparently they found out about our tours online."

Andrews said Milton School, built in 1904, is a hotbed of paranormal activity, stemming from the death of a child by a pedophile she believes occurred there sometime in the late 1930s.

"We have had people run screaming from the building," tour company business manager Marlene Lewis said. "The vibe there is so intense that people have actually become physically ill."

The producers of "Ghost Hunters" contacted the tour group last May, and conducted their investigation within a couple of weeks. The stars of the show, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, spent a night at the school, along with four other investigators and the film crew.

The weekly reality series documents the investigations of supposedly haunted locations conducted by The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS). As an alternative to dramatizations and re-enactments, the show focuses on science and skepticism while documenting what the team encounters during an investigation.

Andrews said they sat down with Lewis, Antoinette Eason, and tour guides Gary Hawkins and David McCracken.

"Every episode has a 'client,' and I was the client, but because we are a business and because we all have had experiences in the school, they spoke with all of us," Andrews said.

The school, owned by Meredith Elston and Joel Johnson, has built a reputation in the area for its malevolent murderers and school-age spirits.

"I would definitely call it the creepiest place I have ever been in," Andrews said. "We have loyal tourists who have been going on our tours for years and have told us they will not go when we visit the Milton School.

"Specifically negative entities (malicious or sad) can affect you in negative ways. People can become very sick, their legs can get heavy, or they can feel very tired. Positive entities will affect you in a positive way, such as an affectionate tug on your clothing. That may startle some people, but the manifestations themselves are harmless."

Antoinette's Haunted Alton Tours, formed in 1992, is the oldest ghost tour company in Alton. Formed by Lewis and Antoinette Eason as Right Brain Activities, the company has treated curiosity-seekers to Alton's cemeteries, the interior of the McPike Mansion, and other local haunts over the years.

This season, there will be two tours available. In addition to the "Milton Paranormal Investigation" tour, phantom fanatics also can travel through time on the "Ghosts of the Civil War" tour, visiting sites such as the confederate cemetery and Smallpox Island.

"We had decided months ago that we were going to do a Civil War tour this year," Andrews said. "It is extremely popular. History buffs not really interested in the paranormal love it because of the history, and ghost hunters who could not care less about history love it because of all of the active locations.

"We decided on a specialized tour for the Milton School for people who are into spending a little more time investigating and using equipment in the investigation (such as divining rods and EMF detectors)."

Other stops on the Milton tour include the Milton Cemetery, the Robert Wadlow statue and Wadlow's boyhood home.

Tours run through early November. For more information on tour dates and prices, visit the website at www.hauntedalton.com.

The "Grammar School Ghosts" episode of Ghost Hunters will air Oct. 6 on the SyFy Channel. While a confidentiality agreement prohibits Andrews from revealing too much, she does hint at an exciting program.

"I will say that many episodes are in half-hour segments, and they made this one a full one-hour show," she said.