Hop Hollow Road
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The first penitentiary in Illinois was turned into military prison in 1862 and used to house Confederate prisoners.
Within three days it was overcrowded, it was made to hold eight hundred but during most of the war there were one thousand to fifteen hundred. The prison was fraught with lice, rats and many diseases, including a smallpox epidemic that took many of the prisoners lives.
When a prisoner died, soldiers would take the bodies via raft up the Missouri to a ferry landing near the prison. It was then taken by cart along a wooded trail called Hop Hollow Road. It led through the forest, around the bluffs, and through Hop Hollow itself. The path led near North Alton were a cemetery had been made by the original prison officials. The body was buried in a shallow grave, a numbered stake was used as a headstone. An undertaker documented whatever was known about the corpse. This was done with every prisoner that died.
It is said that some of the soldiers on burial detail never made the whole trip. They would stop along the roadway and dump the bodies in the woods. A bottle would be opened, and the soldiers would play cards and drink for the length of time that it would normally take to make the trip to the cemetery.
Now the biggest part of this road no longer exists. All that is left is a scrawny trail that curves around into a deeply wooded area (private property) and ends at Holland Street. Further on the remains of the road become Rozier Street, which passes by the Confederate Cemetery.
As the story goes the ghosts of the soldiers whose bodies were dumped are not happy about their means of burial. They return to haunt Hop Hollow Road. Over the years, they have been seen along the roadway. As time went on the ghosts started to signal drivers in the hopes of getting a lift. Probably wanting a ride to the cemetery where their bodies were supposed to have been buried. Those that stopped to pick them up were surprised when they would disappear from the seat next to them.
