annual food drive event - february 1, 2025

dead of winter 2025

OUR ANNUAL FOOD DRIVE RETURNS!

great rivers HOTEL
(former best western premier)
alton, illinois
3559 COLLEGE AVENUE
fEBRUARY 1, 2025
10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Join American Hauntings for the 27th Annual Dead of Winter Event — held each year in Alton, Illinois, this year at the Best Western Premier Conference Center and Hotel! Spend the day celebrating the spooky winter season of ghosts, hauntings, folklore, and legends while also supporting a great cause! Your generosity during this annual food drive will help to feed the hungry in the region during the coldest time of the year! So, join us at the BWP for this FREE daytime event! You’ll have the chance to be chilled by presentations on ghosts, hauntings, and the unexplained, meet speakers and authors, browse the vendor room, and make this one of the best days you’ll have all winter!
Don’t Forget Your Canned Goods and Non-Perishables to Help Local Food Banks!

Join us in the conference center at the hotel for our line-up of speakers (see below), who will be appearing throughout the day, and then check out the vendor room in the hotel atrium, where you can shop for a variety of books and other items geared toward paranormal interests, including American Hauntings Ink!

There is no charge for general admission to the daytime events between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM, but we hope we can count on you to bring along items to benefit local food banks in the area. The region has nearly 20,000 people in need, and more than 7,000 of them are children. We'll be donating all of the items collected to the local Alton food bank, so bring a canned good or non-perishable food item with you for entry to this eerie event!

dead of winter
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

FREE GENERAL ADMISSION!

No Reservation is Needed! Bring a canned good or non-perishable item to be donated to local food banks. We’re also collecting for the local warming center, too! You’ll get FREE admission to general events and speakers during the day, plus access to the vendor room! We want to make this our biggest annual food drive so far, and we need your help to do it! See you on February 1!

9:00 AM: DOORS OPEN FOR VENDORS AND SEATING
10:00 AM: WELCOME TO DEAD OF WINTER 2025 (TROY TAYLOR)
10:00 AM: LIVE RECORDING WITH TROY AND CODY (AMERICAN HAUNTINGS PODCAST)
11:00 AM: TED WILLIAMS AND ROBYN DAVIS (From HAUNTED GALENA)

12:00 – 1:00 PM: LUNCH BREAK

1:00 PM: LARRY EISSLER (EXPEDITION ENTITY)
2:00 PM: THREE APPALACHIAN WITCHES
3:00 PM: BRANDON SCHEXNAYDER (TALES OF THE HAUNTED SOUTH)

VISIT OUR SPONSORS AND VENDORS!
* GET A RAFFLE TICKET AT THE ALTON WARMING CENTER TABLE!
* VISIT THE ST. LOULIGANS AND SPRINGFIELD GHOST BUSTERS!
* GET GREAT STUFF FROM ALL OUR VENDORS THIS YEAR!

AFTER HOURS AVAILABLE BELOW:
JANUARY 31 - 7:00 PM: GREAT RIVER HAUNTINGS TOUR (SOLD OUT)
6:00 PM: IN A DARK PLACE DINNER (SOLD OUT)
9:30 PM: GHOST HUNT AT FRANKLIN LODGE (SOLD OUT)

6:30 PM: GALLERY READING EVENT (THREE APPALACHIAN WITCHES)
Join us for this special After-Hours Event at Dead of Winter as the 3 Appalachian Witches discuss magick in the healing of mind, body, and spirit. Ashley, Pat, and Misty will interact one-on-one with audience members and also reach out to the other side and speak with those who have crossed over the veil. Don't miss this rollicking, fun-filled psychic adventure!

 dead of winter 2025 speakers

TROY TAYLOR & CODY BECK: AMERICAN HAUNTINGS PODCAST
Annual Live Recording of the Dead of Winter Podcast — with questions and comments from YOU!

BRANDON SCHEXNAYDER
Tales of the Haunted South: Step into the shadows of the haunted South with storyteller Brandon Schexnayder, host of the hit podcast Southern Gothic. In this exclusive live event, Brandon will guide you through eerie legends of haunted cemeteries, restless spirits, and mysterious apparitions—stories that have captivated millions of listeners around the world. Paired with haunting music and immersive media, this captivating blend of history and hauntings promises a genuinely entertaining bit of storytelling that you won’t want to miss.

THREE APPALACHIAN WITCHES
The crowd-pleasing favorites return for Dead of Winter! The Three Appalachian Witches are the descendants of Appalachian Granny Women, and Ashley, Misty, and Pat are natural psychics, mediums, and witches, born with gifts of prophecy, the ability to commune directly with nature, and the capacity to manifest part of their reality. They’re back with another of their interactive presentations and After-Hours gallery event!

TED WILLIAMS & ROBYN DAVIS
The owners and hosts of the Haunted Galena Tours in Northern Illinois are at Dead of Winter for the first time, offering a strange collection of stories, tales, legends, and lore from Galena, the history Mississippi River town at the northwest corner of the state — a very haunted “sister city” to Alton! Ted and Robyn host an annual Haunted Galena Conference at the historic (and haunted) DeSoto House Hotel. Robyn has an undergrad degree in History and a Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology. She blends these two disciplines to study the history of past events that have led to hauntings and interpret the motivation of those involved. Ted has been fascinated (and occasionally confronted) by the paranormal since his arrival in Galena in 1995, and has spent the last 20 years researching Galena history and the paranormal. Ted was also recently named Galena’s first Poet Laureate.

LARRY EISSLER
The author, filmmaker, paranormal researcher, and first-time Dead of Winter presenter presents the most haunted location, stories, and evidence from his show “Expedition Entity,” a PARAFlixx original series starring Larry and Dan Norvell! Discover some of the most amazing locations from the show, like the Tinker Swiss Cottage, Brodhead Manor, and the Freeport Masonic Temple, and more — and see how the Expedition Entity team proves that you don't have to spend a fortune for high-quality investigations!

hotel ROOMS for dead of winter

DON'T MISS the 2025 DEAD OF WINTER event!