Haunted Places in Idaho: 23 of the Most Haunted to Visit
A territorial prison built by its own inmates, a ghost town hotel that still takes guests, a turreted Boise hotel full of presidents and rumors, and a cemetery legend every Idaho teenager knows. These are Idaho’s haunted places, with what is history, what is legend and how to visit.
Idaho is better known for mountains and potatoes than for ghosts, but its mining camps, Oregon Trail stations and frontier prison left plenty of stories behind. We checked every place below against current sources, so you know which are open, which you can only see from the street, which take overnight guests and which stories have no record behind them at all. Six of our picks are haunted hotels where you can book a room.
Where to look Cell House 5 and the Gallows Room, Siberia solitary block, the Rose Garden
Reported ghosts Raymond Snowden, the last man hanged here; shadow figures and footsteps in the cell houses
Visiting State historic site run by the Idaho State Historical Society, at the foot of Table Rock east of downtown Boise
Tours Self-guided visits daily; guided tours most days for $2 extra; seasonal night tours and Halloween events
Hours and season Noon to 5 PM in winter, 10 AM to 5 PM Memorial Day to Labor Day (last entry 4 PM)
Tickets Adults $9, seniors $7, children 6 to 12 $5
Ghost hunting Paranormal groups and TV crews have investigated here by arrangement with the state; there are no public ghost hunts
The sandstone territorial prison under Table Rock took its first prisoners in 1872 and held more than 13,000 people over 101 years until riots in 1971 and 1973 led to its closure that December. The state now counts 129 deaths at the site. Raymond Snowden, who murdered Cora Dean in 1956, was hanged in Cell House 5 in October 1957; witnesses said the drop went badly.
Visitors and paranormal groups report footsteps, voices and a heavy sense of dread, especially in the Siberia solitary cells and the Gallows Room, and Snowden is the ghost most often named. The Idaho State Historical Society, which runs the site, says some visitors describe unexplained experiences but that there is no conclusive evidence of ghosts.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book one of the seasonal night tours or the Fright Nights event around Halloween to see the cell houses after dark.
Address Silver City Rd, Owyhee County, ID (about 25 miles southwest of Murphy)
Where to look The Idaho Hotel's third-floor stairs and halls, the town cemeteries
Reported ghosts A large man in a tuxedo, children, and Screaming Alice on the third-floor stairs
Visiting Remote ghost town reached by gravel road from Murphy; no gas, groceries or phone service; private buildings, so stay on the streets
Tours Annual open house in September lets visitors inside private buildings
Hours and season The hotel opens from Memorial Day weekend and closes in mid-October before the snow
Silver City grew up in 1864 after silver was found on War Eagle Mountain and was the Owyhee County seat until 1934, with Idaho’s first daily newspaper and telegraph. The mines played out, and by the 1940s one permanent resident was left. About 70 buildings still stand at 6,200 feet, all privately owned, inside a National Register district. The Idaho Hotel began in Ruby City in 1863 and was hauled here by oxen in 1866.
Owner Jerri Nelson told KIVI in 2022 that she has encountered a large man in a tuxedo and tails, children, and Screaming Alice, a woman in white said to have fallen down the third-floor stairs, along with cold spots and small orbs in the halls. She also tells the tale of a guest whose ghost turned out to be a duffle bag. The hotel takes overnight guests in summer.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a room at the Idaho Hotel for a summer night, and drive the gravel road from Murphy only in dry weather.
Address 928 W Main St (10th and Main), Boise, ID 83702
Where to look The old elevator, the third and fourth floors, the basement
Reported ghosts A bellboy said to ride the elevator, a woman said to be buried in the basement
Visiting Private apartments upstairs; the ground-floor and basement businesses are open to the public
Tours Included on the Boise Ghosts downtown walking tour
The turreted Idanha opened on January 1, 1901, the tallest building in Idaho and home to the state’s first elevator. Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Benjamin Harrison stayed here, and in 1907 lawyers and witnesses for the Big Bill Haywood murder trial, Clarence Darrow among them, filled its rooms. In 1921 a Kuna farmer, Alexander Jacobs, jumped from a fourth-floor window. Since the 1970s the upper floors have been apartments.
Residents and staff describe doors that open and lock on their own, blankets pulled off sleepers, kitchenware thrown from shelves and an elevator that moves by itself, often blamed on a bellboy said to have been shot by a guest in the 1970s. Older tales of a wife killed with scissors and buried in the basement have no record we could find.
Haunted Rooms tip: Take the Boise Ghosts walking tour, which stops at the Idanha, and grab a drink in the basement bar.
Where to look The halls of the old dormitory and the rooms facing the cemetery
Reported ghosts Former tuberculosis patients, and a small child's voice recorded by investigators
Visiting A working hotel: book a room to stay; public areas open to guests
This brick building was part of Gooding College, a Methodist school that ran until 1938, and from 1947 to 1976 it housed the Idaho State Tuberculosis Hospital. Only the old men’s dormitory survives. Parts of it were turned into rooms and meeting spaces, first as The Get Inn and, after 2012, as the University Inn.
Western Idaho Paranormal rented the whole building and told KIVI in 2021 that they recorded several voices, the clearest a small child. The building now rents through vacation rental sites, with the west wing taken as a whole.
What investigators report
A team that rented the whole building left audio recorders running in the common areas and reports most of its evidence was audio, including a child’s voice and a voice recorded as an investigator walked up the stairs.
Where to look Room 3 at the top of the third-floor stairs, and the basement
Reported ghosts Maggie, who waits for a lover; Victor, a boy; Ollie, an old man
Visiting Saloon and restaurant open to the public; a few guest rooms upstairs
Ghost hunting Local paranormal groups have run occasional public ghost tours here; check with the Jameson for dates
The Jameson is a three-story brick saloon on Sixth Street in Wallace, the silver mining town whose whole downtown is on the National Register. It has a saloon and restaurant downstairs and a handful of guest rooms on the third floor, and it is the best-known haunted building in the Silver Valley.
Its ghost is Maggie, said in the 1995 Spokesman-Review telling to have stayed in Room 3 in the 1940s waiting for a suitor who never came; other versions have her lover dying in a train wreck. Staff have described keys vanishing and reappearing, hot water cut off mid-shower and footsteps toward her room in a locked, empty building. Inland Northwest Paranormal Investigators ran ghost tours here in 2019, and Wallace now holds a paranormal festival each October.
What investigators report
Investigators on the Jameson ghost hunts report flashlight sessions in a third-floor room getting yes/no answers, and the chandelier flickering in the main-floor boardroom. Staff say the basement and Maggie’s room (No. 3, third floor) are the most active spots.
Address Idaho City, ID 83631 (Highway 21, 40 miles northeast of Boise)
Where to look Pioneer Cemetery, the Chinese section, old Main Street
Reported ghosts A bearded prospector in the cemetery, a girl by a grave, card players in an old saloon
Visiting Historic town open to visitors; the cemetery is a public pioneer burial ground
Founded in 1862 in the Boise Basin gold rush, Idaho City had about 7,000 people by 1864, the largest town in the Northwest, with three dozen saloons. The whole old town is on the National Register. Up the hill, the Pioneer Cemetery, often called Boot Hill, is said to hold some 3,000 burials, most unidentified, and few of the known dead died of old age; a local brochure leads you to the best-known graves.
Ghost stories here are told rather than documented: boys who saw a misty bearded prospector among the graves, a girl standing in the Chinese section, and long-dead gamblers still at the cards in a saloon. A ghost site that collected these stories admits it found no evidence behind them.
Haunted Rooms tip: Pick up the cemetery brochure in town and walk Boot Hill in late afternoon, when the light comes through the pines.
Where to look The projection booth stairs and the back row of the balcony
Reported ghosts Joe the projectionist; a woman in late 1920s dress
Visiting Working theater: you can go inside with a ticket to a film or show
Tours Included on the Boise Ghosts downtown walking tour
Boise’s Egyptian Theatre opened in 1927, designed by Frederick Hummel of Tourtellotte and Hummel in the Egyptian revival style that followed the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. It was renamed the Ada and later remodeled before reopening as the Egyptian in 1979, was listed on the National Register in 1974 and was restored in 2000. It still shows films and hosts concerts and Opera Idaho.
Staff stories center on Joe, said to have worked the projectors for about 35 years and to have died of a heart attack on the stairs to the booth. Employees describe unexplained smells, a man’s laughter, a touch in the dark and a woman in late 1920s clothes. None of this is in the theater’s own history; it is staff lore.
Haunted Rooms tip: See a classic film with the live organist, then look up at the projection booth windows from the balcony.
Where to look Old guest room 136 and the meeting rooms
Reported ghosts A calm woman seen in guest rooms who fades when spoken to
Visiting Now apartments, offices and shops: you can visit the ground-floor businesses, but the upper floors are private
Tours The Boise Ghosts walking tour starts here most nights
The six-story Owyhee opened in 1910 as a rival to the Idanha, designed by Tourtellotte and Hummel with a rooftop garden that drew Boise to dinner and dancing. In 1940 it would house singer Marian Anderson only if she used the back door and ate in her room. Later it held Ore-Ida offices and a motor inn wing, then sat mostly empty. A 2014 to 2016 rehabilitation turned it into 36 apartments, offices, shops and event space.
When it was still a hotel, guests and staff described a woman who appeared in rooms and simply faded away. The story most often retold is of a guest in Room 136 who woke to see her standing calmly at the foot of the bed. The Boise Ghosts walking tour now starts outside the building.
Haunted Rooms tip: Join the Boise Ghosts walking tour, which starts at The Owyhee, then look up at the restored rooftop deck from Main Street.
Where to look The solitary confinement cells and the old cell block
Reported ghosts A man in a prison or Navy uniform, whispers in German, clanging cell doors
Visiting Inside Farragut State Park; the park charges a motor vehicle entry fee
Tours Self-guided museum with naval training, POW and park history exhibits
Hours and season Museum open daily 10 AM to 5 PM, Memorial Day to Labor Day; park visitor center 9 AM to 4 PM year round
Farragut Naval Training Station was built in months after Pearl Harbor on the south end of Lake Pend Oreille, and more than 293,000 sailors trained here between 1942 and 1945. The Brig, a squat concrete block jail built around a courtyard, held unruly recruits, and in 1945 the base also held about 850 to 900 German prisoners of war. It is the last building left from the base and has been the park’s museum since the 1990s.
Park visitors and North Idaho writers tell of a man in a prison or Navy uniform seen inside and outside the building, whispers some say are German, cell doors clanging and objects moving. These are local stories; the park itself does not promote them. After a year of repairs the Brig reopened in May 2025 with a new solitary confinement exhibit.
Haunted Rooms tip: Visit between Memorial Day and Labor Day, when the museum is open, and stay for the park’s evening campfire programs.
Address Yankee Fork Rd (Forest Road 013), Custer County, ID
Where to look Bonanza's Boot Hill and the grave of Lizzie King
Reported ghosts Lizzie King and her two murdered husbands, told as legend
Visiting National forest land on a gravel road off Highway 75 at Sunbeam; winter snow closes the area
Tours Free guided and self-guided walking tours of Custer, Memorial Day to Labor Day
Bonanza was laid out on the Yankee Fork in 1877 and Custer two miles away in 1879; each peaked at about 600 people, and both were ghost towns by around 1911. Custer, now part of the Land of the Yankee Fork Historic Area, keeps its schoolhouse museum and the restored Empire Saloon, and the Yankee Fork gold dredge sits nearby. Bonanza is a few cabins, a CCC guard station and its cemeteries.
The story everyone tells is Lizzie King’s. Her first husband, Richard, was shot dead in 1879; she married Robert Hawthorne in 1880 and six days later both were found dead. The killings were never solved, and townswomen are said to have refused her burial in the town cemetery, so she lies on Boot Hill beside both men. Lore says their restless spirits remain.
Haunted Rooms tip: Visit between Memorial Day and Labor Day, when Custer’s free walking tours run, and walk the mile to Boot Hill.
Where to look The Stricker House stairs, the pioneer cemetery at dusk
Reported ghosts Lucy Stricker, said to guard the house; Oregon Trail travelers
Visiting State historic site; grounds open daily for self-guided visits
Tours Occasional Stricker After Dark evening tours around Halloween
Hours and season Buildings open Sundays 1 to 5 PM; groups by appointment
Tickets Free; donations welcome
Rock Creek Station opened in 1865 where the Oregon Trail, the Overland stage route and the Kelton freight road met south of Hansen. Herman Stricker ran the store, and in 1901 he and his wife Lucy built the house that still stands. The Idaho State Historical Society owns the site, which includes the store, the house, outbuildings and a small cemetery of travelers who never reached their destination.
Visitors report shadowy figures near the cemetery at dusk and the sense of Mrs. Stricker watching over the house; one story says she warned the family of trespassers. A darker tale says Lucy killed Herman with an ax, but Herman died peacefully in his sleep in 1920. The society has run Stricker After Dark evening tours of death and tragedy.
Haunted Rooms tip: Go on a Sunday afternoon when the buildings open, and watch the society’s calendar for Stricker After Dark in October.
Reported ghosts "Big Girl", also called Mama Jo, who walks the second floor and plays tricks
Visiting A working hotel: book a room to stay; public areas open to guests
The White Horse in the aptly named town of Spirit Lake, in Idaho’s panhandle, stands in a National Register historic district and is billed as the oldest operating saloon in Idaho. The original dark wood floors, staircase and bars survive, and the bars between the saloon and hotel are said to come from the old town jail.
Its ghost is known as the Big Girl. Manager Dolli Massender told the Coeur d’Alene Press she strolls the second-floor hallway and plays tricks, and she has been seen from the street in the window of Room 2. Dean Massender calls her Mama Jo, after a woman who ran a business down the street.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book Room 2 and eat in the saloon downstairs. Rooms are up stairs only, and weekends can be loud.
Where to look The entrance gates and the road outside
Reported ghosts The Phantom Jogger, said to knock on car windows
Visiting A working city cemetery: visit during daylight hours and follow posted rules
Ghost hunting No organized ghost hunting; please do not park or loiter at night
Caldwell’s cemetery began in 1867, when Reuben Cox and his neighbors chose the highest ground nearby to bury his daughter, Mary Cox Pierce, and cleared the sagebrush from the summit. It grew into the city’s main cemetery above the Boise River valley, and the oldest graves are still on the summit where Mary Cox Pierce was buried, reached from the entrance at 2024 North Illinois Avenue.
It is best known for Idaho’s most repeated urban legend, the Phantom Jogger. The story says that if you park between two particular trees near the entrance at night, a jogger, sometimes described as legless, runs up and taps on your window before vanishing. Thrillist named it Idaho’s creepiest legend, but nobody has found any record of a jogger who died here; it is a story, not history.
Haunted Rooms tip: Visit by day, walk the oldest section on the hilltop, and do not park outside the gates at midnight: it is a city cemetery with neighbors.
Reported ghosts Cammie Standrod, the judge's daughter; an elderly man said to be the judge
Visiting Private residence: exterior only from the street
Judge Drew W. Standrod, a framer of Idaho’s constitution and author of much of its water law, built this stone castle on Garfield Avenue around the turn of the century from stone quarried near McCammon. It is one of the few Chateauesque homes in Idaho and was listed on the National Register in 1973. The city owned it for about 20 years; it is now a private home.
Records show the judge’s daughter Elvira, called Cammie, died in the house in April 1906, aged 16, and a stone marked only Cammie remains on the grounds. Legend says she died heartbroken in the tower after her father drove away a suitor, and that she and an old man, perhaps the judge, still appear. A former owner said she simply told the ghosts they could stay.
Haunted Rooms tip: View it from the sidewalk on Garfield Avenue; the house is a private residence.
Reported ghosts About a dozen spirits: an Asian man, a soldier, a woman in green, playful children
Visiting Restaurant and bar open to the public on set days; a few themed guest rooms upstairs
Built in 1892 beside the railroad in Roberts, north of Idaho Falls, the brick Hotel Patrie has also been the Adams, Roberts and American Hotel, and once served as a hospital. The 1976 Teton Dam flood left it condemned, but it survived and was listed on the National Register in 1978. BJ and Cheril Berlin bought it in 1995 and turned it into BJ’s Bayou, a Cajun and Creole restaurant with a few bed and breakfast rooms upstairs.
The owners say a dozen or more spirits share the building: an Asian man who may have worked here, a soldier, a woman in a green dress and children who hide things and play hide and seek. A man is said to have been stabbed here in the hotel years. The restaurant has hosted its own Halloween ghost show.
Haunted Rooms tip: Call ahead: the restaurant keeps short hours and works largely by reservation, and the rooms are few.
Where to look The museum floor, the hallways and the old bar area
Reported ghosts A man said to have been killed in the bar, and light anomalies on the museum floor
Visiting A working hotel: book a room to stay; public areas open to guests
Built from 1917 to 1919 for brothers William and Theodore Enders, the Enders is a three-story brick hotel on Main Street and is on the National Register. It sat nearly empty for years, until Terah Jones took it on in 2022; by 2024 it was a fully operating hotel again, with 19 suites, five shared-bath rooms, a coffee shop and a local museum.
Visitors to the museum have long described feeling uneasy and seeing strange lights, and a male figure is reported in the halls and old bar, said to be a man killed there.
Haunted Rooms tip: Stay in one of the restored suites and visit the museum in the building during its summer season.
Where to look The upstairs Oasis Rooms, left as the women left them
Reported ghosts Unnamed presences; told as local belief
Visiting Ground-floor gift shop free to enter; upstairs by guided tour
Tours About 20 minutes through the preserved upstairs rooms
Hours and season Open May to October
Upstairs in the 1895 Bi-Metallic Building, the Oasis was one of the brothels that operated openly in Wallace through the mining boom. When federal attention turned to the town, the women left in a hurry, leaving clothes, makeup and dishes in the sink, and the rooms have been kept as they were. A price list hangs in Madam Ginger’s room.
Guided tours of the upstairs rooms take about 20 minutes and draw on stories from the women, bouncers, maids and police. The Inlander lists the Oasis among Wallace buildings locals believe hold ghosts, but we found no specific published ghost story, so treat it as a fascinating history stop rather than a proven haunt.
Haunted Rooms tip: Pair it with a meal at the Jameson around the corner, and visit between May and October.
Reported ghosts A friendly voice and footsteps, reported by former museum staff
Visiting Part of the Basque Museum and Cultural Center on the Basque Block
Tours Self-guided house tours included with museum admission
Hours and season Museum Tuesday to Friday 10 AM to 4 PM, Saturday 11 AM to 3 PM; house tours Saturdays when volunteers allow
Built in 1864, this is the oldest surviving brick home in Boise. Merchant and mayor Cyrus Jacobs raised his family here, future senator William Borah married here in 1895, and from 1910 to 1969 it was a Basque boarding house run for most of those years by Jose and Hermenegilda Uberuaga for sheepherders far from home. It is now part of the Basque Museum and Cultural Center.
Former employees told Boise State writers they heard a ghost talking upstairs and downstairs and walking past doorways, and they describe it as friendly. That is the only published account we found, so treat it as a light tale attached to a very real old house. A 2005 restoration and archaeological dig turned up hundreds of artifacts from its boarding house years.
Haunted Rooms tip: Take the Saturday house tour with museum admission, then eat on the Basque Block outside.
Reported ghosts A man in period clothes, said to be angry that his name was misspelled on his headstone
Visiting A working hotel: book a room to stay; public areas open to guests
This frame-and-brick hotel on Main Street was built around 1907 by early settler William B. Kelly and is on the National Register as Kelly’s Hotel, the town’s first hotel. It housed railroad workers and travelers off the Oregon Short Line and later became apartments. Today it runs as a small bed and breakfast with rooms named for people from the town’s past.
Local legend tells of a man in period dress who appears in guests’ rooms at night, said to be upset that his name was spelled wrong on his headstone in a nearby cemetery. It is a short drive from the Gooding University Inn, so you can pair the two.
Haunted Rooms tip: Call ahead to confirm the B&B is taking guests; it is small and was listed for sale in 2021.
Reported ghosts Footsteps and voices, shadow figures, the legend of Princess Edahow
Visiting Cave tours suspended since the August 2025 walkway collapse; gift shop and museum open
Tours 45 minute guided cave tours when open (suspended for 2026)
North of Shoshone, a collapsed lava tube traps winter air so cold that ice forms year round. Townspeople cut ice here in the 1880s, and in the 1930s it was shipped as far as Oregon until the ice nearly vanished. The Robinson family restored the cave and ran it as a roadside attraction from the 1950s, under a tall statue of Chief Washakie; Shane Wallace bought the business in 2019.
Staff and visitors have told of footsteps and voices in the tube after closing and of shadow figures, and a legend says a princess named Edahow was buried in the ice. These are folklore with no record behind them. A walkway collapse on August 31, 2025 injured three people, and cave tours stay closed while a new walkway is funded; the gift shop and museum remain open.
Haunted Rooms tip: Check the caves’ own social pages before you drive: tours are suspended until the new walkway is built.
Where to look Backstage and the audience during shows
Reported ghosts A dark-haired woman and a gentleman thought to be Judge B.P. Howells
Visiting Community theater: inside during performances and events
Judge Benjamin P. Howells, Cassia County’s first prosecutor, built this brick opera house in Oakley between 1904 and 1907 for about $22,000, then the finest theater between Salt Lake City and Boise. The LDS church bought it in 1929 and ran it as the Oakley Playhouse cinema. Facing demolition in the 1970s, it was saved by residents who formed the Oakley Valley Arts Council, which still stages seasonal shows here.
The arts council itself says the house has two resident ghosts: a dark-haired woman and a distinguished gentleman believed to be Judge Howells, both seen during performances. In one story told by author Andy Weeks, cast members counted an extra woman on stage in a cowboy play whom nobody could identify afterward.
Haunted Rooms tip: See a summer show to sit in the old house, and look for the extra player on stage.
Where to look The second-floor bathroom, stairwells and the old ballroom
Reported ghosts Dinah (or Dina), a student said to have been stood up at a dance
Visiting Working university building on the Boise State campus; outside visitors should keep to public areas
Built with the WPA and opened on March 3, 1942, this brick building was Boise Junior College’s first Student Union, where students danced in the ballroom on Friday nights. It cost $28,000, was designed by Hummel and Hummel, and hosted most of the college’s social life for years. It is one of the oldest buildings on campus and now houses the communication department.
Students have passed down the story of Dinah since at least the 1950s: a young woman stood up by her date for a dance who, the legend says, took her own life in a second-floor bathroom. People report crying in a stairwell, a piano playing itself, her name written on a mirror or chalkboard and lights switching on and off. KTVB and KIVI have both covered the legend, and no record of a real Dinah has been found.
Haunted Rooms tip: Walk past on a weekday; it is a working classroom building, so respect classes and staff.
Address 2018 E Sherman Ave, Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814
Where to look Rooms 1 and 3
Reported ghosts Cold spots, moving objects and the feeling of being watched; a soldier in some versions
Visiting Now The Flats, a private vacation rental: see it from Sherman Avenue only
This little motel on the east end of Sherman Avenue had 13 rooms and a manager’s unit around a parking lot. It is said to have begun as World War II barracks, possibly linked to the Farragut naval station, and later ran as a Rodeway Inn before Randy Bates bought it and gave it his name. The story that Psycho author Robert Bloch stayed here has no record behind it. By 2015 it was the Lighthouse Inn, and it then closed.
Guests long described cold spots, flickering lights and moved ashtrays in Rooms 1 and 3, and some versions blame a soldier who never left. The building reopened in 2024 as The Flats, a vacation rental whose owners have distanced it from the ghost stories. Idaho historian Rick Just notes that no death is associated with any of the hauntings.
Haunted Rooms tip: Treat it as a drive-by: it is now a private vacation rental, so do not knock or wander the lot.
Changed in this guide: the Brig at Farragut is a museum, not a campground, and is open in summer only; the Owyhee stopped being a hotel and is now apartments and offices; the Bates Motel closed in 2015 and is now a private vacation rental; the Shoshone Ice Caves have been closed for tours since a walkway collapse in August 2025. We corrected the Old Pen’s numbers (more than 13,000 inmates and 129 recorded deaths) and added Silver City, the Idanha, the Jameson, the Yankee Fork ghost towns, Rock Creek Station and other well-documented places.
Visited one of these places? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from visitors and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your visit. We read every story before it’s published.
The Old Idaho Penitentiary in Boise is the place most often named. It held more than 13,000 prisoners between 1872 and 1973, and visitors report footsteps, voices and dread in Cell House 5, where Raymond Snowden was hanged in 1957. The Idaho Hotel in Silver City and the Idanha in Boise are close behind.
Can you go ghost hunting in Idaho?
Public paranormal events are rare, so plan around them. The Old Pen runs seasonal night tours and a Halloween event, Wallace holds a paranormal festival every October, the Idaho State Historical Society has run Stricker After Dark tours at Rock Creek Station, and the Boise Ghosts walking tour runs downtown most nights.
What is the legend of Canyon Hill Cemetery?
The Phantom Jogger: park between two trees near the gates of Caldwell’s Canyon Hill Cemetery at night and a jogger, sometimes described as legless, is said to tap on your window and vanish. It is Idaho’s best-known urban legend, but no record of a real jogger who died there has ever been found.
Can you stay in a haunted hotel in Idaho?
Yes. The Idaho Hotel in Silver City takes guests in summer, the Jameson in Wallace has rooms above the saloon, and the White Horse in Spirit Lake, the Enders Hotel in Soda Springs, the Gooding Hotel, the Gooding University Inn and the old Roberts Hotel near Idaho Falls all have their own ghost stories.
Is the real Bates Motel in Idaho?
A Bates Motel did operate on Sherman Avenue in Coeur d’Alene, named for owner Randy Bates, and it had ghost stories about Rooms 1 and 3. The claim that it inspired Psycho has no record behind it. It closed in 2015 and reopened in 2024 as The Flats, a private vacation rental.
Is the Old Idaho Penitentiary open at night?
Only on special dates. Regular hours end at 5 PM, but the Idaho State Historical Society runs night tours on set evenings each fall and a Fright Nights event around Halloween, which sell out, so book ahead.
Sources and how we research
Every place in this guide is checked against its official website, historic register listings and news coverage, and we confirm whether it is open, closed, private or gone before we list it. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and local historians tell them; we say so where records contradict a story. Each place shows how many independent sources we checked it against; our own Haunted Rooms pages are not counted.
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team are paranormal researchers who write about historic haunted places across the United States. We research every place in our guides using official sites, historic registers, local archives and news coverage, and we report ghost stories as the stories they are. We review each guide regularly so you are not sent to a place that has closed, changed hands or banned visitors. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
