Haunted hotel guide · Bentonsport, Iowa

The Haunted Mason House Inn, Bentonsport: A Ghost for Every Room

An 1846 steamboat inn on the Des Moines River that has been a Civil War hospital and an Underground Railroad stop, and where nearly every room has a ghost story of its own.

By The Haunted Rooms Team · Updated November 2026 · How we rate hotels

5.0/5Haunted Rooms Score

1846Built

Room 7Most requested room

Visit hotel websiteMeet the ghosts

The Mason House Inn stands on the bank of the Des Moines River in Bentonsport, a tiny village that was a busy steamboat town in the 1840s and is now one of the Villages of Van Buren County. Built by Mormon craftsmen in 1846, it has been a riverboat hotel, a Civil War hospital and a refuge on the Underground Railroad, and it has taken guests for most of the 180 years since. The listing calls it the oldest standing inn on the Des Moines River.

It is also, by most accounts, the most haunted place to sleep in Iowa. Travel Iowa calls it one of the state’s most haunted inns, and its ghosts seem to have rooms of their own: a boy who tugs at guests on the landing and in Room 5, a man called Knapp in Room 7, a floating head nicknamed Mr. Foggybody, and an elderly woman in a white nightgown on the third floor. It tops our list of haunted hotels in Iowa, and Haunted Rooms has run ghost hunt sleepovers at the Mason House Inn.

The ghosts of The Mason House Inn

Mr. Knapp in Room 7

The inn’s most famous story is a violent one. According to the tale, a drunken guest named Knapp stumbled into the wrong room one night and tried to climb into a bed that was not his. The man already in it, thinking he was being attacked, killed him with a saber. Whether or not it happened quite like that, Room 7 has been linked to Knapp ever since.

Guests describe a heavy feeling of dread in the room, and Knapp is said to still be looking for his bed. Women have reported a hand patting them when nobody is there; one owner’s daughter said she felt it while making up a bed in an empty room.

The boy on the landing

A little boy in knickers, sometimes called George, is the inn’s most active ghost. He is seen on the stair landing, knocks on doors and vanishes, moves small things from room to room and has been blamed for pulling the pins from alarm clocks so they ring. Room 5 is said to be his favorite: guests there report tugs on their clothes and bedding at night and swirling mists in the dark.

Mr. Foggybody in Room 8

Guests in Room 8 have reported a floating head. One former owner described it as a head of white hair above a body of smoke, and nicknamed it Mr. Foggybody. She wondered whether it might be Francis O. Clark, a former manager whose body was laid out in the inn’s parlor after his death.

Mary Mason Clark and the rocking chair

An elderly woman in a white nightgown is said to appear in the doorway of the third-floor south bedroom and in several other upper rooms. Guests sleeping below that room have reported a rocking chair creaking and boxes being dropped overhead, even when the room was only used for storage and had no rocking chair in it. A minister who once kept an office in the inn said he saw her during renovations and identified her as Mary Mason Clark, of the family who ran the inn for nearly a century.

The wallpaper that would not stay up

The inn’s gentlest story concerns a room where a doctor is said to have died of diphtheria. When an owner hung new wallpaper there, it was found stripped off the walls the next morning. He hung it again, and again it came down. Then he found his wallpaper sample book lying open at a different pattern. He bought that one, hung it, and it stayed up. The room is often given as Room 5.

Fannie in the dining room

Not every presence here is unsettling. Fannie Mason Kurtz, the last of the Mason family to run the inn, died in front of the fireplace in 1951. Guests describe a warm, welcoming feeling in the dining room, and a visiting psychic linked it to Fannie, who is said to be content to stay.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Room 7: Mr. Knapp’s room, and the one most guests ask for. Expect a heavy atmosphere rather than noise.
• Room 5: Said to be the most active room: the boy’s tugs, swirling mists and, by some accounts, the wallpaper story.
• Room 8: Where guests have reported the floating head known as Mr. Foggybody.
• The stair landing: Where the boy in knickers is seen and doors are knocked on at night.
• The third-floor south bedroom: The doorway where Mary Mason Clark appears, and the source of the phantom rocking chair.

History of The Mason House Inn

Bentonsport grew up in the 1830s and 1840s when the Des Moines River was a working waterway, with mills, a dam and steamboats calling. The inn was built in 1846, first called the Ashland House, by builder William Robinson, who is said to have hired Mormon craftsmen who were passing through Iowa after leaving Nauvoo, Illinois. It was built to house steamboat travelers and took several years to finish.

Around 1857 Lewis and Nancy Mason bought it and renamed it the Phoenix Hotel, but locals called it the Mason House for the couple’s hospitality; Nancy was said to keep a full cookie jar in every room. During the Civil War the building served as a small Union Army hospital, and it was used as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Later accounts also mention use as a tuberculosis ward.

The Mason family kept the inn until 1951, when Fannie Mason Kurtz died beside the fireplace. Several families owned it over the next fifty years, keeping much of the original furniture. Joy and Chuck Hanson ran it as a bed and breakfast from 2001 and added the caboose cottage, a converted 1952 railroad caboose with its own kitchen.

Chris and Fe Pope bought the inn in 2023. They have been raising funds for restoration and held volunteer work weekends in 2025, and the Bentonsport heritage site lists the inn as a working bed and breakfast with occasional Sunday brunches. When we checked in November 2026, the inn’s new website said only “coming soon” and the property was listed for sale, so confirm your booking by phone before you travel.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Call the inn on (319) 592-3133 to book and ask for Room 7, Room 5 or Room 8 by number. Online booking sites rarely list it.
• Because the inn has been under restoration and is listed for sale, confirm that it is taking overnight guests before you make the drive.
• Look for the original 1840s details: the staircase, the doors and the inn’s antique furniture, much of it from the Mason years.
• Walk the village after dark: Bentonsport’s old bridge and empty riverfront are part of the atmosphere. Bring a flashlight; there are few streetlights.
• Watch the Haunted Rooms Mason House Inn ghost hunt page and the Iowa ghost hunts list for new overnight dates.

More haunted hotels nearby

• Hotel Ottumwa, Ottumwa: a 1917 hotel with a lady in white, now closed
• Hotel Blackhawk, Davenport: Cary Grant’s last hotel, on the Mississippi
• Haunted hotels in Missouri: the state line is about 20 minutes south
• Haunted places in Iowa: Villisca, Edinburgh Manor and more
• Haunted hotels in Iowa

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

• Villages of Van Buren: Mason House Inn Bed and Breakfast
• Bentonsport: Places to stay
• Dread Central: Cold Spots, Mason House Inn
• Travel Iowa: 13 of Iowa's most haunted
• Ottumwa Courier: Mason House Inn raises funds for restoration
• Southeast Iowa Union: Mason House Inn volunteer work weekend (2025)
• Mossy Oak Properties: Historic Mason House Inn listing
• Hotel Scoop: Mason House Inn

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