Haunted Places in Boise: 9 Haunted Sites In and Around the City
A sandstone prison under Table Rock, two grand hotels that became apartments, a 1927 movie palace with a projectionist who never clocked out, and gold rush towns an hour away. These are Boise’s haunted places, checked against current sources.
Boise’s ghost stories cluster in two places: the Old Idaho Penitentiary on the east side and the blocks of downtown around Main Street, where the Idanha, the Owyhee and the Egyptian Theatre stand within a few minutes’ walk of each other. The Boise Ghosts walking tour covers all three most nights. We have added three easy trips out of town: Canyon Hill Cemetery in Caldwell, the gold rush town of Idaho City and the Silver City ghost town, whose Idaho Hotel still takes guests in summer.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the most haunted place in Boise?
The Old Idaho Penitentiary. It held more than 13,000 prisoners between 1872 and 1973, and visitors describe footsteps, voices and a heavy feeling in Cell House 5 and the Siberia solitary block. The Idaho State Historical Society runs it as a museum and says there is no conclusive evidence of ghosts.
Is the Idanha in Boise haunted?
It has Boise’s richest ghost lore: residents describe doors locking themselves, blankets pulled off beds and an elevator that moves on its own, often blamed on a bellboy said to have been shot in the 1970s. The building is private apartments now, so see it from the street or on a walking tour.
Are there ghost tours in Boise?
Yes. Boise Ghosts runs a one hour downtown walking tour most nights from The Owyhee past the Egyptian Theatre and the Idanha, and a haunted trolley tour runs in the Halloween season. The Old Pen holds night tours on set dates each fall.
Can you stay overnight somewhere haunted near Boise?
The closest classic is the Idaho Hotel in Silver City, about two hours southwest, open in summer. The Gooding University Inn, a former tuberculosis hospital, is about 90 minutes east and rents its west wing to groups.
Is the Old Idaho Penitentiary worth visiting?
Yes. You can walk through cell houses, solitary confinement and the gallows room on a self-guided visit for $9, and guided tours run most days for $2 more. Allow two hours, and check the site’s calendar for night tours in the fall.
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.
