The Haunted Klondike Hotel, Manilla: An 1897 Railroad Hotel Frozen in Time

The Klondike Hotel stands on 3rd Street in Manilla, a small town in Crawford County in western Iowa. It was built in 1897 to house passengers and crews of the Milwaukee Road, which made Manilla a busy junction, and it is one of the few railroad hotels of its kind left in the state. The Manilla Area Historical Association bought it in 1995 and has been restoring it ever since, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

It is not a hotel in the normal sense any more. You cannot book a single room for the night. Instead the association offers tours by appointment and rents the whole building by the day for paranormal investigations. That has made it a favorite of ghost-hunting groups, who report voices on their recorders, empty rocking chairs that move and a constant sense of being watched. It is the most unusual stay on our list of haunted hotels in Iowa.

The ghosts of The Historic Klondike Hotel

Voices in the old rooms

The Klondike’s reputation comes mostly from paranormal investigators, who have been renting it for years. Groups say they have recorded EVPs, voices on audio recordings that nobody heard at the time, in the upstairs guest rooms. Travel Iowa’s listing for the hotel says investigators have reported evidence they could not explain.

Because the rooms are so little changed, with their transom windows, original door and bed numbers and some of their old furniture, investigators like to think of them as rooms the railroad men never fully left.

The rocking chairs

The most repeated story is a simple one. Visitors say empty rocking chairs in the hotel move by themselves, rocking gently as if someone has just got up, or shifting position while nobody is in the room. Travel Iowa lists it among the hotel’s reported activity alongside voices and the feeling of being watched.

Being watched, and leaving early

Many visitors describe a strong feeling of being watched, particularly upstairs. Some accounts say overnight guests have packed up and left in the middle of the night, complaining of headaches and a heavy atmosphere. There are no names attached to these stories, and nobody has tied the activity to a particular death in the building, which is worth keeping in mind.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• The upstairs guest rooms: Mostly untouched since the railroad days, with original door and bed numbers. This is where most EVPs are said to have been recorded.
• The railroad rooms: Part of the upper floor was leased to the railroad to house senior crew on layovers.
• The rocking chairs: Wherever they are placed, they are what investigators watch most closely.

History of The Historic Klondike Hotel

In the 1890s Manilla’s fortunes were tied to the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad. The town already had three hotels, but with trains, crews and passengers coming through it needed another. Contractor H.J. Kopak began the Klondike in July 1897 for owner F.M. Offineer, and it was nearly finished by September. It stood a block from the Milwaukee depot, facing the tracks, and served travelers and crews on overnight layovers.

The two-story frame building is Italianate, with a hipped roof, bracketed eaves and a full-length front porch. It was renamed the Park Hotel in 1903, and a rear addition followed in 1905. In the early 1900s Manilla became a main-line junction where trains split for Omaha or for the railroad’s Pacific extension through South Dakota, and the railroad leased part of the upper floor to house senior personnel. Railroad staff paid for their board through a coin box that still survives.

Cars and trucks ended the railroad’s golden age. The Milwaukee Road went into foreclosure in 1926, and the hotel passed through a succession of owners as the trade dried up. In 1995 the Manilla Area Historical Association bought the building, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

Volunteers have restored it in stages, with foundation work and, around 2000 and 2001, an Iowa DOT enhancement grant toward the siding, windows, doors, porch and roof. Today the association uses it to tell the story of Manilla’s railroad years, open for tours by appointment and rented by the day to investigators.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Book well ahead and call to confirm. This is a volunteer-run building, not a staffed hotel, and the contact numbers on its Travel Iowa listing may change.
• Go with a group and rent the whole building; it is the only way to stay overnight.
• Bring bedding, food, water, flashlights and spare batteries, and ask what facilities are available when you book.
• Take the daytime tour first if you can. Knowing the railroad history makes a night here far more interesting.
• For a regular hotel room with a ghost story, Iowa’s other options are on our Iowa haunted hotels list; Haunted Rooms has also run ghost hunts at Malvern Manor in southwest Iowa.

More haunted hotels nearby

• Hotel Greenfield, Greenfield: a restored 1920 town-square hotel about 90 minutes southeast
• Haunted hotels in Nebraska: Omaha is about 80 miles southwest
• Villisca Axe Murder House: Iowa’s most infamous overnight stay, in southwest Iowa
• Haunted places in Iowa: more of the state’s ghost stories
• 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.

• Wikipedia: Klondike Hotel
• Manilla: Klondike Hotel history
• Travel Iowa: Historic Klondike Hotel
• Travel Iowa: 13 of Iowa's most haunted
• Only In Your State: Haunted hotels in Iowa

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