State file · ID
Haunted places in Idaho
What are the most haunted places in Idaho? The best-known are Old Idaho Penitentiary and Wallace and the Oasis Bordello.
Idaho’s ghost stories come from the territory’s rough nineteenth-century beginnings: gold and silver rushes in the Boise Basin, Owyhee Mountains and Silver Valley, Oregon Trail crossings, frontier jails and the prisons built to hold the men – and some women – who did not fit in. The best known is the Old Idaho Penitentiary in Boise, a sandstone prison that operated for a century and closed after a riot in 1973, now a state historic site that leans into its eerie reputation every October.
- 2 hauntings
- 9 recorded sightings
- 2 news stories
Haunted places in Idaho
Old Idaho Penitentiary
Boise’s sandstone territorial prison, used from 1872 to 1973, where staff and visitors describe footsteps and voices in the empty cell houses. Regional legend
Wallace and the Oasis Bordello
A Silver Valley mining town whose brothels operated openly until 1988 – now a museum town with ghost tales of working women and a heartbroken Maggie. Local legendThe ghost lore of Idaho
In the north, the mining town of Wallace preserved not only its Victorian downtown but also the upstairs rooms of a brothel abandoned overnight in 1988, and it now hosts its own paranormal festival. Elsewhere, the state’s legends gather around ghost towns such as Silver City, old schools and sanatoriums, and the railroad and logging towns of the panhandle.
Idaho’s haunted places are mostly public historic sites, museums and hotels with daytime access and seasonal events. Abandoned mines, closed hospitals and ghost-town buildings can be dangerous and are often on private land, so visit them only on organised tours.
Ghost-hunting hotspots
- Boise’s Warm Springs and the Old Pen
The territorial penitentiary, its prison cemetery and the Table Rock foothills host Idaho’s best-known Halloween ghost events.
- Wallace
A Silver Valley mining town listed in full on the National Register, with a bordello museum and a new paranormal festival.
- Silver City
A high-desert mining ghost town in the Owyhee Mountains, with its historic Idaho Hotel and many old-timers’ tales.
- Idaho City
A Boise Basin gold-rush town with a historic Boot Hill cemetery and pioneer-era buildings.
Timeline
- 1872The Territorial Prison opens Old Idaho Penitentiary
Eleven inmates were transferred from the Boise County jail to the new stone cell house in the foothills east of town.
- 1884Wallace is founded Wallace and the Oasis Bordello
The town grew up at the heart of the Coeur d’Alene mining district, where it became known for saloons, gambling and openly tolerated brothels.
- August 1910The Great Fire Wallace and the Oasis Bordello
The vast wildfire that burned some three million acres across Idaho, Montana and Washington destroyed a third of the town.
- 18 October 1957The last execution Old Idaho Penitentiary
Raymond Snowden was hanged at the penitentiary, the last of the six executions carried out in what is now the rose garden.
- 7–8 March 1973The final riot Old Idaho Penitentiary
Inmates protesting conditions burned several buildings, including the chapel and dining hall. The prison closed that December.
- 1988The Oasis empties overnight Wallace and the Oasis Bordello
The brothel’s women left in a hurry ahead of a federal investigation, leaving the upstairs rooms as they were – the basis of today’s museum.
- 5 December 2008Ghost Adventures investigates Old Idaho Penitentiary
The Travel Channel series broadcast an early episode from the Old Pen, cementing its reputation as Idaho’s best-known haunted site.
- October 2009Halloween comes to the Old Pen Old Idaho Penitentiary
The historical society began holding Halloween events mixing reenactments of inmates’ stories with tours, a tradition that continues as Locktober.
- 17–19 October 2025First Wallace Paranormal Festival Wallace and the Oasis Bordello
Ghost hunts at the Jameson, the Oasis Bordello and the Masonic Lodge headlined the town’s first paranormal festival.
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