43 haunted destinations cataloged across Iowa, spanning 33 counties. The collection features cemetery, outdoor, and museum — every listing verified with family ratings, accessibility info, and practical visit logistics.
Scotch Grove, IA
Edinburgh Manor in Scotch Grove, Iowa, was constructed in 1910–1911 on land originally granted in 1840 for a Jones County courthouse. The 12,000-square-foot building replaced an 1850 poor farm and operated as a county home for the elderly, disabled, and mentally ill until November 2010, when residents were transferred to a new facility.
Iowa City, IA
Oakland Cemetery in Iowa City was incorporated in 1843 as the city's primary burial ground. Its most-photographed feature is the Black Angel, an 8.5-foot bronze monument commissioned in 1912 by Czech immigrant Teresa Feldevert, who hired Chicago sculptor Mario Korbel to memorialize her son and second husband.
Cherokee, IA
Cherokee Mental Health Institute opened on August 15, 1902, as the Cherokee Lunatic Asylum, the fourth state hospital in Iowa. Designed to the Kirkbride Plan, the original building once housed 1,810 windows, 1,030 doors, and 550 rooms across a single connected structure intended for 700 patients.
Clear Lake, IA
Shortly after midnight on February 3, 1959, a chartered Beechcraft Bonanza carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. 'The Big Bopper' Richardson crashed into a cornfield outside Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all three musicians and pilot Roger Peterson. The event has been known since Don McLean's 1971 song as 'The Day the Music Died.'
Muscatine, IA
Greenwood Cemetery was established in 1843 by the Town of Bloomington — later renamed Muscatine — as a five-acre burial plot. Originally called Muscatine Cemetery, it was renamed Greenwood in 1849. The cemetery has expanded to 80 acres. The Musser-donated chapel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
Fort Madison, IA
The Iowa State Penitentiary was established by the Iowa Territorial Legislature on January 25, 1839 in Fort Madison and operated continuously for 176 years until its closure in 2015, making it the longest continually operating prison west of the Mississippi River.
Council Bluffs, IA
The General Dodge House was built in 1869 for Grenville M. Dodge, the Union Civil War general who later served as chief engineer of the Union Pacific portion of the Transcontinental Railroad. The 14-room Second Empire mansion was designed by Chicago architect W.W. Boyington and cost $35,000 to construct. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.
Council Bluffs, IA
The Union Pacific Railroad Museum occupies the 1905 Carnegie Library building at 200 Pearl Street in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Built in the Beaux-Arts style and funded by Andrew Carnegie's bequest, the building served as the city's public library until a new library opened, after which Union Pacific Railroad partnered with Council Bluffs to convert the vacant Carnegie structure into the railroad's permanent museum, which opened on May 10, 2003.
Council Bluffs, IA
The Pottawattamie Squirrel Cage Jail was built in 1885 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, as a rotary jail with a central hand-cranked carousel of cells. It is the only three-story rotary jail ever built and one of just three surviving examples in the United States. Now a museum, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2023.
Council Bluffs, IA
Fairview Cemetery is a 19th-century burial ground in Council Bluffs, Iowa, best known for the Black Angel at its entrance. The Black Angel is the Ruth Anne Dodge Memorial, an 8.5-foot bronze sculpted by Daniel Chester French and dedicated in 1918 in memory of Ruth Anne Dodge, wife of railroad engineer Grenville M. Dodge.
Sioux City, IA
Morningside University was founded in 1894 by the Methodist Episcopal Church in Sioux City, Iowa. The Lillian E. Dimmitt Residence Hall, named for the Dean of Women who served for 26 years, was constructed in 1927 as the third-oldest building on campus. The building underwent renovation in 2015.
Sioux City, IA
The Sioux City Municipal Auditorium, now operating as the Long Lines Family Rec Center, was designed by Knute E. Westerlind in 1938 and completed in 1950 after a difficult construction history spanning a World War II material shortage and three separate municipal bond referendums. The building was Sioux City's primary indoor concert and sports venue until the 2003 opening of Gateway Arena.
Sioux City, IA
Calvary Cemetery is a Catholic burial ground at 28th and Cassleman on Sioux City's west side, and is the city's second-oldest cemetery. Its older, upper section — reached by a dirt cut-through — is the setting for a long-circulated 'hanging tree' headstone legend, though the claim is disputed by some visitors who say the marker is simply a tree-form stone.
Sioux City, IA
Built in 1918-19 as the Midland Packing Plant and acquired by Swift & Co. in 1924, this enormous Sioux City meatpacking facility operated until 1974. On December 14, 1949, an underground natural-gas leak triggered an explosion that killed 21 people and injured 91. In 1976 the building reopened as the KD Stockyards Station shopping mall before fire and water damage forced its closure in 2004 and demolition in 2010.
Marion, IA
Carlos O'Kelly's at 3320 Armar Drive in Marion, Iowa, occupies a site that local accounts describe as the former location of an amusement park. The current restaurant opened as part of the Carlos O'Kelly's chain, now operated by Thrive Restaurant Group, which runs locations across the Midwest.
Marion, IA
The Granger House at 970 10th Street in Marion, Iowa, was built in 1848 in the Italianate Victorian style. Charles Myers constructed the original structure; Earl Granger, a cattle rancher, purchased the property in 1876. The house remained in the hands of a single family for nearly a century, preserving most of its original 19th-century furnishings.
Ackley, IA
Hazel Green Cemetery is a rural burial ground located approximately five miles south of Ackley in Hardin County, Iowa. The cemetery includes a gazebo structure that has become central to its paranormal reputation. The site reflects the pattern of small 19th-century Iowa country cemeteries established to serve dispersed farming communities.
Bertram, IA
Campbell Cemetery is a historic burial ground located in Bertram Township, Linn County, Iowa, serving the local community with graves spanning multiple generations. The cemetery features typical grave markers, landscape features including trees, and a gazebo structure providing shelter and gathering space for cemetery visitors.
Bloomfield, IA
Mars Hill Church, located on 100th Avenue in Davis County near Bloomfield, Iowa, was built between 1850 and 1857 and is one of the oldest log churches still in use west of the Mississippi River. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. An arsonist nearly destroyed the building in 2006; after two years of community fundraising and reconstruction, it was rededicated on June 8, 2008.
Boone, IA
The Kate Shelley High Bridge — originally completed as the Boone Viaduct in 1901 — stands 185 feet above the Des Moines River near Boone, Iowa. The bridge bears the name of Kate Shelley, a 15-year-old who on July 6, 1881, crawled across a damaged bridge in a thunderstorm to warn a Chicago and North Western Railway station of a derailed locomotive, preventing a passenger train disaster. A replacement bridge built by Union Pacific opened on August 20, 2009.
Burlington, IA
Stony Hollow Road is a rural route winding through wooded bluffs on the outskirts of Burlington in Des Moines County, southeast Iowa. It is best known not for built history but as the setting of one of the state's most widely repeated ghost legends, regularly named the 'most haunted road in Iowa' by regional outlets and tourism promoters.
Cedar Falls, IA
Lawther Hall is a women's residence hall at the University of Northern Iowa, with construction beginning in November 1938 and the building opening in the summer of 1940. It is named for Anna B. Lawther, the first woman appointed to Iowa's State Board of Education. During World War II it housed U.S. Navy WAVES personnel.
Cedar Rapids, IA
Brucemore is a 21-room Queen Anne mansion designed by Indianapolis architect Maximilian Allardt and constructed from 1884 to 1886 by Caroline Sinclair, widow of pioneer industrialist Thomas M. Sinclair. The structure stands on a 26-acre estate in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is Iowa's only National Trust for Historic Preservation site. Significant renovations in 1905 by the Douglas family added architectural features and modernized the interior.
Cherokee, IA
The American Theatre was built in 1920 by Barry Sisk and Walter James as a movie palace on East Main Street in Cherokee, Iowa. After remaining empty due to financial constraints, Dale Goldie purchased it at a Sheriff's sale in 1923. The theatre was upgraded during the WPA era in the 1930s with dramatic murals and is now operated as the American 3 Theatre (a 3-screen multiplex) by Fridley Theatres. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Dakota City, IA
The Humboldt County Historical Museum is operated by the Humboldt County Historical Association, founded in 1962. The centerpiece is an 1879 thirteen-room Mill Farm House decorated in Victorian style, located in Dakota City, Iowa on the east branch of the Des Moines River. The campus also includes an 1882 Methodist church, 1883 schoolhouse, log cabin, blacksmith shop, and a larger Clancy-Erickson building of military and Native American exhibits.
Davenport, IA
The Hotel Blackhawk opened in 1915 as a luxurious eleven-story fireproof hotel on Main Street in Davenport, Iowa, built at a cost of $1 million by businessman W.F. Miller. Designed by the architectural firm Temple & Burrows with Italian Renaissance and Art Deco elements, it originally featured 225 rooms with private bathrooms. Four additional floors were added in 1920, bringing capacity to 400 rooms. The hotel hosted presidents, celebrities, and big bands throughout the twentieth century.
Dubuque, IA
The Mathias Ham House at 2241 Lincoln Avenue in Dubuque, Iowa, was designed by architect John F. Rague — who also designed the original Illinois and Iowa state capitols — and built in 1857 for Mathias Ham, a lead miner and riverboat operator who had arrived in Dubuque in the 1830s. The Dubuque County Historical Society opened the house as a museum in 1964.
Fort Dodge, IA
Bannwell Bridge, a rural railroad-area crossing west of Fort Dodge, Iowa, was originally known as Tara Bridge for a nearby town that no longer exists, spanning the North Lizard Creek. Its ghost tradition traces to an 1893 Fort Dodge Messenger report of railroad workers hearing phantom sounds. The bridge was taken down and rebuilt in 2004.
Guthrie Center, IA
Union Cemetery, east of Guthrie Center in Guthrie County, Iowa, was established as a private burial ground in 1885. It contains a cement-cast chair-shaped headstone, set between two graves and unmarked as belonging to either, which has become the focus of a regional 'Devil's Chair' legend.
Lake City, IA
The Marsh Rainbow Arch Bridge, also called the Coon River Bridge or Lake City Bridge, is a 271-foot, three-span structure carrying Iberia Avenue over the North Raccoon River south of Lake City. Designed by Des Moines engineer James Barney Marsh in his patented rainbow-arch configuration and built by the Iowa Bridge Company in 1914 for $10,970, it was bypassed in 1985 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Larchwood, IA
Gitchie Manitou State Preserve occupies 91 acres in Lyon County, Iowa, at the extreme northwest corner of the state. Human occupation of the site spans at least 8,500 years, evidenced by projectile points, pottery shards, and 17 conical burial mounds along the Big Sioux River. The preserve was formally dedicated in 1969 and takes its name from Gichi-Manidoo, the Great Spirit of Anishinaabe tradition.
Malvern, IA
Malvern Manor in Malvern, Iowa was built in the 1870s as the private home of Isaac Ringland, elected mayor of Malvern. After his death in 1890 the property was expanded into the Cottage Hotel, then converted into a nursing home and residential care facility. It closed in 2005 after decades of operation and allegations of patient mistreatment.
Mount Ayr, IA
Tedrow Cemetery is a small pioneer cemetery in Athens Township, Ringgold County, Iowa, holding 96 documented memorials including Civil War veterans and founding members of Kellerton and Mount Ayr. The cemetery sits on private property and was severely vandalized, with 40 headstones damaged in an incident costing nearly $20,000 to repair.
North Liberty, IA
Greencastle Cemetery is an old rural cemetery near North Liberty in Johnson County, east-central Iowa, associated with the historical place of Green Castle. It has seen little recent use and is documented in genealogical records.
Ottumwa, IA
Ottumwa Cemetery was established in 1857 as the city grew beyond its original downtown burial ground. Part of the nineteenth-century rural cemetery movement, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. Its 1887 receiving vault — built of deep red brick and terra cotta panels in High Victorian Gothic style — served the practical purpose of storing bodies during Iowa winters when frozen ground prevented burial.
Palo, IA
Pleasant Ridge Cemetery is a small 19th-century burial ground a few miles north of Palo in Linn County, eastern Iowa. It is reached by a flight of stone steps that gives rise to its popular nickname, '13 Stairs' or '13 Steps' Cemetery. Among its documented burials is Thankful Blackburn (1810-1862), whose weathered headstone became the anchor of the cemetery's folklore.
Russell, IA
Stoneking Cemetery is a small family burial ground east of Williamson in Lucas County, Iowa, containing the graves of members of the Stoneking family. The cemetery is best known for the headstone of Joseph Stoneking, which carries a traditional memento mori epitaph common to American grave markers of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Sheldon, IA
East Lawn Cemetery in Sheldon, Iowa, was established in June 1881 when Mayor Wykoff purchased ten acres in the Hartenbower Addition for $400. The cemetery became the final resting place for generations of O'Brien County residents. An archway erected in 1893 by the Ladies Cemetery Association remains a distinctive landmark. The site is currently maintained by the City of Sheldon.
Storm Lake, IA
Buena Vista University is a private liberal arts institution in Storm Lake, Iowa, established in 1891. The campus occupies a prominent location in the town's center. McAllister Cottage, a student residential building on College Avenue, was demolished and replaced with a parking lot, though its location and the associated folklore remain part of campus history.
Story City, IA
The apartment building in Story City was formerly a funeral home before being converted into a three-unit residential building. The structure's funeral home heritage remains part of its architectural and local cultural history, though specific dates of original construction and conversion are not readily available through public records.
Stratford, IA
Vegors Cemetery sits on a ridge above the Boone River near Stratford in Webster County, Iowa. Founded in 1849, the cemetery contains the monument to Mrs. Henry Lott, the first known white woman to die in the area, and is situated atop a prehistoric site that includes five earthen mounds attributed to Woodland-period peoples.
Waverly, IA
Camp Ingawanas (now Ingawanis Adventure Base) is a Boy Scout camp operated by the Winnebago Council, Boy Scouts of America, serving Cub Scouts, Scouts BSA, and Venturing Crews in the Waverly, Iowa area. The camp provides outdoor education and Scout programming on its facilities near Waverly.
West Union, IA
The Hardee's at 117 Hwy 150 North in West Union, Iowa, is a commercial fast food location that has operated for decades in Fayette County. No independent historical sources document a cemetery beneath the site, though local lore makes this the persistent explanation for reported employee experiences.