Est. 1910 · County Poor Farm · Early 20th-Century Asylum · Jones County, Iowa Heritage
The land beneath Edinburgh Manor traces back to a federal land grant in June 1840, originally deeded for the Jones County courthouse. (The venue's own materials attribute the signature to President Buchanan, who in fact was not in office until 1857; the most likely signing administration was Martin Van Buren's, which held office in 1840.) When the county seat was relocated shortly after the grant, county commissioners repurposed the parcel as a poor farm to keep the grant from reverting to the federal government.
The Jones County Home opened on the site in 1850 and operated as a working farm tended by its residents — the elderly, the indigent, and people with mental illness. Conditions were difficult; published histories of the property document approximately 150 deaths during the original poor farm's six decades of operation.
The current Edinburgh Manor building was constructed in 1910 and 1911 to replace the older structure. Spanning roughly 12,000 square feet across two floors and a full basement, it absorbed the same population the poor farm had served, gradually shifting toward custodial care for residents described in period records as 'incurably insane,' the poor, and the elderly. The facility remained in operation until November 2010, when the remaining 36 residents were transferred to a modern care facility in Anamosa.
The building was acquired by private owners shortly after closure and has been preserved largely as it was left, without restoration to its institutional-era condition or modernization for residential reuse. The owners opened the property to paranormal investigation in 2012, and it has since been featured on Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures (Season 14, Episode 1, 2015) and in regional reporting on Midwestern abandoned institutions. The structure remains unheated and lacks running water; tours and overnight stays are described by the operators as 'camping style.'
Sources
- https://edinburghmanor.wixsite.com/edinburgh/history
- https://www.thegazette.com/curious-iowa/curious-iowa-how-did-edinburgh-manor-become-a-haunted-attraction/
- https://hauntedus.com/iowa/edinburgh-manor-haunted-asylum/
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/edinburgh-manor-iowa
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4578476/
- https://paranormalmilwaukee.com/locations/edinburgh-manor-iowa/
- https://thelittlehouseofhorrors.com/edinburgh-manor/
ApparitionsShadow figuresPhantom footstepsEVPEMF anomaliesBattery drainDisembodied laughterTouching/pushing
Edinburgh Manor opened to paranormal-tourism groups in 2012, and the building has accumulated a substantial body of reported phenomena across investigation logs, regional newspapers, and televised paranormal series.
The most frequently named entity in tour materials and visitor reports is 'Joker' — described as a tall, slender male figure with an unsettling smile, most often reported in the basement near the boiler room and the small padded room. Reports attributed to Joker include physical contact, marks left on visitors, dishes thrown from the basement dining area, and — in the most-cited Ghost Adventures episode — accounts of choking. The owners themselves push back on the 'evil' framing used by Zak Bagans, describing the entity as 'ornery' rather than malevolent.
Upper-floor reports tend to be gentler: child-like laughter, benign tactile contact, and apparitions glimpsed crossing doorways. Investigators routinely log EVP recordings, EMF spikes, and battery drain, particularly in the basement and along the second-floor corridor.
The site appeared on Ghost Adventures (Travel Channel) in 2015 and is regularly cited by The Gazette, Atlas Obscura, and Midwestern paranormal-investigation networks among the most-investigated abandoned institutions in Iowa. Owners run the property as an overnight-investigation venue with arrival generally 5:30pm or after and departure by 10am the following morning or earlier.
Media Appearances
- Ghost Adventures (Travel Channel)
