Est. 1893 · Idaho's Territorial-Era Teacher-Training College · National Register of Historic Places (1980) · Largest Seasonal Haunted Attraction in the Northwest
Albion State Normal School was established in 1893 to train teachers for the sparsely populated south-central part of the territory, soon to be a state. The two-year program grew across several buildings, including Swanger Hall, the first campus building, dating to 1894, and the later Miller Hall. In 1947 the school was reorganized as the Southern Idaho College of Education and authorized to grant four-year degrees, but declining enrollment forced its closure in 1951; its programs and students transferred to what's now Idaho State University in Pocatello. The campus awarded roughly 6,460 degrees over its 58 years.
Magic Valley Christian College used the buildings from 1957 to 1969, after which the campus sat vacant for nearly four decades while the city of Albion maintained the grounds. The National Register of Historic Places added the campus in November 1980, recognizing it as a well-preserved example of an early-20th-century normal school.
The city sold the property at public auction in 2007 for $810,000; Heather Mortensen and her family bought the buildings and began running them each fall as the Haunted Mansions of Albion, a seasonal walkthrough attraction spread across five of the historic structures. The Mortensens have also worked to stabilize and preserve the buildings between haunt seasons.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion_State_Normal_School
- https://visitsouthidaho.com/dare-enter-haunted-mansions-albion/
- https://www.kivitv.com/burley/the-albion-normal-school-is-the-perfect-place-for-haunted-houses
- https://www.kmvt.com/2023/10/12/behind-business-haunted-mansions-albion/
- https://www.hauntedalbion.com/
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7515892/
- https://magicvalley.com/community/mini-cassia/news/is-the-albion-normal-school-really-haunted/article_4423c1aa-792c-56c9-abff-fd189f3bca9e.html
Unexplained smell of baking breadDisembodied voicesPhantom footstepsShadow figuresEMF anomalies
During the campus's abandoned decades between 1969 and 2007, locals and visiting paranormal investigators built up a body of reported phenomena across the empty buildings: the smell of baking bread in a kitchen that had been closed for years, disembodied voices and running footsteps in hallways with no other visitors present, and glimpses of shadowy figures at the edge of rooms. EMF readings and unexplained sounds recorded by investigating groups during this period fed into the campus's regional reputation as one of Idaho's most-haunted sites.
Ghost Adventures visited in 2017 for a season 15 episode built around the campus, investigating multiple buildings and drawing on the accumulated local reports. Today the Mortensen family leans into that reputation for its seasonal haunt, but also maintains that some staff and longtime visitors report experiences they can't attribute to the show's actors or effects, separate from the scripted scares.
Media Appearances
- Ghost Adventures: "Albion Normal School" (TV, 2017)
