The Most Haunted Places in Iowa
82 documented locations, ranked by depth of evidence. Updated September 2026.
What makes this ranking different
- Evidence-ranked. Ranked by independent sources, documentation depth, and how far back reports go, not by legend. See methodology.
- Family-rated. The only haunted-places index with a family-suitability rating on every site.
- Logistics-verified. Every entry checked for what you can actually visit, book, or stay in.
Iowa has 82 documented haunted locations in the HauntBound index.
- Total documented
- 82
- Cemetery / Burial Ground
- 19
- Museum / Historical Site
- 12
- Other Dark Tourism Site
- 11
- Family-friendly
- 76
- Bookable
- 17
- Oldest documented site
- Historic Iowa State Penitentiary (1839)
- Most-reported phenomenon
- apparitions
- Investigations
- Top 8 overnight investigations
- This October
- 9 experiences running this October
Ranked
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HauntBound identified four distinct published accounts at this outdoor site. Six later publications retell those accounts.
4 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 2014-2025 · retold in 6 later publications
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Lead miner and steamboat operator Mathias Ham built this Italianate mansion above the Mississippi in 1857; after his death in 1889, his daughter Sarah reportedly shot an intruder in the house one night. Since the Dubuque County Historical Society opened it as a museum in 1964, staff and visitors have reported cold spots, objects displaced overnight, footsteps on the staircase Sarah used, and an organ playing though the instrument no longer works.
4 original accounts · documented across 4 decades, 1964-1998 · retold in 4 later publications
Disputed by the venue The historic site's own official visitor page states its ghost tales are debunked -- people have come forward as the real source of the reported screams and lights -- and that staff provide no ghost tours or investigator access.
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Built in 1910-11 to replace an 1850s Jones County poor farm that recorded some 150 deaths, this manor operated as a county home for the elderly, disabled, and mentally ill until its last residents were transferred out in 2010. Visitors and investigators, including a 2015 Ghost Adventures crew, describe a tall, slender figure nicknamed Joker near the basement boiler room, along with thrown dishes, physical contact, and gentler child-like laughter reported on the upper floors.
5 original accounts · documented across 3 decades, 2009-2024 · retold in 5 later publications
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Iowa City's Oakland Cemetery, established in 1843, holds the Black Angel, an 8.5-foot bronze monument commissioned in 1912 by midwife Teresa Feldevert to memorialize her son and second husband, its surface long since oxidized to black. Generations of students have claimed that touching or kissing the statue brings death and that pregnant women who walk beneath its wings will miscarry, though the discoloration has a documented chemical explanation and no incident has been verified.
3 original accounts · documented across 5 decades, 1967-2023 · retold in 6 later publications
Contradicted by physical evidence A University of Iowa student research blog attributes the Black Angel statue's dark color to ordinary weather-driven oxidation of its original bronze surface, rather than the death-curse origin the local legend assigns it.
- 5. Lawther Hall, University of Northern Iowa Cedar Falls · Other Dark Tourism Site · Family Comfort: Moderate Private, not open to visitors
HauntBound identified four distinct published accounts at this documented site, across three kinds of published source. Two later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include apparitions and objects moving.
4 original accounts · documented across 3 decades, 1977-1999 · retold in 2 later publications
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6. Pottawattamie Squirrel Cage Jail Council Bluffs · Prison / Reformatory · Family Comfort: ModerateBuilt in 1885 in Council Bluffs, this three-story rotary jail rotated a central carousel of cells by hand crank so only one inmate could reach the entryway at a time; it held prisoners until 1969 and is now a National Historic Landmark. Visitors and investigators report footsteps on the metal grating, cell doors closing or rotating in an empty building, and conversations heard from unoccupied corridors, though the museum discourages naming any single prisoner.
Documented since 1885 · 7 independent sources
Questioned by investigators A self-described 20-year paranormal investigator, writing among this venue's own cited sources, states he does not personally believe the jail is haunted and stands by that assessment.
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This rural Story County school opened in 1922 and served students for eighty years before consolidation closed it in 2002, leaving the four-story building vacant until new owners converted it into a paranormal investigation site. An early weekend session logged more than 200 unexplained events, and TV crews from My Ghost Story, Ghost Stalkers, and Kindred Spirits have since documented apparitions and unexplained audio spread across the building's classrooms, stairwells, and basement.
8 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 2006-2024 · retold in 2 later publications
- 8. Pleasant Ridge Cemetery (13 Stairs Cemetery) Palo · Cemetery / Burial Ground · Family Comfort: Moderate
HauntBound identified five distinct published accounts at this burial ground. One later publication retells those accounts. Reported phenomena include disembodied voices and orbs.
5 original accounts · documented across 3 decades, 2005-2025 · retold in 1 later publication
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On the night of June 9-10, 1912, Josiah and Sarah Moore, their four children, and two young guests were killed with an axe in this Villisca farmhouse; the case remains unsolved despite two trials against a suspect acquitted both times. Restored to its 1912 condition, the house draws visitors who report giggling and footsteps in the children's rooms, a low mist near the floor around 2 a.m., and a figure in the master bedroom doorway.
3 original accounts · documented across 4 decades, 1912-2017
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HauntBound identified two distinct published accounts at this working theater. Three later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include disembodied voices and phantom footsteps.
2 original accounts · documented across 6 decades, 1920-2017 · retold in 3 later publications
Superlatives
Methodology
For purposes of the HauntBound Index, "most haunted" means the location with the strongest documented record of reported haunting phenomena. We evaluate the quantity, independence, persistence, and documentary quality of published reports. We do not attempt to determine whether paranormal phenomena are real, and we never count a source that only establishes a building's history as evidence of haunting claims. Repetitive coverage is subject to diminishing returns, so a story retold many times does not outrank a story independently documented. Rankings never consider commercial relationships.
A site whose own operator or originator disputes its haunting, or whose documentary lineage we can only read at low confidence, may be ranked but does not hold the top position; we show the record without endorsing the claim.
The 2026 Index reflects sources identified and classified as of September 15, 2026.
This is a documentation ranking, not a visitation guide; sites not open to visitors are marked on their entries.