Edinburgh Manor
-Quoted by Only In Your State
Edinburgh, a town originally the county seat instead what is now known as Jones County.
In June of 1840, the land located at section 36 in Wayne Township, was originally deeded for Courthouse purposes with the grant being signed by President Buchanan.
Shortly after this grant, the county seat was changed from Edinburgh and the commissioners kept the grant for the establishment of the county poor farms.
Described as a “comfortable retreat for the lazy, abled-bodied and willingly dependent applicants,” the poor farm housed the poor, incurably insane and disabled. Tenants were given shelter and food for their labor, and in exchange, they would farm agriculture and livestock.
The poor farm was in operation from 1850 to 1910, in that time there were over 80 documented deaths on the property, some of which were questionable causes. Their graves can be found on site, out back. As their restless spirits are said to wander about at night.
From 1910-1911, with the closing and demolish of poor farm, Edinburgh Manor was then constructed and housed the incurably insane; the poor and elderly until the last patient and employees left in November 2010; still leaving traces of documents, items such as clothing and other personal items behind.
In the summer of 2012, The Manor opened up for Paranormal investigations and even featured many TV Shows.
Visitors to the now defunct manor have reported all sorts of strange and creepy phenomena such as ghostly voices, orbs, and even unexplained noises. The Manor is rumored to be one of the most haunted sites in Iowa.
Our Story Behind the Investigation
On February 7th thru the 9th, 2025 the team went to spend the whole weekend at Edinburgh manor. throughout the whole weekend we had caught EVP’s (Electronic Voice Phenomena), Disembodied Voices, and we also had some Shaddo’s and your typical footsteps. Amongst all that happening the first night we were there, the spirits surely did not want us there. Ryne one of our lead investigators had gotten hit by a door, on the second floor. Him and our other co-founder Chris and one our investigators were doing a spirit box Session in the hallway.
Ryne had been pacing the hallway when he had stopped, he had no clue he was about to be hit with the door. Ryne was a foot away from the door not moving one bit and he was not touching the door at all, in the split second the door began to move and hit him. once it hit him, he then touches the door and ran because he was frightened by what had happened.
through that whole weekend, we tried debunking it as much and as hard as we could but we could not because that door is so heavy it takes a lot of force to pull that door especially when there is a door stopper jammed in it.
as the weekend started to end the whole team had the share of personal experience. this investigation will go down as one of our best as this place was incredible. if you’d like to see the video of ryne being hot by the door you may see it on our socials and right here on the home page under featured videos.
SIDE NOTE: in that video we caught a little girls voice saying “RIGHT HERE” (could she have been the one to hit Ryne with the door, we will never know).
