public

Heavily Investigated

Ringed by eleven acres of Iowa cornfields with nowhere to hide, Edinburgh Manor has a way of making visitors feel noticed before they've said a word. People who spend time in its 12,000 square feet of peeling hallways report sudden dread without cause, apparitions on the stair landing, and the sound of movement where there is no movement. The entity regulars call The Joker is said to grab, choke, and unsettle without warning. One closet on the first floor — where a janitor reportedly took his own life — is described as suffocating, even by the skeptical.

Land in Wayne Township was deeded in June 1840 for a Jones County courthouse — but the county had other ideas. The site became a Poor Farm instead, described in period language as a retreat for the 'willingly dependent' and the incurably insane. The current brick building dates to 1910, serving as poor farm, mental institution, and county care home for a full century before closing in November 2010 — deemed unsafe, its 36 remaining residents transferred to Anamosa. Private owners took it in 2011, opened it to investigators, and reportedly were given good reason to keep doing so.