The Haunted Mansion of Albion

Welcome to Albion!

Haunted Mansions of Albion is the largest indoor/outdoor haunted production in the Northwest.   This is as real as it gets...genuine, historic, terrifying and entertaining! Bring your friends and brave your way through multiple 100+ year old  buildings once known as the Albion State Normal School, an abandoned college campus. Try to navigate through the School of Chaos, the old Steam Plant, the Clown House, the Creature House  and haunted Comish Hall! During your visit you'll make your way through multiple levels, tunnels, and corridors of our haunted historic buildings. Not only are the indoor haunts terrifying but you will find your wait in line very entertaining.  Come and warm your hands by our burn barrels, snack on the mini doughnuts and enjoy the show!

History

Albion State Normal School was created by an act of the Idaho legislature in 1893.  The town donated land and built the first building with volunteer labor.  Classes began in the fall of 1894 with President F. A. Swanger, one assistant, and a student body of 23.

 

The 1909 Sage, the school yearbook, shows a student body of 81 college students and 26 preparatory students, taught by a faculty of 14.  The small numbers resulted in tightly-knit campus life, not only among students but between students and faculty.  Most students were members of one of the two literary societies—the Emersonian Society, founded in 1896, and the Philomathean Society, formed a year later.  These societies were the basis of the drama and forensic activities of the school.  In addition, many of the students were members of one of the musical groups—glee club, band or orchestra.

 

Two issues followed ASNS through the years.  One was low enrollment.  The 1934 Sage shows that ASNS had become a two-year school with an enrollment of just over 200.  The other related issue was that the college was constantly targeted for closure. Albion weathered such attempts in 1911 and 1917.  In 1946 a study by the George Peabody College, commissioned by the state legislature, recommended closure of Albion Normal within five years unless enrollment increased.  As a result, the school received a new and expanded mission and a new name—Southern Idaho College of Education.

 

When it was clear that Albion was not able to increase its enrollment, the state closed the school at the end of the 1951 school year. In 57 years of operation, Albion State Normal produced 6,560 teachers, including a future U.S. Secretary of Education, Terrell H. Bell.