Ghosts of Idaho's Magic Valley: Hauntings and Lore

By Andy Weeks

Barking dogs, silent birds and a malodorous stench foretell encounters with the ghostly apparitions and strange creatures that stalk Magic Valley. Are these just fanciful notions and figments of the imagination? Not according to eyewitnesses who swear things really do go bump in the night in south central Idaho. Read about the Stricker Ranch caretaker awakened by the phantom of a pioneer woman, the piercing red eyes that frightened visitors at Albion's normal school campus, the couple whose property is haunted by ancient spirits and the woman and her grandson who encountered Bigfoot's foul stench in a local wilderness. Turn on the lights, get cozy and read on as author Andy Weeks investigates the phenomena and local lore of Idaho's Magic Valley.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Sep 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781614236825

Andy Weeks

Andy Weeks is an award-winning journalist and the author of several books and short stories. His work has been featured in a variety of newspapers and magazines, including national publications such as Fangoria, Fate and Wild West. Books include Ghosts of Idaho's Magic Valley, Haunted Idaho, Haunted Oregon and Haunted Utah. He writes near the Snake River in south-central Idaho and is currently at work on his next book.

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INTRODUCTION

A HISTORICALLY GHOSTLY OVERVIEW

Welcome to the Magic Valley, whose regional identity comprises eight counties in south-central Idaho: Blain, Camas, Cassia, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, Minidoka, Shoshone and, the largest, Twin Falls. According to 2010 census records, the valley has a combined population of 185,790. Each county has its own geographical distinctions, just as do many of their cities and towns. Twin Falls, for instance, is home to the Perrine Bridge and Shoshone Falls, two of the area’s marvels—the first man-made and the other naturally formed.

The bridge, built in the early 1920s as the brainchild of Ira Burton Perrine, is an architectural marvel that stretches across the Snake River Canyon along U.S. Highway 93 and connects Jerome and Twin Falls Counties. It is one of the first things to catch people’s attention when entering the area. Perrine is credited with convincing financiers to build a dam on the Snake River, along with a corresponding irrigation canal system, culminating in 1900 with the founding of the Twin Falls Land and Water Company and, five years later, the completion of Milner Dam. When Twin Falls was incorporated in 1904, he served as a bank president and owner of the Perrine Hotel.

Besides his work on water, it is the bridge that is Perrine’s most ambitious and famous contribution. The bridge is popularly known as a BASE (Building, Antennas, Spans and Earth) jumpers’ paradise, as thrill-seekers from all over the country come here, their parachutes in tow, to jump five hundred feet to the canyon floor. Sadly, not all people who have come here have jumped with chutes. The bridge has been the means by which some people, for whatever reasons, have ended their lives.

I.B. Perrine was an influential rancher and businessman in early Magic Valley history. Courtesy of Twin Falls Public Library.

Do spirits of the suicide victims cry here? Some believe they do. Or maybe that noise you hear is just the wind as it whips through the metal gratings beneath the behemoth structure, sounding very much like phantoms.

The bridge, though impressive, doesn’t compare to the canyon it crosses. In the center of the canyon runs the mighty Snake River, for which the canyon is named. The river begins in Wyoming and winds like a snake across southern Idaho for four hundred miles. In Twin Falls, it flows between sheer rock walls that in many places are engraved with nature’s timeline—layers and layers of rock. The river itself is popular for all types of water recreation, including canoeing and kayaking. But keep an eye out as you travel the river, as the canyon reportedly is haunted by the spirits of an ancient race who, as mortal beings, once eked out a living in the fertile valley, as well as the Chinese emigrants who once labored here.

The valley has other haunted wonders to behold. Head farther east and south to beautiful Shoshone Falls, nicknamed the Niagara of the West. People from all over the world come to see the impressive waterfalls that cascade steeper than New York’s famous waterfall. Do you see a face in the mist? Look closely and you might, for that exactly is what some visitors claim to see. Native Indian tribes called the falls Gift of the Great Spirit. Is the face a supernatural token, a naturally formed image or the imaginative manifestation of overexcited visitors? About two miles farther east is another double-cataract waterfall called Twin Falls, for which the city and county are named.

Keep going south until you reach the foothills, better known as the South Hills in Cassia County. Got a hankering for outdoor recreation? This is the place for nature viewing, off-road riding, backcountry exploration and hunting. But you might not want to visit alone. At least one Magic Valley resident claims to have encountered a Bigfoot here as recently as 2007.

A view of the Perrine Bridge under construction, August 23, 1927. Courtesy of Twin Falls Public Library.

A marker along the Oregon Trail near Rock Creek Canyon in Twin Falls. The marker was left by Ezra Meeker in 1910. Courtesy of Twin Falls Public Library.

Balanced Rock in Castleford, an iconic forty-eight-ton natural rock formation that rests on a base only three feet wide, is one of the valley’s marvels. Photo by Andy Weeks.

On your way back, stop at Stricker Ranch, also known as Rock Creek Station and Store, along the historic Oregon Trail north of Hansen and south of the hills. This rural homestead has a lot of history and, it is rumored, at least a few ghosts.

Find U.S. Highway 30 and head to Castleford to see iconic Balanced Rock—a forty-eight-foot-tall Africa-shaped rock that weighs forty-eight tons and sits on a base only three feet wide. Though I don’t know of any ghosts here, it’s an eerily impressive work created by Mother Nature with a canyon that is naturally haunted by creepy hoodoos, rattlesnakes and birds of