Has anybody been out to the Shrine recently? I wonder if the old man is still out there guarding it.
ISU Urban Exploring Thread Redux
- Thread starter RayShimley
- Start date
I drove by one year ago. Still standing. No sign of the old man, but I was not planning to stick around and see.
Yeah I went out with friends last year like rogue said I didn't see the old man but we went at like 2am
Is there any other cool places to explore in Ames besides the shrine?
I went to the shrine like 4 months ago and saw his red truck so I'm assuming he's still alive
Has anyone been in that tall white building in west Ames? It looks abandoned
I went to the shrine like 4 months ago and saw his red truck so I'm assuming he's still alive
Has anyone been in that tall white building in west Ames? It looks abandoned
Last edited:
Are you talking about the one that was converted to apartments?
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.0203713,-93.5410267,284a,20y,41.56t/data=!3m1!1e3
I was out there recently. Somebody threw a huge brick at his windshield and busted it all up. He was the nicest guy and barely had the money to pay for it. So I chatted with him for a while about his property while fixing his truck. He's just an artist. He has no idea why kids keep screwing around on his property. There is nothing creepy out there.
Should have gave him the idea to put up a sign with a phone number for tours. He could probably make $10 a person to show them around.
You don't find that gate a little creepy? Or the Stonehenge-esque monument? So many people have supposedly talked to this guy and nearly all of the accounts are conflicting. Not sure what to think.
Also a really eerie place to visit near Ames,
A few friends and I explored the hills along the Des Moines River north of Boone and found some old cemetery somewhere with graves from the 1800's. It looked like nobody had been there in decades and was on top of this really creepy hill. One of the graves was of a teenage girl who died from "Exposure to Indian Raids". I can't remember details now, but I did some research afterwards and I guess their was a bunch of Indian battles in the area and I guess the locals poisoned a bunch of kegs of beer and gifted them to the natives to try and wipe them up. Ill have to look back through my old photos to find the name of the girl who died which is how I found all these stories.
Last edited:
Here are the photos I took that I could find on my computer from that creepy cemetery near Boone.
And here is a link to some of the crazy Indian stories from that time period and area that I found,
http://iagenweb.org/webster/history-ft-dodge/vol-1-ch6.html
And here is a link to some of the crazy Indian stories from that time period and area that I found,
http://iagenweb.org/webster/history-ft-dodge/vol-1-ch6.html
Alot of those sleepy old coal towns up by Boone are interesting to check out. Obviously there's Moingona/Kate Shelly, but Coalville, Lehigh and Fraser are all really interesting. Fraser had an old biker bar that has a lot of stories tied to it, cults, drug running, even Bigfoot sightings. Has trailers on the hillside overlooking the river. Zenorsville was a coal mining town 4 miles west of Gilbert that you can still go check out old building foundations, streets, etc. Down in the valley that have now been overran by nature.
If you can find it, Hillbilly Holler is worth checking out-spot way out in the hills with a bunch of old trailers and shelters built up on a hillside far from any road where people go to "live off the grid" I wouldn't recommend going by yourself though. There's even an old "Sporting Club" out there thatso rumored to still not allow women or ethnicities.
If you can find it, Hillbilly Holler is worth checking out-spot way out in the hills with a bunch of old trailers and shelters built up on a hillside far from any road where people go to "live off the grid" I wouldn't recommend going by yourself though. There's even an old "Sporting Club" out there thatso rumored to still not allow women or ethnicities.
Wow didn't know that. I checked it out this summer but didn't try to go in because it looked sketchy af
Here are the photos I took that I could find on my computer from that creepy cemetery near Boone.
And here is a link to some of the crazy Indian stories from that time period and area that I found,
http://iagenweb.org/webster/history-ft-dodge/vol-1-ch6.html
I spent way too much time reading that link but wow, very crazy stuff. From that story it says her grave was unmarked and lost over time so I wonder when a tombstone got put up and why there.
Friend wanted to know where it was at. We drove out there on a Saturday afternoon about a month ago. A lot of it is hard to see along with the guy's place due to all the trees. Wait til the leaves fall off and come Halloween you should see it in all it's creepiness.
East of Ames but west of Nevada? Maybe it is the old county mental hospital. It was torn down like 20 years ago or something if that's it. There is a gun range and some other stuff there now.
Just drove by on Friday afternoon. The old man was out along the road unloading something from his truck. He would not look at us, he just turned his back and corralled his cat off the road. The Shrine is definitely getting weathered over the past several years. Still very neat though.
There used to be a place between Ames and Story City called the H tree. Way back when it was rumored that cults were hanging out there. Not sure if it is still there or not.
The Des Moines Register just did a short story about "The Shrine" a few weeks ago.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/life/2017/05/22/shrine-boone-iowa-internet-rumors/314083001/
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/life/2017/05/22/shrine-boone-iowa-internet-rumors/314083001/