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Paranormal Travel: A Haunted BnB in Iowa

By Joy Hanson

(Bentonsport, Iowa) – From OregonTravelDaily.com's sister site, TravelParanormal.com. My husband and I own the Mason House Inn B&B in Bentonsport, Iowa. When we bought the place in 2001, we were told that one little old lady ghost inhabited one of the bedrooms on the third floor. And if we left her alone, she would leave us alone.

We thought, yeah sure, and bought the place anyway.  Soon after that, we started noticing things like footsteps on the second floor when nobody was up there.  Guests were telling us about their doorknobs rattling, or a knock on the bedroom door, in the middle of the night but nobody was there. Lights would go off and on in the guest rooms, showers would turn on and off, toilets would flush over and over, and they would hear footsteps in the room or voices talking but nobody was there.  Sometimes there would be the sound of children running and giggling in the hallways and stairways, but no children were in the building. 

We began to think there was more than just one little old lady ghost here.

Many ghost hunting groups have done investigations here and all but one have found evidence of spirits here. We have had fourteen full-body apparitions sighted in the eight years that we have owned the Inn. There is a Civil War soldier, several children, three previous owners, and a cat ghost.

EVPs have recorded such comments as "Good Evening", "Can they see us?", and "Of course they can't see us." Video recordings include orbs shooting around the rooms, human shaped distortions, and a child standing on the landing when there were no children here.

Personally, I and my husband and daughters have seen an old man with white hair and wearing a black suit, a middle aged man with a reddish beard and longish hair, a teen aged girl named Amanda, a boy with dark hair, the little old lady on the third floor, and the cat. 

Guests have seen little girls with long blond hair and white nightgowns, the old man, four different women, and the cat.

The Mason House Inn is located in Van Buren County in the southeast corner of Iowa.  The building, built in 1846 as a hotel,  has been a hotel, a hospital three different time, a boarding house, and now a Bed and Breakfast. The three-story brick building stands on a limestone base with an indoor well and a major river right across the street.  Most of the furniture is the original hotel furniture from the 1800s, which is probably why the previous owners are still here - it's their stuff.

To read about some of the activity here, go to our web site at www.MasonHouseInn.com and click on Ghost Hunting 101 & 102 on the left side. In the second paragraph on that page, click on Joy's Journal. The Journal is broken into years for easy reading.  There are links to ghost hunting group websites where they have posted their evidence of the haunting at the Mason House Inn.