Abandoned places in Boise
6 abandoned and forgotten places around Boise, Old Idaho Penitentiary, Idaho City Historic District & Boot Hill Cemetery and Neon Grove among them — and for each one, whether you can legally visit. Ruins, ghost towns and shuttered industry, with the ones that are trespassing or genuinely unsafe marked as such rather than romanticised. They spread across Boise (East End), Idaho City, Boise (Linen District), Silver City and 2 more areas, so two or three can make a whole afternoon. 3 of them cost nothing. Every entry is hand-vetted against real sources — not scraped off a top-ten list or averaged out of crowd ratings.
Every abandoned place we've verified, nationwide — with its legal-access status →
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Old Idaho PenitentiaryOpen to visit
A territorial prison that locked up its first inmates in 1872 and kept operating until it closed in December 1973 in the wake of riots and crumbling conditions, this sandstone compound lets you walk into Siberia (the solitary-confinement cellblock) and stand in the Gallows Room where executions were carried out. Over 13,000 people were imprisoned here, including children as young as ten and more than 200 women. Visitors and staff report heaviness, whispers, phantom touches, and flickering lights, and the site has been filmed by Ghost Adventures and Destination Fear.
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Idaho City Historic District & Boot Hill CemeteryOpen to visit
Founded in 1862 in the wake of the Boise Basin gold rush, Idaho City briefly swelled past 7,000 people, larger than Portland at the time and the biggest city in the Northwest, before fires and the bust hollowed it out. Its Pioneer ("Boot Hill") cemetery holds thousands of graves from the lawless mining years, and far more of the men buried here died violently than peacefully, of the first 200 burials, only about 28 died of natural causes. The Boise Basin Museum, set in the 1867 Pinney building, anchors a walkable historic district of surviving 1860s structures and boardwalks you can explore on foot.
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Neon GroveOpen to visit
Boise's first open-air neon sign gallery, unveiled in October 2024, where six rescued and restored vintage commercial signs glow along a single block. The lineup includes salvaged signs from a defunct motel, an auto park, a cleaners, and a truck-stop cafe, each painstakingly rewired to its original mid-century form. It functions as a permanent outdoor light installation and an accidental museum of Boise's vanished storefronts.
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Silver CityOpen to visit
Roughly seventy weathered 1800s structures still stand in this remote Owyhee Mountains mining town, never turned into a theme park and never fully abandoned, with many buildings still owned by descendants of the original miners. Reaching it means more than twenty miles of rough dirt road climbing into the mountains, typically passable only from Memorial Day through early October. The Idaho Hotel still takes overnight guests in antique-furnished rooms and serves meals through the summer season.
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Adelmann MineView only
Located in the Boise foothills, the Adelmann Mine is a historic gold mining site established in the early 1900s by German immigrant Richard Adelmann. The most prominent remnant is a remarkably well-preserved, multi-story wooden ore mill nestled in a rugged gulch. While the mine's underground tunnels are sealed, the weathered timber structure stands as a striking relic of Idaho's gold rush era.
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Black Hornet MineView only
Discovered in 1891 in the Boise foothills, the Black Hornet Mine was a modest gold-mining operation that saw a brief investment boom in the mid-1890s. Though production largely ceased by World War II, the site still retains historical remnants of its mining past. Today, hikers can find old tailing piles, rusted machinery parts, and sealed or open adits scattered across the rugged terrain.
Abandoned places in Boise — FAQ
Is it legal to visit abandoned places around Boise?
It depends on the site, and each listing here says explicitly — with the reason. Of the 6 with a verified access status: 4 are legal to enter (like Old Idaho Penitentiary and Idaho City Historic District & Boot Hill Cemetery), 2 are view-only from public land or roadside, and 0 are private property or genuinely unsafe — those are marked "do not enter" rather than romanticised.
Which abandoned & forgotten places in Boise are the strangest?
Ranked by how strange they actually are: Old Idaho Penitentiary, Adelmann Mine and Black Hornet Mine. Old Idaho Penitentiary — A territorial prison that locked up its first inmates in 1872 and kept operating until it closed in December 1973 in the wake of riots and crumbling conditions, this sandstone compound lets you walk into Siberia (the solitary-confinement cellblock) and stand in the Gallows Room where executions were carried out.
Where in Boise are they?
Across Boise (East End), Idaho City, Boise (Linen District), Silver City and Adelmann Mine and 1 more. Each listing gives the neighborhood and address so you can cluster a couple into one outing.
Are any of the abandoned & forgotten places in Boise free?
Yes — 3 are free to visit, including Silver City, Adelmann Mine and Black Hornet Mine. The rest are mostly low-cost.
Is this a good weird date in Boise?
That's what the list is built for. Every entry has a specific move rather than a vague recommendation — at Old Idaho Penitentiary, for instance: Take the self-guided daytime tour through Death Row and the Gallows Room, then come back for a summer Twilight Tour after the gates would normally close.
How were these abandoned & forgotten places chosen?
An agentic research system digs for the genuinely obscure — the spots even locals miss — and every one is verified against real sources before it makes the list. We deliberately skip the landmarks already on every Boise guide.