Urban Exploring at ISU

**chuckd4735** · 11-21-2008, 04:49 PM

Originally Posted by MidwestZest

Kind of cool old train bridge next to riverside park. on 6th street, just south of the skate park and the current train bridge. if you walk on the bike path that is just south of 6th street, you'll come to the old rr bed that keeps going straight. walk about 100 feet down that and there's the train bridge. I don't know that it's strange or anything special, but just kinda cool.

Im pretty sure (not 100%) that bridge/rail line is for the old Dinky.

**jaretac** · 11-21-2008, 04:58 PM

Originally Posted by The_Architect

It's out west of the Ames Country Club.

That along Cameron School Rd?

**flynnhicks03** · 11-21-2008, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by cmoneyr

I've been there, weird stuff.

Does anybody have the back story of this place? Can you tell us any more about it? I've never heard about it.

**cyQlone** · 11-21-2008, 05:47 PM

I used to work in the basement of Friley when I worked for Dept. of Residence. There is a locked room on the far west side that if, with a master key, is opened, it is a room full of dirt. Also in the basement there are old butcher areas and old meat lockers. Pretty cool stuff.

**MaxPower57** · 11-21-2008, 05:58 PM

Originally Posted by flynnhicks03

Does anybody have the back story of this place? Can you tell us any more about it? I've never heard about it.

Apparently this guy had twin daughters who were walking along the road one day and a supposedly somebody in a red car hit and killed both of them and kept going. The father then created this twisted playground in their honor or something, it is really a weird place.

**A-town Cy** · 11-21-2008, 06:03 PM

Originally Posted by cyQlone

I used to work in the basement of Friley when I worked for Dept. of Residence. There is a locked room on the far west side that if, with a master key, is opened, it is a room full of dirt. Also in the basement there are old butcher areas and old meat lockers. Pretty cool stuff.

Isn't there a story about a guy with a top hat running through the basement getting chased long ago and the police had him cornered and never found him, all they found was a top hat drawn on the wall? I can't remember it but I know i was told it last year at friley and then googled it and it came up. Also some story about 5 rooms on the west side of friley that are haunted so they aren't used anymore. One of them is 0013 IIRC

EDIT: I found haunted stories about ISU on their website. Mr Big is who I was thinking of...
http://www.iastate.edu/Inside/2007/1019/ghosts.shtml
http://www.geocities.com/mrbig_uda/daily_big_story.htm

**scottie33** · 11-21-2008, 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by jaretac

Another thread perked my interest. There are allot of strange places around campus and Ames to explore and I know there are allot of people who explore them. I was just curious about some of the strange places some of you have been.

Disclaimer- I'm not trying to encourage trespassing. There are allot of people that have special access to places because of a job, club, or degree. Remember, anything you say can be used against you- just kidding.

I think the strangest place on campus has to be Spangler Lab. Back out of sight, behind a fence and over the hill and always locked. The building looks occupied with offices and shops, but as you walk down some of the hallways you feel like you need a machete to get through the spider webs. It looks like the building was suddenly abandoned 20 years ago, cause there is nothing in the building that looks new- including the old dos computers and typewriters.

That pic on top of Design???

**chuckd4735** · 11-21-2008, 06:22 PM

Originally Posted by scottie33

That pic on top of Town Engr???

Design.

**Aclone** · 11-21-2008, 07:35 PM

Originally Posted by chuckd4735

Im pretty sure (not 100%) that bridge/rail line is for the old Dinky.

Might be the same one, but the rail bed just south of the CyRide barn was the one that brought coal to the ISU Power Plant, at least through the Eighties.

**Cardinal&Gold11** · 11-21-2008, 08:20 PM

I have been inside the "twisted playground"! It is so creep! We were talking to some cops that were out there and they said that this guy is pretty much insane and has a shotgun with him at all times, and would probably use it to. He told us that we should probably never go out there because they are afraid that the old might hurt someone.

One time a few of my buddies drove out there and we drove by his house and it was just creepy, didn't look like anyone was home, then when we drove back again, he was standing in the middle of the road just staring us down! When we finally drove away, he started laughing as he was standing there

**josh777** · 11-21-2008, 09:02 PM

Originally Posted by Cardinal&Gold11

I have been inside the "twisted playground"! It is so creep! We were talking to some cops that were out there and they said that this guy is pretty much insane and has a shotgun with him at all times, and would probably use it to. He told us that we should probably never go out there because they are afraid that the old might hurt someone.

One time a few of my buddies drove out there and we drove by his house and it was just creepy, didn't look like anyone was home, then when we drove back again, he was standing in the middle of the road just staring us down! When we finally drove away, he started laughing as he was standing there

Alright, I need specific directions to this place (please).

**thisISnextyear** · 11-21-2008, 09:09 PM

Originally Posted by josh777

Alright, I need specific directions to this place (please).

I'm not positive, but I believe it is West on Cameron School Road and then down the gravel road a ways when you keep going West at county line road. Am I talking about the same place as everyone else???

**Al_4_State** · 11-23-2008, 08:03 AM

The Crazy House (what we called it) is easy to find. Just go north on North Dakota, till it hits the t-intersection at Cameron School Rd. Take a left and just keep going. About 2.5 miles after it becomes gravel, it's on your left. I have some VERY messed up stories about going out to the place...

**ornryactor** · 11-23-2008, 08:28 AM

Originally Posted by A-town Cy

Also some story about 5 rooms on the west side of friley that are haunted so they aren't used anymore. One of them is 0013 IIRC

Yeah, they're down in Dodds, on the first floor of old Hughes Hall (the west end of the building). I can't find the story (I've never seen it online, only heard it orally), but a kid hung himself in the second room on the right.

The DoR placed new residents in there the next semester (without telling anybody what had happened in that room) but they both moved out and dropped out of school after just a few weeks of class. Two more students moved in, and the exact same thing happened. This continued for nearly two years, with multiple students moving into the room, only to move out and drop out of school with little explanation. In the meantime, students in the rooms on either side began to complain of some kind of noise (I think it was really loud thumping, like someone hitting or kicking the walls), and those noises and the complaints intensified as time went on.

Eventually the problems got bad enough that they were widespread legend in the building and on campus, and students started refusing to live in those rooms. The Friley hall director felt like it was being made to look bad, so she(?) very publicly volunteered to spend a full day and night living in that room to prove that it was not haunted. She "moved in" one morning and spent the day doing paperwork with no problems. The next morning, when the 24 hours was to expire, a few students were waiting outside her door for her to wake up and come out. She emerged right on time, but her face was drawn and pale, and she had obviously had not slept and had been crying for a long time. She walked out of the room without a word to anyone standing there, went to her office, packed her things, and quit her job on the spot. After that, those rooms were no longer used for student housing, and aren't to this day. Some of them have been converted into shop space for maintenance, and even they complain about weird stuff that sometimes happens. The three rooms that were most afflicted are completely sealed off and unused.

Has anybody ever heard an approximate year for this story? That's the one thing I've never heard.

**jaretac** · 11-23-2008, 08:54 AM

Originally Posted by ornryactor

For a minute, you had me stumped. I was pretty sure I'd heard of and seen everything on ISU's campus, but I'd sure never heard of Spangler Lab, so I looked it up. Applied Sciences Complex? Come on, that is NOT "on campus". By that definition, the new dairy farm down in Ankeny is "on campus", too! I will give you, though, that the whole ASC is creepy as all hell. Gives me the heebie-jeebies just being in the parking lot.

The new Dairy farm is not in Ankeny, it is just 2 miles south of Ames. Second, the Applied Science Complex is connected to main campus. It would be more like comparing Applied to Cap Timm or the towers.