Old Courthouse

Completed in 1909 and now home to the Polk County Historical Museum, the old courthouse stands on the same plot where, in 1886, the bodies of the Mann brothers were displayed for several days after a mob dragged them from jail and lynched them, before they ever stood trial, over the killing of Marshal Silas Campbell in the street outside — a scene that corresponds to the second-floor rotunda of today's building, where visitors report a lingering sadness and apparitions on the spot where the bodies were laid out. Staff and visitors have also reported screams from the basement boiler room, where a worker died in an explosion years ago; cold spots and malfunctioning lights near a first-floor room of Native American artifacts; and, in the old 1909 courtroom — used for every trial until 1987 — cold spots and a brushing sensation locals have long attributed to the building's history without a specific documented source. An unidentified woman in white has also been seen near the second-floor restrooms and on the third floor.