On cold October nights, vintage trolleys roll through the streets of downtown Boise, eerie music drifting out of their windows. Inside, flickering candlelight casts a warm glow on passengers as they listen to ghost stories. As they journey across the city, they pay a visit to some of Boise’s haunted buildings.
Boise Trolley Tours offers a spooky twist on their historical tours in the month of October by taking passengers to landmarks in the city rumoured to be haunted.
The old-fashioned streetcars, adorned with creepy decorations, are guided by an animatronic skeleton named Anita Bone-ita, who offers comedic commentary about Boise’s ghostly past.
Guests travel around town to dozens of supposedly haunted sites, such as the old Idanha Hotel, the Egyptian Theatre and City Hall. The trolley makes stops at a couple of locations where guests can wander around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the fabled spirits who haunt them.
Visitors are invited to take pictures at the Old Idaho Penitentiary, a site considered one of the most haunted places in the state of Idaho.
Boise State University even makes an appearance on the tour. While the trolley doesn’t visit campus, Bone-ita tells the story of the Communication Building, long-rumoured to be haunted by a former student.
Passengers on the trolley were fascinated by the history they learned about on the tour, and appreciated the chance to connect with Boise’s frightening past.
“I’ve always loved the history behind stuff like this,” said Kaycee Charles, a passenger on the haunted trolley tour. “I love it when history gets turned into a story that everybody can follow.”
For some, the tour is a spine-chilling experience. For others, it’s more about novelty.
“For me, it was more campy than spooky,” Charles noted. “But I know I heard some other people on the ride that were definitely a little bit more spooked. I think it just kind of depends on how you actually feel about paranormal shenanigans.”
While this tour solely focused on the paranormal side of Boise’s history, some passengers noted after the tour, they wanted to experience the regular history tour to learn more about the city’s past.
“There was a point in the middle where it just definitely felt like a normal trolley tour, but at the beginning and at the end, it had the Halloween element that you come for,” said Scott Charles, another passenger. “It was a cool Halloween sandwich with a normal tour in the middle. It definitely made me want to come back and do a normal trolley tour to see what information I can learn from that, too.”
When new ownership took over Boise Trolley Tours in 2024, Kendall Shew joined the team to lead marketing and special programs, breathing new life into the company’s experiences. Shew explained many of the upgrades were inspired by the storytelling and production style of Disneyland attractions.
“We were thinking, ‘How can we make it fun?’” he said. “We both loved that idea of a snarky host like ‘Jungle Cruise’. What if a comedian led it? What if we had a skeleton that does the bits?”
The team decided that they’d do both — a skeleton would narrate the haunted tour, and a local comedian would record the lines.
“Krystal Moore, local comedian, is the voice of Anita Bone-ita. She’s a local comedian around here, with a dry sense of humor and everything. Her voice was lowered to fit the idea of what a skeleton would sound like,” Shew added
The haunted tour pairs the skeleton’s comedic narration with a visual experience. Screens inside the trolley display footage of Boise’s historic landmarks as Bone-ita tells their stories. Shew believes the upgrades have been well worth the effort, making Boise Trolley Tours a must-see local attraction.
This year’s Halloween tour has been selling out faster than ever before, and the response from the public has been “extremely positive.” Shew and his team are continually working on improving year-round programming for Boise Trolley Tours, hoping to keep drawing in more visitors.
“There are people who travel from out of town to come check out some of these spots,” he noted. “We’re just so lucky that we get to make our own little slice of Disneyland in Boise, Idaho.”
