The Haunted City Igloo Hotel in Alaska - 3rd Palm Paranormal Places
- NICHOLAS DODGE
- Jul 3
- 4 min read
Unlike the Sloss Furnaces in Alabama which were heavily renovated, the Haunted Igloo City Hotel remains unfinished and never opened for business. Found in one of America's remotest states, it was also built in a part of the region where very few travel regardless. First built in the 1970's the Igloo City Hotel has traded owners throughout the years, none of whom have been capable (or financially able) to complete its construction, which was held up by code violations in prior decades.
Today, the Igloo City Hotel marks the halfway point between Fairbanks and Anchorage. Though what makes this haunted place so notorious isn't anything having to do with actual ghost hauntings, rather it's the eerie complexity of its structure, as well as the decay the hotel has endured over the years.
Although there are no specters floating through walls in white dresses, or unexplained voices calling into the lobby, there sure is something disturbing about the hotel...
Presently:
Currently available for $300,000, the Igloo City Hotel once constructed by Leon Smith (a WWII Veteran and outdoorsman) is now on real estate registries by its current owner/custodian Brad Fisher. This 80-foot-tall, 105-foot-long structure was meant as a getaway between destinations, with the beautiful Denali National Park nearby. Now it stands as an odd and failed tribute to America's 49th state, where passersby either slow down to gawk, take selfies or (under most circumstances) choose to take a leak.
Brad Fisher, who was apparently good friends with the original owner Smith, has kept the structure standing since the 1990's. But that hasn't warded off certain types of individuals from defacing the hotel in graffiti and vandalizing its inner core.
When asked why he hasn't been able to sell this property yet, Fisher explained:
"I guess the problem has been, it's something you’d have to do yourself, and so you’d have to live up there. And nobody lives up there..." -The Sad, Urine-Soaked History of Alaska's Igloo Hotel, VICE News
With the nearest town holding a population of merely 50 individuals, and the hotel itself being an inhabitable shelter at this time, it's no wonder that Fisher has had trouble passing it off over the years. He also states that he'd like someone with better finances to pick the place up and turn it into their own passion-project, hopefully giving the place life someday.
Igloo City Hotel's History:
Located off of George Parks Highway, the Igloo City Hotel was more than just a passion project for Leon Smith. It was meant as a memorial to Alaska and the outdoorsman lifestyle that many could appreciate and fine a safe retreat to, either by recreation or for touristic means. Again, the hotel was originally constructed in the 1970's, but due to prior coding violations decades ago it was never completed.
With an abandoned gas station, a huge gravel parking lot, a few shutter cabins, and an outhouse on the plot, it becomes apparent that this one-of-a-kind hotel was destined to be something truly spectacular. Especially after considering its concept, an igloo, although Alaskans don't actually survive in igloos it still was a nice theme.
Smith, who was obviously passionate about his hotel, might never get to see it in its greatest glory. He lived a life of adventure, having been born from Tiff City, Missouri, he fought the Japanese in Guadalcanal during WWII, manned a tugboat off the Californian coastline, before moving up north to work as a deep-sea fisherman and lumberjack.
Eventually moving further north into Alaska, Smith and his wife opened up a service station at milepost 188.5, the same service station that sits abandoned beside his hotel. He noticed at the time that outdoor and secluded hotels for hikers, hunters, snowmobiles, and the like were becoming a dying breed. His hotel, if it was finished, would have included 58 guest rooms, a restaurant, bar, liquor store, and gift shop, along with penthouse suites reserved for himself, his friends, and his family.
The Eeriness of the Igloo:
From shattered and boarded up windows, rotting wooden walls and pillars, to the overall queer location in the deep remoteness of the Alaskan frontier, something always seems a bit off when visitors enter the lot. There are talks of hearing voices coming from within the structure at times, even though every door has been locked. These sounds could very well be coming from the numerous animals (moose, deer, etc.) that inhabit the facility time to time.
But the fact that wild animals inhabiting a structure created for human recreation are living inside of said facility says more to the eeriness of this abandoned structure than any amount of vandalism or graffiti ever could. It's quite the contrast, as passersby will also notice the excessive amount of nature growing around the hotel. It's apocalyptic in a sense, seeing something that was so passionately built for humans to inherit, only to watch as the decay gives way to the nature and animals of our world.
Not to mention the rust eating every metal frame, or the apparent rust from the concrete. This place has become a part of the uncanny valley of perception, a remote and abandoned hotel in the middle of the wilderness of Alaska, unoccupied and unbothered. Perhaps that's why the Igloo City Hotel is considered "haunted" by many, due to its strange place amongst our otherwise cultivated and monopolized world.
I would say that if it inhabited ghosts or specters, it would be much more terrifying. But the fact that nothing lives, survives, or has died within its walls seems much more frightening than if any amount of life had booked a stay. Perhaps that's why this hotel is one of the most "haunted" places in America.
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