Grimes Castle
Carson City's kingdom, whose walls still scare people today.
After the Ormsby House’s Haunted House of Horror went dark with the hotel itself, and years before Dark Prison, the capital had Grimes Castle. Michael Grimes, “Lord Grimes” in season, bought and opened the haunt around 2006 and told the Nevada Appeal, with admirable honesty, that he’d never even liked haunted houses. He liked entertaining people, and that was enough for roughly eight Octobers.
By 2009 the operation ran two locations at once: The Dungeon, 6,000 square feet of scares on North Carson Street, and The Labyrinth, a kid-friendlier maze inside the old Gottschalks space at the Carson Mall. Canned-food discounts and military discounts kept it a community operation, with house director Brian Fenn running the floor.
The castle’s last season was 2013, but here’s the part we love: it didn’t entirely die. When Grimes Castle closed, the crew at Silver Raven Haunted House bought its wood-panel walkthrough structure in 2014. Those same walls have been reassembled in Sparks every October since. Somewhere in Silver Raven’s maze, you’re still walking through Grimes Castle.