A skeleton in the closet? In this Idaho town, bones could be part of ritual
When walking through a historic mining town like Silver City, you never know what secrets the old buildings could hold.
As it turned out, one structure was hiding an actual skeleton in its closet.
The Owyhee County Sheriff’s Office told the Idaho Statesman that it was contacted Friday after a man working on renovations discovered two skeletons inside a building previously used as the lodge of the Silver City chapter of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
The man reported that he had been clearing out clutter when he discovered a small, jammed pull-down door, Owyhee County Chief Deputy Steve Crawford said. Upon opening it, he found a black coffin containing a skeleton covered with a black sheet, and a second skeleton behind the coffin, Crawford said.
One set of bones turned out to be fake. The skeleton in the coffin, however, was quite real, according to Crawford.
The discovery was first reported by the Owyhee Avalanche.
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Owyhee County Coroner Aaron Tines said the human skeleton had hardware connecting the bones in the correct anatomical positions, in a process known as skeletal articulation.
The coroner plans to have an anthropologist examine the remains to learn more, including the likely age, gender and ethnicity.
“They seem like they’re historic remains,” Tines told the Statesman by phone. “We know that lodge was opened up in the late 1800s, and we want to be able to obtain as much information as we can for our case.”
‘Secret society’ ritual used skeletons
Tines said that his office always treats any death as suspicious until it knows otherwise, but he thinks the building’s history gives a good guess as to why a skeleton was in there.
Located on Washington Street, the building was constructed in the 1870s, beginning life as an apartment building in then-bustling Silver City, according to the Idaho Heritage Trust. The quasi-ghost town sits about 73 miles southwest of Boise, and still has a few operating businesses in the summer tourist season.
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The I.O.O.F. Owyhee Lodge #2 was chartered by the Odd Fellows in 1867, and began using the Washington Street building soon after. The Sheriff’s Office said it believes the organization stored the coffin and skeletons in the compartment prior to 1900.
The Odd Fellows eventually purchased the building in 1905. Today, it is privately owned by the Silver City Property Owners, the Idaho Heritage Trust said. The building had not been accessed in years until recent renovations, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The Owyhee Lodge #2 declined to speak to the Idaho Statesman about the skeletons.
“In the research that we’ve done so far, skeletons seem to be part of the ceremonies of the Odd Fellows,” Tines said. “It sounds like skeletons were used fairly often in some of the ceremonies for some of the fraternal organizations. So it’s not necessarily uncommon that they would be within a fraternal lodge, from what we’ve gathered.”
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows describes itself on its website as a “global fraternal organization” founded in the United States in 1819, “with a mission to promote friendship, love, and truth while improving communities and aiding those in need.”
The order’s reputation as a so-called “secret society” dates back to its even older roots in 18th century Europe, when governments persecuted fraternal organizations in France and England, according to the organization’s United Kingdom website.
The order’s ritual involving skeletons remains shrouded in mystery to this day, but Penny Castle, grand secretary for the Grand Lodge of Ohio, told The Cincinnati Enquirer in 2022 that bones are used in ceremonies to remind people of their own mortality.
Odd Fellows skeleton on display in Caldwell
Friday’s discovery wasn’t the first time remains were found in a local Odd Fellows building. An Odd Fellows in Caldwell donated a skeleton from its building to the Indian Creek Museum. It still stands on display at the Caldwell museum run by the Canyon County Historical Society, and was dubbed “George” through a children’s contest.
Bill Roos, president of the historical society, said George never fails to thrill when local Cub Scouts visit.
“When they go through the museum, they finish the tour, and they’ll ask them, ‘What was your favorite thing?” Roose said. “And inevitably, they say, ‘The skeleton.’”
This story was originally published September 4, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
