39.1603° N, 119.7375° W. Corner of 5th Street and Warm Springs Court.
Location & directions · Nevada State Prison
FINDING US IS EASY. GETTING OUT IS ANOTHER STORY.
Dark Prison is staged inside the real Nevada State Prison in Carson City, about 30 miles from the Reno airport and under an hour from the lake. Three free lots. Follow the attendants.
Punch 3301 Warm Springs Ct into any maps app. If it argues with you, we're at the corner of 5th Street and Warm Springs Court in Carson City. You can see the massive prison from 5th Street, even from the freeway.
EXHIBIT B
EVIDENCE · PARKING
THREE LOTS ON THE PROPERTY. ALL FREE.
Follow the attendants. They're mostly friendly.
FILE 01
FROM RENO + SPARKS
ROUTE
I-580 / US-395 south into Carson City
DISTANCE
About 30 miles from the Reno airport
NOTE
Most of our guests make this drive. Leave early on Saturdays.
CONFIRMED
FILE 02
FROM LAKE TAHOE
ROUTE
US-50 east over Spooner Summit from the south shore. NV-28 to US-50 from the north shore.
TIME
Under an hour from either shore
NOTE
Watch for chain controls late in the season.
CONFIRMED
FILE 03
FROM CARSON CITY
ROUTE
East on 5th Street to Warm Springs Court
TIME
Minutes from downtown
NOTE
Same stone as the Capitol. The inmates quarried both.
CONFIRMED
FILE 04
FLYING IN
AIRPORT
Reno-Tahoe International (RNO)
DISTANCE
About 30 miles to the prison
NOTE
Nonstop service from 22 U.S. cities. You'll want a car.
Real people were locked up here. Real executions happened here. You can't fake that, so we build the haunt inside it.
WHERE YOU'RE STANDING
In 1862 the Nevada Territorial Legislature turned Abraham Curry's Warm Springs Hotel into the state's first penitentiary. Prisoners quarried the sandstone under their own feet, built the cellblocks with it, and rebuilt them after the fires of 1867 and 1870. The same stone went into the State Capitol. The prison did its job for 150 years, closed in 2012, and now fills with three haunts every fall. The haunt runs in partnership with the Nevada State Prison Preservation Society, a 501(c)(3). Your ticket helps keep the place standing.
THE QUARRY
SANDSTONE CUT BY CONVICTS
In the late 1870s the quarry gave up fossil footprints: mammoth, dire wolf, giant sloth. For a while people swore the sloth tracks belonged to giants.
THE BULLPEN
A CASINO, 1932 TO 1967
The only known inmate-run casino in an American prison. Brass tokens, house games, no windows.
THE CHAMBER
32 EXECUTIONS, 1924 TO 1979
Gee Jon, 1924, was the first lethal-gas execution in the United States.
THREE HAUNTS. ONE REAL PRISON.
HAA ICONIC HAUNTS · PLATINUM 2025
More than 32,000 square feet of prison, and the only Nevada haunt on the Haunted Attraction Association's Iconic Haunts list.
The original cellblock, and the reason the building does half the scaring itself. New storyline for 2026.
HAUNT 02
UNIT 15
The security office where the Warden made his last stand, the license plate factory, the cafeteria where the Butcher picks his cuts, the laundry, the chapel, the morgue, and the sewers.
HAUNT 03
THE INSTITUTE FOR THE UNWELL
A psychiatric ward built in 1957 for inmates too far gone to rehabilitate. Wavy walls and a dorm room are new this year.
60+ LIVE ACTORS. INSTRUCTED NEVER TO TOUCH YOU.
They don't need to. Prosthetics, scleral contacts, blood tracks you can read at arm's length. Trained actors and guides work every corridor, and there are exit points throughout the haunt if you need one.
EXHIBIT C · CELL BLOCK C
EXHIBIT D · THE BRIDE
EXHIBIT E · BARNABY
EXHIBIT F · TIARA
SEASON · SEPT 25 TO NOV 1, 2026 · TIMED ENTRY
PLAN THE NIGHT
THIS EVENT SELLS OUT. BUY IN ADVANCE.
Timed entry, limited slots per night, and once a slot fills, it's gone. Online is $15 cheaper than the box office.
ON THE DOCKET · SPECIAL NIGHTS
Some nights run differently. Know which one you're booking.
FLASHLIGHT NIGHT
One flashlight per group.
FAMILY TRICK-OR-TREAT · OCT 25
Lights on.
BEHIND THE SCREAMS · SEP 26, OCT 2, 10, 23, 29
Hour-long lights-on backstage tour with the builders. No actors. $74.95 per person online.
BLACKOUT NIGHT · NOV 1
Closing night.
TICKETS
$34.95 ONLINE
$49.95 at the box office. The general admission line can run up to an hour. VIP is $74.95 online with its own entrance, a 5 to 10 minute wait, the Private Museum of Curiosities, the Education Wing rooms, and a commemorative gift. Pick your night and your slot at checkout. Nightly hours are listed there.
All three haunts open onto the yard: live entertainment, projection mapping around the fire pits, themed photo ops, carnival games, a chill zone, and Carson City food trucks. The Shiv Bar (21+), out of the prison's old muster room and into the yard for 2026, pours beer, wine, seltzers, and non-alcoholic options. Parents wait here for free.
STAY
COURTYARD CARSON CITY
Our hotel partner. 3870 S Carson St, four miles from the prison, next door to the Casino Fandango. Book it, sleep it off, drive home in daylight.
Metal detectors at the gate, security on site. No masks or face paint, no outside food or drink, no re-entry, no recording inside the haunts. Expect dense fog, strobes, loud noise, and claustrophobic sets. Under 5 not permitted inside the haunts, and under 12 should bring an adult. Parents can wait in the yard for free. Tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable. You paid us to scare you.
NEVADA STATE PRISON
