"Our 28th annual Mystery Night was held in the Angelus Center for the first time this year. Guests enjoyed a little extra room to move around."
The Cottonwood Chronicle ran that caption in November 2025, under a photo of the winners of St. John Bosco Academy's biggest night of the year. For years the academy's main fundraiser ran out of Greencreek Hall. Now it happens at 122 Substation Road, and two weeks before this year's Mystery Night, the same building hosts a youth musical with performers from four prairie towns.
The 29th annual Mystery Night is Saturday, Nov. 7. The theme is the board game "Clue." It's the second year in the new room, and the first year anyone walks in knowing what the room can do.
The Hall Mystery Night Outgrew
The academy calls Mystery Night its major fundraiser each year. Most of its recent run happened in Greencreek Hall. The academy's own records place the 2020 and 2021 events there. The Chronicle reported Greencreek Hall again in 2022 and 2024.
| Year | Venue | Theme or look |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Greencreek Hall | "A 1950's Holiday in Vermont," inspired by White Christmas |
| 2021 | Greencreek Hall | "Luck o'the Irish," with a harpist and an Irish dance troupe from Moscow |
| 2024 | Greencreek Hall | Hats, fascinators and mint juleps |
| 2025 | Angelus Center, first year | "Mission on the Mesa," with cowboys and a few Zorros |
| 2026 | Angelus Center | "Clue" |
The extra room went to use quickly. The 2025 Chronicle account describes a mock jail where guests could have a friend "arrested" for a $10 donation. The five-minute sentence was served next to the saloon, so the prisoners could have a drink behind bars. The silent auction, the live auction and the prizes handed out through the evening all came along from the old setup.
The building was designed for this kind of use. St. John Bosco's 2021 project plan called for a complex of about 26,000 square feet: a college-size court that splits into two high school courts, seating for more than 600 fans, an auditorium for nearly 300, a central foyer for events and socializing, and an industrial kitchen. Those were planning figures. Bishop Peter Christensen blessed the finished Angelus Center on Nov. 17, 2024, with a community gathering and building tours. A year later, Mystery Night moved in.
A $10,000 Prize Built to Be Spent Here
The part of Mystery Night that reaches past the guest list is how the grand prize works. For 2026, tickets are $150 for guests 18 and older and include dinner for two and a hosted bar. Every ticket has a 1-in-350 chance at a $10,000 grand prize, and the prize is "redeemable at nine local businesses." Social hour starts at 5 p.m. and the live auction at 7 p.m. There's also a silent auction.
The prize is spent at the businesses that sponsor the tickets. In 2024 the winner could use it at American Freedom Defense, Cloninger's Marketplace in Cottonwood, Intermountain Feed & Mercantile, Lindsley's Furniture & Appliance, Les Schwab Tire Center in Grangeville, Gem Builders Supply, Bud's Power Sports and Grace Builders. The 2025 Chronicle list names eight sponsors as well, with the grocery printed as Cloninger's Foods in Cottonwood and the builders' supply printed as "Gen Builders' Supply." The 2026 announcement gives the number of businesses, nine, but not their names, so these lists are from past years.
The setup has lasted. In 2019 the $10,000 was redeemable at Lindsley's, Sonnen Meats, Les Schwab in Grangeville, B&A Performance Auto, Intermountain Feed and Mercantile, Chesky Woodworking, Cottonwood Foods and Bud's Powersports. Some sponsors changed between the two lists. Some stayed, including the furniture store, the tire shop, the feed store and the powersports dealer. The grocery appears as Cottonwood Foods on the older list and as Cloninger's on the newer ones.
The prize has stayed the same while the ticket price has gone up. Tickets cost $125 in 2018 and $130 in 2019, both capped at 350. This year's ticket is $150, with the same 1-in-350 odds and the same $10,000 prize. In those earlier years the raffle was an elimination draw where every tenth ticket pulled won a prize. The 2016 account reported $100 prizes along the way, before the last ticket standing took the gift certificates. The winner doesn't have to live in Cottonwood. The 2024 grand prize went to a Lewiston resident, who could spend it only at the sponsors on the list.
Tickets are sold through the school at 208-962-5650 or online at johnbosco.org/mysterynight.
Two Weekends Earlier, a Stage in the Same Building
If Mystery Night shows off the room's foyer-and-kitchen side, the auditorium gets its turn first. Prairie Youth Theater is staging Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins Jr. at the Angelus Center, with a cast of young performers from Cottonwood, Grangeville, White Bird and Craigmont. The first weekend was Oct. 16 and 17. Three shows are left:
- Friday, Oct. 23, at 6:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Oct. 24, at 2 p.m.
- Saturday, Oct. 24, at 6:30 p.m.
"Our young performers and crew have poured so much heart, energy, and creativity into bringing 17 Cherry Tree Lane to life," Executive Director Tiffany Shurtz told the Idaho County Free Press. Single-show tickets are $12 and a family pack is $50. Buy them at camasarts.com or in person at the Camas Prairie Performing Arts office, 507 West Main Street in Grangeville.
The show has a cast from four towns, a box office in Grangeville and a stage in Cottonwood. Mystery Night's prize list covers the same ground, with a Grangeville tire shop listed alongside a Cottonwood grocery.
The Older Halls Still Hold Their Dates
Greencreek Hall has its own fall nights. On Saturday, Oct. 24, the same day as the last two Mary Poppins Jr. shows, the Idaho-Lewis County Cattle Association holds its dinner and auction there. The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. and dinner at 6:30, and the evening includes speakers, live and silent auctions and a new gun board. Dinner is $30 per person. That puts a youth musical in Cottonwood and a cattlemen's auction in Greencreek on the same Saturday evening, a few miles apart.
Between now and Nov. 7, the parish and community rooms have dates of their own:
- Sunday, Nov. 1: The Assumption Parish Dinner runs 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Assumption, 460 Maple Street in Ferdinand.
- Before Nov. 1: Sign up for the St. Mary's/Tri-Parish Community Pinochle Marathon. Call Gladys Sonnen at 208-507-1731 or 208-962-5957, or Susy Campbell at 208-553-0109. Organizers say they can help players without a partner find one, and they plan to send out the player list in early November.
- Every Tuesday: Senior citizen dinner in the lower level of Cottonwood Community Hall.
The pinochle marathon has its own November rhythm. The Chronicle's year-in-review pages for 2022 and 2024 both noted it starting that month. "Time is upon us with the days getting shorter and cooler for pinochle," begins this year's notice in the Cottonwood Chronicle.
There's one smaller new item on Main Street too. The Chronicle's Oct. 1 issue announced Noon on Main, a soup-and-sandwich counter coming to the Mini Mall, with plans for Tuesday through Thursday hours, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., takeout and limited seating. As of that issue, no opening date had been set.
Mystery Night is 18 and older, with 350 chances at the grand prize. Of everything on this list, it's the only event whose prize gets spent after the night is over, as $10,000 in credit at sponsors that in recent years have covered feed, tires, groceries, furniture and building supplies at prairie businesses.
We're a Grangeville team and have spent a long time on the Camas Prairie, and we like seeing the Angelus Center fill up the way it has. If you have questions about property anywhere between Cottonwood and Grangeville, or you just want to talk about how the prairie is changing, reach out to Cody and B Edwards. We'll answer straight and get back to you quickly.
