Northern State Hospital

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Northern State Mental Hospital opened in 1912, and was said to be the site of many deaths, at least partially due to experimental trans-orbital lobotomies. It operated as a hospital until 1976, and today the site holds a job corps and a drug rehab center…and some ghosts. A prankster ghost nicknamed Fred has been known in the past to toss sheets and bedpans. Witnesses have seen apparitions of a man and a little girl with a red ball, and a nurse hanging from a noose. Cold spots and other anomalies have been reported here as well. The site has been featured on an episode of TV’s Ghost Hunters.

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Geographic Information

Address:
Thompson Dr and Hub Dr
Sedro-Woolley, WA
United States

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GPS:
48.53016351731678, -122.20624780689832
County:
Skagit County, Washington
Nearest Towns:
Sedro-Woolley, WA (2.3 mi.)
Clear Lake, WA (4.7 mi.)
Lyman, WA (6.6 mi.)
Burlington, WA (6.6 mi.)
Alger, WA (8.7 mi.)
Big Lake, WA (8.9 mi.)
Mount Vernon, WA (9.5 mi.)
Hamilton, WA (9.9 mi.)
Edison, WA (11.1 mi.)
Bay View, WA (12.8 mi.)

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Comments (16)

  1. When I was first starting out as a 911 dispatcher here, we did a ‘tour’ of the county. The entire campus has an eerie, almost stifling feeling to it. Being very sensitive to energy, I even have a hard time driving by it on Hwy 20. You couldn’t PAY me to go back there again……..nu uh, no way, NO.

  2. I went to job corps in sedro-wooley Washington and the drive to there was creepy but when you got to job corps it felt like you were being watched. My time there for 6 months in 97 were anything but peaceful. I heard loud noises and I had a feeling I was never alone when I was in a room by my self. I also didn’t feel safe there. You could not pay me to go back there.

  3. Athena R. Ware  |  

    When I went to Job-corps in late October 2015-December 2015, I experienced being scratched, shadow people, a voice saying “come play with me” and being growled at. I got feelings of sadness and anger.

  4. Back when the haunted house was in effect, my parents were working in the Denny building parallel to the line outside of people waiting to get in. The haunted house did not take place in the Denny building so it was just my folks and 1 security guard. I was living in Leavenworth at the time but was able to get my voice recorder to them. They set it on the stairs leading to the atic where the nurse supposedly hung her self and can be heard humming or singing.

    On the recording you can hear the faint sound of the people waiting outside in line. also you can hear the sound of my parents talking. So at one point there is a loud blood curdling scream. Wasn’t anyone in the building and my dad remembers not hearing this when he was there.

    I will try to get an uploading of this possible EVP for anyone to hear.

    • We were just there today and it is a very creepy place, and we go to these type of locations quite often, if you have a chance go and take a look, bring a evp recorder and a camerea…

  5. sinead vernier  |  

    I went to the inpatient drug program back in march 2011, i remember seeing the coffee pot start rocking back and forth by itself , id always get the eerie feeling someones watching me. One night i had just got into bed it was around 1am , i heard someone say “exhale”, thinking my roomate woke up, i didnt think much of it. Then i heard it again but a little louder and closer to me, “exhale” , this happened 3 times total. The third time i heard it , it was directly in my ear so needless to say i jumped outta bed went and got ear plugs from RTS, residental staff , i got back into bed i didnt hear it again being i got ear plugs but i did feel the faintest of what felt like a hand move slowly starting at my legs and stopping at my shoulders touch me. I was under the covers by that point . .I’ll never forget that experience thats for sure

  6. I came to visit with my mom. We were walking the dogs around the property and were in the kitchen building. My mom has gone ahead of me, so I walked into the abandoned kitchen house by myself, then into an adjoining room; likely a pantry. Took one step in and immediately one step backward. The energy in that room was terrifying, felt like something was touching me and watching me. Finally caught up with my mom and she said “Did you feel that in the kitchen pantry?!”

    Only room on the grounds that we felt anything weird.

  7. I was their today visiting my girl who is their for treatment she told me something nibbled her ear and she seen two different shadows. I took these pics.

  8. I took this pic. In one of the barns. It looks like a face in the glassless window frame. I also got an evp in the canning barn, a female voice asked me my name on my voice recorder.

  9. I was at job corps 1993 to 1996 the woods along the creek past the powerhouse are particularly bad there dark and cold the old morgue at back near the field also not fun the field is worst I remember the grounds would vibrate like a electric post I when nuts and attempted suicide for first time up there it follows to this day.

  10. My friends & I walked around & took pics of the entire place yesterday. One of the 5 of us got unexplained scratches on her side. She was wearing a tight white tank top & no marks on it these three unexplained marks just showed up on her skin. She never felt anything & did not notice until she got home.

  11. our girl scout trip went there in approx 1958 to provide entertainment for the patients; being only 10 yrs old
    ‘they’ looked strange- – – all in state issued clothes; nothing strange happened yet years later i was an RN working in a virginia state mental hospital…

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