San Haven Sanatorium

Dunseith, ND · Historical Buildings

The sanitorium, built in 1909 as a hospital for tuberculosis sufferers, once held over 900 patients, but is now closed. Rumor has it that an exploring trespasser died here when he fell down an elevator shaft. The sound of ghostly babies crying and apparitions in the windows have been reported.

Geographic Information

Address
98th St NE
San Haven, ND
Get Directions »
GPS
48.83528959, -100.04195827
County
Rolette County, North Dakota
Nearest Towns

Quick Answers

Is San Haven Sanatorium really haunted?
Visitors rate San Haven Sanatorium at 89.1 out of 100 on our EHP (Estimated Haunted Probability) scale. So far 23 people have shared firsthand experiences from this location in the comments.
Where is San Haven Sanatorium located?
The address is 98th St NE, San Haven, ND. GPS coordinates: 48.83528959, -100.04195827.
What kind of haunted place is San Haven Sanatorium?
San Haven Sanatorium is listed under Historical Buildings in our North Dakota section.
What is the nearest town to San Haven Sanatorium?
Dunseith, ND is the closest town, about 1.8 miles away, with East Dunseith (2.4 mi.) and Shell Valley (8.5 mi.) also nearby.

Please note: It is your responsibility to acquire appropriate permissions before investigating any location listed on this site. Private property should be respected at all times, as should all posted signs concerning trespassing, hours of operation and other regulations.

Share Your Experiences

Comments (23)

  • Christian |

    My uncles son died there

  • James |

    I'm going to this place in the summer I'll let you guys know what I find. It should be...Fun in its own way. Any advise would be loved. Places I should investigate or anything like that. Thanks

    My email is
    Isoblock2@gmail.com

    • anonymous |

      Go to the fith floor park in the front. The time i was up there i will never forget beware of something thats as loud as thunder sounds like white noise at first then as it gets closer sounds like a horse carriage. Also half your photos may not get developed, you may hear your name, nurses talking behind your back, vertigo, feeling like your spinning around in a circle or being pushed to the ground or pushed period, you may feel sick the air is way different in there, handprints on you, clothing being pulled, stay away from the elevator shafts, but definitely check out the fifth floor roof at night time and take lots of pictures what you will find will be disturbing as fuck on them. There are alot of demons that lurk there do not mistake them for troubled spirits, out of all the pictures i took there was a ton of demons and only one green orb most negatives didn't even come back, make sure you bring sweetgrass with you. One last thing i dont know for sure but i suspect since the place closed down that black masses may have taken place with all the demonic presence there, they may follow you home like they did me and drain your car batteries

      • June |

        For those of us too far away to check this place out, what was on the roof of the fifth floor? and how did you know those things were demons?

        • Samson |

          This entitie wasn't of this world it literally came from somewhere else. And what's on the roof? my buddie said that the stars are awesome up there that's why we went up there

    • Justin |

      If I wanted to check this place out.. who and how would I contact them to make this happen? Really interested... desperate! Me and my girlfriend.

    • Hunter |

      I went here two days ago and our whole group got suddenly ill on the patient floor and heard footsteps behind us, the door at the end of the hall would randomly open and close throughout the night as well.

  • Nick Sansone |

    Have an old autograph book that was written in by residents 1929-1931. There has been several strange incidents involving the book..

    • June |

      like what?

  • Kristinlynn |

    Is this place private property?

    • Samson |

      Yes but the local cops won't even go up there

      • Willie |

        it is on Turtle Mountain Chippewa Indian Reservation. Reservation cops will arrest you for trespassing. If you are not a tribal member you will have problems - may lose your vehicle and all your belongings as they can be mean as hell and it is a "sovereign nation" - where white people are the minority and treated like it.
        Some who live near it may run you off with a rifle, so best not to go there.

  • EldaN. |

    I live near san haven, i could never forget the sound of babies crying.

    • June |

      from how far away?

  • Teo Vucic |

    who do i contact before visiting this place, i don't want to get in trouble for not reporting ahead of time

    • Samson |

      Don't bother contacting anyone the cops won't go up there plus there's only like one on at a time. Real small town.

  • Joe w. Johnson brudda |

    I used to go here a lot when i was a kid we ran the halls and jump from roof top to roof top until we made it to the ground. I've also slid down the garbage/laundry shut in the back of the building I've Walked the tunnels and parties there at night. I grew up in dunseith my entire childhood san haven was a place we went for fun. Sure its scary there but when you grow up around that area it becomes a part of you.

  • Chris |

    It was possibly the 5th floor of the main building, had been thru all of the tunnels, paths and other buildings but I got so sick I had to kneel on the floor, felt like passing out and throwing up. The feeling continued on the way home. Vehicle died at Dales Truckstop and then finally started again. had to pull over several times on hwy 3 south because of nausea and contined to feel sick for several hours. I dnt know if it was the building or not..... or that it was anything other than coincidence because that's all that happened That time

  • Travis |

    I grew up there...My parents both worked there and we lived in 3 different places on the grounds...The pic of the 3 rounded windows that is on a lot of websites was our living room view when we lived in the "penthouse" of the Children's Building (third floor)....I worked there one summer in the gardens with some of the residents......The Garbage/Laundry chute out back" are actually fire escapes to slide mattresses down in case of fire. I lived there about 8 years (about age 9-17), was in every building on the property (except where other families lived), all hours of the day and night..no "strange" things ever happened to me/us even though all the "town kids" thought it "had to be" haunted...

  • Hayden G. |

    I can't believe this place is getting demolished, so sad, its the end of an era for this building

    • Amanda Thompson |

      When is it getting demolished?

  • Rob |

    I went here with my girlfriend and took a little recorder. I didn't capture any electronic voice phenomena, but I did capture a weird incident. There was nobody in the building at the time, just me and her. She was a new girlfriend so I was sweet-talking her trying to kiss her, eventually, I went in and we started to kiss. A couple of seconds into kissing her what sounded like a small rock was thrown and appeared to clink as it ricocheted off the heating register. We took pause as it was decently audible... I lightened the mood with an audible "listen ghosts I'm trying to make out here" and went back to kissing her. Approximately five seconds later another rock thrown with much greater force ricocheted off the exact same spot. Properly spooked we stopped and took a look around, there was still no one there...

    I have the audio clip if anyone is interested in listening. Do be warned there is some silly commentary from two young people in love and some kissing noises!

    email: rfreeman92@mail.com (yes, its .mail not .gmail)

  • Kristy Brooks |

    San Haven Sanatorium was such a wonderful place when it was up and running. They took so much care of the patients there. I wasn't a nurse, but I was a custodian of sorts. I worked there when I was in my twenties. Probably when I was twenty-four. I am pretty sure I was hired there during the late 70's. They took the best care of their patients, and when it was shut down, the patients had to be sent somewhere else. In some cases, a few of those patients were sexually abused and or raped by their new caretakers. San Haven had the best workers.

    I occasionally went up to the location to visit and reminisce about the place it used to be. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see the state it was in. I personally believe there were indeed spirits. All friendly, of course. I never had a terrible experience when visiting, though, it always gave me a chill running down my spine. I also always thought I heard someone calling my name. It's been quite the while since I last visit.

Disclaimer: The stories posted here are user-submitted and are, in the truest sense, ghost stories. Haunted Places makes no claims that any of these stories are factually accurate or scientifically provable.