Abandoned and Disturbing

The Pacific Northwest is know for its beautiful oceans, mountain ranges, waterfalls and a whole host of other wondrous and magical places to explore. But did you know that we have a darker side? Let’s explore some places that just might make you shiver with chilliness. Let’s step inside…

*Just an FYI, this is a departure from my usual postings and will NOT become a regular thing. Every state in the Union has a past and some of that past is a little dark. The photography of these places can be interesting and can lend drama to an article or story. These are photos I’ve taken, as all photos within this blog, and allot of what is posted here, is from fact and from the research I’ve looked through. I have edited most of the photos to aid in the emotional content of this posting.

Northern States Hospital, in Sedro-Woolley, Washington, is a real interesting place. It opened its doors in 1911 and shut them for good in 1973. It was originally on 700 acres and including a working farm with several outbuildings, its own sewer system and host of other mechanical/industrial-type structures. It kept livestock and there are several of these buildings still standing, riddled with graffiti and in various forms of disrepair. The land was given to the County to make a recreational type space for everyone. To the left, one of the buildings located on, what was, the farm portion of the 700 acres.

In 1911 the Northern State Hospital opened its doors to receive folks suffering from mental illness. Although the hospital got their fair share of those people, they also received alcoholics, just looking to dry out, women who were on their cycles and many more that wouldn’t ordinarily be classified as, “Mentally ill.” Those capable were put to work in the cannery, working with livestock and farming or even working in the kitchen. But as the population grew quickly, there was even a murder of a patient at one point, and the hospital had reached max in terms of patients housed, things took a turn…and not for the better.

Shot thru a broken window, this scene is inside one of the main campus buildings. With all the growth and the rise in major behavioral issues within the patient population, lobotomies were performed, electroshock therapy was experimented with and other inhumane ways of treating patients. Not much was known about those two particular methods of treatment, the only thing that was known, at the time, were the results they produced.

I took a little artistic license with the photo to the right. Can you just imagine, you were brought to this place at the height of drunkenness, a patient picks a fight with you and BOOM…lobotomy! A couple of ways that was done in the old days. One, they take a steel pike, of sorts, they shove it up your nose until it reaches your frontal lobe. Then they twist it around a bit, mash things up, up stairs, and then they let you resume your life in a fairly catatonic state. The second was to drill and actual hole into the part of the skull that covers the frontal lobe and take care of business with that process. Most people, receiving the latter process, didn’t survive the endeavor. Violence begets violence, even at a psychiatric hospital. One too many fights and you come out of it with mash potatoes for brains. A horrible, ugly and so very painful way to be dealt with behaviorally.

This hospital finally closed its doors in 1973. The number of patients that passed away there was in the thousands. There is a small graveyard that is on one side of the property. There are many, small, square 6x6, stone markers in the ground that are only identified by a number. The patient’s medical number became their epitaph. Nothing else identifies who is buried there. Within that graveyard is an actual, proper headstone that has a name and the DOB and DOD. I looked this fella up and I found nothing about the man…anywhere. He could’ve been a patient, employee, volunteer…any number of possibilities as to how he was affiliated with this hospital. I can find no such info. If any of you super sleuths go up there and walk thru that cemetery and get that name and you find something about the man…please get in touch, I would like to know what you find.

Luckily this dog doesn’t hunt anymore. There are a few buildings still in use by a Job Corps and another large, fenced-in, building being used as a long term treatment center. The rest of the grounds, more in the area of the farm buildings, the county set-up Frisbee Golf! When I was there snapping these photos, there were several teams at play. They built a nice picnic area with several tables and there are nice toilet facilities there as well. I ran into a few other photographers and there was even a drone flying around. It is a popular place for all sorts of folks. Ghost hunters, photographers, like myself, Frisbee Golf players, the morbidly curious and the list goes on. Trying to make as big a positive footprint on this land, trying to outrun the ugly past of this place. I hope they continue to expand the park areas and incorporate more family oriented fun within the borders of all that acreage. But those buildings are a reminder of man’s inhumanity towards their fellow man. I hope that it will lose itself in people frolicking on its grounds and develop a better and more positive reputation.

Here are a few more of the outbuildings on the farm side of things. I don’t believe that any plan is engaged to restore these buildings to their former glory. There is a long, wooden barn that is just this side of collapsing. Graffiti is everywhere and each time I’ve been there, I’ve been twice, there is more than the last time. I suspect there will be more when I go back again. There are a couple of outbuildings that I have not gone through, or at least up to, yet and I plan on doing that sometime in the Autumn. My feeling is that these buildings will come down and, since the property is owned by the County, more park like settings and activities will replace these buildings that help carry a dark past. I think it is possible for a place to be washed clean of a dark past. But everything needs to align perfectly for that to happen. Unfortunately, the structures that carry the most and darkest memories won’t be coming down anytime soon. But turning the rest of the property into a family oriented recreational area is a good start…right?

Well, that wraps things up for me! If you have any comments for me in regards to this, or any posting, please contact me! I’d love to hear from you. The photography used was lovingly altered in post-production to look extra creepy. It’s a dangerous job, shooting thru broken windows and such, but I’ll do it for the love of my craft. And to make creepy photos…every state in the Union has a past and most of them are not good. Here is a little slice from where I call home, no, not the hospital I don’t want to hear it from any of you…the state of Washington is what was meant. Sometimes to get a notion of where your state is is to get a glimpse of its past and see how the people who run it learned from those who ran it. Until next time, under cheerier skies, I bid you adieu. We’ll get into more awesome things next week! Take care of yourselves and each other…Be and travel well!