Old Western State Sanitarium / Asylum in Tacoma, Washington

This is probably why you found this page:
"On some rainy foggy nights when the moon is full, you can hear moans and footsteps in the late night to early morning hours. This is believed to be patients that were once institutionalized there. The place is in ruins now, but there remains an underground boiler room where most the sounds are heard. The fence around the place also shakes for no reason, when no one else is around."

Truth to the story? Quite possibly. I've been there three times now, once at dusk and twice at midnight on a ghost hunt. Both times equipped with an EMF detector, digital camera ( good argument against digitals here), flashlight and some friends. It's quite run down as you can see and not very large for a sanitarium. I have to admit I was expecting something akin to an abandoned hospital to go urban spelunking in, but still quite an interesting place. Hearing back from readers, the site used to be intact until city workers attempted to implode the building for saftey concerns to discourage people from using the building.

I ended up making this page because well, I'm somewhat of a ghost hunter and also an information fanatic. Finding my way to haunted spots are hard enough as is with the small tid-bits of info there is on the web, so I'm making it a point to try to get the information I do know out. Link to me and let other ghost hunters find this great site out too!

The sanitarium is actually located in the middle of a Fort Steilacoom Park on top of a hill. The park is right next to an urban neighborhood and across from the Western Washington State Hospital across the street, so it's not an adventure into the boonies surprisingly. I can hear your sighs of relief already. Except those of you as nutty as me, when it's a sigh of dissapointment :) You can see the directions I've made below:

As you can see, it's not too far a shoot off I5. Take Exit 126 North onto Bridgeport Way SW. Take a left on Steilacoom Blvd SW (there will be a light) and keep going down and take a right on Custer Rd SW. Take the next left onto 88th St SW, which will eventually turn back into Steilacoom Blvd SW. Keep going down Steilacoom and when you see the Albertsons on your right, the next street light is 87th Ave SW. Take a left and the park will immediately be to your right. At night, the gates will be closed so you may wish to park somewhere discreet (neighborhood) as the park is closed at night. Otherwise, you can drive in and park at a gravel parking lot as shown in the next lower level picture if you drive in before nightfall. Just as a warning, you may be cited for trespassing if ghost hunting at night, so use your judgement!

There will be a path at the end of the parking lot that leads toward the end of a paved road. Follow that and make a right and then make the next left onto the path through the tall grass. Take the first left break in the path and pretty much walk straight up from there and don't break off that trail. If you go at night, you'll literally walk into a black tunnel of trees when you hit the forest (green section), so a flashlight is absolutely required. The trail will take you uphill and eventually you'll see the ruins of the Western State Sanitarium!

Very first thing you'll notice is that it's surrounded by a wire fence with razor wire at the top. No problem however, as there are many parts of the fence that have been ripped so you can walk right in. After that, you'll notice that besides from being in shambles, the place is heavily vandalized with graffiti and broken beer bottles and other clues of adolescence. Just a slight warning to visitors: this is a popular destination it seems for the curious or the trouble making kind, so don't be surprised to see others at the site. Our second trip encountered another small group (who seemed to be the curious kind) coming up the path just as we were leaving. However, I have read a woman's experience of encountering a group of teens that were carrying guns, so just a word to the wise to be safe in more ways than one.

Inside the fence, you can pretty much just walk around most of the building as the condition doesn't quite allow for one to wander the halls per se. There is a basement with a boiler room however, where the activity is supposed to be higher. We didn't go down in there because it just didn't seem like a very safe area to be venturing in. There were a number of interesting sounds in the area, most of which can be attributed to the toads (there are some REALLY loud toads by the lake), ducks and squirrels. I personally heard what sounded like pounding inside one of the buildings but no one else in my group heard it, so of course they looked at me like I was nuts.

Anyhow, like any good ghost hunt, take a voice recorder, camera, flashlight and a lot of patience, as you will probably need to simply sit put for awhile if you want to hear or see anything. Supposedly the sound of children laughing or playing can be heard in the area around the sanitarium, but I unfortunately have not been privvy to it yet. Supposedly there is also a large graveyard in the area, but being dark, we were not able to find it - but everyone has been emailing me telling me it is in the fields to the left of the hospital. Try there if you go.

Third Trip Report (November 2003)

On our third trip, I think we did indeed find the graveyard. We entered in from the Southwest street and walked directly into the open field looking possibly for the large tree Danielle was talking about in an earlier email. Oddly enough, on our way in, we met three adult males coming out who took a look at us and told us that the fire was still going if we hurried and walked on. Riiight. I'll assume they were talking about a campfire of sorts (it is a park after all) and not some occult ritual :)

At this point, I pulled out my EMF detector and got major readings - hitting upwards of 150 milligauss (think stronger than your TV and microwave) for a prolonged duration. At this time, we thought we were just around some anamolous spot in the field, but I guess we were actually quite close to the graveyard it would seem, based on photos I received from a reader. My friend Eithon has been taking pictures for us throughout the field and we tried to take some near the trees, but the camera stopped working completely as the batteries instantly drained. This tends to happen, so luckily, I... *didn't* bring any spare batteries so I have no pictures to show for it :| We went on and walked around the number of barns in the area (attempted to look into the old barn, but it was quite sealed shit) and then headed toward the ruins.

Arriving at the ruins (around 2:00am now, prime ghost hunting time), we again tried to figure out if Danielle might have been talking about one of the trees in this area as the one with cold spots. We went to each tree around the ruins (took awhile) trying to feel for anything unusual, but didn't get any readings physically or on the EMF detectors. So, we decided to enter the fence and begin exploring.

Unlike the last time, I was quite determined to go into the boiler room after getting so many responses from my readers. We did a quick walkaround of the area and not feeling anything unusual, decided to go into the boiler room. I went first, going in the right window into an adjacent room, as it wasn't a steep drop. Jumping down might now have been the best idea however, even with my background as a track and field long jumper, as it made a LOUD bang that probably scared the stuffing out of anything living and dead. I have to say I winced at the idea and expected a entity to come screaming at me telling me to be quiet. Wasn't so however, so I just sat there for half a minute looking at the graffiti and broken bottles strewn on the floor. Not hearing or feeling anything though, I told my friends to go ahead and come down.

Eventually, all four of us were in the adjacent room and walked directly on top of the metal door one at a time. One member said they felt cold and I actually was hit with a dizzy spell. Enough so that I needed to back off for a second to regain my footing and clear my mind. After a bit, it went away however, so I went back into the boiler room without any problems. Again, boots are a must, as the bottom was flooded with water, although we could make our way by walking on old beams and such on the ground. It's a small space, so the four of us took up quite a bit of it. The EMF failed to show any readings in the area which also correlated with us feeling not much of anything at the time.

After some time of hanging around in the boiler room in silence, we decided that if anything was there, it wasn't wanting to be known, so we went ahead and got out. A bit disappointed that we didn't see anything and that it was also getting late, we decided to head out back to the car. On the way out, me and Dave both waved to the sanitarium and said goodbye (an semi-successful tactic in contacting ghosts) and trudged back without incident. Until next time eh? :)

Have fun and I'll definitely appreciate any emails of how your trips went, so email me! :) I've also detailed my trip of ghost hunting in the Kubota Gardens on my other site if you're looking for more places to go.

History of Western State Hospital

Western State Hospital
By any measure, Western State Hospital in the 1940s was a dismal place. More than 2,700 patients -- 500 more than the official capacity -- were crammed into its antiquated wards. In a 1949 investigative series, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that only 15 graduate nurses were on the staff, assisted by 23 student nurses. By National Committee for Mental Hygiene standards, a hospital with that many patients should have had 107 graduate nurses. There were only about half the recommended number of orderlies on the payroll, and 14 doctors of the minimum of 20 needed.

Many patients were housed in decrepit, turn-of-the-century buildings, similar to one that had been destroyed by fire (killing two patients) in 1947. After the fire, a makeshift ward had been established in an unheated breezeway originally used as an exercise court. The area had been enclosed with canvas, but it provided little protection against wind, rain, and cold. The P-I found that it was still being used as a ward two years later.

Because of staff shortages, patients were being put to bed around 4 p.m. and kept there 12 hours. Inadequate salaries and poor living quarters complicated the problem of getting efficient help. Live-in ward attendants were housed in a basement with sagging floors and crumbling cement walls. Dr. William N. Keller, hospital superintendent, said the hospital needed about $8 million to improve the facilities and expand the staff, a figure far short of what the Legislature was willing to provide. People seem to be more interested in how cheaply they can take care of their mentally ill rather than how well, he commented (P-I, 1949).

Given these conditions, hospital administrators were naturally interested in a new kind of surgery that promised to help psychologically disabled people leave the institution and return to useful lives: transorbital lobotomy. The procedure involved the insertion of a thin, icepick-like instrument called a leucotome under a patient’s eyelid and into the frontal lobes of the brain, where it was used to sever nerves thought to cause severe emotional disturbances. It was developed by Dr. Walter G. Freeman, a prominent Washington, D.C., neurologist and psychiatrist, whose motto was "lobotomy gets them home".

Freeman demonstrated his technique at Western State Hospital on August 19, 1947, operating on 13 patients. At one point, a photographer snapped his picture, producing what has become the world’s most famous lobotomy photograph. The often-reproduced image shows Freeman wielding his leucotome on a comatose woman. Before his death in 1972, Freeman reportedly told his son Frank that the woman in the photograph was Frances Farmer.

However, Peter writes in and has this to say:

"Frances Framer was never lobotimized -- Had she been -- She never would have been able to host her own television show "Frances Farmer Presents" from 1958 through 1964 or all the plays she starred in during 1958 through 1968. Lobotomy patients became essentially zombies after the procedure. It is believed however that the form of cancer she died from in 1970 - "esophageal" was the result of the experimental drugs used on her during her 1st 2 stays @ Steilacoom - between 1942 and 1945 ------- Her 3rd incarceration was from 5/28/1945 through 3/22/1950 --- during which time she was kept in Wards T @ L ------- the back wards --- for the hopelessly criminally insane --- never visited by any member of her family during that time -- and Patients in those wards received no treatment at all ------ caged like animals -- raped by orderlies, who also brought in Soldiers from the nearby fort to do the same. They were treated worse than anyone could possibly imagine -- read her Autobiography for a full account -- "Will There Really Be A Morning" .I`m glad the Asylums in this country were closed in the 1980`s -- How we as a whole treated the mentally ill for 100 years is shameful. During the 1940`s ---- Steilacoom asked for money to upgrade its conditions -- The State said it was`nt in the budget -- however, the State found several million dollars to replace picnic tables at the state parks and rest areas....."

[Ed note: Next time I'm in Seattle, I'll hit up the library and look through the microfilms to see if I can get a copy of the Seattle-PI article from the 50's and transcribe it.]

Here are some e-mails I received from various people who've been to the site themselves. Read on, as they have a lot of great info! Thanks everyone (especially Danielle) for the emails! :)

We went to Old WSH last November and had a quite interesting experience. I went up there early on a Saturday morning with my family to go metal detecting. It turned out to be a very warm day for November. I was hesitant to go inside the fence because there are no trespassing signs all over. But by afternoon, several people began wandering around the area. I mean young and old were going into the ruins exploring so I figured what the heck and we went in also. While exploring several of us began talking and it turned out that lots of the people had gone there for years and had some pretty weird experiences. I even talked to some people who had gone up there when the ruins were still intact. One thing led to another and several of us decided to explore the boiler room. When we got down there we noticed what looked like a heavy cell door that was laying on the ground. As we went inside one of us noticed a cold spot in the room about the size of a plate as they walked over the cell door. This was odd because as I said it was unusually warm for November, and the cold spot was right where the sun was shining in threw the window. We all took turns standing on the cold spot. There was probably 12 people in all. As a person stood in the spot, you could see the air coming from their nose and mouth, it was that cold. No one really had a bad feeling about this except for one woman. Other wise we all felt pretty at ease with what ever was in the boiler room with us.

Hey I saw you website on The Old Western State Sanitarium. Well I went there tonight, just being curious from the rumors I've heard. The first time I went (3 dayz ago) we walked from the side road and right when you walk into the grass and travel more into the trees, you'll find the cemetery. We found it by mistake, we were looking for the building itself. Well tonight we found the building and had night glasses that we used. 3 out of 6 people in my group saw someone on the ledge with the glasses on. Then we went into one of the halls up the stairs, and heard rubblings sounds. Like as if it was about to fall. Also the boiler room was flooded. But other than that, it was very creepy place. Everyone was scared in my group. So just wanted to tell you my experience! Bye!

Hi, I just wanted to say thanks for your website, it came in handy the night that my friends and I visited the Old Western State Sanitarium. We've been to the park before, but never made it to the actual building due to our lack of flash lights.

So I searched the web looking for someone's actual directions and knowlegde of the site, and came upon yours. It helped tremdously. =) It was awesome coming up that hill and seeing the building in the moonlight. We searched around for sometime and luckily one of my friends thought it would be cool to bring a disposible camera, so we also took some pictures. We made it into the boiler room, and through some rooms. The next day we got the pictures developed, and before we opened the envelope, we were joking about how freaky it would be if there was like spirits or things in the pictures, just like in the movies. Little did we know that a few pictures actually did have some odd things in the background of them. Two for example had a lot of tiny white circles on them, and both of the pictures were just pictures of the outside of the buildings, no one was in the pictures. It looks as if maybe it was raining, but it wasnt and the circles are perfect, not like a drop of rain or like any dust was on the lens either. Two other pictures made our mouths drop, my friend was standing above me on the front landing of the first building, and he took a picture looking down at me, well in the top right hand corner, there is a small green light. No one happended to notice this odd green light in the darkness, so I thought it could have just been something to do with the light of the flash bouncing off something, until I looked at the next picture. After my friend took the picture looking down at me, he tossed me the camera and I took a picture of him and three other people that were standing on the landing. The same green light shows up on the left hand corner this time, only this time its bigger. Those pictures had about 4 minutes between each other also. In that same photo, theres a almost see-through blob on the side of the dark building. No one noticed any green light or see-through blob there either; I guess only the camera could pick that up. The five bucks that we spent on that camera made our trip well worth it. So, thanks again for your site!

hi. My name is Danielle I used to live on the road northway in tacoma washington. I lived next door to the old western state hospital. I was one of the many teens who found fun in walking through the old building before they tried to implode it. the old building contained blood stained mattress's satanic graphitti and drug paraphanalia. the moans and screams are real. I have heard them myself over the years I lived there. there was bodies found. it appeared to be a dump for the sick they would kill and then dump off there victims in the deep grass. there are graves of patients all around the grounds and the old mechanical building flickers light late at night when there is NO power on at the site to explain it. [Ed note: I saw this too actually, but I just assumed it was powered. Whoops :)] I have many stories from over the years I lived there, but one of the scariest is that late at night if I looked out my bedroom window, I would see the grass move as if people were walking through it. yet you wouldnt see any one and it felt as if you were always being watched when you looked out over the fields and as you would walk through what used to be 4 foot grass you would hear footsteps behind u but never see anyone. the hospital is truely still a home for the patients who once resided there alive. they have never left.

[I wrote back to Danielle asking a bit more about the hospital since she was the most knowledgeable person I've met so far regarding the site, having lived directly across from here. This is what she wrote back]:

hi yes that is acurate that it closed down and reopened across the street in a new facility. history has it that many of the patients died due to neglect and there monthly allowance still collected by the hospital after there death. electroshock therapy was used regularly in the hospital.the hospital was shut down after a patient got loose and killed 5 other patients and they then realized that more security was needed. the old shed has a furnace said to have been used to burn the bodies of some of the patients that died the light you see in the shed is said to be the fire burning in the furnace. it is not part of the park and hasnt been opened in many years.but if u look through the broken glass in the window you can see that there is a furnace (woodstove) and what looks like a huge boiler inside. other cold spots are near the tree on the left side as u face the hospital from northway SW. they have had hangings there from halloween rituals several satanist occults used that site before they fenced it off as a site for worship, I Understand that that is the reason the tried to implode the building and then fenced it off. I saw the implosion the building wouldnt fall it had black smoke and what sounded like screams when the building was burning locals figured it was spirits but the authorities said it was the air escaping the fireplaces and brick walls the building was extrodinary before they blew it up i used to love roaming through the halls and looking at the pictures and beds and dressers left behind there was an electric shock table in the basement and several stainless steele like tables with tubes coming from them into large tubs. there was restraints on the beds and the bathrooms were basin style tubs with restraints. I have much more to tell you but I Have to take off for now Ill write again later Danielle.

well it was back in july when my girlfriend at the time told me about old western state, i am from virginia and was always looking for haunted places in va, but anyway she was telling me about it so i said lets go, we went there that night at about midnight, i was all pumped up and ready to go, as soon as i saw it though i had this wierd chill run all the way up my spine, i have never gotten that feeling from any of the places i had gone to back home, we kept walkin till we got to the hole in the fence as soon as we walked in it seemed like the temperature had dropped like 10-15 degrees, it was a fairly warm out, so i started exploring around while she stood there and smoked a cigarette, she didnt want to come up to the building, so i mad my way around the ruble and saw the window to the boiler room, so being curious i hoped down in there, all i had for light was my lighter, so i saw the cell door that the other girl who emailed u that i read aobut and i felt that same cold spot that she talked about, and for some reason my lighter went out when i stood only in that spot and wound not light, it wouldnt even spark when i was standing there, so i was starting to get a little freaked out, so i climbed back out, and as i was climbing out it felt like somebody had tapped on my shoulder, i instantly turned back to see nothing and as soon as i saw that nothing was there i pretty much in a dead sprint went back to the car, i have gone up there since then and have gotten chills but nothing to that exctent, that by far was one of the scariest things i have ever experienced.

I don't know if you knew this, but Kurt Cobain's great-grandfather, James Irving, killed himself in the hospital. The story is that he attempted to commit suicide the first time but stabbing himself in the abdomen in front of his family, but wasn't successful. After that, he was admitted into the hospital and two months later when the staff wasn't looking, he ripped open the stitches in his abdomen and died. I got this information from the book Heavier Than Heaven: A biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles R. Cross. I just thought it was an interesting fact about the hospital and it wasn't in the history or any of the posts, so I thought I would share. Thanks! [Ed: I checked this reference and it does appear to be valid. History goes far at Western State.. ]

Some of the history on the ruins that is posted is a little incorrect though I am sure it adds to the mystique of the building. First off, the Gothic Revival brick buildings across Steilacoom Blvd. are older than the ruins. The ruins was built during the 1930s and served as a seasonal building to house patients who worked in the farm. Most of those were undoubtedly trusties as the building would have been so remote from the rest of the facility. The ruins was only used for about 30 years, and the reason for that is sometime during the 1960s it became illegal to use patients as a work force without paying them. The state analyzed the cost of continuing "occupational therapy" and decided it would be too expensive to continue. So after that patients did not occupy the ruins anymore. As far as the demolition is concerned, that I am not so clear on, one story that I have heard is that in the 1980s Ft. Lewis soldiers were allowed to smash it as a training exorcise. Would be interesting to find out if this is true or not?

It was late at night after my date and I got done with dinner. She had mentioned a place that was freaky looking, and said that many thought it was haunted. She didn't believe in it however. Her and her friends used to prank partiers that went there by setting up motion sensors and what have you. So anyways, I thought it would be fun to see a little bit of history. So we made our way up there. As we were walking through the field we could hear near by people on the path from both directions, but never saw a one (this may just be normal people, but scared us none the less). We eventually made our way up to the hospital. WHAT A SIGHT! I wasn't necesarily scared, but i had the wierdest feeling. A cold feeling (but not necesarily evil), but I could definatly sence death. So I eventually got very scared, and had to leave. But she took me through the back woods. As we made our way down the dirt path fog came in. Now, it was a warm night, but the fog was SOOO INCREADIBLY COLD! And I started to become terrified. Eventually we got to the car, but as we drove past where the hosp. was there was fog on the road, and it had to be at the least 71* in the car, but as soon as we hit the fog we could see our breath, so to say the least we sped out of there faster than i have ever sped in my life.

I live about 2 minutes away from Ft. Steilacoom park and have been there tons of times. I love a good scare, and so does my best friend. Well last night i we drive out to my boyfriends and a few of our other guy friends were there. We all decided it would be fun going up there. We got there and were venturing around. This was only my second visit, and i had never heard of the boiler room before, but from what they'd told me it was supposed to be the most haunted spot in the buliding. well The boys were too scared to go into the boiler room, so my best friend and i decided to. we are both pretty small, and so we both crawled thru the window and the same time. we were holding onto the edge and our bodies were inside, but we couldnt reach the ground. It was a cold night, but the room was much colder. Anyways the guys pulled us out and to test how deep the room was, one of them threw a rock into the room. the rock hit the ground and a few seconds later the rock was thrust up and hit right under the open window. and bonced off, falling back into the room. we were all a little shocked, due to the fact nobody was there besides us, but still i wanted to go in. so i stgrattled the window, and had one leg dangling in. right before i was going to drop the other one in, there was flickers of scattered light. At that point my friends freaked out, so we left. By the time we got down the hill we'd clamed down and were more phsyced then scared, so we were going to see if we could get into one of the old barns (they are supposed to be extremly haunted as well) but thats when we spotted the graveyeard which is of to the right of the barns. We hopped the little wooden fence and walked thru. The graves were only maked with numbers on small stones. then we found on that was big and fancy. The name on it was Josie Benson (died when she was 20 years old -1879 to 1899-) so when we were leaving the cemitary i walked or her grave, and my foot was on the corner of her head stone, i could feel vibrations and shaking in my foot. When tht happened we ran. Im not sure what exactly that was all about, but im going back with a smaller group tomorrow in the day and then at night. If anythign exciting hapens, i'll be sure to let you know.

My name is Wanda. I'm writing in regards to my mothers email that was sent to you, Nov. 10,2003. We were thrilled to hear back from you, thanks. I was truly amazed with our trip to the W. S. Asylum. To be honest at first I was disappointed , I hoped to actually see something with my own eyes and experience something of the abnormal that afternoon. ALL my life I've heard stories of other peoples ghostly experiences and I thought if there was something out there to be seen ,the asylum would defiantly be the place to experience it . Needless to say, we saw nothing, that is until I had some pictures developed of the trip. Yes! you could definitely say WOW! What we saw in the pictures was truly amazing .Little did we know what was around us. It scares me, but also at the same time fascinates me!!! I'm now more opened minded about paranormal phenomenon. This is what we saw in the pictures ,several human figures .We could only make out two faces, all the other faces from the eyes down were distorted though bodies of the people are fully intact. in one of the pictures there is a woman with long blond hair in a light blue jacket or coat sitting in the far upper corner of the ruins. Also in the same picture there is little girl ,about 7yrs of age, in a red dress sitting in the window. In another picture the same woman in blue is still in the upper corner and there are three children ,two little girls around the ages of 5 and a little boy around the same age, dressed in clothing from the Victorian era, playing in the rumble. We took a tape recorder up with us ,and there are several low toned whispers and tapping throughout the tape. We went back to the asylum about a wk later and took more pictures , they are in the process of being developed, once again we took along a recorder, same thing as before ,lots of whispering and noises was recorded.

I've been to western state a whole bunch of times but the only time that something happened was the first time. I went with about 4 friends so I wasn't alone. when I first set eyes on it I got a creepy feeling. everything was normal at first but the longer we stayed it got weird. I went by this one door that is stuck shut, and I got a really bad feeling like something didn't want me there. then I was standing by my self and I heard a really loud groan, it wasn't one of my friends. oddly enough we were the only people there that night. I started to feel weird so I told my friends it was time to go. one of the guys that was with us didn't want to listen. he was getting down off the rubble when he felt something push him. a wire caught his ankle inches from him cracking his head on a big chunk of cement. he said that he had heard someone talking behind him right before it happened, but he was the last to get down. when we were walking down the road to the car I kept feeling like there was something following us. I didn't even know that there was a cemetery until about a month ago. it's pretty big. i saw the cemetery during day so i didn't see anything.

You may find it interesting that we have a very similar place here in Tallahassee, FL - also a retired mental ward, only on a much larger scale, and used primarily for children during most of its tenure. This one also has defied its ultimate death several times and remains fully standing today. It is property of the state and cannot be destroyed due to asbestos issues. Here is a sensationalized page with info on it: www.sunlandinfo.com [Ed Note: Ignore the front page (awful music) and go click on 'History' and 'Stories' - this is a very fascinating site! Also read more here]

My name is Paul and i just linked to your web page from Haunted Washington.com.Myself and some friends have been out there SEVERAL times so far in the last few months and have run across some spooky things ourselves,On one of our trips we actually saw what appeared to be a young man in a hospital robe grabbing his throat, gurgiling noises were heard and my one female friend {especially sensitive to these kinds of things } felt a burning sensation in her throat.Scared she turned her back on him.These seemed to upset him ,because next thing we knew our brand new flashlight { i had just purchased new flashlight /bulbs/battery} went out! It would not come back on at all. Scared to death the four of us decided it was time to leave and as we went through the fence ,noticing the obvious change in air temp/qaulity turned around just before disappearing around the corner and saw him pointing to the west. i have heard that there is a morgue around the park somewhere but have been so forth unable to find it. Our flash light did not come back on till we had gotten to the bottom of the hill where the fork is.

Hey me and a couple of my friends went up there last night and some really werid stuff happened. we found a couple of really cold spots and what felt like we were being watched. We heard a lot of noises coming from the boiler room. What sounded like something was banging against metal. We walked around and about 3 am we decided to leave. I was also like me tell you it was a full moon and really foggy out.

Well I ended up going to Old Western State Saturday evening around 4:30 ish.... Myself and a friend went and as soon as we climbed thru the chain link fence, I had a creepy feeling that rushed throughout my body... We trappled around for a bit, climbed into what part of the building that's is still in tact.... After being there for about 15 minutes, my ears started hurting.... It was like someone was putting pressure on them... At first we thought it was because it was cold.... We found the window that lead into the basement... My friend checked it out, really didn't have any weird feelings while being down there, but I decided to wait for a bit before I jumped down there... For some reason I was drawn to one specific part of the building... The wall that is located next to the part of the building where the broiler room is... We climbed up the mass amount of rubble and climbed into the room... Once I jumped in, I realized that it was part of a bathroom at one time... I had this intense feeling come over me that someone had died there... I almost immediately climbed down.... After that I felt pressure on my neck... On both sides like someone had their thumbs pressed against my neck.. My friend felt my neck and it was starting to swell and my muscles were very tense.... After exploring the grounds for about an hour or so, I decided to go back to the basement.... I did not come near the windows, I felt a very negative presence and then at that time I knew we had to leave... Once we climbed down the hill back to the path my neck felt fine and my ears stopped hurting.... I was completely out of it and my friend had to grab a hold of me to lead my back to our car... Apparently during our time there, I was in somewhat of a trance state, (or so my friend says)... He said he had been trying to have a conversation with me while we were there, but I did not respond... I do not remember this.... It was pretty creepy... My friend checked my neck a day later to see if there was any bruising, in hopes that there would be some proof that I am not crazy... This morning I looked in the mirror and on the right hand side of my neck, there is a bruise that it starting to form that is the shape of a finger print... I would defiantly like to return at a liter date, but my experience has defiantly left a perminate impact.... I have never come across something of this nature.. I am one who usually hears or sees things, but not one who has had physical contact of this sort.... As I said before, very creepy...