Traverse City State Hospital – Haunted Asylum in Traverse City, Michigan

The Traverse City State Hospital, also known as the Northern Michigan Asylum, stands as a haunting Victorian monument to America’s dark history of mental health treatment. This massive Italianate structure once housed thousands of mentally ill patients, many of whom died within its walls and are believed to remain trapped in the building’s shadowy corridors, their anguished spirits unable to find peace.

Historical Background

Year Built: 1885

Original Purpose: State-run psychiatric hospital and asylum for the mentally ill

Significant Events: The hospital operated under the “Kirkbride Plan,” which initially promoted humane treatment, but overcrowding led to horrific conditions by the 1950s with over 3,000 patients crammed into a facility designed for 500. Patients endured experimental treatments including lobotomies, electroshock therapy, and hydrotherapy, with many dying from complications or suicide, their bodies buried in unmarked graves on the grounds. The facility was finally closed in 1989 after decades of reported abuse and neglect, leaving behind a legacy of suffering that paranormal investigators claim still permeates the building.

Paranormal Activity Summary

The most commonly reported phenomena include disembodied screams and moaning echoing through the abandoned wings, particularly in the areas where the most violent patients were housed. Visitors experience sudden temperature drops of 20-30 degrees, overwhelming feelings of despair and panic, and the sensation of being grabbed or pushed by unseen hands.

Shadow figures are frequently seen darting through hallways and peering from windows in supposedly empty sections of the building. Electronic equipment malfunctions inexplicably, doors lock and unlock on their own, and many witnesses report hearing phantom footsteps following them through the deteriorating corridors.

Ghost Stories & Reports

The Screaming Woman: The spirit of a female patient who died during a botched lobotomy procedure is said to haunt the surgical wing, her agonized screams piercing the silence at night. Witnesses describe seeing her apparition wandering the halls in a blood-stained hospital gown, clutching her head and wailing in pain.

The Children’s Ward Spirits: The pediatric psychiatric ward is home to the ghosts of children who died under mysterious circumstances in the 1920s and 1930s. Visitors report hearing childish laughter and singing, seeing small handprints appear on dusty windows, and encountering the apparition of a young girl who asks, “Can you help me find my mommy?”

Dr. Munson’s Ghost: The hospital’s founder, Dr. James Decker Munson, is believed to walk the administrative wing, checking on his patients for eternity. Staff members during the building’s conversion to apartments reported encountering a distinguished man in Victorian-era clothing who disappears when approached, and many claim to smell his distinctive pipe tobacco in empty rooms.

The Suicide Victim: In Building 50, the ghost of a patient who hung himself in a utility closet in 1963 is said to make his presence known through the sound of creaking rope and choking gasps. Security guards have refused to patrol this area alone after multiple encounters with a shadow figure hanging from the ceiling that vanishes when lights are turned on.

The Underground Tunnel Entities: The network of tunnels connecting the buildings is reportedly the most malevolent area, with aggressive spirits that physically attack trespassers. Multiple urban explorers have reported being scratched, having their hair pulled, and experiencing overwhelming terror that forces them to flee.

Most Haunted Spot Inside

Building 50’s Hydrotherapy Room: This claustrophobic chamber where patients were subjected to freezing water treatments is considered the epicenter of paranormal activity. Visitors report hearing water running through long-disconnected pipes, seeing the apparitions of patients strapped to rusted equipment, and experiencing violent physical sensations of drowning even though the room is bone dry, with many fleeing after feeling invisible hands holding them underwater.

Can You Visit?

Open to the Public? Partially – portions have been converted to apartments, shops, and restaurants (The Village at Grand Traverse Commons)

Entry Fee: Public areas are free to explore; Ghost tours range from $25-$45 per person

Tour Availability: Northern Latitudes Distillery offers haunted history tours on weekends from May through October at 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM. Private paranormal investigation tours can be booked through local ghost hunting groups for $75-$150 per person, typically running from 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM.

Photography Allowed? Yes in public areas; restrictions apply in residential sections

Visiting Hours: Public shops and restaurants: 10:00 AM – 9:00 PM; Building exteriors and grounds accessible dawn to dusk; organized ghost tours only for restricted areas

Best Time to Visit

Late October through early December produces the most intense paranormal encounters, with activity peaking between 11:00 PM and 3:00 AM according to local investigators. The long Michigan winter nights create an oppressive atmosphere, and many claim the spirits become more active and aggressive during the anniversary dates of significant tragedies, particularly around Halloween when the hospital’s darkest history seems to replay itself.

First-Hand Accounts & Eyewitness Reports

A maintenance worker renovating Building 50 in 2015 captured cell phone footage of a door slamming repeatedly on its own while he stood 15 feet away, the video showing no wind or mechanical explanation for the violent motion. He quit the job the next day after claiming he was locked in a room by an invisible force for over an hour.

In 2018, a group of nursing students touring the facility reported seeing the full-bodied apparition of a woman in a nurse’s uniform from the 1940s walking through a wall in the former psychiatric ward. All five students gave matching descriptions of the figure, including details about her outdated uniform that matched historical photographs discovered later.

Restaurant employees working late at the on-site distillery regularly report glasses sliding off tables, bottles falling from secured shelves, and the overwhelming smell of antiseptic in areas that haven’t been used for medical purposes in over 30 years. One bartender documented 17 separate incidents in her journal before requesting a transfer to daytime shifts only.

Local Legends & Myths

The Nurse’s Curse: Local legend tells of a nurse who murdered three patients in 1952 after suffering a mental breakdown, then took her own life in the hospital’s bell tower. It’s said that anyone who stands beneath the tower at midnight will hear the bell ring once for each of her victims, followed by her ghostly laughter, and those who hear it will experience terrible nightmares for exactly three nights.

The Unmarked Graves: Behind Building 50 lies a field where hundreds of patients were buried in unmarked graves, their identities lost to time. Locals claim that walking across this area after dark causes extreme disorientation, with people reporting becoming lost for hours in a space that takes only minutes to cross in daylight.

Paranormal Investigations & Findings

The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) investigated the facility in 2013 for their show “Ghost Hunters,” capturing compelling EVP evidence including a voice saying “Help us” and recording dramatic temperature fluctuations in the surgical wing. Team members reported equipment being touched and moved by unseen hands during their overnight investigation.

Michigan’s Haunted Travels conducted a three-night investigation in 2017, documenting over 40 instances of paranormal activity including shadow figures captured on infrared cameras, objects moving on command during spirit communication sessions, and full-bodied apparitions appearing in multiple locations. Their electromagnetic field detectors showed consistent spikes in areas where patients reported the most suffering.

Randall Sands, a professional paranormal investigator, spent 30 nights alone in various buildings throughout 2019, gathering what he calls “the most compelling evidence of residual haunting” he’s encountered in 20 years. His recordings include footsteps, voices, screams, and what appears to be entire conversations between multiple spirits reliving traumatic events from the hospital’s operational years.

Safety Warnings & Legal Restrictions

Trespassing in closed sections of the asylum is illegal and actively prosecuted, with fines ranging from $500 to $2,500 and possible jail time. Local police conduct regular patrols due to repeated break-ins by urban explorers and amateur ghost hunters.

The buildings contain asbestos, lead paint, unstable floors, and other serious hazards – multiple trespassers have been seriously injured falling through rotted flooring or into abandoned elevator shafts. Emergency services have conducted at least a dozen rescues of illegal explorers trapped in dangerous areas since 2010.

The tunnel system is strictly off-limits and presents extreme dangers including total darkness, toxic mold, structural collapse risks, and sections that flood without warning. Two teenagers required hospitalization in 2016 after becoming lost in the tunnels for eight hours and suffering from hypothermia and toxic mold exposure.

Cursed or Haunted Objects

The Restraint Chair: A leather restraint chair from the violent ward, now stored in a private collection, is said to be possessed by malevolent energy. Its former owner reported unexplained scratches appearing on his body, nightmares of being trapped and unable to move, and the chair’s restraints unfastening themselves repeatedly despite being secured.

The Surgical Tools: A set of lobotomy instruments recovered from the hospital’s surgical wing allegedly carries the suffering of the patients on whom they were used. The current owner, a medical antiques collector, claims the tools move on their own, emit an electrical charge when touched, and cause severe headaches to anyone who handles them for more than a few minutes.