DICKSON
ST JOSEPH'S HOSPITAL
(St Joe’s Plaza)
30 7th Street West
Status: Former Hospital; Commercial/Medical Center; Halloween Attraction
History
St Joseph’s Hospital was a not-for-profit church run hospital that has been closed since 2014. The reports of paranormal activity date back to the days the hospital was operational.
The building is now a commercial/medical center.
Paranormal Activity
On the third floor there was a room often left unoccupied after a former patient refused to leave after their death. Even empty the nurse’s call button would go off.
The elevator would go down to the former morgue on its own.
The doors to the morgue – which could only be opened from the inside with a special key – open and close on their own.
Phantom footsteps running through the basement are heard as well as ghostly laughter.
Disembodied voices and moans are heard in the former cafeteria.
DUNSEITH
SAN HAVEN SANATORIUM
(State Sanitorium)(Grafton State School)
San Haven Road
Status: Former Tuberculosis Sanatorium, Former Developmentally Disabled Facility; Abandoned; Partially Collapsed; Private Property
History
The State Sanitorium was built in 1912 for the housing and rehabilitation of people suffering from tuberculosis. At the time tuberculosis was incurable and had a very high mortality rate – somewhere between 50% and 60% on average.
The name was changed to San Haven in 1923 when the local postmaster changed the name. The story says it was based on sanitas which is Latin for cleanliness or health.
The hospital was initially a satellite of the North Dakota Institution for the Feeble Minded in Grafton – which would become Grafton State School. In the 1930’s and 40’s the sanatorium began to be more autonomous but that trend would reverse in the 1950’s.
As tuberculosis patients were being treated more and more in their own homes space was opening up in the remote sanatorium. Grafton began to send more and more of their developmentally challenged patients to the sanatorium.
By the 1960’s there were more challenged patients than ones suffering from tuberculosis. In 1973 Grafton took complete control of the sanatorium.
By the 1980’s tuberculosis had been cured and treatment of the developmentally disabled was being moved away from large hospitals back to family care and group homes. In 1987 the remaining patients were moved to the Grafton State School and the hospital was closed. In 1989 the doors were locked for good.
In 1992 the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Tribe bought the land from the State. It is now being leased out to a farmer for grazing his animals.
In 2012 a young man ghost hunting on the property fell down an elevator shaft resulting in his death.
Paranormal Activity
There is very little catalogued reports or evidence of paranormal activity at this location. Although many articles proclaim this is the most haunted place in North Dakota and even in America.
As mentioned above tuberculosis was a very dangerous disease that led to thousands of deaths worldwide before a cure was discovered. So, without a doubt, a large number of people did pass away on site.
The site itself has been called spooky by a number of explorers with the abandoned buildings slowly being worn down by the elements.
Reported activity includes: Apparitions of former patients in the building and on the grounds; translucent figures watching from the many empty windows; disembodied voices and other unexplained noises; cold and warm spots; feelings of not being alone and being watched; light anomalies and mysterious mists.
FARGO
NORTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY
(Ceres Hall)
1301 Administration Avenue
(Minard Hall)
1210 Albrecht Boulevard
Status: Post-Secondary Institution
History
Ceres Hall
In 1909 the State Legislature approved the sum of $85,000 ($2,783,000 in 2022 dollars) for the construction of a building for female students. It was constructed by 1910.
Ceres was not the first all female dorm on campus but it was the first all female dorm at the North Dakota Agricultural College.
The building now houses the Office of Administration, Career and Advising Center and other administrative offices.
Minard Hall
This building was originally called the Science Building. It was built in three stages as money became available starting in 1902 with $25,000 ($866,000 in 2022 dollars). It was originally designed to be the home for the Biology, Geology, Horticulture and Math Departments.
The building is now used by many departments including Science and Mathematics, Social Sciences, German, Spanish, French and English as well as Emergency Management and the Computer Labs.
Paranormal Activity
Ceres Hall
The paranormal activity in this building is said to be related to a man who hung himself in the early 1940’s from one of the heating pipes.
The third floor is said to instill an empathic sense of unease in people. There are also reports of all the lights suddenly going out on the entire floor.
The basement – where the man hung himself – is said to be home to rather nasty dark entity. Entering it is said to instill an instant and instinctive fight or flight reaction. People who have stayed have reported feeling a very unpleasant entity that moves close to them no matter how often they move away.
Minard Hall
In the 1920’s the 4th floor of this building was used either as a dance floor or studio depending on which website you read.
One morning when the janitor arrived to work, he found the bodies of a man and a woman. This double homicide has never been solved.
The 4th floor was later converted into a zoology lab.
Eventually the floor became so unstable the entire floor was closed off which, of course, just led to more rumors about what was really happening up there.
Stories of hearing someone walking around up there led fuel to the fire.
People who have managed to get up there tell stories of apparitions, disembodied voices, cold spots and shadows.
GRAND FORKS
ALTRU HOSPITAL
(United Hospital)
1200 South Columbia Road
Status: Operational Medical Complex and Hospital
History
In 1972 ground was broken in the city for a major new medical complex uniting Deaconess and St Michael's Hospitals under one banner; simply United Hospital. The medical complex eventually grew to include every possible medical need a person could need from birth to death.
In 1997 the Grand Forks Clinic and the United Hospital came together and created the nonprofit Altru Health System which now occupies the enormous campus. It is one of the foremost medical facilities in the State.
Paranormal Activity
Shadow figures are often seen in the psychiatric ward and have set off the door alarms. They have been seen on video cameras seeming to slink under doors and appear on the other side.
The staff elevator in the main complex seemingly travels on its own during the night. There are reports of it opening on its own on the third floor without being called. An apparition has been seen in the elevator that appears when the doors open but disappears before it can be seen clearly.
Other activity: feelings of unease. not being alone and of being watched, electrical disturbances, light anomalies and objects disappearing.
MEDORA
ROUGH RIDER'S HOTEL
301 3rd Avenue
Status: Historical Hotel
History
Built in 1884 by George Fitzgerald and called The Metropolitan in anticipation of a population explosion that never happened.
Medora remained a very small town, although it was built a meat packing industry; meat was frozen and shipped to Chicago on the railroad.
President Theodore Roosevelt was the first President to visit Medora – he even made a speech from a balcony on the hotel – and the hotel was renamed after the President’s riders.
The hotel was renovated in 1963 and a large resort building was added 2010.
The main fireplace in the hotel is made from reused bricks from the old North Dakota Capitol building which burned to the ground.
Paranormal Activity
The apparition of a boy is seen in the hallways. People have even been woken in the middle of the night by the sounds of a child playing in the hallway only to open their room doors and find no one and nothing.
Toilets also tend to flush on their own in this building.
Other Reported Activity: disembodied laughter; electrical issues; phantom footsteps; light anomalies and feelings of being watched.
MANDAN
FORT ABRAHAM LINCOLN STATE PARK
4480 Fort Lincoln Road
Status: Historic Fort
By <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:MatthewUND" title="User:MatthewUND">MatthewUND</a> - <span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
History
The confluence of the Missouri and Heart Rivers was the ancestral home of the Mandan Indigenous Tribe from about the mid-16th century. That is until the European colonizers brought Smallpox to North America devastating these and many other Aboriginal populations.
In June of 1872 the United States Army built a fort on the former spot of the Mandan Village. They named this location Fort McKeen with two companies of infantry. By November of that same year the fort was expanded to include first three – then six – companies and a calvary post.
The name of the fort was changed to Fort Abraham Lincoln and in 1873 the 7th Calvary was moved in to protect the interests of the newly expanding railway. The first Commander of this newly expanded facility was Lt Col George A Custer.
In 1876 the troops left this fort to take part in the Great Sioux War in which the non-treaty Indigenous population was to be forced back onto their government reservations. This US incursion resulted in the Battle of the Greasy Grass; more commonly known as the Battle of Little Bighorn and Custer’s Last Stand. Neither Custer nor half his troops ever returned to the Fort.
The Fort was abandoned in 1891 and the locals raided the site for wooden building materials. In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt signed the land over to the State to create a State Park.
From the 1930’s on the State began a reconstruction of the fort culminating in a reconstruction of the house Custer lived in built in 1989.
Paranormal Activity
There is a seasonal haunted house attraction at the old fort every Halloween but once the actors go home the real ghosts come back out to play.
When the Custer’s home was reconstructed apparently the ghosts of the man and his wife, Libby, returned as well. Phantom footsteps and disembodied voices are attributed to both George and Libby.
The apparition of Libby is often seen – dressed in black – staring out of the second story window. She is also said to be responsible for loud stamping and doors slamming on their own in the house.
Other Activity: apparitions of soldiers in blue wander the grounds – these ghosts are thought to be the soldiers who left the fort for battle and never returned; cold spots; touches by unseen presences and feelings of unease, not being alone and being watched.