Montana's only public psychiatric hospital performed 256 forced sterilizations under its 1923 eugenics law; at least 3,260 unmarked graves on the grounds hold patients whose metal markers have been eroded beyond legibility.
100 Warm Springs Rd, Warm Springs, MT 59756
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Cemetery visits require an appointment with a hospital administrator. The hospital campus is an active state psychiatric facility.
Access
Limited Access
Rural hospital campus grounds; cemetery is on uneven terrain. Access requires advance coordination with the facility.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1877 · Montana's only public psychiatric hospital (est. 1870s) · 256 forced sterilizations under 1923 Montana eugenics law · National press coverage of eugenics program in 1924 · At least 3,260 patient burials; most markers eroded beyond legibility
Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs was established in the 1870s as the state's sole public psychiatric institution. The facility served patients committed from across Montana's vast geography, including many who had no family nearby and who would spend the remainder of their lives at the facility.
In 1923, Montana enacted a eugenics sterilization law. The hospital became the primary site of its implementation. Between 1923 and the program's eventual discontinuation, 256 patients at the facility were forcibly sterilized — a number documented by the University of Vermont's eugenics research archive based on state records. The program received national press coverage in 1924, including accounts that described the sterilizations as the 'butchery of the helpless.' Montana's eugenic sterilization program continued for decades after initial publicity.
The hospital cemetery on the grounds holds at least 3,260 patient burials. Grave markers are metal stakes driven into the ground, each originally bearing an identifying number. Decades of weathering — including the harsh Powell County winters — have bent and battered many stakes until the numbers are erased or illegible. A 2024 investigation by the Montana Standard documented the deteriorated condition of the cemetery and the difficulty of matching surviving records to individual graves.
The facility remains in operation as Montana's only public psychiatric hospital. The cemetery is not publicly accessible without prior arrangement through a hospital administrator.
Sources
Montana State Hospital does not have an extensive public record of specific paranormal encounters in the way that more tourist-accessible asylums do. Its reputation in dark-tourism and haunted-location contexts derives almost entirely from the weight of its documented institutional history: the eugenics sterilizations of the 1920s, the thousands of patients who died without family contact and were buried in numbered graves now eroding back to anonymity.
The cemetery's physical condition adds a present-day dimension to that history. The bent and illegible metal markers documented in the 2024 Montana Standard investigation represent a continuing erasure — the numbers that were supposed to preserve some thread of identity are being consumed by the same landscape that isolated these patients from the rest of Montana during their lifetimes.
The restricted access to the cemetery — appointment-only through an active psychiatric facility — limits casual visitation and has kept the site from developing the regional haunted-tourism economy that some comparable facilities have. Visitors who do arrange access encounter a quiet rural cemetery where the scale of the burial ground, and the condition of the markers, speaks for itself.
At least 3,260 patients are buried in the on-grounds cemetery. Most markers are metal stakes whose identifying numbers have been bent and eroded by weather until illegible. Visiting requires advance contact with the hospital administrator to schedule access.
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Napa, CA
Napa State Hospital opened in 1875 as the Napa Insane Asylum on land that was formerly part of a Mexican land grant. Patients who died at the facility from 1875 to 1924 — approximately 4,368 people — were buried in a field on the grounds without markers. An outbuilding and unused calf barn now sit atop part of the burial area. The California Memorial Project maintains a monument on the grounds, and visits require an appointment through the hospital executive office.
Osawatomie, KS
Founded in 1863 and opened in 1866 as the Kansas State Lunatic Asylum, Osawatomie State Hospital is the oldest public psychiatric institution in Kansas. The campus grew substantially through the late 19th and early 20th centuries and at its peak housed hundreds of patients. The 1906 Asylum Bridge served as the sole connection between the town and the hospital grounds.
Waterbury, VT
The Vermont State Hospital for the Insane opened in 1891 in Waterbury and grew to a peak of 1,728 patients by the 1930s. Under superintendent Dr. Eugene Stanley, the institution participated in Vermont's eugenics program, conducting forced sterilizations. Tropical Storm Irene severely damaged the campus in 2011; it was repurposed as the Waterbury State Office Complex in 2015 and listed on the National Register as a Historic District in 2016.