1912 Asylum Grounds Now Open as a Trail System and Ghost Town
25588 Helmick Rd, Sedro-Woolley, WA 98284
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public recreation area operated by Skagit County Parks and Recreation.
Access
Limited Access
Mix of paved lanes and soft surface trails through open pasture and forested areas
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1912 · National Register of Historic Places · Psychiatric History · Olmsted Brothers Landscape Design · Spanish Colonial Revival Architecture
Northern State Hospital was established in 1909 in response to severe overcrowding at Western State Hospital in Steilacoom. The facility opened on its Skagit River site in 1912, with buildings designed by the Seattle firm of Saunders and Lawton in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. The grounds themselves were designed by the Olmsted Brothers — the same landscape architecture firm responsible for New York's Central Park and dozens of other landmark American public spaces.
At its peak in the 1950s, the institution housed more than 2,100 patients and employed hundreds of staff. It operated as a self-sustaining farm community, with patients working in the dairy, cannery, and agricultural operations that are still partially visible on the grounds today. The hospital practiced treatments common to mid-century psychiatry: electroconvulsive therapy, insulin-induced coma therapy, and for the most severely ill, lobotomy.
More than 1,400 patients who died at the facility were buried in a 1.5-acre cemetery on the grounds. The hospital closed in 1973 when the state legislature cut off funding. The Cascade Job Corps center occupied renovated wards from 1977 onward. In July 2018, the Port of Skagit took ownership of the property.
Northern State Hospital is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The publicly accessible portions of the site now operate as Northern State Recreation Area under Skagit County Parks management. As of September 2025, new trail construction is underway including the Winfield Trail and Quarry Trail. Active buildings at the center of the property remain off-limits.
Sources
The paranormal reports associated with Northern State Hospital distribute across multiple structures on the property. The superintendent's mansion has drawn attention for a bright light observed on its second floor by multiple visitors — a light with no electrical supply to explain it. The old dormitory buildings, even on the warmest summer days, are reported to maintain a persistent and unexplained cold.
In the nurses' dormitory, investigators have described faint voices at the threshold of audibility — not words, but the rhythm and cadence of conversation without content. The gymnasium, which saw heavy patient use across the facility's decades of operation, has produced reports of paranormal activity since the 1950s.
The most frequently described apparition is a young girl with a red ball. A second male figure — described as searching — has been reported in connection with her. A third recurring figure is a nurse pushing a patient in a wheelchair, observed primarily near the former ward buildings.
The combination of the facility's documented history of involuntary institutionalization, experimental treatments, and the unmarked deaths of over 1,400 patients has made the site a significant location in Pacific Northwest paranormal culture. The active buildings remain closed to the public, and trespassing will result in arrest.
A 4.9-mile loop trail through the former hospital grounds, passing still-standing barns, a milking shed, the old cannery, and other agricultural structures from the hospital's self-sustaining farm operation. The trail winds through open pastures and forested lanes. Dog-friendly with leash required. Active buildings remain off-limits.
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Newtown, CT
Fairfield Hills Hospital opened in 1931 in Newtown as Connecticut's second state psychiatric hospital, built in a Georgian Colonial style across 16 interconnected brick buildings. At its peak, the campus held approximately 4,000 patients. The facility was known for its use of psychosurgery — over 100 lobotomies performed in the first year after lobotomy was introduced — as well as electroconvulsive therapy and insulin shock therapy. The hospital closed in 1995; the campus was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in September 2024.
Medfield, MA
Opened in 1892 as the Medfield Insane Asylum, the campus was Massachusetts's first facility built entirely for chronic mental patients and the first in the state to adopt the Cottage Plan — a design in which patients lived in separate residential-scale pavilions rather than one large ward building. At its peak the 58 brick buildings housed approximately 2,200 patients.
Binghamton, NY
The Castle is a Gothic Revival limestone building in Binghamton designed by architect Isaac Perry. It opened in 1864 as the New York State Inebriate Asylum, the first state institution in the country dedicated to treating alcoholism as a disease. In 1879 it was converted to the State Asylum for the Chronic Insane, later the Binghamton State Hospital and today's Greater Binghamton Health Center.