Est. 1939 · 1939 Sheboygan County psychiatric facility · Camp Sheboygan: German and Italian POW facility 1944–1945 · Operating paranormal investigation venue since 2002 closure
Construction of the Sheboygan County Health Care Center was completed in 1939 on a rural property in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin. The county built the facility to provide long-term institutional care for residents with psychiatric conditions and developmental disabilities, consolidating services that had previously been distributed across smaller county facilities. The building is a multi-floor brick institutional structure typical of New Deal-era county health construction.
During World War II, the federal government's need to house Axis prisoners of war created an unusual chapter in the building's history. From 1944 to 1945, the facility was commandeered as Camp Sheboygan and used to house both German and Italian prisoners. The Wikipedia article on Sheboygan County Asylum documents this period, noting the displacement of patients to accommodate the military use. The camp's operation placed hundreds of enemy prisoners of war in a converted county psychiatric building in rural Wisconsin — an arrangement that was logistically unusual even by the standards of the improvised wartime POW-housing system.
Following the war, the facility returned to its original mission and continued operating as a county psychiatric and care facility. By 2002 the building had ceased clinical operations, a product of the broader movement away from large institutional facilities toward community-based care. The county did not demolish the original 1939 structure.
The building's current operator markets it as Wisconsin's only paranormal investigation venue set in a real asylum. Weekly 3-hour guided investigations move through the former patient wings, surgical wards, nurses' quarters, chapel, and basement of the original building. Wisconsin Public Radio covered the venue's paranormal investigation activities, and local television station TMJ4 reported on visitor accounts of reported phenomena including loud bangs, voices, and shadow figures.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheboygan_County_Asylum
- https://www.sheboyganhauntedasylum.com/index.html
- https://www.wpr.org/news/ghost-hunters-sheboygan-asylum-anita-kohlhagen-spirits
- https://www.tmj4.com/news/local-news/loud-bangs-loud-voices-take-a-ghost-tour-of-the-sheboygan-asylum
Slamming doors in unoccupied wingsDisembodied voices and screamingFootsteps on upper floorsShadow figures in corridorsTemperature anomalies in the chapel and basement
The Sheboygan County Health Care Center's paranormal reputation has been built primarily through the weekly investigation events the venue has hosted since it repurposed the building after its 2002 clinical closure. Reports compiled by WPR and TMJ4 describe a consistent pattern: loud slamming doors in unoccupied wings, disembodied voices and screaming attributed to former patients, heavy footsteps on upper floors when investigators are below, and shadow figures moving in peripheral vision in the darkened corridors.
The basement is reported as the most active area, followed by the former surgical ward and the nurses' quarters. The chapel, retained in its original configuration, draws accounts of environmental anomalies during investigations — unexplained temperature changes and equipment interference that visitors attribute to the accumulated history of the building.
The venue's connection to the World War II POW period — Camp Sheboygan, 1944–45 — adds a dimension to the lore that distinguishes it from purely psychiatric-asylum haunts. Some accounts suggest the presence of figures that don't correspond to patient descriptions; no formal investigation has tested this claim, and it should be treated as visitor speculation rather than established tradition.
WPR reporter Anita Kohlhagen profiled the venue's investigation culture, documenting the draw of paranormal enthusiasts from the broader Wisconsin and Midwest region to the weekly events. TMJ4's segment captured footage of participants responding to reported loud bangs and voices in real time. Both pieces treat the paranormal claims as visitor experience rather than verified phenomena.
Media Appearances
- Wisconsin Public Radio — Ghost Hunters at the Sheboygan Asylum (news, 2022)
- TMJ4 — Loud Bangs, Loud Voices: Ghost Tour of Sheboygan Asylum (news, 2022)
- Destination Fear: Sheboygan County Asylum (S2E6) (2020)
Where this legend is told
