Hidden away in the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota is a remnant of a time since passed. What once was a huge facility is now nothing but ruin. Even just looking at the remains of this place can bring on a sense of despair, and learning about the actual history of the place only adds to it. Though this abandoned place is on private property, many have come through here. Some to loot the grounds, others just to explore, but also a few to capture it in photographs and preserve what is left of it…
Many people know of this place as the San Haven Sanatorium, but it has gone by other names in its history. North Dakota Tuberculosis Sanitarium and the San Haven State Hospital are two other names it has carried.
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It was originally opened in 1912 in the midst of a time when tuberculosis was a huge problem for people all over the world. It was closed down in 1987 after several lawsuits were filed against it for questionable treatment of its patients.
Andrew Filer/Flickr
Today, it sits completely abandoned and empty. Most of the buildings still stand - even if just partially - and have been well picked over by looters, vandals, animals, and simply nature just taking its toll.
Andrew Filer/Flickr
Going inside this place is like stepping foot into another world. Broken furniture, rotting ceilings, and other debris lay strewn everywhere.
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San Haven Sanatorium wasn’t only just used as a tuberculosis hospital. As the commonness of that disease lessened, it was used for other purposes. That included being a facility for the mentally ill and disabled in the 1960s. By the following decade, it no longer housed patients with tuberculosis at all.
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At any given time, well over 1,000 patients may have been in the hospital. There were many buildings on the grounds of this huge place, all of which are falling apart today.
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After phasing out tuberculosis care, the sanatorium became the San Haven State Hospital and focused primarily on housing the elderly and mentally handicapped.
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In the 1970s and 80s, state funding no longer covered all of the necessary resources and the care of the individuals staying there began to fall short. This brought up concerns over whether or not the patients were receiving adequate care.
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A lawsuit resulted from this concern in 1980, and the facility closed altogether in 1987. The land was sold but the buildings still remain, and there doesn’t seem to be any plans to remove them or replace them.
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The haunting, empty rooms and halls of these century-old buildings still linger like a dying whisper of the past. It’s hard to imagine what it was like back in the time of its use.
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The San Haven Sanatorium is a creepy yet fascinating part of North Dakota’s history. You can see it in a different perspective in this unnerving drone video taken recently. It gives a sense of just how big this facility is and how much there is left of it.
Andrew Filer/Flickr
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