January 12, 2022 • 41 mins
The Sheboygan County Insane Asylum is a very misunderstood haunted site, historically and paranormally speaking. But with hundreds of documented deaths that took place on the current property and connections to multiple suicides, haunted happenings in the now empty hospital are frequent and extreme.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio
and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion is advised. Recently,
I found myself wandering the dark halls of an abandoned hospital,
as one does in my line of work. In this
(00:21):
particular moment, I was standing in the basement of said hospital,
and it was pitch black. I wasn't quite aware of
my surroundings or what was in front of me, but
I began to hear a tapping sound. Eventually, the tap
turned louder, and soon it became a loud banging or crashing.
Convinced an animal, or worse, an intruder had entered the building,
(00:43):
I turned on my flashlight and headed toward the sound.
Except when I turned the corner where the sound was
emanating from, there was nothing there, nothing that could make
that sound, and yet it was still happening directly in
front of me. I must admit, if I was alone,
there's a chance I would have quickly exited the building.
But I did have someone with me, and my pride
(01:05):
was on the line, so I continued toward the sound.
When it suddenly stopped with no explanation, we searched high
and low for anything in that empty space that could
have made such a ruck as and we came up empty.
Little did I know this was a common occurrence in
this building. And what I also didn't realize was I
(01:25):
was standing right behind the hospital's former morgue. So join me, friends,
as we had to Wisconsin and visit the Sheboygan County Asylum.
I'm Amy Brunei, and this is haunted road. To fully
(01:46):
understand the hauntings, rumors, and confusion regarding the history at
the Sheboygan County Asylum, or what was officially known as
the Sheboygan County Comprehensive Healthcare Center when it closed, you
have to go back to its roots. Sheboygan Asylum refers
to three different structures between eighteen seventy six and two
thousand two. The Sheboygan County Hospital for the Insane was
(02:09):
a former lunatic asylum serving Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. Opened in
eighteen seventy six in Winowski. It was replaced in eighteen
eighty two with a larger facility in Sheboygan, which underwent
several expansions before closing in nineteen forty. It was succeeded
by Sheboygan County Comprehensive health Care Center in Sheboygan Falls,
(02:29):
which operated until two thousand two. These three operations are
regularly confused in research and tragedies. History that occurred in
the first two incarnations are often times confused with the
still standing, though not in use, healthcare center in Sheboygan. Regardless,
the history of each is interesting, so let's go through
(02:50):
each iteration to fully understand why the Comprehensive Healthcare Center
came to be and what actually happened within its walls.
Before the original A. Winowski Asylum opened in June eighteen
seventy six, the chronically insane, as they were called, had
previously been housed in the state hospital and the jail.
In its earliest years, the Sheboygan Asylum was under the
(03:13):
direction of Glanville Jewett, who had about twenty two people
under his care. On February nineteenth, eighteen seventy eight, a
fire broke out in his facility, killing four of the
seventeen patients under Jewett's care at the time. An account
in the Oshkosh, Northwestern States the building was of wood,
erected by Mr Jewett about two years ago expressly for
(03:35):
the purpose, and situated but a few meters from his residence.
There were eighteen inmates at the time, all of whom
had been locked in their cells for the night as usual,
at which time everything was right so far as could
be seen. At twenty minutes before twelve o'clock, an alarm
was raised by Lucretia Toothaker, an old lady, one of
(03:57):
the incurable insane, brought from Oshkosh last summer. On hearing it,
Mr Jewett arose and it once proceeded to learn the cause.
Arriving at the building, he opened the door of the
furnace room in the basement and found it full of
dense smoke, and at once a bright flame dashed out
from the ceiling overhead and spread rapidly across the room.
Using buckets of water, people on the scene tried to
(04:19):
tame the fire and rescue everyone inside. The cells were
quickly unlocked by Mr Jewett, who, with the aid of
two or three others who had arrived, got them out
with as much haste as possible, many of them having
to be carried out nearly suffocated with smoke. On the
cause of the fire, Mr Jewett says there had been
no fire in the furnace since three o'clock the day before,
(04:41):
and he thinks the fire to have originated from the
ashes of a pipe laid upon a projection of a
beam near the floor overhead, that is again from the
Oshkosh Northwestern Afterwards, survivors were all cared for in Jewett's
own house and other buildings in the neighborhood. He proposed
to erect a new building again as fast as it
could be done. Unfortunately, he never saw that plan through
(05:05):
because that April Jewett passed away from injuries sustained in
the fire. After Mr. Jewett's death, a plan was formed
by the county board to move the asylum closer to
the city of Sheboygan. In eighteen eighty one, the county
purchased nineteen acres located just west of today's voll Wrath
Company Grounds, bordered by Superior and Erie Avenues. During construction,
(05:28):
the patients were kept in neighboring homes. The building contract
was let and the new building was completed and furnished
by June one, eighteen eighty two. The committee then employed A. J.
Whiffen and his wife as superintendent and matron, respectively, of
the institution. On June seventh, the building was opened to
forty inmates, being all those kept at Winowski and twenty
(05:49):
others transferred from the Northern Hospital. When this second iteration
opened in eighteen eighty two, it was called the County Hospital,
but became known as the Asylum. It also served as
a poorhouse the following year. In eighteen eighty three, an
addition increased the building's capacity from forty to ninety, and
in eighteen eighty six twenty acres of additional land were purchased,
(06:13):
and two years later the number of patients increased so
rapidly that another edition was authorized and built. On December
twenty nine, fire once again reared its ugly head and
claimed the life of the night watchman who discovered it.
According to reports, the County Insane Asylum was damaged by
(06:33):
a fire that started in the washroom about one o'clock.
Chester Carver, the night watchman, aged sixty years, was suffocated
and Superintendent A. J. Whiffen was seriously injured in trying
to save Carver. Sounds eerily reminiscent of the building before. Meanwhile,
the asylum campus grew. It didn't take long for the
(06:54):
news structure to fill. In eighteen twenty more acres were added,
and thereafter the number of patients continued to increase from
year to year. In nineteen o five, the County Board
purchased the Tailor Farm, consisting of two hundred fifty acres,
together with the buildings on the property, and arranged for
the addition of more room at the institution. It farmed
(07:15):
its land to feed and employ the inmates. By nineteen eleven,
after further expansions and the acquisition of an adjacent farm
through a bond issue, it stood on three hundred nine
acres and had a capacity of two hundred twenty five inmates.
A name that is familiar to even the current building
entered the picture on March first, nineteen ten. That is
(07:35):
when the Whiffins stepped back from the asylum and the
r Key family stepped in. Dr Herman r Key entered
the role of superintendent and his wife acted as matron
at the institution. Herman ran the hospital until his death
in nineteen thirty. His son, Mr Harold as Happy r
Key was appointed to head the County Mental Institution in
June of nineteen thirty. Between nineteen twenty five and the
(07:59):
forty there were discussions about a land swap between the
asylum and the mission House College in the town of Hermon.
The large amount of acreage was thought to impeed the
westward growth of the city. Although initially excited about becoming
a college town, the ideal lost momentum and then failed.
About the same time, another blow was dealt to the institution.
(08:20):
A former resident of the asylum spoke out about insufficient
food during his stay. The accusations were refuted and proven falls,
but the facility ended up closing to patients in nineteen forty.
When the facility closed, a new facility had been built
at five Corners in the town of Lima, which the
Archies continued to oversee. Before we get to the new facility,
(08:44):
there's one more bit of interesting history attached to this one.
In the spring of nineteen forty two, when things looked
especially grim for Allies, it was rumored that Adolf Hitler
planned an air drop of weapons to his soldiers held
prisoner at detention camps in England. That very real fear
led to the United States agreeing to take charge of
(09:05):
prisoners captured by the Brits. After nineteen forty two, thousands
of prisoners of war were brought to the United States
and housed for the duration of World War Two. The
old abandoned Sheboygan County Asylum had been selected to house
the POWs. While it could easily accommodate the expected five
hundred fifty prisoners, the maximum number housed in the three
(09:26):
story brick building never exceeded four hundred fifty. The prisoners
were accommodated in the asylum itself. By nineteen forty five,
there were disastrous labor shortages in the United States, and
because of its tremendous agricultural needs, Wisconsin would have suffered
greatly had it not been for the Pow labor program.
(09:47):
Camps were located close to farm fields that needed working
or factories in need of a labor force. The POWs
were not required to work, but boredom and the ability
to earn money or coupons for the canteen motivated them
to volunteer for almost any job available. Prisoners were paid
an equivalent of eighty cents per day, not in cash,
but in canteen coupons, which they could spend for cigarettes, candy,
(10:10):
and beer. When the war ended in nineteen forty five,
the POWs were free to leave, but the majority of
German prisoners continued working in the United States until nineteen Finally,
the dilapidated structures that were once the Sheboygan County Asylum
were torn down in the nineteen sixties, and the plot
has since been developed into residential neighborhoods, the Sheboygan Clinic campus,
(10:34):
and Pick and Save grocery store. So Pick and Save
if you're listening, I am happy to come investigate if
anything weird is going on there. The new hospital, then
dubbed the Sheboygan County Hospital for the Insane, was built
and opened by nineteen thirty nine. There was a dedication
ceremony for the new facility held in early October nineteen
(10:57):
thirty nine. While more than one thousand person's watched, County
Judge F. H. Schlichting Sunday afternoon tapped mortar around the
cornerstone of the new County Hospital for the Insane, now
nearing completion in the town of Lima. A copper box
containing pictures, coins, several issues of the Sheboygan Press, and
other items was sealed into the cornerstone by mortar wielded
(11:20):
from Judge Slichtings Trout. The judge addressed the crowd. It
is a source of great pride for all our citizens
that we are here today to lay the cornerstone of
another great institution. This mark is one or more mark
of progress in the history of this great Sheboygan County.
This great step forward is being taken to alleviate human suffering.
(11:41):
He continued. These fine modern buildings which are being erected
here are further evidence of the progressive, constructive attitude of
the people of this county. Sheboygan County never retreats. It
goes steadily forward, discarding the old and taking on the new,
whenever it is merited and proven to be the benefit
of its people. This is from the Sheboygan Press. Schlichting explained,
(12:04):
this is a new era. No longer do we put
people away in an insane asylum. We now commit those
afflicted as understanding fellow citizens to hospitals for the treatment
of mental diseases. No longer is insanity considered an affliction
about which nothing can be done. Rather, we now consider
it as a disease, just as is cancer, tuberculosis, or
(12:28):
any other physical ailment, and amenable to treatment. Right here
in this hospital we are having such fine facilities for
this purpose of hydrotherapy units which are recognized as essential
for treatment of mental diseases, but which are not now
and never have been in our institution. Full hospital facilities,
including operating rooms and the like, will be a part
(12:49):
of this building, and provisions are being made for a
full time trained nurse. The nineteen forty construction covers over
two hundred thousand square feet assists of tunnels runs underneath it.
This new facility brought many features to patients, including a
recreation room, dental office, cafeteria, and courtyard. It was also
(13:11):
touted that the new building was being constructed so that
each and every room would have sunlight at some point
during the day. For almost a decade, between nineteen sixty
nine and nineteen seventy eight, the facility became an acute
care service for the mentally ill, and for some of
that time also offered rehabilitation services for various addictions. After
(13:32):
nineteen seventy eight, county officials discontinued the mentally ill services
and the facility became a home for the developmentally disabled
and chronically ill. Between nineteen eighty eight and two thousand two,
the facility slowly closed down and transferred patients as it went.
As of two The Sheboygan County Asylum still stands, but
(13:54):
is now privately owned and mostly closed to the public.
It's widely alleged that the medical building is haunted, partly
because it is so often confused with the original asylums.
But while yes, the health care center did not have
any fires or German POWs on site, it has seen
its fair share of death and tragedy. Before I go
(14:16):
into this, it's important to note that local residents were
hugely supportive of this facility. It was home to many
of their loved ones who could not go elsewhere. I
have interviewed as staff members, and it is widely looked
at as a positive place with no history of abuse
or neglect. But the nature of the hospital itself means
(14:36):
that yes, many people died on site, hundreds of them actually,
many of natural causes old age or terminal illness. One
of the rumors that persists is that multiple nurses took
their own lives in the structure. I was able to
find record of two staff members who died by suicide
on site. One was a janitor who died of a
(14:58):
self inflicted gunshot wound in nineteen sixty five. The other
was a woman who in nineteen sixty seven suffocated herself
by putting a plastic bag over her head, and she
was later found in her bed by co workers. Sadly,
being a mental health facility, there were also occasional suicides
within the patient population. In nineteen sixty three, a patient
(15:21):
hanged herself from a window handle in her room, and
in nineteen seventy one, in full view of other patients
looking out their windows, a patient jumped from a water
tower while trying to be talked down by multiple employees.
The gentleman had been in the care of the institution
for thirty seven years. Now keep in mind these are
only the debts I could find record of in newspapers.
(15:44):
It stands to reason there were many not made public.
As far as paranormal activity goes, reports are rampant. Visitors
report a tall entity in the tunnels, They hear footsteps
in the halls, and multiple shadow figures are seen in
the corridors. Old bangs and slams come from areas where
there are no doors to slam, and guests report being
(16:05):
touched or having their hair pold, and it's not uncommon
to hear screams or talking coming from empty halls and
rooms as evidence. In the beginning of this episode, I
can definitely vouch for these slamming phenomenon. To talk about
the paranormal activity on site and what the future holds
for the Sheboygan County Asylum, we will be talking to
Craig Nearing. He is the founder of Fox Valley ghost
(16:28):
Hunters and investigates the hospital regularly. He's got some interesting
insight and some wild experiences to share, so that is
coming up next. I am sitting here with Craig Nearing,
(16:53):
who is the founder of Fox Valley ghost Hunters, and
he is very closely affiliated with the asylum it's health.
What I have not mentioned yet is the fact that
the asylum is actually featured on season six of Kindred Spirits,
So depending on when you're listening, it has not aired
as of this recording, but it is the season six
(17:14):
finale of Kindred Spirits. So Craig is our client on
the show, so we got to know each other that way,
and he's just a wealth of information as far as
the asylum itself and the activity that goes on there.
So welcome Craig, Thank you for having me. Of course,
happy to have you. It's been a few months since
I visited. I don't want to give away too many
(17:36):
spoilers as far as the episode goes, just in case
people haven't seen it yet, but I would say that
our experiences at the Asylum and kind of our outcome there,
we're very different from what we've seen in the past,
and I think a large part of that was that
it was a location that was just so focused on
(17:57):
healing and fixing and kind of a had of its
time really when it opened, as far as seeing you know,
mental health as being something that was treatable and not
something to just lock someone away for forever. So that
being said, what got you so closely involved in the
asylum itself, Well, it was a place that most of
(18:21):
my paramormal team always wanted to visit or get involved in,
and it was very hard to get into. The owner
didn't allow other teams or anybody to ever come out
and investigate there. And it just so happened that the
owner knows my brother, and my brother is a really
good businessman, and he says, anybody that's in the business
(18:44):
like that, he goes, I'd love to talk to their brother.
So that was kind of the starting point for giving
stepping foot into the asylum and being able to investigate there. Yeah.
I do find that some of these relationships with property
owners and things, it's it's very organic. There's a lot
of these buildings that we see and we want to
(19:05):
get in there so badly because we know the history
and we know rumors of it being haunted. And many
times it's just about kind of meeting the right person
or you know, fostering up friendship or something along those
lines is how it eventually happens. And we did meet
him and he seemed very open at this point, so
well done on that. Yeah, thank you. He's an interesting individual,
(19:28):
because I mean, anybody who purchases a building like that
has to be an interesting person, I would say, and
he is. He seems like he's a collector. He's got
a lot of antiques in there. Um, he's renovating certain
areas of it. He's got very big plans for it,
which I think is really cool. But with all that
going on, do you think that that kind of does
anything to the activity. I would think so anybody that
(19:51):
would bring antiques or you know, old items in there,
even things related to hospitals and asylums and stuff like
that would definitely have things that could be attached to
that stuff even coming in. Yeah, and I felt like
while we you know, we really did investigate quite a
bit there, and I could have done on an entire
(20:15):
other episode on just the items themselves, because there are
a lot of historic artifacts in there. But that being said,
everyone it is under lock and key. That places very
heavily surveillanced, surveilled, whatever the word would be, and there
are people on site, so it is tempting. I think
these big old buildings, I think people assume there's no
(20:35):
one there, but in this case there are people very
much there and cameras everywhere, so be aware of that
kind of just getting into the activity. Aside from even
all of the items that are there. If you visit
the asylum, what can you expect to experience? Would you say,
Like I tell people, when we don't pay our ghosts,
they're not on the payroll. We're very respectful to ghosts
(21:00):
as far as they were once people too, so we
don't do any provoking. We treat them like you would
treat a normal human being with respect. But people coming
into the asylum for tours and events and us in general,
we've had our hair pulled. I've had things touched me
on the shoulder, disembodied voices. A lot of times you'll
(21:22):
hear a little girl that likes to sing in the hallway.
Sometimes you'll even hear her humming. Dark shadows that moved
between the doorways and stuff, especially if you're looking down
some of the long corridors and always with the patients rooms,
you can sometimes see the like shadows pop in and out,
or even see a possibility of a head that pops
out of a room to speak around the corner. Many
(21:44):
of our guests I've seen that, Yeah, And I mean
I found in particular kind of that basement area. We
had some very crazy experiences there, but that was the
area for me that seemed the most active. It's kind
of where you go down to where the org once
wasn't you go around the corner and up this hallway
to where the chapel is and everything is that kind
(22:05):
of the norm. Is that usually kind of the most
active place for people. Yeah, it seems to be a
lot of the hotspots seem to be in the basement.
A lot of running and screaming with guests down there too.
Even in the tunnels. It's just you get some really
cold spots that just like come out of nowhere, and
it's a warm summer day and you can definitely seem
(22:25):
like something is definitely around you at the time, and
it's footsteps down there and a lot of interesting things
in the basement. This is something I don't really talk
about that often because it's slightly embarrassing, but you know,
sometimes when we are doing these kind of investigations in
larger locations. You know, years ago, when I was on
the show Ghost Hunters, there were six or seven of
(22:48):
us at a time setting up equipment, and now it's
just Adam and me on Kindred Spirits doing the equipment portion,
which I don't think we really thought out, you know.
But that being said, I do find, you know, sometimes
I have to venture off on my own to go
get like a camera or you know, a piece of
(23:09):
equipment we left, and there was a point where I
did have to go down into that basement by myself,
and there's this whole other like tunnel section. There's there's
many tunnels, and I'm already terrified of tunnels. I hate
being underground, and so I do remember walking through that
tunnel at some point alone when I do that, and
I start feeling anxious or aunt say, or you know,
(23:32):
I get that kind of feeling like I'm not alone.
I always whistle because I feel like nothing bad can
happen if you're whistling, right. But I was whistling through
that tunnel and I walked through and I was by myself,
just walking, and I do think this has happened on
the show as well. But the lights started turning on
and off and I'm down there all by myself, and
(23:56):
I think if I had not been faced with situation
is like this many times over the years, Like if
I was kind of like a new but newbie, I
probably would have run screaming out of that building. Yeah,
that lights an issue. It happened to me once too,
and I talked to the owner bout and he's like, well,
it's never done that before, so it's weird to happen
(24:18):
once in the lobby. And then they also happened in
the tunnel where this one light would like flicker and
it was just a weird the way it flickered, and
it wasn't some special bulb or anything. It was a
normal bulb. But the owner said, yeah, that don't normally happen. Well,
that's the thing too, is you know, it kind of
coincided with me feeling like maybe I wasn't alone, which
(24:39):
that could have just been my own paranoia, but that
was one of those moments where I was like, jeez,
if if under normal circumstances, I would probably have just
like run out of here, but then I would have
had to answer to Adam for like the rest of
my life. So so now one of the things that's
kind of hard when you're researching the asylum is like,
so you call it the asylum because its original roots
(25:02):
were the Sheboygan County Asylum. Now it's had like three
iterations at this point. When it closed, it was the
Comprehensive Health Care Center, which, as you and I have
spoken with like not recording that if you leave that
name kind of up, people think it is actually a
place that you can take someone who's injured because they
don't realize that it's closed. But I guess what I'm
(25:25):
getting at is that going through trying to research was
very difficult. I remember when we were filming there and
I was researching, trying to go back through records because
there are three different versions of basically the same place.
A lot of that history and lore kind of gets
crossed over and you know, mistaken for happening in that building.
You know, things like the German POWs or the fires
(25:47):
or anything like that. Has that ever posed a problem
during your investigations or when people come in. Do you
have to kind of correct investigators sometimes on the actual history. Yeah.
In fact, a lot of helpers, a lot of them
are kind of in the darker, all confused about all
the different things because, like you said, they carry over
from one asylum to the next and everybody gets confused.
(26:09):
The whole topic of the peel W's being over at
our asylum isn't true. They were never were there. They
were at the other asylum. However, the peel Ws were
busted over to our asylum to harvest the fields for
the food that were sometimes used for the people that
were eating in the asylum. So they're busted over to
the fields, but they never actually stayed in the asylum
(26:32):
or lived there, like it says in some of the
other outputs. Even Wikipedia has so many um wrong, you know,
things listed for the asylum, including that it's two thousand,
seven hundred fifty feet when it's actually two d seventy
square feet, just a lot of indiscripancies. That is interesting
in the sense that, you know, part of being a
(26:55):
paranormal investigator, and I do say this a lot, is
that obviously you can believe in ghosts or you cannot
believe in ghosts, and that's fine, but it's really important
to get the history correct, not just from the way
we do our job and making sure that we're addressing
the correct people, but for like respect issues, you know,
you just want to respectfully get things right. And I
(27:18):
think that we are posed with this problem a lot,
you know. Like I remember, I was we were investigating
a theater recently and it was called the Rialto Theater.
Do you know how many realto theaters there are in
this country? And so I was trying to research it
and go through old newspapers and things, and I could
see how people could very easily kind of get their
(27:42):
information frost. So I respect how hard that must be
kind of trying to shuffle through that. But have you
learned any interesting history or stories about the building that
is there now that people might not know? Um, A
lot of the nurses that used to work there come
through our tours, not a lot of them tell us
different stories, you know, different suicides that had happened over
(28:05):
the years. A couple that we have confirmed, one in
general with the woman named Kim that committed suicide in
the nurses wing. Um. I believe she had hung herself,
which is kind of a tragic story, but we did
find that that one was confirmed. And there was another
one that had jumped off of a waterteller I think
it was like a maintenance sky or something, and that
(28:28):
was confirmed as well. So there's a lot of people
that come through, like the nurses, have stories, but you
also have to basically kind of do your history there
too to make sure that even because every one of
them has like a different story to what happened. Yeah,
that's a tough one because I think sometimes you know,
employees will come in and it's been decades obviously since
they worked there. But then also they might have not
(28:49):
directly been associated with something that they're saying happened. It
might have been something that they even heard through the
grapevine at the time. And what I found interesting as
I interviewed, because I interviewed a few former employees when
we investigated there, and they were all very fond of
the location. They didn't necessarily have you know, bad memories
(29:11):
or there were no stories of like abuse or anything
like that. It was mostly there were some sad stories.
You know. There were some people that they really desperately
tried to help and I and it didn't work out
for whatever reason. But I found that interesting. How often
do you have former employees or even maybe even former
patients come into the building. Yeah, I'm not sure about
(29:35):
the patients. Would never actually had anybody say I was
a patient there. I've seen some a couple online that's
that they were there for a little while as a patient,
but we never got into an actual you know interview.
Probably with the nurses coming through last year and the
year before. We probably had maybe a total of ten
that have come through in the past two years. And
(29:58):
have they had any active video while they were there
and wondering if the building remembers them. Yeah, I think
some of them did. Some of them had an amazing time.
I think that even been back like two or three
times since that, and others. I think just love to
see that the asylum technically, it's still in really good shape.
The owner is trying to restore a lot of the
(30:19):
areas back to its original look, and I think just
having them come in and sees that, you know, and
and how it was when they were there and how
it looks now, just something that they'd like to see.
I think that sometimes when you do restore these locations
to look the way they were before, that actually causes
activity or raises the activity levels. And it's nice to
(30:41):
have the nurses because they definitely know, you know, doing that.
What what do you think the owner's hope is. Is
he wanting to open it as a museum or what
do you think he wants to do with it. He
had a lot of ideas where everything from like a
little tiny, not necessary a mall, but they wanted to
do like a coffee shop in the front section of
the building where you'd walk in and just with restoring
(31:03):
the floors, restoring all the hardwood. Upstairs, he wanted to
turn the second floor where the the owner of the
hospital their family would stay at the time, you know,
back when it was forties fifties. He wants to turn
that into like little condole units or something or something
where people can come and spend the night while on
events in town and stuff. It's interesting because when you
(31:25):
you know you you walk through this hospital and it
is like just very tiled and big hallways, and then
you walk through this door and you walk into these
living quarters that are gorgeous like somebody you know that
that's where the owner's family lived, and like these beautiful
hardwood floors. You would never know that you you look
like I can't even describe it. You literally look like
(31:48):
you were in a Victorian house or something like. You
feel that way, but you're in this little section of
a massive asylum, which I find to be so interesting
with that's how they did at in the time the
family lived there. So the asylum ultimately closed in two
thousand two. And how long have you been investigating it now?
(32:09):
This is our third year, so we've been there a
total of three years. And what do you think causes
the most activity? Like when you go in, is there
anything in particular that you find that you do or
say that causes things to happen? A lot of times
we'll talk to the spirits there on certain floors based
(32:30):
on what they were like drugs and alcohol, asked them
if they're like uh in an a a meeting, if
they're getting the help they needed, Sometimes even props are
brought in. We've actually had a few of the ghosts,
even down in the tunnels, say that they liked Papst
Blue Ribbon beer, so we'll bring them in a beer.
They liked cigarettes, we'll bring them in cigarettes. And I
(32:52):
also noticed that one time we tried doing we had
three girls in one of our always they were singing
any songs for like Christmas and gospel or inspirational songs.
They were singing them in the hallways, and it seemed
like the activity picked up at one they were singing.
Or we play some old tunes that maybe back in
the fourties and fifties they like to hear, you seem
(33:13):
to get more activity, noises, things that tend to come
out a little bit more. I think music does instigate
activity a lot, because it's kind of like scent in
the sense that it just transports you back instantly to
a time. And we've had great success with that. And
you know, fun fact, when we're filming, you know, when
(33:36):
we're investigating not on camera, we can play all the
music we want, but when we're filming, we have to
be very careful about what we play because of licensing
rights and things. But we did play music knowing that
we probably wouldn't be able to play it on TV,
and I'm pretty sure it did get us some results.
But that's interesting, and it's actually like a very respectful
way to go about it. Unfortunately, a lot of these
(33:57):
buildings like this, it's the inkland ation of people to
go in and start yelling or provoking or making blanket
assumptions about who they're speaking with and what their mind
set is. And it's not as I think exciting for
some people sometimes to think of it as just walking
(34:17):
in and sitting down and having a conversation, walking in
like you know, you're meeting someone for the first time.
But that legitimately is how you get the most activity.
Like that is how it works the most information. I
should say, you can go in guns blazing and provoke
and probably get some pretty extreme activity, but is that
(34:38):
really how people want to do that. So I'm glad
that you guys are proponents of being super respectful, especially
in a place like that. Yeah, it's hard to get
a lot of people on the outside. They don't come
to our tours, they've never seen us, some of them
never even heard of us, and then they just get
that first opinion of us of all, we're being disrespect
(35:00):
full to the people that were once at the hospital
there because of their conditions and why they were there,
and we're not about that. Like I said, we're very
respectful to the ghosts of that past because there were
people that were like you and me. They're not evil
entities or anything dwelling within an asylum. They were once people,
So we treat them with respect and we don't provoke.
(35:22):
That's the main thing, absolutely, And I think historically it's
important that we kind of remember how these places existed
and functioned, and I think that investigating them and digging
into the history is a big part of that. And
you know, if I had someone who spent time in
one of these locations, like a relative or something, I
(35:44):
wouldn't want to think that their spirit was just there
in this big, empty building and no one was trying
to help them or interact with them. So it's comforting
to me to know that there are people like you
and your team that go into these places just in
case there's someone who needs help or someone who needs assistance,
like if we are right about all this, but that
(36:04):
someone's going in and respectfully speaking to them. But yeah,
it is kind of a stigma that a lot of
us paranormal investigators have to deal with, like this idea
that we're taking advantage. Now, you guys do do tours,
but obviously, like we're very respectful tours, you know, So
do you guys do daytime tours as well as nighttime
(36:24):
tours or how does that all work out there? Last
year we started doing historical tours in the day for
people that wanted to learn the history rather than the paranormal,
because a lot of more would I ask us what
you do a historical tour? So last year we did
two of them. The scup coming year will probably do
a couple more, so people can see it during the
day and get the historical part of it rather than
(36:45):
just the paranormal part of it. I would recommend doing both,
just having been there. It's one of those places that
photographs very very well if you're into that sort of thing,
Like it's just the lighting is spectacular in there, and
just the artifacts and it has held together very well.
Whenever we go into these super old buildings like this,
it's amazing how fast they just start falling apart when
(37:10):
no one is there to live in them, you know.
But this one is in very good shape and being
there even at like twilight, the lighting and so it's
it's obviously very spooky, but it is it's beautiful. I
love the history of it, and I think investigating there
taught me a lot about the motivation of some of
(37:30):
these therapists and doctors and nurses. And it was kind
of one of the first asylums that I investigated that
I didn't have a bunch of horror stories coming out
of it, because it was kind of built in the
thirties and forties and they really were kind of turning
a page at that point as to how they treated
(37:52):
people with mental illness, and it was fascinating to me. Yeah,
as compared to like Waverly Hills where they had those
nask the experiments on people. Yes, I mean some of
the places I've investigated, like trans Alleghany, the things they
did to people are just horrifying. If it's fair to
say an asylum can be refreshing, this one was so
(38:15):
tell me a little bit about how people can get
in touch with you, what you guys do there, if
they want to go on tours, if they want to visit,
let's get people out there. If they want to see it. Yeah,
definitely follow us on Fox Belly ghost Unders on Facebook.
We also have Fox Belly ghost Hunters dot Com. There's
a page just especially for the Asylument's should Boygan Insane
(38:37):
Asylum investigations and yeah, I know the names a little misleading,
but we want to shy people away from visiting the
local downtown hospitals. So um, that's one of the reasons
for that. Me and my lead investigator just bought a
haunted school over in Glenbula, Wisconsin, and we'll be closing
on that in February and eventually we'll we haven't tours
there as well in the near future, so a couple
(38:59):
of different places, and then just following us on Facebook,
you'll see all the different locations and events that we
have to offer, including the Bogan Asylum. That's fantastic, So
I feel like I'll probably be investigating that school in
the future. Yeah, and Adams got to come. Yeah, we
would love to. So well, it's been really great to
(39:20):
talk with you. I appreciate you taking the time, and yeah,
everyone listening. If you can go check out the asylum
or anything Craig is working on. They are a great
group and we loved working with them, so thank you
so much, and hopefully we'll chat again soon about this school. Yes,
thank you. The Sheboygan County Asylum Hospital, Comprehensive health Care Center,
(39:44):
whatever you want to call it, is undoubtedly haunted and yes,
on its own, that is spooky and scary and for
some fun, but it's also an important reminder of why
we do our due diligence in finding out the history
of such places before you walk in and start talking
to its ghosts. Any empty hospital is going to look
(40:05):
scary inside and out, but this one had such a
positive focus and reputation. You're not going to meet the
ghosts of those faced with mal treatment. Rather, you're going
to perhaps be speaking to someone who had very real
struggles in life and may still be having them in
the afterlife. I encourage anyone who investigates there to remember
(40:26):
that and treat them accordingly, because who knows, you may
just be doing more good than you realize. I'm Amy Bruney,
and this was Haunted Road. Haunted Road is a production
(40:46):
of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minkey.
The podcast is written and hosted by Amy Bruney, Executive
producers include Aaron Minky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. The
show is produced Irima ill Kali and Trevor Young. Research
by Taylor haggerdorn Amy Bruney and Robin Minoter. For more
(41:07):
podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio
and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion is advised. Recently,
I found myself wandering the dark halls of an abandoned hospital,
as one does in my line of work. In this
(00:21):
particular moment, I was standing in the basement of said hospital,
and it was pitch black. I wasn't quite aware of
my surroundings or what was in front of me, but
I began to hear a tapping sound. Eventually, the tap
turned louder, and soon it became a loud banging or crashing.
Convinced an animal, or worse, an intruder had entered the building,
(00:43):
I turned on my flashlight and headed toward the sound.
Except when I turned the corner where the sound was
emanating from, there was nothing there, nothing that could make
that sound, and yet it was still happening directly in
front of me. I must admit, if I was alone,
there's a chance I would have quickly exited the building.
But I did have someone with me, and my pride
(01:05):
was on the line, so I continued toward the sound.
When it suddenly stopped with no explanation, we searched high
and low for anything in that empty space that could
have made such a ruck as and we came up empty.
Little did I know this was a common occurrence in
this building. And what I also didn't realize was I
(01:25):
was standing right behind the hospital's former morgue. So join me, friends,
as we had to Wisconsin and visit the Sheboygan County Asylum.
I'm Amy Brunei, and this is haunted road. To fully
(01:46):
understand the hauntings, rumors, and confusion regarding the history at
the Sheboygan County Asylum, or what was officially known as
the Sheboygan County Comprehensive Healthcare Center when it closed, you
have to go back to its roots. Sheboygan Asylum refers
to three different structures between eighteen seventy six and two
thousand two. The Sheboygan County Hospital for the Insane was
(02:09):
a former lunatic asylum serving Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. Opened in
eighteen seventy six in Winowski. It was replaced in eighteen
eighty two with a larger facility in Sheboygan, which underwent
several expansions before closing in nineteen forty. It was succeeded
by Sheboygan County Comprehensive health Care Center in Sheboygan Falls,
(02:29):
which operated until two thousand two. These three operations are
regularly confused in research and tragedies. History that occurred in
the first two incarnations are often times confused with the
still standing, though not in use, healthcare center in Sheboygan. Regardless,
the history of each is interesting, so let's go through
(02:50):
each iteration to fully understand why the Comprehensive Healthcare Center
came to be and what actually happened within its walls.
Before the original A. Winowski Asylum opened in June eighteen
seventy six, the chronically insane, as they were called, had
previously been housed in the state hospital and the jail.
In its earliest years, the Sheboygan Asylum was under the
(03:13):
direction of Glanville Jewett, who had about twenty two people
under his care. On February nineteenth, eighteen seventy eight, a
fire broke out in his facility, killing four of the
seventeen patients under Jewett's care at the time. An account
in the Oshkosh, Northwestern States the building was of wood,
erected by Mr Jewett about two years ago expressly for
(03:35):
the purpose, and situated but a few meters from his residence.
There were eighteen inmates at the time, all of whom
had been locked in their cells for the night as usual,
at which time everything was right so far as could
be seen. At twenty minutes before twelve o'clock, an alarm
was raised by Lucretia Toothaker, an old lady, one of
(03:57):
the incurable insane, brought from Oshkosh last summer. On hearing it,
Mr Jewett arose and it once proceeded to learn the cause.
Arriving at the building, he opened the door of the
furnace room in the basement and found it full of
dense smoke, and at once a bright flame dashed out
from the ceiling overhead and spread rapidly across the room.
Using buckets of water, people on the scene tried to
(04:19):
tame the fire and rescue everyone inside. The cells were
quickly unlocked by Mr Jewett, who, with the aid of
two or three others who had arrived, got them out
with as much haste as possible, many of them having
to be carried out nearly suffocated with smoke. On the
cause of the fire, Mr Jewett says there had been
no fire in the furnace since three o'clock the day before,
(04:41):
and he thinks the fire to have originated from the
ashes of a pipe laid upon a projection of a
beam near the floor overhead, that is again from the
Oshkosh Northwestern Afterwards, survivors were all cared for in Jewett's
own house and other buildings in the neighborhood. He proposed
to erect a new building again as fast as it
could be done. Unfortunately, he never saw that plan through
(05:05):
because that April Jewett passed away from injuries sustained in
the fire. After Mr. Jewett's death, a plan was formed
by the county board to move the asylum closer to
the city of Sheboygan. In eighteen eighty one, the county
purchased nineteen acres located just west of today's voll Wrath
Company Grounds, bordered by Superior and Erie Avenues. During construction,
(05:28):
the patients were kept in neighboring homes. The building contract
was let and the new building was completed and furnished
by June one, eighteen eighty two. The committee then employed A. J.
Whiffen and his wife as superintendent and matron, respectively, of
the institution. On June seventh, the building was opened to
forty inmates, being all those kept at Winowski and twenty
(05:49):
others transferred from the Northern Hospital. When this second iteration
opened in eighteen eighty two, it was called the County Hospital,
but became known as the Asylum. It also served as
a poorhouse the following year. In eighteen eighty three, an
addition increased the building's capacity from forty to ninety, and
in eighteen eighty six twenty acres of additional land were purchased,
(06:13):
and two years later the number of patients increased so
rapidly that another edition was authorized and built. On December
twenty nine, fire once again reared its ugly head and
claimed the life of the night watchman who discovered it.
According to reports, the County Insane Asylum was damaged by
(06:33):
a fire that started in the washroom about one o'clock.
Chester Carver, the night watchman, aged sixty years, was suffocated
and Superintendent A. J. Whiffen was seriously injured in trying
to save Carver. Sounds eerily reminiscent of the building before. Meanwhile,
the asylum campus grew. It didn't take long for the
(06:54):
news structure to fill. In eighteen twenty more acres were added,
and thereafter the number of patients continued to increase from
year to year. In nineteen o five, the County Board
purchased the Tailor Farm, consisting of two hundred fifty acres,
together with the buildings on the property, and arranged for
the addition of more room at the institution. It farmed
(07:15):
its land to feed and employ the inmates. By nineteen eleven,
after further expansions and the acquisition of an adjacent farm
through a bond issue, it stood on three hundred nine
acres and had a capacity of two hundred twenty five inmates.
A name that is familiar to even the current building
entered the picture on March first, nineteen ten. That is
(07:35):
when the Whiffins stepped back from the asylum and the
r Key family stepped in. Dr Herman r Key entered
the role of superintendent and his wife acted as matron
at the institution. Herman ran the hospital until his death
in nineteen thirty. His son, Mr Harold as Happy r
Key was appointed to head the County Mental Institution in
June of nineteen thirty. Between nineteen twenty five and the
(07:59):
forty there were discussions about a land swap between the
asylum and the mission House College in the town of Hermon.
The large amount of acreage was thought to impeed the
westward growth of the city. Although initially excited about becoming
a college town, the ideal lost momentum and then failed.
About the same time, another blow was dealt to the institution.
(08:20):
A former resident of the asylum spoke out about insufficient
food during his stay. The accusations were refuted and proven falls,
but the facility ended up closing to patients in nineteen forty.
When the facility closed, a new facility had been built
at five Corners in the town of Lima, which the
Archies continued to oversee. Before we get to the new facility,
(08:44):
there's one more bit of interesting history attached to this one.
In the spring of nineteen forty two, when things looked
especially grim for Allies, it was rumored that Adolf Hitler
planned an air drop of weapons to his soldiers held
prisoner at detention camps in England. That very real fear
led to the United States agreeing to take charge of
(09:05):
prisoners captured by the Brits. After nineteen forty two, thousands
of prisoners of war were brought to the United States
and housed for the duration of World War Two. The
old abandoned Sheboygan County Asylum had been selected to house
the POWs. While it could easily accommodate the expected five
hundred fifty prisoners, the maximum number housed in the three
(09:26):
story brick building never exceeded four hundred fifty. The prisoners
were accommodated in the asylum itself. By nineteen forty five,
there were disastrous labor shortages in the United States, and
because of its tremendous agricultural needs, Wisconsin would have suffered
greatly had it not been for the Pow labor program.
(09:47):
Camps were located close to farm fields that needed working
or factories in need of a labor force. The POWs
were not required to work, but boredom and the ability
to earn money or coupons for the canteen motivated them
to volunteer for almost any job available. Prisoners were paid
an equivalent of eighty cents per day, not in cash,
but in canteen coupons, which they could spend for cigarettes, candy,
(10:10):
and beer. When the war ended in nineteen forty five,
the POWs were free to leave, but the majority of
German prisoners continued working in the United States until nineteen Finally,
the dilapidated structures that were once the Sheboygan County Asylum
were torn down in the nineteen sixties, and the plot
has since been developed into residential neighborhoods, the Sheboygan Clinic campus,
(10:34):
and Pick and Save grocery store. So Pick and Save
if you're listening, I am happy to come investigate if
anything weird is going on there. The new hospital, then
dubbed the Sheboygan County Hospital for the Insane, was built
and opened by nineteen thirty nine. There was a dedication
ceremony for the new facility held in early October nineteen
(10:57):
thirty nine. While more than one thousand person's watched, County
Judge F. H. Schlichting Sunday afternoon tapped mortar around the
cornerstone of the new County Hospital for the Insane, now
nearing completion in the town of Lima. A copper box
containing pictures, coins, several issues of the Sheboygan Press, and
other items was sealed into the cornerstone by mortar wielded
(11:20):
from Judge Slichtings Trout. The judge addressed the crowd. It
is a source of great pride for all our citizens
that we are here today to lay the cornerstone of
another great institution. This mark is one or more mark
of progress in the history of this great Sheboygan County.
This great step forward is being taken to alleviate human suffering.
(11:41):
He continued. These fine modern buildings which are being erected
here are further evidence of the progressive, constructive attitude of
the people of this county. Sheboygan County never retreats. It
goes steadily forward, discarding the old and taking on the new,
whenever it is merited and proven to be the benefit
of its people. This is from the Sheboygan Press. Schlichting explained,
(12:04):
this is a new era. No longer do we put
people away in an insane asylum. We now commit those
afflicted as understanding fellow citizens to hospitals for the treatment
of mental diseases. No longer is insanity considered an affliction
about which nothing can be done. Rather, we now consider
it as a disease, just as is cancer, tuberculosis, or
(12:28):
any other physical ailment, and amenable to treatment. Right here
in this hospital we are having such fine facilities for
this purpose of hydrotherapy units which are recognized as essential
for treatment of mental diseases, but which are not now
and never have been in our institution. Full hospital facilities,
including operating rooms and the like, will be a part
(12:49):
of this building, and provisions are being made for a
full time trained nurse. The nineteen forty construction covers over
two hundred thousand square feet assists of tunnels runs underneath it.
This new facility brought many features to patients, including a
recreation room, dental office, cafeteria, and courtyard. It was also
(13:11):
touted that the new building was being constructed so that
each and every room would have sunlight at some point
during the day. For almost a decade, between nineteen sixty
nine and nineteen seventy eight, the facility became an acute
care service for the mentally ill, and for some of
that time also offered rehabilitation services for various addictions. After
(13:32):
nineteen seventy eight, county officials discontinued the mentally ill services
and the facility became a home for the developmentally disabled
and chronically ill. Between nineteen eighty eight and two thousand two,
the facility slowly closed down and transferred patients as it went.
As of two The Sheboygan County Asylum still stands, but
(13:54):
is now privately owned and mostly closed to the public.
It's widely alleged that the medical building is haunted, partly
because it is so often confused with the original asylums.
But while yes, the health care center did not have
any fires or German POWs on site, it has seen
its fair share of death and tragedy. Before I go
(14:16):
into this, it's important to note that local residents were
hugely supportive of this facility. It was home to many
of their loved ones who could not go elsewhere. I
have interviewed as staff members, and it is widely looked
at as a positive place with no history of abuse
or neglect. But the nature of the hospital itself means
(14:36):
that yes, many people died on site, hundreds of them actually,
many of natural causes old age or terminal illness. One
of the rumors that persists is that multiple nurses took
their own lives in the structure. I was able to
find record of two staff members who died by suicide
on site. One was a janitor who died of a
(14:58):
self inflicted gunshot wound in nineteen sixty five. The other
was a woman who in nineteen sixty seven suffocated herself
by putting a plastic bag over her head, and she
was later found in her bed by co workers. Sadly,
being a mental health facility, there were also occasional suicides
within the patient population. In nineteen sixty three, a patient
(15:21):
hanged herself from a window handle in her room, and
in nineteen seventy one, in full view of other patients
looking out their windows, a patient jumped from a water
tower while trying to be talked down by multiple employees.
The gentleman had been in the care of the institution
for thirty seven years. Now keep in mind these are
only the debts I could find record of in newspapers.
(15:44):
It stands to reason there were many not made public.
As far as paranormal activity goes, reports are rampant. Visitors
report a tall entity in the tunnels, They hear footsteps
in the halls, and multiple shadow figures are seen in
the corridors. Old bangs and slams come from areas where
there are no doors to slam, and guests report being
(16:05):
touched or having their hair pold, and it's not uncommon
to hear screams or talking coming from empty halls and
rooms as evidence. In the beginning of this episode, I
can definitely vouch for these slamming phenomenon. To talk about
the paranormal activity on site and what the future holds
for the Sheboygan County Asylum, we will be talking to
Craig Nearing. He is the founder of Fox Valley ghost
(16:28):
Hunters and investigates the hospital regularly. He's got some interesting
insight and some wild experiences to share, so that is
coming up next. I am sitting here with Craig Nearing,
(16:53):
who is the founder of Fox Valley ghost Hunters, and
he is very closely affiliated with the asylum it's health.
What I have not mentioned yet is the fact that
the asylum is actually featured on season six of Kindred Spirits,
So depending on when you're listening, it has not aired
as of this recording, but it is the season six
(17:14):
finale of Kindred Spirits. So Craig is our client on
the show, so we got to know each other that way,
and he's just a wealth of information as far as
the asylum itself and the activity that goes on there.
So welcome Craig, Thank you for having me. Of course,
happy to have you. It's been a few months since
I visited. I don't want to give away too many
(17:36):
spoilers as far as the episode goes, just in case
people haven't seen it yet, but I would say that
our experiences at the Asylum and kind of our outcome there,
we're very different from what we've seen in the past,
and I think a large part of that was that
it was a location that was just so focused on
(17:57):
healing and fixing and kind of a had of its
time really when it opened, as far as seeing you know,
mental health as being something that was treatable and not
something to just lock someone away for forever. So that
being said, what got you so closely involved in the
asylum itself, Well, it was a place that most of
(18:21):
my paramormal team always wanted to visit or get involved in,
and it was very hard to get into. The owner
didn't allow other teams or anybody to ever come out
and investigate there. And it just so happened that the
owner knows my brother, and my brother is a really
good businessman, and he says, anybody that's in the business
(18:44):
like that, he goes, I'd love to talk to their brother.
So that was kind of the starting point for giving
stepping foot into the asylum and being able to investigate there. Yeah.
I do find that some of these relationships with property
owners and things, it's it's very organic. There's a lot
of these buildings that we see and we want to
(19:05):
get in there so badly because we know the history
and we know rumors of it being haunted. And many
times it's just about kind of meeting the right person
or you know, fostering up friendship or something along those
lines is how it eventually happens. And we did meet
him and he seemed very open at this point, so
well done on that. Yeah, thank you. He's an interesting individual,
(19:28):
because I mean, anybody who purchases a building like that
has to be an interesting person, I would say, and
he is. He seems like he's a collector. He's got
a lot of antiques in there. Um, he's renovating certain
areas of it. He's got very big plans for it,
which I think is really cool. But with all that
going on, do you think that that kind of does
anything to the activity. I would think so anybody that
(19:51):
would bring antiques or you know, old items in there,
even things related to hospitals and asylums and stuff like
that would definitely have things that could be attached to
that stuff even coming in. Yeah, and I felt like
while we you know, we really did investigate quite a
bit there, and I could have done on an entire
(20:15):
other episode on just the items themselves, because there are
a lot of historic artifacts in there. But that being said,
everyone it is under lock and key. That places very
heavily surveillanced, surveilled, whatever the word would be, and there
are people on site, so it is tempting. I think
these big old buildings, I think people assume there's no
(20:35):
one there, but in this case there are people very
much there and cameras everywhere, so be aware of that
kind of just getting into the activity. Aside from even
all of the items that are there. If you visit
the asylum, what can you expect to experience? Would you say,
Like I tell people, when we don't pay our ghosts,
they're not on the payroll. We're very respectful to ghosts
(21:00):
as far as they were once people too, so we
don't do any provoking. We treat them like you would
treat a normal human being with respect. But people coming
into the asylum for tours and events and us in general,
we've had our hair pulled. I've had things touched me
on the shoulder, disembodied voices. A lot of times you'll
(21:22):
hear a little girl that likes to sing in the hallway.
Sometimes you'll even hear her humming. Dark shadows that moved
between the doorways and stuff, especially if you're looking down
some of the long corridors and always with the patients rooms,
you can sometimes see the like shadows pop in and out,
or even see a possibility of a head that pops
out of a room to speak around the corner. Many
(21:44):
of our guests I've seen that, Yeah, And I mean
I found in particular kind of that basement area. We
had some very crazy experiences there, but that was the
area for me that seemed the most active. It's kind
of where you go down to where the org once
wasn't you go around the corner and up this hallway
to where the chapel is and everything is that kind
(22:05):
of the norm. Is that usually kind of the most
active place for people. Yeah, it seems to be a
lot of the hotspots seem to be in the basement.
A lot of running and screaming with guests down there too.
Even in the tunnels. It's just you get some really
cold spots that just like come out of nowhere, and
it's a warm summer day and you can definitely seem
(22:25):
like something is definitely around you at the time, and
it's footsteps down there and a lot of interesting things
in the basement. This is something I don't really talk
about that often because it's slightly embarrassing, but you know,
sometimes when we are doing these kind of investigations in
larger locations. You know, years ago, when I was on
the show Ghost Hunters, there were six or seven of
(22:48):
us at a time setting up equipment, and now it's
just Adam and me on Kindred Spirits doing the equipment portion,
which I don't think we really thought out, you know.
But that being said, I do find, you know, sometimes
I have to venture off on my own to go
get like a camera or you know, a piece of
(23:09):
equipment we left, and there was a point where I
did have to go down into that basement by myself,
and there's this whole other like tunnel section. There's there's
many tunnels, and I'm already terrified of tunnels. I hate
being underground, and so I do remember walking through that
tunnel at some point alone when I do that, and
I start feeling anxious or aunt say, or you know,
(23:32):
I get that kind of feeling like I'm not alone.
I always whistle because I feel like nothing bad can
happen if you're whistling, right. But I was whistling through
that tunnel and I walked through and I was by myself,
just walking, and I do think this has happened on
the show as well. But the lights started turning on
and off and I'm down there all by myself, and
(23:56):
I think if I had not been faced with situation
is like this many times over the years, Like if
I was kind of like a new but newbie, I
probably would have run screaming out of that building. Yeah,
that lights an issue. It happened to me once too,
and I talked to the owner bout and he's like, well,
it's never done that before, so it's weird to happen
(24:18):
once in the lobby. And then they also happened in
the tunnel where this one light would like flicker and
it was just a weird the way it flickered, and
it wasn't some special bulb or anything. It was a
normal bulb. But the owner said, yeah, that don't normally happen. Well,
that's the thing too, is you know, it kind of
coincided with me feeling like maybe I wasn't alone, which
(24:39):
that could have just been my own paranoia, but that
was one of those moments where I was like, jeez,
if if under normal circumstances, I would probably have just
like run out of here, but then I would have
had to answer to Adam for like the rest of
my life. So so now one of the things that's
kind of hard when you're researching the asylum is like,
so you call it the asylum because its original roots
(25:02):
were the Sheboygan County Asylum. Now it's had like three
iterations at this point. When it closed, it was the
Comprehensive Health Care Center, which, as you and I have
spoken with like not recording that if you leave that
name kind of up, people think it is actually a
place that you can take someone who's injured because they
don't realize that it's closed. But I guess what I'm
(25:25):
getting at is that going through trying to research was
very difficult. I remember when we were filming there and
I was researching, trying to go back through records because
there are three different versions of basically the same place.
A lot of that history and lore kind of gets
crossed over and you know, mistaken for happening in that building.
You know, things like the German POWs or the fires
(25:47):
or anything like that. Has that ever posed a problem
during your investigations or when people come in. Do you
have to kind of correct investigators sometimes on the actual history. Yeah.
In fact, a lot of helpers, a lot of them
are kind of in the darker, all confused about all
the different things because, like you said, they carry over
from one asylum to the next and everybody gets confused.
(26:09):
The whole topic of the peel W's being over at
our asylum isn't true. They were never were there. They
were at the other asylum. However, the peel Ws were
busted over to our asylum to harvest the fields for
the food that were sometimes used for the people that
were eating in the asylum. So they're busted over to
the fields, but they never actually stayed in the asylum
(26:32):
or lived there, like it says in some of the
other outputs. Even Wikipedia has so many um wrong, you know,
things listed for the asylum, including that it's two thousand,
seven hundred fifty feet when it's actually two d seventy
square feet, just a lot of indiscripancies. That is interesting
in the sense that, you know, part of being a
(26:55):
paranormal investigator, and I do say this a lot, is
that obviously you can believe in ghosts or you cannot
believe in ghosts, and that's fine, but it's really important
to get the history correct, not just from the way
we do our job and making sure that we're addressing
the correct people, but for like respect issues, you know,
you just want to respectfully get things right. And I
(27:18):
think that we are posed with this problem a lot,
you know. Like I remember, I was we were investigating
a theater recently and it was called the Rialto Theater.
Do you know how many realto theaters there are in
this country? And so I was trying to research it
and go through old newspapers and things, and I could
see how people could very easily kind of get their
(27:42):
information frost. So I respect how hard that must be
kind of trying to shuffle through that. But have you
learned any interesting history or stories about the building that
is there now that people might not know? Um, A
lot of the nurses that used to work there come
through our tours, not a lot of them tell us
different stories, you know, different suicides that had happened over
(28:05):
the years. A couple that we have confirmed, one in
general with the woman named Kim that committed suicide in
the nurses wing. Um. I believe she had hung herself,
which is kind of a tragic story, but we did
find that that one was confirmed. And there was another
one that had jumped off of a waterteller I think
it was like a maintenance sky or something, and that
(28:28):
was confirmed as well. So there's a lot of people
that come through, like the nurses, have stories, but you
also have to basically kind of do your history there
too to make sure that even because every one of
them has like a different story to what happened. Yeah,
that's a tough one because I think sometimes you know,
employees will come in and it's been decades obviously since
they worked there. But then also they might have not
(28:49):
directly been associated with something that they're saying happened. It
might have been something that they even heard through the
grapevine at the time. And what I found interesting as
I interviewed, because I interviewed a few former employees when
we investigated there, and they were all very fond of
the location. They didn't necessarily have you know, bad memories
(29:11):
or there were no stories of like abuse or anything
like that. It was mostly there were some sad stories.
You know. There were some people that they really desperately
tried to help and I and it didn't work out
for whatever reason. But I found that interesting. How often
do you have former employees or even maybe even former
patients come into the building. Yeah, I'm not sure about
(29:35):
the patients. Would never actually had anybody say I was
a patient there. I've seen some a couple online that's
that they were there for a little while as a patient,
but we never got into an actual you know interview.
Probably with the nurses coming through last year and the
year before. We probably had maybe a total of ten
that have come through in the past two years. And
(29:58):
have they had any active video while they were there
and wondering if the building remembers them. Yeah, I think
some of them did. Some of them had an amazing time.
I think that even been back like two or three
times since that, and others. I think just love to
see that the asylum technically, it's still in really good shape.
The owner is trying to restore a lot of the
(30:19):
areas back to its original look, and I think just
having them come in and sees that, you know, and
and how it was when they were there and how
it looks now, just something that they'd like to see.
I think that sometimes when you do restore these locations
to look the way they were before, that actually causes
activity or raises the activity levels. And it's nice to
(30:41):
have the nurses because they definitely know, you know, doing that.
What what do you think the owner's hope is. Is
he wanting to open it as a museum or what
do you think he wants to do with it. He
had a lot of ideas where everything from like a
little tiny, not necessary a mall, but they wanted to
do like a coffee shop in the front section of
the building where you'd walk in and just with restoring
(31:03):
the floors, restoring all the hardwood. Upstairs, he wanted to
turn the second floor where the the owner of the
hospital their family would stay at the time, you know,
back when it was forties fifties. He wants to turn
that into like little condole units or something or something
where people can come and spend the night while on
events in town and stuff. It's interesting because when you
(31:25):
you know you you walk through this hospital and it
is like just very tiled and big hallways, and then
you walk through this door and you walk into these
living quarters that are gorgeous like somebody you know that
that's where the owner's family lived, and like these beautiful
hardwood floors. You would never know that you you look
like I can't even describe it. You literally look like
(31:48):
you were in a Victorian house or something like. You
feel that way, but you're in this little section of
a massive asylum, which I find to be so interesting
with that's how they did at in the time the
family lived there. So the asylum ultimately closed in two
thousand two. And how long have you been investigating it now?
(32:09):
This is our third year, so we've been there a
total of three years. And what do you think causes
the most activity? Like when you go in, is there
anything in particular that you find that you do or
say that causes things to happen? A lot of times
we'll talk to the spirits there on certain floors based
(32:30):
on what they were like drugs and alcohol, asked them
if they're like uh in an a a meeting, if
they're getting the help they needed, Sometimes even props are
brought in. We've actually had a few of the ghosts,
even down in the tunnels, say that they liked Papst
Blue Ribbon beer, so we'll bring them in a beer.
They liked cigarettes, we'll bring them in cigarettes. And I
(32:52):
also noticed that one time we tried doing we had
three girls in one of our always they were singing
any songs for like Christmas and gospel or inspirational songs.
They were singing them in the hallways, and it seemed
like the activity picked up at one they were singing.
Or we play some old tunes that maybe back in
the fourties and fifties they like to hear, you seem
(33:13):
to get more activity, noises, things that tend to come
out a little bit more. I think music does instigate
activity a lot, because it's kind of like scent in
the sense that it just transports you back instantly to
a time. And we've had great success with that. And
you know, fun fact, when we're filming, you know, when
(33:36):
we're investigating not on camera, we can play all the
music we want, but when we're filming, we have to
be very careful about what we play because of licensing
rights and things. But we did play music knowing that
we probably wouldn't be able to play it on TV,
and I'm pretty sure it did get us some results.
But that's interesting, and it's actually like a very respectful
way to go about it. Unfortunately, a lot of these
(33:57):
buildings like this, it's the inkland ation of people to
go in and start yelling or provoking or making blanket
assumptions about who they're speaking with and what their mind
set is. And it's not as I think exciting for
some people sometimes to think of it as just walking
(34:17):
in and sitting down and having a conversation, walking in
like you know, you're meeting someone for the first time.
But that legitimately is how you get the most activity.
Like that is how it works the most information. I
should say, you can go in guns blazing and provoke
and probably get some pretty extreme activity, but is that
(34:38):
really how people want to do that. So I'm glad
that you guys are proponents of being super respectful, especially
in a place like that. Yeah, it's hard to get
a lot of people on the outside. They don't come
to our tours, they've never seen us, some of them
never even heard of us, and then they just get
that first opinion of us of all, we're being disrespect
(35:00):
full to the people that were once at the hospital
there because of their conditions and why they were there,
and we're not about that. Like I said, we're very
respectful to the ghosts of that past because there were
people that were like you and me. They're not evil
entities or anything dwelling within an asylum. They were once people,
So we treat them with respect and we don't provoke.
(35:22):
That's the main thing, absolutely, And I think historically it's
important that we kind of remember how these places existed
and functioned, and I think that investigating them and digging
into the history is a big part of that. And
you know, if I had someone who spent time in
one of these locations, like a relative or something, I
(35:44):
wouldn't want to think that their spirit was just there
in this big, empty building and no one was trying
to help them or interact with them. So it's comforting
to me to know that there are people like you
and your team that go into these places just in
case there's someone who needs help or someone who needs assistance,
like if we are right about all this, but that
(36:04):
someone's going in and respectfully speaking to them. But yeah,
it is kind of a stigma that a lot of
us paranormal investigators have to deal with, like this idea
that we're taking advantage. Now, you guys do do tours,
but obviously, like we're very respectful tours, you know, So
do you guys do daytime tours as well as nighttime
(36:24):
tours or how does that all work out there? Last
year we started doing historical tours in the day for
people that wanted to learn the history rather than the paranormal,
because a lot of more would I ask us what
you do a historical tour? So last year we did
two of them. The scup coming year will probably do
a couple more, so people can see it during the
day and get the historical part of it rather than
(36:45):
just the paranormal part of it. I would recommend doing both,
just having been there. It's one of those places that
photographs very very well if you're into that sort of thing,
Like it's just the lighting is spectacular in there, and
just the artifacts and it has held together very well.
Whenever we go into these super old buildings like this,
it's amazing how fast they just start falling apart when
(37:10):
no one is there to live in them, you know.
But this one is in very good shape and being
there even at like twilight, the lighting and so it's
it's obviously very spooky, but it is it's beautiful. I
love the history of it, and I think investigating there
taught me a lot about the motivation of some of
(37:30):
these therapists and doctors and nurses. And it was kind
of one of the first asylums that I investigated that
I didn't have a bunch of horror stories coming out
of it, because it was kind of built in the
thirties and forties and they really were kind of turning
a page at that point as to how they treated
(37:52):
people with mental illness, and it was fascinating to me. Yeah,
as compared to like Waverly Hills where they had those
nask the experiments on people. Yes, I mean some of
the places I've investigated, like trans Alleghany, the things they
did to people are just horrifying. If it's fair to
say an asylum can be refreshing, this one was so
(38:15):
tell me a little bit about how people can get
in touch with you, what you guys do there, if
they want to go on tours, if they want to visit,
let's get people out there. If they want to see it. Yeah,
definitely follow us on Fox Belly ghost Unders on Facebook.
We also have Fox Belly ghost Hunters dot Com. There's
a page just especially for the Asylument's should Boygan Insane
(38:37):
Asylum investigations and yeah, I know the names a little misleading,
but we want to shy people away from visiting the
local downtown hospitals. So um, that's one of the reasons
for that. Me and my lead investigator just bought a
haunted school over in Glenbula, Wisconsin, and we'll be closing
on that in February and eventually we'll we haven't tours
there as well in the near future, so a couple
(38:59):
of different places, and then just following us on Facebook,
you'll see all the different locations and events that we
have to offer, including the Bogan Asylum. That's fantastic, So
I feel like I'll probably be investigating that school in
the future. Yeah, and Adams got to come. Yeah, we
would love to. So well, it's been really great to
(39:20):
talk with you. I appreciate you taking the time, and yeah,
everyone listening. If you can go check out the asylum
or anything Craig is working on. They are a great
group and we loved working with them, so thank you
so much, and hopefully we'll chat again soon about this school. Yes,
thank you. The Sheboygan County Asylum Hospital, Comprehensive health Care Center,
(39:44):
whatever you want to call it, is undoubtedly haunted and yes,
on its own, that is spooky and scary and for
some fun, but it's also an important reminder of why
we do our due diligence in finding out the history
of such places before you walk in and start talking
to its ghosts. Any empty hospital is going to look
(40:05):
scary inside and out, but this one had such a
positive focus and reputation. You're not going to meet the
ghosts of those faced with mal treatment. Rather, you're going
to perhaps be speaking to someone who had very real
struggles in life and may still be having them in
the afterlife. I encourage anyone who investigates there to remember
(40:26):
that and treat them accordingly, because who knows, you may
just be doing more good than you realize. I'm Amy Bruney,
and this was Haunted Road. Haunted Road is a production
(40:46):
of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minkey.
The podcast is written and hosted by Amy Bruney, Executive
producers include Aaron Minky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. The
show is produced Irima ill Kali and Trevor Young. Research
by Taylor haggerdorn Amy Bruney and Robin Minoter. For more
(41:07):
podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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