Dammasch State Hospital

In 1961, Dammasch State Hospital opened its doors in Wilsonville, Oregon, a psychiatric institution meant to ease the overcrowding crisis in the state's mental health system. For over three decades, hundreds of patients with mental illness and addiction cycled through its halls. By 1995, it was shuttered, its buildings eventually demolished and paved over with a housing development. But the stories didn't disappear with the bulldozers. This week we dig into the dark history of Dammasch: the patients, the controversies, the paranormal reports, and what it means when a community literally builds over its past.

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Intro music by Don Edwards

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Okay, welcome back to the podcast. And eerily beloved, we are gathered here today with Heather. Mom. Ginger. And it is Ginger's first time on the podcast. Welcome, Ginger.

SPEAKER_04 0:12

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

And today we are going to be talking about Damaged State Hospital. Heather is the one that suggested this episode. So I thought it was only fitting that we do the episode with her and the girls.

SPEAKER_04 0:24

I don't even know what it is, so fill me in.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's get into it. Okay, Damaged State Hospital for the Mentally Ill in Wilsonville, Oregon was named after Dr. Ferdinand H. Damish, and it was opened in 1961 for general psychiatric conditions and primarily to help with the influx in patients that had overfilled the Oregon State Hospital in Salem. The facility had three floors and was equipped with separate housing for staff, its open fire department, crematorium, morgue operating room, and more. Additionally, under the facility is a network of four miles of underground tunnels.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Creepy.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

What happened behind the closed doors of damage is largely unreported and unknown. In a patient's handbook, it states that to assist the doctor in order to find the best and quickest way to treat you, he has at his disposal various drugs, stimulants, sedations, and tranquilizers, modified electric treatment, psychotherapy, occupational therapy, and industrial therapy. It's also kind of widely known that they also did four sterilizations there in addition to the Oregon State Hospital.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Records of patients that were admitted are sparse, even for people that lived there for decades. Some suffered from severe delusions, addiction, depression, bipolar disorder, others from severe physical deformities. Some seemed to be institutionalized because their families just didn't know what to do with them. Even then, the system operated more or less like a revolving door. An article from Millam Week in 1981 reported that of the 1,600 people admitted to damage from Multnomah County last year, 65% had previously been at the hospital, some of them more than a dozen times. A damaged social worker recalls a patient who had been released after two years because damage simply wanted to be rid of him. I talked to him that day, asked if he was having hallucinations. He said he was seeing rats the size of people eating babies, but they let him out. I called the county clin county clinic to warn them and apologized. Called back a while later and heard he'd beaten up his brother and ended up in jail. That's crazy. So it was just like a a broken system and people went on the streets until they were having a psychotic episode and then they'd have to go back to the hospital, and then it was just kind of And then the hospital let him go and then just bounce around basically.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

So after the inhumane treatment that happened at these supposed care facilities was becoming a topic of conversation, deinstitutionalization became a national movement, primarily under JFK Jr.'s presidency. When he introduced the Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963 to Congress, he said, reliance on the cold mercy of custodial isolation will be supplemented by the open warm of community concern and capability. In 1995, an investigation was opened by the Oregon Advocate Advocacy Center in response to internal complaints about treatment of patients that resulted in at least five preventable deaths between June and October of 1993.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

So they were just really kind of running amuck at that point.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Yep. Disability Rights Oregon made this invest investigation public. The facility at this time had been suffering from systemic deficiencies that greatly impacted the level of care and treatment of patients. Budget restrictions, low staffing, poor training, and inadequate facilities were not new to the hospital after it had been open at this point for over 30 years, but ongoing issues that unfortunately had never been addressed which led to tragedy. High patient cats during this time as well led to public scrutiny, as they only had around 460 beds, but upwards of 600 patients at a time.

SPEAKER_03 4:06

No wonder they castrated.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

After the building was closed in 1995, it was left as is and was a site of many break-ins, teens looking for cheap thrills, and sadly many former patients who didn't know where else to go came back to the building.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

So it was just like abandoned.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Yeah. Yeah. Everything. Everyone's 1995. Yeah. People just walked out.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Once they decommissioned it.

SPEAKER_04 4:29

Well, that was like yesterday to me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

So you know. Well, and the patients, they didn't have her anywhere to go either. They were just like, okay, the doors are open. That urban explorers reported patient files were left open on desks, wallpapers peeling off the walls, diary pages from old therapy sessions were strewn about, and even beds were left in the rooms. Costa Pacific Construction, who was in charge of the building demolition, allowed Navy SEALs, SERT, and police teams to conduct trainings and emergency entry and exit procedures, leading to even further damage and destruction of the already derelict property.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

So it was just used for w whatever training was needed.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Simulations, learning.

SPEAKER_04 5:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Well, and there's even pictures of people there who were there in like 2003, and there's posters up that were used as targets and they're shot and they're just on every single floor on the doors. Very strange.

SPEAKER_04 5:25

Wow. And it closed in ninety-five, and that was still there in 03.

SPEAKER_03 5:31

And part of it was still there when I was gonna build by there, which was 2010, I believe. And that's what you're gonna get to, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Yep. So in 1999, the Oregon legislature passed House Bill 3446, chapter 983. When the sale of the hospital happened, the money went into a trust fund. The interest was to be used to help fund integrated housing after many patients was were displaced when damaged closed. In 2013, at least 73 units of the new Villebois development were used with the intention of providing adequate in-home care for those with mental illnesses. And is this was considered the first community of its kind in the country. Did you know that?

SPEAKER_00 6:15

In Wilsonville.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

2013?

SPEAKER_04 6:18

Yes. Did you just say Villebois? Mm-hmm. The master plan community in Wilsonville, where people pay a lot of money for homes. Uh-huh. The master plan community. Yeah. The same exact name was a prior mental institution.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

It is currently housing people that have mental health issues because it has to, as part of its pursuant to the requirements of the bill, residences for the mentally ill are sprinkled throughout the Villa Blois community.

SPEAKER_04 6:44

I love everything about the realtor in me is like, bring it on. So houses are built. So they tore down the place. Yes, they tore down the place. Was decommissioned or whatever, and everybody was freed in 1995. In 2003, there were still simulations and practicing, etc. So there were posters on the wall in 03. And then in 15, there was a smaller version called Villebois that was created for in-house mental health.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

No, it's part of the master plan community to build the community.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Some of the houses that are in that community are used for mentally ill. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 7:25

Access sporadic throughout the development. Why don't I remember this? I was gonna ask you.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Okay, but don't worry, because before construction had started on the site, Wilsonville mayor Charlotte Leahan in 2006 said they had a psychic friend of theirs go through it and bless the spirits they thought were still hanging around.

SPEAKER_04 7:43

Oh they like saged it and shrum in it.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

So so don't worry, like everything, everything in the area is fine. So now you two can go buy a house that was on the former side of a mental institution.

SPEAKER_03 7:56

Have fun.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

So all that remains today of damaged state hospital for the mentally ill is the flagpole, which resides in the middle of the Villeblock community.

SPEAKER_03 8:05

I remember that is.

SPEAKER_04 8:07

I am enthralled. Tell me more.

unknown 8:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Now we're gonna get into some of the ghost stories that people have experienced kind of in and around the area.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

And the time frame?

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Mm-hmm. Okay. Yep. This person was from when the building still existed, but post when post when it was a mental hospital, so probably around 2003, 2005, this person said the weirdest thing I've ever experienced was a damage. The first thing that happens when you tear a building down is cut the power. I mean, the electrical company comes in, literally rolls up the old wire from the feed to the building. Absolutely no power. Well, my boss and I used to walk all 180,000 square feet of it to two to three times a week to chase the tweakers out. One day we got to the end of the hall where it terminated into a day room and there was a singular light bulb on. The power had been cut for months. My boss Rick carried a gun for obvious reasons and shot it out from the doorway. Creepiest moment of my life. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 9:07

Yeah, one light called no power. Nope.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Someone else said, before damish was torn down, I know quite a few people that had snuck in only to find blood and writing on walls. Beds and carts were left behind as if everyone suddenly just vanished. I truly feel bad for the people that just move in unknowingly. It's horror movie material right there. This other person says, I grew up in Wilsonville, a couple of miles away from the hospital when it was still there. Groups of friends would go check it out at nighttime, and it was absolutely terrifying. Not only did you hear creepy things, you would see old blood on walls through the windows, and the overall energy was very eerie. Like we were not welcome at all. I only went once and refused to ever go again. I can't explain the feeling you get from that kind of energy, but it was enough for me to never even think about going back.

SPEAKER_04 9:51

Did you say at the beginning that part of the facility was a morgue?

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

Mm-hmm. That they had a cremation.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Yeah, they had full full basically full service, hot full hospital service.

SPEAKER_03 10:04

I did not know about the crematorium.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Really?

SPEAKER_03 10:07

I remember that.

SPEAKER_04 10:08

That's extra.

SPEAKER_03 10:09

That is.

SPEAKER_04 10:11

I think that's extra when you create a development on top of that site. Well, then you can throw all your prayers and juju on it. That's great, but with the tunnels. Oh, do talk about those.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

The tunnels don't exist anymore. They were imploded before they started building on it just because that would probably cause some issues if they were building houses on those.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

But isn't there lore about what's in the tunnels? Like what was in the tunnels?

SPEAKER_01 10:37

It's like um It was kind of speculated, and there's it's not really known what the tunnels were used for. Because why do the tunnels exist under the hospital unless they were used for kind of nefarious purposes?

SPEAKER_00 10:51

More like experiments. I mean, I think some of the things that we read were right used for some types of experiments or other things that were done underground and not part of the above ground facility.

SPEAKER_04 11:02

But is this documented or is this just hearsay?

SPEAKER_00 11:05

I think it's a little bit of both. I mean, we were able to find some documentation, but actually there's not a lot because a lot of this has to be public record because it was a state hospital. And so, but the problem is they don't keep a lot of records for that long. Yeah. And they've even had trouble coming up with records after lawsuits and other things.

unknown 11:22

Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

And because it was decommissioned, a lot of stuff was just left. It's like, okay, I'm not getting I'm not getting paid for this.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Once they cut the funding, once they cut the funding, that's it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:32

But it was from like the early 50s to mid-90s, correct? So it it was live and in action with the revolving door of people coming in and out about for 40 years with we don't know what happened in the deep dark tunnels.

unknown 11:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 11:49

I'm I'm super interested in the tunnels.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

So, Heather, what did what did you know?

SPEAKER_03 11:55

Most of what you said, except for the crematorium. Um, you know, because I had just researched it because honestly, so there was a time we were looking, I would go over there at least once a week as the whole place was being developed, right? And looking at, I mean, they had the all the I met with the people and you know, to choose a house plan, the whole bit. And what year was this? This was probably uh 2010, okay, 11. Um, and then also I I house sat for a lady, like her cat was in kidney failure or needed fluids. I had to go twice a day to do that. So I spent some time over there, you know. Greatest, cutest little community has a kind of a European flair, like a French flair, you know. Um, but it it gave me the creeps. It absolutely gave me the creeps that to the point where I'm like, I just don't think we could live there. I I just felt weird being over there. Was that why why you decided not to live there?

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

You just it fell off. Yeah. Was that before you had known anything about it or had you already done your research on that?

SPEAKER_03 13:00

No, I knew it was there, but it didn't, I you know, I didn't think about it. It phased me. But just going over there all the time, I just can't explain it. Just this um feeling of like, I don't know, dread or doomsday-ish? I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 13:14

Just like so just the vibe of the location.

SPEAKER_03 13:17

Yeah. Yeah. Driving around there thinking, you know, okay, well, where what lot am I gonna want? You know, what house plan over all the time of and I just uh I don't know. I just couldn't pull the trigger, you know? You know, you just have this weird feeling, you don't know why.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

And did you know at the time that they were integrating these um mental health?

SPEAKER_03 13:37

I don't remember that. I mean, certainly that must have been public information, but I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

I think it was probably public information, but not something that they were advertising similar to the fact that it used to be the site of an old mental institution. Yeah. I think that is kept very much on the down low because that wouldn't impact house house sales and everything.

SPEAKER_03 14:02

And it was that area where the hospital was was the last part to be developed. Because even when I was looking, there was a part that hadn't been uh torn down yet. Um I'm just remember thinking, ew, that's weird, you know, creepy. But then it's like the more I went, the creepier it became, and the less I wanted to be there. It just felt bizarre. I don't know. I would love for you guys to go and see if you feel weird. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

There's a lot of um paranormal, right? Work like people that that do work and study things uh there. Because it's like it's kind of like wildly known that they're looking for this the type of like paranormal activity, ghosts and other things. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Uh former state hospital is a probably a great place to to go to find that with just just just just the energy alone, not even the the people that potentially could have lost their lives there, just yeah, the despair. The darkness and the yeah, the darkness. And we were we were talking about this earlier back in the day. I guess it really isn't that long ago, but people used to go to these institutions for things that aren't really considered mental illnesses these days. They would go for depression or they would go for anxiety, they would go because they had an addiction. Menopause. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Yeah, the things in today's world that we would see as very normal activities, they may be in an institution and sometimes for a very long time. Yep. Right. Like you said, I mean, some people were let, you know, uh allowed to leave, but there were probably others that that weren't or you know, had pretty significant types of treatments that maybe couldn't leave. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 15:38

Well, I I have a couple of thoughts. So I'm trying to bring them all circle here. Um, first of all, the fact that you were considering building there, taking one of the lots, picking the house, making it the house of your dreams, and you just ultimately didn't like the vibe of the location. Right. In the state of Oregon, you were not required as the seller to disclose if there was death inside the home or on the land being sold. So had there been any negative vibes or situations that occurred. Right. That's not a required disclosure. Number one. Number two, going back to JFK in 1963, you know, his I think it was his sister or his cousin, Rosemary Kennedy, was institutionalized. And so he could see just how broken the system was back then. So I appreciate that there was an effort to say we need to reform. What is that? Clearly, it's it's still evolving. But I think that that shows that there was 40 years of people trying and advocating for change. It closed down here locally in 1995. The name Philippe Wall, like that's French, right? So to have a European French deal is really cool. You don't have to disclose what's there. So is there something? I don't know. I'm super intrigued by this.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

I mean, it sounds luxury, right? It's I mean so luxury. So you just think this sounds luxury, and so let's not talk about what was there or you know, the and and really for people that aren't part of that system or anyone with a relation to right, that type of system or any type of care that might be needed, you you wouldn't know or even think that stuff actually happens.

SPEAKER_04 17:31

Totally, totally agree.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Well, and there's people that are still to this day have had family members that were there. It really wasn't that long ago, and so they remember visiting their great aunt or visiting their grandma or their parents that were there, and so there's people around today that will not allow what happened there to go kind of covered up.

SPEAKER_03 17:57

Someone may have gone there and stayed. I remember my grandma talking about this, but I can't remember all the details because I didn't care because I was young. A TJ, you know, a T at a teenager. I didn't soak in the details, but I'm pretty sure my mom had a stint there.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Well, there's only two places to go in Oregon. You either go to the state hospital or you go to Damish, right? I mean that that that was it. I mean, there there wasn't other places to go. And you know, the state hospital is widely known for its not great treatment of people during that time as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

And I know that damage No, and I guess Fairview was probably open. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

So but the effort was, I think the doctor that started it, I think with the great intentions of really helping people in need. But then things again go unchecked, unregulated, and and really some things they tried weren't what we would consider traditional.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Right? Shock therapy. Yeah. Um it's fairly inhumane treatment, sterilized for sterilizations. I mean, yeah. So the so there are things that that were done in under the guise of helping, whether it was truly helping or not, but under that guise at what we would consider right today in today's world completely inhumane treatment. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 19:08

So that closed down in 1995. And are there ghosts on the property, like little Caspers floating around? Do we know?

SPEAKER_03 19:15

That's what I would want to know too. Like the people that do live there, they experience any paranormal. Do they anything?

SPEAKER_00 19:21

I think screaming, right? They hear they some some hear um there's there's been reports of uh hearing screams at night. Uh seeing dark figures at night. Lots lots of orbs. Orbs, yeah. Floating orbs, lots of dark figures. There's a creepy energy that comes from the forest that's there. Yes. So there's a forest on the outside outskirt of the property.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

I do I do have a thing about that.

SPEAKER_03 19:46

100% that is true. That's where the hospital was. Oh, that it just came from goosebumps. It is, you can feel it. It's 100.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Real estate site. Like how many people how many people do you think know that they live on top of a former mental health institute?

SPEAKER_04 20:02

I literally just got a house under contract. It's I know a couple of miles away.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

That's why we were Ginger, you'll have to go visit and like report, you'll have to report back.

SPEAKER_03 20:11

That's why I asked you which side of I5 that was on. Because I'm like, well, what's the area?

SPEAKER_04 20:16

East under contract. Excellent home. Good choice buyers were product. Good choice, yeah. No, I know it did. Yeah, yeah, you're safe. No good.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

But we we were talking about, gosh, I wonder how ginger would feel like you don't have to disclose it. How would you feel if someone was like, gosh, I kind of have a bad feeling about this? You're like, oh no, this is a great home.

SPEAKER_04 20:31

And you know, just it's important to say, and I know people probably don't care, but I do think it's very important that you know that is not a state law. Yeah, no, I think it's great. Do you say yeah, whether it's natural or right, intentionally? Your grandma died in the home. Nobody says that. Yeah. It it does not have to be disclosed. The only thing that has to be disclosed if it was um like a meth house or drug was work created in their property, you know, breaking back. For exposure, for your potential exposure issues. Right, yeah. Totally. But I just feel like also in real estate, and I'm really not trying to turn it that way, but I will tell you that the number one reason people don't buy a home is if they think there's paranormal activity. Number one reason nationwide. Yeah. And when a contest won a hundred bucks in the office one day, because I'm like, if people ask if there's ghosts, and he said bingo, people are concerned about paranormal activity in the property that they're buying. They just want to know. People feel energy, they feel vibes. And I just wonder, and do people notice that there, especially if they're on the edge near the forest?

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Okay. This person says, in place of damage is now the Villabois subdivision. A whole bunch of families, parks, and schools built smack ass in the massive, former grounds of a mental hospital. On the backside was also a creepy church called the Living Enrichment Center, but it was benign, creepy but benign. I could spend hours telling you about all the things I experienced in and on that property. The most important thing I can tell you is whatever was there when they built Villebois is still there. It will always be there because. It survived almost obsessive barrage of priests, psychics, mediums, etc. that were dragged through there. The developer who bought it had a wife who took that kind of thing seriously. I spent more than a few years running around the place like it was my home. Without question, she cleaned everything she could. Without question, she didn't get it all. If you find yourself with nothing to do one evening, go sit at the park. The center park is roughly in the same place where the most active place in damage was, room six. Decades after the hospital closed, we were still having to rescue people from the tunnels and the cells that would lock until we allowed the Navy use of the building for training behind them. Half the time, the people we pulled from the tunnels were former patients trying to get back in. There used to be orchards all around the hospital, and on at least two separate occasions, former patients returned and died in the orchards. Officially, one was suicide and one was overdose.

unknown 22:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

Isn't that crazy? Room six. Like hashtag six. No.

unknown 22:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Yeah. See Heather, you're built that.

SPEAKER_03 23:00

I did. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

I didn't see I never heard of that until you told me to add it to my list to look it up.

SPEAKER_03 23:06

Because it's creepy.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:08

I had heard rumor in the mind of real estate that maybe there's something to check out there and there's something to know, but I really never researched it. And when this whole conversation came up about the podcast, I'm like, ooh, start talking to me because maybe it's deep down in my mind that I've heard some rumor of this. So it's so interesting to hear these facts in room six and the underground tunnels and the crematorium and the mortuary and all of the things and the revolving door of people going in and out. And do we know, did you say this? How many acres, how large this lot was? Not just the building, but the property.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

I think it was pretty big.

SPEAKER_03 23:50

The building itself only took up about Yeah, the hospital seemed small considering the amount of property that was small.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

I mean, think about state hospital, right? We drive by that all the time. All the time. Right. And so you think about those grounds, so there's actually a lot of outbuildings on those grounds, you know, that okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

So the the institution was situated on a 490-acre campus with roughly 50 acres dedicated to the hospital buildings and grounds. So 400. But the remainder of it was used for agriculture purposes. Excellent.

SPEAKER_04 24:19

Okay, yeah, that that's huge. So when you're building a development, you're encompassing all of that for sure. So the hospital, was it like the hospital here in Salem? Um, where it was like one big building with all of the rooms, or were there multiple buildings? Was there family housing? Was it just the family member or the person, the patient who stayed there, or were there family grounds with cottages and places for others to stay?

SPEAKER_01 24:49

It was all connected. There are three floors. Okay. So there's not a ton of different outbuildings. But there's wings. Yeah, but not a ton of different outbuildings.

SPEAKER_04 25:00

I think that matters. Right? Where the people are kind of in one location. Yeah, yeah. On this acreage, uh, versus we have five cottages here and 27 cottages here. All who have separate rooms.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

So yeah. And I think that's great. No, it's hospital. It was like institute, think institution, like hospital.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

Yeah, some people did have their own like solitary rooms, and other people shared rooms with four to six people.

SPEAKER_03 25:25

Well, clearly, would they say six hundred and some patients and only four hundred beds?

SPEAKER_01 25:31

Yes. Yes, yeah. And yes, there are only like technically five people that did die there that we know of. In the five months, that was during that was for the investigation. For the suit, but probably people died of natural causes or unnatural causes otherwise as well. But those are the only ones who were they were preventable to us, like severely preventable.

SPEAKER_04 25:56

Well, and records are clearly not easy to obtain or even in existence.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

No, yeah, not at not at all. Scratched. Even any even any general information about the hospital is very difficult to come by. Well, at all.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

At all. I mean, first of all, they'll be protected now because of the HIPAA. But also they mental health, they have further protections. But a lot of people that were in these types of institutions are right getting um sometimes dropped off or checking themselves in. So I won't say like homeless, but you get a lot of like the Jane Doe's. Sure. Right. So it's it's not they're not coming in with family at the referral of a regular doctor, you know, like so who you're getting are more of um unknowns.

SPEAKER_04 26:42

I and that makes sense for the type of hospital that this was. I just feel like room six has me a little bit creeped out, and the tunnels have me a whole lot creep and the crematorium and mortuary. I mean, I get that that's part of a hospital, but yeah, I all of those things are just like red flag, red flag, red flag, red flag. So no specific ghost stories of somebody met Ghost Mary who floats around the neighborhood. It's people hear screams or orbs or energy by the floor.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Or yeah, or they were in the building before it was torn down and they heard footsteps behind them. And they thought something was yeah, they saw blood, they thought someone was behind them.

SPEAKER_04 27:26

Just very the light bulb with the flower to the property.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

Yep. I mean, oh and there's two stories like that. There's another one where another construction worker they had disabled the PA system that had existed, and one day he was working and he heard it crackling.

SPEAKER_04 27:42

And he was mad.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

No, no, no, I cannot. I cannot pee my pants. I cannot. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:47

I just can't.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

So he heard it crackling, and he's like, that's weird. I thought we just disabled that. And so he went to talk to somebody and they're like, oh yeah, that shouldn't be. And he went back to work, and sure enough, it was still crackling.

SPEAKER_04 27:59

Okay, creepy.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 28:02

Well, and I I remember re doing research too, thinking, why do I have this feeling? You know, like really what's the backstory here? And reading stories from people that worked there, like nurses. And I I read stories from them that it was a really bad environment, really unhealthy. So I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of war stories out there, you know.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

Well, I'm sure just the situations that the nurses were kind of they were dealt, you know, they were trying to do their best and with the cards that they were given to help people, but they needed to work and couldn't speak up. Yeah, and they didn't have all the resources that were necessary to take care of the people that probably needed more hands-on, around the clock intensive care than what they were able to provide.

SPEAKER_03 28:45

Well, and medicine, you know, too, is so advanced. They just don't have their back then the medication that they have now, the help that we have now, you know, with all the variety of medications, not that I had to do that.

SPEAKER_04 28:58

I think with access to knowledge and data keeping. I mean, I think those things have certainly advanced census XEs. And part of the initiative to kind of go from the institutional.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

To help a magnetic community, yeah. Yeah. Well, they practice they were doing lobotomies there, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Yeah. I mean, it's not 100% confirmed, but I think it's it's kind of the general consensus that that did happen there because, like it said, oh, the doctor can help you with electroshock therapy. You know, and if electroshock therapy was happening, then lobotomies were probably happening and the forced sterilizations and the So are there reports or proof of like neglect?

SPEAKER_04 29:36

Like we're talking about these terrible things certainly.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

I mean, that's actually that's actually why they shut it down. Um, they shut it down because there was uh these five deaths that happened, five preventable deaths that happened in like a six-month period of time. And then I think the authorities came in and did some digging and said, Okay, yeah, we this this is basically inhumane treatment.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

Yeah. So one guy, he was there because he was schizophrenic and he had an episode where he was like, Okay, I need to be in solitary confinement right now. He just told them that and they were like, Okay. So he went in there and they said, We need you to remove remove your shoes. He said no. And then they restrained him because he refused to remove his shoes. And when they did that, they put a towel in his mouth, like a horse bit, and they held it there until he calmed down. But him calming down was him stopping breathing. Yes. And then later in the port the report, it says a doctor came in and noticed his face was black, and so obviously he was not alive anymore. And so that kind of pointed out the fact that there was no training on how to support someone going through. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, um, properly. And why did it escalate so far when he self-admitted himself to go into solitary confinement?

SPEAKER_04 30:49

Okay, so clearly here's a condition of neglect, but it opened in 1961, right? So just the potential of other horror stories, sad stories, neglect stories, you know, heartbreaking stories, I I think it exists. And I think that's the vibe you feel when you're out there, Heather, or when you were back, you know, 10 years ago or so. I I think I think the souls do live on with the joy and happiness or pain and sorrow.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

And I I think that that's even the energy, even if they didn't lose their lives. I think the just the the loss, the darkness, you're trapped in this place and there's bars on the windows, you're you know, I I can't imagine it's I bad. Yeah, just the residual energy surrounding all of that.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

So for your podcast, we give a believability and creepy score. Okay. So one to ten. Um, since Jinj, this is her first podcast, but I know she's listened to them, so this is what's coming. Yep. Um, certainly let's do believability first, because obviously, right, this is fact. I mean, some of the things that you talk about are like, right, we're not quite sure. And so we have to figure out like, okay, where do how do we believe it or not? I think for me, it's obviously a 10. What do you think?

SPEAKER_03 32:07

Oh, same ten for me, because I'd literally felt it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:12

And we know it's real. Yeah, totally. Ten. Ten believability. It's factual.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

And then and then creepy score, whether that's the ghost or the paranormal activity, the the stuff that was going on there. Well, for many reads for sure it's the vibe. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:28

Yes, I've again felt it, you know, like for first hand. Yeah. It was creepy. It's creepy. You go out there and you go towards those woods, I dare you, in broad daylight on a sunny day.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

I do wonder how many people who live there today know if they get that, yeah. I feel like they probably don't. It was it was kind of hard to find recent accounts, people who didn't know that that place had already existed that were there dang high school, and that was kind of the place where everyone went.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

I mean, that's old that's that's a long time ago, honestly. I mean, you know, like that would kind of be a forgotten thing, I I would think, for people that like move away or or aren't there. But if you're still there, I think that would be something that would absolutely be talked about. Creepy wise for me. I mean, I did I reviewed some of the stories and I looked up some of the ghosts and the paranormal activity, and there's a whole bunch of them. I was actually surprised. I thought, oh, it's gonna be, it might be hard to find. Like I because I hadn't heard of it. I hadn't heard of the ghosts or the stories, but they were f really easy to find and very detailed, and and people like have these like affirmed like real life accounts. Like, I'm I'm never going there. So creepy wise, I um I think gosh, I can't imagine. Like, think thankfully they don't have a hotel there so dad could stay there because I don't know who I don't know who would visit him, but but I think creepy, like it's it's up there for me. I just but I'm I'm not scared of it. It actually makes me more sad. Yeah, I have a higher sad factor than I do a creepy factor, but I am totally creepy.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

That's the mist the mistreatment of people that didn't receive the yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

So I I feel like creepy for me is like a seven, but if if I had a first hand experience, I would absolutely be a 10. But for me, I'm I'm on the more sad than I am creepy scared. Like I'm just it's it's sad.

SPEAKER_04 34:13

You know, yeah, you took the words out of my mouth. I think my whole thought process thought process through all of this has been I'm not creeped out by it. I'm sure the vibe is there. I'm sure you can feel that. So creepy factor, maybe, but sad factor for sure. Uh, my heart breaks for things that have happened and maybe the pain that lives on and the vibe that you feel. So creepy factor, I'm I'm with you. I'm gonna say seven-ish, but sad factor 10 or 12, 100%.

SPEAKER_03 34:45

It fascinates me that you see movie stars or people along the way that are like, oh yeah, I think my house is haunted. Like, no big deal. Like they welcome it, and I'm just like, oh.

SPEAKER_04 34:55

I mean you're the one percent of people that would want to know but would not buy.

SPEAKER_01 34:59

I would never go back. If it's a nice ghost that cleans, I don't care. That's fine. I'll take a cleaning ghost. But if it's something that's gonna, I don't know, do evil things and has a malevolent spirit, then I don't I don't want anything to do with it.

SPEAKER_04 35:12

The sad part of today's story is there was sorrow, there was death, there was sadness. It wasn't happy joy, you know, fun stuff.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

And they're there for pain. Yeah. So they they're they're not there because they're they're well. I mean they are like Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

It's not a place where they all went and died of old age. It's a place where negative things. Yeah, they were mistreated. Things probably happened to them that shouldn't happen to them.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

And I mean Heather, I'm so glad that you brought the story up. And this, I mean, it's like one of the things that, you know, Madeline asked uh every week for people that listen to her podcast to, you know, like send stories and and share stories so that we can learn more. Because I think this was like, I mean, uh, we just love to learn more about kind of like what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

Well, just Oregon history in general. I think it's I would never have known that this is the the sister hospital to the Oregon State Hospital. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:04

So And please tell me that there will be a podcast about the Oregon State Hospital. One flew over the cuckoo's nest, the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

Yeah, yeah, like that's gotta come up. 100%. 100%. Yeah. And that's obviously gonna have more more stories, more detail, since that has that one has been open since the 1800s, the mid 1800 eighteen hundreds. So there's a lot.

SPEAKER_04 36:25

Yeah, well, and it's had national publicity from the movie of the Wilsonville, Oregon, man, who knew that it had a place on the map.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Yeah, and it kind of put Wilson Wilsonville on the map because when a lot of the people went to work there, it made the city bigger because it's okay, you're moving your family there. These kids are gonna go to school in the area, the husbands are gonna need to work somewhere, while the wives are the nurses and the caretakers here at the hospital.

SPEAKER_00 36:49

So, yeah, the schools they said immediately to had like multiple more population by like four times in their classrooms because of the staff that were at the hospital.

SPEAKER_04 37:00

Yeah, and Wilsonville in the Portland Metro, it's kind of southeast. It's it's a very cool area, yeah. A really great part of the metro to live. So in general, Wilsonville has a great reputation. This little corner has has maybe some past negativity, but Wilsonville in general is excellent and amazing and great schools.

SPEAKER_01 37:20

So okay, well, that's Damish Hospital, and thank you for listening. Happy Thursday. I forgot to mention that. Um, if you have a story or an experience, anything that you would like us to look into, email earlybelovedpodcast at gmail.com, follow us on social media's early beloved podcast. And episodes are every Thursday. So please tune in, rate and review us, and we will see you next week. Bye. Bye bye. Bye.