Disclaimer: The only reason I went to this was because Zak Bagans did.
Some of you have heard of the show Ghost Adventures. For those who don’t know, Ghost Adventures is a paranormal investigation show focusing on a group of friends and investigators – Zak Bagans, Aaron Goodwin, Billy Tolley, and Jay Wasley – that go around the United States (and sometimes other countries) investigating haunted locations. The show aired in 2008, following the release of their 2004 documentary. They’ve captured the attention of many due to their recurring captivating evidence and, of course, the much needed dramatic commentary.
This audience that they’ve appealed to includes my group of friends and myself.
I’m from Wisconsin, not too far from a location that the Ghost Adventures crew investigated in 2013. That place is known as Nopeming Sanitarium near Duluth, Minnesota. Before we continue on with the story, here’s a bit of background about this location: Nopeming opened in 1912 as a Tuberculosis hospital. In 1954, it became a nursing home with a name change into Nopeming Care Center in the year 2000. However, two short years later in 2002, Nopeming finally shut down and has been abandoned ever since.
Earlier this year, my friends and I found out that you could tour this destination. How cool would it be to go to the same place that Zak Bagans did and catch some pretty freaky and amazing evidence of the paranormal?! I’ve been a skeptic when it comes to the subject of the paranormal. While I’ve had a few minor experiences, I needed something more concrete in order to change my mind and make me a full believer. I was ready. I wanted to know where to sign up because I want to get my hair pulled or pushed over or for someone to whisper in my ear or for something to get launched at my head.
Fast forward to the end of August. My group of five friends and I were planning a trip to Duluth. That’s when I remembered the sanitarium. It was, in fact, open for tours during the time that we would be going there. I was even more excited now. I have never gone to a haunted location before – well, none that were confirmed to be haunted like Nopeming was. Of course, my parents thought I was insane for even wanting to go on this excursion. I just kept thinking, why wouldn’t I want to? While it terrified me that there was a chance that I could leave with an attachment or possession by one of the spirits, I was looking forward to it. I knew churches and pastors that could help me get it taken care of.
Not only that, but I don’t go outside much other than to attend concerts and football games, so it would add some spice to my otherwise uneventful life.
We chose to go on the night tour because why not get our money’s worth and add some more spook to it? What we seemed to disregard until we got to Duluth was the dense fog that was coming off of Lake Superior. So, instead of it just being creepy at night, it was creepy at night with surrounding fog that was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. Sounds like the beginnings of a horror movie, eh?
The group that we went with was a group of twenty-two other people – all of which were complete strangers. As my friend and designated buddy Dakota said: “I feel more safe being in here with complete strangers.” If you think about it, it’s actually true.
Once the tour began, the nice tour guide started leading us up the long driveway that felt like it had no end – it did, but you couldn’t see the end through the fog. Not only did it look like a horror movie, it was starting to feel like one was about to ensue. I’ve spent a majority of my life watching scary movies that made me stay up at night and fear the dark. It didn’t help me feel any better when the tour guide told my friend group that she had seen a few shadows in the bushes next to the driveway before the tour began.
That sent a series of chills up my spine and I may have grabbed Dakota’s hand a little tighter out of fear. As if the eerie silence and fog wasn’t terrifying enough! In simpler and trendy terms, I was shook. I won’t hide it – I was terrified and expecting the worst.
Thankfully, my mind was just running amuck and the shadows didn’t make a reappearance. I also refused to look anywhere but the asphalt in front of me because if I saw those shadows, I was prepared to jump into Dakota’s arms like Scooby would to Shaggy.
Finally, after what felt like eons of walking, we got to the main building’s back entrance. There was one bathroom where we stopped and waited for everyone to catch up. It was a nice luxurious bathroom – a one stall porta-potty tucked back against the tree line on a hill. Think anybody went in there? Absolutely not. I would pee my only pair of pants before going in there.
We went into the sanitarium in a single file line because of the narrow doorway. There was a pair of tap shoes outside of it, which apparently weren’t there that morning according to a few of the ladies that had been there earlier in the day.
*cue lump going down my throat*
As soon as you walked into the little entrance, the smell of mothballs and staleness filled your nose. It was at that moment I somewhat regretted not having a gas mask or something to cover my face. Other than the smell, it was absolutely creepy when we finally got into the large room. The paint was chipping and peeling off the walls, the floors were covered in dust and there were mold spores from the water damage. It looked abandoned which made the aesthetic even better.
There was also a long dining table in the middle of the room with a bunch of papers scattered across the surface. It was, in fact, a waiver stating that I wouldn’t sue if I died. That was what turned me off when the opportunity to try out for The Bachelor came up, but I was more than willing to sign it for a sixty minute tour of a sanitarium where I could actually die.
Wandering around that room was quite exciting. There were more tap shoes that hadn’t been there earlier in the day, just sitting in the corner. Another friend that I had went with, Morgan, was the first one to finish signing her waiver and started exploring before anyone else did. She was taking photos with her phone, wanting to capture the creepiness and age of the building. It was when she noticed something after capturing a photo that made chills go up our spines. She caught a shadow in a photo she took of the wall. There wasn’t anyone else behind her, to the side of her or in view of the camera and her finger was not in front of the flash. I’ll leave it up to your interpretation, but upon further review a few days after the event, both of us are fully convinced that it’s a shadow figure.
After fifteen minutes of exploration of the large room, we went on to explore the third floor and the basement. Those were the “safest” floors, despite the mold, asbestos and standing water in certain spots. However, it was amazing because it looked exactly like it did on the Ghost Adventures episode – the fan blades were curled down, wires were hanging (not as low as they were when Zak tripped in them though), and everything was still in the same spot as it had been left. Other than the minor chatter of the other people in the group, it was eerily quiet and was even still in certain places, such as the shower room. The only sounds you could really hear were the dripping water from the puddles that were left from the rain and if you were lucky, something moving by itself in one of the rooms or the faint sounds of footsteps from over in the corner where nobody else was.
Now, my next accounts may seem like I’m being paranoid or was setting myself up, but I have someone that will back me up on it. It was windy that night and certain windows were open. However, when we were walking through the hallway when the wind wasn’t blowing, it got extremely cold. I thought it was just the after effects of a breeze and the fact that it was later at night in a cooler city. The second time that I felt the cold, it wasn’t like the cold you felt from a breeze on a fifty degrees night. It was just in one spot and it felt like a winter’s day, really. When it wasn’t just a temporary little chill that one normally felt from a quick touch of a breeze and it caused my arms to get goosebumps like I was standing in the middle of a snowbank without a winter coat, I was convinced that it was something other than Mother Nature. It had to be a spirit, just walking around and wondering who all the people were that were going through their “home.”
Other than the cold spots and a photo of a shadow, there were a few other things that I heard. I don’t know for sure if any of my other friends heard it as I didn’t talk about it much with them, but I heard the loud bang of a door slamming shut twice – both times when we were waiting outside, once before we passed the opening gates where it said “no trespassing” and the other time after we had gotten out of the building to start our trek back to our vehicles. It came from higher up in the building and on the other side where nobody else in the group was. We were the only tour group that night and there were only two tour guides with us, both of which were in sight.
On the Ghost Adventures episode and also from other accounts that have been reported about the tours or personal investigations, the slamming of doors was one of the most popular experiences people reported. I did ask one friend if he heard anything out of curiosity, but he said no and then tried to debunk it as the tour guide closing the door and locking it. I know in my heart that it wasn’t just my mind playing tricks on me. It was the slamming of something heavy, like someone was angry or wanted people to know that they were there or warning the outsiders to leave.
That was my first experience of going somewhere thoroughly haunted. Trying to explain it in words and pictures doesn’t do the experience justice. It’s a completely different feeling when you’re actually there. In certain places, you feel the tense air and you begin to feel like you’re getting choked up or sick even though you’re not. Explaining that feeling doesn’t have the same effect. Sure, it might seem spooky, but being in that environment gives spooky a whole new meaning.