Something about The Marshfield County Hospital

Article from The Shadowlands

By: critters_world@charter.net

I happened upon your sight tonight, when on a whim, decided to look up ghost stories of Wisconsin. I read the short piece on the old Marshfield County Hospital. Just wanted to add a little bit I know about the old hospital (aka: Norwood Hospital).

To let you know the source of this story, I had a teacher in high school who's husband was a doctor turned parapsychologist (believe his name was Dr. Tierney). During her "Death" unit in her English class, she would bring in her husband to tell us a few of the sighting he had investigated.

He told the story of the Old Norwood Mental Hospital. A doctor and personal friend of Dr. Tierney had relayed a story of what had happened to him while working at this old hospital. The story is as follows:

The doctor had worked long at the hospital when he started hearing patients tell stories.

They would tell of hearing strange voices, seeing shadows, feeling as if someone was there. Well, it was a mental hospital after all, so he dismissed the claims.

Side note: To describe Norwood (which was recently destroyed due to the Highway 10 bypass project) it looked like an old sandstone-colored castle. It was a creepy place to go even after the place had closed do and places like the Salvation Army and other various businesses would hold auctions, flea markets and sales. I used to go there with my parents after the facility was closed, so I was up close and personal.

Okay, back to the story:

The hospital had series of hallways beneath the facility that would lead to rooms for storage and utilities (heating and plumbing). These tunnels were only accessible by administration and staff. A room would mark the end of a hallway, with no way out.

That way, if a patient did get down there, there was no way out and they were trapped.

These hallways were also sparsely lit.

Working a late shift one night, he needed to go down to the records room. The room at the end of a particularly long hallway. The lights where spaced far apart and allowed many shadows. Walking down the hallway, the doctor thought he saw someone standing against the wall need the door to the records room.

On closer inspection, he recognized the form of that of "Joe" the janitor. He called out in greeting to Joe and asked him what he was doing down there. The shadow then just detached itself from the wall as if to face the doctor, it turned, then walked into the wall.

The doctor was quite shocked by this, and just a bit shaken. After a moment he dismissed it as an overactive imagination from working long hours. He continued down the hallway, but as he closed on the door, he started getting a feeling of dread. The closer to the door, the worse it became. His heart pounding and his body sweating, he forced himself to reach for the door knob. He turned the knob and the door wouldn't budge. He starting forcing the door open and it felt as if a wild wind pushed out of the room. After forcing the door open a few inches, a voice screamed, "GET OUT!" and the door slammed shut.

The doctor, taking a hint, ran for his life. He sat in his office for quite a while trying to gather himself over a cup of coffee. Finally, he decided that the hospital was starting to get to him. He had to go back down to the room to prove to himself that he wasn't going crazy.

Slowly he walked down the hallway and reached the door without incident. He reached for the door, turned the knob, and quickly threw the door open and flipped on the light switch. NOTHING! Nothing happened and nothing was disturbed in the room. He thought with all the wind he had experienced from the room, the place would be a mess.

Everything was where it was supposed to be. He quickly gathered what he needed and left the room vowing not to anyone about the incident. After all, crazy things like that were the reason people were locked up there in the first place.

A month or so later, the doctor was coming in on his morning shift when one of his fellow workers quickly pulled him aside. "You will never believe what happened to me last night down in the records room!" the worker exclaimed.

The doctor replied, "Try me."

The co-worker went on to tell the doctor and amazing story that almost duplicated the doctor's experience. Then the doctor came out and told the co-worker of his experience.

The co-worker was very relieved and was happy they were not going crazy.

There was one thing missing from the co-worker's story though and asked the co-worker about it.

"Before this all happened, did you see anything? I thought I say Joe, the old janitor, standing in the hallway by the door." The proceeded to tell the co-worker about the shadow walking through the wall.

The co-worker explained that they had not seen a shadow, but that is possibly had been Joe. Joe had hung himself in the boiler room down there several months before.

Hence the Haunting of Norwood Hospital.

I hope you find the story interesting. I have several other stories I have looked into in Stevens Point, and even more I have experienced.

Stevens Point seems like a hotbed of ghost stories. Just will give a little overview of a couple of them:

The legless man of Lynwood: A short man in a turn of the century suite stands along side of County Truck P near dusk when the fog covers the roads. He waves down people while holding a bouquet of flower, asking passersby where his wife is buried.

Calvin Blood: I've heard several stories for a background to this haunting, but it is says this haunting is by a man once named Calvin Blood. Blood at one time was a popular name in portage county like Jones or Smith. The haunting itself takes place in a cemetery along the Wisconsin River off of West River Drive. I found a police report in Stevens Point's old library about an incident happening to a couple of officers investigating a call of kids in the cemetery.

To make a long story short on this one, supposedly a blob of light and fog comes out from behind Calvin's grave stone, shutting off all power to vehicles and lights, it envelopes a vehicle, and then just vanishes restoring all power to the vehicle.

Now this cemetery is watched by a keeper who doesn't like anybody coming into the cemetery at night. And also heard from another of my teachers that Calvin Blood's remains were moved to an island out in the river behind the cemetery. There are 30 or 40 graves there that are unmarked. Remains were moved there to keep people from going after the bodies. He told of the only two people lynched in Portage county that are buried there. Two brothers that raped and murdered a girl early in the town's history and were hung in the town square. Another buried there was a former sheriff that were hated by may in the town. One night, someone hung the sheriff from the maple tree in his front yard. For years, on the anniversary of his death, people would dig up his remains and hang them from the tree, hence the reason for hiding his remains.

If interested, I'll give you a few more stories I know from the Stevens Point/Plover and surrounding area, both publicly know and a few private ones.