Losing It At Lake Julia

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Losing It At Lake Julia

Losing It At Julia

(images:flickr/foose003)

Lake Julia Tuberculosis Sanatorium is located in the north part of Minnesota, in Puposky.  The ramshackle building is twenty miles north of Bemiji, Minnesota and was originally built to assist ailing kids in the 1900s.  The sanatorium was built in 1916 and originally was founded to test alternative treatments for the criminally insane.

The general premise of the Lake Julia Tuberculosis Sanatorium was that fresh air and the lake view would help treat tuberculosis patients.  At that time, there was not an available cure and doctors were not very familiar with the disease.  Many dangerous and sometimes inhumane treatments were attempted at the facility in an effort to gain control of the rapid spread and deaths relating to tuberculosis.

Lake Julia Tuberculosis Sanatorium closed in the fifties after only about forty years of operation.  The original capacity of the facility was established to hold and treat about twenty people, but by the time it closed, there was well over fifty patients.  The first doctor on staff, Doctor R. L. Laney, was brought on staff in 1921 to tackle, treat, and cure the typhoid epidemic.  After arriving to the sanatorium and finding everything chaotic and wildly out of control, the doctor had his work cut out for him.

What the doctor found was that the epidemic could be tied to a single patient who had the disease and had contaminated the water supply by swimming in the small pond on the grounds.  The pond water was being used as the water supply for the sanatorium and as the water was being pumped into the plumbing, others were being affected.  The pandemic took the lives of patients, a nurse and a physician before it was controlled.  The Lake Julia Tuberculosis Sanatorium maintained its own incinerator to dispose of bodies to try to prevent the spread of disease.  Unfortunately, the ashes were distributed into Lake Julia, causing high mercury levels and diseased fish.

Losing It At Lake Julia

(images:flickr/30228457@N05)

Mary Ghostley was the staff physician in 1930 and quickly became skilled at reading x-rays and developing TB tests to control the tuberculosis outbreak.  After tuberculosis became more controlled, enrollment in the clinic slowed and it was eventually repurposed as the Lake Julia Rest Home in 1954 until the facility was permanently closed in 1968 and abandoned.

Despite the fact that the Lake Julia Tuberculosis Sanatorium was closed and no longer being used, it seems activity never seemed to slow.  Visitors to the facility site commonly report seeing a young girl on the second floor of the building.  When someone goes after her, she quickly disappears.  Oddly enough, the girls were housed on the second floor, appearing that this particular little girl was bound to stay for eternity.

Other reports include balls of light flying up and down the elevator shaft, moaning and shadow figures throughout the complex.  Others complain about not being able to breathe as they climb higher in the facility, most never being able to reach the attic due to the extreme negative energy in that area.  People have been touched, pushed or had their hair pulled.  There have been issues with flooding and lights turning on and off by themselves, even when no one is present and the rooms are locked.  Electronics malfunction and security cameras have shown a man in a white suit walking the halls.  When approached for trespassing, the man disappears through the wall.

Megan Borchert
Megan Borchert
Lover of all things unusual, Megan is a staff attorney for the state of South Dakota. When she's not stuffed in an office writing case synopses, you can find her at home with her army of Schnauzers, snuggled up with some strong wine and a good book.

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