Monday, August 9, 2010

The Lake Julia Experimental Station, Puposky, Minnesota


  The Inspector decided at the last minute to visit the Lake Julia Experimental Station, a mistake. On first glance the station, an euphemism for a facility testing alternative treatments for the criminally insane, was impressive. Dr. Frankel, the Station Director, was charming and informed; the staff were conscientious and efficient.
   The Inspector was allowed to interview Giuseppe Maretti, nicknamed Dago Joe, a notorious serial killer. Maretti killed more than 30 women in the Midwest, cutting out and eating their hearts, while keeping a finger as a curio.
  The Inspector sat in the small, padded room across from Maretti, who was composed and compliant, confirming he had reformed his evil ways. At one point, Maretti put his finger to his lips and motioned for the Inspector to check the door, which was ajar. The Inspector looked, saying they were alone.
   Maretti leaned forward, "I am the real Dr. Frankel." He whispered. "The inmates have taken over the Asylum."
   The Inspector was taken back. Quite original; he had never heard that one before. Dr. Frankel hurriedly told the Inspector how he and the staff had been lulled as Maretti and the others appeared to respond to the focused meditation that Dr. Frankel was testing. When his guard was down, the inmates had struck. Rather than escape, they had taken over the station, keeping most of the former staff heavily drugged. Dr. Frankel was kept lucid for medical emergencies, but locked in the padded room.
   The Inspector listened intently, then shook his head slowly. Such a story, he thought. No progress with Maretti, just the workings of a devious mind. He rose from the table to leave, when the door was slammed shut and the bolt thudded home. The Inspector stood in conufsion, then looked back at the man at the table.  "I told you so." Dr. Frankel said.
   A week later, the Inspector's car was found crashed into a tree on the winding Route 15. His skull was battered almost beyond recognition; death was instantaneous.
   Six months later a state audit team made an unannounced visit to the station and the charade was uncovered. State authorities quietly closed the station and retired Dr. Frankel. They relocated Maretti and the other culprits to the high-security facility down state.
   Today the Experimental Station is locked and boarded. The grounds are wildly overgrown; "No Trespassing" signs are prominent. The station is off limits to all.

31 comments:

  1. I have been here many times and have seen some unworldly stuff! I grew up in the Bemidji area and use to drive by it almost everyday! Curiousity got the best of me and I had to check it out sooner or later! I did not leave there the same person. It is a very haunting location and leaves a mark on a persons inner being. Its a very beautiful location but to know the things that have gone on there makes a person sad!

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  2. I grew up not far from here. Nothing scary ever happened during my visits, and it's not locked and boarded up. However there is no trespass signs posted.

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  3. My high school boyfriend's dad used to live in what was supposed to be the "nurses house" right next door. That house had been redone and was actually kinda nice and it kind of shared the yard with this place. You'd see it plain as day as you drove up the driveway. It always looked spooky to me but they never seemed to be scared of it and never said anything happened while I knew them. I think they lived there for around 5 years or so. They had asked if I wanted to go in there (as a joke) but I always said NO WAY!! LOL To me, it was even kind of freaky being in their house cause it was so close but the house was nice and the lot was very pretty, you just had an eye sore to the right as you walked out the front door. LOL I didn't know all that much about the place even though I grew up in Bemidji, so it was fun to see this write up on it but now my being there a few times freaks me out a little more!

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  4. I owned Lake Julia and I know for a fact it was a sanitarium for TB. Do your research Tom.

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    1. Hi Jane, do you have a contact to the new owner? I'd like to ask them if I can film a quick urban exploration video there.

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    2. building gone yesterday

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  5. I grew up in this area, I had a sister-in-law that was a patient there when it was a tb sanitarium. I had many relatives that worked there and relatives that lived there while it was a nursing home.
    I have no clue as to when it became called "the insane asylum" as people call it now a days.
    my aunt and uncle lived in the nurses house for a while. I never heard of weird stuff - until years later. some people have very over active minds
    It used to be a beautiful place to visit.


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    1. my dad spent time at the tb sanitorium and that is what it was

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    2. I published a book about the San on March 24, 2020, World TB Day. It is "Open Window, the Lake Julia TB Sanatorium, a Community Created by Tuberculosis," and it is available at Amazon.com. I would be interested in knowing more about your family's connections to the San.

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  6. I use to play and camp there when i was a kid with my friends (their grandparents owned the property) at night it would get spooky and you would hear and see things but alot of it was just critters. Later in life I remember going to a halloween party (i think Jane owned it then) and we had a fun time with telling stories
    would like to get to take another look at the old place ,I drive by it about once a week but i never stop in

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  7. I drive by sometimes and always wanted to stop and take pictures am a freelance photographer from The RedLake Reservation, But now live in Nebraska, I have always wanted to stop and take photographs.The place tells so many stories and I could just sit and think of all the things that went on there, and photographs speak a thousand words.

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  8. My grandmother worked here it's an old TB clinic...

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  10. Dago Joe actually had a press conference and claimed the title made his butt hurt and therefore the facility was closed due to an outbreak of apparent hemorrhoid swelling that now has infected the entire U.S. population.

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  11. The property is privately owned.I looked at it in 2001, when it was on the market for sale.

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  12. Do you have the guts to post this?
    https://wildflowerfarm.org/2014/08/07/the-lake-julia-tuberculosis-sanatorium/

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  13. I worked there in 1963---as a nurse---they had under ground tunnels that led us nurses back to our rooms in the normatary----really nice nback then too !

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  14. From what I find the "historical" aspects of this are 100% fiction.

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  15. Anyone know how I can contact the owner? I'd pay them so I can do an urban exploration video there.

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  16. Me and my cousins walked through there about 18 years ago in the middle of the night. We did not see anything scary. I remember there were huge cast iron furnaces in the basement and my older couains had me convinced that was where they burned the bodies. They are from black duck and they called it the insane asylum also.

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    1. The furnaces heated all of the buildings on the property. It was not a crematorium and not an insane asylum. It was a tuberculosis sanatorium and later a nursing home. That's it, from start to finish. The real story of the place is fascinating, and far more interesting than those made-up stories.

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    1. County RD 15 mile marker 308

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    2. It has been demolished because it was unsafe and falling apart.

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  18. Hands down the most exhilarating experience I have ever had! This place has many entities and feelings immediately after you get through the gates. The walk up to it is intense. There are lights faintly glowing in a few windows. We took some quick pics so dark unable to see them and we were snapping quick because we did not want to be noticed by the property owner. We went twice the same night the first time one of our people felt ill immediately and my phone at 85% went dead when I was trying to take a video. We dropped the person back at the house we were staying at and me and one other person set back out. She took her phone which was charged at least 45% when we reached the house we quickly took books but both of us did not feel we should go inside. Her phone dies after we snap about 20 photos quick. We were unable to see any pics until we got back to the house we are staying at and to are absolute shock THERE IS A FIGURE IN THE SECOND FLOOR WINDOW AND APPEARS TO BE A WOMAN IN A NIGHTGOWN!!! WOW WOW WOW WHEN HER PHONE DIES WE BOTH SAID WE BETTER GET OUT OF HERE. WE WALKED (5MIN) TO ROAD AS SOON AS I TOUCHED MY FOOT TO THE ROAD MY BODY WENT INTO A DRY HEAVE AND I COULDNT BREATH WHAT SO EVER I THEN THREW UP A LIL NOT MUCH (EMPTY STOMACH) MY BODY FULL OF THE CRAZIEST GOOSEBUMPS I TELL THE GIRL IM WITH I FEEL DIZZY SHE LOOKS AT MY GOOSEBUMPS AND MY HEAD INSTANTLY CLAMY ONCE IN THE CAR I FELT JUST BAZARRE WHEN WE GOT BACK TO THE HOUSE I FELT FINE. CHARGED THE PHONE N LOOKED AT OUR PICS OMG �� WOW

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  19. Does anyone know how to contact the current owner? I would like to go there and walk through and take some photos as I love going to see older hospitals and buildings that are part of Minnesota history.

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    1. It has been demolished because it was unsafe and falling apart.

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