Jordan Davis

Our society has made many medical advancements over time. This has caused the treatments for many disease to change and become less dangerous. The diseases have become less dangerous because the medicine that have been used to treat them have become better. Because of these solutions some hospitals that had a main purpose of being open have been closed if the disease have become easier to control. One example of this happening is San Haven Sanitorium.

San Haven opened opened its doors in November of 1912. The sanitorium was opened to treat the disease tuberculosis. The reasons for choosing north of Dunseith to put the sanitorium was because of the higher altitude, drier atmosphere, and more favorable conditions to treat the disease. When it first opened the daily rate was one dollar and fifty cents. Then just three years later it would raise to seven dollars. The hospital slowly began to grow. In 1913 it only had 13 patients, than in 1920 there was 90 patients. Then just two years later there was 140 patients.

As the hospital began to expand Grafton began to send some of its mentally handicapped to San Haven. The reason that they were being sent was the tuberculosis patients were being treated in their homes because the advancement in medicine. Because of the less patients there was empty rooms and beds, so San Haven began to take in some of Grafton’s patients. Then later in the 70’s Grafton State School took complete control of San Haven.

Then in the 1980’s, because of the pharmaceutical advancements, people began to leave sanatoriums and hospitals. The reason people didn’t like them was it felt like arison to them. The hospitals were stealing people away from their families and communities. They were also locking them away for exotic punishment. The families believed that the hospitals were performing experiments on the patient's.

Then in 1987 San Haven’s last patient was sent home. Then in 1989 the doors were locked for good. The closing of the sanatorium cause many people to lose their jobs. The people that were with Grafton State School were sent back to Grafton and the people that were from their were laid off. In 1992 the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewas later bought the San Haven and the land around it. The land and buildings were not used for many years. Some of the buildings were torn down. After a few years of not using the land the tribe leased out the land to local people.

San Haven looks very different today than it did when it was in it’s prime. In the 1940’s San Haven was one of the most beautiful places around. The land was well tended and there was beautiful flowers all over. Today vegetation has taken over. Grass, plants, and trees have overtaken the buildings. The buildings have also changed drastically. There have been many buildings that have been torn down. If the buildings are still up and standing they look horrible.all of the windows are broken out, there are no doors on the hinges, and there are graffiti all over the outside and inside of the buildings.

San Haven has always been interesting to me. I found it so interesting because my grandma, my dad’s mom, worked there. I also grew up listening to stories about it being haunted. The stories started from when a young boy passed away there when he fell down an elevator door. The stories say if you go there before the sun goes down you can see the little boy in a window, and if you go there at night you can hear the little boy cry. They also say that the doctors there did horrible experiments on patients in the basements. The story goes that this might be a reason why the hospital had to close. There was so much torturing equipment and human guinea pigs that they locked the doors and they are still locked today. People are still today looking for those secret doors and trying to get into them. One of the last stories is that there is an old patient still there that was left and forgotten about. He is said to run around the hosptal and hide from people as he stalked them.

These were many of the reasons why I picked San Haven. The sanatorium just goes to show many of the new advancements change how we treat the sick.