Deserted Places: The ruins of San Haven Sanatorium in North Dakota

San Haven sanatorium was built was built in the early 20th century on Turtle mountain, close to the North Dakota and Canada borders. It was founded in 1909 after the state legislature put aside $10,000 for such an institution to treat TB patients of the state. Its location was ideal as it was far away from big cities were the population felt threatened from the disease. The sanatorium attracted patients and medical staff from all over the country until the tuberculosis epidemic died down in the 1940's thanks to antibiotics.

Unlike other TB campuses, San Haven allowed (by a 1913 state Act) social organizations, like the Freemasons, to build cottages on the property. The same Act also forbade the sharing of drinking cups. San Haven was operating as a satellite hospital for the North Dakota Institution for the Feeble-Minded at Grafton, but as the hospital expanded it gained more autonomy.

In the 1950's, San Haven was converted into a sanatorium for the developmentally disabled, as most TB patients were now treated at home. Like with many similar institutions at the time, there were rumors for mistreatment of patients and other abuses at San Haven as well. The sanatorium was finally shut down in the 1980's. The closure of the hospital by government mandate became an issue that created a lot of anger and resentment in the area (which was named San Haven, after the sanatorium) as it brought a lot of money in the region.

Since then, the results of abandonment are visible, while nature has reclaimed parts of the buildings.

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