Oregon State Hospital – Beyond One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Welcome back, spooky friends. I take it that if you are continuing to read into this series about paranormal Oregon that you are also a Romantic/gothic-era literary fan. If you are not, I highly recommend picking up a few books.

When I think of Victorian and Edwardian estates, an image out of a Brontë sisters or Shirley Jackson novel pops up in my mind. Maybe, for some of you you might think about ‘Salem’s Lot or The Picture of Dorian Gray or a whole host of other literary classics. It is this Victorian era that brings me to the topic of this article.

Oregon State Hospital cannot be neatly written into a single article, so this will be set one of two. Set one will be a talk about the historic backdrop of Oregon State Hospital and mental health. Set two will be a look at the paranormal side of the hospital. But, when you read the second article, please remember that real people lived and died here. For me, this article will be quite personal because I am someone on the Autism Spectrum Disorder (AS) scale.

Within the last few decades, the terminology of neurodivergence has grown acceptance in academic literature. To one degree or another, everyone faces a mental health trauma within their lifetime; however, there are those, including myself, who are neurodivergent. Personally, I accept that I am different, and that kookiness makes me who I am.

The State Insane Asylum in Salem, Oregon was opened in 1883 as an enormous Victorian property that was built under the Kirbride Plan that was common across sanatoriums of the day. Contrary to the image of Renfield in the stereotypical dingy asylum, Kirkbride facilities were designed to let in as much sunlight as possible and create a more open care plan. That was, as long as the facilities were well staffed, well trained, and were not overcrowded.

People, including immigrants, who suffered from alcoholism, dementia, syphilis, and a wide range of clinical or perceived disabilities were housed here. People with tuberculosis (consumption) were also regular patients here. Many would never leave. In the meantime, for designated patients they worked different tasks around the hospital and this provided a resemblance of routine in such a facility.

Thomas Hobbes once penned “life is brutish and short,” and for thousands of patients at Oregon State Hospital this was very true. In one brutal instance of upending the work routine of patients, in November 1942, a patient-cook named George Nosen poisoned the breakfast of 467 people, 47 would die. He would continue to reside at the hospital until his death in 1983.

Sadly, for thousands of patients, no matter how much care they were provided by staff, many died alone and even in death they were not claimed by the families that disposed of them. Asylums were places of forgetting embarrassments within the family, out of sight out of mind. The hospital cremated at least 3,500 persons between 1913-1971 and contained their bodies, memories, love, and histories into little copper urns. Still worse, it wasn’t until 2004 that the copper cremains were discovered.

One person who particularly stood out to me in my research for this article was a veteran – Private Jewett Williams, originally from Maine and served in the Civil War for the Union from 1864-1865 in the 20th Maine. Williams was at Appomattox Courthouse in April 1865 when General Lee surrendered. At some point, Williams found himself at Oregon State Hospital with no loved ones. He died alone as when he entered the hospital and was cremated in 1922.

Take a pause.