Old St. James Hospital Ghost Hunt & Sleepover

The story

When five Sisters of Charity arrived in Butte from Leavenworth, Kansas in 1881, they found a raucous mining boomtown with filthy streets, hazardous copper mines, and no hospital in sight. Veteran Sister Mary Xavier McLaughlin literally begged for dollars at mine entrances to fund construction. Six months and $8,000 later, Old St. James Hospital opened its doors to care for injured copper miners, sick laborers, and impoverished migrants. As Butte exploded, so did the hospital—adding expanded wings in 1889, 1896, and 1915, and opening a nursing school in 1906.

For over eight decades, this imposing brick building on South Idaho Street was the frontline for industrial trauma, epidemics, and end-of-life care in Silver Bow County. Hospital operations shifted to a new facility in 1962, and the original complex later saw stints as commercial space and 1980s apartments before sitting largely untouched in private storage for decades. Because it escaped heavy modern gutting, the structural bones, long corridors, and distinctive exterior cross remain preserved in atmospheric disrepair.

Today, Haunted Rooms America hosts overnight ghost hunting investigations inside the historic complex, running from 8pm to 2am. This isn't a staged haunted house with costumed actors; you are given genuine access to dark patient rooms and corridors alongside seasoned paranormal investigators, armed with EMF meters, spirit boxes, and trigger objects before being turned loose for private vigils.