Entry No. 56 — the Seattle file — filed under: history
Northern State Recreation Area (former asylum grounds)
This sprawling recreation area sits on the grounds of the old Northern State Hospital, a mental institution that operated from 1912 until 1973 and once ran as a self-sufficient farm colony. Wide pastoral trails wind past still-standing dairy barns and silos from that era (no entering the structures), and a separate path leads to a cemetery where an estimated 1,500 patients lie buried, the vast majority in unmarked graves with only a scattered few bearing a number and initials. The campus was laid out by the famed Olmsted Brothers, so the haunting decay is wrapped in oddly graceful landscaping.
The story
When Washington state set out to build a mental institution in 1912, they hired the Olmsted Brothers—the landscape architects responsible for Central Park—to design a sprawling, self-sufficient farm colony in the Skagit Valley. The idea was therapeutic isolation disguised as agrarian dignity: patients raised livestock, milked cows, and farmed crops while locked away from the rest of the state. At its mid-century peak in the 1950s, nearly 2,700 people lived on this quiet, manicured campus beneath the North Cascades.
The hospital shut down in 1973, leaving 726 acres of Olmsted-designed pasture to revert back to nature. What remains today is a bizarre landscape where elegant landscape architecture collides with institutional decay. Roaming the open trails brings you past towering concrete silos, rusted dairy barns, and rotting farm foundations melting into the reed canary grass. Down a separate wooded track lies the park's darkest corner: a patient cemetery where roughly 1,500 people are buried, almost all of them memorialized only by small rusted markers stamped with a set of numbers or initials.
What it's like
You’ll pull into a standard Skagit County park lot, but once you set foot on the trail network, the illusion of a normal county park breaks down quickly. Flat gravel paths loop through open pastures directly alongside hollowed-out concrete milk parlors and sagging timber barns. The vibe is quiet, weird, and surprisingly popular with local dog walkers who casually stroll past shuttered wards. The golden rule here is absolute: do not cross the fences or attempt to enter any of the standing structures—some active county and port facilities operate nearby, and the decaying roofs aren't worth a trespassing ticket or a cave-in. Bring waterproof boots if you come in the rainy months, as the lowland pasture trails quickly turn into marsh.
The move: Walk the pasture trails to the old farm buildings, then visit the patient cemetery for a quietly haunting afternoon.
📍 Before you go Some buildings are still in active use and off-limits; stick to the public trails and recreation grounds.
- 📍 Sedro-Woolley, WA
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: Helmick Rd, Sedro-Woolley, WA 98284
Hours: Added 2026-06-24 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Fortson Mill — Continue your northern decay tour by heading 27 miles south to these overgrown 1905 lumber mill ruins tucked into the Arlington woods.
- Earth Sanctuary — For a intentional, peaceful contrast to institutional isolation, head south toward Whidbey Island to walk among sacred-geometry stone circles and quiet forest ponds.
- Manresa Castle — If institutional turn-of-the-century architecture is your fix, cross the water to Port Townsend to sleep inside a massive 1892 brick manor that doubled as a Jesuit college.
Good to know
Can you go inside the abandoned buildings or old barns?
No. All standing structures—including the old farm buildings and former hospital facilities—are strictly off-limits, boarded up, or fenced off due to collapse hazards and active property management.
Where is the patient cemetery located?
The cemetery sits along its own distinct trail path on the property, separated from the primary farm building loop.
How many patients are buried on the grounds?
An estimated 1,500 patients were interred in the cemetery between 1912 and the hospital's closure, the vast majority lying in unmarked graves or under simple numbered plaques.
Who owns and manages the property now?
Skagit County purchased a 726-acre section of the state land in 1991 to create the Northern State Recreation Area, maintaining the public trail system.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Wikipedia · skagitcounty.net · wta.org · king5.com · Official site
last checked: 2026-06-24