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Cascade Job Corps
When a business in Sedro-Woolley
 actually creates and produces a brand new tourist attraction designed to bring people to our neck of the woods at their own expenses and initiative, we at the Chamber have to stand up and offer our applause. Cascade Job Corps has created the Haunted Hospital utilizing the talents of their students and it will be a scream.Cascade Job Corps is celebrating their 25 years in Sedro-Woolley and doing so in a terrific new way. Ever been deloused, prodded with electrical devices, received Electrical Shock therapy, or a lobotomy well here may be your chance. Starting October 2 and running every Friday and Saturday night through October 31 Cascade Job Corps will present the Haunted Hospital. Come see ghostly apparitions, crazed patients, and maybe not so helpful staff. Or contact Brian Hurst at 854-2161 to don some scary duds and participate in the fun. The connection between Cascade Job Corps and a Haunted Hospital is the site of the Job Corps campus which once was a mental institution known as Northern State Hospital. The cost is only $5.00 per person.Brian Hurst, who is directing the production, wanted to point out to everyone that in no way is this portrayed as a historical depiction, but rather just good old Halloween type fun and entertainment. The former mental institution was well known for its humane practices; a notable occurrence, since many facilities for the mentally ill were known for their torturous treatment of their patients.
Cascade Job Corps situated just off Fruitdale road inhabits 41 of the 1000 acres formerly occupied by the hospital. According to local historian Noel V Bourasaw, “Old timers used to say that Sedro-Woolley’s economy in the first half of the 20th century sat on a four-legged stool. The first leg was the logging industry, the second was agriculture, the third was Skagit Steel, and the fourth was Northern State Hospital, four miles northeast of town.” (Skagit River Journal, 2003) Citing from the same article:
“…(a) state commission was appointed in 1909 to select a site in the north part of the state for a hospital for harmless insane and that the Commercial Club of Sedro-Woolley soon secured options on an 800-acre site. State Senator Emerson Hammer, attorney Charles Gable and Skiyou farmer James M. Harrison lobbied successfully to have the state purchase for $75,000 a site northeast of town and east of what was called Duke’s Hill and the state commission accepted it on Sept. 13, 1909
The Commercial Club of Sedro-Woolley preceded the Chamber of Commerce of Sedro-Woolley, which was founded in 1914. When you visit the site you are struck by the majesty of the century year old oaks, the Spanish style architecture which features tile roofs, and the sense of history and mystery which surround the place. Northern State Hospital no longer houses the mentally insane. But even in the past, the residents had an opportunity to learn vocational skills – farm, greenhouse, dairy, printing and other markets that proved self-sustaining for the hospital. Which helped make the facility reusable for the Job Corps program. Since the Hospital closed in 1976, this eerie location has been the rumored residence of countless ghosts, apparitions and unsettled spirits who continue to haunt the grounds. There is an eeriness to the site too, a ghostliness that disappears during the day when inhabits by vibrant young people but a presence that many have felt over the years. The site has known many disturbing accounts, the very first murder occurred in February of 1922 at Northern State Hospital.
“The most common reports of haunting refer to a ghost known as “Fred”, who seems to be the prankster type, enjoys tossing objects about, such as sheet pans that have flown across the room unassisted. The nurse’s dorm area has received numerous complaints of an extremely frigid, reoccurring cold spot, even in the dead heat of summer.
The dorm is also reported to be the home of the apparition of a little girl with a red ball. Claims also state that there is an older, male ghost who is eternally searching for the little girl. More disturbing accounts speak of a body hanging in the window of the old nurses station” http://www.ghosteyes.com/ghosts-northern-state-mental-hospital.
So come out during October see if you can spot Fred or the little girl with the red ball, but don’t forget it was the students who created the sets you are viewing. As we also want to recognize the Job Corps for the 25 years spent providing training young people under the program created 45 years ago by Sargent Shriver. Originally, the program was modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps of the Depression, which put many young people to work in the 1930s. Job Corps is a no-cost education and vocational training program administered by the United States Department of Labor. It serves youth, ages 16 through 24. Job Corps offers career planning, on-the-job training, job placement, residential housing, food service, driver’s education, health and dental care, a bi-weekly basic living allowance and clothing allowance.
Since its inception in 1964, under the Economic Opportunity Act, Job Corps has provided approximately two million young people with academic, vocational, and social skills training they need to gain independence and get quality, long-term jobs or further their education. Job Corps continues to help 60,000 youths annually at 123 Job Corps and Civilian Conservation Centers throughout the country. Cascade Job Corps is currently ranked #8 in the nation and has consistently ranked in the top 20 and has 340 students currently in residence.
Besides vocational training, all Job Corps centers also offer General Education Diploma (GED) programs as well as high school diplomas (a program that works with the Sedro-Woolley School District) and programs to get students into colleges with some centers having programs that allow students to remain in residence at their center while attending college. Job Corps provides career counseling and transition support to its students for up to one year after they graduate from the program.
The first building opened in the fall of 1910 for both planning and administration as well as construction and the first doctor in charge was W. E. Cass. The first 200 patients were transferred, apparently from Steilacoom, in December 1912 through January 1913.”
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