Most Haunted Places in America: Holy Cross Sanatorium
Originally established as a military base by the name of Camp Cody, the remains of the Holy Cross Sanatorium have quite the history of death, suffering and ongoing mischief. They say the underground tunnels and last standing building of Holy Cross Sanatorium is haunted by the disgruntled ghosts of a century gone by.
In 1916, in the desert town of Deming, New Mexico, a military training camp was established. It was first called Camp Deming, after the town. In 1917, the government rebranded the base as Camp Cody in honor of William “Buffalo Bill” Cody.
The base was large enough to house 36,000 soldiers, with 800 hospital beds available. It was also furnished with underground passageways that reached all the way from one side of the town to the airport.
There are two stories of why Camp Cody was abandoned. Once says that the US military no longer had a use for the base at the end of World War I. The other story goes that the flu hit the base extremely hard and many soldiers died.
Whichever was true, Camp Cody was left behind and the structures were converted into a tuberculosis sanitarium. In 1923, the grounds were transferred into the capable hands of the Catholic Sisters of the Holy Cross, aptly renamed Holy Cross Sanatorium, where they continued to run the hospital. The underground tunnels were very convenient for transporting the bodies of tuberculosis victims since TB was extremely fatal in those times.
In 1939, a tragic fire burnt down nearly all of the Holy Cross Sanatorium. In fact, the only building that remains is the old boiler room, along with the underground tunnels.
A few decades went by with little to speak of on the old grounds of Holy Cross Sanatorium. That is, until the 1980s. It became a hub for satanic cults. Rituals and animal sacrifices were performed there. Some even say human sacrifices, but I’ve found no official data to back this up as of yet.
The remaining walls of the boiler room are now riddled with graffiti, and the Holy Cross Cemetery, located on the same grounds, was constantly being vandalized. Legend has it three young residents of Deming, NM wreaked havoc in the cemetery one night, destroying one of the tombstones in the process. All three of them died before the year was out.
This story turned into an urban legend that states if you put your name on the wall, you will die within the year. Were that true, most of the people who grew up in Deming, New Mexico would be long dead. Countless teenagers have dared spray-paint their names at the old Holy Cross Sanatorium, and the town flourishes still.
Not only is the old grounds of Holy Cross Sanatorium believed to be incredibly haunted by the ghosts of those who suffered and died here, there are buildings in Deming, NM that are built over the collapsing tunnels that ran through the town to the hospital. A restaurant, hotel, multiple homes; all have stories of ghostly apparitions and other paranormal activity associated with them.
One young man claimed to be driving his car down I-10 with his girlfriend, and as they were passing by Deming, a ghost appeared out of nowhere and appeared to be running across the highway. They both saw it, clear as day, and it disappeared into thin air, just as quickly as it appeared, before reaching the other side of the road.
Could this be the ghost of some lone traveler who was struck by a car long ago? Or perhaps a tuberculosis patient from the Holy Cross Sanatorium who escaped the hospital, knowing he was doomed to die from the disease? Maybe both…
What we do know is that there are way too many ghost stories surrounding Holy Cross Sanatorium and Deming, New Mexico in general (near the old tunnels) to be discounted.
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