The Haunted Hospital

I just came back from a ghost hunting tour of the haunted hospital in Tooele, Utah. (That’s TOO-ill-uh)

The hospital has been abandoned for several years—except for the ghosts. Seriously, a lot of people have died there and the haunting activity is truly legendary. I went along because I was the invited guest of Tom Carr, founder of Wasatch Paranormal Investigations, check his group’s website.

Go to his site, check out the pictures, listen to the EVP’s (electronic voice phenomena), and watch the videos. Tom also does a weekly paranormal radio podcast (online), called Residual Hauntings. I was a guest of his when book one came out. We spoke about my fascination with ghosts, how I use them in my writing, and my collected stories from my years working in hospitals—which are notoriously haunted. The most haunted place I’ve ever worked in is LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City. I worked there for over ten years and that place is so creepy—especially at night.

Okay, if you get a chance and live in Utah, go to the ghost tour of the old Tooele hospital. Listen to the stories and do a little investigating. Wow, you’ll hear some creepy stuff. People often hear babies crying, see patients walking down the halls, ghosts poking their heads out of rooms, women in labor screaming, and the list goes on.

Going on the tour, doing some investigators, and getting to hang out with real paranormal investigators was lots of fun. I learned some cool stuff and got some ideas for my writing. It was also great hanging with my friend, Zabrina. She’s a “sensitive” who went along with me. “Sensitive” means she can see stuff sometimes and perceive things most of us can’t. There was one room, the conference room where they told people about the death of a loved one, was quite intense. The K2 electromagnetic field detector was going crazy when Tom was questioning whatever was in the room. He was also feeling some chest pressure. Whatever it was, indicated that it wanted us to leave, (through the K2), and some people left.

I had my spirit armor up the whole time and never felt threatened. It was more of a sad place for me. There was so much suffering and pain. One of the ER bays was very intense as well. Also the X-ray room had a bad vibe, but the creepiest place was the old labor and delivery room. The story goes that the night shift nurses would put a TV set to static in the EMPTY labor and delivery room to drown out the noises of women screaming . . .

My overall feeling was that I wanted to help those poor spirits and clean that place out. In lieu of doing that, I’m going to write about ghosts and how they can be helped in my books. The main character of The Golden Cord, Drake is very haunted and he must cut the ties to his lost friend. It’s hard to do sometimes. There are lots of other spirits in my Iron Dragon books, most of them with unfinished business.

Well, if you just have to go to the old hospital in Tooele, I would recommend going there during October when the whole place is turned into a haunted house called Asylum 49—voted the second scariest haunted house in Utah. A big chunk of the proceeds go to the new Tooele nursing home, which is attached to the old hospital. I fully support this and hope you will as well. There are a few more ghost tours scheduled in April, and there is talk of doing another. Check out this website.

I think their tagline says it best: How many people have actually died at the haunted house you’re going to?


Paul Genesse, author and editor
Author of The Dragon Hunters
Book Two of the Iron Dragon Series

Book Release Party May 22 from 3-6 PM
At the Radisson Hotel Downtown in Salt Lake City
paulgenesse.com