Ghost hunters tour halls of Sheboygan Asylum for signs from beyond

Just off a county road in rural Sheboygan Falls, a metal gate bars an entrance to the 275,000-square-foot Sheboygan Asylum. An electric fence ticks every few seconds and a disembodied woman’s voice warns that cameras are recording the movements of any trespassers.

The security measures are meant to keep people out. But Anita Kohlhagen, 44, of Sheboyan said the place was once intended to keep people in.

Completed in 1940, the three-story, six-wing building was originally the Sheboygan County hospital. The building could house up to 300 patients living with mental illness, developmental disabilities and substance abuse disorders.

While patients haven’t been treated there for more than two decades, Kohlhagen believes it’s anything but empty.

“My very first tour that I took here as a guest, we were up in the nurses wing, and we heard a lady just start singing,” Kohlhagen said. “There was no one else in the building but us.”

Now Kohlhagen volunteers as a tour guide for the Fox Valley Ghost Hunters’ tours of the Sheboygan Asylum.

Storm clouds threatened rain overhead as she sat just outside the building’s front doors alongside fellow ghost hunter Kaley Gerke of Slinger. Gerke, 26, said she got hooked after hearing all kinds of stuff in the facility’s halls during a tour.

“Footsteps, knocking, loud yelling,” Gerke listed off.

Siblings Danielle and Josh Lobach made the trek from Milwaukee to take part in the Saturday evening tour. The two had hoped to buy tickets last fall, but the tours had already sold out. They decided to jump at the chance to check out the facility before Halloween.

“We’ve been talking about going to a haunted (place) forever,” she said. “We didn’t realize we have something so close.”

Danielle Lobach, 50, said their grandmother would talk about spirits visiting her — a normal occurrence for her. Josh Lobach, 45, who works at a Milwaukee cemetery, said he’s experienced ghosts before while staying at various homes. He said he hoped to see something “mind-blowing” on the tour. At the same time, though, he said he was intrigued by the building’s rich history, whether or not any spirits showed themselves.

“If I don’t see anything at all, it’s still going to be awesome,” he said.

While the tours intend to give a good fright, Kohlhagen said the facility’s patients didn’t encounter the horrors of abuse and neglect observed at other facilities. When it opened, the hospital’s architect wrote that it was considered “one of the finest of its kind” in the region for treatment of psychiatric patients.

Tour begins with a descent into underground tunnels

As the members of the group steeled themselves for the three-hour tour, 10 people filtered into the building and signed in at a nearby table. Kohlhagen then led the group up a set of stairs and down the hall to what was once the dining room. 

Without much natural light, the room was dark and stuffy in the July heat. An easel displayed a poster board of photos and newspaper clippings of patients and staff who died in the building, including Anita Schmahl, the facility’s former music director.

“She was actually found here in this building with a plastic bag over her head, and they don’t know if it was a suicide or a murder,” Kohlhagen said.

Before leading the group downstairs, Kohlhagen warned that along with whatever spirits may haunt its halls, raccoons and mice have also taken up residence in the building. As the group descended into darkness, she urged people to turn on their flashlights and keep them pointed away from bats on the paint-chipped ceiling.

The tour stepped into underground tunnels and a maze of pipes, passing a four-pack of beer on the damp concrete floor.

At the end of the tunnels, the group stepped over broken glass as they entered the facility’s boiler room. Kohlhagen said patients once worked here. The property included its own barn, water tower and creamery. While patients were under constant supervision, they were also allowed to exercise in a closed-off yard outside.

After a brief history, Kohlhagen and Gerke pulled equipment from a bag to begin their paranormal investigation.

Ghost hunters say a mix of devices can detect spirits

Unpacking a mix of devices said to detect spirits, they set up a REM Pod that radiates its own electromagnetic field and a dead bell that picks up EMF readings. Fluctuations in EMF readings is a possible sign of paranormal activity that triggers the bell to ring and causes the pod to light up and make noise. 

With the items placed throughout the room, Kohlhagen then pulled out a spirit box. The device rapidly scans radio frequencies, creating white noise. It’s believed that spirits can use the box to communicate.

The two asked questions of the box, but the sounds it spit out were unintelligible. Then the group split up, allowing pairs and groups of three/smaller groups to do their own investigations. Jackson native Hayley Losey, 26, came with her friend Kyra Slakes. Losey said she’s been on the tour before and also heard a woman singing in the nurses wing.

“I guess it’s at first a little creepy, but then once you hear things start to happen, it’s exciting,” Losey said. “You just want to keep coming back.”

The group left the boiler room to backtrack through the underground tunnels and paused in an open area around items some ghosts may have held dear in life: bottles of beer and whiskey. Among them, Gerke placed items called catballs. The motion-activated cat toys are used to detect movement in haunted places. 

As the group gathered in a circle around them, the catballs blinked red, blue and yellow. Kohlhagen relayed that they had stopped underneath the men’s quarters. During its operation, staff came down here to hang out, take a smoke break or play cards.

The ghost hunters said this is the best spot to use the box because it typically doesn’t get radio interference. Kohlhagen asked the spirit box a few questions.

“Can you tell me what city we’re in?” she asked.

Through the white noise, a man’s voice seemed to say, “Hartford.”

The ghostly voice was wrong about the location — by about 50 miles if it meant the Hartford in Wisconsin, or about 1,000 miles if it meant the larger and older Hartford, Connecticut. Still, some members of the group were clearly excited to have heard a voice from the beyond. 

Losey pointed out that this spot is where another set of ghost hunters caught a dark shadow on camera when they filmed their investigation for the Travel Channel’s “Destination Fear” program in 2020. 

After a while, the group trailed out of the tunnels into the facility’s morgue. She said some people have reported seeing an angry old lady walking down the hall here. A spirit named Billy is also believed to to play tricks on people by pulling hair, pinching butts or holding hands.

On one tour, Kohlhagen said a woman pointed out that the flashlight hanging from her neck was pointing straight out from her chest.

“Then, I looked down at it, and it fell back down,” she said.

Some participants take comfort in signs of life after death

The group left the morgue to comb through rooms containing the building’s original washers and dryers. Then they headed upstairs to what was once the room for hydrotherapy and electroshock therapy.

The group wound their way through the building, exiting the facility for a short break. As the rain fell lightly, Slakes said she felt like something had touched her in the morgue. But both she and Losey said paranormal phenomena don’t freak them out. 

“We’re both kind of in tune with it,” Slakes said.

Losey agreed.

“I like knowing that they’re still here,” Losey said.

Others like Josh and Danielle Lobach said they hadn’t seen or felt anything, but they enjoyed learning about the history of the acute care facility.

“It’s cool to know that this wasn’t a place that was associated with mistreatment or abuse,” Danielle Lobach said.

As the group returned to the building, they climbed upstairs to a wing for patients who struggled with drug and alcohol abuse. Plastic tarp hung from the ceiling and kiddie pools collected water dripping down. Plastic tape barred the entry to some rooms where doors had been removed. Kohlhagen sat in front of one set of doors that led to what was once a locked ward for patients who needed extra supervision.

In the nurses wing, investigators set up the dead bell, cat balls and other devices. Kohlhagen said a woman named Kim is rumored to have died here, but they found no newspaper accounts to verify her passing.

A spirit box called out one-word answers like “chant” and “Sam.” Newspaper reports detail that a resident janitor named Samuel Olsen, 59, died in the building of an apparent “self-inflicted shotgun wound.”

People sat on the floor with their backs against the wall as Kohlhagen played songs on her phone in the hopes that someone or something would sing along, but no such luck.

“Alright, ring the bell and we’ll go somewhere else,” she said. “Ready. Go!”

As soon as the words left her mouth, the bell rang. The group reacted with shocked howls, and some appeared convinced that they had received a genuine message from the beyond.

But for this tour group, it marked the end of their search for a connection with the spirit world. Members took one last look through the rooms before filing out of the building into darkness.

Danielle Lobach’s advice to people touring the facility is to keep an open mind.

“Just let yourself feel it,” she said, “and (don’t) be too frightened.”

WPR reporters are making pit stops across the state to explore some of the people, places and things that make Wisconsin summers special. See all the stops and plan your own road trip at wpr.org/roadtrip.