Are You Brave Enough to Ghost Hunt at the Idaho State Tuberculosis Hospital?
After freaking out eight minutes into an episode of Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures featuring the historic building, I don't think I could!
The current Gooding University Inn gets it's name from the first tenants of the property in Gooding. The 19,000 square-foot-building was part of the Gooding College campus. This particular building was home to both classrooms and dorm rooms from 1920 until the school fell on financial hardship during the Great Depression. It closed in 1938.
According to MagicValley.com, the property was renovated into the Idaho State Tuberculosis hospital to fill a much needed gap in care for TB patients. Prior to it's completion, patients were admitted to either St. Al's in Boise or a hospital in northern Idaho. The two facilities had a limited number of beds available for TB patients. The new facility was able to care for up to 150 patients and went on to be one of the best facilities in the country. It operated from 1947-1976.
Years later, the historic building was renovated into several different lodging properties. The Get Inn and eventually the Gooding University Inn. Throughout it's years as a hotel, it's spawned dozens of stories of hauntings by what could be former patients of the tuberculosis hospital or children who died on the property. Were talking everything from disembodied footsteps, to full figure apparitions and scary sounds throughout the halls.
In fact, it spawned so many stories that Zak Bagans, the host of Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures brought a crew to investigate during season 16 of the show. I tried to watch it before I sat down this article and couldn't make it further than 22 minutes into the episode. The crew almost immediately tried to communicate with spirits through Electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) and picked up an unexplainable dark voice answering Zak's question "Is there something evil here?"
EVP scares the living crap out of me, so I couldn't take anymore. If you want to watch the episode to see how it plays out you can click HERE.
Or...if you're brave enough to do some ghost hunting of your own on the property you can click HERE. A company by the name of Ghost Hunts USA is offering a handful of brave souls the chance to be part of a tour of the hotel that includes a vigil lead by a psychic medium group seances, structured vigils, use of ghost hunting equipment like trigger objects and EMF meters. You also get some private time to conduct your own hunts and vigils.
The opportunity is offered two weekends in October and one in November. There are options for non-sleepover hunts (ending at 4 a.m.) and sleepover hunts (ending at 10 a.m.)
After hearing the EVP recordings from Ghost Hunters, I don't think I'm brave enough to stay there but the Gooding University Inn does have an excellent 4.8 star rating on Vrbo. You can check out some of the photos of the property from the property's listing below!