I never thought a drive through Parke County would lead me to one of the most unforgettable places I have ever set foot in. Indiana State Sanatorium sits on a sprawling property, surrounded by thick trees and overgrown paths that seem to whisper stories of the past.
The moment you pull onto the grounds, something in the air shifts; cooler, heavier, almost electric; as if the history of the place is pressing in around you.
Inside, every crumbling hallway, peeling wall, and shadowy tunnel tells a story of the people who lived, worked, and struggled here, blending history and mystery in a way that feels almost alive
A Haunted History That Goes Back Over a Century
Long before ghost hunters and overnight investigators made their way to Rockville, the Indiana State Sanatorium was a fully functioning tuberculosis hospital that opened in 1907. For decades, it served as a treatment facility for patients battling one of the most feared diseases of the early twentieth century.
Thousands of people lived, suffered, and died within these walls, and that kind of history does not just fade away quietly.
The property spans over 100 acres and includes multiple buildings, underground tunnels, a power station, a nursing home, and an administrative hall. Each structure tells a different chapter of the sanatorium’s story.
Walking through them feels less like touring a ruin and more like stepping directly into a moment frozen in time.
New owners took over in 2021 with a genuine commitment to preserving and restoring the complex rather than letting it crumble further. That passion is visible everywhere you look, from stabilized staircases to carefully maintained access routes through the tunnels.
Visitors consistently rave about how much history is packed into a single visit. One reviewer described it as a true time capsule, and honestly, that is the most accurate description you will find.
The sanatorium earned its 4.9-star rating the hard way, through authenticity, accessibility, and an experience that simply cannot be replicated anywhere else in Indiana.
Self-Guided Daytime Tours for the Curious Explorer
For just $25 per person, you can spend an entire day roaming the Indiana State Sanatorium completely on your own schedule. The self-guided tour option runs from 10 AM to 5 PM every day of the week, giving you a solid seven hours to wander through buildings most people never even know exist.
That kind of freedom is rare, and it makes every visit feel completely personal.
You check in at the front office, sign a waiver, grab a map, and then the place is yours. The staff at the entrance are known for being incredibly friendly and full of useful tips about which routes to take and what not to miss.
One visitor said she could have listened to the stories from the check-in staff all day long, and that tracks with just about every review left on Google.
Bring a solid flashlight, not just your phone. The buildings have no electricity, and some of the darker corridors and basement tunnels swallow up phone flashlights like nothing.
Wear shoes you do not mind getting muddy, especially if you plan to walk through the underground steam tunnels, which are genuinely one of the most impressive features on the property.
Overnight Paranormal Investigations That Will Test Your Nerves
If a daytime visit sounds too tame, booking a private overnight investigation at the Indiana State Sanatorium is where things get seriously intense. Groups can reserve the entire property for a night, giving them uninterrupted access to every building, tunnel, and shadowy corner from dusk until morning.
The owners greet arriving groups personally, walk them through a map tour, and then step back to let the night unfold.
One overnight group described the experience as starting slow before ramping up dramatically around midnight. Screams were heard in empty hallways.
Full-body chills hit investigators without warning. Apparitions appeared in camera footage taken near the windows of the nursing home building.
Another team reported that the spirits were, in their words, definitely loud. These are not isolated stories; they show up again and again across dozens of reviews.
The nursing home section of the property tends to generate the most intense activity according to multiple accounts. The psych ward and administrative hall are not far behind.
What makes the overnight option so compelling is the combination of raw history and genuine paranormal energy that seems to build as the hours pass.
The Flashlight Tours That Change Everything After Dark
There is a big difference between walking through the sanatorium in daylight and doing it with nothing but a flashlight and a knowledgeable guide at night. The flashlight tours offered at the Indiana State Sanatorium are one of the most talked-about experiences in all of Parke County, and for good reason.
Everything changes when the sun goes down on this property.
Guides lead groups through the buildings and underground tunnels while sharing the detailed history of each location. One reviewer who did the flashlight tour with her partner ended up being the only two in their group that night, which gave them one-on-one time with their guide, Yoseph.
She described the experience as absolutely worth every penny and said the history alone would have made the $40 per person ticket price worthwhile, even without the paranormal activity they encountered.
The nursing home section tends to be a highlight of these guided tours, and guides are praised for their knowledge of the sanatorium’s history. Some reviewers noted that larger group tours could feel slightly disorganized when the full group got spread out, but the content and atmosphere more than made up for any logistical hiccups.
Underground Steam Tunnels That Feel Like Another World
Underneath the sprawling grounds of the Indiana State Sanatorium lies a network of underground steam tunnels that connected the various buildings during the facility’s operating years. These tunnels were originally used to run steam heat and utilities throughout the complex, and today they remain largely intact and fully explorable.
Walking through them is one of the most surreal experiences the property has to offer.
The tunnels are dark, occasionally damp, and narrow in places. Mud collects on the floor after rain, and the air feels different down there, heavier somehow, with a quality that is hard to describe until you experience it yourself.
Reviewers consistently list the tunnels as one of the most memorable parts of any visit, whether daytime or overnight. One visitor called them awesome and said the mud only added to the adventure.
Wear shoes you are comfortable sacrificing to the mud and grime, because the experience is absolutely worth a dirty pair of sneakers. A proper flashlight is non-negotiable in the tunnels since phone lights simply do not reach far enough in the deeper sections.
The tunnels connect to multiple buildings on the property, meaning you can emerge from underground into completely different structures and continue your exploration from there.
The Nursing Home and Psych Ward Buildings
Among all the structures on the Indiana State Sanatorium property, the nursing home and psych ward buildings carry a particularly heavy energy that visitors notice almost immediately upon entering. These are not just abandoned rooms with peeling paint.
They are spaces where real human suffering took place, and that history clings to every surface in a way that is genuinely difficult to shake.
The nursing home is frequently cited in paranormal reviews as the most active location on the entire property. Investigators report hearing unexplained sounds, capturing visual anomalies on camera, and feeling sudden drops in temperature without any logical cause.
One reviewer captured what she described as apparitions on camera in the windows of a building during her guided flashlight tour, and the images were compelling enough to share publicly.
The psych ward tells its own story through the remnants left behind after the facility closed. Old medical equipment, institutional furniture, and personal items from former patients and staff remain scattered throughout the buildings, creating an atmosphere that is equal parts fascinating and deeply unsettling.
Visitors are reminded to watch their step since not every floor or staircase is structurally sound in every area.
The Power Station and Its Massive Steam Equipment
One of the most visually striking buildings on the entire Indiana State Sanatorium property is the power station, and it is the kind of place that stops you in your tracks the moment you step through the door. Massive steam-powered equipment fills the interior, all of it original to the facility’s early operating years and still sitting exactly where it was left when the sanatorium closed.
The scale of the machinery is genuinely hard to process until you are standing right next to it.
Photography enthusiasts consistently rank the power station as one of the best shooting locations on the property. The combination of industrial decay, dramatic natural light filtering through broken windows, and the sheer size of the boilers and equipment creates compositions that are nearly impossible to recreate anywhere else.
One visitor brought a Sony handheld camera with 50x zoom and said she barely needed to use it because the details were so rich up close.
The power station is also a fascinating historical artifact in its own right. Understanding how a facility of this size generated and distributed heat and electricity in the early 1900s adds a completely different layer to the visit.
Photography Opportunities That Are Truly One of a Kind
Photographers drive from all over Indiana and beyond specifically to shoot the Indiana State Sanatorium, and once you see the property for yourself, that makes complete sense. The combination of architectural decay, natural light, historical artifacts left in place, and the sheer variety of buildings and spaces creates an almost overwhelming number of compositional opportunities.
One visitor took over 100 photos in a single visit and said the images barely scratched the surface of what was available to capture.
Every building offers something visually distinct. The administrative hall features grand institutional architecture slowly being reclaimed by time.
The nursing home has long corridors with layered textures of peeling paint and broken glass. The power station provides industrial scale and mechanical drama.
The tunnels offer something entirely different again, with their narrow brick walls and total darkness broken only by flashlight beams.
Clear days are particularly good for interior shots since natural light pours through the broken windows and creates dramatic contrast against the dark interiors. That said, overcast days and nighttime sessions produce their own moody, atmospheric results that many photographers actually prefer.
Why the Indiana State Sanatorium Deserves a Spot on Your Bucket List
Places like the Indiana State Sanatorium do not come along often. It is not a theme park haunted house with jump scares and fake cobwebs.
It is a real, historically significant location with over a century of human stories embedded in its walls, floors, and tunnels. The fact that you can walk through it, touch the history, climb the stairs, and stand in spaces that have not changed since the early 1900s is something genuinely rare in modern America.
The owners have created an experience that honors the people who lived and died here while making the property accessible to curious visitors of all kinds. Whether you are a paranormal investigator with a bag full of equipment, a history lover with a camera, a family looking for something genuinely different to do on a weekend, or a photographer chasing light in forgotten spaces, the sanatorium has something real to offer you.
The 4.9-star rating across nearly 300 reviews is not an accident.
Parke County itself is a beautiful part of Indiana that does not always get the attention it deserves. The rolling countryside, covered bridges, and small-town character of Rockville make the whole trip feel like a discovery.
The Indiana State Sanatorium at 3838 E Old 36 Rd, Rockville, IN 47872 is open daily from 10 AM to 5 PM.
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