Today at work, my phone went off for the umptenth time with a spam call. As per usual, I just stopped the ringer, but this location caught my eye...Osawatomie, Kansas. I was all like, "Seriously? Is that a real place?". So, I Google mapped the town and it WAS! Not only that, but it's where John Brown is from! Being from the South (and being old), there was a VERY racist song that was, for some reason, very acceptable to teach kids in the 70's, so that song IMMEDIATELY popped in my head when I saw the words "John Brown" and I could NOT get it out. I was mad at myself then. I just had to remind myself that Osawatomie sounds like Pasamaquadie from Pete's Dragon and remember that song, and I was good (although typing it now, here we go again).
But I glanced up to the top of the town and I saw Asylum Bridge and my brain suddenly got all excited! I have seen this on YouTube hundreds of times! Urban explorers LOVE that place, but they don't talk about its history (usually because they are either too busy trying to break into it, or are too busy trying to keep from dying when they get in it). Then I decided to figure out where the bridge actually led.
Suddenly my brain was TOTALLY blown...above that was this MASSIVE complex called "United States Postal Service State Hospital". It looked like either a prison or a mental hospital. So, I Googled it and it WAS a mental hospital! Not only that, but apparently there are more than one across the US...the US Postal Service had their own mental hospitals...really? Does the US Postal Service REALLY have that big of an issue? I know "going postal" is a phrase, but have there been enough cases of workers going "postal" they needed to open massive hospital complexes across the country?
Now, from what I could tell, it's called the Osawatomie State Hospital, but more Googling revealed it's on a list of the 10 most haunted asylums! How do I, the QUEEN of haunted asylums, not know about this place! If anyone if from this area or knows about it...fill me in please!
I tried to get closer on Google maps to see it better, but I couldn't, so I used street view to see if I could see it from the main road, which I also couldn't. But get this...the main road that circles this massive hospital complex, is a BRICK ROAD...A BRICK ROAD IN KANSAS! You can't make this up people! Seriously! Granted, they are red brick and not yellow, but still, bloody brilliant! I just have to repeat it one more time because it's like the coolest thing ever...there is a brick road surrounding a massive mental hospital complex in Kansas! Classic! If you follow the Once Upon A Time storyline, I can only imagine it could be the asylum that Dorothy's family locked her up in after her trip to Oz...maybe the Oz yellow brick road turns red in Kansas?
On top of that (yes, the story get's better), for the past couple of years, I've been planning a day trip to Lawrence, KS (the fictional birth home of the Winchester Brothers from Supernatural) and Stull Cemetery where is a supposed devil's gate. But the last time I looked at it, I also found that Lebanon, KS (the fictional home of the Winchester's Men of Letters Bunker) is extremely close to the very real geographic center of the United States, and it would make my day trip a two-day trip. So, here's the additional kicker, since Osawatomie is so interesting, I decided to zoom out and see where it was in relation to these other places, and it's (as the crow flies) on the way to Lawrence! Yet another stop I could easily make on this trip!
Who knew that a spam call (that I didn't even answer) would end up being a massive Google maps rabbit hole that is now part of a fabulous potential road trip (if I can ever leave my house again). And if I do start a YouTube Channel, what a video THAT will make! So thanks random annoying spam caller for making a pretty crappy week (month, year, couple of years), a pretty nice reprieve of a Google rabbit hole of an educational day!
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