Trip 1 - 07/27/2004

Before leaving work and setting off on the trip, I made an important discovery
and realized how stupid I was.  I mentioned that the ruins of the hospital
were "about 5 minutes from my apartment".  I based that on the address which I 
found in the "Updates" section of the CMH site.  I should have noticed that the 
address that was given did not match with the maps page.  What I realized was 
that this "address" was not the location of the CMH site, but the Minnesota 
Department of Human Services.  The hospital was much further away - well, maybe 
not much further (about 30 miles from work) - but further than I expected.  But 
I figured this was not enough to deter me so I set out anyways.

I did not bring much because I didn't anticipate being there long - I didn't 
have a lot of time this evening and didn't feel comfortable going on an all-out
urban exploration, especially by myself.  All I brought was my digital camera 
and this old map of the hospital grounds.  

Once arriving in Cambridge I realized my next mistake - I really had no idea 
how to get to the hospital.  The "map" on the CMH site is really just to the 
center of town, because there is no address per se for what's left of the 
hospital.  So I stopped in the nearest gas station and luckily there was an 
older gentleman working who I assumed would know how to get there, and he did.
I made up a story about "needing some pictures of the hospital for a class I'm 
taking", just so he didn't think I was going to perform a satanic ritual or 
something, and call the cops out on me.  Anyways, he got me on my way no problem...

OK, I'll steer back on topic now and get down to the meat.  Frankly, the area 
was a disappointment.  Based on the pictures from the website(s), I expected a 
lot of ruins in a state of disarray.  What I found, however, was a 
semi-inhabited area with the few remaining hospital buildings being re-used for 
other purposes.  I couldn't find any of the images that we found on the websites.
However, for the sake of completeness, I conducted a semi-thorough external search 
anyways.  This is what I found:

First off, I made my own map, as an updated version of what I used as my
guide.  You can find that map (in hi-res form) here.

By the way, I didn't enter any of the buildings.  One, because they were all 
locked, and two, because I didn't want to get into more trouble than I needed to 
today.  However, I looked through the windows of about every one that I could, 
and essentially every building was abandoned and empty.

There is an actual modern hospital just north of the area, and around that area 
is very residential.  Continue down the street and you reach a circular area that 
was the mental hospital campus.  This area is kind of strange, because it feels 
semi-residential, but it also felt like a ghost town to me.  There are several 
buildings, none of which are in horrible shape, but they're all empty.  There 
were several cookie-cutter-style houses scattered throughout the campus area, 
and they looked inhabited (cars were in front of some), but I never saw any 
movement in or around them.  Some of the old hospital buildings even had cars 
in front of them, but again, no people.  At one point I saw a woman in her car 
outside the Dental Clinic parking lot, and at another point a group of 4 or 5 
people walking right behind the clinic.  But they were all quickly gone.  What 
strikes me as very weird was that all the hospital buildings were empty.  Why 
are there cars at these locations if there's nothing inside?  Are they in the 
process of being renovated?  That part really confused me.  Now, in the area 
around the campus, there was definitely activity - it seemed a popular place for 
people to bike, walk, etc.  If you look at the map, the area of Hwy-293/Dellwood 
that's furthest from the hospital is where most of them seemed to be.  There was 
also a fair amount of car traffic down the far Dellwood area as well - much more 
traffic than I would have expected for this area.  But I digress...

I walked the grounds and took pictures of each building.  Here's a rough breakdown 
of what I noticed:


I.  Dental Clinic

This is the first area I explored, just based on where I parked my car.  This 
was one of the buildings that had several cars in the parking lot the entire 
time I was here, but (with the exception of the one lady in her car that I saw 
at the very beginning) I saw noone.  Definitely noone came in or out of the building, 
and when I peeked in the front, it looked empty to me.  Around the back is a picnic 
area with a large garden hose on it.  The building has a strange shape but other 
than that, I saw nothing out of the ordinary.  Here are the pictures I took of it:

pic
pic
pic


II.  Power Plant

If I had to pick one of the buildings which was "suspicious", this would be it.  
First, it's the only major building that's not labelled at all.  There was a truck 
parked out front of it (as you can see in the pictures), but there was definitely 
not anyone inside.  This building had good back-lighting so I was able to see in 
well, and even take pictures of the inside.  From what I can tell, it was being 
used as a workshop - there's lots of tools inside, toolboxes, fans, brooms, etc:

pic
pic
pic
pic

Now, in this picture, you should see a door behind a barred window.  I couldn't get 
a good shot of what was behind the door, but basically it was a stairway down into 
who-knows-what.  I could not tell based on the angle of sight I had.  But it looked 
a little creepy:

pic

Here are some pictures looking to the side of the building:

pic
pic

Here are some images I took when I finally found a way to the back of the building.  
You'll notice some high-voltage stuff here, plus a padlocked entry hole:

pic
pic
pic
pic

Now, this next thing is either completely worthless, or the most important thing I 
found.  At the front of the building, to the left of it, was a large blue dumpster.  
On the ground, near the dumpster, was a very old document - something that would 
have fit perfectly (in looks at least) along with the rest of the records on the CMH 
site.  I scanned a picture of the cover.  It is a spec document for "sewer and water 
connections" for the hospital - dated September 18, 1929!  I haven't examined it 
word-for-word, but at a glance, I didn't see any useful info.  However, I thought 
it was just too coincidental that a 75 year old document was laying on the ground, 
so I took it.  

Update: here are the hi-res photos of every page of the document.  Note that some of
the text is extremely faded, even for me in person, so it might not come across well in
the photos.  If you'd like me to transcribe any particular page or part, let me know:
cover
inside cover (note: numbers read as "7" and "3759")
page 1
page 2
page 3
page 4
page 5
page 6
page 7
page 8
page 9
page 10
page 11
page 12
page 13
page 14
page 15
page 16

Update: some have said the photos are too light to read (though pages 11-16 look
just fine to me).  Anyways, I've analyzed the document and put up a brief summary.
Check it out here.


III.  Vocational Services

I saw nothing special about the Vocational Services building - here are the basic shots:

pic
pic
pic


IV.  Groundskepers Building, etc.

Again, this was a small and pretty standard building.  A truck out front, but no one 
around, that I could see.  I peeked in the garage and I could tell a car was in there 
(slight reflection of tail lights), but otherwise it was too dark to see anything:

pic
pic

It might be worth noting that, behind and to the left of this building, were two other 
dilapidated shacks that were unmarked on the old map.  I didn't get too close to these 
because they were hard to reach, but here's the photos:

pic
pic


V.  Recreational Center

This is the largest remaining building, and it had about 6 trucks in the rear of the 
building, yet I never saw a soul.  I peeked in, and there was lots of beaming and such 
(as if the building was being renovated at some time), but it seemed empty otherwise, 
and definitely looked as if noone had been in there awhile.  The windows were very 
dusty so my vision was impaired:

pic
pic
pic
pic

Facing out from the front of the building were a series of sewer holes which are 
covered by grates and were surrounded by black plastic.  They looked really strange, 
scattered out over an area that (I assume) used to be a road, since there's a road 
sign in the middle of what is now a dirt area.  I got a close up of one of the holes 
as well:

pic
pic
pic

Outisde of the backside of the recreational center were several benches.  I think we 
see at least one of these in one of the pictures on the Action Squad site.  That was the 
closest thing I could find to a link between what they found and what I did.  Judge 
for yourself:

pic
pic

Far in front and to the right of the building is "Circle Road", though it is
about 10 feet long before it turns into dirt.  Just to the left of this road,
in high grass, is a gazebo.  I checked around the gazebo for clues, but didn't
see a thing.  Behind the gazebo is what looked to be an old fireplace.  Here
are the pics:

pic
pic
pic


VI.  Water Tower

I just felt like capturing some pictures of the water tower area just to 
make sure I didn't miss anything.  One cool thing about this was that, as I 
approached the water tower, I heard a loud rustling off to the left of the tower.  
I looked just in time to see three dear scampering off like madmen.  Had I not 
been freaked out at first, and realized what they were, I might have been able to 
catch them with the camera, but oh well.  In this first picture, you can see one 
of the houses that are scattered around the area:

pic
pic
pic


VII.  Cemetery?

Off to the left of the water tower, I found this.  I'm man enough to admit
that there was no way in hell I was going back there, especially with darkness
approaching.  I went around and glanced down the road, but saw nothing but
more trees.  We'll (perhaps) save this for a later day if we think there is
worth in investigating it:

pic


VIII.  Oakview

I actually parked here - this parking lot had a fair number of cars/trucks
(about 10) - one person was actually leaving as I was pulling up, so clearly
someone was in this building.  I went up to the door and peaked in, and it
looked like it was actually in-use.  There were lights on, an a printed piece
of paper on the door saying to ring the doorbell to get in.  However, I didn't
see anybody.  Plus, I went around to the right side of the building and peeked
in, and again, it looked completely empty and deserted:

pic
pic
pic

There is a strange structure located in the middle courtyard of this building,
which I investigated further.  Not sure what it's for, but there were no weird
markings or symbols of any kind that I could see on it:

pic
pic

In the back of the building is a bunch of equipment - is this equestrian
stuff?:

pic
pic



IX.  Dellwood North/South

Not sure what these were originally used for, because they are somewhat
isolated from the rest of the buildings.  The south building has a sign on it
that says "Dellwood Learning Center", but again, it looked abandoned inside to
me.  

pic
pic
pic

The other building had no identifiable markings on it, but I saw a couple
lights on inside and some cars around front.  I didn't investigate this one
much further.  Here are the pics:

pic




Trip 2 - 08/05/2004

I made another trip to CMH for several reasons.  First, after receiving several 
emails from in-game characters questioning my proximity to the hospital, and 
asking whether or not I had considered going there, we figured that these were 
not-so-subtle clues that something might be planted there.  In addition, another
player said that he saw the words "search the grounds" hidden on the DH entry page.
Apparently they were only there once and disappeared - we are not yet sure if this
really happened, but if it did, it is very possible that this meant to give CMH
another shot.  Another player (RungeKutta) had planned to go with me, but something
came up at the last minute and he was unable to join me, so I went alone.

This was a more focused trip, with several objectives in mind:

1. Check for any general clues planted by the PMs.
2. Investigate the "state cemetery" I found on my first trip.
3. Search for the grave marker/trees mentioned here.
(if there is an actual grave marker there we will try to get a rubbing)
4. Search for the Walsh family cemetery, 1500 ft. north of the chapel site, 
mentioned here.
(though no chapel stands today, and I'm not sure one ever did - but it's on the map)
5. Search for any "hidden caches" of Old Todd's. 

In short, I didn't find anything. However, plenty of things were different - 
the whole area was under some serious construction. They were paving the roads 
around the campus, and it looked like they were installing some sewer pipes 
or something (which I can't help but think was curious, given that the document 
I found before related to sewer installations). The problem was that there was 
construction equipment all over and they were still working, even up until 
around 9 PM when I left. A lot of the area was cordoned off and it was much 
harder to get around and almost impossible to be inconspicuous.  Here are a couple
pics of the changed area:

pic
pic


Here are some general comments per objective:

I. General Clues

I didn't find any clues anywhere. I checked anything that made sense to check - 
any signs, scraps of paper, etc. I went to the place where I found the original 
document, and not only was nothing new there, but the dumpster which was next 
to it was gone. If there was a planted clue, then there was no clear marker on 
where to look.


II. State cemetery

I finally went back to the cemetery, and contrary to my original beliefs, there 
was no spookiness at all. The forsaken-looking dirt road into the woods actually 
turns into a halfway-decent nature trail sort of thing, and after about a 
quarter-mile it opens into a clearing and there is a fairly large, open gated 
area called the "Garden of Remembrance". It is filled with lots of flat grave 
markers. I looked through every marker and didn't see anything familiar - no Ann 
Starling, nothing with "August" on it like in the CMH photo - basically a dead end.
Here are some pics anyways:

pic
pic
pic
pic


III. Strange Grave Marker

I searched all over the dang perimeter, checking out countless clumps of trees. 
I didn't find a single thing. I really expected to find this, since it sounded 
pretty mysterious - but it seemed like another dead end.  Just to give you a
sense for the vastness of the area I searched, I took a couple pictures of one
side of the perimeter - together they form a panoramic view.  As you can see,
there are quite a few trees out there:

pic
pic
pic


IV. Walsh Family Cemetery

Walking north from the chapel site there is a wide open area that contains 
what could be called a "small grassy knoll", depending on how you define small - 
it was actually pretty large, maybe about 30 square feet. In retrospect, it's
not as much grassy as it is weedy, but you can have a look for yourself.  I 
searched all around it, looking for graves and everything - yet again, nothing.  
To the side of the knoll is a large dirt mound which has clearly been flattened 
via construction equipment - between the two mounds is a valley-like area where 
there is lots of old building waste.  I think this was either the area where one 
of the cottages was torn down (and not cleaned up well), or some of the building 
remains were moved and buried here.  Here are the pics:

pic
pic
pic
pic
pic

V. Old Todd

Despite my searching I didn't see any shredded paper anywhere, or anything which
beared Old Todd's "signature". 


That's it for now - hope it helped!

-- dishboy