Outside the old Traverse City State Hospital in Michigan, there is an old willow called The Hippie Tree. It is said to be haunted by the former patients from the asylum and possibly a gateway to hell.
In the secluded woods outside an abandoned state-run asylum called Old State Hospital Grounds near Traverse City, Michigan, stands The Hippie Tree, a silent witness to the spectral tales that have enshrouded it in an air of mysterious allure. Little is known about the creation of the tree, but it is said that it fell over and died when it was struck by lightning.
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The rotted and broken willow trees are painted with colorful neon paintings over the generations where one painting covers the faded one underneath. Its moniker derives not only from its location but from the unsettling local legend that has swirled around it for decades of it being haunted.
Traverse City State Hospital
But what patients are said to be haunting this particular tree? Traverse City State Hospital around there was opened in 1881, and was also once called Northern Michigan Asylum. It is the last Kirkbride Building standing in Michigan, a specific style of architecture for asylums.
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There are many stories about how people treated mental illnesses, and before the drug therapy in the 1950s, the Traverse City State Hospital used a “beauty is therapy” philosophy. This meant to meet patients with kindness, comfort and pleasure where straitjackets for instances were forbidden.
The idea was also to let the patients be surrounded by beautiful things like flowers, and perhaps the idea of painting the tree comes from this philosophy as well?
Traverse City State Hospital closed its doors in 1989. It reopened again in 2002, but as The Village at Grand Traverse Commons, a place for shops, restaurants and offices, but there is still said to be ghostly remains of its time as a hospital.
Haunted Legends about the Hospital
Traverse City State Hospital itself is lush with ghost stories as well. People claim they hear voices and footsteps when no one is there, as well as flickering light or an unnatural cold presence.
This was especially talked about when they reopened the Traverse City State Hospital from the construction workers where some saw something that scared them so they refused to work on the building.
There is also a dark story about a doctor working at the hospital who killed patients as well as nurses, or about the hospital chaplain that went mad and hanged himself in the chapel they had.
But although there are plenty of ghost stories inside the old asylum, the most well known story about this place is from the dead willow tree outside on the woodland trail.
The Ghost of the Insane Asylum Patients
According to the lore, The Hippie Tree serves as a spectral meeting ground for the tormented souls of asylum patients coming from Traverse City State Hospital, their restless spirits lingering beneath its branches.
The madness that once consumed them is said to echo through the rustling leaves, where they sometimes are mad, sometimes just sad.
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Another ghost haunting the tree apart from the patients is a boy that allegedly was murdered around these parts, although not much information is found on this branch of the legend.
The Hippie Tree is said to be haunted by many spirits and in the most extreme versions of the legends, it is even a portal to hell that opens up by the roots if you walk around the tree in a specific way. No one has been able to come back and tell me the right way to do it yet.
The Hippe Rituals by the Hippie Tree
Visionaries, mystics, and spiritual seekers, often dubbed “hippies” by the locals, would gather beneath the gnarled branches of The Hippie Tree, seeking solace and enlightenment in the heart of the haunted woods. Thereby the name The Hippie Tree stuck around.
A peculiar tradition emerged as these seekers meditated beneath the spectral canopy. It is said that the ghosts and the trees give out a particular energy that the hippies explore sitting on The Hippie Tree.
In a ritualistic expression of their transcendental experiences, they would paint the revelations of their heightened consciousness onto the tree’s branches, creating a kaleidoscope of psychedelic visions amid the eerie silence of the asylum grounds.
How many people have painted on The Hippie Tree is unclear, at least thousand they say, creating another psychedelic picture on top of the other.
Serving Colors and Ghosts
As night descends upon The Hippie Tree, the shadows cast by its haunted branches come alive, inviting those brave enough to delve into the mysteries that lurk within the heart of Traverse City’s most bewitched woodland sanctuary.
In daylight it serves as a colorful and fun thing to brighten up passersby and visitors alike in perhaps the most brightly looking haunted spot.
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References:
Northern Michigan’s Hippie Tree | Kyle Schepperley | NewsBreak Original
Traverse City State Hospital – Wikipedia
The Hippie Tree/Traverse City State Hospital
Traverse City State Hospital & the Hippie Tree – Journey With Murphy
