I visited the old St. Ignatius Hospital in Colfax during my first Halloween in the Palouse. I wasn’t sure what to expect. My friends suggested going to the hospital and I did not know much about its history. I had heard stories about it being haunted. People claimed to hear footsteps in empty rooms or see shadows moving across hallways, but I thought most of that was exaggerated. I looked up the place online, and the horrors were described in detail.
The hospital sits on a hill overlooking Colfax. From the outside, it looks like any other old building with brick walls, tall windows and overgrown grass creeping up the sides. Once you are inside, the atmosphere completely changes. The air feels colder and the silence is heavy. Every step echoes through the halls. Even though you are with other people, it somehow feels like you are alone.
Our tour group began in the main hallway, where the guide gave us a short history of the hospital. St. Ignatius opened in 1893 and was run by nuns who cared for the sick and elderly for decades. It later became a nursing home before closing in the early 2000s. Since then, the building has been abandoned, except for ghost tours and paranormal investigations. The guide pointed out old patient rooms, surgery areas and the chapel where nuns used to pray. Some rooms still had original furniture: rusty bed frames, torn curtains and medical charts yellowed with age.
As we walked deeper into the building, the temperature seemed to drop. The guide said this was one of the most active areas, where visitors often report seeing figures or hearing unexplained sounds. I didn’t see anything unusual at first, but I felt a strange chill that wouldn’t go away. A few people in our group claimed they heard faint footsteps or the sound of a door creaking open, but when we turned to look, the hallway was empty.
On one of the upper floors, we stopped by what used to be the operating room. The guide shared a few stories about former patients who had died there and how visitors sometimes hear voices or see flickering lights. The room itself was unsettling. There were old metal tables, faded tiles and a faint smell of dust and age. I tried to imagine what it must have been like when the hospital was still open, full of doctors, nurses and patients instead of darkness and silence.
Throughout the tour, I felt torn between skepticism and belief. I did not see any ghosts but the place definitely had an energy that was hard to explain. It wasn’t just fear; it was the feeling of being surrounded by history, by the echoes of people who once lived and worked there. The building holds more than a century of stories, some sad and some mysterious, and that alone makes it feel alive in its own way.
When we finally stepped back outside, the air felt lighter. The night was quiet, and the lights of Colfax glowed softly below. I could not say for sure whether the hospital was truly haunted, but I understood why people keep coming back. There is something about the building that draws you in with curiosity, perhaps the thrill of the unknown. Either way, it is an experience that stays with you long after you leave.
