8 Eerie Abandoned Places You Didn’t Know Existed in Minnesota

Happy Spooky Season! Tis the season for all things scary, eerie, and possibly haunted.

ALSO SPOOKY: 15 Historic MN Buildings that Would be Perfect Settings for a Horror Movie

If you were to go anywhere that's supposedly haunted, would you want to try ghost hunting and find out for yourself or would you want to leave it alone? I go both ways! I want to know but I also know that if I did find anything I'm outta there.

Well, if any spots are going to be haunted, it's definitely got to be places that are abandoned, and we've got plenty of those in Minnesota.

A quick disclaimer before we talk about these abandoned places more: DO NOT trespass. Don't go into these places. As far as I'm aware, they are not open for the public to enter so don't do it.

Be a good person and enjoy from a distance. Plus it can be quite dangerous to go into an abandoned place.

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However, there IS an abandoned place you're able to tour in Minnesota if you're interested!

Abandoned Place in Minnesota that You Can Tour

If you DO want to go explore an abandoned site you can pay a visit to the Mill City Ruins at the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis. That's a really cool place, if you haven't been I would recommend it.

These other abandoned places are all across the state that I discovered thanks to Only in Your State. We'll be going from the southwestern point near Sioux Falls, SD, to Northfield, up past Duluth, and over to Fergus Falls southeast of Fargo, ND.

Abandoned Places Around Minnesota

Factory in UMore Park - Rosemount, MN

UMore Park used to be a facility called Gopher Ordinance Works. The City of Rosemount website says that it was built and operated during World War II and it made smokeless gunpowder. The facility closed after the war and the land was then purchased by the University of Minnesota in 1947 and 1948.

Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Center - Fergus Falls, MN

The Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Center, formerly known as the Fergus Falls State Hospital, was the first state mental hospital in northern Minnesota, according to the National Park Service.

They also were "the first state mental institution in Minnesota to formally adopt a therapeutic approach to the treatment of mental illness." It first opened in 1890 but they kept adding more and more buildings as more and more people searched for help. The treatment center closed in 2005.

Hadley Bank - Hadley, MN

Hadley is a very small town in southwest Minnesota. Their population is only 54 people. And in this little town is an abandoned bank.

I wasn't able to find much info about the bank but I'd imagine that it opened early in the town's history when it was a little more booming. Only in Your State says that Hadley was founded in 1879 and incorporated in 1903.

Quarry at Banning State Park - Sandstone, MN

Did you know that Banning State Park used to be a small town? It was formed around the quarry that people worked in and at its peak, according to WCCO, there were about 300 people that lived there.

"There was a bar, a motel, a boarding house and just a few homes." The town was named after the founder, William Banning. But eventually, it became a ghost town and then a state park. As you can see, some walls still stand in the park.

Rouchleau Mine - Virginia, MN

Up in the Iron Range of Minnesota is the abandoned Rouchleau Mine. Only in Your State says it was in operation between 1893 and 1977. While the mine is now abandoned, there is a new, massive bridge that spans over the Rouchleau Mine which connects Virginia, MN to Eveleth, MN.

Taconite Harbor, MN

Taconite Harbor is a ghost town in northern Minnesota past Duluth. It was a small town that was at its peak in the 1950s. People wanted to be there because of how close it was to the taconite plant, according to Exploring North Shore.

Then in the 1970s, people started to worry about the effects of the taconite dust in the area and the noise, both due to the plant. Eventually, the town was abandoned.

Tanner Hospital - Ely, MN

The Tanner Hospital was built in Ely in 1901, supposedly because of the high disease rate in the area. After the hospital closed, in the 1950s to the 1980s the building was an apartment complex. Now it sits empty but Only in Your State says people are interested in restoring the building.

Unknown Store - Northfield, MN

This abandoned store near Northfield was many different things in its history. It appears the last name it had was 'Gram's Corner Fuel and Mart'. Only in Your State says that before that it was an antique store and it was also a barber shop at one point.

You could find the building just off of I-35 on MN-19 but unfortunately, it has been demolished. I don't know the exact date but the above Google Maps picture is from August of 2016 and the below picture is the next most recent one from June of 2019. So somewhere in there, the building was taken down.