Just outside Ukiah lies the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, now a serene, peaceful campus with a meditation center, elegant peacocks strutting about, beautiful walking paths, a restaurant, and a small feeder school for Ukiah High.
Students at those schools–the Instilling Goodness and Developing Virtues schools–spent years in classrooms, on beautiful acreage in Talmage, often blissfully oblivious to its past. Go back just over 50 years, on that same land, in the same buildings, and the scene was quite the opposite.
In July 1889, the Mendocino State Asylum for the Insane was founded. What followed was nearly ninety years filled with wild stories, lawsuits, and the grim realities of mental institutions at the time; there was little awareness of how best to treat the mentally unwell, and those suffering were often mistreated and removed from the public eye.
By 1897, the hospital was renamed for the second time, from the Mendocino Asylum to the Mendocino State Hospital (MSH), a name it retained until its closure in 1972 by then-California Governor Ronald Reagan (OAC).
According to an essay published on Mendocino Community College’s website, in the early 1900s, through a state bill, MSH began admitting “insane criminals” and state convicts. This change led to daring escapes, brutal deaths, and some of the state’s most infamous criminals and killers being held right here in Talmage (MCC).
The hospital’s first patients were all male and were transferred from mental institutions in Napa and Stockton. In 1894, the first female patients began arriving. The population remained relatively small until the late 1920s, when the stock market crash triggered rapid growth that peaked in 1955 (OAC).
Lifelong Redwood Valley resident Jonathan Frey spent his younger years hanging out at MSH while his parents worked. Frey described the hospital’s grounds as park-like, with a garden and a dairy; a self-sustaining institution tucked away in Talmage, maintained by staff and clients.
Frey stressed that at the time, the hospital was “a huge part of the local economy,” and that when it closed in 1972, it was devastating not just for the many employees but also for researchers and the local community. Frey painted a picture of the institute and its patients: “They could work in the fields, grow their own food, but not take care of themselves.”
Frey’s parents came to work for the hospital in the late 50’s. His mother, Marguerite “Beba” Frey, began work at MSH a few years after his father. She worked primarily in an administrative role, completing patient write-ups. His father, Paul Frey, was interested in traditional Native American medicine and saw working at the hospital as a way to expand his knowledge. He began studying the use of psychedelics at MSH, where he remained until its closure.
Frey’s father was not alone in his curiosity; at the time, many others in the same field were working, visiting, or staying at MSH. People like Timothy Leary, famed psychedelics promoter, Fredrick and Laura Perls, the founders of Gestalt therapy, Ralph Metzner, Alan Watts, Wilson van Duesen, and many more, all spent time there. The Psychedelic Review, a periodical on the use of psychedelics in therapy, was worked on at MSH.
Beyond the study of drugs and whispers of harsh testing done by government agencies, at its peak in 1955, the institution employed roughly 700 and housed over 3,000 patients (OAC).
In later years, MSH was used as a rehab center for drug abuse and alcoholism, a psychiatric residency program, and even a site for early group therapy.
Some methods were controversial, such as those used for rehab groups at MSH, which were adapted from Synanon, a rehab program turned cult based in Southern California (JOYLAND).
Conditions at MSH were far from humane at many points, with charges against both technicians and patients. In addition to the illegal methods of enforcement and abuse at MSH, it was also a site for sterilizations (MCC).
Though legal in California, the way sterilizations came to be was often gruesome, and it was not uncommon for the procedure to be forced upon patients. People could be sterilized for as little as being impoverished, being of non-European descent, or being a convict.
By the 1970s, the air around mental institutions had begun to change in California, and pressure from patients’ rights activists, along with judicial changes, forced the closure of many State Hospitals, including the Mendocino State Hospital.
Following the closure of MSH, some patients were simply released into the community, and the campus was ultimately sold for very little–two decisions which were unpopular with locals.
The door was finally closed on an institution shrouded in mystery, overshadowed by its many horror stories.
Throughout its time in operation, approximately 1,600 patients died, and many more were left with trauma from their time spent there (Press Democrat). During MSH’s operation, people with mental health issues were thrown in cells, treated as animals, and shunned by society.
Now, just over 50 years later, there is less stigma surrounding mental health, and therapy is becoming more socially accepted. For example, May is National Mental Health Awareness Month. Yet despite having a better understanding of psychiatric conditions, the associated difficulties continue to present challenges in our community.
Right now, in Ukiah, a new Psychiatric Health Facility is nearing completion. A much-needed service is finally returning to Ukiah. It is a second attempt, a new and improved version of what once was hidden from public view: the Mendocino State Hospital in Talmage.
Cover image: Building from the Mendocino State Hospital, circa 1930, Wikipedia. Public Domain.
Salvio Senerchia was born in Santa Rosa and has lived in Mendocino County his whole life. He is a Freshman and in his first year of Journalism. He has a deep care for the world, its imperfections and inequalities. Salvio loves all things soccer, and is interested in law. He is an avid Liverpool F.C. fan and hopes to visit the city and attend a match! He loves learning, especially History, Math, and any and all reading and writing. He enjoys writing about current and past events and conflicts. Salvio loves traveling, exploring the world and learning about the places he visits.