Entry No. 4 — the Pueblo file — filed under: haunted
Colorado State Hospital Museum (CMHIP Museum)
“Cash only at the door; ask the volunteers about the tunnels.”
The 1879 Colorado State Insane Asylum never closed — it is the Colorado Mental Health Institute now, and you drive onto its still-active grounds to reach this museum inside the old superintendent’s mansion. Electroshock machines, straitjackets, an autopsy display, and remains recovered after a 1992 construction crew hit unmarked patient graves — roughly 135 patients, buried on the cheap by the first superintendent. The basement holds original records back to opening day, October 1879. Cash only at the door; ask the volunteers about the tunnels.
The move: Take the tour together, then split up in the superintendent’s mansion and each find the single creepiest artifact to show the other — compare notes over a slopper downtown afterward.
📍 Before you go You are entering an active psychiatric hospital campus: turn in at 13th and Francisco and take the immediate right — the museum is the white-stucco, red-tile-roofed former Superintendent’s House near Francisco and 15th, and you can park on the grounds beside it. It keeps a skeleton schedule of one or two set days a week plus by-appointment visits, so confirm before driving over. Payment is cash at the door. The collection spans two floors plus a basement of original patient records, so allow a couple of hours, then pair it with the Riverwalk or a slopper downtown.
- 📍 Pueblo
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: Former Superintendent’s House, enter CMHIP grounds at W 13th St & Francisco St, Pueblo, CO 81003
Hours: Added 2026-06-11 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Proof: source 1 · source 2 · source 3 · source 4
last checked: 2026-06-11