This past weekend Kyle and I took advantage of the beautiful weather to go take a guided tour of Tranquille Farm Fresh. Today, it’s a little farm that grows and sells local produce and meat with the hopes that it becomes a self-sustaining community. However, it wasn’t always sunshine and happiness.
Back in the early 1900′s it was a tuberculosis (TB) sanatorium, and that’s what it’s notoriously known as to most in the area. (Before that it was a ranch, which was bought-out by the provincial government to create the TB facility.) Between 1908 and 1912, several buildings were built, and until the late 1950′s it was used to help treat and essentially prevent the spread of TB. In the 1970′s, the site was also home to a mental facility for mentally challenged and disturbed children but was closed in the 1980′s.
Really, the site has a LOT of history, and is even rumoured to be haunted. I can see why – There were a lot of questionable treatments of patients during their stay. We were unable to actually enter any of the buildings due to asbestos and them not being structurally-sound, but it was definitely eery just looking inside from the grounds. The owners/operators of the site today hope to one day get the permits to be able to take people in some of the buildings and the tunnels that connect the buildings.
Unfortunately, a lot of the buildings have also been damaged and broken into by vandals and thieves before Tranquille Farm Fresh was established. The thieves were actually looking for copper wiring since copper is valuable, and the vandals are most likely drunken kids looking for a good scare. Regardless, I’m glad that someone has been able to step in and help preserve some of Kamloops’ history, despite its dark history.
Here’s some photos I took while we were on our tour:
The old farmhands’ house. Those who worked at the facility were encouraged to live there as well.
This building (along with the rest) are all boarded up due to asbestos.
The main building. It was also used as the women’s living quarters after the Greaves Building was built in the 1920′s.
The Greaves Building (a secondary building) for the TB patients.
The front of the Greaves Building, which faces Kamloops Lake
The doctor’s house – Where he lived while treating patients at the facility.
You may notice that there are a few “modern” touches on some of the buildings, such as swamp coolers and aluminum windows, and that’s because the site was purchased in the early 1990′s by an Italian man with the hopes to turn it into a resort, but those efforts failed.
If they ever open up the tunnels for public tours, Kyle definitely wants to go back. He had always wanted to tour the site and jumped at the opportunity to when I mentioned it. I don’t know if I’ll put my “big girl” panties on and do the tunnel tour if it becomes available, but we’ll see. (Ghosts and hauntings really freak me out!)
If you’re at all interested in the history of the area and don’t mind being a little creeped out, definitely book yourself a tour! And if you go in the summer, do the morning one, or else bring a lot of sunscreen and water! It is a wagon tour, but there isn’t a lot of shade and there are a few stops during it.
Have you ever been to a “haunted” house? Do they give you the goosebumps?
