Mistwood - 3 News Article

Imagine that you were feeling a little down. A little bummed for any reason whatsoever. Your job has you stressed.Your collegiate alumni didn't win the big game against Navy. Before long, you'll likely get over it and everything will go back to normal. Well, if you were born only a few decades earlier, the results of depression may have much more dire consequences. Throughout the early and middle 20th century, it was known as common practice for any sort of mental affliction to be treated by an indefinite committal to a local mental hospital or insane asylum. It didn't matter your age, or social standing, if you had even a brief case of the blues, you could be locked up in a government sanctioned looney bin.

This was the unfortunate case of what happened to two young women from a small hamlet called Mist Wood, Iowa. In late summer 1964, Emily (19) and Stacy (20), last names unknown, were both committed to a secluded and renowned mental institution on the outskirts of Mist Wood. Their illness? Basically having a bad day. But, the two were reportedly kept under strict surveillance for weeks and weeks before eventually having enough of their mistreatment. Several sources disagree on the exact details of what happened, but on one fateful evening in late September 1964, the two girls made an apparent escape attempt from the institution that they had been locked up in. That evening, the asylum suffered from a devastating fire that some believe was started by the girls as a means of distraction, some believe that the fire was a result of the reaction of several chemicals used to 'treat' patients at the asylum.

Whatever the cause of the fire, it is said to be the largest institutional blaze of the 20th century, claiming the lives of the head of the institution Dr. James Zayden, several of the staff and orderlies and dozens of the patients who restrained inside of the asylum during the blaze. Several accounts by surviving patients of the asylum said that they could see Emily and Stacy exiting the asylum through the front doors as the was being tamed by many of the orderlies. Other accounts say that both Emily and Stacy were seen escaping into the large woods that surround the hospital, only never to be seen or heard from again.It is unclear what happened on that fateful evening in September over half a century ago, but one thing is for certain, there is an overall eerie presence that exists around this story. Not only did the girls escape in a devastating manner, but it was said that Dr. Zayden was a very deranged and devious man. There were several accounts following the tragedy at the asylum that Dr. Zayden performed heinous experiments and tests on many of his patients and instructed his willing staff to do the same. The majority of the patients were kept in restraints while under his watch and likely suffered at his command. The small hamlet of Mistwood alone has a brash history and overall creepy vibe throughout it's quiet and eerie streets. The entire area is surrounded by large wooded areas and the closest major city is more than 400 miles away. A large lake on the Eastern side of the village commonly helps produce immense amounts of fog and moisture, which often creeps through the streets like an impending biblical plague. Over decades, it's been the location of several different unsolved mysteries and urban legends, but none bigger or more spooky than the '64 fire at Mist Wood Insane Asylum.