The Ridges first opened in 1867 as Athens Mental Health Center, consisting of 544 rooms for patients. The patients were totured in the hospital with treatments such as "water therapy", "shock therapy" and "lobotomy" which were supposed to "shock" the illness out of their brain. However, Thomas Kirkbride had buildings built based on his idea which called for a more home-like enviroment for them to live in. He thought it would be more thereputic for them.
The biggest insult to the patients, I think, was the fact that under 10 graves in the cemetary have the patients names on them. The rest have forgotten ID numbers on the grave stones.
If you visit the ridges be awar that the former patients have been known to become attached to visitors. A young woman who was a student at OU was visiting the grave site and claimed that a spirit had followed her home. She had seen her for a few days before she was awakened one night when she found that the spirit was floating level with her bed. She turned to it, looked directly into it's eyes and said "Please leave! You're freaking me out!" She did not see the spirit again. She went back to the graveyard, right up to the gravestone and said "This is where you belong. I am going home-alone. But I will come back and visit when i can" After that she didn't see her again and she still goes back to visit.
