In early 20th century Powder River County records, mostly documented by the Broadus Independent newspaper, several people were committed to Warm Springs, an asylum and state hospital during the Kingsley era. These stories come from Powder River County (formerly part of Custer County):
- A son committed his father based partly on reports from his teacher, who may have suggested inappropriate behavior by the father. Toward his son? Toward the teacher? Incapable of taking care of his son? Specifics are lost to history.
- Several men for sexual perversion
Warm Springs, Montana has a history that includes a resort, an asylum, and a state hospital, as well as a geothermal site and a wildlife management area:
- Geothermal site sacred to indigenous peoples
Warm Springs is located on Warm Springs Mound, a calcite geothermal site with hot water that seeps from a limestone cone. The mound was sacred to several local Native American tribes, who called it the “Lodge of the Whitetailed Deer”. - Resort
The Warm Springs area was originally a resort that opened in 1871. - Asylum
In 1874, resort owners Dr. Armistead Mitchell and Dr. Charles Mussigbrod converted it into an infirmary, which became an insane asylum in 1877. - State hospital
The Montana Territorial Government founded the hospital in 1877, and the state purchased it in 1912. The hospital was renamed Warm Springs State Hospital in 1965, and then Montana State Hospital in 1983
Warm Springs, from Sacred Indigenous Ground to Resort to Asylum