abridged from “Minnesota State Sanatorium for Consumptives, Cass County”:
Between 1887 and 1899, more than 20,000 people died of tuberculosis (TB) in Minnesota. In 1906, construction began for the Minnesota State Sanatorium for Consumptives, or Ah-Gwah-Ching, about three miles south of Walker in Shingobee township, Cass County. In the 1940s antibiotics were developed, which were so successful at killing the bacterium that tuberculosis was almost eradicated in America by the 1960s. As cases plummeted, tuberculosis hospitals began closing. After serving nearly 14,000 patients, the Minnesota sanatorium was shuttered in 1962, eventually reopening as a nursing home. In 2001 the facility was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It closed in 2008, and the state deeded the land and buildings to various organizations including the public. All buildings at the site, with the exception of a small gazebo, have been torn down, and the site has been made ready for future development.
for complete article see
http://www.mnopedia.org/structure/minnesota-state-sanatorium-consumptives-cass-county