Ghost Hunting Michigan: Your Travel Guide to the State's Most Haunted Places (America's Haunted Road Trip) - Softcover

Pattskyn, Helen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1578604303 ISBN 13: 9781578604302

Verlag: Clerisy Press, 2025

Inhaltsangabe

Explore Michigan like never before—visit its most haunted locations that are open to the public.

Whether you love to travel, are fascinated by the paranormal, or both, get ready to tour Michigan in a totally new way! Ghost Hunting Michigan guides you to 23 fascinating and historic places, including hotels, restaurants, theaters, and more. Every location is open to the public, and here’s the catch: Every place is reportedly haunted!

Join author Helen Pattskyn on a paranormal investigation to discover the creepiest corners of the Great Lake State. Read the author’s account of her visit to each site, and learn about its history—as well as the ghosts said to reside there. Then grab your gear and hit the road as you visit each location first-hand. Every entry comes with an address and website (if available), plus photographs of these unforgettable destinations. Helen’s tips and suggestions allow you to maximize the enjoyment of each experience.

From Blue Pelican Inn—one of the most haunted locations in the state—to the ghost of Captain Townsend at the Seul Choix Pointe Lighthouse, from mysterious footsteps at Holly Antiques to bizarre happenings at the Regent Theatre, this book presents eerie hideaways that even lifelong Michiganders might not know about. Part travel guide and part fireside read, Ghost Hunting Michigan puts you in the middle of the state’s haunted history.

Each entry includes

• historical overview of the haunted place
• ghost stories associated with the location
• advice on visiting—if you dare

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Helen Pattskyn first became interested in the paranormal at an early age and has since read many books on ghosts, hauntings, and strange phenomena. Helen has enjoyed visiting cemeteries, old buildings, and other reportedly haunted locations, approaching each with an open mind. With an educational background in library science, Helen spends her time as a writer and artist, attending local science fiction conventions.

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Boomers Tavern

Following a lead from some locals at a cafe in Richmond, I headed up M-19 (Main Street/Memphis Ridge Road) to the tiny little town of Memphis, Michigan, to look for a man named Mike. Although the locals, Mimi and Philip, hadn’t been able to remember the name of Mike’s bar, their assessment that I “wouldn’t be able to miss it” was completely accurate, and within 10 minutes I was parked across the street from Boomers Tavern. Standing almost exactly at the center of downtown Memphis at the corner of Bordman Road and M-19, the big, white building looked as if it might have at one time been someone’s home, or perhaps a boarding house. I parked across the street and ventured over.

I have to admit I felt a bit of trepidation as I approached; the building looked old. Really old. But my adventures had gone well thus far, so I was willing to give it a shot and walked up the front porch to try one of the doors.

“Can I help you?” called a voice.

I glanced down to see a man wearing a shirt with the name Mikey written across the pocket. I suspected that he was who I was looking for, but asked anyway.

“Hi,” I greeted him with a smile. “Mimi and Philip said I should come by. They said to ask for Mike.”

Just then, someone that was driving down Bordman Road slowed down and called out the window of their truck, “Hey Mike!”

Mike turned and waved to the driver, then looked back at me with an amused smile. “I’m Mike,” he told me, needlessly. “What can I do for you?”

I introduced myself and explained, “I’m writing a book about haunted places in Michigan—” I didn’t get any further than that, however, before he told me that I had definitely come to the right place if I wanted haunted.

“What do you want to know?” he asked.

Well, that was easy! I explained that I was traveling around the state visiting reputedly haunted locations, the kinds of places readers would be able to visit for themselves, and that Mimi and Philip suggested I come up to Memphis. “I’m not trying to prove or disprove anything,” I cautioned. “I’m just listening to people’s stories and writing them down so my readers can judge for themselves.”

He laughed. “Well, I’ve got a few ghost stories for you, that’s for sure. We’ve had a couple of paranormal groups come out here to investigate the place too. This is probably the oldest building in Memphis,” he added. “It was originally a hotel—”

Someone else driving by called out to Mike to say hello and ask about an event going on at the tavern later that night. They talked for a couple of seconds, and then Mike turned back to me with an apologetic smile. “Sorry about that.”

“I guess your customers aren’t scared by the ghosts,” I remarked.

“Nah, not really. Where was I?”

I reminded him that he was telling me about the history of the place. It was a subject Mike had researched diligently with the help of the Memphis Historical Society—admittedly a fairly small group, he added, but he was proud to be a part of it.

The building that is now Boomers Tavern was constructed in 1855 and was originally a stagecoach stop. During the early 1900s, it became The National Hotel, and a pretty big deal, according to Mike, who told me that it used to be a three-story building rather than the two-story structure that stands there today. I could only imagine that it must have been a big place in its day, with the main floor as a dining area, 10 guest bedrooms on the second floor, and a ballroom on the third. Unfortunately, in 1962 a fire destroyed the third story. While the guest rooms remain intact, it has been decades since the place was used as a hotel. “Although the people we bought it from in 2007 lived up on the second floor,” he added.

He went on to say that the previous owner never had any unusual experiences in the building—but he described the former owner as an older fellow, so maybe he just didn’t notice.

Given some of the things Mike told me he heard about the building before he bought it, I had to wonder how anyone wouldn’t notice it—assuming the rumors were true.

“People used to claim to see ‘guests’ walking around upstairs or peering out of the windows on the second floor when no one was up there,” Mike told me. He also said that there have been two confirmed deaths on the property, one a murder, the other someone who died of natural causes. “That was about 20 years ago and happened in one of the corner bedrooms.” He pointed up to one of the windows to indicate which room.

But Mike didn’t necessarily believe in the rumors himself, at least not until a series of unexplainable incidents in the bar— glasses sliding down the bar or falling off shelves and unlocked doors mysteriously locking all by themselves—made Mike begin to suspect there might be something to the ghost stories after all. Some of his bartenders, and even a few customers, also told him that every once in a while they heard what sounded like a baby crying in the bar area, but when they looked around they could see no children in the bar.

Then one day, Mike got a visit from a couple of members of ESP Michigan, a group of professional paranormal investigators who operate out of Macomb County. Like me, the members of ESP Michigan had heard about Boomers while they were in the area investigating other places and decided to check out the tavern. They talked for a while, and Mike decided to let them investigate.

“They were completely professional,” he told me. “They set up their equipment in one of the upstairs bedrooms and in the bathroom.” Like most old inns, there was only one bathroom upstairs, which was shared by all of the guests. He said the bathroom upstairs was one of the most active rooms in the building when it came to paranormal phenomena. “Would you like a tour of the upstairs?” Mike asked.

I was more than happy to accept, even though he warned me that upstairs wasn’t in the best state. For years, it hadn’t been used for anything but storage.

“Watch your step,” he cautioned as we climbed the narrow back stairs off the tavern’s kitchen.

Once upstairs, he showed me the communal bathroom and pointed out the room that seemed to get locked “all by itself.” The room used to belong to the former owner’s mother, he told me.

“We usually leave the keys in the door,” he said. “It’s just easier that way.”

The story goes that shortly after Mike and his wife bought the building, they noticed that no matter how many times they unlocked it, they would always find a certain door locked again the next time they came up to get something or put something away....

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Clerisy Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2025
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1578604303
• ISBN 13: 9781578604302
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 2
• Anzahl der Seiten: 216
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar