Top 5 most haunted places in Michigan, according to 'Haunted Travels' author
With more than 185 years of state history and nearly 56,000 square miles of land, Michigan is bound to have some scary supernatural stories.
According to Kat Tedsen, author of the “Haunted Travels of Michigan” series with more than 350 paranormal investigations under her belt, it isn’t a question of who, where or what is most haunted, but instead, which sites have the most compelling cases of paranormal activity.
“I am fed up with ghost stories, I want the history,” Tedsen said in an interview.
To measure paranormal activity, Tedsen looks for an “intelligent response” from spirits using sounds found within on-site audio recordings that are interpreted as spirit voices, often known as electronic voice phenomena (EVP). Then she dives into the history, comparing any news details she finds to historical records to piece the puzzle together.
Here are some of Michigan’s most evidenced haunted places, according to the “Haunted Travels” author.
The Whitney restaurant
The 22,000 square foot Whitney mansion, originally built for wealthy lumber baron David Whitney in the late 19th century, was renovated in the 1980s and turned into a restaurant and cocktail lounge. However, employees and customers can attest that the mansion’s original two owners, Whitney and his wife, may have never left, earning The Whitney the title of one of the most haunted restaurants in the country.
Tedsen first found out about ghostly activity at the mansion during an innocent visit with her sister, Bev Rydel, in 2006. They snapped a picture on the second floor of the Whitney and happened to capture a blurry tornado-shaped figure in the photo. The sisters searched for a mundane explanation as to what could have caused the figure to appear in the image, but the several photography experts that they consulted were all stumped.
Tedsen and Rydel returned to the mansion to investigate and both experienced responsive paranormal activity; while Rydel was on the first floor asking spirits to knock on the wall — to her surprise, they did — Tedsen was on the second floor, recording audio. She said aloud, “I’m getting something here,” to which a spirit responded, only audible in the audio recording: “That’s right ... I am still here.”
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Terrace Inn and 1911 Restaurant
The Terrace Inn and 1911 Restaurant in Petoskey is no stranger to paranormal activity. In fact, the front desk keeps a book filled with guests’ handwritten accounts of mysterious encounters during their stay at the Inn.
In the chandeliered dining room of the Terrace Inn, Tedsen was picking up indicators of paranormal phenomena when she finally asked, “Who’s here?” Through EVP, a female voice responded, “Abbey Sweet.” Going back into historical records, Tedsen found that a housekeeper named Abbey Sweet from the early 1900s was never seen again after going into the inn.
According to some sources, Sweet was pregnant with twins when she fell in the inn, causing a miscarriage and her subsequent death in room 211. Today, paranormal activity remains strong in room 211 — so much so that the Terrace Inn staff warn guests that they’re in for a hair-raising, bone-chilling experience if they book a night in room 211.
Outside of room 211, guests and staff have consistently reported hearing footsteps, seeing shadows of a man, and watching a piano play by itself. Tedsen even documented seeing a buggy carriage in a backroom roll 18 inches without anyone standing behind it to push it.
Seul Choix Point Lighthouse
Seul Choix Point Lighthouse in Gulliver is notorious for frequent paranormal activity. Locals and visitors alike consistently report seeing a former keeper of the lighthouse, Captain Willie Townsend, on the first and second floors of the lighthouse, or smelling his cigar smoke when nothing appears ablaze.
Tedsen went to Seul Choix Point Lighthouse looking for the ghost of Townsend but was surprised to come across a different spirit. In the back room of the museum, Tedsen captured a female voice with EVP; when prompted, the voice said her name was Mary, and that she had “died in snow.”
Tedsen dove into the records and found that a different lighthouse keeper, William Blanchard, and his wife invited his terminally ill mother-in-law, Mary Pemble, to live with them. After she moved in, a historic blizzard hit the lighthouse with winds so strong that they broke some of the windows, bringing ice and heavy snow into the bedrooms. Pemble died in the cold, and until the storm diminished, the Blanchards were forced to store her body in the frozen back room of the lighthouse.
“In her confused state, halfway between life and death, she might’ve thought she actually died in snow,” Tedsen said.
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Bath Charter Township
On May 18, 1927, in Bath Charter Township, Andrew Kehoe committed what remains as the deadliest school massacre in U.S. history. Kehoe spent months collecting explosives on his property and under Bath Consolidated School, which were later used blow up the school, its faculty and students. The massacre killed 39 elementary school children and six adults including Kehoe, and 58 more were injured.
Such a tragedy was bound to have some lingering spirits. In an investigation, Tedsen visited the cemetery where many of the Bath Consolidated School victims were buried. She visited the cemetery three times at different times of day and at different points of the year before she finally experienced otherworldly evidence in her fourth visit. Using EVP, she communicated with a young girl who died in the massacre; not only did the victim confirm their name, but when Tedsen asked who her favorite teacher was, she provided an intelligent response.
After leaving the cemetery, Tedsen consulted archival records and was able to confirm the name of the young girl who had died as well as the name of her teacher, that both had been at Bath Consolidated School when the massacre occurred.
Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island is home to dozens of ghost stories, from the Grand Hotel, Mission Point Resort (where Mackinac College used to be) the cemeteries, and the eerie back trails where a college student committed suicide in the 1970s. However, Tedsen insists that Mackinac’s Fort Holmes is a supernatural force to be reckoned with.
Originally named Fort George, Fort Holmes was built on the highest point of Mackinac Island by the British during the War of 1812. During the Battle of Mackinac Island in 1814, 13 American soldiers died in battle and seven more succumbed to their wounds, leaving many restless souls to haunt the ruins of Fort Holmes. In her investigation of Fort Holmes, Tedsen recorded several EVPs of possible American soldier voices, and possible Native American voices speaking Ojibwa words.
Additionally, toward the end of the investigation, Tedsen called out to Benjamin and Katherine Frankie, a newlywed couple from New York who had honeymooned on Mackinac Island in August 1906 when they were met with tragedy. While climbing the 30-foot observation tower at Fort Holmes, the new bride slipped and lost her grip on the ladder, falling to her death.
Tedsen was met with silence several times when she called out to the couple, until finally, she asked, “Why do you stay here?” A voice responded through EVP with just one telling word: “Kathy.”
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Top 5 most haunted places in Michigan, according to author
