The Grand Hotel

The Grand Hotel embodies all of the beauty and histroy that begins in the Victorian era for Mackinac Island.   In a sense, the island is trapped in this time.  It clings to the old things and puts them on a pedastle making them great.  The hotel is the center of everything beautiful and historic on the island.   It's long, white walls can be seen from the water on the ferry ride to the island.  It sits away from the rest of the chaos of the island, amidst green gardens.  There are no cars on the island and during my many visits to the island, I have travelled to the old hotel using many modes of transportation.  Whether you approach by horse and buggy, bicycle, horseback, or on foot, the elegant porch gleams in the sunlight as the first part of the hotel you see.  The hotel is a piece of my history as much as it is the island's.  My great grandfather worked at the hotel and his father before him.  My great grandfather proposed to my great grandmother in the old hotel.  I still have the ring he proposed her with. 

The land for the hotel was bought in 1886.  During this time the popularity of the island for a summer get away was exploding.  Tourists were coming from as far as Chicago to see the scenic beauty of this quiet island.  The Grand Hotel was built to cater to the wealthier tourists that came from afar to relax in peace.  It was during the construction of the hotel that an untold number of bones were unearthed.  Most of the bones were relocated, but it is said that some of these old skeletons still remain beneath the foundation of this luxourious hotel. 

In 1887 the hotel opened and it was a success from the beginning.  During the long summers every room was filled.  Of course during the winter, when the bitter Northern Michingan wind freezes the lake and burries the hotel in snow, the hotel was still mostly empty.  In the 1890's, the hotel's owners proudly announced that they had built the longest porch in the world around the beautiful hotel.   In 1895, Mark Twain came for a reading in the Hotel's grand salon.   The Hotel was often host to famous people and  a couple of movies were shot at the hotel.  The most recent film shot there was made in the 1980's and stared Christopher Reeves as a love struck playwright.  The film was called Somewhere in Time.

Despite all this activity,  the hotel has continuously been a source of paranormal activity.  As the hotel expanded, the orignal Fort Mackinac Island cemetery was moved to make room for the horse stables.  So the stables now stand on yet another collection of old bones. Those that have worked at the Grand report phantom footsteps and doors opening and shutting.  Guests staying at the hotel have reported feeling ill at ease, as if there is something else in the room with them from time to time.   The hotel groans at night and, although all old things groan, the noises from this hotel seem loader that they should.

The Ghosts of Mackinac

Mackinac Island is a small island pushed up against the North of Michigan in Lake Huron.  For me, this tiny island was a place of magic.  My earliest childhood memories started with trips on the Ferry across the lake to a place that seemed to be trapped in history.  I felt like a time traveller.   I'm not the first person to see this island as magic.  This island was used by the Ojibwa Indians long before the white man ever set foot in the North.   The natives thought that the island was the home of  Gitche Manitou  or the "Great Spirit".  This island was the first land to appear on earth after the great flood and was a magic place where all the tribes gathered in peace.
 
The French were the first whites to come to this island and they were followed by a long processiong of white men who took this once sacred island and used it for their various purposes.  I will explore these histories more deeply in later blogs about the many historic, haunted places on this mystic island.  Tonight, I will start with a simple Mackinac haunt. 

The people of Mackinac take their history very seriously and have worked to preserve it in a way that is unprecedented.  They've worked so hard to preserve it that as you step off the Ferry onto dry land the first thing you will notice is the complete absence of motor vehicles.   The usual noise of traffic has been replaced by the clop clop of horses hooves on the pavement and the occasional ring of a bicycle bell.  The streets are crowded with tourists during the summer.  They come seeking a glimpse into a lost world and a forgotten time.

Bob Hughey decided to open his little restaurant on Mackinac to capitalize on this tourist trade.  He moved there after World War II and his little restaurant thrived in the historic atmosphere of the island.  It did so well he decided to purchase the little pine cottage near his restaurant and expand.   He got much more than he expected, however.    Unknown to him,  in 1942, a woman had been brutally murdered in the pretty little cottage.  Her murder had never been solved and her ghost lingered in the cottage.

Mr. Hughey felt the ghostly presence very quickly and noticed doors opening and shutting and the sound of footsteps in empty halls as soon as he moved in to the quaint cottage.  This was only the beginning for poor Mr. Hughey who went on to be haunted by not only the murdered woman's ghost but multiple other ghosts that seemed trapped in the cottage.   He even walked into his room one night to see a diaphonous woman standing over his bed.   The haunted increased in intensity and malevolence the longer he lingered in his business/home.    He awoke at night to see strange men standing over his bed and the halls were filled with weeping at night.

Mr. Hughey fled Makinac in 1995.  He could no longer take the spirits that had tormented him so long and he moved his restaurant to St. Ignace.   The ghosts remain behind him and the stories of this haunted cottage still bring tourists to gaze on it's darkened windows.  The cottage is now a bed and breakfast and brave tourists can stay in this haunted location and witness the ghosts themselves.