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.

A Photographic Journey Through The Haunted North Side of Mackinac Island

My family has been in Northern Michigan for close to 200 years.  There is even a story about my great, great grandfather proposing to my great, great grandmother on the steps of  The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island.   That is why my family always feels connected to Mackinac Island.   As I toured the island a few days ago, I thought about my family and the history of the island.   Mackinac Island is considered to be the most haunted place in Michigan.   There are ghosts hiding behind every shadowy corner of this island.   The entire North portion of the island is said to be haunted.   The North portion of the island was the site of  a violent battle during the war of 1812.  During this battle, the English killed 75 Native Americans and since that time tourists and residents have reported seeing the phantoms of these Native Men hiding in the trees on the North side of the island.

While touring the North side of Mackinac Island, I looked for these ghosts amongst the stunning natural beauty of the island.   While looking for ghosts, I found the a wonderful collection of cairns along the shore line that augmented the natural beauty and created and atmosphere of mystery.  Cairns are stacks of stones that are were commonly used in prehistory. In modern times, cairns are usually used as landmarks, but in ancient times they were used for ceremonial, astonomical, and directional purposes .I also found the decaying remains of an old hotel called the Silver Birches.  The old house was turned into a hotel and eventually left to ruin.  The remains of the hotel cast a truely haunting shadow over the North shore of the island.  I haven't heard any ghost stories associated with the old hotel, but its ghostly appearance makes it worth a photograph or two.  

The Moonshiner's Ghost

My family is from Michigan. On my grandmother’s side, the family has lived in the farmlands of the thumb of Michigan for many generations. The Washington Township Cemetery is filled with the gravestones of my ancestors going back for many generations. The Vincent name covers the stones that fill the pastoral cemetery. Wandering through the old graveyard is like wandering through my history. In the center of the old cemetery, there is a monument that tells a different story. It tells the story of an old ghost.

The monument is known as the moonshiner’s monument. It is the largest and prettiest marker in the cemetery. Apparently, during prohibition it was used by moonshiners. The moonshiners would hide their moonshine in the old marker. The panels were easily removed and they would place their product within the tombstone. Distributers would then pick up the moonshine and leave their money behind. As was often the case, the distribution of these illegal spirits ended badly. In some kind of skirmish near the stone, one of the moonshiners was shot and died near the monument. His ghost is said to linger in the cemetery. He wanders the shadows looking for a peace that may never come.

The Lady of the Lake

Huddled up against the shores of Lake Huron and tucked away in the shade of maple trees, there is a small cemetery. The cemetery is called Forester Cemetery and is the home of a lonely white lady ghost. The cemetery sits perfectly positioned to provide a perfect view of the great lake. The tombstones there are old and some have been broken and propped back up. Many of the markers have been so eroded that the names are gone. The wind from the lake has wiped away all traces of those who lie beneath them.

One of the many occupants of this quiet necropolis is named Minnie Quay. When Minnie was only fifteen years old, she fell in love with a sailor. She loved this sailor with a poignancy that only first love can offer. Her parents, however, did not share her passion. They forbade Minnie from ever seeing her beloved and told her that she could never expect to see her young beau again. Minnie was heartbroken. Her young man sailed away and died at sea. Minnie was so overwhelmed by grief she couldn’t bare it. She dressed herself in white and walked down to the shore of Lake Huron. She cast herself into the icy waters and died beneath its frigid surface. Her body washed up on shore and she was buried at Forester Cemetery. Since that time, people have claimed to see Minnie wandering the shores by Forester Cemetery. They’ve seen a tragic figure in white wandering the beaches looking out in hopes of catching on last fading glimpse of her lost love. Some even claim to have seen Minnie walking from the beach and through the grounds of the small cemetery by the lake, her cheeks stained with tears and her eyes desperate with grief.

The House that Haunts My Dreams: The Newton-Allaire House

If you have followed my blog regularly,  you know my family owns a large Victorian house in Northern Michigan.   This house was my favorite place in the world as a child.  It was the cradle of all my dreams and the inspiration for my first stories.  It whispered to me in my sleep and made me believe that there was more to life than we can see, touch, and taste.  The house's ghosts were old and they followed you throughout the house.   I loved the ghosts in the house as I loved the house.  It bound me to a history I knew little of and made me part of a family that went back for generations.

Over the last few years, the surviving members of my family have tried desperately to sell and get rid of this haunted piece of our family history.   This week,  I'm going up to make one final plea to keep it.  My mother and I and our families will take a long drive up North.  It is a thousand miles for us and we will see if there is any hope left.  

My dream is that we could rent the house out.  It is a few blocks from the beach and one block to the bookstore and movie theater.  It is a twenty minute drive to Mackinac City and Mackinac Island.   It has 8 bedrooms and is filled with ghosts and histories.  It seems like it would be a good vacation rental and then we could stay in it during our off weeks.   We will see.  This will be an up hill battle.   Either way,  on Monday I'll post pictures of the old house and use a few of the ghost hunting skills I learned last Friday to see if I can talk to some of the ghosts in the house.  I'm hopeful.  The ghosts talked to me when I didn't want them to as a little girl.  I'm pretty sure they should be even more talkative now that I do want them to talk.

I may not blog again until I get there.   I can't wait.  The painting above is one of the many paintings I did of the house.  Even if we sell it,   the house will always be part of me.

The Lonely Ghosts of the Detroit Art Institute

The Detroit Institute of Arts(DIA) is one of my favorite places.  I was an art major at Wayne State University and several of our projects involved going to the museum and studying the art there.  My favorite painting was by Jean Leon Gerome and it was called Solitude.  It depicted a lonely lion laying in the middle of a deserted beach.  The lion appeared to be at at peace.  It's tan main shone in the sunlight against the brilliant azure sky.  Something about that painting, and that place spoke to me.   The DIA echoed the atmosphere in that painting.  It was a quiet museum.  It was not crowded with throngs of people and during the day, when I visited,  I felt like I was the only one there.  I went there in between classes and wandered the lonely halls.  The DIA like the rest of Detroit,  was often abadoned.

Entering the museum, the first thing you see is a room painted with massive murals by Diego Rivera.  Rivera did these paintings when the museum was founded in 1927.   The museum was built as cultural center for the then beautiful city and the art within the museum reflects the time and effort that was put into the collections.   The Rivera paintings alone are worth a visit.   However, like many places in Detroit,  the DIA is haunted.

Security gaurds who have worked at the DIA at night report seeing all kinds of strange activity in this museum at night.   Loud thuds echo throught the halls of the empty museum and there are sounds that seem like people are dragging the paintings from room to room.  When the noises are investigated,  all the paintings are where they are supposed to be and the rooms are empty.   Much of the haunting activity seems to surround a statue in the African art gallary called the Nail Figure.  It is the statue of a man impaled with spikes and many gaurds report seeing this statue moving or even dancing alone in the dark.

A Phantom in the Woods

The woods near Oscoda, Michigan are filled with legends.   Oscoda is a small town near Saginaw bay by Lake Huron.   Many of these stories surround Lake Solitude.  Lake Solitude used to to be attached to Lake Huron, but the years have cut it off, isolating it and now only a trickle of water connect the lake to the larger body of water.  Near the lake are the ruins of  Au Sable, the region's oldest settlement.   Over the years this area has become associated with witchcraft and ghosts and there are tales of many local ghosts.  

The story of one of these resident ghosts was told best by a group of hunters that once got lost wandering the shores of this lake.  The hunters had gotten seperated from their group and lost their bearings.  They spent hours wandering through the woods in a desperate attempt to find anything that looked familiar.  But all their attempts were in vain and they were unable to find any help.  When they had finally given up and sat down,  a young woman seemed to appear out of nowhere.  She was lovely and amiable and the group immediated trusted her.  She explained to them that she was a local farmer's daughter and that she knew the woods very well.   She guided them back to the safety of town.  The hunters were so greatful that they turned to thank her and then they watched her vanish into thin air.

When they got back to town,  they went to the local bar to have a beer and relax.  As they drank, they told their story to the bartender.   He knew the story well.   The ghost was well known in those parts.  The young woman's name had been Leona and her family had once had a farm in those woods. Back in 1929, Leona had been shot and killed by a hunter who mistook her for a deer. Since then, her spirit had been seen many times, usually leading lost people out of the forest.

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.