By Wayne Thomas
Grand Rapids Ghost Hunters
“Please keep an open mind about things that you might not easily believe, as we explore the mysterious.” The Grand Rapids Ghost Hunters Podcast opens each show with this same declaration.
On episodes 26 and 41, we featured Marie Cisneros with an impressive resume of spookiness. Astrologist, numerologist, and ufologist tops her list of accolades. Cisneros was also an investigative reporter and journalist for Paranormal Muskegon on the Muskegon channel.
So what is next for a highly intelligent person who blends two science degrees, more than 10 years as a Michigan MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) field investigator, Tarot reader, wedding officiant, and CEO of Cygnus Research? She is getting ready to add published author to her resume. “Haunted Muskegon” by Marie Cisneros is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2022, to be followed by her first sci-fi novel, “Sequence 17.”
What might be included as some of the chapters of a book entitled, “Haunted Muskegon?” No spoiler alert here, but as Grand Rapids Ghost Hunters we did investigate a brewery in Muskegon with ghostly activity. Out of respect for the people involved and in consideration of the emotions that can live forever in our hearts and homes, those names shall remain anonymous. Brandon Hoezee and Kent County Paranormal did investigate the Torrent House and we also interviewed at the Hackley Public Library.
On January 10, 2020, Cisneros interviewed Mallory Metzger, the Hackley library program and marketing coordinator. Often general managers and people in charge are more concerned with doing their jobs and it’s just easier to deny any paranormal activity. Metzger on that day offered straight forward answers to what must have been difficult questions. These reports are difficult to substantiate; unexplained sounds and voices, and multiple incidences of books flying off shelves. More sensational accounts describe an apparition of an elderly man dressed in Victorian style clothing, appearing and disappearing. The reflection of a face seen in the bathroom was later identified as the man who donated the library to the city, Charles Hackley, one of the founders of Muskegon.
Different reports have Hackley’s ghost haunting several locations in and around Muskegon. Why not? Hackley practiced a philosophy proposed by Andrew Carnergie, “Die rich…die disgraced.” In that respect, Hackley felt obligated to give back to the community “to improve the quality of life.” Hackley gave his heart and soul to the city, donating towards schools, hospitals, parks, museums, and the Hackley public Library. It is estimated he gave back more than one third of his acquired wealth. Not sure Cisneros included Hackley’s haunted adventures in her new book, but I am sure her attention to detail will define “Haunted Muskegon.”
