Tag Archives: haunting

Bay City’s past has left the Michigan city with some haunting tales

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There have been reported hauntings on USS Edson, which is located on the Saginaw River in Bay City. (Public domain)

By Wayne Thomas
Grand Rapids Ghost Hunters

In the late 1800s, Bay City was considered the “Lumbering Capital of the World.” In her book “Haunted Bay City, Michigan,” Nicole Beauchamp describes a six-block red-light district known as ‘Hell’s Half Mile,” which was characterized by violence, gambling, and, prostitution. This scene would recur each spring when between five to ten thousand rowdy lumberjacks would come to town. Apparently it was not uncommon to see bodies of murder victims floating down the Saginaw River. According to Beauchamp the brutal beginnings of brawling, boozing, and brothels, left a paranormal imprint on the Bay City area. Theoretically a brutal tortured existence can lead to unrest in the afterlife. Reported ghost activity includes a “sinister Victorian lady” who scares visitors on the upper level of Bay City Antique Center and a little ghost girl roaming Sage Library.

Chapter one in Beauchamp’s book, titled “The Gray Ghost,” outlines the historical significance of the USS Edson that is now docked on the Saginaw River. Visitors to the Edson tell of various paranormal experiences that have included the barking of a canine spirit and pictures of Paul, a former caretaker who loved his job so much that his spirit still strolls the decks, playing pranks on patrons. The Gray Ghost/USS Edson was featured in a 1963 “Twilight Zone” episode called, “The Thirty-Fathom Grave” where they used video from inside the ship.

 

Beauchamp’s chapter titles are cleverly worded and the text is full of supernatural insights and historical highlights of locations like Tummy Ache Candy Store and Sage Library, the oldest public library in Michigan. In 2009, Beauchamp founded the Tri-City Ghost Hunters Society, a paranormal research team. Equal to the group’s passion for the paranormal is its support for historical preservation, giving thousands of dollars to fully renovate antiquated buildings.

 

As the big trees disappeared from the surrounding Saginaw Bay area so did the thousands of seasonal roughneck lumberjacks that created Hell’s Half Mile and gave birth to the haunted history of Bay City, Michigan.

You can learn more about Nicole Beauchamp and Tri-City Ghost Hunters Society on Grand Rapids Ghost Hunter Podcast episode #32, which features Beauchamp as a special guest.  

Hauntings of America’s deadliest school attack that took place in Bath, Michigan

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By Wayne Thomas
Grand Rapids Ghost Hunters

The Bath Consolidate School in 1927. (Wikipedia)

It was a Wednesday morning May 18, 1927, just about fifteen minutes after the start of the last day of the year at Bath Consolidated School. An alarm clock sounds in the basement of the North Wing, triggering a chain reaction of predetermined madness that still echoes through time, 94 years later. The Bath school massacre remains the deadliest school disaster in American history, ultimately resulting in the appalling loss of some 38 grade school children and six adults with at least 58 others, suffering disfiguring injuries.

 

A combination of hundreds of pounds of dynamite and pyrotol, a World War I explosive designed to cause a fiery blast, had been packed under the school floor with the apparent intent to destroy the entire school and kill everyone in it. However, it’s estimated that between 500 and 600 lbs. of explosives hidden in the South Wing did not detonate due to the initial blast causing a short circuit. It’s reported the bomb could be heard several miles away. Mothers were among the many who came running to the scene of unspeakable carnage and were met with a “muffled chorus of moans and screams, and cries for help” from under the rubble.

Sometimes, extraordinary circumstances surrounding a person’s death can lead to unrest. Murder, suicide, and war can serve as devices cutting lives short and leaving “unfinished business.” It’s theorized that death can come so quickly that a person becomes confused and doesn’t even know they are dead, resulting in haunting spirits. Wishing peace for the families, the living and dead. One such case is the documented evidence that paranormal author and investigator Kathleen Tedsen has that links to the ghost of a little girl, a former student who died during the Bath massacre.

A monument in honor of the victims of the Bath massacre. (Wikipedia)

Ben Goldman, of Afterlife Road Paranormal, probably knows more details of the Bath disaster than most people. While attending Michigan State University, Goldman did a capstone documentary on the Bath School massacre. Goldman heads up a team of MSU students and paranormal investigators who produce Afterlife Road: A Haunted Michigan Webseries on YouTube. Goldman and crew have taken viewers on more than 100 seamless journeys to historic locations rumored to be haunted. Their documentary style finds them running and falling, and dropping the camera. You can cry with them at Bath Cemetery or be scared enough to scream during their 10- to 15-minute videos, perfect for your adult Halloween party.

Goldman was the first guest on our podcast to talk about haunted roads. Stories of 7 Gables Road — located in Dansville and considered the most haunted road in Michigan — suggests if you hear a scream and you are the last one over the fence, you would die. There is a lady in white at this location, which appears to be a recurring phenomenon at several haunted roads.

 

Goldman was on Cryptic Frequencies and the Grand Rapids Ghost Hunters podcast episodes, 12, 27, and 51.

Exploring Michigan’s spooky side in the Grand Rapids Ghost Hunter’s podcast

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In the Halloween episode of the Grand Rapids Ghost Hunters Paranormal Podcast, guests and hosts dressed up for the season. (WKTV)

By Wayne Thomas
Grand Rapids Ghost Hunters

Hosting Grand Rapids Ghost Hunters Paranormal Podcast and Cryptic Frequencies Blog Talk Radio show has introduced me to the spooky, weird, and strange world that surrounds us here in our Great Lake State.  Michigan measures very high on the mysterious meter with Bigfoot, Dogman, and lake monster sightings, significant UFO sightings, haunted ships and lighthouses, roads, cemeteries, libraries, and museums.  We profile mysterious people and places, authors and investigating teams and it’s my pleasure to share some supernatural insights, starting with one of our all-time favorite guests, Shetan Noir.

Noir recently joined us for a special WKTV, The Whole Picture Podcast Halloween episode #34 where we discussed urban legends and superstitions.  We opened with the poem “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by A.H. Schacknofsky and co-host Brandon Hoezee offered insights into the half-truths and his own family connections to the legend of the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow.

Guest Shetan Noir dresses as a green mermaid during the Grand Rapids Ghost Hunters Paranormal Podcast special Halloween edition. (WKTV)

Co-host Kim Kolean presented evidence of the Allegan County “Melon Heads” with a disturbing photo image of what they might have looked like.  The show also featured two of Noir’s books, “Lake Monsters and Odd Creatures of the Great Lakes” and “Mothman and Other Flying Creatures of the Midwest.” She shared an incredibly fascinating story of the Lake Superior Mermaid while dressed in costume as a shimmering green dragon lady.

My first encounter with Noir was during the 2018 Michigan’s Ghost Coast Paranormal Convention in Grand Haven. Noir was one of the featured speakers and during the day she asked to interview our team for her podcast Into the Liminal Abyss. Noir is an author and a journalist who has spent 25 years researching the paranormal in the field of cryptozoology, the search for or study of animals whose existence is disputed or unsubstantiated.

Currently Noir is the lead investigator for the Michigan Chapter of the North American Dogman Project as well as research into Lake Monsters, Mothman, Bigfoot, Nain Rouge. While ghost hunting might have been enough to keep most people busy, Noir found time to author several books.  Noir’s amazing research chronicles actual eye witness accounts, historical testimony, real world explanations, hoaxes, fossil evidence, and artistic renditions of what these monsters might have looked like with detailed descriptions. Noir’s extensive research documents evidence of hundreds of people experiencing strange creatures at the same time with very similar descriptions by reputable well respected citizens, police, sea captains and crews, and collectively challenges the true definition of cryptozoology.

For more about Noir and her work, listen to the Grand Rapids Ghost hunters Paranormal Podcast at the WKTV Journal or on Facebook at The Whole Picture Podcasts.