Read Up On Michigan’s Haunted Side!

Dianna Stampfler September 27, 2022January 7, 2023 ghost stories, ghosts, haunted, history, lighthouses, michigan, paranormal, spirits, spooky

The History Press (a division of Arcadia Publishing) has a longstanding history of producing titles that are “spirited” in nature — meaning, they deal with ghostly tales from around the country. Here in Michigan, there are dozens (maybe hundreds) of haunted stories that are perfect for sharing during the Halloween season.

Check out these great reads!

Ghosts and Legends of Genesee & Lapeer Counties By Roxanne Rhoads and Joe Schipani

Ghost stories and urban legends lurk throughout Genesee and Lapeer Counties. A Clio man’s spirit is thought to still reside in the junkyard office where he was murdered. For almost two centuries, the Flushing area has been fascinated by tales of the wealthy Brent family, whose land is connected to numerous tales of murder, mystery and ghosts. In Lapeer County, the Bruce Mansion’s unnerving façade hints at the specters inside, and the land and buildings once belonging to the Lapeer State Home are plagued by haunting cries and ghostly activity. Join authors Roxanne Rhoads and Joe Schipani as they take you on a tour of Genesee and Lapeer Counties’ most haunted locations.

Roxanne Rhoads is an author, book publicist, mixed media crafter and lover of all things spooky. Her books include Haunted Flint and Pumpkins and Party Themes: 50 DIY Designs to Bring Your Halloween Extravaganza to Life. She is the owner of Bewitching Book Tours, a virtual book tour and social media marketing company, and she operates a Halloween blog, A Bewitching Guide to Halloween. Joe Schipani is an integral part of Flint’s art community. As the executive director of Flint Public Art Project, he has curated an outdoor mural gallery in the city of Flint, with more than two hundred murals from artists all around the world. He also serves as the one of Flint’s historic district commissioners and loves learning about the history of old buildings. In 2019, he coauthored Haunted Flint with Roxanne Rhoads.

Ghosts and Legends of Michigan’s West Coast By Amberrose Hammond

A collection of chilling tales from the most haunted places in Western Michigan. Western Michigan is home to some of the state’s most picturesque places – and also some of its most chilling tales. Ghost story researcher and enthusiast Amberrose Hammond exposes the mysterious and spirit-ridden world of many beloved Michigan destinations as she skillfully weaves narratives of a world unseen by most. From the lingering spirit forever working in the Grand Theatre and the band of melon-headed children prowling the Saugatuck State Park to the lights of the Lake Forest Cemetery staircase waiting to reveal one’s place in the afterlife, these tales are sure to give pause to anyone daring enough to experience these hauntingly beautiful spots…after dark.

Amberrose Hammond earned a BA in English from Grand Valley State University in 2005. In 2006, her pursuits into strange history led her to design and develop Michigan’s Otherside, a website on the unusual and mysterious worlds of Michigan, past and present. She published her first book with The History Press in 2009 titled, “Ghosts & Legends of Michigan’s West Coast,” and her second book, “Wicked Ottawa County, Michigan,” in 2011.

Ghosts of Grand Rapids By Nicole Bray and Robert Du Shane, with Julie Rathsack

Discover the haunted history of Grand Rapids, Michigan, complete with ghostly hotel guests, urban legends, and true stories of Grand Rapids spine-chilling past. Come nose around in the creepier corners of the Grand Rapids of yesteryear. Discover why Hell’s Bridge persists as such an oft-told urban legend and what horrific history earned Heritage Hill the title of Michigan’s most haunted neighborhood. Mingle with the spooky inhabitants of the Phillips Mansion, Holmdene Manor, San Chez Restaurant and St. Cecilia Music Center. Meet the guests who never quite checked out of the Amway Grand. Read the true stories behind the Michigan Bell Building and the Ada Witch Legend. Nicole Bray, Robert Du Shane and Julie Rathsack illuminate the shadows of local sites you thought you knew.

Author and haunted historian Nicole Bray co-owns Haunted History of Kalamazoo Tours. She founded the West Michigan Ghost Hunters Society and co-authored Haunted History of Kalamazoo. Robert DuShane is a theologian and owner of the WPARanormal Talk Radio show. He co-wrote Haunted History of Kalamazoo and co-owns Haunted History of Kalamazoo Tours. Julie Rathsack is the research director of the West Michigan Ghost Hunters Society.

Ghosts of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula By Jennifer Billock

Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula plays host to some of the state’s most spine-tingling ghost stories. At Old Victoria, a ghostly apparition continues to rock in her favorite chair. Visitors can still hear the screams of miners trapped and killed in the wreckage of the Mansfield Mine disaster. Trampled to death over false claims of fire, the victims of the Italian Hall Disaster linger on in Calumet. And Mackinac is home to more than one hundred ghosts, making the island one of the state’s most haunted places. Local author Jennifer Billock recounts the chilling tales of the UP’s spectral heritage.

Jennifer Billock is an award-winning writer, bestselling author, editor and owner of the boutique editorial firm Jennifer Billock Creative Services. She has worked with businesses and publishers including Yahoo Travel, National Geographic Traveler, Disney Books, Porthole Cruiser, Kraft Foods, Midwest Living, Arcadia Publishing, the MSU Press and Taste of Home Magazine. She is currently dreaming of an around-the-world trip with her Boston terrier. Check out her website at www.jenniferbillock.com and follow her on Twitter @jenniferbillock.

Haunted Anchor Bay, Michigan By Debi Chestnut

Anchor Bay is a haven for ghosts. The small towns that dot the shores of Lake St. Clair, the three Native American reservations and the remnants of several British and French military encampments in the area all lay claim to supernatural occurrences. The spirit of a state senator’s son haunted his magnificent mansion just outside New Baltimore before the home was demolished. Mabel Hathaway’s mysterious death remained unsolved for 140 years, and her ghost continues to stalk Oakwood Cemetery. A deceased sea captain seemingly moves his hidden treasure from beyond the grave when someone gets close to finding it. Local paranormal expert Debi Chestnut delights and frightens with these and other tales of Anchor Bay’s historic haunts.

Debi Chestnut has been able to see and speak to ghosts her whole life. A paranormal researcher for more than twenty-five years, she gives lectures and conducts workshops to help people better understand paranormal activity. Her books on the paranormal include Something Wicked, Stalking Shadows, How to Clear Your Home of Ghosts and Spirits, Is Your House Haunted? and Ghosts of Anchor Bay. She resides in Michigan. Visit her online at her Facebook page, The Paranormal Realm.

Haunted Bay City, Michigan By Nicole Beauchamp

At the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron lies historic Bay City, a gorgeous town with a dark past. In its early days, a six-block strip known as Hell’s Half Mile was an epicenter of debauchery and brutality. This tumultuous history has left a deep paranormal imprint on the area. A sinister Victorian lady terrorizes those who visit the upper level of the Bay City Antiques Center. The ghost of a disfigured little girl roams Sage Library. And the former caretaker of the USS Edson lovingly tends the ship after death as he did in life. Local author and paranormal investigator Nicole Beauchamp takes you on a bone-chilling journey through Bay City’s most haunted locales.

Nicole Beauchamp is a native of Bay City, Michigan, and received her bachelor’s degree in applied science from Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan. With a lifelong passion for the paranormal and history, Nicole founded the Tri-City Ghost Hunters Society in 2009. Since forming the group, she has presented at libraries and universities across the state of Michigan with the goal of educating individuals on the paranormal and expressing the importance of preserving history through investigation. She has had the honor of co-lecturing with renowned paranormal researcher John E.L. Tenney, and her work has been featured in dozens of national and international publications. In 2015, she wrote a guest editorial for TAPS Paramagazine and was featured on Beyond Reality Radio, where she was recognized for her hard work and dedication to the paranormal by Jason Hawes, the star of Travel Channel’s Ghost Nation. In February 2019, she was featured on the cover of Paranormal Underground magazine. In addition to the paranormal, she loves traveling and animals. She hopes to continue to tour Michigan in order to enlighten individuals on the spirit realm.

Haunted Detroit By Nicole Beauchamp

Founded on the legend of the Nain Rouge, Detroit has haunted hot spots aplenty, each with its own bloodcurdling tale. Music from pianos that play by themselves and crying apparitions echo throughout the Whitney Mansion. Beginning at the time of its construction, the Leland Hotel has been the site of an unusually high number of murders, suicides and freak accidents. It has even been described as Detroit’s portal to hell. Various shadowy figures have been spotted darting throughout the former Detroit Police Sixth Precinct building, including a mysterious boy. Join Michigan-based author and paranormal investigator Nicole Beauchamp as she leads you down some of Detroit’s darkest corridors and into its tragic past.

Nicole Beauchamp founded the Tri-City Ghost Hunters Society in 2009. Since forming the group, she has investigated all over the world. Over the years, she has presented at various libraries and universities within the state with the goal of educating individuals on the paranormal and expressing the importance of preserving history through investigation. She has had the honor of co-lecturing with renowned paranormal researcher John E.L. Tenney, and her work has been featured in dozens of national and international publications. In February 2019, she was featured on the cover of Paranormal Underground magazine. She received a tribute from the State of Michigan for her first book, Haunted Bay City, Michigan, which was released in September 2020.

Haunted Flint By Roxanne Rhoads and Joe Schipani

Flint, Michigan, is home to ancient burial grounds, unsolved murders, economic depression, a water crisis and emits an unholy energy rife with ghostly encounters. Colonel Thomas Stockton’s ever-vigilant ghost keeps a watchful eye over his family home at Spring Grove, where guests occasionally hear the thump of his heavy boots. Restless spirits long separated from their graves lurk among the ancient stones at Avondale Cemetery. Carriage maker W.A. Paterson’s spirit continuously wanders the halls of the Dryden Building, and something sinister and unnamed resides in a Knob Hill mansion waiting to prey on impressionable young men. Join authors Roxanne Rhoads and Joe Schipani on a chilling tour of Flint’s most haunted locations.

Flint Native Roxanne Rhoads is an author, book publicist and lover of all things spooky. She is the owner of Bewitching Book Tours, a virtual book tour and social media marketing company, and she operates A Bewitching Guide to All Things Halloween, a blog dedicated to Halloween how-to’s, costumes, pumpkins, party planning and everything Halloween related. When not reading, writing or promoting, Roxanne loves to craft, plan Halloween adventures and search for unique vintage finds.

Haunted History of Kalamazoo By Nicole Bray and Robert DuShane

Kalamazoo’s violent and often anguished history has given way to myriad ghostly tales surrounding some of the town’s most prominent places. From the tortured souls roaming the Asylum Lake Preserve to the infamous suicide of the amateur actress Thelma, who reputedly haunts the Civic Auditorium to this day, it is no small wonder that the town is fi lled with apparitions longing to make their stories and their presence known. In this startlingly spooky collection of tales, ghost hunters Bray and DuShane gather stories from legend, lore and residents alike that bring new meaning to the age-old adage “seeing is believing.”

Haunted Lansing By Jenn Carpenter, Photography by Erica Cooper

Hastily dubbed the new capital in 1847, Lansing overcame derision and setbacks to become a booming metropolis. Yet its rich history hides chilling legends. Bertie Clippinger plays tricks on the unwary at the Capitol Building, where the teen accidentally fell to his death when a game went horribly wrong. One of Lansing’s founding families keeps a spectral vigil over its homestead, the Turner Dodge House. Malevolent spirits stalk the derelict Michigan School for the Blind. A witch’s vengeful curse follows those who trespass on Seven Gables Road, one of the state’s most haunted stretches. Founder of Demented Mitten Tours and local author Jenn Carpenter leads readers to the dark side of the Capital City.

Lansing native Jenn Carpenter is an avid writer, lover of the paranormal and true crime junkie. She has written for a number of publications over the years but discovered her true passion when she founded Demented Mitten Tours, a paranormal touring company based out of Mid-Michigan. When she’s not regaling the masses with her macabre tales, she’s often enjoying a quiet night at home with her husband, their four boys and four dogs. Her interests include renovating her family’s century-old Victorian abode, taking weird vacations and binge-watching Game of Thrones. She is also the owner of Deadtime Stories, a bookstore in Lansing’s REO Town that specializes in haunted, true crime and serial killer titles.

Haunted Muskegon By Marie Helena Cisneros

Once a booming lumber town, Muskegon today harbors not just ghosts of long-gone industry but maybe actual ghosts too. An apparition in Victorian clothing walks past Hackley Library patrons and disappears into a wall. Some believe him to be none other than philanthropist and lumber baron Charles Hackley. In the Hume House, the ghost of a young woman gloomily peers down at visitors from an upstairs window. Visitors to the LST 393 ship museum often see a shadowy figure or hear someone walking behind them as they walk through the hallways, but when they turn around to look, no one’s there. Join author Marie Helena Cisneros as she delves into thirteen spine-tingling supernatural tales from Muskegon’s past.

Marie Helena Cisneros is an investigative journalist, professional astrologer, ufologist, numerologist and ULC minister. Marie has an AAS and BS in the medical sciences and worked in the medial field for more than twenty-five years. Her personal interests include acrylic painting, mixed-media art, jewelry design and crafting. She is also chief researcher for her own company, Cygnus Research. She was a UFO field investigator for more than ten years with MUFON, investigating more than one hundred cases in Michigan, Kansas, Oregon and Montana, as well as a columnist for the MUFON Journal. She was also investigative journalist, writer and media host for a local paranormal show. She has been featured on numerous ufology and paranormal podcasts, radio and cable television broadcasts. She was a contributor to a well-known ufology website, with the article being picked up worldwide and reprinted on hundreds of other ufology websites.

The Lake Michigan Triangle: Mysterious Disappearances and Haunting Tales By Gayle Soucek

Sudden, violent storms and rocky shoals have claimed the lives of countless mortals foolish enough to brave the treacherous surf of Lake Michigan. But is there another, unnatural force at work? A force that spirited away a ship’s captain from a locked cabin without a trace? A force that caused a perfectly airworthy jet to fly into the waves, taking all its passengers to a watery death? Perhaps these tragedies are linked to numerous UFO sightings over the lake. Or perhaps a clue might be found in the prehistoric Stonehenge-like structures discovered deep beneath the crystalline-blue surface. Historian and storyteller Gayle Soucek explores the mysteries behind the area known as the Lake Michigan Triangle.

Gayle Soucek is an author, historian and freelance editor with more than a dozen books and numerous magazine articles to her credit, including Haunted Door County; Door County Tales: Shipwrecks, Cherries and Goats on the Roof; and Chicago Calamities: Disaster in the Windy City. Gayle and her photographer husband divide their time between their home in a Chicago suburb and a second home in Gills Rock, Wisconsin, directly overlooking the Death’s Door passage. It’s this proximity to the rich history and unexplained events that occur along the Lake Michigan shoreline that inspired this book on the Lake Michigan Triangle.

Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouses By Dianna Higgs Stampfler

Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state, with more than 120 dotting its expansive Great Lakes shoreline. Many of these lighthouses lay claim to haunted happenings. Former keepers like Captain Townshend at Seul Choix Point and prankster John Herman at Waugoshance Shoal maintain their watch long after death. At White River Light Station in Whitehall, Sarah Robinson still keeps a clean and tidy house, and a mysterious young girl at the Marquette Harbor Lighthouse seeks out other companions. Countless spirits remain between Whitefish Point and Point Iroquois in an area well known for its many tragic shipwrecks. Join author and Promote Michigan founder Dianna Stampfler as she recounts the tales from Michigan’s ghostly beacons.

Dianna Stampfler has worked in Michigan’s tourism industry for more than twenty years. In 2004, she launched Promote Michigan, a public relations consulting company specializing in the hospitality, tourism, agriculture, culinary, natural resources, recreation, history and culture industries around her home state. Dianna has penned countless articles for publications such as Pure Michigan Travel Ideas, Michigan Blue Magazine, Michigan Home & Lifestyle Magazine, Women’s Lifestyle, AAA Living, West Michigan Carefree Travel, Lake Michigan Circle Tour & Lighthouse Guide and many others. Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouses is her first (but hopefully not her last) book.

Michigan Haunts By Jon Milan and Gail Offen, Foreword by Rev. Gerald S. Hunter

Michigan has two beautiful peninsulas that are connected by stories, legends, and mysteries. This book is the perfect glove compartment companion for exploring those paranormal parts of the Mitten State, as most of these hotels, restaurants, theaters, lighthouses, and other places are open to the public. This road trip to “the other side,” filled with hauntings, ghost towns, and bizarre tales of murder and mayhem, draws from more than 300 years of Michigan history—from the notoriously haunted remote lighthouses like Seul Choix in the Upper Peninsula to Eloise, one of the most famous psychiatric asylums in America, to the legend of Lover’s Leap on Mackinac Island. What Purple Gang member still hangs out in Clare? What spirits lurk at Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village? Here is a guide to all that and more, including Houdini’s Detroit connections, the poisonings at Cass Corridor’s Alhambra, and paranormal activity at Detroit’s historic Fort Wayne. Puzzles are still waiting for a solution; Ripley’s Believe It or Not! once offered $100,000 to anyone who could solve the strange phenomenon of the Paulding Lights near Watersmeet.

Jon Milan and Gail Offen are writers and good listeners who love to retell the stories they hear traveling through Michigan. This is their fifth Arcadia book.

For the younger readers…

The Ghostly Tales of Michigan’s West Coast By Diane Telgen

Ghost stories from America’s Great Lakes State have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery! Coastal Michigan’s haunted history and local legends come to life—even when the main players are dead. From the souls lost aboard the doomed Alpena, to the restless spirits at Nunica Cemetery, this spooky chapter book will keep readers rapt. Dive into suspenseful tales of bumps in the night, paranormal investigations, and the unexplained; just be sure to keep the light on.

Diane Telgen is a longtime author and editor of reference books, including Defining Moments: The Gilded Age, and holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Growing up in Michigan, she loved myths and legends about fantastical creatures but was equally fascinated by stories about life long ago. She loved combining both these interests—history and the supernatural—for the Spooky America series.

The Ghostly Tales of Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouses By Diane Telgen

“Welcome to the spooky shores of Michigan! Stay alert! Ghosts lurk around every corner. Even the most unexpected places might be haunted by wandering phantoms. Did you know that the former keeper of the Seul Choix Point Lighthouse still keeps his watch, despite having been dead for over a hundred years? Or that a mysterious young girl searches for playmates at the Marquette Island Lighthouse? Can you believe that the poltergeist at Waugoshance Shoal Lighthouse loves to play pranks on visitors? Pulled right from history, these ghostly tales will change the way you see Michigan’s coast and have you sleeping with the light on!”

Haunted America book from which the children’s Spooky America book was adapted: Dianna Stampfler has worked in Michigan’s tourism industry for more than twenty years. In 2004, she launched Promote Michigan, a public relations consulting company specializing in the hospitality, tourism, agriculture, culinary, natural resources, recreation, history and culture industries around her home state. Dianna has penned countless articles for publications such as Pure Michigan Travel Ideas, Michigan Blue Magazine, Michigan Home & Lifestyle Magazine, Women’s Lifestyle, AAA Living, West Michigan Carefree Travel, Lake Michigan Circle Tour & Lighthouse Guide and many others.