Oddity Shop
This podcast examines the oddities of the world...Cryptids to Conspiracies, Cults to Curiosities, Myths to Mysteries, and so much more! Stop by the shop, where the bizarre is always on sale... Each week your curators, Kara Perakovic and Zach Palmer will be opening the shop and sharing stories with you.
Oddity Shop
Ghosts of The Grand: Hauntings on Mackinac Island
Welcome To The Oddity Shop, Where The Bizarre is Always on Sale. This week, your Curator Kara is talking about the spookiness at her favorite place to get some R&R: Michigan's Mackinac Island
This charming Michigan destination may be famous for its fudge, horse-drawn carriages, and Victorian charm, but beneath its picture-perfect exterior lies one of the most supernaturally active locations in the Midwest.
Long before European settlement, the Anishinaabe people considered this island sacred ground – a "thin place" where the boundary between physical and spiritual worlds narrows. They named it after the Great Turtle, recognizing something special in its energy. After centuries of military conflicts, cultural displacement, and tragic personal stories, that mysterious energy manifests as one of America's most haunted destinations.
What makes Mackinac so special isn't just its car-free streets and timeless atmosphere, but how it serves as a living museum where the past and present converge in mysterious ways.
Ready to visit Michigan's magical, haunted island? Listen now – but be warned, when darkness falls on Mackinac, you're never truly alone.
References:
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Mackinac-Island?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Mackinac?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Fort_Mackinac?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackinac_Island_State_Park?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- https://www.historichotels.org/us/hotels-resorts/grand-hotel/history.php?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- https://time.com/5683417/mackniac-island-michigan-pence-vehicle-ban/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
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I want to dance with the mothman at the ID shop, bathed in the moonlight at the ID shop. Creep through the graveyard to the ID shop. The door's always open at the Iron Age Shop. What's up, oddballs? Welcome back to the podcast. This is the podcast where we tell you creepy, odd, weird, strange stories from around the globe. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:I am fabulous. How are you?
Speaker 1:Oh, just wonderful and jet lagged you are wonderful.
Speaker 2:I was like, yes, you're very wonderful.
Speaker 1:I'm just pushing through it, you should be relaxed though. I came right back in, right into everything, so I did stretch. Today, though, and after taking two weeks off of working out and like my yoga and stuff, for some reason I'm way more flexible, so I'll take it.
Speaker 2:You want to know what's just really crazy. This is so random. But I literally had a shirt pulled out to put on and I was like no, I don't really feel like it and I'm really mad, because it was a tan shirt with a monstera on it and you're wearing a green shirt with a tan monstera. And now I'm really mad at myself. I just bought this shirt. It's really cute.
Speaker 1:I just noticed it and now I'm mad at myself. This cute little lady talked me into buying two shirts for too much money in lisbon. But it's fine, because they're really soft how much is too much money? 35 bucks for 35 euro for two shirts. So honestly it's like 40 bucks that's 40 for two shirts yeah, but the thing was is I had just told, told Julia, my goal on that vacation was to buy sweaters or jackets, and because I have way too many t-shirts, and then, literally an hour later, I bought two t-shirts.
Speaker 2:That's okay. You're on vacation. Whatever you say doesn't even matter.
Speaker 1:I have a new rule where every t-shirt that comes into my closet, one goes out, and I stuck to it. That's a great rule.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know how to live by that. My entire closet is t-shirts yeah, it happens.
Speaker 1:What's new with you?
Speaker 2:well, for those that don't know, we have not recorded in a very long time. You wouldn't actually know that, but it's been like it's been a week, four weeks, since we're recording so it's been a minute, uh, and I haven't even really talked to zach because he's been gallivanting across the world, but anyway, my mom adopted a pupper.
Speaker 1:It's so stinking cute.
Speaker 2:He is so cute and I don't even understand. Her dog passed away seven weeks ago, our family dog.
Speaker 1:RIP, little Brody. We love you.
Speaker 2:He was the best little baby and he sent this new dog I can't even get into it From what you were telling me.
Speaker 1:Brody sent Bowie to you. Bowie, I love it too.
Speaker 2:Well, I had a bunch of names list of names and Enzo was my favorite and Erin loved Enzo and my mom's like really like Enzo's very cute. But then she kept going back to Bowie because she wants to call him Bow. But I don't think he looks like a bow. I'm like if you're naming him Bowie, he has to stay with Bowie, not Bo. And then she's like, oh my God, Bo is so close to bro, which is what we call Brody. Bowie is really close to Brody. I'm like right, we should name him Enzo, and she still didn't do it. So, whatever, I kind of like Enzo, though, because Lorenzo Enzo okay.
Speaker 2:I like that because Bowie Enzo doesn't go great. You know what I mean it has to be like a. So Bowie Lorenzo. She doesn't know that I named his man, but it is, that's fair.
Speaker 1:You were asking me for name suggestions when I was in England and you gave me the worst Joseph and call him Jojo uh, it was joseph jefferson or sir barkingsworth jojo, I don't listen nothing.
Speaker 2:Nothing against jojo, but no okay, what else is new? Uh, that's really about it noise. Well, do you have anything else now?
Speaker 1:no, you've just been I just went on my my euro cruise and came back and went right back into work. But the the vacation was great.
Speaker 2:It was very, very needed and now I'm ready to build my savings back up I mean, thankfully you were on a ship for the majority of the time where you have to spend too much money, but yeah, and it was a free cruise too, so I didn't spend too much.
Speaker 1:Uh, london was way more expensive than I was anticipating, though yeah, it is.
Speaker 2:That was, that was the rough um, what else? I was just gonna say, dang, I feel like I was gonna say something, but now I don't quite remember I guess we should uh just get this, this shop, open and get the episode going.
Speaker 1:Fine, I would ask if you had a question for me, but uh, but you already know, I don't.
Speaker 2:It's fine. Uh, what is your favorite place to go?
Speaker 1:that's. That's just way too open like for what I don't know what's your favorite place to go.
Speaker 2:You're mad that I've asked the question now because it's like it. Uh, okay, let's talk about my favorite place okay, what's your favorite place to go? If you're craving a place where time slows down, the air smells like fudge and lake water and history seeps from every stone path, then mackinac island is calling your name are you finally covering mackinac island?
Speaker 1:how have we not talked about this?
Speaker 2:no, I'm not calling Mackinac Island. I just fucking made that all up right now in the sky.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what? No, never mind, I'm just not going to talk.
Speaker 2:Because every question you get so sassy today. You got sassy. You're like you can't. That question is so vague. That's not a question. It's question like my favorite place to go. For what? What's your favorite place to go?
Speaker 1:fine general on the lake to go kayaking away from everybody just been like. Oh, my favorite place to go is kayaking it doesn't take me a minute to think about that when it's so open well, you can't get mad if I ask a question.
Speaker 2:You got mad that I didn't have a question. Then I gave you a question.
Speaker 1:You got mad about the question it wasn't a well thought out question it was perfect.
Speaker 2:It went right into my script so perfectly, all right. Mackinac island is for dreamers, history nerds, romantics, adventurers and people who need a damn break, like zach just got. You'll come for the fudge and horses, but you'll stay for the magic, don't you agree?
Speaker 1:You know I would agree, but I have only ever done day trips. I've never gotten to stay the night on the island and I always feel so teased.
Speaker 2:We do need to do that, because the night it's not popping, doesn't it? It's probably like 11, 11 o'clock and everything kind of shuts down, but, like, some of the bars are still open. But if you go to, my favorite thing is when you go to the bars that no one goes to, it's just like the locals go to. Oh, that's my favorite.
Speaker 1:Perfect. We need to plan that. We've talked about it a couple of times.
Speaker 2:I know Now. Now let me give you all the ways why it's not just a visit, it's a portal for those that haven't gone. The island was primarily inhabited and considered sacred by the. I hope I say this right and you could probably maybe I've never heard of the.
Speaker 1:I hope I say this right tribe and nash.
Speaker 2:How did you know it was a tribe?
Speaker 1:Because we're talking about something in Michigan.
Speaker 2:A-N-I-S-H-I-N-A-A-B-E, and I totally meant to look that up before we recorded. Anash, I can't say it.
Speaker 1:Ah, you spelled it so fast, just go.
Speaker 2:Anashabi. I think it's Anashanabi Anashabie. I think it's Anashanabie Anashanabie people, so this includes it's probably Anashanabie Anashanabie. Thank you it is that. Anashanabie, I'm so bad at pronouncing anything Y'all know by now. All right, so that consists of, or includes, the Adjabi, right Chippewa, the Ottawa and then the Potawatomi. Say it for me Potawatomi, potawatomi, potawatomi. Yes, thank you. I'm so sorry if I'm butchering your tribes. I'm not being too, I promise All right. So these groups form the Three Fires Confederacy, a powerful alliance in the Great Lakes region, did you?
Speaker 1:know, I did not know, but I know now.
Speaker 2:All right, so the name Mackinaw comes from the Drabi word meaning.
Speaker 1:Ojibwe.
Speaker 2:Great, oh, thank you. I'm going to keep butchering it. You should just say it for me Ojibwe. And you know what's crazy is? I have it all pronounced next to it, but I still can't fucking do it, which means great turtle. Oh, isn't that cute.
Speaker 1:Very.
Speaker 2:So they believed the island was the resting place of the great spirit, and the island's shape, when viewed from above, resembled a turtle. I can see that. I kind of can too, with imagination. It was a place of spiritual vision, quests, storytellings and seasonal gathering. What is it? Anashawabi? The anashawabi, a national I.
Speaker 1:I need to see how this is spelled you said it before a-n-i-s-h-i-n-a-a-b-e anishina Anishinaabe.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, you said it right. Okay, all right. So the Anishinaabe did not live on the island year round due to the cold winters. It was used as seasonal camp for fishing especially whitefish and lake trout trade and spiritual ceremonies. They built birchbark canoes, lived in wigwams. What are those? Are those?
Speaker 1:those are the it's like the round teepees.
Speaker 2:OK, that's what I was envisioning first. Ok, and followed sustainable practices of hunting, foraging and fishing. So long before Europeans, the island was part of an extensive indigenous trade networks of an extensive indigenous trade networks. So by the time French arrived in the 1600s, they found Mackinac already bustling as a hub for fur trading.
Speaker 1:Which is like so weird. How do they decide that island is the trade center? Because it's not easy to get to.
Speaker 2:No so, with Ottawa traders playing a key role as the middleman. So the French established relationships with indigenous groups through marriage, trade and missionary efforts, and Mackinac was considered a thin place where the boundary between the physical and the spiritual world is narrow.
Speaker 1:Which I feel like you can just feel when you're there. That's what.
Speaker 2:I'm saying it's magic. So elders and spiritual leaders would conduct ceremonies and teachings on the island. Burial grounds and sacred spots were carefully protected and respected. As European settlement expanded, indigenous tribes were gradually displaced, especially through treaties like the Treaty of Washington in 1836, which relinquished much of northern Michigan. So today descendants of these tribes, especially the Little Traverse Bay bands of Ottawa Indians and Sault Ste Marie tribe of tribal Indians, continue to maintain cultural and historical ties to the island.
Speaker 1:But there's really not like a big native population on the island at all.
Speaker 2:It's really sad. It's native population on the island at all. It's really sad. It's very, very sad. All right, so let me give you a brief breakdown of some additional history, like over the years. So the indigenous origins, so original inhabitants, were the how did we say it again?
Speaker 1:Anishinaabe.
Speaker 2:Thank you, which I already went through what you know that all entails. But they lived on the around the island for centuries. They considered the island sacred, believing it was the home of the Great Spirit. Like I said, they named Mackinac comes from place of the Great Turtle or Great Turtle. Okay, so that's how we all started, that's where all the magic is from. Okay, so then the French and the British control from the 1600 to the 1700s, so the French period. The French arrived in the 1600s and established a fur trading post. The Alley became a vital hub to the North America fur trade. Okay, then the British takes over, of course. After the French and Indian War in 1763, the British took control and then Fort Mackinac on the mainland was moved to the island in 1780 and became Fort Mackinac, a strategic military post. Which have you ever toured that?
Speaker 1:I did when I was younger, but every time. I've been up there for the day. I'm like I don't know if I want to bike all the way up there.
Speaker 2:It's really cool. Um, so then the and that was a british fort. So, yeah, so well, the, yeah, so after the french indian war, the british took, okay, control of it. Yep, so then the american era and the war of 1812. So after the american revolution, mackinac island was handed over to the US in 1796. And then, during the War of 1812, the British recaptured Fort Mackinac in a surprise attack. So the Americans tried to take it back in 1814, but failed. It was returned to the US after the war ended in 1815. It's like the island has so much history it's crazy.
Speaker 1:It is wild.
Speaker 2:So Victorian tourism and the rise of resorts was in the late 1800s. So by the late 19th century the island became a popular summer resort for wealthy Americans, escaping the heat of the cities like Chicago and Detroit. The Grand Hotel opened in 1887 and became famous for its 660-foot front porch, which is still the longest in the world.
Speaker 1:I would have thought the Grand Hotel was older than that. I know 1895.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Doesn't it feel like it should be? It does Because, I mean, the whole island has such an old-timey feel to it. But 1887.
Speaker 2:Close enough, yeah? Well, the next line is 1895. I'm sorry, so 1887 was the Grand Tour de. In 1895, mackinac Island State Park became Michigan's first state park and the second national park in the US, before being turned over to the state, which I'm sure you probably knew that.
Speaker 1:I knew it was the first state park. I didn't know Is it still a national park?
Speaker 2:The second national park. I think so. Well, no, because if it's turned over to the state, is it then considered just a state park or national park?
Speaker 1:I don't know. We'll say state.
Speaker 2:We'll have to look that up. So motor vehicles were banned in 1898 and are still banned today, giving the island its unique horse-drawn, bicycle-driven charm, which is our favorite thing about the islands Well, mine, I love it so much because you have to walk everywhere or you have to do bikes, like horse rides. It's just so fun, like the fact that you can't get on a car or anything motorized is just so fun to me.
Speaker 1:It really adds to like the. You truly feel like you go back in time. Yes, Okay.
Speaker 2:So then, just like a little pop culture note, mackinac Island is the setting for the 1980 romantic time travel movie Somewhere in Time, starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, filmed at the Grand Hotel. Did you know that?
Speaker 1:I've never seen that movie, so no.
Speaker 2:I haven't either, but I think that's like one of the most famous things. I feel like if you do any tours, they always talk about that and that's where the famous kissing scene is All right. So how are you feeling so far about Mackinac Island?
Speaker 1:Nostalgic. I kind of want to go back. It been oh gosh almost three years no two years.
Speaker 2:Two years because we both kind of went at the same time.
Speaker 1:We literally it's. It's our usual annual trip to north michigan, where we both miss each other by a couple days, like yeah, um, I think it was two years ago.
Speaker 2:We did that okay. So now let's talk about zach's favorite thing Fudge. A shipwreck. Oh yeah, those Fudge. Sure, we can talk about fudge. I didn't know that was your favorite thing, and not just one. Mackinac Island has plenty. Nearly 90 shipwrecks have occurred in the Straits of Mackinac. That's crazy.
Speaker 1:It makes sense, though, because that's where the two lakes meet, and it gets rough out there.
Speaker 2:I know, but it's like when you look at it on a map, it's like nothing. I mean, I know it is.
Speaker 1:The Great Lakes are bad bitches. They take boats. They're so bad.
Speaker 2:So the Straits of Mackinac are a vital waterway connecting Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, forming passage between the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan. So here are some notable shipwrecks, because I cannot go through all 90.
Speaker 1:Oh man.
Speaker 2:Oh man. So the SS Cedarville 1955. It was a steel freighter. It sank after colliding with a Norwegian ship in heavy fog. Ten crew members died and it lies about 110 feet of water and it's a popular dive site but also said to have an uneasy energy. The Sandesky 1856, sank in a storm carrying grain, one of the oldest wrecks in the area, remarkably preserved, and divers have reported strange whispers or feelings of being watched.
Speaker 1:I don't know what I would do if I was diving and I heard whispers. I would have thought I'm getting the bends. I need to go now.
Speaker 2:The bends I would Drowned. I'd probably pass out and drown.
Speaker 1:And become the next Whisperer.
Speaker 2:Eber Ward 1909. So this was a wooden steamer and it struck ice and sink. Five crew were lost and divers described the wreck as eerily intact, like she's waiting to rise again.
Speaker 1:It is just wild, with how cold the Great Lakes are, that it just preserves everything.
Speaker 2:William H Barnum, which is an 1894, burned and sank near Boise Blank Island. Is it Boise or Boise Boise? B-o-i-s Boise Blank Island.
Speaker 1:That would be French, so it would be a silent, like a bois Bois.
Speaker 2:BlankS, boise Blanc Island. That would be French, so it would be a silent, like a bois Bois Blanc Island, bois Blanc, bois Blanc. I live in Grand Blanc, not Grand Blanc, anyway. Wreckage lies in shallow water, making it visible to snorkelers on clear days.
Speaker 1:That would be cool, because at least you don't have to get too close.
Speaker 2:To just see any of those. I would be sad, but it would be very cool. With lots of rich history, there has to be some horror If the history isn't already horror enough, it's so clever. It's kind of horrifying. So Mackinac has a reputation for being one of the most haunted places in Michigan, and I wonder why.
Speaker 1:We need to investigate there 100%. I cannot wait.
Speaker 2:So Fort Mackinac ghosts of soldiers past. The historic fort dating back to the late 1700s is said to be one of the most haunted locations on the island. Visitors and staff have reported 1. The soldier in white?
Speaker 1:Of course we have reported one, the soldier in white.
Speaker 2:Of course we gotta always have the ghost in white so sighted near the office hill officers hills quarters and guardhouse. Described as a tall male figure dressed in a white 18th century british uniform, he is often seen standing still and watching people before vanishing into the air. They also hear disembodied footsteps real quick.
Speaker 1:Going back to that if, when, not if. When I become a ghost, I want to become the ones that vanish into the air, because I feel like that always gives people the most heebie-jeebies, like you see me for a second and then gone because then you're like wait did I?
Speaker 2:did I just fucking see that. No. So the second thing that they report is disembodied footsteps. So many visitors and staff report hearing footsteps pacing across wooden floors, especially in unaccompanied rooms. The sound of military boots climbing stairs or patrolling the perimeter has been captured during paranormal investigations. Number three is the haunted kids quarters.
Speaker 1:No, your favorite.
Speaker 2:Toys in the children's exhibit area are said to move on their own, especially the rocking horse and dolls. Some say they've heard childlike laughter or giggling when no children are present, and paranormal teams have recorded EVPs of whispers and humming in the area. They also have apparitions in the windows, so staff has reported seeing faces or full body figures peering out of second story windows, only to find the building locked and empty.
Speaker 1:Are there glass in those windows too, or no?
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:Some I was gonna say because a lot of it feels like it doesn't like that kind of adds to it, because, like you're not seeing a reflection I don't remember, maybe not I, I just because I did the tour two years ago.
Speaker 2:I don't quite remember. Maybe it doesn't actually, or maybe some buildings said I can't, I really can't. Are you looking it up?
Speaker 1:it looks like they do do. Some of them Some do, some don't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, ok, also cold spots and some sudden temperature drops. So cold drafts and sharp drops in temperatures have been documented, especially in the old prison cell and guardhouse. Some visitors report feeling a heavy presence or pressure in their chests, while inside these rooms they also have interactive ghosts. So tour guides have said they've heard their names whispered, felt taps on their shoulders or noticed doors opening and closing by themselves. One even reported seeing an unseen hand close like an unseen like hand close a um a ledger book in the commander's quarters.
Speaker 2:so like they didn't see the person, they just kind of saw like yeah just the hand yeah, basically, like this would probably be haunted just because of, like, the american revolution, the war, the civil war in fort mackinac saw years of military hardship, illness, death. Several burials took place on the island and parts of the fort are built near or over old cemeteries and indigenous sacred land.
Speaker 2:So I can't imagine how oh yeah, we got a recipe for disaster there yep, and then obviously all the other wars and things that that fort had seen. So the second haunted location is a mission point resort and they have the Weeping Ghost. That's just so sad. I know Once a college campus in the 1960s. Really.
Speaker 1:The resort is now. Sorry, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Look it up. I didn't look. I'm sorry. Every time I don't look something up I'm like I know Zach's going to ask me about it and I still don't look it up.
Speaker 1:I planned that way.
Speaker 2:So the resort is now infamous for being haunted by a spirit named Harvey, the ghost of Harvey. Who was Harvey?
Speaker 1:I've been asking myself that for the last 30 seconds.
Speaker 2:I like that name, Harvey. It's cute.
Speaker 1:It always reminds me of Sabrina.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say Harvey Crinkle.
Speaker 1:Horrible last name.
Speaker 2:I think that was his name, harvey Crinkle. Yeah, mr Crinkle. Okay, harvey is believed to be a college student from the 1960s, when the resort housed Moral Rearmment MRA College. Oh, there you go, mra College. I did have it in here. There you go.
Speaker 1:I needed to just be patient.
Speaker 2:A short-lived utopian experiment. So the story goes that Harvey fell in love with a girl who didn't return his feelings.
Speaker 2:Unrequited love is always the worst Devastated he walked the bluffs behind Mission Point and took his own life with a gun. Yes, so Harvey's haunted legacy is that his body was discovered months later frozen with a bullet wound and a pistol nearby, but his death remains surrounded by mystery and speculation. So staff and guests report doors slamming on their own footsteps in empty hallways, tvs and lights turning on and off, the sensation of being watched or followed, ghostly whispers and sobbing in empty rooms, and Harvey's hotspot is room 2200, and it's considered to be the epicenter of activity. This room is where the guests have seen shadowy figures at the foot of the bed, felt cold spots and sudden drops of temperature and reported being touched or shaken awake. Don't wake me up. Like don't shake me awake.
Speaker 1:That's so rude. Right, just gently pull my covers back until I'm freezing and just be standing at the end of the bed. Exactly, I'd rather have that, actually, would I? I don't know, anything is shaking. It's just like it's so frustrating it pisses me off.
Speaker 2:Paranormal teams have captured evps, unexplained knocking and even like the lights flickering during investigations. Um and others report other than harvey are children's spirits. So some guests, especially those traveling with kids, have reported interactions with ghostly children, such as hearing laughing or singing, boys moving or rolling on their own and feeling tiny fingers tug at clothing. Let me do. I just totally forgot to tell you before I went on that I could not find really why people speculate that Harvey's death was not necessarily himself. It seemed pretty cut and dry.
Speaker 1:I was trying to figure it out but, like I know also, how did it take? Months?
Speaker 2:because I like imagine the bluffs, or the bluffs that far.
Speaker 1:Oh, he did it in winter. Okay, yeah, because they found him later.
Speaker 2:Yeah so I don't know. I tried looking that up and I couldn't find anything that, but also I couldn't really find anything that was set in stone that he really was a student there. So who knows? Another thing that happens here is unseen performers, which I think is so cool.
Speaker 1:The theater space once used by the MRA is rumored to be haunted by an actress or singer who never left, so this is one thing that always gives me because, like the forts and the prisons and asylumsums, those make sense to me and why they're haunted. But there's also so many haunted theaters, like I wonder if it's the emotion of so many people over the year. I think it's probably residual, right, but I wonder why those spaces?
Speaker 2:so much energy.
Speaker 1:Think of how much energy you put into a performance I guess that's, true you know I mean whether it's like you're putting residual energy into it too, because you're doing it over and over, over and over again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think that's why I think theaters are just like a slow imprint. Yeah, so people have heard music playing, voices behind the curtain and even stage lights flickering without power. I think that's so cool. Could you imagine just like hearing your performance from I don't know a million years ago? You know what I mean. Not a million, but like.
Speaker 1:I know what you mean. It's just so cool.
Speaker 2:Okay, so the vibe of Mission Point is not a scream in the night type of like haunting. It's more of like emotionally heavy, like it's often described as melancholy or mournful, but like kind of like curiously peaceful, like people don't ever really feel scared, they just kind of feel like at ease or just like sorrowful. I don't know which makes sense. Ah, the drowning pool, the haunted cove.
Speaker 1:This one I've heard of.
Speaker 2:Located between Mission Point and and downtown. This eerie body of water has a chilling legend. So the legend of the drowning pool, alleged witch trials not necessarily salem-esque, but very alleged, uh. So the legend claims that in the 17 and 1800s, seven women accused of witchcraft or moral crimes, often innkeepers, healers or women who didn't fit society's mold, were tied to rocks and drowned here. Also, let me just put in here that my friend Brad sent me this article and was like this is totally you, and it was literally just the witch trials of Mackinac Island and this is literally what made me actually like finally do Mackinac. So shout out to Brad Thanks.
Speaker 1:I think I've read this article. Last time I was there Cause we were looking for some of the haunted places and this one's interesting but I don't actually think it's real because there's nothing proven that there was witch trials here.
Speaker 2:But I think it's really cool. Not cool, but you know. So these weren't court sanctioned witch trials like Salem, but they were more like mob justice or community suspicion. So no official records back up any of these deaths. But the lore persists and many believe some dark, dark, dark things did happen here. So basically, the reported hauntings of the drowning pool are ghostly women in the water. Visitors claim to see figures of women rising from the hover and hovering above the water, often wearing flowing dresses, which which I'm sorry that sounds so scary.
Speaker 1:That would be so unsettling.
Speaker 2:That is so unnerving.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And then some report that the woman appeared to be watching silently vanishing when approached. I don't know, but that really freaks me out. Bubbles with no source. So on still days the water is calm, but occasionally bubbles ripple out of nowhere said to happen when spirits are near, which.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of a I don't know. Here's one of those things where I think sometimes, like the phenomenon precedes the legend, where probably the legend of it was built around this, but with it being such native heavy land and all that kind of stuff, it also very much all these things could be very similar to elemental or fairy energy, correct?
Speaker 2:yes, I agree, but also the bubbles, I'm sorry. I can't really get down with that because probably there's so much stuff living or just like.
Speaker 2:you know what I mean. But I understand like, if it's really really just like silent and still and you just see creepy little bubbles, I get it. You're already thinking this Eerie sounds and voices. So paranormal investigators have reported hearing crying, screaming, soft singing, and then these sounds have often occurred at night or in the early morning mist, especially when no one else is nearby. So I'm not saying that these witch trials didn't really happen, but I don't know. It's definitely some weird things.
Speaker 1:I've read into those ones a bit and there's enough evidence whether the legend part is true. There's enough evidence that something is occurring, oh for sure.
Speaker 2:So reflections that don't match reality is another one of these hauntings. Is another one of these hauntings. They say that some guests and ghost tour participants have looked into the water and seen faces that weren't their own or reflections that didn't match who was standing by them, which is kind of what they also think that these are the witches that were drowned looking back at you, which is so sad.
Speaker 1:That is sad Also. Could you imagine not seeing your own face reflected?
Speaker 2:That would freak me out more than anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Ew.
Speaker 1:Nope.
Speaker 2:So the atmosphere. They basically say that the drowning pool is only about 20 feet deep, but it's surrounded by overhanging trees and stone paths that make it feel like it's cut off from the island, and so many describe the air as thick and heavy, even on sunny days. Others experience a sense of like the dread and sadness, especially if you're, like, sensitive to energy, which that makes sense, because if it is, if it is true, which it really could be in, and just like the records were never held or whatever.
Speaker 1:I imagine they probably didn't want to make it too public. Well, no.
Speaker 2:Right For sure, but yeah, you could definitely see how the atmosphere would be very sad. The next one that we have is St Anne's Cemetery, known for the restless spirits, so one of the oldest cemeteries on the island, dating back to the 1700s. It has its share of ghost stories. People have seen figures standing by the graves, especially near twilight. Some say they've heard chanting or voices near the graves of nuns and priests. We get it Like. I got lost through there not lost, but I might have made aaron go for a bike ride through up there and then when we got to the cemetery it was so dark that it was pitch black and we didn't have lights on the bikes because we rent oh no, we didn't rent rakes, but our lights died. It was awful, it was so dark. The island has no lights, y'all like. It has no lights up there. There's no like street lights or anything. Right, it is. It was so dark. The island has no lights, y'all Like it has no lights up there.
Speaker 1:There's no like streetlights or anything. Right it is. It was so dark, zach, because the only place that is is like where the houses are and like and it's such a small part of the island that is actually.
Speaker 2:We couldn't see shit, and Aaron was so mad.
Speaker 1:I remember you telling me about that he was pissed.
Speaker 2:It was so good though, all right. Uh, the grand hotel glitz, glam and ghosts, baby. Even the iconic luxury hotel has paranormal rumors it's built on bones. So the hell, the hell, the hell, the hell. The hotel was constructed on what was once a military post-cementary and the remains unearthed during construction.
Speaker 1:I was going to say did they move the remains? I would imagine if they unearthed them during construction, they would have had to.
Speaker 2:Yes, so many believe that disturbing these graves and not fully relocating them left some spirits unsettled. So the most common hauntings and the spirits for there are the man in the top hat. The most famous ghost is a well-dressed gentleman in Victorian form, aware, often seen in the ballroom or near the grand staircase, and he has been spotted standing at windows, walking through the walls or disappearing into air. Mid-step and room 220 there is the room that has earned a spooky reputation for objects moving on their own.
Speaker 1:We need to look up the numerology of this, because that's 220 and the other one was 220.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was 220. Yeah, I know, I realized that when I was doing research. I was like that's weird. So lights flickering or shutting off, guests reporting feelings of being watched or even pinned down while sleeping. And then staff has often avoided this room if they don't have to enter it, like they don't even want to be a part of this room if they don't have to. They also have phantom music. So reports of orchestral. Is it orchestral?
Speaker 1:I think you can say I think this is a potato, potato. I think it's orchestral or orchestral. I think you can say I think, this is a potato. Potato, I think it's orchestral or orchestral, I think you can say it either way, we're going to go with that.
Speaker 2:So music playing late at night with no events that are happening. Guests hear waltz and waltzes and piano tunes drifting through hallways. Some believe it's echoes from a gilded age dancing, or maybe the spirits are still just partying, which that's what I would like to believe right, I think we would definitely party in the afterlife.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh my god, you wouldn't have to deal with hangovers no, I don't think so. Well, we don't know and you could drink all the booze you want the booze.
Speaker 2:So they have a lady in white um described as a young woman in elegant white gown seeing floating through, especially near the cupola bar. She's usually quiet and appears sad or thoughtful, vanishing before anyone gets too close.
Speaker 1:Do they have any idea of who she might have been?
Speaker 2:I didn't see anything that said that. No, the hallways are just kind of haunted. So guests and staff reports sudden cold spots, shadowy figures and old-fashioned clothing portraits that seem to watch people move.
Speaker 1:Hey, it's like in the haunted mansion.
Speaker 2:I love it, uh, and then so some paranormal evidence. So paranormal investigators and guests have captured orbs light anonymous anomalies thank you. Evps or voices whispering or calling names, apparitions showing up in mirrors, in photos.
Speaker 1:I think that's what I've seen the most of from the Grand Hotel is like the mirror strangeness which is like I feel like that's one of those things that are like sometimes happens, but that like they have so much of that there.
Speaker 2:Mm, hmm, like they have so much of that there, so some pop culture haunting. Going back to the hotel, was the setting of Somewhere in Time, that movie, the 1980 romantic time travel film. So some guests say the energy of the film and the real life love story behind it left an emotional imprint on the hotel. Oh, that's kind of cool.
Speaker 2:So they kind of think it's actually haunted the hotel in a good way obviously, yeah, like the intentional haunting we we've talked about quite a bit all right, so we're gonna go back to zach's favorite ghost ships and I'm gonna give you ghost ships and haunted waters I thought it was gonna be fudge again. So I'm going to give you some other shipwrecks, okay, but the hauntings that have come from these ones.
Speaker 1:You know I'm down for a haunted shipwreck.
Speaker 2:The, well, not the Le Griffon, which is 1679, the OG ghost ship. Ghost ship built by french explorer la salle, disappeared with six crew members and a fortune in furs. Has never been found, despite centuries of searching. Said to be seen drifting through fog near the straits sails full, but no one aboard.
Speaker 1:I love, love that everyone in the Great Lakes claims to have the original ghost ship in all their lore.
Speaker 2:I mean, hey, I don't know, but that's creepy, if you just saw it and it was clearly like a ghost ship, like no one was on it Right and it just disappears. The WH Gilscher 1892. The Steel Phantom yeah, One of the first steel fighters on the Great Lakes vanished in a violent storm near Mackinac Island. Wreck never found Some report seeing a ship matching her description, on foggy nights accompanied by a phantom foghorn.
Speaker 1:I would love to see it go ship.
Speaker 2:Wouldn't that be really cool.
Speaker 1:It would be really cool, honestly. That would complete my life like, imagine you're just sitting on the porch of the grand hotel and just see it go by yeah, or I can envision sitting in the um, what are those chairs called anoranda?
Speaker 2:you know the all the white anoranda chairs what if we were just sitting in one and then we just saw it going by right after we just came home from the pink pony club. I just love that they have a, I should have worn my pink pony sweatshirt, oh my god, you should have I have it.
Speaker 1:I have it, god. They had a good summer last year when that song they had to have. Oh yeah, I saw so many tiktoks of people because oh really for people who don't know, there is a place on mackinac island called the pink pony club.
Speaker 2:Oh my god yeah, just the pink pony it's not a club oh well, just the pink pony. It's a very but it's a cool shop, but an expensive restaurant. I've ate there.
Speaker 1:I've only drinks there, but their drinks are expensive okay now.
Speaker 2:This would not be a carrot episode without a talking about your watery butthole reddit story I wasn't wrong, though no, you weren't all right, so I think I have a couple quick Reddit stories to finish this off, because I know this is a longer episode. I think I don't even know how long we've been talking.
Speaker 1:Yeah we're right on average, but you also say every episode is a longer episode, so we're doing good and then it's like not what was that I dropped something oh, it sounded like it.
Speaker 2:Literally keep that in, if they can hear it, because you oh, it sounded like it. Literally Keep that in if they can hear it, because you know what it sounded like and what Zach's expression was like.
Speaker 1:Oh shit, it sounded like the bolt from your chair fell off and I was expecting your chair to. Literally, I just I fidget with my rings and it literally hit every bit of metal on the way towards the ground.
Speaker 2:But it literally sounded like maybe the bolt of your chair and like you were about to go down and your face showed that I wouldn't be surprised, like a ship like a shipwreck. All right, so this is double beginning four, five, four, and this was nine months ago recent oh that they wrote this at least All right.
Speaker 2:Employee and resident. The housing for my first season was definitely haunted. Windows and doors would open unexplainably and things would fall over or get knocked down for no reason. If you're interested, there's a couple books about the hauntings of Mackinac which I have that book and I used it for my research, and there's a ghost tour that you can go on. Mackinac used to be a burial ground for native americans way before there were cemeteries. It's crazy how much history one island can hold. I just wanted to put that on, put this one. It's a very short one but I thought it was really cool.
Speaker 1:She's a resident still and lives there and like you could go to her page and she has a bunch it's so fun seeing like the content from people who live there, because it is it's like you're literally living in the 1800s yeah, most people, um, they go to a lot of people that I've talked to.
Speaker 2:They'll be there, obviously, for the summer. They're working like the horses and stuff like that, and a lot of them go to like hawaii and then they work on the beaches in the winter. It's great, perfect. So shake puzzle headed 228. And this is 10 months ago. Hi, previous employee lived on the island for five years.
Speaker 2:The building I lived in was alleged to be haunted. There is a ghost story right in the back alley. It's definitely a weird feeling, but no ghost sightings in all five years. Now the only ghost experience is one night. I was walking super late from the gatehouse and once I turned down Market Street I took to the right down the street where Kingston's is and the streetlight is going absolutely crazy, flashing uncontrollably. If you know any of the ghost stories, you should know that street. That street is one of the most haunted due to the old cemetery being there. I just keep walking home, but every time I pass the street at night I would look at that light and have never seen it like that again. I put that one in there because it made me think of you.
Speaker 1:I was going to say maybe a slider was just walking past.
Speaker 2:I think so, and the wild thing about that is those are the only really two stories that I could find people giving me haunted stuff on mackinac island and both of them were employees, which I thought was kind of cool that is cool.
Speaker 1:I think this is one of those ones, though, that it has been investigated by some. Like the bigger names, and they're always, I feel like the evps are one of the biggest thing, and the mirrors yeah, yeah, mirrors, and just I don't.
Speaker 2:There's no other way to explain it except for it does feel like magical, because it just feels like you're in a time portal, like you just went back in time, Like it's so weird. Anybody that can go or has thought about going hasn't go. It's so much fun. You probably don't really need maybe two days Like you don't need more than that one night is.
Speaker 2:I say as somebody who's never spent that yeah if you do a whole day, like usually I'll do a whole day, spend the night and then like, do the next day, like for a little bit, but there is so much you could do. Like I said, you could tour the um, the fort you can. I mean it's only like what? 8.2 miles or six point. No, what is the island? It's on my sweatshirt, my other sweatshirt.
Speaker 1:I can't think it doesn't matter, it's not very large it's not at all.
Speaker 2:You can ride it over and over again. It's so much fun, it's just beautiful, and you can get lost in all, like the woods and like when the cemeteries, and, like I said, at night you can find where all the locals hang out and you can ask them, um, what's like the most um tragic thing that's ever happened on the island, or like the number one crime, like I did. And you know the number one crime on the island is, uh, horse thieving, no bike thieving. Oh, you know why I was close? Why? It's just because usually people are too drunk that live there and they grab the road.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say, yeah, they just take the wrong one home. Yeah, the bikes all do look very similar because they're all like the old schwinn style too yeah, but some people have their own bike.
Speaker 2:Like, if you live there, you usually bring your own bike. But like that was what the girl that lives there said, yeah, the number one crime in mackinac island is bike thievery by drunken accident um, also fun fact kara got engaged on mackinac island yay the biggest horror story of them all.
Speaker 1:No, I'm kidding. Wasn't that the same weekend that you got lost with him, or no, huh, that you and Aaron got lost on the bike trail. No, that was literally two years ago.
Speaker 2:No, but what I will remember. I cannot remember what my. He was really cool. I wish I could remember him. I wish I would've got his Instagram, because he went to Hawaii in the summers, but the guy that wrote or drove our horses, he was really cool. But I will never forget that my horses were Reba and Rusty, because he'd be like Reba, rusty I love that. And then I got an allergic reaction. Sounds about right Horses, anyway. So that is Mackinac Island, my favorite place, my husband's for sure favorite place. We just love it. Zach loves it. We need to go together, we really do, but it's just a very magical, just a really cool place, and so you guys should look into it and they also have a place called Zach's Fudge there and my parents never let me live it down because they say I found it.
Speaker 1:It just smacked me right in the face, mostly because I was walking down the pier putting on a hoodie and I slammed into the zack's fudge sign and knocked it over and tripped myself. Is zack's fudge still there? I don't know if it is this was a long long time ago because you ruined the sign.
Speaker 1:And then they were like we gotta shut down yeah, it's just, you know they're like well, he's way too cool, we can't be named after him anymore was it spelt the same? I don't remember. I was like eight years old when this happened.
Speaker 2:I think you fucking ruined Zach's fudge. Probably All right. Well, what else Do you have anything else for Mackinac Like? What else can you think of Anything cool when you?
Speaker 1:were there. There are two of my favorite things and one I'm way too old to do but like. Going to like the like blacksmith metal shop is always so fun, oh yeah, um. And then they have the insect and reptile like garden. It's like a. It's more of like a butterfly garden than anything else but at the end of it. They have a bunch of reptiles, so I always go there.
Speaker 2:That's fun. I'll have to do that. You know what they have. I don't know how recent, but they have a um, like a. I don't think it's like haunted museum, but it's like a museum of like mystery or like yeah yeah what is it called?
Speaker 1:um, um, it's not the mystery spot, but it is like oh yeah, it's something like that I've never done that, though, have you? Aaron didn't want to do it almost always been closed when I go oh, because it's like.
Speaker 2:It looks like an old theater, it's really dark and it has like all like it's got like the big foot out front and yeah, and I think, um, not lacknass monster, but the monster of the dark black lagoon or something. Yeah, I don't even know. They have all kinds of weird cool things there.
Speaker 1:It's just like you just gotta go it's just a fun, everybody go uh, and that's really all I have for you guys and we always ask for, but the write-ins we want this time. If you've ever had experiences on Mackinac Island, let us know about those.
Speaker 2:That too, but also from our. We need a call to action from our last episode. We need you guys to DM us some questions that you would want to ask Lauren the mortician for when she comes back, or you could call in you could call oh, that would actually be more fun, because then she could hear you guys yes, call in the questions yeah phone numbers down in the show note uh, what emoji are we leaving for this episode?
Speaker 1:oh, a horse or a bike, a bike, a bike, a bike and isn't there like the island with, like I know it has a palm tree on it. But bike in an island, sure, perfect. Bike, island horse, whichever out of those you prefer. We'll know what you're talking about. Maybe we will, Maybe we won't.
Speaker 2:Oh I also hold on, hold, on, hold on y'all. I have one last shout out before we leave. Sorry, guys, sorry, I want to shout out Kaylee. Kaylee DM'd us the other day, zachary, and she wants you to cover a place, and I'm saying you because you're in Grand Rapids. I'll send you this, but she lives in Portage, isn't that in the thumb? Portage, michigan? I don't know, but she's a huge fan of us and she is so pretty. You're so pretty, kaylee.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, no, it's right by Kalamazoo. Okay, that's by me.
Speaker 2:I was going to say Portage doesn't sound that far, but anyway. So thank you for giving us a suggestion, thank you for telling me I'm pretty, but you're really pretty, but anyway, that's my other shout out All right, let's go.
Speaker 1:Anything else we need before we close up the shop for the day.
Speaker 2:Uh no, the most important thing that you can do for us is to creep a real yard balls.
Speaker 1:Goodbye, bye At the Irish shop, hooked in the shadows At the Irish shop and home with the oddballs At the Irish shop. The door's always open At the Irish shop.
