HGB Ep. 468 - River Raisin Battlefield

Moment in Oddity - New Year's Eve in Talca, Chile (suggested by Scott Booker)

Many of us celebrate different New Year's Eve traditions. Some are familial based, being passed down from generation to generation. Others are cultural or religious in nature. A New Year's tradition that was established relatively recently, comes from Talca, Chile. Many people in this city spend New Year's Eve at their local graveyards surrounded by their deceased relatives and friends. Although to some people it may seem distressing or solemn, the locals here say that spending the night with their deceased loved ones brings peace to their souls and ensures them a lucky new year. Visitors typically bring food and drink for this tradition that began as recently as 1995. On that New Year's Eve, a family breached the graveyards' fence to spend time with their recently deceased father. The local authorities were so moved by the surviving family's act, that new laws were created so that the cemeteries were kept open on New Year's Eve from that time on. Today, people are encouraged to decorate their loved ones graves and spend the night reminiscing them. Many cultures fear death, but the community of Talca, Chile have made New Year's Eve a beautiful time of remembrance. Even so, some may say that spending New Year's Eve in a cemetery, certainly is odd.   

This Month in History - Ellis Island Opens

In January, on the 1st, in 1892, Ellis Island officially opened as an immigration station in New York Harbor. Seventeen-year-old Annie Moore, from County Cork, Ireland was the first immigrant to be processed at the new federal immigration depot. She was also accompanied by her two younger brothers. The teenager made history as the very first immigrant to be processed at Ellis Island. The island is located at the mouth of the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey. It served as an immigration station for more than 60 years until its closure in 1954. Ellis Island had millions of newly arriving immigrants pass through its doors during this time. It is estimated that nearly 40 percent of all American citizens can trace at least one of their relatives having passed through Ellis Island. Many immigrants left their homes in the Old World due to war, drought, famine and religious persecution, and all had hopes for greater opportunity in the New World. During the peak of Ellis Island's operation, an average of 1,900 people came through the immigration station each day. Today, it is part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument and visitors can tour the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration. This museum is home to a variety of exhibits and houses an amazing collection of artifacts from American history.

River Raisin Battlefield (Suggested by: Tre Doyle)

The Battle of Frenchtown took place during the War of 1812 and its battlefield is the only nationally recognized American battlefield dating to the War of 1812. The greatest victory of the war for Tecumseh's confederation took place here. What happened after the Battle of Frenchtown, amounted to a massacre. In the aftermath, Native Americans were removed from the Northwest Territory. This would be the beginning of decades of Indian Removal. The battlefield is thought to be one of the most haunted locations in Michigan, more than likely because of all this negative spiritual residue. Join us as we explore the battles and hauntings connected to River Raisin National Battlefield Park! 

"Remember the Raisin" doesn't sound like much of a battle cry. "Remember the Alamo" has more of the call to arms ring to it. But there really was once such a cry that fire upped the Americans to go on to win the War of 1812. The River Raisin Battleground is located at 1403 East Elm Avenue in Monroe, Michigan. That address is actually for a house that was included on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019. This is actually a fairly young nationally recognized historic site, only becoming a part of the national park system in 2010. But the area has a long history. The spot where the battlefield lies today has played host to many cultures. This was an area rich in resources near the River Raisin and was good for growing crops and fur trading. The Pottawatomi and Wyandot Tribes had lived here before French settlers came. The French Canadians called the area La Riviere aux Raisins because of the wild grape clusters hanging from the trees over the river. The French lost the territory to the British after the French and Indian Wars. In 1796, the United States took the territory.

There was a time not long ago when Detroit, Michigan had been hit hard economically and was a struggling city. Today, it is on a comeback, but it still might be hard for people to believe that this was a city so coveted that people were willing to die for it. This is the historic setting for the War of 1812 in the Midwest. Ohio had officially become a state in 1803. Many future states were part of the Northwest Territory, including Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, parts of northeastern Minnesota and Michigan. This territory was still occupied and influenced by the British and they had a strong ally in Chief Tecumseh, who was a powerful and charismatic leader. They worked together to grow a fur business. And the Native Americans trusted the British and believed them when they said they wouldn't settle the frontier. If Americans wanted to venture into this territory, they knew they better be prepared to tussle with the British and their Indian allies. There was a dangerous tension brewing. The American government felt that they looked weak not being able to control their territory. The British, of course, wanted to hold onto what they felt should be theirs. The Native Americans just didn't want to be pushed off their ancestral lands. It was inevitable that there would be a clash. 

In order to control the Great Lakes region, a country had to possess Detroit. Detroit controlled the river corridor into Lake Erie that lead into the Upper Great Lakes. America couldn't expand without holding Detroit. On June 18, 1812, the United States Congress declared war with Great Britain. This tension in the Great Lakes region was one of the three reasons America gave for making this decision. The British had established an economic blockade of France and forced many  neutral American seamen into the British Royal Navy against their will were the other two reasons. In support of the declaration, the River Raisin militia was called into service. Their job was to build a road linking Detroit with Ohio. In July, Brigadier General William Hull arrived with his troops in Detroit and they began preparation for invading Canada.

After seven days, Hull and his troops did just that. They invaded British-held Canada and set their sites on capturing Fort Malden\Amherstburg in what is today Ontario. They accomplished that, but didn't hold it for long. The British and their Native American allies pushed the American forces back to Detroit. By August, Britain had Detroit under siege and the completely incompetent Hull realized he had no choice but to surrender the fort in Detroit. This gave British Major General Isaac Brock the entire Michigan territory. Things were quiet until November of 1812 when talk of an American invasion to take back Michigan and Detroit was being spread. A troop of Canadian militiamen were sent to the River Raisin settlement with one small cannon to prepare for this battle. This settlement was Frenchtown and it sat 30 miles southwest of Detroit on the Raisin River where it flowed into lake Erie. French Canadians had settled the area in 1784. This would eventually become the village of Monroe in 1817.

General James Winchester was a veteran of the Revolutionary War and he was tasked with preparing for a winter campaign to take back Detroit. He arrived in Maumee Rapids (what would become Toledo) in January of 1813. The General sent 550 of his men from the 1st and 5th Kentucky Volunteer Regiments, under the command of colonels William Lewis and John Allen to the River Raisin, after the settlement requested help when the British took control. When these troops arrived on January 18, 1813, the first Battle at the River Raisin began. The American forces were unsuccessful against the stronger Canadian Militia and Confederacy Warriors. The battle dissolved into skirmishes that took place throughout the woods surrounding Frenchtown and left 13 Americans dead with 54 wounded. Casualties on the other side were not reported, but this was considered a win for the Kentucky forces. Atrocities took place with Kentuckians scalping some of the Native Americans. Repayment would eventually come for that. 

The Second Battle of River Raisin began on January 22nd and this would be the main Battle of Frenchtown. General Winchester had arrived with more troops on January 20, 1813, bringing the number of American troops close to 1,000. The British were reinforcing as well at Fort Malden in Canada and several more tribes joined the Native Confederation. This included the Wyandot, Shawnee, Potawatomi, Odawa, Ojibwe, Delaware, Miami, Winnebago, Creek, Kickapoo, Sac and Fox. There were 600 British Canadians and 800 Native Warriors that arrived at River Raisin before dawn on the 22nd. Despite the fairly large group, the American sentries didn't see them. The group formed an arc about 300 yards to the north of the settlement with the British regulars and artillery in the center and the Native Confederation flanking on both sides. Another detachment of Native Warriors took a forward position at 250 yards. The group prepared to attack, but before they could, an American sentry finally saw them and played a reveille and then fired a shot into the head line, killing the lead grenadier. This got the American forces awake and scrambling. 

The British artillery fired a strong volley and started charging at Frenchtown. They were met with a puncheon fence that had a force of Kentuckians behind it that were solidly protected and they were able to fire at will. They were unrelenting and the British were forced to retreat. The U.S. 17th Infantry that was on the right flank was having a very different experience. The Canadian militia was pounding them and the Wyandot fighters took cover in nearby buildings and were able to fire into the American encampment. General Winchester was apparently caught off guard too because he was still back at his headquarters. He arrived when the battle was well under way and ordered the infantrymen to fall back to the north bank of the river. The Kentuckians had already gathered there and the group attempted a stand that didn't last long. 

The Americans ran in retreat, but the British forces were unrelenting and another skirmish broke out on the south side of the river. Within minutes, the American line was pulverized. It was a devastating loss for the Americans. General Winchester and several officers were captured, along with 147 of the American forces. There was a large loss of life with 220 killed. Many more were injured. Only 33 men managed to escape. At Frenchtown, the Kentuckians behind the fence were still putting up a fight and holding. The British tried three separate frontal attacks and were repelled every time taking heavy casualties on the third one. This was the British 41st Regiment of Foot and Provincial Marines and they had 24 killed and 158 wounded. The Kentuckians had about a fourth of the casualties, so of course, they thought the Americans were winning the Battle of Frenchtown. They had no idea the other forces had gone into full retreat and were being beaten badly. 

The captured General Winchester was brought before British General Henry Proctor who asked Winchester to have hi men surrender. Winchester refused and pointed out that he couldn't give orders since he was a prisoner. Proctor then told Winchester that the Kentuckians would be burned out and slaughtered by a large force of Tecumseh's Confederation. The American General agreed to send a message, but the Kentuckians balked at the suggestion. They thought they could win with many of the men pleading with the officers not to surrender. They said they would rather die on the battlefield. Major George Madison saw the situation differently. He knew they were beaten and had two choices: to surrender to the British or, as he put it, “be massacred in cold blood.” He held out to make sure they received good terms in regards to prisoners, care of the wounded and protection from the Confederacy Warriors. When the details were hammered out, Madison surrendered.

The British had lost a third of the forces they had at Frenchtown - around 185 men - but that was small compared to the Americans' 901 casualties. And it was about to get worse. The British left behind the Americans who were too wounded to walk and the River Raisin Massacre was about to happen. The Native Warriors were angry and they still had an axe to grind. They returned to Frenchtown the morning after the battle and plundered the settlement, burning everything in their wake. A doctor at the settlement, Dr. Gustavus Bower, described what happened that morning writing, "They did not molest any person or thing upon their first approach, but kept sauntering about until there were a large number collected, (one or two hundred) at which time they commenced plundering the houses of the inhabitants and the massacre of the wounded prisoners." Numbers are hard to gauge, but anywhere between thirty and a 100 people were killed and scalped. Others were taken as prisoners. 

Major General William Henry Harrison described the massacre as a "national calamity." Survivors described the killings as brutal, but very orderly and without emotion. The wounded who could not travel were the first to die. Anyone who couldn't keep up with the march to Fort Malden were killed. Another survivor said that the road to the fort was left littered with bodies. News of the massacre overshadowed the Battle of Frenchtown and spread across the entire country. This is when "Remember the Raisin" became a battle cry, especially for Kentuckians who had lost so much during the battle and massacre. Many more Kentuckians enlisted as a result. All the American dead from the battle and this massacre were left unburied as people feared more attacks from the Native Americans. The River Raisin area wouldn't be liberated until September when Colonel Richard M. Johnson's Kentucky cavalry arrived at the settlement.

The British were riding high on their victory, but that didn't last for long. "Remember the Raisin" had reinvigorated the Americans. Major General William Henry Harrison went to Fort Meigs, not far from Frenchtown, and repelled the British. The Americans continued to have victories in the Lower Great Lakes and the British had to abandon Detroit. General Harrison then invaded Canada, won the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813 and killed the great leader Tecumseh. The British gave up their American-owned territory in the Great Lakes region, but retained Canada. The War of 1812 was over. In honor of this battle, nine counties in Kentucky are named for officers who fought in it. Only one of them actually survived the battle. The battlefield was named as a Michigan Historic Site on February 18, 1956. In December of 1982, the battlefield received national recognition and protection. In 2010, the area became River Raisin National Battlefield Park. There are only four National Battlefield Parks in America and this is the only one from the War of 1812.

This battlefield at River Raisin has made it into some top ten most haunted lists for the state of Michigan. It's no wonder with the emotional baggage of this battle. Native Americans were understandably filled with resentment and seeking vengeance before the battle began. During the heat of any war, atrocities are committed by all sides. And that happened here. Settlers drove off Natives and scalped them and the indigenous people retaliated. The sentiments that this stirred nationally lead to the Native Americans being driven out of the Northwest Territory and eventually the Indian Removal Act would be passed and most tribes would be removed from their ancestral lands and marched west. There is a lot of negative spiritual residue in the wake of this one small battle during the War of 1812. The area is also one with a lot of lore attached to it, mainly due to the French Canadians that settled the area. 

The French Canadians believed that the River Raisin settlement had Le Feu Follet wandering around. This is a legendary spirit in French folklore that is similar to the Will-o'-the-Wisp. One resident decades ago shared a tale of having to take a rowboat from Johnson Island to get to the mainland. As they crossed the River Raisin, a huge ball of fire settled on one end of the boat." They started paddling quickly to get away from the ball of light. These are thought to be bewitched balls of light that are the souls of dead sinners that try to lure victims to going over cliffs or drowning in lakes. The founding family of River Raisin were the Navarres and the daughter Monique was in love with a man named William Macomb, Jr. She and her brother Robert went to visit William in the nearby town, but when they arrived, he wasn't there. His servant said that he was worried because he should've been home by then. Monique was afraid that William was lost because of the Le Feu Follet. The group went in search of him and were about to give up when they heard a pistol shoot. They followed the sound to a murky swamp and saw a body lying in the water and struggling. When they pulled it out, they saw it was William and he was still alive. He told the group he had been walking home when he lost his way and then saw this sudden bright light which led him into the swamp.

There were also the River Raisin Lutins. Lutins were these little creatures that were green in color believed to be the spirits of dead horsemen doing penance. People claimed that was why they only seemed interested in horses. The Lutins would steal horses and ride them furiously through the night. They would then return the horses all dirty and full of burrs. Sometimes they would ride the same horse so often that the animal became unusable for the farmer. Le Loup-Garou was also hanging out in the woods. This was a werewolf-like creature and we actually covered the Louisiana version of this, the Rougarou, on Ep. 65. This creature lures its victim into the woods and then transforms into an animal, which can be anything from a mouse to a wolf. The creature was actually a human that was bound to the Devil and could only be freed by bloodletting. Sometimes Le Loup-Garous would invite their victim to hit them, so that they might bleed and be freed. 

Many residents along E. Elm Ave. where the battlefield is located have reported seeing strange things. There is a young female spirit in a billowing white dress that has been seen in wooded areas and other parts of the battlefield. People believe she is searching for a killed lover. Ghost Hunters of Southern Michigan reportedly caught EVPs and a full-bodied apparition on camera. Visitors to River Raisin have seen strange orbs at night and apparitions of soldiers. There have been the sounds of battle and the screams of agony from wounded and dying men. One of these soldiers has been seen riding a horse. Connie on TripAdvisor reported that her husband was scratched by something unseen.

Richard Ellison of Dead Serious Paranormal in Monroe is quoted in monroenews.com saying, "I could still notice my surroundings, but what I was seeing is very hard to describe. I could hear screaming and loud chant-like noises, but my vision was a blur. It was like watching something while being underwater. I remember snapping out of it, but I don't know how long I was doing this." Richard explained that he felt like a soldier from the conflict had taken over his mind or something and given him visions of the battle. In 2007, a skeptic named Jesse Mayo joined a group investigating the battlefield before it became a national park and he managed to capture weird sounds like a battle and a few EVP.

There was an elderly Monroe woman who lived near the battlefield that had an experience. She said that she had dropped a treat for her dog on the floor and it had gone under the couch, so she crouched down to retrieve it and when she started to look up, she saw a man dressed in 1800's attire and when she looked up further to see his face, the man disappeared. She also has claimed to have objects fly across her living room and she has also heard unexplained noises.

Inside the museum there is a sacred Native American pipe that had belonged to Kiowa Chief Santana. People claim that spirits linger at this display and reveal themselves as little orbs of light.

A volunteer at the park, Sherri Schreiner, was working in the Visitor Center cleaning shortly after the NPS acquired the building when she had an experience. All of the doors were locked for her safety because she was working alone. She said, "I was just working away, when I was startled to hear a violent crashing and running from the upstairs front room down the hall, down the stairs and out the back door. It sounded like whatever it was, was slamming against the walls as it made its way out the back door." Sherri went to go see if she could figure out what happened. The locked back door was now wide open. She decided to ask previous occupants if they had ever had anything weird happen to them and they said they had. When she described what happened to her, they said that they had similar experiences with something running down the hallway. The former residents had even set up booby traps to see if they could capture whoever was making the commotion.

The War of 1812 is practically a forgotten war. Not many people have heard of the Battle of Frenchtown. And perhaps that is why hauntings continue at this location, to remind people of a dark place in our history. Is the River Raisin Battlefield haunted? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:

https://99wfmk.com/haunting-of-river-raisin-2020/ 

Hidden History of Monroe County, Michigan by Shawna Lynn Mazur 

HGB Ep. 419 - Holly Hotel

Moment in Oddity - Eggnog Riot of 1826

Ever heard of an Eggnog Riot? How about a Grog Mutiny? In December of 1826, the United States Academy at West Point, with all of its discipline, descended into a drunken riotous party. Colonel Sylvanus Thayer was in charge of the school and he had banned drinking, tobacco and gambling. Eggnog had become popular and more readily available at this time in America. George Washington was known to enjoy his eggnog with a liberal amount of rum or whiskey. The soldiers at West Point were determined to celebrate Christmas with some spirits. They snuck in gallons of brandy, rum, whiskey and wine and planned to mix it with homemade eggnog. The officer assigned to watch the North Barracks, Captain Ethan Allen Hitchcock, went to bed on Christmas Day thinking that the cadets were not going to throw a party. He was wrong and the cadets in the North Barracks started partying. By 4am, the party was spiraling out of control. The Captain was awakened and he entered one of the party rooms and told the cadets their party was unlawful and they were going to be punished. The drunken cadets turned on him, throwing rocks through his window. They also rampaged through the hallways with muskets, bayonets and swords and even took shots at the Captain. Things ballooned into a riot with more than one-third of the cadets involved. When everything wrapped up, 70 cadets were implicated with 20 of them court-martialed. An eggnog riot, especially at West Point, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Avalanche in Peru Kills Thousands

In the month of January, on the 10th, in 1962, and avalanche kills thousands in Peru. There were several small farming communities that had formed in the Rio Santa Valley in the shadow of Mount Huascaran, part of the Andes Mountains. This mountain was notorious for cracking off ice and snow, but villagers usually had plenty of warning to get to higher ground. On this particular day, things happened so fast that there was no escape. The block of ice that broke off was the size of two skyscrapers and weighed millions of ton. The avalanche it created traveled nine-and-a-half miles in only seven minutes. Whole towns were buried in up to 40 feet of ice and mud and trees. Barely anyone survived. Four thousand people were believed to have died with many bodies never being recovered. Some washed away as far as the Pacific Ocean in flooding created by the avalanche. That was a distance of 100 miles.

Holly Hotel (Suggested by: Chelsea Flowers)

The Holly Hotel is located in Holly, Michigan and has survived through several fires, the Great Depression, two world wars and a visit from the infamous temperance leader Carrie Nation. This is a beautiful Queen Anne Victorian that once provided lodging to railroad men and is today a popular restaurant that reputedly is full of ghosts. Join us as we share the history and hauntings of the Holly Hotel!

Holly, Michigan is a village located in the thumb area of the mitten about 55 miles northwest of Detroit. Nathan Herrick was the first settler to arrive in 1830. A little over a decade later, a sawmill and a grist mill were built and in 1850, the village was official when the post office was opened. At the time it was known as Holly Mills. The name changed to Holly officially in 1861. No one knows for sure where the name came from. Holly does grow in the area and an earlier settler named Jonathan Allen did come from Mount Holly, New Jersey so there are multiple possibilities. When the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad came to town, twenty-five trains a day stopped here and the village began to prosper. Soon hotels were needed for railroad men and travelers and the Hirst Hotel would open in 1891.

John Henry Hirst was born in 1857 and he built the first hotel to stand on the site at 110 Martha Street in 1891, naming it after himself. Martha Street was mainly known as Battle Alley because of all the street fights that took place here and the name stuck into the modern era, so the street is officially known as Battle Alley today. The structure was built from wood and was soon destroyed in a fire that happened in April of 1892. Hirst decided to rebuild and chose to use bricks this time. This would also be a more elaborate hotel. He hired George Stanard and John Laneto to design and build it. The new hotel was built from red brick in the Queen Anne style and was two and half stories with a gabled hip-roof and every modern convenience of the time. It was completed at a cost of $16,000 and was said to be the finest hotel in Oakland County with the largest dining room in the area. Hirst's wife Lydia died in 1903 and he remarried in 1904. He held onto the hotel for a couple more years and decided to sell, which he did in August of 1906 to a man named Alfred Jones. Jones then immediately transferred ownership to a man named F.W. Johnson and then leased it from him for two years.

The site would suffer its second fire and this new hotel would have the first of two major fires it would endure in July of 1907. The roof was completely destroyed and the interior had smoke and water damage. The interior was restored and the roof was replaced and the hotel would change its name to the Holly Inn. The following year would bring another force of nature to the hotel. Carrie Nation brought her hatchet to town on August 29, 1908. She brought a group of Pro-Temperance supporters with her and they used umbrellas to club patrons at the Holly Hotel. Nation was already angry about the drinking, but when she saw the painting of a scantily clad woman above the bar she weilded her ax and took out a row of whiskey bottles. The owner had Nation arrested and when Governor Fred Warner heard that news, he made his way to town to use the incarceration for political means. He popped into Holly to make a re-election campaign speech, which had a spotlight on it. Nation got out of prison and confronted the Governor yelling, "You're a coward!" since he wouldn't crack down on liquor. The Governor left town quickly after that. The Holly Hotel commemorates Nation's visit every year with a re-enactment of her visit, but we imagine without the busted alcohol bottle. They also have a special menu and, of course, drink specials.

The second major fire for the hotel happened on January 19, 1913 and The Flint Journal reported, "Fire which is believed to have originated in a clothes chute where someone carelessly threw a match, totally destroyed the Holly Inn here yesterday. The estimated loss is $20,000, of which only $8,000 was covered by insurance. The fire had worked its way up the elevator shaft to the third floor before being discovered. The flames were noticed by several persons at the same time, and when the fire department reached the hotel the roof was ablaze. The hotel was a brick structure, built in 1892. It was owned by Mrs. Marie Powell, of Pontiac, and conducted by Otis Kennedy. Very little furniture or clothing was saved from the fire, and several of the guests had narrow escapes."

Mrs. Powell decided to sell the property rather than rebuild. Joseph P. Allen became the new owner and he was going to add a new element to the hotel when he rebuilt. He had obtained a liquor license, so there would now be a bar. Allen rebuilt the front entrance with a Tuscan columned porch and took the top story off the corner tower. The interior had elegant custom millwork with rich woods, tin ceilings, lead glass, luxurious velvets and plaster walls. The restaurant featured china and fine linens. Joseph renamed the hotel for himself, The Allendorf, taking inspiration from New York's Waldorf Hotel. People came from all over the Midwest just to eat here. The Sunday dinners were famous and priced at 50 cents per person. Things went great until Prohibition came to town and shut down the bar, Allen innovated and added an ice cream parlor and movie theater to try to make up the revenue lost at the bar. He sold the hotel in 1930 to Henry Norton who changed the name to Hotel Norton. It was at this time that the hotel mainly became a dining establishment as rail travel dropped off drastically. 

In a bizarre synchronicity only HGB listeners could appreciate, the hotel suffered another devastating fire exactly 65 years to the day as the 1913 blaze. Some accounts claim it was even exact to the hour. Faulty wiring completely gutted the interior. The ruined building was bought by local residents Dr. Leslie Sher and his wife and they decided that if they were going to rebuild, they were going to return the hotel to the way it looked in 1892 and that's just what they did, which included salvaging pressed tin from the ceiling and ceramic tiles from the floor. They used local historians to help ensure everything was painstakingly exact to as the hotel had been in its glory days. They reopened in 1979 as a fine dining restaurant and they called it the  Historic Holly Hotel. The following year it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Today, the Holly Hotel is owned by George and Chrissy Kutlenios. The hotel still has its three-story, helmut-domed, octagonal corner tower and hip-roof. There are three main floor dining rooms and two private banquet rooms. The Holly Hotel is one of the few properties to have had continual food service into three centuries. And the hotel is going to be featured in a Hallmark-style Christmas Movie named "Christmas at the Holly Hotel" in 2022. You know, home town girl leaves New York to help folks run the hotel and she falls in love with the police chief.

The Holly Hotel website says, "True to historic accounts from the turn of the century, the Main Dining Room has been decorated in burgundies, mauves and warm, dark oak, all typifying the Victorian Era. Rich Axminster carpeting provides an elegant field for the Victorian pedestal tables red velvet wing-back chairs, and arched, stained glass windows. Authentic Victorian gas fixtures reflect a soft light from the embossed tin ceilings. The dining rooms, each with it’s own distinctive character, have been appointed to blend true Victorian tradition with the spirit of the bustling railroad era." The restaurant has won numerous awards. Many of their recipes date back to the original hotel. And they have a comedy club here that has hosted the likes of Soupy Sales, Jackie Vernon, Bill Mahar, Pat Paulsen, Judy Tenta and Tim Allen. 

Octobers are special at the hotel. This establishment embraces its spirits, and we aren't talking about the ones Carrie Nation busted up. Several paranormal groups have investigated here and captured evidence and the end of October features Victorian seances. And they offer a special haunted dinner menu. And the fun with ghosts continues into December when the hotel hosts the Spirit of Christmas with an Olde Fashioned Christmas Celebration, complete with characters from Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. Professor of Parapsychology Norman Gauthier visited the hotel in 1989 and declared that it was "loaded with spirits." And many people agree with him believing that the Holly Hotel is the most haunted historic building in Michigan and maybe even one of the most haunted hotels in America.

Hotel owner Chrissy Kutlenios said in an article in 2009 that she had heard hundreds of experiences from guests and employees in the 30 years she had owned the building at that point. She even had her own experience in February of 1996. On that particular morning, she entered the building and began to walk the dining rooms for a quick morning inspection. When she came around a corner, she saw the full-body apparition of a Native American Indian, minus his feet. She said of it, "It was strikingly real and in three seconds it was gone. It was a very, very frightening experience and one that I haven’t been able to recreate." The spirit was only seen that one time and has never returned. This is very interesting because one has to wonder what a Native American spirit would be doing inside this hotel. Was there something he was connected to with the land?

One of the most widely experienced unexplained happenings are phantom smells. So here we go with our nose pictures again, but they are pretty reliable, especially when it comes to cigar smoke and old lady perfume. There is no smoking in the building, but the original owner of the hotel, John Hirst, enjoyed his cigars. And we imagine several bar patrons did as well. Guests claim to catch a scent of cigar tobacco on occasion describing it as barely a whiff at times and overpowering at others. And a flowery perfume is often detected as well. Mr. Hirst is the most prominent ghost here and he shows up in ways that are not just olfactory. He has appeared as a full-bodied apparition although that is very rare. When he is seen, he is wearing a frock coat and top hat. Hirst generally sticks to the top of the stairs, but has been seen a few times in the Carry Nation Banquet Room. The lower level of the Hotel once had the tonsorial parlor and he likes this area as well, especially with the cigar smoke. For those who don't know, a tonsorial parlor was a fancy barber shop. EVPs of someone believed to be Hirst have been captured. These usually feature a faint, baritone laugh. A couple of employees claim to have heard this audibly as well.

When the investigation group Highland Ghost Hunters investigated the building, they claimed that the door to the attic swung open by itself even though it was supposed to be locked. A medium named Kirsten Stanley-Morin felt an overwhelming presence of a woman when she visited the hotel. People believe this may be Nora Kane. She was the hotel hostess in the early 1900s. Her portrait is on display in the restaurant's main lobby wearing a mourning dress. She was a beautiful and petite woman who enjoyed playing music, so if you hear piano music in the air when no one is at the piano, it is probably her playing the tune. Her soft disembodied singing is heard as well. Occasionally, people playing at the piano have heard a feminine voice whisper in their ear a tune she would like to hear. The perfume scent that people have detected is thought to be hers. She likes to hang out in the turret area in the main bar and the back hallway. Nora's figure has been captured in photos, particularly during weddings that are hosted at the hotel. She is usually wearing a beautiful dress and looks graceful, but what convinces people that she doesn't belong in the pictures is that she is cut off at the knees. 

And then there is the ghost in the kitchen. Nora Kane had a daughter and she is wearing the mourning dress in her portrait because that daughter passed away. This little girl ghost likes to hang out in the kitchen and she plays with many of the pots, pans, dishes and utensils, moving them all around . Many of these date back to the turn of the century. It is a bit troubling that her favorite implement is a meat clever. This spirit sometimes plays on the banquet room steps as well, running up and down them. And there are some who claim that this actually might be the spirit of another little girl who died in an accident in the livery stable. Possibly there are spirits of two little girls here. The spirit that has materialized sometimes appears to be between the ages of ten and thirteen and she has red hair. She is a happy and playful spirit whoever she might be as her disembodied giggling is heard. This young ghost made its presence known during a seance in the early 1990s.

There is an animal spirit here too that many people believe is the Hirst's rat terrier dog that they named Leona. The sound of a dog running in the hallways is heard even though there are no animals in the building. The feeling of an animal brushing up against a leg has been felt by guests and employees. And disembodied barking is heard, especially in the early morning hours by kitchen staff. 

Sally wrote in 2016, "I live in Holly and frequent the Hotel quite often for their tea hour and Sunday brunches. It took several times before I finally had an experience. To be honest it wasn’t even on my radar, and was the very last thing on my mind. When you live here in Holly you hear about it all the time and eventually take it with a grain of salt. While in the bathroom freshening up, all alone standing at the sink I had the most cliche of experiences, but one that frightened me to the core. The air became very cold, not drafty but icy. I looked at myself in the mirror and actually saw my hair moving from the breeze (there are no windows in the bathroom) as I turned to leave I actually turned my body so I was face to face with a woman. She was most definitely not of this world. She had very long black hair, her head was down and her arms were out as if she wanted me to hand her something. She looked to be “misty” with very torn clothing and greasy looking hair. I tore out of there faster than I have ever moved in my life! While in the basement on another occasion at the comedy club, we were some of the first to arrive. We ordered our cocktails and were chatting when the same cold air came in. It’s a completely different feel than a cool breeze from outdoors. It actually makes the hair on your neck and arms stand up and the eerie feeling that comes with it is unmistakable. We stayed for the show with no further incidents, but I am now a true believer."

Robin wrote in 2018, "My Aunt and Uncle owned the Holly Hotel for many years. They operated it as a boarding house, bar, package liquor store, pool hall and restaurant, serving hamburgers and pizza. They lived on the second floor in a large apartment. It always smelled like cigars, everywhere We had the run of the place. We had experiences down in the cellar/basement where we played on our Uncles old /illegal slot machines and often times when we ran up and down the large staircases. We just got use to the fact that our balls would be moved around on the old pool tales or “someone” would brush past us on the stairs. We would say things like “hey, leave my #3 ball alone.” or “you’re in my way,” while on the stairs. Nothing too frightening ever happened. As an older adult we had a lunch at the Holly Hotel after our Aunt died five years ago. We, again, went all over the building and the only place I felt some presence was in the lady’s bathroom."

Alex Cripps was a former employee and he said, "I never believed in it until I decided to work here, and it’s one of those things that you have no choice of not believing. There’s just too much activity. It’s just too frequent to just pass it off as something else and act like it’s nothing." Based on all these accounts, it does seem that paranormal activity is frequent here. It would be cool if that Christmas movie manages to capture some evidence during filming. Is the Holly Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 197 - Mackinac Island

 
Moment in Oddity - The Groom of the Stool

A most unpleasant job of the royal court was created during the reign of King Henry VIII. That job was serving as the King's Close Stool or the Groom of the Stool. The unfortunate requirement of this job was to assist the king during his bowel movements. The Stool was a portable toilet made with a velvet cushioned seat that had a large hole in the center. The Groom carried it around, along with water, a wash bowl and towels. The Groom would keep track of the king's daily meal times and coordinate it with his normal bowel movements. That way, the Groom was always prepared with the commode.While many might think that this was the worst job in history, it was a highly coveted position and gave the the man who held this title, much power. He was generally the king's confidante and helped with other personal and private tasks. It was common for the sons of noblemen or members of the gentry to be awarded the job. Mad King George III employed the most Grooms during his reign. The role continued through to 1901 when King Edward VII abolished the position. The fact that a job that would seem humiliating to us was held in such high regard, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - The First American School for the Deaf Founded

In the month of April, on the 15th, in 1817, the first American school for the deaf was founded by Thomas Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc in Hartford, Conneticut. Thomas was visiting his family when he noticed that a young girl was not playing with his brothers and sisters. He went over to her and realized she was deaf. He pointed to his hat and then wrote H-A-T in the dirt. The girl smiled and nodded and he was inspired to teach the deaf communication. Her father financed a trip for Thomas to go to England to study the deaf schools there. Those schools used an oral method of education that required students to learn to read lips and talk. He was not satisfied with that method and sought out Abbe Sicard, the director of the Institut Royal des Sourds-Muets in Paris, France. He joined the director back in Paris, along with two faculty members from the school named Laurent Clerc and Jean Massieu. He asked Laurent to accompany him back to America. As they traveled back, Laurent taught Thomas sign language and Thomas taught him English. They decided to start their own school and established the American School for the Deaf in 1817. Laurent Clerc became the first deaf teacher of deaf students in the United States.

Mackinac Island (Suggested by listeners: Christy Kostaken and Emily Ridener)

Mackinac Island truly is a place lost in time. This is an island without vehicles and the hustle and bustle of our modern era. People flock to this popular Michigan tourist destination for relaxation in a place where lodgings are family owned and the fudge recipes date back to the 19th century. But beneath the exterior of beauty and sun and calm, lies an undercurrent. Legends, fables and mysticism spawn tales of creepy phenomenon and haunting circumstances. There is a deep tribal history here, long ago forgotten. There are deeds that took place here that rival the witch hunts of Salem. Ghosts are reputed to wander many of the locations of the island as if they cannot rest because their tales have yet to be told. Join us and our listener Emily Ridener as we explore the history and hauntings of Mackinac Island!

Mackinac Island is located in Lake Huron between Michigan's Lower and Upper Peninsulas. Europeans arrived in the 17th century, but before that, the Odawa tribe lived here. Odawa means "traders" or "to trade" in Algonquin. Native tribes living in the area date back to 900 A.D. and archaeologists believe that the Anishinaabe, which were groups of Algonquin tribes that included the Odawa, treated Mackinac as a sacred center, even believing that the Gitchie Manitou or Great Spirit inhabited the island. (Manitou means spirit or deity in Algonquin.) This was the center of the creation of the world and the island had the shape of a turtle, which fit with their legends of a turtle that would carry the weight of the world on its back. Michabo (mih-shah-boze) is the Great Hare and he is a hero in the Algonquin culture. He usually takes the form of a rabbit, but does occasionally show up in human form. He is credited with forming Mackinac Island.  The island became a sacred burial place for the tribal leaders for this reason.

As for the name Mackinac, it is derived from Michillimackinac or Mishinimakinago, which was the name given to a native people group that the Ojibwe described as strange and they claimed that this group would row through the woods, sometimes shooting, but they were never seen. There are a couple of reasons why they were not seen. One theory has a historical basis. The Mishinimakinago were nearly exterminated by the Naadwe, which were a group related to the Iroquois. Two members of the nation survived, a man and woman, and they had children and the entire group shunned humanity and hid. The other theory is more mystical and claims that the Mishinimakinago ended up becoming a race of supernatural beings now called Bgoji-nishnaabensag or "Little People." These supernatural beings are considered spirits and because their origin is the island, it is another reason why it is considered sacred.

The French were the first Europeans to arrive here and they set up a trading post for their fur trade. The British came and defeated the French and used the island as a strategic port. Above the limestone Straits of Mackinac, sits Fort Mackinac built from the limestone of the bluffs. It was built in 1780 by the British, who held it during the American Revolution. In 1796, the fort officially was handed over to the United States. That lasted until the War of 1812 when the British took back the fort. It was under the command of American Leiutenant Porter Hanks. He was greatly outnumbered with about 200 men facing eighty British and Native American canoes and small boats. He surrendered without a fight fearing his men would be massacred. The Treaty of Ghent signed in 1815, put Fort Mackinac back in American hands.

It's not surprising that Fort Mackinac is reputedly haunted. Typhoid Fever ripped through and killed as many as thirteen children living at the fort. These children are seen as full bodied apparitions and their toys are sometimes found strewn about. There are also the haunting sounds of babies crying. In the Guard House, people claim to feel cold spots and orbs have been seen and photographed. In the Officer Hills Apartment Quarters, furniture moves on its own and the security motion detectors are set off when nobody is inside. The hospital reportedly has one of the creepiest supernatural occurrences. Phantom limbs are seen. Apparitions also are seen at the North Sally Port Entrance Gate and Wall and the haunting sounds of a fife playing have been heard here too. A soldier was hanged on Rifle Range Trail for shooting and killing another soldier. The story claims that he was framed and perhaps that is why he is seeking vengeance and haunts the trail. People claim to feel bullets whizzing past their ears and their hair is pulled. The sounds of crunching leaves and snapping twigs are heard even though nobody is seen walking nearby. And there have been a couple of visitors who have been thrown to the ground.

Industry came after the war, headed by John Jacob Astor. He founded the American Fur Company on Mackinac Island and it exported beaver pelts for thirty years. The Agency House for that company was built in 1820 and was home to the company's Mackinac Island agent, Robert Stuart. It is now open to the public as a fur trade museum. Commercial fishing also became prominent and eventually replaced the fur trade as the island's primary industry. Tourism would take over after the Civil War and the nation's second national park was established here as "Mackinac National Park." Summer cottages were built along the island's bluffs and shops popped up to sell wares to the tourists. There has been a historical ban on motor vehicles in place on the island since 1898 that remains today. The famous Grand Hotel was built in the late 1880s and has become one of the most prominent landmarks on the island.

The Grand Hotel is Victorian in style and officially opened in 1887. The Michigan Central Railroad, Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad, and Detroit and Cleveland Steamship Navigation Company form the Mackinac Island Hotel Company and buy the land upon which to build the hotel. Construction begins immediately on what had been...a graveyard. The name really fits this magnificent place of lodging. The front is styled with a long columned porch that is the longest in the world and it is from here that one can board a horse and buggy to visit the rest of the island. The porch becomes a place for gathering. After opening, Grand Hotel Manager James “The Comet” Hayes invites an agent of Edison Phonograph to conduct regular demonstrations of the new invention. Mark Twain once gave a lecture in 1895 at the Grand Hotel Casino.

Rates at the hotel in the 1890s ran from $3 to $5. By the early 1900s, it cost $6 a night. A desk clerk who started at the hotel in 1919 named W. Stewart Woodfill, became sole owner of the Grand Hotel in 1933. In 1935, a radio salon was added to help patrons enjoy radio programs like Jack Benny's and others. Dan and Amelia Musser bought the hotel in 1979 and in 1980, they opened the doors to the Hollywood production of the movie "Somewhere in Time" starring Christopher Reeves, Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer. The hotel hosts a weekend every year for fans of the movie. Grand Hotel became a National Historic Landmark in 1989. The hotel has been consistently renovated and wings have been added with the latest being the Millennium Wing in 2001. In July of this year, the Grand Hotel will celebrate its 130th anniversary.

During the construction, workers found so many skeletons, they lost count and since they didn't know what to do with them, they put most of them back and just covered them over. This could be one reason why the hotel has a reputation for being haunted. Two maintenance workers were surveying the hotel’s theatre stage when they got that unmistakable feeling that they were being watched and they met up with a dark entity. A dark mass formed across from them on the stage and two red glowing eyes appeared at the top of the massive shadow figure. The figure remained in place for a moment and then suddenly moved quickly towards one of the workers, knocking him from the stage. He was rushed to the hospital unconscious and when he awoke, he swore he would never go back to the hotel. And he never did.

There is an apparition that has made appearances on the second floor at the piano bar. He is seen wearing a top hat and smoking a cigar. Even after he disappears, the distinctive smell of his cigar wafts through the room. The employee housing is haunted by the ghost of a woman wearing Victorian clothing. She sometimes curls up in bed with the terrified employees.

The Drowning Pool is located between Mission Point Resort and downtown Mackinac. There is a 20-foot drop off a cliff. It was the perfect spot for torturing women accused of witchcraft. Many may not think of Mackinac Island when one talks of witchcraft trials and hysteria, but it did happen here. While Salem seems to have had its witchcraft trials evolve around the use of natural remedies and a desire to rip property out from under the control of women, accusations of witchcraft at Mackinac seem to have a basis in shutting down brothels and going after prostitutes.

There were many brothels that sprang up around the island with the popularity of tourism that began in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The blame for men finding themselves in these dens of iniquity was placed squarely on the women. Their ability to seduce men to come inside was attributed to witchcraft. The Drowning Pool was used in the same way as water tests in other places like Hanover, Salem, New York and villages in Europe. Rocks were tied around these women’s ankles and they were thrown into the lagoon. If they floated, they were declared a witch. If they sank, they were innocent, but also dead. The Drowning Pool is said to be haunted to this very day by the women who lost their lives in this barbaric practice. Shadows come out of the water and the water remains unstirred, no splashes and no ripples.

Inn at Stone Cliff: D. Schaefer wrote, "My wife and I stayed at the Inn at Stone Cliff. The first night we were in a room on top of the stairs that we were told the staff used as an area to fold clothing and such. We had things move on us while we slept about 3am that morning including my luggage being unzipped and a wine bottle breaking open when we slept. Needless to say I had a sleepless night after, and the bed and breakfast staff didn't want to talk about paranormal activity although at least one other guest experienced something that night."

Bogan Lane Inn: The ghost of a little girl reportedly haunts this location. Staff and guests have seen and heard her ghost and they describe her as having long hair. She plays with the piano and has been heard saying that she wants to go home.

Mission Point Resort is said to be the most haunted place on the island.  The first structure here was built in 1782 by British Captain Daniel Robertson after he became the commander of Fort Mackinac. It was a small house about a mile from the fort and the Captain used it to entertain his fellow officers. He had brought two of his slaves with him, Jean and Marie-Jean Bonga. He freed them when he was reassigned. After several years, the outcrop where the house was built collapsed and people started calling it Robertson's Folly, which over time changed to Robinson's Folly. A Mission House was built in the area in 1825 by the Protestant church and a school was opened. That is how the location came to be known as Mission Point.

The mission shut down in 1837 when the State of Michigan was admitted to the United States. A man named Edward Franks bought the unused Mission building in 1845 and decided to open a hotel. He added a third story and reopened it as Mission House Hotel in 1849. The Franks family ran the hotel until 1939 when they sold the property. It was re-established as a boarding house. In 1946, a judge named Miles Phillimore bought the property and offered it as a summer place for the Moral Re-Armament Movement. The “Moral Re-Armament Movement” began in England in 1908 under a man named Frank Buchman. In the 1920s, it gained a foothold in the universities of the United Kingdom and it was finally given the name The Oxford Group. It changed its name to Moral Re-Armament Movement in 1938 and this is when the ideology really had its heyday, up until the 1950s.

The ideology held to Christian beliefs and pushed for people to "clean up all that is in you, which is in conflict with Christian belief and mirror yourself in The Oxford Group’s four absolutes: love, purity, honesty and selflessness. Open yourself up to divine guidance and share your sins with someone you trust, and through this you will find a healthy and lasting freedom." At its core, the MRA had the makings of a cult and it chose Mackinac Island as a place to set up its world conference center. It used the Mission Point Resort for that purpose in the 1950s. The MRA built a Great Hall Complex that is the largest single indoor space on the island and is meant to resemble a teepee. The structure features 51-foot logs cut from one of the last stands of virgin Norway pine. The MRA claimed that they were inspired to build the teepee-like building by a native legend that said the Great Spirit would gather all the nations in a giant teepee one day and they would all find the secret of peace.

Even though the group still exists today as Initiatives of Change, it lost much of its influence by the 1960s and in 1966, the buildings were donated to Mackinac College. The college did not last long and only graduated one class in 1970. The property than became the Mackinac Hotel and Conference Center in the 1970s. John Shufelt bought the property in 1987 and changed the name to Mission Point Resort. Smaller buildings were torn down, new ones were built, the front lawn was placed and the Point's famous Adirondack chairs were added as were several restaurants. Mission Point Resort was purchased in 2014 by a couple from San Antonio, Texas, Dennert and Suzanne Ware. They are planning a multimillion-dollar renovation over the next few years.

As we said, this location is considered the one to have the most supernatural activity on the island. Harvey is the most famous ghost at this location. He was a student at the college who fell madly in love with another student. He asked her to marry him, but she refused. He walked off into the woods despondent and committed suicide. He was declared missing in February and his body was found in July. He had apparently shot himself, but there were two gunshots to his head. And there was no gun found by the body. This has caused many to believe that he was actually murdered, but his death was officially ruled a suicide.

Mission Point has a theater that is now used as the Center for the Arts at Mission Point Resort and is operated by the Mackinac Arts Council. This theater has a ghost that likes to play around. He plays practical jokes on men and flirts with the ladies, pinching and poking them. He also has been seen wandering the resort and paranormal investigators have caught EVPs of a young male voice and humming. A child's voice has been heard calling for people that are assumed to be the parents, a woman's voice has been heard singing and humming and Native American apparitions have been seen inside and outside of the resort.

The legends and lore of Mackinac Island are captivating. The beauty of the island is an intense draw and for those of us who love to embrace the past and get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, it is perfect. But something from the other side seems to be stirring here. Are there really that many spirits at unrest here? Is Mackinac Island haunted? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:
All pictures courtesy of Emily Ridener

HGB Ep. 176 - German Castle at Castle Park

 
Moment in Oddity - Pedro Mountains Mummy
In episode 175, we featured the little people tribes in America. Though many believe these tribes to just be legend, there was a discovery in 1932 that adds credence to the stories. Two men, Cecil Main and Frank Carr, were digging for gold in the San Pedro Mountains near Casper, Wyoming. They had been using pick axes and shovels to work a rich vein of gold and they were continuously being frustrated by just more and more rock. They decided to dynamite a section of the mountain to make the work go faster. The explosion revealed a cave that was 15 feet long and four feet high. The men explored the small cave and they discovered a 14" fully formed humanoid mummy. It appeared to be male and was sitting in a cross-legged position on a ledge. It was described as looking like an old man with a low and flat forehead, flat nose, heavy-lidded eyes and a wide mouth. Fingernails could clearly be made out and the head had a pliable jelly-like substance on top. Anthropologists declared it a hoax, but when they studied the mummy, they were shocked at what they found. X-rays revealed a manlike skeleton and it appeared he had been killed by a blow to the head that smashed part of the skull and damaged the spine. The jelly-like substance on top of the head was brain matter. They also found a mouth full of pointy canines. They estimated the skeleton belonged to a man 65 years old. The story gets a little murky here. Some stories say the exams were performed by the American Museum of Natural History and certified genuine by the Anthropology Department of Harvard University. Other stories claim the University of Wyoming conducted the research and found the body was that of a diseased child.The Pedro Mountains Mummy made its way into sideshows and then was purchased by a Casper businessman named Ivan T. Goodman. New York businessman Leonard Walder took ownership of the mummy after Goodman died. Walder died in the 1980s and the mummy has never been seen again, which certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Rio de Janeiro Discovered and Named

In the month of January, in 1502, Portuguese explorers landed at Guanabara Bay on the coast of South America and named it Rio de Janeiro. The name means River of January. The bay forms the opening of a river and so that is how Brazil's second largest city got its name. The French wanted to make a play for the area and so in 1565, two years of bloody battles began. Five hundred French colonists already occupied Villegagnon Island in Guanabara Bay under the leadership of Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, so they had a strategic position to invade. The French lost and were debarred from the city. To protect from further invasions, the city was moved to a safer position on a hill, which was later named as Castle Hill. In 1568, a medieval citadel was laid out and sugarcane was planted all around the settlement. In 1660, the town became a seat of government and by 1763, the colonial capitol was transferred to Rio de Janeiro. In 1889, the city officially became the capitol of the republic of Brazil.

German Castle at Castle Park (Suggested by Becki Sturgeon)

Western Michigan was once an area of vast dunes along the shores of Lake Michigan. Mature forests attracted the timber industry in the early 1800s and during the Victorian era, the beauty attracted people to come live. One of those people was a German immigrant and he brought his love and inspiration of German castles to an area outside of Holland, Michigan, along Lake Michigan. He built a small replica of a German castle for his family. Castle Park developed around the castle as cottages were built for vacationers. The Castle became an Inn and now serves as a community center. And it would seem that one of the original family members chooses to hang out here in the afterlife. There are also some interesting legends related to this area of Lake Michigan. Join us for the history and hauntings of the German Castle at Castle Park.

The logging industry came to this area of Western Michigan in the early 1800s to harvest the vast forests and mill the trees into lumber. This lumber was shipped across Lake Michigan to Chicago via schooner to help build the city of Chicago. The trees were almost completely harvested and soon the area was just barren dunes. By the mid 1800s, the forests were regrowing and families started visiting on vacations. A Vermont militiaman received a land grant after the War of 1812 and this patch of land on Lake Michigan was that property. Edward J. Harrington purchased the property in 1863, then sold it to the Turner family who plated it for sale. Mr. Turner died and his widow remarried and no longer wanted the land. It then passed through the hands of six other owners before Emil Peiler bought it and sold it to Michael Schwartz.

Michael Schwartz was a German immigrant who came to America to escape Prussian militarism in the 1800s. He settled in Chicago and began buying properties. He soon was a very successful and very wealthy man. He moved to Michigan where he found a prime piece of real estate on Lake Michigan that was beautiful and isolated. He decided to build his family a German feudal castle and he did that in 1890. It was three stories and very Victorian. He felt like this estate would protect he and his wife and their 6 daughters and 2 sons from a corrupt and uncivilized world. Unfortunately, the kids were not crazy about moving away from city life. They were very unhappy and within two years, the family was moving out of their castle. They built a home in nearby Holland and never returned to the castle. It seems like a rather abrupt move and many have wondered why.

In 1893, Reverend John H. Parr was headmaster for the Chicago Prepartory School and he had taken a group of students on an outing to Macatawa Beach on Lake Michigan. The group happened upon the German Castle. Rev. Parr fell in love with the castle and bought it, opening it the following year as a summer camp for boys and girls. Parents would come to pick up their children and they would hang out for a while enjoying the area. This happened so often that soon the property was more of a family summer camp. The Parr Family saw how things were going and in 1896 the camp was closed and the castle was refurbished as an inn. They added rooms, expanded the sunrooms and built a lobby. The inn was not enough for the demand; however, and the Parrs started selling lots around the castle for families to build cottages. This came to be known as the Castle Club and the whole property was called Castle Park. It was a two day car drive from Chicago.

A hotel brochure from 1908 read, "Castle Park is a 40 acre tract, 1 & 1/2 miles south of Macatawa dock. The "Castle" is only a three minute walk from Lake Michigan, which has a hard beach with shallow water, giving superb bathing and boating. Here can be found real country life, steamer excursions to other resorts along the lake, visits to adjacent peach orchards, picnics on the magnificent beach and in the woods, tramps though fine forests, climbing wooded hills, tennis courts, free golf links and, above all, a delightful home atmosphere and good table. Several cottages are in the Park, most of the occupants eating at the Castle table. The average population of the Park in July and August is about 60. Board with room, per week, for one in room is $8.00 - two for $13.00. Board alone $5.00. Special rate to families."

Reverend Parr had a nephew named Carter Pennell Brown. He arrived at the castle from Chicago via Lake Michigan. During the passage, a horrible storm hit and steamship was lashed about. Carter's parents tied his baby buggy to a handrail in their steamship cabin. Carter loved the property and by the time he was twelve, he was working for uncle. His main duty was driving the wagon to the steamship dock at Macatawa. In 1917, the Parrs decided to retire and Carter, who was now twenty-three, took over Castle Park. He married his childhood sweetheart, Marion Wilke. The Carters planted the ivy that covers much of the castle and engaged in a large expansion of the castle and property. First, they doubled the capacity of the inn and added multiple fireplaces. They also built more cottages.

In 1922, a Greek ampitheater was built in a nearby natural dell and it hosted hundreds of plays and the annual "Castle Caper," which was a musical. Castle Park had its own depot where the electric cars of the interurban railroad would stop between Holland and Saugatuck. The interurban railway was an electric railway that featured streetcar-like light electric self-propelled railcars. By the year 1915, America had 15,500 miles of interurban railways. An interesting stat is that interurban railways were the fifth-largest industry in the United States at the height of their use. The Castle Park line brought electricity to the castle and cottages. The railway closed in 1926 and most of them were done in the United States by 1930. Extra amenities like a clay court tennis courts and a 9-hole golf course were added. They also started the Castle Park Amateur Horse Show. A Meeting House was built in 1958 for services. It was said of Carter, "Castle Park...its panache and its many pleasurable aspects are the direct result of Carter Pennell Brown's lifetime dedication. With the help of his delightful wife, he has given Castle Park its life and its spirit."

A former visitor said of the property, "I remember very well-manicured gardens around it during the late-60s and up to the late-70s. Herb gardens, boxwood hedges, etc. all gave a very English idea to what I now understand was supposed to be a Germanic castle. A wing to the castle had been added decades ago in order to accommodate the needs of the inn. The interior of the castle had some vestiges of being Victorian in nature. Much of it had been modified as large dining rooms, kitchens, etc. I visited the castle last year and found that the addition had been removed and the castle's exterior restored. The super English pub in the lower level appears to also have been restored."

During the sixties, Ambrose Holford was a professor of fine arts at the University of Tennessee. He was also a Castle Park cottage owner. He brought a large group of his most talented students up to the Castle to serve as the waiters and pixies, which was what they called the waitresses. The waiters lived in The Shack and the waitresses lived in the Hen House. These groups would put together incredible musicals and talent shows at the amphitheater. It was very Dirty Dancing-esque. In 1985, the eighty residents of  the summer cottages at Castle Park decided to buy the castle and the inn was closed. The castle was restored to the original Victorian design and the additions were removed. The German Castle now serves as a library and bingo hall for summer residents of Castle Park. It is a private property and not open to the public and owned by the Castle Park Association.

There is a history of supernatural manifestations on the property. One of Michael Schwartz's daughters managed to get away to the nearby city of Holland at some point and she met a boy. As it goes with these stories, she fell madly in love, but her father forbade her having anything to do with any boy, especially this one in Holland. So the couple met secretly one night and eloped. Schwartz heard about it and tracked them down on the road, shotgun in hand. He threatened the couple and the daughter returned to the castle with her father and he locked her in one of the rooms. The heartbroken girl wept bitterly and glanced longingly out her window. She had lost the love of her life. The family was only here for two years, but somehow that daughter's emotions left an imprint on the castle. People claim to see the ghostly apparition of a female looking forlornly out a window of the castle.

One of the interesting things about the area where Castle Park is located is that it is along one side of a mysterious phenomenon known as the Lake Michigan Triangle. This Triangle's three points hit Manitowoc in Wisconsin, Ludington, Michigan across from that city and south to Benton Harbor, Michigan. Nearly 40 aircraft have just disappeared over this region. One of those was Northwest Flight 2501, which left New York in June of 1950 heading to Minneapolis and disappeared near Benton Harbor. Extensive searches turned up nothing. Not one piece of wreckage. A Soviet trainer jet disappeared during an air show near the triangle. People have evaporated into thin air as well. In April of 1937, the freighter O.M. McFarland was sailing towards Port Washington in Wisconsin with Captain George Donnor at the helm. He decided to retire to his cabin for bit. The ship soon passed through the Lake Michigan Triangle. The Captain had not returned from his nap by 6pm, so a crew member went to wake him. There was no answer to his repeated knocks. He tried the door handle and found it to be locked. Fearing that the Captain might be in distress, he got other crew members and they busted open the door. The Captain was not in his cabin. He was nowhere to be found on the ship. He had just disappeared. There are also numerous UFO sightings over the Triangle. So many in fact, that the FAA created a special lake reporting service to keep track of them all.

A little further north is the city of Muskegon and there is an African American legend told here about a Hoodoo Man. A family discovered that their woodpile had been raided in the middle of the night. As if that was not bad enough, whomever the thief was, he had relieved his bowels all over the spot where the woodpile had been. A nice little calling card, if you will. The family was irate and they called out a local Hoodoo man to help them catch the culprit. He arrived with a long nail and he stick the pointed end into the fecal matter. He then drove the nail into a nearby tree. He informed the family that they would soon know who the thief was because his intestines would be completely backed up and would remain so until the nail was removed from the tree. After a couple days, a local hospital had a man show up who was complaining of the worst constipation he had ever had and it was only getting worse. He was given a room. The family was satisfied that they had found their robber and that he had been punished enough, so they went to pull the nail from the tree. The problem was, someone had cut down the tree and dragged it off, and so it was impossible for the family to pull the nail from the tree. The wood-napper died a very painful death.

There are many legends in Michigan just as there are in every state in America. Is there something weird going on around and in Lake Michigan? Is Castle Park on the western shores of Michigan haunted? Is the German Castle haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 145 - The Whitney

 

Moment in Oddity - The Mortuary Railroad Station 
Suggested by listener: Teresa Slaven

In the late 1860s, a very peculiar train station opened its doors for the first time. This train station was a mortuary.  It's located in Sydney, Australia and when it was running, it carried the dead along with their loved ones to Rockwood Necropolis. Thirty dead bodies would be placed in wooden wagons and loaded onto the train. When they arrived at the station, they would be off-loaded and carried to their burial plots where they would be reunited with family members that had also rode the train. The Rockwood Necropolis is the largest cemetery in the Southern Hemisphere, spreading out over 700 acres. Nearly one million have been buried here. The funeral train stopped running in the 1950s, but the railway station for the dead still stands. The station and cemetery are reputedly haunted and many believe it is because of the power behind railway lines. A train that ran for the sole purpose of bringing the dead to their final resting place and a railway station that really was just a mortuary, certainly are odd!

Picture from listener Rick Kennett:

Mortuary Station 1, now All Saints Church in Canberra

This Day in History: Pierre Barrière Attempts to Assassinate King Henry IV of France 
by: Richard Schaffer

On this day, August 27th, in 1593, Pierre Barrière attempted to assassinate King Henry IV of France. He failed in this endeavor and later confessed the attempt to a Dominican priest named Father Varade in hopes that the priest would absolve him. This would lead to his demise, as this priest would turn him in. Apparently, Jesuit priests were notorious for promoting the assassination of the king while others, like the Dominicans, remained loyal to the crown. It is shocking that Father Varade not only encouraged him to confess, but also told him to follow through with all the religious rituals including Easter Mass. He told Barrière that this was a good thing he was doing and perhaps the wanna-be assassin thought that his confession would save him from punishment, along with the practice of the other rituals. Barrière never made it to Easter Mass. He was arrested later that day and was convicted in less than four days. He was placed on the breaking wheel and after his body was broken and devastated, he was then dismembered.

The Whitney (Suggested by listener Emily Ridener)

In Detroit, Michigan sits a grand home with a gabled roof, arched windows and a beautiful rose hue emanates from the facade. This upscale dining establishment was once the David Whitney House and is known today simply as The Whitney.  David Whitney, Jr. was such a successful lumber baron that people would remark that he was "the man who could out-lumber Paul Bunyan." He was one of the wealthiest men in America and he would leave his mark in Detroit in a very positive way. Some believe he remains in the home he had built in the afterlife. They seems to be other spirits at The Whitney as well. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of The Whitney!

The Whitney family is known for their wealth and were early settlers to America. John Whitney came over from London in 1635 and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. The Elms is the historic family mansion in Watertown and was built in 1710. One of John Whitney's descendants was David Whitney, Jr. David was born in October of 1830 in Massachusetts. He established himself well in Lowell, Massachusetts and was a millionaire by the age of 27, when he decided to move west to Detroit, Michigan. The year was 1857 and David would become one of the most prominent men in Detroit history. He made his money in lumber and he joined forces with his brother Charles in Detroit and they expanded the lumber business into Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania.

The Mound Builders were here in the Detroit area before the French came. The area came to be known as le detroit, which means "the straits" in French. Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac felt that the area would be great for a fort. A cannon could be fired from one side of the Detroit River to the other. The court in France agreed, and Cadillac was allowed to establish a settlement at the Detroit River in 1701. Cadillac called his settlement Fort Ponchartrain. Little did Cadillac realize, but his King had sold him out to Canada. The Company of the Colony of Canada was an all-Canadian fur company and it was given full rights to the fort with Cadillac as its employee. He left in 1702 hoping to get his rights back. He finally would in 1705 after things got very sour for the company with ill relations with the Native Americans and embezzlement in the leadership. In the mid 1700s, Britain attacked Quebec and Montreal and took the fight south. The French finally had to surrender New France and Detroit came under British control. American forces would take Detroit in 1796. The legislature of the Northwest Territory at Chillicothe, Ohio, would vote to incorporate Detroit on January 18, 1802. The city incorporation would become official in 1806. Throughout the 1800s, the Detroit government would grow and take shape.

David was a brilliant real estate investor, knowing that if he could buy forested land cheaply, he could make a mint because steel was still in its early stages of development and wood was in dire need. Most of the good New England wood had already been harvested. Michigan offered plenty of forested land and he bought much of it for as little as $2 an acre. His profits would generally equal one hundred times what he spent on the land. One obstacle to building a timber business in Michigan was getting the wood to sawmills and then to market, so David invested in shipping lines. He soon owned an extensive line of steam barges. When steel finally got a foothold and most of the prime white pine timber was harvested, David decided to use his real estate skills in buying property for other uses. He came to be known as "Mr. Woodward Ave." because he bought so much property on that street. One of the structures he would have built on Woodward Ave. would be the David Whitney House.

David's wife Flora, whom he had married in 1860 and had four children with, had passed away in 1882 and so she would never see the impressive home he commissioned to have built in 1890. Flora's sister Sara would get to enjoy the home though as she married David in 1883 and she would live in the home until her death in 1917. David hired Detroit architect Gordon W. Lloyd to design the house and it was built in the Romanesque style. A unique building material was chosen, South Dakota Jasper, which is a rare variety of pink granite. Because of this, the house has a pink hue that is quite striking. The granite was laid in a random ashlar pattern. The outside is decorated with grotesques, intertwined leaf motifs and the initials DW. Slate tiles cover the roof in a fish scale pattern. There is a round tower with a conical roof, giving it a bit of a castle-like flair. It took four years to complete and encompasses 21,000 square feet with 52 rooms, 20 fireplaces, 218 windows, an elevator and a secret vault in the dining room. It cost $400,000 to build. One newspaper described the house in 1894 as "the most elaborate and substantial residence in this part of the country."

The inside of the house was even more impressive than the outside. There was a Great Hall that featured a grand staircase. All rooms of the house opened into the hall that stretched all the way to the third floor. The hall was illuminated a Tiffany stained-glass window that was two stories tall featuring a knight paying his respects to the Whitney family whose ancestry contained several knights. A bronze balustrade adorned the staircase. An ornate fireplace and mantlepiece were in the Great Hall with an antique bronze clock on the mantle. The tile floor was in a Flemish mosaic design. The Whitney's extensive collection of art was displayed on the walls in the form of tapestries from the legendary Gobelin Tapestry Works in Paris, hand-woven silks and other objects. The house was electric and put in by David Whitney's good friend Thomas Edison.

A statue of Psyche was placed in the Music Room, which also had tiffany stained-glass windows featuring St. Cecilia and Apollo with his Lyre. The ceiling was silk and cherubs were painted on it. David's Smoking Room was right next door. It had a vaulted ceiling and mahogany woodwork. The Reception and Drawing rooms were painted in ivory with gold relief. The floors were Honduras mahogany with bird's-eye maple inlay. The Library had seven foot high bookshelves made from mahogany. The ceiling was criss-croosed with wooden beams. There was also a 10-foot high fireplace with deep blue tiles accented with sliver filigree.

David passed away in 1900 and he was worth $15 million at his death making him one of the richest men in the country. As mentioned before, Sara lived in the house until her death in 1917 and then the beautiful home stood empty with only a caretaker to look after it until 1932 when the Whitney family let the Wayne County Medical Society move into the home. The carriage house was behind the home and was the largest carriage house in the state when it was built. There was a lift to take carriages to the second floor. It held the offices of the Visiting Nurses Association, which had moved into it in 1929. The Whitney family had always been big supporters of the medical arts and they charged the society nothing to occupy the house and even paid the annual taxes. The Great Depression eased and the society was able to take over the bills. By 1941, the family had given the home to the society. Grace Whitney, who represented the family, said, "It means much to us that this house filled with sacred memories is now given to such a glorious organization as the Wayne County Medical Society."

The Medical Society stayed at this location until 1956 when it built an upgraded facility elsewhere. They did take some of the artwork from the home to put in the new facility including a bronze bust of Shakespeare, the Psyche statue that had been in the Music Room and a bust of Venus de Milo. When the Medical Society moved out, the Visiting Nurse Association used grants to purchase the house in 1957. The nurses maintained the building until 1979. Rumors started to float about after the nurses left that, the home would be torn down. An entrepreneur named Richard Kughn could not bear the thought of this city treasure being torn down. He believed it should be preserved for the public to enjoy and so he bought the David Whitney House.

David's former home became an upscale restaurant called The Whitney that Richard opened in 1986 after a costly and long renovation. The dining areas were placed in the various rooms of the house on the first and second floors and named for the original purpose of those rooms. The servant quarters in the back of the house was made into a state-of-the-art kitchen. The painted murals in the home were all restored. A cocktail lounge named Winter Garden was opened on the third floor. Richard ran the place until 2007 when he sold it to Bud Liebler who did some more renovations and renamed the third floor The Ghost Bar. Liebler also moved his business The Liebler Group into the third floor.

Liebler changed the name of the bar on the third floor to Ghost Bar for a specific reason. That reason being that David Whitney may have passed away, but his spirit did not pass on to the other side of The Veil. There are rumors that his spirit still haunts his former home. People claim he is one of the most well dressed ghosts in the afterlife because when he appears as a full-bodied apparition, he is seen in a short-waist tuxedo. Liebler claims that one morning he came out of his office and found a candle lit on a table. He was the only one in the restaurant and he had not lit the candle. *Fun fact: They serve Ghostinis at the Ghost Bar*

The kitchen is the scene of some haunting experiences in the form of mysterious sounds like water running and stacking dishes without anyone actually being in the kitchen doing dishes. Grace was one of the Whitney's children and some claim she haunts the property. She has a table that is kept in the Carriage House. It is referred to as Grace's table that has a tea set on top. Her full-bodied apparition has been spied several times in the Carriage House and EVPs of her have been caught. But Grace was an adult woman, so when Ghost Hunters acted like they were talking to a little girl, we're not sure what that was about. The Ghost Bar has been the scene of both a little girl's apparition and a man's apparition walking through the walls and a large curtain. Some also claim that a little boy's spirit has been seen here as well. The identity of the little boy or little girl is unknown.

The most haunted area of the hotel seems to be the elevator. It inexplicably opens and travels up and down on its own. No one will be anywhere near the elevator and it will just slide open. And in case you don't believe stories shared on the Internet, perhaps you will believe the story that our listener and suggester of this episode, Emily, shared about her parents experience at The Whitney:

"On October 27th, 2014, my dad brought my mom to The Whitney for lunch to celebrate her 50th birthday. They ate in a first floor dining room with two other groups. By the time they had finished, they were the last ones in the dining room and asked their server if it was alright to explore the house. This wasn’t them looking for ghostly activity seeing as my dad isn’t the spook-seeking type, but rather they wanted to see  all the beautiful décor and architecture. They were basically told to “help themselves” and began wondering around and taking pictures. While on the third floor, they stood at the banister looking down at the landing and the stained glass windows. As they were taking in the stained glass, which my mom is a serious sucker for, the elevator to their left opened, waited, closed and went back down as if someone had been standing nearby and had pressed the call button. Remember, the other two groups had left leaving only my parents and the staff in the building.  They had been up there for long enough that they would have seen anybody call the elevator and walk away.  They knew it was said to be haunted and figured the elevator showing up on its own was something that frequently happened. Again, they weren’t seeking anything by exploring but did get a bit of a thrill."

Ghost Hunters claimed to debunk this by timing the elevator, but there are too many experiences to completely write this off as some kind of constant mechanical malfunction. We've never seen elevators just open and close on their own regularly. One woman did claim that a relative of her's had been killed while working on the elevator. We didn't find any proof for that. Haunt Investigators of Michigan have caught some interesting photos and EVPs. One EVP was of a male voice saying, "Restroom." Objects move on their own, drawers open and close on their own as do doors.

The Whitney is a wonderful reminder of the grand past Detroit once had. Are there other reminders of the past still held on this property in the form of paranormal activity? Have the spirits of family members continued to stay in their beloved home after death? Is The Whitney haunted? That is for you to decide!

Pictures of the interior shared by Emily Ridener:

Show Notes:
Weird pictures sent by listeners:

Cheryl shared this on Instagram. Her boyfriend took it in Savannah outside the Colonial Park Cemetery. There is something that looks like a face in the tree trunks.

Cheryl zoomed in the photo here. See the face? Looks kind of like Nosterafu!

Kevin sent this. The two men on the left are now deceased. Weird auras look like faces coming out of their heads.

Kevin sent this of a picture he took in a cemetery. Most orbs are explainable, but this one is unusual in how bright it is and that it appears to be moving.