Mysterious Michigan


Book Description

Enigmatic mediums, murders, monsters, and more are all part of Michigan's mysterious and sometimes supernatural history. The will of Detroit's first millionaire, Eber B. Ward, was hotly contested because he took the financial advice of spirits. Marian Spore Bush, Bay City's first female dentist, moved to New York City, where she became a psychic wonder--and a secret philanthropist. Old witchcraft superstitions drove a Mount Morris family insane and caused another man to murder his godmother in Trenton. Researcher Amberrose Hammond brings to light strange and unusual tales from Michigan's colorful and exciting past.




Weird Michigan


Book Description

Explores ghosts and haunted places, local legends, cursed roads, crazy characters, and unusual roadside attractions found in Michigan.




Ghosthunting Michigan


Book Description

As part of the America's Haunted Road Trip series, Ghosthunting Michigan takes readers along on a guided tour of some of the Great Lake State's most haunted historic locations. With a background in library science, author Helen Pattskyn researched each location thoroughly before visiting, digging up clues for the paranormal aspect of each site. Her approach to each site allows readers to decide whether or not the ghost stories are really true. In Ghosthunting Michigan, Pattskyn takes readers along as she explores some of her home state's most haunted locations, starting with a visit to the Whitney in Downtown Detroit. Some of the other sites include Belle Isle, historic Fort Wayne, the Grand Plaza Hotel, Eagle Harbor, the Point Iroquis Lighthouse, and many more.




Michigan Myths and Legends


Book Description

From tales of pirate treasure to Jimmy Hoffa’s mysterious disappearance, Michigan Myths and Legends makes history fun and pulls back the curtain on some of the state’s most fascinating and compelling stories. Most people have heard about the Bermuda Triangle, where ships and people disappear without a trace—but few have heard about the equally deadly Great Lakes Triangle, where one-third of all unsolved sea and air disasters in America take place. Night after night, curious onlookers congregate on a remote hill near the Michigan/Wisconsin border to watch for mysterious lights that rise out of the ground, hover, and then disappear. Are the orbs merely optical phenomena created by headlights of passing cars? Or are they spirits returning to haunt where their earthly bodies met their demise? In the mid-1960s, the number of reports to the US Air Force of UFO sightings spiked across the country. Were people seeing unfamiliar technological innovations in aircraft? Had the rising popularity of the new-fangled television’s sci-fi programs sparked Americans’ imaginations? Or were extraterrestrial beings actually responding to signals from newly constructed deep-space radio transmitters?




Ghosts and Legends of Michigan's West Coast


Book Description

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




Darker than Night


Book Description

In the bitter cold of 1985, two buddies embark on a hunting trip from suburban Detroit to rural Michigan, unaware they would soon become the hunted. Darker than Night tells the chilling true story of the mystery that haunted a community and baffled the police for two decades. The eerie silence surrounding their sudden disappearance is broken after nearly two decades when a relentless investigator inspires a terrified witness to break her silence. The witness narrates a haunting scene that had unfolded years back, pointing fingers at the prime suspects–the Duvall brothers. With no bodies unearthed, the justice system is riveted by the startling revelations during an electrifying trial in 2003. The brothers, Raymond and Donald Duvall, had bragged about the murders, evocatively explaining how they dismembered their victims and fed them to pigs. Despite the shocking confession, the case holds its ground purely on a single witness's account, taking the courtroom through a labyrinth of dark secrets and sinister acts. This gripping thriller presents a vivid tale of crime that reveals the devastating power of evil.




Unexplained Michigan Mysteries


Book Description

Seventy eerie, bewildering, and fascinating real-life stories--from the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa to appearances by Bigfoot; from ghosts that haunt to psychics who help; from UFO sightings to ships that vanished, from murderers who got away to treasures found.




Lake Michigan Triangle, The: Mysterious Disappearances and Haunting Tales


Book Description

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




Ghost Stories of Michigan


Book Description

Amid the beauty of Michigan's lakes and forested hills lurk spine-tingling stories of the supernatural. These tales of fright-filled folklore span the length and breadth of the Great Lakes State. Read about the Red Dwarf, a hideous harbinger of doom, who continues to be sighted in Detroit whenever tragedy visits; a cantankerous ghost that hampers renovations of an old farmhouse in Gladwin; and the mysterious growls and barks that haunt Dog Lady Island in east Monroe, where long ago a solitary woman began her legendary metamorphosis into a canine monstrosity.




Starvation Lake


Book Description

Finalist for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, Harlan Coben meets early Dennis Lehane in this “smashing debut thriller” (Chicago Tribune), set in a small northern Michigan town by a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist. In the dead of a Michigan winter, pieces of a snowmobile wash up near the crumbling, small town of Starvation Lake—the same snowmobile that went down with Starvation’s legendary hockey coach years earlier. But everybody knows Coach Blackburn's accident happened five miles away on a different lake. As rumors buzz about mysterious underground tunnels, the evidence from the snowmobile says one thing: murder. Gus Carpenter, editor of the local newspaper, has recently returned to Starvation after a failed attempt to make it big at the Detroit Times. In his youth, Gus was the goalie who let a state championship get away, crushing Coach's dreams and earning the town's enmity. Now he's investigating the murder of his former coach. But even more unsettling to Gus are the holes in the town’s past and the gnawing suspicion that those holes may conceal some dark and disturbing secrets—secrets that some of the people closest to him may have killed to keep.