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Jack's Journal

Jack’s Journal: Grand Traverse Lighthouse

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It was built in 1858 and decommissioned in 1972.

In 1984, a preservation group took charge of the Grand Traverse Lighthouse.

Right away interesting things began to happen. A caretaker and her guest were sitting in an office when she saw a man dressed as a lighthouse keeper in the doorway knocking dirt from his boot.

“She went as white as a sheet and saw it as clear as a bell. The brother-in-law never saw anything, but she did.  She was so shaken up that she was ready to go home,” said Stephanie Staley.

And so it began. There was the time Stephanie, all alone in the building, was entering her office off the unheated hallway.

“This rush of warm air rushes through me and just keeps going. It freaked me out so bad I left that day. I was done,” said Stephanie.

It’s an old building and there are creaks and groans for sure, curving stairway and a basement everyone agrees is creepy.

“People walking, doors slamming, muffled voices, that sort of thing,” explained Stephanie.

The perfect ingredients for the willies.

So who might these visitors be? One thought is Captain Peter Nelson, a ship’s captain who retired to lighthouse keeping.  Or maybe Johnny Markin. In 1967 on Christmas Eve, Johnny and his wife were returning to the lighthouse when their car struck a tree during a blizzard. Their bodies were found at the entrance to the lighthouse grounds Christmas morning.

Oh, and they still talk about the child’s foot prints on a bedroom floor. They would appear each morning for three days.

“But this was a foot print that was kind of like the oils on your hands and feet, that type of print, we saw on the floor from a child,” said Stephanie.

This lighthouse no longer watches over the lake, but many believe there is someone here watching over them.

Happy Halloween!

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