Haunted Places in Michigan
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About the Show
On this episode, Chuck Gaidica is joined by Dianna Stampfler, a radio broadcaster and author of the paranormal-inspired book, Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouses. In honor of Halloween, the duo uncovers the ghostly history of some of the state’s most notable sites.
“Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state. We’ve got over 120… But about 40 of those lights have some type of ghost story attached to them. Some of them very minor, some of them are very elaborate. I have 13 of them in the book.” – Dianna Stampfler
In this episode of A Healthier Michigan Podcast, we explore:
- The origins of most Michigan hauntings
- A memorable encounter at Schuler’s Restaurant
- The haunting of historic properties
- How ghost stories can be good and bad for business
- Why former lighthouse keepers are common culprits
- A ghost’s intent: To help or harm visitors
To purchase an autographed copy of Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouses, visit MIhauntedlighthouses.com.
For more haunted sites around Michigan, check out Dianna’s blog.
Transcript
Chuck Gaidica: This is A Healthier Michigan Podcast, episode 40. On this special Halloween episode, we’re going to uncover a few hauntings around Michigan.
Chuck Gaidica: Welcome to A Healthier Michigan Podcast. I’m your host, Chuck Gaidica. Normally on this show, we dive into topics that cover nutrition and fitness and a whole lot more, but in the spirit of All Hallows Eve, we’re going to spend this episode uncovering hauntings across the state. We hope this is more than trick or treat. I mean, you know, you can just concentrate on eating Kit-Kat bars and stealing some from the kids, but we want to combine the idea of health and wellness and maybe you do work out a little bit as you venture your way across the state to find some of these spooky places. Joining me today is a lady who’s… Well, she’s everything really. She’s a radio broadcaster, an author, she’s got so much going on including her own business and an author of Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouses, Dianna Stampfler. Good to talk to you.
Dianna: Well thanks for having me. I mean, I love any chance to talk about the spirited side of Michigan.
Chuck Gaidica: Well, you know, and this is really an intriguing thing. Let me set up my side of this, and then I want to hear yours because I know you have a lot of personal experience that I cannot attest to. I’m a bit of a skeptic in the sense that, if somebody told me they’ve seen a flying saucer or they believe in them, I need one to land in my yard. Right? To know that they’re there.
Dianna: Well, here’s a question for you on that front real quick. Have you ever seen $1 million?
Chuck Gaidica: No.
Dianna: But you know it exists, right?
Chuck Gaidica: Well yeah. I understand what you’re saying.
Dianna: There you go.
Chuck Gaidica: I mean, I’m a person of faith so I haven’t seen everything, and I still believe, but this for you is something different. Tell us a little bit about the history of your family.
Dianna: Well, when I was growing up, I was born and raised in Southwest Michigan, a small town called Plainwell, and my parents managed a supper club down there that opened and was around in the 70s and 80s called the Red Brick Inn. I remember them coming home and talking about things flying off the shelves and footsteps and these spirits that were at that building. It was a former house turned into a restaurant. So early on that seed was planted with me, but I don’t think it really registered. Actually, I grew up teenage years hating… Stephen King ruined most horror movies for me because I was so incredibly afraid. But when I became a parent and my daughter, who’s 27 now, I remember going to that restaurant, that same one my parents managed. It had been become a Sam’s Joint at that point. She was four and she came out of the bathroom talking about the little girl in the bathroom that she had been talking to.
Chuck Gaidica: What?
Dianna: And I knew there was no one else in that bathroom.
Chuck Gaidica: Yeah.
Dianna: We went back to the table and I’m like, “Ah, tell Grandma what just happened.” And so she told my mom and my mom looked at me, knowing I knew this story, and I said, “I didn’t say a thing before we went in.”
Chuck Gaidica: Yeah.
Dianna: So that was, when we talk to my daughter now, that’s the first memory she has of seeing a spirit, and she had that gift a lot as a child. Now she’s an adult, she doesn’t have it quite as much, but she remembers those early stories, and many of the stories that I’ve written about over the years are stories that I dug into because of experiences that she has had.
Chuck Gaidica: Well, you know, you said something really intriguing. You call it a gift. And off mic before we started, you used the word paranormal. That tells me, and I know a little of your history going back decades, that you’ve been into this. You’ve studied it. So when you use the word paranormal, that sort of tells me you’re a little more educated than the rest of us. But when you call it a gift, that makes it sound like it isn’t scary to you. Or was it still scary?
Dianna: I don’t think it really is, but also the experiences that I’ve been firsthand or heard from, they aren’t scary stories. I mean, nobody I know has had an exorcist moment. And I do believe that those things are out there. There are evil entities that are around. Thankfully in my world, here in what I’ve been doing with my family or my research, I don’t get that. It’s friendly apparitions. It’s disembodied voices and footsteps. It’s calm things. And I think many of these stories tie into people that just loved where they were at. When we get into the lighthouse discussion, you know those keepers that stayed because they were passionate about their job. I like to think it’s your choice to stick around and be a positive spirit in the world.
Chuck Gaidica: So have you had personal experience yourself, then?
Dianna: I have. Not until more recent years. It was funny, my first memorable one took place about five years ago at Schuler’s Restaurant down in Marshall. Many people don’t know, but it also operated as a hotel for many years, and they’ve converted a couple of the rooms upstairs and did this like VIP apartment. I was doing some work and they put me up there and I went to bed one night and everybody’s gone from the building and I hear this bellowing laugh down the hall. I kind of got up and made sure the door was locked. It did throw me off, just because I was there alone. But when I talked to with them the next morning about it, they said, “Oh, that must’ve been Albert.”
Dianna: Albert Schuler was the founder of the company and his spirit, and I knew it was there. Nobody had stayed in that apartment in some time and they said, “You know, he must have just been happy to have some company in the building that night.” He didn’t bother me, but it was just this old man’s laugh down the hall that was there. It’s not like I didn’t sleep that night. It was fine.
Chuck Gaidica: Yeah. Well, what is it that you have… What do you think this is about? Because you know, there seems to be a thread, whether it’s Mission Point Hotel, whether it’s Albert, whether it’s a former psychiatric hospital. What is it about not the apparitions or the potential ghostings, because that could be a little girl, as was the case with your daughter or to good old Albert. Why is it that they always seem to kind of hover around old places? Do you feel you understand that connection? Because it doesn’t seem like they just pop out of a place that was built, you know, last Thursday.
Dianna: Well, I guess if you believe the story of like the poltergeist, it does, because you built a house on on a burial ground.
Chuck Gaidica: Oh, yeah okay. Right, right.
Dianna: But yeah, but I think a lot of it has to do with… I mean, and that’s honestly the fun part for me in researching these stories is digging back to find out why. You know, what is it about that building or that property or that neighborhood that kind of plays into that? You know, there’s The Grill House in Allegan was another place my daughter had an experience. There is it ghost there named Jack. That was a lumberjack camp, and there was a guy named Jack who got killed in a barroom brawl. So you know, his spirit stays on in that place. You also have, I was just at Mission Point Resort on Mackinaw Island earlier this week. The spirit there is a young former student called Harvey who committed suicide over the loss of a girlfriend.
Dianna: So I get, I think sometimes these people, they’re so attached to that place, and it’s I think more historic in nature because of the openness to that property. You look through and everyone on this… I’m scrolling through this list of 31 that I have, every single one of them on here is a historic property.
Chuck Gaidica: Yeah, that’s kind of my point. I was aware of the Whitney Restaurant in Southeast Michigan in Detroit for many, many years because of a connection through the TV station. We would take people there for lunch as part of a show we were doing, and there were always stories about the third floor of the Whitney, you know, and how chairs would get stacked and stuff would fly off walls and off shelves. So I think, you know as I look at this, and forgive again my skepticism, I think sometimes it’s good for business. You know, maybe you say that Albert is there and people are intrigued by that and they kind of get goosebumps by that, but at the same time, there are just too many of these for it to be everybody trying to come up with the new SciFi channel show. Right?
Dianna: Right. Well, and I think that’s a valid point. You know, paranormal tourism, ghostly tourism, dark tourism, it has many names, is one of the fastest growing sectors globally right now because of the Travel channel, the SciFi network, the History network, all of these shows that are out there.
Chuck Gaidica: Yeah.
Dianna: But not everybody is up on acknowledging it. When I was writing my book, I had two lighthouses particularly that said, “Listen, we don’t want to be in the book. We don’t want you to talk about the ghost.” Even though I’d written about it before, because there are a certain number of people who will not go to places if they know it’s haunted, and so they don’t want to, even though they know that they can attract a lot more of people, busloads of people sometimes, to come and visit because they are haunted. Let’s use the Eloise Asylum in Westland. They bought that property and they were going to turn it into assisted or adult living facilities, or something like that. They’re now rethinking maybe hotel, because we’re stopping people from breaking in all the time by offering tours. The tours sell out. And I’m excited to talk with you, maybe off air, about the Whitney because we’re having dinner there on Saturday night.
Chuck Gaidica: Oh, are you?
Dianna: And then touring at the Eloise Hotel or Eloise Asylum. My boyfriend and I, it’s our second anniversary and that’s what we’re doing. We’re going ghost hunting for our anniversary.
Chuck Gaidica: I think you’re just a ghost buster. I think there’ll be a new movie and you’ll be in it, Dianna. So let me jump into your book, because I know it just came out this spring of 2019, but Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouses. By default, because we have so many lighthouses. It would seem like we have the opportunity to find several that kind of fall into this category of haunted. Right?
Dianna: That is true. Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state. We’ve got over 120, and a more miles of freshwater coastline, so that does make sense. But we have about 40 of those lights that have some type of ghost story attached to them. Some of them very, very minor, some of them are very elaborate. I have 13 of them in the book, because you know, when you’re writing haunted things, 13 seems to be the most logical number. You know, 15 haunted lights just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Chuck Gaidica: Yeah.
Dianna: So yeah, there are 13 of them in this book, and I again dig in and those that are skeptical will still enjoy the book, because it’s really about 65% history, 35% ghost story. But you know, I think the ghost stories are still fun. Kids love to read them. They kind of get your adrenaline pumping, you know, makes your heart do things and get you all excited in a safe way.
Chuck Gaidica: So the hauntings, are they watchmen? Who is it that’s still hanging around these lighthouses, on average, of these 40?
Dianna: Most of them are former keepers. When I go out and give presentations, it’s great because I get to visit some of these communities. But in South Haven, keeper Donahue served 35 years as a one-legged lighthouse keeper, still haunts the house there today. In Whitehall, Captain Bill Robinson served 45 years and died at the light. He and his wife both are residents of that. South Manitou Island, we had Aaron and Julia Sheridan. They died in a shipwreck with their nine month old son and their spirits are there.
Dianna: One of the most haunted is Waugoshance in the Straits of Mackinac. John Herman, a prankster who was thought to have fallen over the edge of the lighthouse and drown in 1900, well, it turns out he died of a heart attack on Mackinaw Island, but his spirit still is out there. It’s these keepers, in many cases, or descendants of their family. At Marquette in the UP and also at Whitefish Point, two young girls haunt each of those. Seven year old girls. I believe a mother at one place and a daughter at the other, who were just raised at the light, and that’s the place that in their afterlife they find the most comfort.
Chuck Gaidica: And so have you got personal experience as you dug into the research of these 40 different places? Did you go visit them and did you experience anything yourself?
Dianna: Well, I did some investigation. I talked to a lot of people. So in the actual book, I don’t have any personal experiences, but after the book came out last October, we took a tour with a paranormal group at Fort Gratiot in Port Huron, which is Michigan’s oldest active light.
Chuck Gaidica: Yeah.
Dianna: And we had all kinds of activity there. I think, you know, it does open up when you go in with a professional team and they’ve got the gadgets and they know how to use it and how to call things out, I think that that really helps. So we had all kinds of weird photos, flashlight activity, EVP readings and things like that over at Fort Gratiot. And I think they do public investigations there throughout the year.
Chuck Gaidica: You know, it’s funny you mentioned that, because we did have in our family and experience with lights flashing, et cetera, during a wedding and before and after a wedding. What is it that you feel, because you hear about this electricity. My son’s a neuroscientist. He’s got a PhD, and when he was going to convert his life, you know, and dedicate his life to getting a PhD in neuroscience, his undergrad was in electrical engineering. He looked at me and he said, “Dad, well, the brain, it’s all electricity. You know, I’m just going to study a different thing.” And he did and it’s all worked out okay. So when you think of what’s left and what you’re able to test, do you have any theories about why it’s got something to do often with electrical currents, flashing lights, lights that stay on being able to look at a meter?
Dianna: Well, I think with some of the paranormal groups that I’ve been hanging out with over the last couple of years, I think that that electrical energy that’s out there becomes that conduit to bring it in. It’s there so that those that are on the other side can have a means to communicate. So it becomes the reason why we are able to either hear or pick up EVP readings and whatnot. You can often go in and use bandwidth and pick up some of those signals that come through there, and I think that that just helps us to open those lines of communication, which ironically is what many of these energy lines are for anyway. So it’s just instead of you and I communicating over the phone, over the internet, it’s a chance for us and these spirits on the other side or that have not crossed over to still have that line of communication.
Chuck Gaidica: You know, it’s interesting that the way you’re putting this, and I find this fascinating because again, I’m coming at it as a bit of a skeptic, although there have been experiences in our lives that, you know, I could kind of chalk up this way. But I’m fascinated because you have mentioned now the other side a couple of times. So quantum physics would tend to tell us, and my neuroscience son and my other son who’s a mathematician, would say there’s an explanation.
Dianna: Boy, you just live with the guys from the Big Bang Theory over there, don’t you?
Chuck Gaidica: Well I do. I do, I do. It’s really funny because you know, we can stay up until 2:00 in the morning. So let me give you an argument that’s happened at our family’s life, right? My faith instructs me that there’s something called heaven. My one son would say, “Well, quantum physics says there’s a fifth dimension and it’s right around us right now, and someday we’ll be able to penetrate that veil and it’s like right here, Dad.” I said, “Well, we’re not too far off. I call it heaven. You call it a fifth dimension.” But when you say the other side, what is it that you believe? Why are people either stuck on this side? Or why are they able to come back from that side and get here, but we can’t necessarily see in there yet?
Dianna: Well, I don’t know that last part of it, but I think the reason that some come back is, and I like to think that they have a choice.
Chuck Gaidica: So they’re not stuck.
Dianna: Well, I think some may be, but I think you also have a choice, because when we look at some of these spirits, for example, the two girls I mentioned up in the UP, one died in her 40s and one died in her 90s, yet their spirits came back at the age of seven. Why was that? Why seven? And I like to think, as I’m talking to mediums and paranormal people, that you get a bit of a choice. You know what if you think when you’re going out, what was the best year of my life? Because that’s the one I want to go back to. That’s the one I want to stay in for eternity if you’re going to choose to come back.
Dianna: And so I think you know that there is a certain level of option for that. Now I also think that there are options or situations where somebody dies tragically. That changes the game a little bit. I think you may come back at that era, especially if it’s a very negative tragedy, not just an unexpected death where your spirit may come back not necessarily at a happy place. So I think that there are different elements. I don’t think it’s one cookie cutter answer as to why these come back.
Chuck Gaidica: Interesting.
Dianna: I mean, I’d like to think, if I get to come back, I get to pick when, right?
Chuck Gaidica: Well and if you could, could you let us know so that we could do another podcast?
Dianna: I absolutely will. We’ll keep those lines of communication open.
Chuck Gaidica: We think we have the technology. We’ll just have to see. Now, back to the haunted lighthouses. Is this all about the lighthouse, or are there any ghost ships? You know, I’ve heard of those in New England off the coastline, and of course Captain Jack and the pirates have instructed us through film that there could be a ghost ship that’s out there. Is there anything like that around the lighthouses of Michigan?
Dianna: Not included in the book, but yes, I have heard about a lot of the ghost ships. Particularly, it seems to be more this time a year, and people go, “Oh it’s because it’s Halloween and I’m like “No, it’s because the weather conditions are changing.” If you’re watching the news this week, the gales of October are in full force.
Chuck Gaidica: Yeah, I was just in the UP, and they were just starting this past weekend. Yep.
Dianna: Yes. I was just at Mackinaw Island. Let me tell you, that was the roughest, ferry boat ride over to the Island. We’re seeing, you know, wash outs, we’re seeing lighthouses, some of the, in fact Waugoshance in the Straits of Mackinac, the base is starting to crumble significantly because of these weather conditions. So you see a lot of the ghost ships things are tied to time of year because the conditions I think are are right for them. So I think we do have a lot. And Michigan has some really great authors and some folks who have mentored me and inspired me when I was writing my book. Fred Stonehouse is a prime example. He’s based up in Marquette. He’s actually the mayor of Marquette. I’ve known Fred for over 20 years and relied on some of his early stories to inspire me to get my book going.
Dianna: He has all kinds of books out about go ships and spirits and lighthouse keepers and people who’ve worked on freighters and the early ships, things like the Griffin, which was lost in the Straits of Mackinac and some of that stuff. Those are all fascinating stories and I think, you know, so much part of our history here in Michigan. One of the things I didn’t realize until I really started digging into the lighthouses is how they’re tied to our earliest history. They’re tied to iron ore, they’re tied to fishing, lumbering, agriculture, tourism. You know, it’s part of our earliest, earliest history, and that Fort Gratiot lighthouse, I mean that predates Michigan by 12 years, by the state of Michigan in our statehood day.
Chuck Gaidica: Well, you know, and you’ve given us some encouragement here as to where we can go, because there are so many choices. I mean of the 120 that you pointed out, we’ve got the most in any of any state, the 40 that may have some kind of haunting, they’re scattered across the state. So regardless of where you live, if this is an interest to you, you don’t have to drive five hours to find some of these places.
Dianna: That is correct. You know, I have 13 in my book, and I tried to space them out geographically, but also based on some of the best stories and availability of photos and things along those lines. But yeah, there’s certainly, I mean if you’re looking for a haunted light in the metro area, you can go down there, you could find them in the Keweenaw. So they’re spread out. Some of them are on the shoreline, some are out on the water. So maybe you’re going to take a Shepler ferry boat ride out next summer to see the off shore lights. Many of them are open for tours so you can go through White River Light Station. You can go through South Manitou Light. You can go through Old Presque Isle and Marquette and Whitefish and Point Iroquois. They’re all open for tours during the summer season, so you can get inside and climb those towers. You know, it is quite a hike. Go to South Manitou and you’re 117 steps to the top. And of course then you have to come down.
Chuck Gaidica: Well, we want to get healthy while we’re exploring, so that’s perfect for what we’re trying to encourage people to do.
Dianna: It’s good. You know, visiting these haunted lighthouses really gets your heart pumping in more than one way, for sure.
Chuck Gaidica: Well, let me double back for just a minute, because I think you’ve talked about this a bit, but I want to make sure I understand. Of the 40 lighthouses and the 13 that you dealt with directly in your book, which is entitled Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouses, are you seeing a connection to the phenomenon that’s happening? Is it an apparition or are people from a distance at night, the light just comes on by itself, or what’s typically happening? Or is there a typical?
Dianna: There’s no typical. Every one is kind of different, but we do hear a lot of voices and footsteps. That seems to be a common thing.
Chuck Gaidica: Okay.
Dianna: But the girls in the UP, that mother-daughter, they’re seen. And often I’ve been told that at Marquette, if women are touring the light, sometimes they’ll get a little tug at their dress or their shirt. That’s just who I think is little Cecelia just trying to make her presence known, “Hey, I’m here. Just don’t forget that I’m here.” So we have that. There’s some great paranormal video from Whitefish Point of Bertha Endres, who is Cecilia’s daughter who haunts that lighthouse. So you get a little bit of everything.
Dianna: I’ve seen some very strange photographs, orbs, shadow figures and things like that, ones that I have not taken, but I have seen firsthand and digital stuff off a phone. So it’s not like you’re doctoring them up on Photoshop or whatever. So I think you just get a lot, you get lights that shine, but you get a lot of children that kind of pick up on the spirits. I did a book signing at the Saginaw River Light in Bay City this summer, and a little two year old boy came in with his grandma, and the first word out of his mouth when he stepped in the building was ghost. And he walked around that lighthouse talking to that ghost for over half an hour.
Chuck Gaidica: Is that right? Wow.
Dianna: Yeah. And came and kept pointing to her picture, Julia Brawn, pointing to her and talking to her and asking. Like if he couldn’t see her at one point he’d asked her, “Where did you go? Where are you?” And he would go around for all day that whole time he was there, looking for that ghost.
Chuck Gaidica: That little kid and the adults that were with him, they weren’t freaked out? Were they not scared by this?
Dianna: Well, I think a few people were looking at him and wondering what was up. But we also had Coast Guard men that were there who used to live in the light and who had heard the footsteps in the past, so more people were intrigued that this boy was picking up on it.
Chuck Gaidica: Now, in your stories and in the writings and in talking to some of the people that have relayed stories to you, you’ve mentioned that some of the lighthouses don’t want it known that they even have a possibility of being haunted. What have you found are the ways that people have said, “Go back. I don’t really want to have glasses fly off a shelf or Uncle Albert, go. I’m really done with hearing spooky sounds at night.” Has there been a way to exorcize, I guess, or just politely say, “Could you just pack and go back?”
Dianna: Well, at a Big Bay Lighthouse in Marquette, which is just north of Marquette, it’s been a bed and breakfast for years. You can actually go and spend the night there, and the most recent caretaker, Linda Gamble… And I remember reading it and hearing it from her in the past, she’d be sleeping at night and William Pryor, that ghost there, the former keeper who committed suicide after his son died, would be banging around the cupboard doors in the kitchen.
Dianna: And she would go down there at night and say, “Listen. William, knock it off. I got to get up and fix breakfast for everybody in the morning. So just go to bed.” And she would go to bed and it would stop and it wouldn’t happen again for months or maybe a year or two, and then he’d come back and she’d have to go back and talk to him. “Okay, listen. I told you once, can’t have this in the middle of the night” and he would stop. So I mean, I don’t think that they’re intending to be obnoxious. I think maybe he was just having some insomnia and was looking for coffee cups so he could have a cup of coffee or something.
Chuck Gaidica: Well you know, you make this sound so casual, like we can just invite them in to sit down at the table, but you know, at Halloween when all the movies are out and there’s the 24/7 cycle of repeating the scariest of the scariest, and some that frankly are B-, we kind of used to think they were the best scary movies when we were kids and now you watch them and you laugh like, “Oh, that’s kind of cute.” Yeah.
Dianna: That’s really cheesy now, right?
Chuck Gaidica: Exactly. But when you think of this idea, they’ve made hauntings and ghostings very scary. And I’m not saying they shouldn’t be, because even you said at the top, some of this may come from an evil place. Right?
Dianna: Right.
Chuck Gaidica: Are any of the ghostings that you’ve discovered here routinely something that seem hurtful or challenging, et cetera?
Dianna: Not at all. You know, particularly in the lighthouses, I think that many of these people, many of these former keepers that are haunting the place still feel drawn to protect and save. That is a calling, you know, much like a doctor or a firefighter or a police officer. It’s not just a job for a lot of them. It’s their passion. It’s what they felt they were called to do. And I think that they just don’t really want to go anywhere else other than where they have spent a bulk of their time and that they feel that they’re still protecting.
Dianna: Karen McDonald, who used to be the curator at the White River Light Station, she noticed the ghost right after she moved in and I remember hearing stories from her that, “You know what? I’m not afraid I’m living here with my young son and in this remote area, but I’m not afraid that he’s here, because if he’s keeping an eye on his lighthouse, he’s going to make sure we’re okay too.”
Chuck Gaidica: Wow.
Dianna: And so she felt that it was a good thing to have him there as an added protector, and you know, as a single mom with a young child, you know, that can be a scary place to be. And to know that Bill was there and that he lived there for 45 years as the keeper, he built the light, and that he’s still there keeping an eye on the light and whoever is inside of it, these are the stories that we’re hearing from these keepers. You know, a few times they’re doing some rambunctious kind of things. John Herman at Waugoshance is known to be quite a prankster. In the day in fact, it was the reason many people did not want to serve at that lighthouse after his death in the early 1900s, but it wasn’t scratching or hurting people. It might’ve been moving the silverware around a little bit. “Hey, you know, you thought you saw this but we really saw that.” I think it’s just all very casual and I think that’s why I’m not really particularly afraid by the whole thing,
Chuck Gaidica: Which was the one that I read, I came across? Was it related to the book or in your list of a ghost that comes back and he jokes with the guys and he flirts with the women? Was that Mission Point? Which one was that? That was-
Dianna: That was Harvey at Mission Point, yes.
Chuck Gaidica: Mission Point, yeah. Yeah. So how does that manifest? What does that mean that you know, Casper is flirting with my wife? I mean, what does that mean?
Dianna: You know what, I was up there and stayed there this week and I never saw Harvey, so I’m kind of offended that he didn’t flirt with me.
Chuck Gaidica: He did not, yeah.
Dianna: Yeah, and interestingly enough, I was having a chat with our mutual friend Maia Turek from Michigan State Parks about that, because her husband is a believer and we were chit-chatting about the Harvey thing and sitting there and reading the story. But you know, Harvey, he got his heart broken and I think that’s why he’s still hanging around at that place. But you know, sometimes you can dispel some of the rumors and stories, too. I stayed at Mission Point back in June, and I’d had always heard that out front there was this pond and it was a witching pond. They would dunk witches back in the day, and if they floated, they were witches and they were killed, but if they sunk, they weren’t witches, but they still died. It turns out that was all just urban legend. So there are some stories that you can get to the bottom of and debunk them a little bit. But again, the research for me is always the fun part.
Chuck Gaidica: Well, and you’ve spent lots of time doing it and I know you wear so many hats. So as we start to wrap up, let’s get a little bit of an idea of how we can find this book of yours for people who are interested, because you’ve got your own website, right?
Dianna: I do. So if people are looking specifically for the book, it’s MIhauntedlighthouses.com. You can order an autographed copy. It makes a great Christmas gift, I’m going to say, for lighthouse and haunted people on your list. But then, promotemichigan.com is my main website, so the list of the 31 haunted places, some of which we touched on, are listed there. I’ve been writing professionally for 20 years, so I have a bunch of articles archived there. I do a lot of historical stuff and travel-related things so people can look at that and kind of follow along in my adventures around the state. It’s a fun life, and I invite people to join me virtually for that adventure.
Chuck Gaidica: Well, it’s so good to connect with you, Dianna, Stampfler. The book, again, is called Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouses. Perfect timing for us to dig into this topic. You take good care of yourself, and maybe we’ll come across your way before you come back from wherever else you’ll be going. Yeah.
Dianna: That sounds great. I am always here for those really early morning phone calls where no one else is around.
Chuck Gaidica: Well, take good care and have a wonderful holiday season. Thanks for listening to A Healthier Michigan Podcast. It’s brought to you by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. If you like the show, you want to learn more, you can always check out links and previous episodes at ahealthiermichigan.org/podcast. You can leave us reviews and ratings on Apple podcast or Stitcher, and get all the new episodes and listen to them as you’re hiking or you’re going to visit lighthouses. Just listen through your smartphone or your tablet. Be sure to subscribe to us on Apple podcast and Spotify or your favorite podcast app. That wasn’t too spooky. It was good. I’m just saying. I’m Chuck Gaidica. Enjoy your day.
