There are many ghost stories and strange events in Michigan, but a well-known travel magazine thinks that a small island in Lake Michigan is the scariest of them all.
People who like scary stories might want to check out South Manitou Island, which is said to be the most haunted place in the whole state, based on its tales. The island is in northern Michigan, about 16 miles from the coast of Leelanau County.
“16 miles offshore from Lake Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula, South Manitou is home to 300-foot sand dunes, deserted shores, and empty campgrounds,” the magazine stated. “And with respect to the abandoned buildings of Detroit and Flint, it’s about as creepy as you can get in Michigan.”
People think that sailors buried a ship full of cholera-stricken passengers in a mass grave while some were still alive, according to two island legends that were told by the magazine. The other story is about the SS Francisco Morazan, a ship that ran aground on the island’s coast in 1960. A boy died while trying to explore the wreck on his own.
The magazine also said that voices can be heard hooting from the two graves on the island and from a cedar forest. One of the two islands off the coast of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Leelanau County, Michigan, is South Manitou. The island is also part of a chain in Lake Michigan that goes north to the Straits of Mackinac.
A lot of people also know the island for its long past and three miles of sandy beaches that can only be reached by ferry. The island also has ten miles of sandy beaches, a grove of white cedars that are more than 500 years old, and some very interesting sand dunes.
In 1988, the Manitou Passage State Underwater Preserve was created to protect the historic and archaeological worth of more than fifty known shipwreck sites from 1835 to 1960. Other scary places in the state that you might want to visit are:
- Doherty Hotel
- Eloise Asylum
- Ghost Tour Grand Rapids
- Haunts of Mackinac
- Haunted Traverse Walking Tours
- Seul Choix Pointe Lighthouse
- The Whitney Detroit