Echo is leaving behind the aquatic and terrestrial to cover a new ominous, shadowy Great Lakes environmental realm — the paranormal.
On this day of witches, warlocks and sugar highs, we’re forgetting about Superior and Erie to focus on the super eerie.
We take you an hour northwest of Detroit to Linden, Mich, where The Linden Hotel has the spookiest of invasive species — ghosts.
“The building’s been around since the 1840s, and I’m not a big believer, but there’s something going on here,” said Mike Furry, owner of the Linden Hotel.
Visitors and staff alike have had unexplained encounters, Furry said. It all started for the skeptical Furry when the hotel housed civil war enactment soldiers during their visit to town.
“We were having Civil War days in Linden, and my father took a picture of the soldiers in their upstairs room in their uniforms,” Furry said. “And a Confederate soldier showed up in the picture.”
No one could explain or identify the Confederate soldier who showed up in this photo standing next to the chair. Photo: Lindenhotel.com
Which may seem normal for a Civil War reenactment group — except no one in the room was dressed as a Confederate soldier that day, Furry said. Not one of the actors could identify the mysterious soldier in the photo.
And the weirdness has continued for Furry and co-owner, Sharon Flowers.
Keys jangle without being touched.
Saltshakers crash unexpectedly to the floor.
Screams pierce the quiet night.
“People feel their shirt being tugged, and they look and no one’s around,” Furry said. “I don’t know, man … “
We put up electric barriers for carp and pull Garlic Mustard until our hands hurt. But what to do when the invasive is spooky, invisible and possibly completely in your head?
You call Peter Venkman– I mean David Tucker.
“We come in, set up our equipment, take back the data, analyze it and we find out what is really going on,” said Tucker, founder of Greater Michigan Paranormal Investigations.
And Tucker takes his job just as seriously as a fishery manager or wildlife specialist.
“We use digital voice recorders, barometric pressure meters, high resolution cameras and devices that pick up vibrations,” Tucker said.
Tucker took a trip to the infamous Linden Hotel and came home with some “interesting video.”
“The TV kept turning itself back on after the owner would shut it off,” Tucker said. “And there was only her husband in the room, but all he had was a drink in his hand.”
Tucker is a "doubter" but the Linden Hotel investigation gave him chills. Photo: Greater Michigan Paranormal Investigations
It’s going to take more than that to convince a self-described doubter to believe he was in a haunted spot.
“My audio recordings picked up whispers … whispers that were too quiet to hear audibly with your ears, but that the sensitive equipment picked up,” Tucker said.
The whisperer said, “no,” and, “no, what’s up,” Tucker said.
The Linden Hotel is no stranger to investigators. The Southeast Michigan Ghost Hunters Society has made multiple trips, and other “ghost hunters” come regularly, according to Furry. And unlike the state officials and environmentalists clamoring to rid the Great Lakes of invaders, Furry and Flowers seem to embrace their invasive species with an entire photo album on their website.
And while the Linden Hotel was “chilling” for Tucker, he admits that most of his investigations end in all-but paranormal explanations.
“I had one case in Pontiac (Mich.) where a little girl was too scared to go upstairs because she kept hearing voices,” Tucker said. “The parents panicked and called me to investigate.
“They lived a half block from a 24-hour Taco Bell. The little girl was hearing voices from the speaker all night.”
So whether it’s ghosts, ghouls or people with the munchies … what haunts you in the Great Lakes region, Echo readers?
(Featured photo: PHILIPPE SOKAZO (Flickr)