Speaker 1: Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Minky.
Speaker 2: Listener, discretion is advised.
Speaker 3: A few years back, I was sitting in what may
Speaker 3: have been the most beautiful hotel I had ever laid
Speaker 3: eyes on. To be honest, I wasn't a guest, but
Speaker 3: I walked in like I was one, trying not to
Speaker 3: catch anyone's attention. I sidled up to the first bar
Speaker 3: I saw, and sat and ordered a glass of wine
Speaker 3: so I could fully absorb my surroundings. The hotel was
Speaker 3: positively lush with color, and clearly there was a dress code,
Speaker 3: because all the women were in dresses and the men
Speaker 3: in jackets. Thankfully, i'd gotten the memo beforehand, but I'd
Speaker 3: also gotten the memo that this hotel was haunted. Built
Speaker 3: in the late eighteen hundreds, ghost stories have been told
Speaker 3: about it for decades. Naturally, my curiosity was piqued. Point blank,
Speaker 3: asked the bartender, is this hotel haunted? She looked at me,
Speaker 3: quite literally, like she had seen a ghost. She looked
Speaker 3: back and forth as if to see if anyone was
Speaker 3: within earshot, and she leaned in close to me and
Speaker 3: whispered I'm not supposed to talk about it, but yes,
Speaker 3: I won't even walk back to the employee housing alone again.
Speaker 3: She looked around and quickly said, that's all I can say.
Speaker 3: So of course I had to know more. Why don't
Speaker 3: we learn together? Come with me Haunted roadies as we
Speaker 3: journey to the Grand Hotel on mckinaw Island. I'm Amy Bruney,
Speaker 3: and this is Haunted Road. Mckinaw Island is a small
Speaker 3: isle in Michigan's Lake Huron. It spans just under four
Speaker 3: square miles. You can reach it a few ways via
Speaker 3: a fifteen minute ferry ride or by charter plane, but
Speaker 3: there are no bridges or roads that would let you
Speaker 3: drive or walk there. The only other option is to
Speaker 3: wait until the lake freeze is solid enough that you
Speaker 3: can cross it by snowmobile. Sounds terrifying. If you venture
Speaker 3: out to Mackinaw, you'll find largely untouched wilderness, as over
Speaker 3: eighty percent of the land is a state park. While
Speaker 3: you can shop for homemade fudge or other gifts, for
Speaker 3: the most part, businesses and homes are hard to come by.
Speaker 3: Only about five hundred people live on the island full time,
Speaker 3: but on top of one grassy treelined one hundred foot
Speaker 3: tall bluff, an expansive, five story hotel stands. It's a
Speaker 3: grand white building that combines Queen Anne and colonial revival elements.
Speaker 3: This building, called the Grand Hotel, is one of the
Speaker 3: last remaining wood frame hotels in the United States, and
Speaker 3: it's no surprise that it's still standing. It's made of
Speaker 3: white pine from Michigan. According to the hotel's February fourteenth,
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty nine National Register of Historic Places form, this
Speaker 3: kind of pine is known as the wood eternal because
Speaker 3: it's so sturdy. A six hundred and sixty foot long
Speaker 3: porch runs the hotel's exterior, dotted with numerous two story
Speaker 3: tall white columns. They're capped with a green roof. A
Speaker 3: cupola rises from the center of the building, and it
Speaker 3: holds an American flag. The outside is deceiving. The classic
Speaker 3: white exterior houses a colorful and boldly patterned interior. Red
Speaker 3: armchairs rest on a green checkered carpet that features alternating
Speaker 3: ruby circles and lime green squares. The dining room can
Speaker 3: hold eight hundred people, meaning mckinaw's entire population could eat
Speaker 3: there and still have open seats. And in keeping with
Speaker 3: the hotel's tendency toward bright colors, it has bold green
Speaker 3: and white striped chairs. The ceiling is a slightly tamer
Speaker 3: shade of mint green, and the three hundred and ninety
Speaker 3: seven guest rooms feature pink, blue and green wallpaper in
Speaker 3: floral prints or stripes, and equally garish bedding. The bold
Speaker 3: hues are everywhere because one former owner banned the use
Speaker 3: of beige during a renovation, so you can't escape bright
Speaker 3: shades and patterns in the thirteen restaurants and bars, or
Speaker 3: the pool, the golf course, tennis courts, or meditation gardens.
Speaker 3: A reporter once tried to put the hotel's unique design
Speaker 3: elements into words in her article with the Wall Street Journals.
Speaker 3: She wrote, imagine if the Mad Hatter had trained as
Speaker 3: an interior designer. That's what the Grand Hotel looks like today.
Speaker 3: But if you were to travel back in time to
Speaker 3: the eighteenth century, this area would have had a very
Speaker 3: different appearance. According to the island's official blog, the indigenous
Speaker 3: Anishinovic people saw Mackinaw as a sacred refuge, and it
Speaker 3: was also where they buried their dead. The name Mackinaw
Speaker 3: comes from a word their people used. It translates into
Speaker 3: English as place of the great Turtle. In the sixteen hundreds,
Speaker 3: the first Europeans set foot on Mackinaw Island, and afterward
Speaker 3: it developed but slowly. The British military built a fort
Speaker 3: there in seventeen eighty. Then it spent some time as
Speaker 3: a fur trading out post, but by the post Civil
Speaker 3: War era the island was a tourist destination. Its pristine
Speaker 3: wilderness was a big draw for those who wanted to
Speaker 3: escape the bustle of city living. Its northern climate was
Speaker 3: also appealing to people fleeing the summer heat. In an
Speaker 3: effort to preserve Mckinaw's natural beauty and avoid congestion, the
Speaker 3: island banned all cars in eighteen ninety eight. The band
Speaker 3: still stands today, so if you're thinking of visiting, be
Speaker 3: prepared to walk, bike, or hire a horse drawn taxi. However,
Speaker 3: before the band passed, another major development came about with
Speaker 3: the influx of tourists. It was only natural for the
Speaker 3: Central Railroad, the Indiana Railroad, and the Cleveland Steamship Navigation
Speaker 3: Company to find ways to keep drawing travelers to Mackinaw.
Speaker 3: After all, those visitors also brought business to their companies,
Speaker 3: so they cooperated to finance a hotel on the island.
Speaker 3: Construction crews broke ground in the spring of eighteen eighty seven. Reportedly,
Speaker 3: over the course of the three month long construction period,
Speaker 3: the workers kept uncovering grave after grave, those of both
Speaker 3: humans and animals. Sophie Boudreau wrote on Only in Your
Speaker 3: State website that the teams found too many bones for
Speaker 3: the crews to keep track of. The workers were so
Speaker 3: overwhelmed that at one point they stopped trying to keep
Speaker 3: track of all the graves they'd uncovered. Instead, they ignored
Speaker 3: the tombs, choosing to literally build the hotel on top
Speaker 3: of them. Now I have not been able to verify
Speaker 3: that claim. Some people believe that the story about the
Speaker 3: burial plot under the hotel is little more than an
Speaker 3: urban legend, but it is worth mentioning that the indigenous
Speaker 3: people did in fact bury their dead on the island
Speaker 3: for centuries, and it's not uncommon for construction projects on
Speaker 3: mckinaw to uncover ancient graves even to this day. Whether
Speaker 3: the hotel was literally built on the bones of the
Speaker 3: deceased or not, it quickly gained a reputation as a
Speaker 3: premier vacation destination. Originally it was called Planck's Grand Hotel,
Speaker 3: but with time the structure came to be known simply
Speaker 3: as the Grand Hotel. Guests came when they were looking
Speaker 3: for a quiet place to relax, a place where they
Speaker 3: could sit on the porch, enjoying a cool breeze off
Speaker 3: the straits of Mackinaw and maybe take in a lecture.
Speaker 3: Mark Twain spoke there in the late eighteen hundreds, as
Speaker 3: did one of Thomas Edison's employees. He was there to
Speaker 3: show off Edison's latest invention, the phonograph. Over the years,
Speaker 3: the Grand Hotel has boasted many rich and famous guests,
Speaker 3: including multiple US presidents and Madonna. It has been designated
Speaker 3: as a National Historic Landmark since nineteen eighty nine, which
Speaker 3: was two years after its hundredth birthday. But in the
Speaker 3: midst of all these celebrations and milestones, darkness lurked. See
Speaker 3: A woman named Lilian Salter was working as a chambermaid
Speaker 3: at the Grand Hotel in July of eighteen ninety three.
Speaker 3: She'd only been at the job for a few weeks
Speaker 3: and was living in the employee housing on site. On
Speaker 3: the night of the thirteenth, she decided to attend a
Speaker 3: dance elsewhere on the island. There she met a man,
Speaker 3: a soldier named Will Badgeley. He offered to walk her home,
Speaker 3: and Lilian accepted his chivalry, perhaps thinking he'd keep her safe. Sadly,
Speaker 3: there was no one to keep her safe from Will,
Speaker 3: who sexually assaulted her on the way to the hotel.
Speaker 3: Lilian put up a vicious fight, leaving Will with visible
Speaker 3: injuries on his face, but it wasn't enough to stop
Speaker 3: the attack. She survived the rape, but was too distraught
Speaker 3: and ashamed to tell anyone what had happened to her. Afterward,
Speaker 3: she spent a few days trying to live her life
Speaker 3: like normal, but by July seventeenth, her trauma was becoming
Speaker 3: too great to bear. Sadly, she took her own life.
Speaker 3: We only know about the sexual assault and the toll
Speaker 3: it took on her mental health because Lilian left behind
Speaker 3: two suicide notes. One was addressed to her aunt and
Speaker 3: the other was an open letter. In both of the messages,
Speaker 3: she explained what had happened to her and named her attacker.
Speaker 3: She also asked to be buried with the photo of
Speaker 3: her fiance which she'd been holding in her hands at
Speaker 3: the time of her death. On the strength of the
Speaker 3: testimony in her note, the police arrested and charged William.
Speaker 3: He denied having anything to do with Lilian, but his
Speaker 3: guilt was clear from the scratches and bruises on his face.
Speaker 3: The public was so outraged that several people threatened William's life.
Speaker 3: It was impossible for him to stand trial on Mackinaw Island,
Speaker 3: so the case was transferred to the mainland. There, he
Speaker 3: was found guilty and sentenced to eight years of hard labor.
Speaker 3: As for Lilian, it's said that her spirit still walks
Speaker 3: the grounds of the Grand Hotel. According to witnesses, she
Speaker 3: strolls up and down the beach outside, a reminder of
Speaker 3: the violence that stains the hotel's history. She's just one
Speaker 3: of many ghosts that are said to haunt this area.
Speaker 3: The hotel is only open for about half of the year,
Speaker 3: from May to late October, but during those months guests
Speaker 3: often hear disembodied footsteps and voices. Doors are known to
Speaker 3: open and close on their own, and the dining room
Speaker 3: and the hallways outside the guest rooms are both good
Speaker 3: locations to stab a picture if you're looking to catch
Speaker 3: some sort of an anomaly on film. A spectral man
Speaker 3: in a top hat is often spotted in the bar
Speaker 3: near the piano. Eyewitnesses have seen him smoking a cigar,
Speaker 3: and occasionally guests can smell the tobacco smoke even when
Speaker 3: he isn't visible. In the hallways and guest rooms, a
Speaker 3: Victorian era woman dressed all in white is seen pacing about,
Speaker 3: and occasionally she tries to climb into bed with unsuspecting
Speaker 3: employees who live in the staff quarters. There have also
Speaker 3: been reports of a pair of ghostly soldiers on the grounds.
Speaker 3: As unnerving as all of that is, the most frightening
Speaker 3: accounts feature a spirit that's said to dwell in the
Speaker 3: Grand Hotels theater. It's also according to rumor evil. This
Speaker 3: figure looks like a dark figure or cloud, and sometimes
Speaker 3: it has two red eyes. Those who have seen the
Speaker 3: entity insist that it has no arms, legs, or face. However,
Speaker 3: it is vaguely human in size and silhouette. According to
Speaker 3: Sophie Boudreaux, on one occasion, a group of maintenance workers
Speaker 3: had to do a project in the theater. They were
Speaker 3: part of the way through their task when one of
Speaker 3: them sensed something eerie. He glanced up from what he
Speaker 3: was doing to see the shadowy entity standing right beside him,
Speaker 3: glaring with those glowing red eyes. Before the worker could
Speaker 3: run away or scream, the shadow figure rushed forward. He
Speaker 3: hit the man so hard that he was knocked unconscious.
Speaker 3: It said that he needed to stay in a hospital
Speaker 3: for two full days before he recovered, and afterward he
Speaker 3: refused to ever set foot inside ever again. That said,
Speaker 3: many of the spirits there are friendly, or at the
Speaker 3: very least they're not violent. One such entity is a
Speaker 3: little girl who's been dubbed Rebecca. According to rumors, she
Speaker 3: was once a guest at the hotel until she tragically
Speaker 3: fell through a window and died.
Speaker 1: From the fall.
Speaker 3: These days, her ghost is known to pace the hallways
Speaker 3: every night between two am and four am. Another woman
Speaker 3: is often spotted on the porch, dressed head totie and
Speaker 3: black and walking a large white dog. Rumor goes that
Speaker 3: she's also a former guest, a woman who checked in
Speaker 3: one day in eighteen ninety one. She was clearly wealthy
Speaker 3: based on the footmen and maid she brought with her,
Speaker 3: but that's all anyone knew about her for the duration
Speaker 3: of her stay, she stayed in her room with the
Speaker 3: door closed. She refused to leave or to interact with
Speaker 3: the other guests, with a few notable exceptions. Her story
Speaker 3: was recorded in Haunts of Mackinaw, ghost Stories, Legends and
Speaker 3: Tragic Tales of Mckinaw Island by Todd Clemens. He wrote
Speaker 3: that the woman in Black only ventured from her room
Speaker 3: three times a day. Every day, she walked her white
Speaker 3: Russian bloodhound at eight a m. Noon and seven pm.
Speaker 3: And finally, at the end of her visit, she checked
Speaker 3: out and never returned. Supposedly, on that day, a large
Speaker 3: blackbird also sat on a perch just outside her window,
Speaker 3: like some kind of omen. Now I need to acknowledge
Speaker 3: that I wasn't able to verify many of those details.
Speaker 3: It's in possible to say if a reclusive woman in
Speaker 3: black did check into the Grand Hotel that year. But
Speaker 3: if there is any truth to the story, it fits
Speaker 3: with what we know about the spirit. If anyone tries
Speaker 3: to point her out or draw attention to her in
Speaker 3: any way, she'll disappear in an instant, as though she's
Speaker 3: just as shy in death as she was in life.
Speaker 3: This woman isn't the only spirit whose history is shrouded
Speaker 3: in mystery and unverified conjecture. But the hotel's history is
Speaker 3: still worth investigating even if we never uncover the full truth.
Speaker 3: That's why I'm talking to the aforementioned Todd Clements. He's
Speaker 3: an expert on all things spooky on Mackinaw Island and
Speaker 3: this is his second time on the show that is
Speaker 3: coming up after the break. Okay, everyone, I am now
Speaker 3: joined by my friend Todd Clements. And Todd actually heads
Speaker 3: up Haunts of Mackinaw on Macinaw Island, and he is
Speaker 3: an expert in all things Macanaw, not just historically but
Speaker 3: ghostly as well, so I figured he was the perfect
Speaker 3: person to talk to the Grand Hotel or talk about
Speaker 3: the Grand Hotel too. So welcome to the program again, Todd.
Speaker 2: Thank you again for having me. Glad to be back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was I think it was a few years ago.
Speaker 3: I had to have been twenty twenty one. I think
Speaker 3: maybe twenty two. You were my first like live yeah,
Speaker 3: my first live Haunted road episode.
Speaker 1: We did it at Michigan per.
Speaker 3: Con and that one we talked about the island as
Speaker 3: a whole as opposed to kind of singling out specific
Speaker 3: locations and I really so I featured the Grand Hotel
Speaker 3: in my cookbook.
Speaker 1: We featured their recipe for.
Speaker 3: Their like they're known for their pecan balls their dessert there,
Speaker 3: so we featured that recipe and I really got to
Speaker 3: dig into the history and the hauntings there and I
Speaker 3: was like, this is a whole episode of Haunted Roads.
Speaker 3: So thank you for that. I think really the first
Speaker 3: time I realized, well, you can just look at that
Speaker 3: hotel and you're like, there's got to be ghosts there.
Speaker 3: But I remember Adam and I went there for a
Speaker 3: drink years ago while we were there for a Strained
Speaker 3: Escapes and we asked one of the seasonal employees. We
Speaker 3: were like, you know, is this place haunted? And you know,
Speaker 3: she basically was like, I don't like to talk about it,
Speaker 3: but you don't know what we deal with in employee housing,
Speaker 3: like that area in particular was very spooky. So how
Speaker 3: do you think the Grand handles their hauntings in general?
Speaker 2: Well, generally they don't want to talk about it. It's
Speaker 2: a policy at the hotel. Things are changing, but their
Speaker 2: general policy was we're not haunted. Plus, speaking with someone
Speaker 2: who is from Jamaica, a lot of the islanders, or
Speaker 2: a lot of the workers on the island from Jamaica
Speaker 2: are very s perstitious. But anything that has to do
Speaker 2: with ghosts see occult very voodoo minded. They don't. They're
Speaker 2: always worried about it. And between those two things is
Speaker 2: probably why she's I'm not talking about this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she was seasonal and she's It's funny. I've seen
Speaker 3: her now a few times since, Like she always works
Speaker 3: in that that great little bar that's outside of like
Speaker 3: the main dining room area. So over the summer for
Speaker 3: the first time ever, like, I've always dreamed of staying
Speaker 3: at the Grand Hotel, and so this year, kind of
Speaker 3: knowing that was gonna be the last year of Michigan
Speaker 3: per con I I think I booked, Like in the fall,
Speaker 3: I booked two nights at the Grand Hotel for my
Speaker 3: daughter and I just to experience it because I wasn't
Speaker 3: sure i'd be back in that area. It turns out
Speaker 3: I am going back, but I was really excited to
Speaker 3: actually stay there, and I did some investigating in my
Speaker 3: room and I live streamed some of it actually with
Speaker 3: the Paranormal Circle folks who are in the Panormal Circle,
Speaker 3: and it was really interesting. We did get some I'm
Speaker 3: like gradyvps. She and I investigated later at night and
Speaker 3: we got a lot of interaction with some of our equipment.
Speaker 3: Who do you think is haunting that hotel?
Speaker 1: Overall?
Speaker 2: It's not one, pretty sure that we know, there's several.
Speaker 2: We also know there's some residual haunts at the hotel.
Speaker 2: We don't know exactly which when it happened, but there's
Speaker 2: one of those. But I would say the most common
Speaker 2: that I hear of would be strange things in rooms, obviously,
Speaker 2: But there is someone we called and we don't know
Speaker 2: their actual name, the bear man whoa We have a
Speaker 2: girl named Rebecca, and there's a security guard or a
Speaker 2: maintenance worker that people have instances with. And then there's
Speaker 2: the woman in black. Those are the ones that we
Speaker 2: know about. There's possibly more than that. And then there's
Speaker 2: a residual party that just keeps on going on into eternity.
Speaker 3: That is very Shining esque. Like that sounds very much
Speaker 3: like the show.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's very much. Yeah, that's what I thought
Speaker 2: when I first heard it. I was like, they pull
Speaker 2: on my leg and then I've heard the story of
Speaker 2: the party. It's it's all sound. You don't see anything.
Speaker 2: You just hear it. You can almost feel it through
Speaker 2: the floorboards. But it happens in the middle of the night.
Speaker 2: If you want me, I can share it. I'll share
Speaker 2: the story of the right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, please, I want to hear about that.
Speaker 2: So if you're staying in the rooms that are above
Speaker 2: the main dining room, right above the main dining room,
Speaker 2: and sometime in the middle of the night, most people
Speaker 2: say it wakes them up, and it's if they're with
Speaker 2: someone else, they boat. They all hear it. Everybody in
Speaker 2: the room will hear it. And you'll hear like big
Speaker 2: band music, snare, drums and horns and all these noises,
Speaker 2: and you hear this chatter of people talking. You hear
Speaker 2: glasses and plates clinking together, and just a party. It's
Speaker 2: a loud band, people talking, drinking, having party. This is
Speaker 2: like three four o'clock in the morning or something like
Speaker 2: that in the dining room right below their room. And
Speaker 2: some of them have gone down obviously throw their slippers
Speaker 2: on and or call down to the front desk, what's
Speaker 2: going on. Why is there so much noise coming from
Speaker 2: the dining room. It's empty. The ones who have gone
Speaker 2: down there to see what's going on. Say, the velvet
Speaker 2: rope is up, the room is completely and it is
Speaker 2: a big dining room.
Speaker 1: You've been there, It's huge. Yeah, it's massive.
Speaker 2: It's huge. The lights are out, you can't see anything.
Speaker 2: It's at least two hundred yards two hundred yards long
Speaker 2: at least. It's enormous, and it's completely black. There's nothing
Speaker 2: going on. And then they'll go back up to the room.
Speaker 2: They can still hear it, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: it just fades and disappears. So they hear this party
Speaker 2: going on. And I've heard this story from so many
Speaker 2: guests that I'm just like, I don't know how to
Speaker 2: explain other than that it's a residual haunt of something
Speaker 2: that got trapped in time.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna I'm gonna look for it because so I
Speaker 3: had so much fun last year, and my daughter loved
Speaker 3: it so much. They've redone their pool just unrelated to
Speaker 3: anything we're talking about right now, but it is one
Speaker 3: of the best hotel pools I've ever been to. It's
Speaker 3: so beautiful, and so she it has a water side.
Speaker 3: She dreams of that pool, and so she already asked me,
Speaker 3: because we're going back. We have a conference uh in
Speaker 3: Sue Saint Marie this summer? Was it Great Lakes Ghosts.
Speaker 3: What's it called that we're doing?
Speaker 1: I know you're.
Speaker 2: I'm doing it too. I know. Oh it's something presented
Speaker 2: by a Michigan paricon.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's presented con something. I will look it up
Speaker 3: at some point before. But it's like the Great Lakes, Oh,
Speaker 3: Great Lakes Ghostly Weekend. So anyways, it's in August for
Speaker 3: anyone who wants to join us. We're going to be
Speaker 3: in Sue Saint Marie and we're investigating the Valley camp,
Speaker 3: which we've done an episode on and things. So it's
Speaker 3: gonna be so much fun and it's amazing and it's
Speaker 3: very close to Macana, so you can visit.
Speaker 1: That being said, let me come back to this.
Speaker 3: I booked us again for this summer, so Charlotte and
Speaker 3: I can go again. And I am going to investigate this.
Speaker 3: I need to find out of this, like ghostly party happens.
Speaker 3: I'm going to try to request a room above the
Speaker 3: dining room.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's just luck of the draw you get those rooms.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I'm going to see what I can do.
Speaker 3: But like I am intent on investigating it.
Speaker 1: I have to kind of throw back.
Speaker 3: So the first time I went to Macana Island, it
Speaker 3: was January. Do not recommend of twenty eleven.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember that. It was twenty seven degrees below
Speaker 2: zero one night.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, it was so cold, and like I
Speaker 3: just remember, I actually ended up having the best time
Speaker 3: it was. You know, you were there for a lot
Speaker 3: of it. Steve and Dave and Adam and I. We
Speaker 3: stayed on the island the whole time for like two weeks,
Speaker 3: and it got to this point where like every night
Speaker 3: we would we would go to the one of two
Speaker 3: restaurants that were still open. We knew all the locals
Speaker 3: by the end of it. Every night we'd sit in
Speaker 3: the lobby of the hotel we were staying at. We
Speaker 3: would drink wine and play Liverpool Rummy until like two am.
Speaker 1: So it ended up being a very good memory. But
Speaker 1: it was very cool. But that was the first time
Speaker 1: I saw the Grand Hotel because you I was, I
Speaker 1: feel like, it.
Speaker 3: Was like one in the morning and I was liked,
Speaker 3: take me to.
Speaker 1: The Grand Hotel. So you took me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were at the bar and then I had
Speaker 2: I had a snowmobile and you like I got to
Speaker 2: see the Grand Hotel and I was like, well, crap,
Speaker 2: might as well got me. You got a snowmobile. It's
Speaker 2: not that bad if you're on a snowmobile.
Speaker 1: No, it would have.
Speaker 3: Been in a night Mirre, Oh it would have been.
Speaker 3: And we did it. It was probably not the smartest thing,
Speaker 3: but people knew where we were going, so that was
Speaker 3: good but true. It was a full moon and I
Speaker 3: remember we just took the snowmobile up all the way
Speaker 3: to the front of that hotel and I could just
Speaker 3: feel there was something like magical about that place or
Speaker 3: just it just.
Speaker 2: It feels like it's staring at you.
Speaker 1: It did. It felt like everybody says.
Speaker 2: It feels like the hotel stares at you.
Speaker 1: That was it.
Speaker 3: It definitely I got this vibe like it was like
Speaker 3: the whole hotel was like we are not expecting guests
Speaker 3: right now. You know, this kind of energy came off
Speaker 3: of it. It seems it felt like people were looking
Speaker 3: at us out the windows. I remember feeling like we're
Speaker 3: going to get in trouble.
Speaker 1: Uh. It just really put off that vibe.
Speaker 3: So want I always wonder, like, what do you think
Speaker 3: is going on in there in the middle of winter
Speaker 3: when it's all shut down quiet.
Speaker 2: There's some people there, but not many, and they're not
Speaker 2: there all the time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, have they had any reports that come out of
Speaker 3: there during that time period, because I feel like there
Speaker 3: would be.
Speaker 2: I've talked to a few people who've worked like winter
Speaker 2: maintenance or security on the ground and they said they, yes,
Speaker 2: there's no question. You always feel like there's something around you.
Speaker 2: You hear noises that you shouldn't hear. You think you
Speaker 2: see somebody duck around a corner and you know you
Speaker 2: saw somebody, but you go run to see who it is.
Speaker 2: There's nobody there. There's nobody in the hallway. There's no
Speaker 2: way they could get into anything where they could just
Speaker 2: disappear like that. And they're just like, yeah, it's got things.
Speaker 2: But I mean, someone will say, you know, I don't
Speaker 2: believe in all that, but there's that one time, and
Speaker 2: I'm just like, well, then you believe in it because
Speaker 2: you have that one time. But some of the most
Speaker 2: common things they say is they hear footsteps. The key
Speaker 2: ring that's a common one, is a ring of keys,
Speaker 2: and then they also just see things that they'll think
Speaker 2: they saw something at the end of a hallway, and
Speaker 2: the hallways there are very very long. It's very much
Speaker 2: like the movie The Shining, but it's not the same hotel.
Speaker 2: It's just the hallways go on forever, and they think
Speaker 2: they see somebody standing at the end of the hallway,
Speaker 2: and then they duck into another hallway and they run
Speaker 2: down there to see who's in the hotel. There's nobody there.
Speaker 2: So there's some activity definitely year round going on in.
Speaker 3: The hotel, I would feel, I mean, and it does
Speaker 3: have that kind of shining by people always think, well,
Speaker 3: any hotel like that, people think that's where The Shining
Speaker 3: was filmed, and I always have to be like, The
Speaker 3: Shining was filmed in a sound stage. It was not
Speaker 3: filmed in an actual hotel. It was not filmed at
Speaker 3: the Stage.
Speaker 2: Hotel in Washington, Oregon. Yeah, and which is still there.
Speaker 3: It is still there. I think it's called the Overlook,
Speaker 3: but I might be or Timberline.
Speaker 2: I can't remember, but I think it's Timberline.
Speaker 1: Timberline Overlook is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Shining, which is the Stanley. Yeah, but but
Speaker 3: it wasn't the Stanley Exceptely mini series was. So we're
Speaker 3: just clearing this all up here of folks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, making sure right now, it wasn't. It wasn't Grand Hotel,
Speaker 2: and it wasn't Mission Point Resort on mac An Island,
Speaker 2: which I've heard a million times. I'm like, they don't
Speaker 2: even look the same.
Speaker 1: What do you even know?
Speaker 3: They say them out Washington too, and I have to
Speaker 3: correct people. My favorite is when people argue with me
Speaker 3: on it and I'm like, I am sorry, but if
Speaker 3: anyone knows, it's me, so okay. But that being said,
Speaker 3: so I met with the hotel this last summer when
Speaker 3: I was there, and they told me that they are
Speaker 3: doing a lot of remodeling this season for this summer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they have been for the past two three years.
Speaker 2: They have new owners.
Speaker 3: Well, it sounds like they're gonna redecorate between now and opening,
Speaker 3: and they're gonna because, like right now it is, it
Speaker 3: has this very iconic decor inside that I believe happened
Speaker 3: in like the seventies. It's bright green, stated Yeah, it's
Speaker 3: bright green, it's bright red.
Speaker 1: It's very like flots of floral. I love it.
Speaker 3: I think it is so it makes for really just
Speaker 3: striking photos and whatnot.
Speaker 1: But it sounds like they're.
Speaker 3: Going to try to keep some of that like kind of,
Speaker 3: like I said, iconic decor style, but they're going to
Speaker 3: change it up or maybe even like modernize it a
Speaker 3: little bit.
Speaker 2: What I've heard is that the main areas, like common
Speaker 2: the traffic areas where the guests move in and out
Speaker 2: and about, they're going to kind of spruce that up.
Speaker 2: I heard they're keeping some of the suites they're not touching,
Speaker 2: but some of the rooms are going to be converted
Speaker 2: to a little more modern. Someone are still going to
Speaker 2: stay with that old world look to them, so they're
Speaker 2: just to think they're just gonna kind of pepper it
Speaker 2: in with new and old.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: I'm just wondering what do you think that's going to
Speaker 3: do to the haunting there? Do you think that's going
Speaker 3: to affect things when guests arrive this summer? Do you
Speaker 3: think it's going to be more more active than normal?
Speaker 2: I yes and no. Yes that whenever something changes, activity
Speaker 2: always tends to go up. Not so sure because it's
Speaker 2: not their home. I don't think anybody would call it.
Speaker 2: I always find that if it's a house that's hein remodeled,
Speaker 2: you get more activity than if it's like a general
Speaker 2: public location, just because it's not like, you're changing my home.
Speaker 2: What are you doing where in the general public location,
Speaker 2: they're more like, oh, well that's different, but this isn't
Speaker 2: my home. It's hard to I guess if that explains it.
Speaker 2: I do expect activity to go. Also the fact that
Speaker 2: now people are starting to go there and look around
Speaker 2: more for everything. Maybe something wants to say, hey, here,
Speaker 2: I've been trying to get in touch with you guys
Speaker 2: for over one hundred years, but you're finally listening.
Speaker 3: It's interesting there because even when it's sold out, like
Speaker 3: when we stayed, it was sold out, and so during
Speaker 3: the day it's very busy because there are a lot
Speaker 3: of people that are on the island that are like,
Speaker 3: you know, if they're staying at other hotels or they're
Speaker 3: coming to the island for the day and they want
Speaker 3: to visit the hotel and you have to pay ten
Speaker 3: dollars and you can come in and walk around and whatever.
Speaker 3: I always made it my goal to not pay the
Speaker 3: ten dollars though, But there's a trick.
Speaker 1: There's a trick.
Speaker 2: But five or six pm, Yeah, you don't have to pay,
Speaker 2: but you do have to wear a tie and a
Speaker 2: jacket or a dress.
Speaker 1: To get Yeah, there is a dress code. They're very strict.
Speaker 2: Around unless you go up to the coop La Bar,
Speaker 2: which is the one that's at the top, you can
Speaker 2: wear whatever you want. And I'll be honest, on my
Speaker 2: way home from work downtown up the hill, that's my
Speaker 2: pit stop with some dreads LUs we go up there
Speaker 2: dressed in regular clothes, just on our way home because
Speaker 2: we love.
Speaker 1: The coople Of bar. The view up there is amazing.
Speaker 3: So but what I oh, I'm getting out is that
Speaker 3: during so during the day it's busy because everyone's in there,
Speaker 3: but then at night, even with the sold out hotel,
Speaker 3: it quiets down incredibly because everyone is off the island
Speaker 3: by a certain point and everyone's.
Speaker 1: Back at their hotels.
Speaker 3: And so especially once dinner is done, because I think
Speaker 3: dinner goes into like no, it's very formal, everything like
Speaker 3: you can't like. Unfortunately, my child, she's a big tomboy.
Speaker 3: She was so mad she had to wear a dress.
Speaker 2: So I'm sure she just had a great time.
Speaker 1: She loved the pool. She did not like the dress code.
Speaker 3: What I'm getting at is that it's very easy at
Speaker 3: the end of everything, you know, after ten o'clock to
Speaker 3: really walk around and absorb the hotel and get into
Speaker 3: you know, you can walk into some common areas or
Speaker 3: public spaces where I feel like it would be really
Speaker 3: easy to sneak in some investigating. So have you heard
Speaker 3: of anyone do that of doing that?
Speaker 2: Yes, I can't name names, but yes, it's always off
Speaker 2: the books. It's always you have a room at the hotel,
Speaker 2: or you might have just stopped there with some equipment
Speaker 2: that happened to be in a bag and nobody around.
Speaker 2: So let's ask a few questions see if anything happens.
Speaker 2: They do lock off some of the better areas. Some
Speaker 2: of them are some of the areas that I think
Speaker 2: there's going to be more activity because it really hasn't
Speaker 2: been investigated very much because it's been hands off. There's
Speaker 2: a few rooms that, obviously I think there might be
Speaker 2: something going on. It's hit or miss if some of
Speaker 2: the rooms in the building are unlocked or not if
Speaker 2: you beek in there at night. There's the terrace room,
Speaker 2: the theater, the dining room, the private rooms. I mean,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of little nooks and crannies a place
Speaker 2: people have reported things and there is security there that
Speaker 2: walks around twenty four hours a day. Seven days a week,
Speaker 2: not three hundred and sixty five days a year. But
Speaker 2: in the winter they're they're checking doors and doing everything.
Speaker 2: I think they do four checks a day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 3: I mean so talking with you know, kind of touring
Speaker 3: the hotel and stuff this summer, I was talking to
Speaker 3: some of the employees. They had a lot to say
Speaker 3: about the theater ghost wise.
Speaker 1: And then there's also a room.
Speaker 3: I feel like it's when you go into like that
Speaker 3: kind of main lobby area and you know how you
Speaker 3: walk up these those little steps and there's like a
Speaker 3: sitting area up there, those big doors, and behind that
Speaker 3: there's another events space or like dining.
Speaker 2: They don't I think it's changed names, but we call
Speaker 2: it the Terrasts Room. I think still the Terrors.
Speaker 3: Oh good, So that she was very much like that room.
Speaker 3: That is where we get so many reports of things happening.
Speaker 3: What happens in there paranormally speaking, like what reports come
Speaker 3: out of that room?
Speaker 1: Have you heard of anything?
Speaker 2: There's reports? But yeah, I'm a person who like either
Speaker 2: I have to hear it a hundred times from one
Speaker 2: hundred people who don't know each other, or I have
Speaker 2: to see it myself.
Speaker 1: No, that makes sense.
Speaker 2: There's reports of figures just moving around in the room
Speaker 2: in the corners. There was a report once of someone
Speaker 2: who walked in to do like cleaning, and there was
Speaker 2: a man dressed in a suit but not of today,
Speaker 2: like an old timy suit, sitting in the corner at
Speaker 2: a table, feed up on the table and a hat
Speaker 2: next to his feet. And as soon as she like
Speaker 2: she saw him, and then she was like what and
Speaker 2: then it was gone. So you don't know if they're
Speaker 2: been working too hard or they actually saw sitting in
Speaker 2: the room. Serious, but terrace room, I don't. I hear rumors, yeah,
Speaker 2: but then again, I've never had a chance to actually investigate.
Speaker 2: That's one of the rooms that is either under lock
Speaker 2: and key or security or it's busy. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I thought it was interesting that they volunteered that information
Speaker 3: to me, And I was like, hmmm, how many like
Speaker 3: the hauntings in the hotel, how many of those do
Speaker 3: you think are maybe caused by things that happened before
Speaker 3: the hotel was even built, Because there was clearly a
Speaker 3: lot of violence on the island before the Grand even existed.
Speaker 2: So the Grand was built if they started construction eighteen
Speaker 2: eighty six, it was done in eighteen eighty seven. One
Speaker 2: of the things I don't know if you'd mentioned, but
Speaker 2: when they went to build the foundations for this hotel,
Speaker 2: they picked the Great Spot. Obviously you can see it
Speaker 2: everywhere and it has a great view. But when they
Speaker 2: went to put the foundations in coming across human remains,
Speaker 2: and then more and more and more. It was Native
Speaker 2: American and they found tons and tons of these these
Speaker 2: sets of human remains that nobody knows what happened two
Speaker 2: of those remains. Most likely back then the world was
Speaker 2: a different place. People have to remember. History isn't always kind.
Speaker 2: They probably threw them in the lake, that's what most
Speaker 2: or they put them in a landfill. Nobody knows where
Speaker 2: it happened to them. But that's just back then, that
Speaker 2: was just kind of what it was. It was glorified
Speaker 2: garbage to them at the time. We don't do it
Speaker 2: that way anymore. Obviously on the island. Things some times
Speaker 2: have changed. But back then that's how they did it,
Speaker 2: because you would come across bones everywhere on the island,
Speaker 2: But there was a concentration in that one spot where
Speaker 2: Grand Hotel sits. Some say they just stopped moving them
Speaker 2: and they just built built through them, and there was
Speaker 2: still more there when they were building it. So Grant
Speaker 2: Hotel in most of mac And Island is a cemetery,
Speaker 2: so most people don't think of that, but it was
Speaker 2: this magn Island was like secret land to many of
Speaker 2: the tribes. It was their garden of Eden. It was
Speaker 2: where man began. It was where geechee Manitou, which is
Speaker 2: their great one of the great gods, or the great
Speaker 2: God for most of the tribes, that's where he said
Speaker 2: it's time for man, and he created man.
Speaker 3: And I can see why they would think that, like
Speaker 3: it is just this, it is this otherworldly place.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: And there's part of me that feels as though the
Speaker 3: reason why hauntings are so prevalent there and and at
Speaker 3: the Grand as well, is this because it's kind of
Speaker 3: purposely frozen in time. You know, there's no cars, the houses,
Speaker 3: you know, they don't really allow building. The houses are
Speaker 3: all older. It literally is like stepping back in a
Speaker 3: time machine. And it makes me wonder if just like
Speaker 3: that's comforting to some of those spirits. And you know,
Speaker 3: I've talked a lot about hotels and how I don't
Speaker 3: necessarily think everybody just haunts their houses. But I do
Speaker 3: think they come back to places that were important to
Speaker 3: them in life, you know, And the Grand Hotel is
Speaker 3: the site of how many you know, weddings and celebrations
Speaker 3: and family vacations and beautiful memories, and so it makes
Speaker 3: me wonder if some of these spirits are people just
Speaker 3: kind of coming back in the afterlife to like relive
Speaker 3: their memories and it hasn't changed, which is like so magical.
Speaker 3: Do you think that affects very much?
Speaker 2: Same? Yeah, I think it does. I mean, there are
Speaker 2: people who are so passionate about that island, and everybody
Speaker 2: that is like that, I want to live here, and
Speaker 2: then they see the price tag for double.
Speaker 1: In January and they'll change their minds for.
Speaker 2: A double wide trailer. Yeah, it's not a cheap place.
Speaker 2: And then as soon as January hits, they're like, get
Speaker 2: me out of here. It's freaking cold. And I gave
Speaker 2: me there's no boats because when the lake freezes, the
Speaker 2: boat stop.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I had to fly off the island. I learned that lesson.
Speaker 3: It was quite an experience.
Speaker 2: Let me just y, we have better we have better planes. Now.
Speaker 2: A new company came in. I'm glad because It was.
Speaker 1: The most terrifying twelve minutes of my life.
Speaker 2: Yes, when you see duct tape where a bolt should be,
Speaker 2: you start to go it's just see.
Speaker 3: But I was almost planting back on an island. I
Speaker 3: would have gone straight back to that. My ghost would
Speaker 3: have gone back to the Grand.
Speaker 2: But yeah, there's a lot of attachment to the island.
Speaker 2: I'm sure that that island that all the those are cottages,
Speaker 2: all the houses on the island, almost none of them
Speaker 2: are year round residents. There might be like four on
Speaker 2: the entire island. And like the big Ones, there's there's
Speaker 2: an area village in the middle of the woods that
Speaker 2: most tourists never see, but that area is year round
Speaker 2: people and there's usually four hundred and fifty to five
Speaker 2: hundred people who stay there winter, families, kids, stay of
Speaker 2: a schools. It's just small.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I met a woman there when we were there filming,
Speaker 3: and she told me like she rarely left the island,
Speaker 3: so she stayed there all some or all winter rather.
Speaker 3: But then one winter she broke her arm, and so
Speaker 3: she said, the first time she ever was on an
Speaker 3: airplane was she had to be flown off the island
Speaker 3: to get her arm treated. So she literally just never left.
Speaker 3: She was there all She was like, I rarely ever
Speaker 3: left the island, and she said, finally I had to
Speaker 3: leave on a little puddle jumper with my broken arm.
Speaker 2: The longest I've ever talked to anybody who's been on
Speaker 2: island and not left the island is eight years.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2: I mean they didn't leave the island for eight years.
Speaker 2: And I was like, I don't think I could do that. Congratulations,
Speaker 2: I don't think I could stand. I mean, it's a
Speaker 2: beautiful place. It's not super small, but it's small. I mean,
Speaker 2: e I guess, yeah, you work, you do this, you
Speaker 2: do that. You got restaurants, you got grocery store, you
Speaker 2: got what you needed, and you can have anything else delivered.
Speaker 2: So it's possible. But I don't know. I'd go stir
Speaker 2: crazy in eight years.
Speaker 1: So what do you say?
Speaker 3: Is probably the most frequently spotted apparition at the Grand
Speaker 3: spotted Rebecca.
Speaker 2: It's a girl. I'm sure she's the one who's the
Speaker 2: most seen apparition where you can actually see her.
Speaker 1: Is she a little girl?
Speaker 2: Or yeah, she's I've heard between eight and twelve years old.
Speaker 2: So I usually have people ask us say she's around ten.
Speaker 2: We know the story of Rebecca. We're pretty sure the
Speaker 2: name is Rebecca. But what happened was in the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 2: She was on vacation with her family. She was sitting there,
Speaker 2: apparently on the fourth floor. She was leaning against a
Speaker 2: window screen in the room and the screen popped out.
Speaker 2: She didn't survive the fall, and she wanders around. She
Speaker 2: interacts with kids. Very very rarely will an adult have
Speaker 2: a story of Rebecca. And usually it's kids that will
Speaker 2: tell me the story of the mom will drag the
Speaker 2: kid up when I'm doing a book signing or something,
Speaker 2: be like, tell him what you saw at the hotel?
Speaker 2: Tell him. So they'll tell me, Yeah, it's a lot
Speaker 2: of them are in the hallway. Most of them are
Speaker 2: in hallways. They would just be like, there was this
Speaker 2: girl and she was peeking around the corner, and then
Speaker 2: she stepped out, and she's wearing an old dress. And
Speaker 2: when it's like she wanted to play hide and seek
Speaker 2: her tag and if I went after her, she would
Speaker 2: she took off and then she was gone. And then
Speaker 2: another kid was telling me about she had a ball
Speaker 2: and she tossed the ball at him and he was
Speaker 2: watching the ball, and the ball disappeared, never made it
Speaker 2: to his hands. He looks up, she's not there, and
Speaker 2: he's like, no, I'm I'm sure one hundred percent she
Speaker 2: was real. She wasn't like, she wasn't a ghost. She
Speaker 2: was a real girl. And I was like, Okay, that's
Speaker 2: a full bodied apparition if you're seeing them and you
Speaker 2: think they're real, but then they disappear, and that's a
Speaker 2: full bodied apparition ghosts. And he's just like, I just
Speaker 2: don't know what to think about that. I mean, I've
Speaker 2: talked to a lot, a lot of kids have seen her,
Speaker 2: and she's friendly, she's not mischievous. People have said they've
Speaker 2: heard footsteps of it. Sounded like a little kid running around.
Speaker 2: They've heard it in some of the rooms. I'm assuming
Speaker 2: that might be Rebecca running around, And I think she's
Speaker 2: just having fun in the hotel and playing with whoever
Speaker 2: will play with her.
Speaker 3: Do you think the hotel has ever or have you
Speaker 3: heard of the hotel ever losing employees or like having
Speaker 3: guests leave because of the hauntings there.
Speaker 2: Yes, I know personally two people who worked at the
Speaker 2: hotel from Jamaica. They stayed on the Island, but they changed.
Speaker 2: They changed to one one stayed in the same company
Speaker 2: but moved to a restaurant, and another one changed to
Speaker 2: a totally different company altogether. But yeah, again Superstition saw
Speaker 2: something something weird happen. Man, there have been guests two
Speaker 2: that have changed rooms. Sometimes it's pretty rare that they
Speaker 2: leave the hotel. I've not heard of that at the Grand.
Speaker 2: I'm sure it's happened, but I've never heard of it
Speaker 2: at the Grand. I've heard it at some of the
Speaker 2: other hotels, but where they'll check out and they'll just
Speaker 2: be like, I'm done.
Speaker 3: It would have to be like for me to leave
Speaker 3: the Grand. That place is very expensive. It would have
Speaker 3: to be like a really bad ghost. I would just
Speaker 3: be like, you do you this was eight hundred dollars tonight,
Speaker 3: so I'm not leaving, so yeah, I'm not sure.
Speaker 2: Paying for my room, I'm staying right.
Speaker 1: It would have to be a really bad ghost.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you'd have to be like what was that movie
Speaker 2: with John Cusack fourteen eighteen fourteen seventy. I remember it
Speaker 2: was a movie where he was in the haunted room. Yes, okay,
Speaker 2: if that happens, yes, I will check out.
Speaker 3: Maybe then I would leave, no, but for anybody wanting
Speaker 3: to at the Grand just because I'm always, like, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm always looking for deals. I've learned that they send
Speaker 3: out some really great Black Friday deals and that's when
Speaker 3: I usually yes, there. Now I've done that two years
Speaker 3: in a row now, and that was the That was
Speaker 3: the key, because I was looking at some of those
Speaker 3: prices and I was like, holy moly. But they do
Speaker 3: like a get one night, get one free kind of thing.
Speaker 3: So that's that's the time. Sign up for their emails
Speaker 3: and you're welcome. They also have payment plans for those interested.
Speaker 2: Yes, I was gonna say they do.
Speaker 1: That too, but it's so worth it, like it is,
Speaker 1: you know it is.
Speaker 2: There's just it's a once in a lifetime type of place,
Speaker 2: it really is. You don't make them like that anymore. No,
Speaker 2: I've been all over the place, and I mean, I
Speaker 2: can't count on one hand how many places are like that.
Speaker 2: There's nice hotels, but ones that have like professional waiters,
Speaker 2: like they're training as waiters. You can't just apply and
Speaker 2: get the job. You have to know what you're doing.
Speaker 3: They're like everyone there is there. Their customer service is impeccable.
Speaker 3: I love the idea of the formal dinners at night.
Speaker 3: I do feel like it just kind of brings you
Speaker 3: back in time quite a bit. It is very haunted,
Speaker 3: like you can feel it. Anyone is even remotely sensitive,
Speaker 3: you can feel it, like you know, even in our room.
Speaker 3: There was one night I woke up and I was
Speaker 3: really convinced that someone was standing on the other side
Speaker 3: of Charlotte's bed and I got really few.
Speaker 1: I have to.
Speaker 3: Look it up. It was actually a pretty big room.
Speaker 3: I'll have to look it up, but it was.
Speaker 2: On yeah, because there's a few rooms that have a
Speaker 2: lot of reports in them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was like the second or third flour was
Speaker 3: in the back. We were facing kind of the forest,
Speaker 3: not the lake, but it was kind it was like
Speaker 3: a corner room and it's very set back. And I
Speaker 3: woke up and I was like, is there someone standing
Speaker 3: in our room? And I got like the hackles like
Speaker 3: went up on the back because like immediately I was
Speaker 3: like intruder, and that's my kid. I opened my eyes
Speaker 3: wider and then it was gone like that, and I
Speaker 3: checked the lock on it. Because I'm very paranoid. I
Speaker 3: always make sure our hotel rooms are very locked and
Speaker 3: I even bring extra locks usually, And I felt it
Speaker 3: and then actually, come to think of it, we came
Speaker 3: back to our room one afternoon and our closet doors
Speaker 3: were both like wide open. It went the closet, you know,
Speaker 3: like what are those called.
Speaker 1: Armoire or arm orre.
Speaker 3: They were both like wide open, and everything had been
Speaker 3: nobody had come to clean or anything. And so just
Speaker 3: like little things like that.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of that in the hotel. Yeah, no question.
Speaker 2: I've heard of people having things move across, Like they'll
Speaker 2: put their glasses on the table night stand right next
Speaker 2: to the bed when they go to sleep. They wake
Speaker 2: up the next day, they never got out of bed,
Speaker 2: the glasses aren't there. The glasses are sitting on a
Speaker 2: table by the door, or they're sitting in the bathroom,
Speaker 2: or they're sitting I mean, furniture sliding in the middle
Speaker 2: of the night, just a boost like something bumped it,
Speaker 2: welcome up. I mean, just weird things like TV changing channels.
Speaker 2: I know how that can happen right on its own
Speaker 2: that somebody in another room has a similar frequency, but
Speaker 2: just different things that have moved around in their rooms.
Speaker 2: Like yeah, ar Mars opening closet doors opening hangars falling
Speaker 2: down in a closet for no reason in the middle
Speaker 2: of the night. I mean, I've heard a lot of
Speaker 2: different weird stories of things that have happened.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm going to pay extra attention when we go
Speaker 3: back this summer because I just now that I've researched
Speaker 3: it so thoroughly and.
Speaker 1: I'm just really looking forward to it. Now. How can
Speaker 1: people find you, Todd?
Speaker 3: I know you've got a bunch of books and your
Speaker 3: ghost tours going on, so people want to see Todd.
Speaker 1: How do they see you?
Speaker 2: Hantsamacina dot com. That's our website. Website's not that great.
Speaker 2: We're supposed to rehabit, but we haven't gotten to it yet.
Speaker 2: But we do Haunted Walking tours almost usually every night,
Speaker 2: depends how many tour guides we have working, but we'll
Speaker 2: do tours every night, seven nights a week from early
Speaker 2: May to almost the end of October, and sometimes do
Speaker 2: extra tours. We started a new tour last fall just
Speaker 2: to try it out, where we bring like equipment with us.
Speaker 2: We let you bring your equipment and we stop in
Speaker 2: some spots that we have had tons of sightings and
Speaker 2: and things going on, so they get a chance to
Speaker 2: try out actual ghost hunting. It's not full of those hunting,
Speaker 2: but it's a way to try it in a place
Speaker 2: that we are just like, yeah, we've got things happening
Speaker 2: right here.
Speaker 1: I like that a lot.
Speaker 2: And then I have the two books. They're on Amazon.
Speaker 2: Amazon just actually emailed me. They're running out, so if
Speaker 2: there's any left, I'm shipping more soon. The Island Bookstore
Speaker 2: is like our second home. That's where we start the tours. Now.
Speaker 2: We kind of partnered up with them to do the
Speaker 2: tours out of there. You can get the books there.
Speaker 2: There's all kinds of your books there by the.
Speaker 1: Way, Oh nice, Who to Die For?
Speaker 2: Is there? So? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I went looking for it over the summer
Speaker 3: or yeah, that was it.
Speaker 2: They don't carry many copies because they're a small bookstore.
Speaker 3: I was going to sign it for them, but they
Speaker 3: had just sold it and I was like, oh okay,
Speaker 3: but they therefore I had to get more in. But well,
Speaker 3: that's awesome. I do want to tell a quick story
Speaker 3: because this is one I don't know remember we told
Speaker 3: it when we did the Vacana Island one. But it
Speaker 3: does have to do with the grand It's not ghostly
Speaker 3: but I'm sure you remember this very well. So Strange
Speaker 3: Escapes we do events on mcinaw here and there. We're
Speaker 3: going to hopefully come back this fall. We did for
Speaker 3: the first couple of years, we would do a barbecue
Speaker 3: up at the Fort.
Speaker 1: And in order.
Speaker 3: To do the barbecue up at the Fort, the Grand
Speaker 3: Hotel has to cater it because they are the catering
Speaker 3: partner there. They actually have a cafe there now and everything, right,
Speaker 3: and so we went to go have our barbecue and
Speaker 3: it was pouring rain and and so the Grand Hotel
Speaker 3: did not know what to do with us, and it
Speaker 3: was dinner time, and so they ended up they ended
Speaker 3: up letting us all into the hotel right at dinner time.
Speaker 1: There's all these ghost hunters.
Speaker 3: With all of their like ghosts shirts like we all had.
Speaker 3: We all had those crazy like park like you know,
Speaker 3: those like those big plasta those ponchos. We were in ponchos.
Speaker 3: We trudge into the hotel and on that they rushed
Speaker 3: us through the lobby so fast and they put us
Speaker 3: back in that event room and.
Speaker 1: Closed the doors. Yeah, they put us in the terrace
Speaker 1: room and they just closed the doors as quickly as
Speaker 1: they could they couldn't. They couldn't hide us fast enough.
Speaker 1: But it was such a good.
Speaker 2: We were all wearing like street clothes and it's dinner time.
Speaker 3: It was like dinner time, and we were stopping what
Speaker 3: we'd walked the you know, it's half a mile or
Speaker 3: whatever it is from downtown.
Speaker 2: It's about a half a mile, almost half a mile.
Speaker 1: So I'll never forget that.
Speaker 3: And that was I never felt like that before, where
Speaker 3: they were just like, oh my god, get these people
Speaker 3: through her.
Speaker 1: They were horrified.
Speaker 2: I don't like this. We didn't do it.
Speaker 3: But they're also they're lovely and they've been nothing but
Speaker 3: great to me when we've been there, and I've talked
Speaker 3: to them many times.
Speaker 2: So yeah, they do. They did a haunted trail this
Speaker 2: past October and it was actually I was better, and
Speaker 2: I thought it would be. I was actually surprised and
Speaker 2: it took a long time to go through.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they seem to be kind of getting into it,
Speaker 3: you know, so I think they are. That's why I
Speaker 3: was meeting with them. So we'll see what happens. But anyways,
Speaker 3: thank you so much Todd for joining. It's great to
Speaker 3: have you back. I will see you at the Great
Speaker 3: Lakes Ghostly Weekend this August.
Speaker 2: I'm sure.
Speaker 3: When guests visit the Grand Hotel they see a historic building,
Speaker 3: filled with splashes of bold colors and surrounded by a lush,
Speaker 3: green and peaceful landscape. But those visitors who come in
Speaker 3: the hopes of getting in touch with nature might find
Speaker 3: themselves connecting with something more unexpected, the world of the supernatural.
Speaker 3: I'm Amy Brunei and this was Haunted Road High Haunted Roadies.
Speaker 3: I wanted to provide a bit of an addendum to
Speaker 3: this episode. I know Todd and I talked about my
Speaker 3: touring the Grand Hotel and how the hotels seemed to
Speaker 3: be open to me having one of my paranormal retreats there. Well,
Speaker 3: since the recording of this episode, I heard back from them.
Speaker 3: Now I need to stress that the staff and the
Speaker 3: hotel are absolutely lovely, and I have a trip booked
Speaker 3: there for this summer and probably every summer after that
Speaker 3: because it's one of my favorite places. I'd also like
Speaker 3: distress that no one owes us access to haunted locations. Okay,
Speaker 3: but that being said, I think they're a little worried
Speaker 3: about having.
Speaker 1: A ghostly reputation.
Speaker 3: They very politely declined the retreat at this time. But
Speaker 3: I'm certainly not giving up on them yet. Maybe one
Speaker 3: day they'll come around. Haunted r Road is a production
Speaker 3: of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. Haunted
Speaker 3: Road is hosted and written by me Amy Bruney, with
Speaker 3: additional research by Cassandra de Alba. This show is edited
Speaker 3: and produced by supervising producer Rima el Kali, with executive
Speaker 3: producers Aaron Menke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. Learn more
Speaker 3: about this show over at Grimandmild dot com, and for
Speaker 3: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 3: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.