This Remote Island Near Traverse City, Michigan Is the Most Haunted in the Great Lakes
16 miles offshore from Lake Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula is where you'll find South Manitou Island, a place some say is the most haunted/creepiest in Michigan.
I've never been to South Manitou Island so I don't know for a fact that it's haunted but ghostly thrill-seekers sure seem to think that it is.
Over the past month or so we've told you about a number of haunted places across the state. From the most haunted towns and restaurants to the creepiest urban legends, there's a number of creepy places to check out in Michigan. Well, according to Thrillist, we may have just found the creepiest.
One legend suggests that a ship of passengers that were sick with cholera stopped at the island, and sailors buried them in a mass grave while some were still alive. If that legend is true, that's pretty messed up.
There are two cemeteries on the island, one with a cedar forest where the dead are often heard. Also in the cemetery is a human skeleton of unknown origin. The skeleton was discovered on a South Manitou dune in 1933. Was he a wrecked sailor who washed ashore and then melted into the sand? Or was he vomiting and seizing from cholera in his last minutes? No one really knows.
Also, off the coast of the island is the shipwreck of the SS Francisco Morazan, where a young boy is rumored to have died after attempting to explore it on his own.
It's also said that the lighthouse which was built in the 1800s saw a number of accidents and fatalities. Keeper Aaron Sheridan, his wife and their infant on March 15, 1878, died in a boating accident near the light. Some say the eerie voices and footsteps that are often heard at the lighthouse are believed to belong to the Sheridans.
The island might be creepy once you step foot on it with its deserted shoreline and empty campgrounds but looking at it from above, it doesn't look creepy at all. As a matter of fact, it looks beautiful. See for yourself in the video below.