Hi, everyone. I'm Emily and I'm Vince.
And this is the lighthouse lowdown.
Good timing.
One of these days, you'll get used to your.
Oh, that was awesome.
I'll be the judge of that.
I was delayed, but the caffeine spit me up.
No, me pointing aggressively.
That was the indicator that I was delayed.
You didn't look ready to be.
And I was like, excuse me.
All right. This is a very special episode.
I don't know why, but.
We're heading over.
I'm not I don't have a history, but because
this may be a long episode, it's a two
parter that will be smushed into one
episode. So the first half
is going to be the history of a lighthouse.
And then after that, well,
well, it's a surprise.
OK. Although it'll be like in the title
and in the description. So anyway,
we are heading over to Lake
Superior, which I don't think we've
covered a lighthouse on Lake Superior yet,
have we? Yep.
What do you mean? Yep.
We have standard rock.
Damn it.
It was a unique thought
just now that happened to be debunked.
Standard Rock.
Go look out.
Wow. Go look.
Go listen or watch
the episode for Standard Rock.
We have two. Fred Stonehouse and
Carl Lindquist.
Yeah. And there's another one where it's
just us.
Both are interesting.
Yeah, I would say so.
We're going to Marquette, Michigan.
Nice.
Have a location on here.
Pulled up a map just so you can see the
location on Lake Superior and you can see
the line there for Canada.
Right down the middle.
Yeah. Standard Rock is somewhere
middle screen.
Just out in the middle.
It's like 39 miles offshore.
Basically like an ocean.
All right.
So that's where we are.
I love Marquette.
Nice.
Yeah. Well, we haven't been there.
We need to.
We were planning on it, but yeah.
It's expensive.
We looked at a couple of things.
Are you going to talk about the UP200?
What? UP200?
UP200?
I forget.
I forget something Peninsula.
Which one?
Don't remember.
It's in February.
I was talking to Fred and Carl.
They talked about us visiting
potentially.
In February, I believe they do a dog
sledding race.
Oh, yeah. And I think the end is in
Marquette of the UP200
mile race.
So pretty crazy.
But look that up.
That would be cool.
It'd be hard to fly there in February.
Yeah, I've not. It'd be hard to drive
potentially.
I mean, it's not like we're going to
have any cancellations anyway
in 1844 or deposits
were discovered at Teal Lake, which is
just west of current day Marquette,
leading to the very quick development
of the area and where there's
development, there is
Lighthouses.
Yahoo!
1850 Congress appointed
five thousand dollars to build a
lighthouse on the harbor and they
built a 26 foot stone
tower with a matching keepers
cottage and they were separate.
So it was just like a lone tower with
a match. The usual
but not like what we see today.
So it's worth mentioning.
A few years later, they added a sixth
order fixed Fresnel lens
and that's
all I have to say on that.
What was the first lens?
I think it was not it wasn't
Fresnel lens. It was like reflectors.
OK. Yeah.
Hang on.
Those 1850s.
18. Yeah. 1850.
OK. I'm just trying to keep it in
in between the lanes here
between the navigational.
Trying to get the the
chronological order down.
Vince and I are having coffee again
today. He's got the froufriest
floufiest roofie.
Wait, I didn't get roofie
did I? The coffee is very
girly.
Says on it Emily.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah. I picked it up for you
like a man.
Grande shaken espresso
salted caramel cold foam whole milk
blonde espresso double two
pumps classic syrup and one vanilla
bean scoop powder
powder.
I don't know what a lot of those
things are, but so did you see
it online and you were like, oh,
I'll try that.
No. You just you just shout out to
Starbucks. Not a sponsor, but
they just go on their website and
just go on the menu and then
click, click, click, click, click.
So you this was of your own.
This was your own concoction.
Yeah. I would never drive through
and order this.
I have to say all of these.
Yeah. Speaking it would be
a nightmare. Be vile.
Yeah. So clearly click.
So anyways, we're drinking coffee.
Anyway. Yeah. Back to it.
1861 keeper Nelson,
I think Truckee is his last name,
began working at the lighthouse
as a head keeper and
immediately needed to go to serve
in the Civil War.
So I think he lasted a year and
then was deployed.
And his wife, Anastasia,
who also went by Eliza, took over
his duties along with
raising their four young children
until his return three years later.
That's crazy. There's actually
another girl power moment
well in this in this podcast.
Good. In this episode.
Also, it's great that he came back.
Yeah. And to
be fair, she is registered
for those years as the headkeeper.
So it's not like she just like did
his work and then didn't get any
credit. She's a hardworking
lady. Nice.
The Stone Lighthouse,
as we seem to have mentioned a few
times,
is not holding up well to the harsh
winter of being along the lake,
which is a common problem.
So in 1865,
thirteen thousand dollars was
appointed for, quote, extensive
renovations.
Not sure what happened, but
they just there's no record
of this anywhere that it was
authorized to build a new lighthouse.
It always says renovations and
like fixing it up.
But they built a new lighthouse
and there's no real,
you know,
there's no real there's no stamp of
approval. Exactly.
That they were going like that.
They demoed this lighthouse and
built a new one. Like it doesn't say
that anywhere. So it's very
interesting. It's like it was a whole
new tower.
Yeah, totally new.
And now and now it's a yellow brick
keepers dwelling with an integral
stair tower square
tower. It's a nice way to get a new
house. Yeah.
So I put a little picture 1904.
It's really nice.
I like the way Marquette is written
on that photo.
I know it's very fancy and you know,
it's like someone's handwriting is
like legitimate.
There's like an ink quill going on.
You know, when you read
like the Declaration of Independence,
that was just a man writing it.
It wasn't like a bunch of 30
year olds go find someone with nice
handwriting. It's like everyone had
nice handwriting.
But it was is it because lots of them
was it part of like being educated
is that they made you have nice
handwriting?
Oh, I don't think so. I think people
just took pride in it.
I don't think people wrote much
actually.
I mean, this is all.
Well, it's all letters and stuff.
But I don't think you communicate
with anybody emails.
What emails today are just it's not
the same at all.
But there's just technically you're
still writing a letter.
Yeah.
But any communications that were
written, I think there weren't many.
So when you left your mark, it was
significant.
And I think it was significant that
you would write a book or a letter
or sign something like the declaration.
The person writing it, I don't think
I don't even know who wrote it.
Was it John Hancock?
I want to say it was Thomas Jefferson.
I should know.
And I don't know.
Sorry, American history.
But I doubt they knew
like the full
significance in the future of it.
At the moment, of course, it was a
huge it was, you know,
it was a war declaration.
Right.
And it was Thomas Jefferson, by the
way.
U.S. history coming in clutch,
that AP history from high school
is swimming around in there still.
Yeah.
I was so good at physics.
That was it.
There's another I have something else
to say in a little bit that is like
just shows how people used to talk
so differently in the past
or at least when they wrote stuff
down, it would be, you know, when you
read a letter of correspondence
of something from
eighteen hundreds, it's like people
say like 80 words.
People say like three times as many
words as they need to to get a point
across.
That's how my family writes.
Yeah, it's nice.
That's how you talk.
You're welcome.
Who knew I'd be a podcast co-host.
But anyway, so they built a new
lighthouse and
they added a fourth order for now
lens. So this sixth order lens,
I'll talk about what happened to it
later. Shortly after that, they
added a steam whistle and an
assistant keeper's position.
OK, because they had room probably.
And this is what I was talking about.
It's a quote from the Mining Gazette
and this was after the steam
whistle was added to the lighthouse.
It was not people were not a big fan
of the steam whistle.
It says, quote, sensitive nerves
were tortured again last night
by the dismal tooting of the
fiendish foghorn.
This vociferous nuisance
is a necessary evil, to be sure.
But that consideration doesn't help
to reconcile those whom it keeps
from obtaining necessary
sleep.
And.
Wow.
Who was quoted?
That was the author, like
just whoever was writing the
newspaper.
That was the chair moving.
So that was funny that I
like that. Yeah.
And it's just like the Sifras
complaining about complaining
in the newspaper about a steam
whistle, like just so you know,
everyone thinks it's annoying.
And then like, what else did they
cover pre Twitter?
Everyone, not everyone, the couple
of people on a train would read that
and nod their heads.
You'd be drinking their coffee,
like, you go, I know it
very vociferous.
1875, there was a breakwater
built with light at
the end of it to reduce storm waves
into the harbor. So it's like, you
know, Chicago Harbor light?
Yes. It's at the end of a breakwater.
So it's basically like they put a
bunch of riprap and concrete and
whatever else in a long
strip across the opening
of a harbor, which basically just
keeps waves from building
up all the way until they hit.
What I just I have one of these
I'm going to cover really not too
distant future.
Excellent.
Yeah, there's a lot of a lot of
history about this lighthouse.
It's called Marquette Breakwater
Light.
But I think
it would be too long to cover
along in this.
Is it still there?
Is the breakwater still there?
Yes.
Nice.
And I think the light is still there
as well.
Cool. Or some in some indicator
probably.
Yeah. The lighthouse a couple times
has just been washed off the
breakwater and they just pick they
just put it back like it just
survives and then they just tow
it back and put it
on the end.
The keepers were in charge
of running this breakwater light
as well.
They had to travel.
I know. And they said that there's
enough gasoline
to run the light for eight
days before it needed to be refilled.
So they
didn't have to come by every day, but
obviously they were in charge of that
as well.
Cool. Remember that eight days for
the future.
What are you talking about?
It may come up again.
From in this episode?
No.
What is going on?
You're you're drawing.
Are you covering Marquette Breakwater
Light?
No.
Remember these things in the future.
And this is the other wife story I was
talking about. Captain Patrick McGuire
was keeper from 1882
to 1893.
OK.
I love that it was Captain
Patrick.
It's not he wasn't Coast Guard, right?
No.
Not 1800 Coast Guard.
OK.
But he must have just.
Captain.
He's a maritime man.
His wife, Catherine, was
acting as assistant keeper during
this time.
And women
keepers were not allowed to go
to the station.
Keepers were not allowed at stations
with a foghorn.
But it was overlooked since
Captain Patrick was apparently highly
valued in the USLHS,
or at least along the Great Lakes
Lighthouses.
She was allowed to be assistant keeper
and she was actually listed
as the assistant keeper during this
time. So she wasn't gypped
or anything.
But Patrick did her a serious
disservice because in 1891,
Catherine went to Chicago
to visit her sisters and she didn't
get proper advance notice
that she was going to be out of
office.
And he told
on her at the next inspection.
He was like, she did not get
express permission to go see her
sisters. And she was fired.
Which like she lives there.
She's going to live there anyway.
It's going to be a good story.
He's probably like, I'm so sorry.
He's I've got to be a good.
I am a captain.
Yeah, I've got to do what's right.
And then she gets fired. And he's
probably like, oh.
He probably wrote it in their log
book.
Yeah.
They're going to look through it.
Like you've got to be.
Yeah.
Forthright.
But it said that he was he told
on her to the inspector just
out of the goodwill towards
his job.
It's funny.
Loyal, more loyal to his job than
to his wife.
Committed.
He's awfully committed to that job.
Yep.
He's like, if you're not going to
take this seriously, then you're
done. You're done.
One of us has to be the captain.
In 1893,
Captain Patrick was replaced with
William Wheatley, who served for
five years until his untimely
death.
At the lighthouse.
Yeah. Well, outside the lighthouse.
He took a sailboat out on the lake
with Will Brandon, which I can't
figure out who that guy is.
Just somebody who was with him.
Notable.
Yeah, he wasn't assistant keeper
or anything, but a squall
blew in and overturned their boat
a mile from shore.
And Brandon made
the swim, but Wheatley figured
he wouldn't be able to make it
because at this time the water
was really cold.
It was some early month of the
year.
And so he just like held on
to the boat and waited, like
hoping Brandon could go get help.
But because of the squall, the
boat was blown out, like far out
into the lake, which, you know,
the lake.
Yeah, there's no, it's not.
So his body wasn't recovered
for two months after that.
They found him.
Do you know, is he still on the
boat?
He was overturned, so he was just
hanging on to it.
So I'm sure at some point he got
separated from the boat.
I know.
But they said that his funeral
was highly attended
by people in the town.
Why were they out in the water?
Just probably going to somewhere.
Interesting.
Also a mile, swimming a mile,
even to survive.
That's really impressive.
That's what people do in like
triathlons.
They swim a mile.
Where everything's perfect.
Yeah.
Everything's lined up.
And they're starting out their
race with a mile swim.
Scary.
I used to be a swimmer and
I only did the mile a couple of
times, but it was just it was
deadly.
I actually didn't know that was a
distance. That was a race.
How many laps do you know?
I want to say 44.
Oh my God.
Let me check.
Oh, wow.
I've swam for exercise before.
And the max I've ever gone is
like 20.
And that's throughout a whole
exercise, not just continuously.
It's 66 laps.
No, no.
I think the thousand meter is
44 laps.
44.
Yeah.
Well, good for him.
I know he must have been young,
young and sprightly.
But anyway, that's just the last
sport.
At least one of them made it.
That's true.
Could have been the lighthouse
keeper, but it wasn't.
Too old.
I'm making an assumption there.
Maybe he was murdered.
Maybe he left him out there on
purpose.
He just was like, I'm going to
swim back now.
I'm going to subject myself to
swim back.
Couldn't even paddle in.
Yeah, he probably can't make it,
but I can.
Interesting.
OK, so that's about 1900.
Yeah, that was that was
1898.
So now we're jumping ahead to
1908.
They had a new fourth order
flashing lens, which had a red
flash every five seconds.
Oh, and by the way, that sixth
order for no lens that they had
originally at
the lighthouse.
It was given to
the Marquette breakwater light.
So it actually had a for no
lens.
Interesting.
Yeah.
And of the breakwater, you know, I
said they were in charge of that
light and there was also a fog
signal over there.
And so at this point is when they
added the second assistant
position in 1910
and to make enough livable space
because now there's three people
generally with families.
They converted the lighthouse
into a duplex, but instead of
cutting it in half, they raised
it another story like they added
another.
That's an interesting operation.
What is it with people in
lighthouses wanting to do fancy
stuff with construction?
Yeah, it's like moving
lighthouses and adding
levels.
That's one thing.
It's like you could have added
you could have just built another
tiny house there, but instead
they raise
a like in this picture, you can
see the line where they added
the second story.
I know.
And it's connected to the
lighthouse. So like they'd have
to do a bunch of structural work.
Maybe the foundations on these
because of where they're at near
the water are so crazy that
it's worth it somehow to stay on
that foundation.
Yeah, like cheaper instead of
making more foundation.
I don't know.
Add more height.
That's cool, though. So that
when this is 1910, circa
1910.
Yeah, or at least sometime after
that.
But it was before it was painted.
So you can see the line where
they added more height to the
lighthouse slash keepers
cottage.
Looks like they're radio towers
as well.
Yeah.
And this made it 40 feet tall.
So the final height of our
lighthouse is 40 feet.
From what I've seen,
in my own research of Marquette
Lighthouse, this is Marquette
Harbor. This is not yet
recognizable.
So I'm interested to see where
this goes.
Take another sip.
Reference, I just have an iced
coffee with a little bit of sweet
cream.
Oh, you can't let it finish.
Nope.
Forty feet.
Is that what you said?
Yeah.
That same year,
something notable, is the
179 foot steamer
Lootie.
I think is how it's pronounced.
L-E-U-T-Y
is actually D Lootie.
So I think it was someone's name,
D.
Lootie.
It ran aground on Lighthouse
Point just outside of the
lighthouse.
And there's some drama here
because the keeper at the time,
Kimball, he served for 22 years
at this lighthouse.
He was blamed by the captain of
the ship for the crashing
of the steamer.
And the keepers are instructed to
begin a fire
for the fog signal when they hear
three short whistles
from any traffic on the lake,
which signifies that there's
bad weather out there.
And it takes
40 minutes for pressure
to build up from this in order
to start the
signal, the fog signal.
Yeah.
And the crash happened 35 minutes
after the boat alerted the keeper.
So it was just just barely
they did an investigation and he
had heard and started
them on time.
But it's just five minutes
too early to crash
before the fog signal started
going off.
So was it the steamer
signaled three times?
Yes.
So potentially that was the first
signal that the keeper had heard.
Yes.
That stinks.
Yeah.
And then they also started the
steam whistle that was on
the breakwater light.
But they said
they said they didn't hear it.
Can't really blame anybody there.
But the keeper at on
shore, maybe it's a lot around
the boat.
The water is a little bit
more.
The water is moving around it.
I was going to say, but to keep
her on shore at Marquette Harbor
light, which is not breakwater,
heard the three signals from
the ferry, the steamer.
Yeah.
So one heard the other, but
he didn't hear that.
The remains of the steamer, the
wooden remains are a popular dive
spot.
Oh, cool.
And they put a buoy on
it for divers to be able to find
exactly where to dive to.
I would love to do that.
I know. Wouldn't it be cool?
I've always wanted to dive
around a shipwreck.
That'd be so cool.
It's probably quite shallow as
well.
This was, uh, I want to say 40
feet down.
Yeah.
Cool.
It'd probably be creepy.
I think it'd be spooky.
Anyone die on the steamer?
I don't know.
It didn't say.
Hopefully not.
I don't think so because it's
pretty shallow of a.
Pretty shallow.
Nineteen thirty two, a series
and we actually talked about this
before, a series of radio
telephones were established to
connect offshore lighthouses.
And this was Standard Rock,
Manitou Island, Passage Island
and Rock of Ages.
A side note, Rock of Ages was
one of the Fresnel lenses
that we showed in that history
buoy a few days ago.
A few days ago, a few episodes
ago, and I was like, Rock of
Ages. I wonder what that is.
That's weird.
It's one of these offshore,
like, super isolated, super
segregated lighthouses.
Interesting name.
Yeah.
But these radio telephones
connected all these lighthouses
to Marquette.
And after November
1st, any mail for these
lighthouses were sent straight
to Marquette.
And then the keepers would read
the mail that is supposed
to go to the other lighthouses
to them over the radio
telephone.
Oh, cool.
Mike, that's so cute.
Like we're going to expedite
this.
Yeah, like we're not sending
knowledge.
Well, it's like, you know,
sometimes we talked about it in
standard rock.
It would just be solid ice out
there. There's no way you could
get a tender out there.
So you just read them their mail
from Marquette.
I wonder if they sent mail the
same way, send
a message from standard rock
to Marquette Harbor that
we need.
Yeah.
Our rations were spoiled.
Yeah, I bet so.
I bet they would do that.
Interesting.
1965, the lighthouse
was painted its very
recognizable red daymark.
Boom.
Oh, yeah.
That's what we like to see.
That's a good color red.
Yeah, there's a name for it.
I can't remember what it is now.
It was like it's a strange,
strange name for the red color.
Rustoleum makes a red lot like
that.
Rust what?
Rustoleum.
It's a paint brand.
Oh, cool.
Yeah, I'm surprised they'd use
such a bright color for for this
lighthouse, the outside of it.
You know, we're used to seeing
that on even the rails.
Yeah, I know.
Handrails on the walkway.
So much fun.
A lot of red.
I love this color.
Like a fire engine red.
Yeah, I know.
Big fan.
In 2002, a 30 year lease
was finalized between the Coast
Guard and the Marquette Maritime
Museum to turn the bottom level
of the lighthouse into a museum.
And then the second level was to
be renovated to its original
state when it was first built, I
think.
But I'm not sure that they've
gotten around to doing that yet.
The second 2002 30 year lease
renovations.
OK, yeah.
Oops.
Nowadays, it has a white flash
every 10 seconds.
I couldn't find exactly when
the switch was made because the
USLHS didn't have a lot of
lightless information on this
one.
OK.
But in 2016, the lighthouse
was officially transferred to
the city of Marquette.
So they are now in charge of
maintenance and doing any
renovating.
That's nice.
Yeah, it's nice that it's kind
of it's kind of uncommon,
actually, city ownership of the
lighthouse.
That's what I was thinking, too.
But the museum part of this
stipulation of this was that the
museum would still need to run
tours of the lighthouse.
What kind of tours you ask?
We have two very special guests
that we are going to interview
that can tell you all about it.
Nice.
But just a warning, it's going
to be spooky.
That's the part two.
Yeah, well, actually, we're just
doing it right now.
You're ruining it.
It's supposed to be spooky.
It's serious.
It's hot buttons.
We go.
We got sound.
Hello.
Can you guys hear us OK?
We can now.
Yes.
All right.
Excellent.
Hello.
How are you guys doing?
Good.
Well, I'm Emily and I've got
Vince here on the other
microphone.
How's it going?
Hey, Vince and Emily.
Nice to meet you guys.
Nice to meet you.
So I'll just get started by
telling you just a very short
little amount about what our
podcast is.
So we're a history podcast.
We talk about it's usually one
episode.
We talk about one lighthouse
and we'll talk about its history
and what it looks like and
anything like any current events
going on.
We just covered the Marquette
Harbor Lighthouse.
And so we intentionally didn't
research or talk about any of
the spooky things about the
lighthouse.
We're hoping you guys can do
that for us.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So if you want to start just by
just telling us who you guys are
and what are your jobs like and
all that stuff.
Well, I'm Trish Cotts, the
founder of Uber Paranormal.
And I just kind of did a
paranormal thing and Susan and I
do the paranormal lighthouse
tours together.
We do.
I'm Susan Hill.
I have been with the Marquette
Maritime Museum since 2017,
first as a volunteer and now as
a board member.
I do the odd daytime tour,
non paranormal still.
But for the most part, we focus
on the paranormal tours as a
specialty once a month evening
tour offering now during the
May through October.
Perfect season.
Yeah.
Tis the season.
So Uber Paranormal, is that
is that like people contact you
if they think something's going
on and you investigate?
Yeah, absolutely.
People that, you know, if they
feel they have something going
on in their home that they can
explain or even businesses,
they'll message me or contact me
on the Uber Paranormal Facebook
page.
And then we'll go over and use
some equipment, see what we get
and see how we can help.
Very cool.
So how did you end up at the
lighthouse?
Oh, that's true.
So I when I first started off
with the Maritime Museum in the
summer of 2017, I was doing
Tuesdays, so three daytime tours
on on Tuesdays and nothing
really overly spooky happened
that first summer until the very
last day of the season that we
were open.
It was mid-October and it was my
last tour of the season, the
last tour for the whole thing of
the season.
And I was locking you guys.
You've obviously looked at
pictures of the lighthouse.
So there's the hour, the door at
the bottom of the tower and then
the spiral staircase that goes
up to the second floor.
And there is a man door that goes
opens inward onto the second
floor of the lighthouse.
And that is usually closed.
We don't access the second floor
on our tours because we're
currently working on having some
renovations done.
There's been a bit of ceiling
damage and whatnot that we're
hoping to have rectified.
Anyway, so I had closed the door.
I left my tour out the back door
looking at the view while I ran
in and secured that door at the
end of the tour.
So I had closed the door and
I was barring it with the two
two by fours that we keep there
to our advanced security system.
But I closed the door and as I
was barring the door, I heard
that man door at the top of the
tower stairs creak and I bring
it in.
Oh, man, it's really windy
outside if it's blowing up the
tower and moving the door.
And then that door slammed and
I'm talking it's slammed like I
can't slam a door that hard.
It just bam.
And then my little brain is
going, this door's already
closed.
That wasn't the wind.
Yeah, I can't explain it.
I'm kind of feeling a little
sick, you know, like I'm
panicky and I that second two
by four down and I ran out of
the lighthouse like I just I
couldn't explain it.
And in my mind, there was no
such thing as ghosts at that
point.
I told a little ghost story as
part of the daytime tour, but I
wasn't a believer in ghosts.
So that's the fun story.
I really was kind of skeptical
when I first got on board with
the lighthouse.
So I go running back down to the
Maritime Museum and Hillary
Billman, our director, was
there.
And I said, Hillary, the door,
the door just slammed by itself.
There must be a door back in
Florida lighthouse.
So we need to go back up there
and close that because that
doors don't slam on their own.
And she looked at me and she
smiled, this knowing smile
still gives me when something
freaky happens.
And she says, come on, Susan,
let's go back up and we'll we'll
close the window, she says.
And I'd never been on the second
floor of the Marquette
Lighthouse before this moment.
So that was really cool.
I was excited to go up there.
And so up we went and it's
uncomfortable on the second
floor.
Something doesn't want you up
there.
The energy you go up there like
it's your fight or flight
response kind of kicks in.
And there's more ghost story to
come with that.
But anyway, we went room to
room and I'm looking for the
window because I need to close
it because it blew the door
closed in my mind.
There was no windows open.
This is 10 minutes after that
happened, you know, so it was
pretty quick.
Nobody else had been up there.
And that door that slammed so
hard was open again.
Oh, it was creeped out.
So Hillary, bless her heart,
actually tied that doorknob to
the tower stair railing for the
following year so that it
couldn't slam like that and
freak anybody else out.
So onward to 2018, they were
the city of Marquette was
constructing Lighthouse Park
and they were doing some
demolition and some paving and
a lot of action in the
lighthouse area.
And fun fact, construction can
really ramp up paranormal
activity.
And we have all kinds of weird
stuff going on up there.
You'd hear footsteps walking on
the second floor when there's
nobody up there.
Big furnishes, almost like if
somebody tipped over a big,
heavy piece of furniture, like
a dresser or something, you
know, boom, like just shake
everything.
You feel like pretty much the
whole building shake, but
there's no furniture upstairs
to tip over.
So stuff like that.
And then the icing on the cake,
like my nerves are getting
frazzled.
I had a couple of people on
daytime tours that were
physically affected by
something.
And it was happening at the
same point in the tour when I
was telling the little daytime
ghost story, the canned ghost
story, if you will, that I
just part of the tour, all the
tour guides tell it.
And so stuff's going on.
I'm pretty freaked out.
The icing on the cake that
made me contact you for
paranormal came one hot,
muggy, awful, still no wind
afternoon.
Again, it's the front tower
door and stairwell.
My tour is outside.
I closed that door and it was
there was no breeze that day.
Like it was just wicked hot.
I closed the door and I'm
reaching for the first two by
four to secure the door.
And all of a sudden, it got
cold in that front tower area
and in a freezer.
And I'm the hair just stood up
on my arms, the back of my
neck.
The air was almost tingly.
It almost felt electric.
Like that's the only way I can
describe it.
And I just kind of froze
because I'm like, what the
hell?
Like I went from sweating to
I'm standing in a meat locker.
And I'm something like it's
tingly and I'm just waiting for
something to happen because
what is going on?
I've never experienced anything
like this.
And I had my hair in a ponytail
because it was so hot.
And all of a sudden, down the
back of my neck, it felt like a
finger gray.
No.
And I said, remember this, like
it was yesterday.
Oh, hell no.
And bam.
And I'm a run in and I'm a big
gal.
I don't run anywhere.
I was running Usain.
So I back down to the museum.
I'm white and I am freaked out.
Something just touched me and
there was nobody there.
Right.
Like this is my little brain
just can't even process it.
So I go down and Hillary's
there again.
I'm like, Hillary, something
just got really cold.
Oh, my God.
Having a fit.
And she's like, hmm.
She gives me that knowing look.
That was the end of it.
I went home and I'm freaked out
the very next day.
Another tour guide named
Shannon, who I hadn't seen since
like our Christmas gathering.
Facebook messages me out of the
blue.
She says, Hillary told me that I
should message you and tell you
what happened to me today.
So she had the exact same thing
happen the very next day.
Going to bar the front door,
ice cold, tingly finger on the neck.
Yeah, so I'm like, this isn't cool.
Something's touching us.
I'm ready to quit.
My nerves are shot.
So I had seen you prepare a normal
at the Ishpeming Library
in, I think, 2017 when I first moved here
and they did this awesome
presentation on hauntings, ghosts
and equipment.
And I just thought it was the neatest thing.
So I found them on Facebook
and I sent Trisha a message
and I said probably something to the tuna.
Please don't think I'm crazy,
but I volunteer at the market
Harbor Lighthouse and we have got so much
activity.
I probably said shit, but, you know,
so much activity going on.
Would you be willing to help us
come and check it out?
Maybe tell us what it is,
because I don't want to be there anymore.
I don't know what's going to slam,
what's going to walk,
what's going to touch me.
Something's touching us now.
And Trisha's like, oh, yeah, House Friday.
We met up there that following Friday evening.
And just during the preliminary
like five minute walkthrough,
I was given Trisha and her team
a little a little walkthrough,
giving them some history on the building
and and what not.
They had more activity
during that preliminary walkthrough
than they had anticipated getting all night.
It was really active.
Yeah, like we heard there was voices.
They were picking up EVPs.
There was we heard a child singing.
Oh, no.
Oh, yeah.
Trish just had the most amazing
disembodied scream that she captured up there
on video on Saturday.
I felt that you prepare a normal Facebook page.
You can hear it without a head phone.
Yeah, super, super cool.
Yeah.
So during the preliminary walkthrough,
Trish was like a kid on Christmas morning,
like so much.
And so she came back again
and she brought more equipment
and got tons of evidence.
And then Covid happened.
And the lighthouse was hurting financially
because we're strictly volunteer based.
You know, and we couldn't take
nearly the number of people
through on our daytime tours.
We're trying to come up with an idea
to make some better money, help out.
And I said, why don't we do a paranormal tour?
People love that stuff, right?
Everybody likes, you know, ghost shows on whatever.
And so I reached out to Trish and she's like,
that'd be cool.
And we did our first one, I think, in 2019.
Started them in 2019,
maybe even a little before Covid.
We took a run at that, did we?
I guess. I think so. Yeah.
OK. And then ramped it up
and did it regularly during Covid.
It was a huge hit.
Pulled out well in advance.
They usually sell out the month before.
And we only take 10 people maximum
because we want people to have a unique
and authentic experience.
And if you have too many people,
you're not going to hear stuff that's happening.
So 10 is kind of the maximum because, yeah,
footsteps and stuff, it can be hard to hear
if you've got too many people around in your chat.
And then and what?
So that is how Trish and I came to.
And then we just hit it off and became great friends.
And one night she's like, hey, these people are
having some weird ghost activity in their house in the Gani.
Do you want to come with me?
They're seeing a child crawl out of the ceiling.
And I'm like, oh, wow.
Oh, my gosh.
I'm like, oh, OK.
Yeah.
Let's do that.
So a beautiful friendship was born.
Yeah, that'll bring you closer. Yeah.
I'm going to make her go on all the haunted things with me,
even if she's kicking and screaming.
Yeah, I'm a chicken. I'm not very good at that.
But well, that's amazing.
So do you usually get a lot of activity on these tours
or does the larger kind of scare them off?
No, they are ghosts are extremely intelligent
and we have a great working relationship.
And this is going to make us sound crazy.
But we'll go in there.
And Trish usually goes in about an hour before
the tour and sets up equipment and whatnot.
And she'll you know, they know why we're there.
We've said, you know, we're we're doing this as volunteers.
We're doing this to make money to fix the upstairs ceiling.
We're doing this for you guys, because if this lighthouse falls down,
you have nowhere to haunt.
So help us help you.
If you could slam the door, if you could, you know, make a little noise,
walk around, interact with our equipment a little bit,
then these people are going to tell their friends
and they're going to come on a paranormal tour.
And we're just going to keep making money
and we're going to be able to do these repairs.
So thinking back to like the late 1800s,
a lighthouse keeper was making about $400 a year, $450 a year.
An assistant keeper was making $250.
And I'm telling them, you know, these people are paying $25 each
to come up for, you know, an hour and a half, two hours.
So help us help you.
And they're awesome about it. They will. They're working.
It's a lot of people leave there with with a whole different mindset
on the paranormal.
We've come and leave as believers.
They everybody gets to have an experience when they come.
You have that knowing look. Yeah.
You talk. You started off with, you know, don't call me crazy. Right. Yeah.
Oh, it's awesome.
I always ask at the start of a tour, who doesn't believe in ghosts?
Those are my people.
Like you were going to talk at the end of the tour.
And we can't guarantee, you know, that they're going to have activity.
And there is the odd time that nothing happens and we get ghosted.
But for the most part, they're really good at doing something
that the guests can't explain.
But even if they don't have, say, a paranormal experience,
just Susan telling the history of it, people are just loving that.
They love hearing about the former lighthouse keeper or
when it was built, who, you know, what happened there.
Yeah. Yeah. We tried them to.
I'll tell a few stories on the way up.
Usually I'll pick them up at the museum and walk them up and I'll tell,
you know, my top few ghost stories and I'll introduce them
before we go up to the three major player ghosts that we interact with the most
and who we hope they're going to meet tonight and and give them a little bit
of housekeeping information as well.
You know, you're welcome to take pictures.
You're welcome to take video.
Please turn the ringer off on your cell phone.
One of our ghosts does not like people answering calls in that lighthouse.
And he scared the holy hell out of a man
a few years ago who kept taking phone calls.
And it was probably my favorite ghost story of
the best lesson in cell phone etiquette I have ever witnessed.
It was glorious.
I was ready to throw the guy's phone in the lake by the time this happened.
A well-deserved scare.
It was. So we gave him a little, you know, this is hoping.
We're hoping you're going to meet these three tonight or one of them.
Maybe we'll see who's around.
But but they kind of have an idea what's going on before we get up there.
And then anything that happens, you know, be it.
Trish has some really great equipment that especially our little child ghost,
David absolutely loves anything that lights up.
Trish always has really good luck with the stuff that lights up.
He'll he'll run down her string of EMF detecting lights and show the guests
how fast he is.
He will.
He loves it when the tour sings for him.
So we'll sing, roll, roll, roll your boat.
And we actually have footage of Trish had her SLS camera there for a tour.
And Trish and the tour had the SLS camera at one side of the room.
And I was standing over by the door and we were trying to get David to come
and stand with me for a picture.
And the tour sang for him.
And sure enough, there's a little stick figure beside me on the SLS camera.
He held my hand.
He waved at Trish when she asked him to.
And you guys can actually watch that on YouTube.
If you look up You Prepare a Normal, Trish Cotts on YouTube there is a clip of that
that was taken right off the Facebook live as it happened.
So that is crazy.
Yeah.
Amazingly attractive.
David is my favorite little ghost.
I know you're not supposed to have a favorite, but he's always willing to show the tour
how fast he can run and he loves toys.
And yeah, he rolled a truck for us one night and oh gosh, he doesn't.
He loves to sing.
We've had EVPs of them singing in the stairwell.
Trish always leaves recorders going throughout the lighthouse.
So even if we're not in the room, she's going to pick up whatever's going on in there.
It's really neat.
So we've got an EVP of we're in one room talking and this recorder was in the next room
and you can hear someone scream, get out.
And I would have died.
I would have gotten out and I probably wouldn't have come back.
So Trish is really savvy about this.
She keeps her recorders going and gets lots of cool evidence when we're not, stuff you're
not going to hear as it's happening.
So you said there's three main ghosts that you're hoping people will meet and one of
them is David and then the other two.
Are these names you gave them or is this like, do you have some insight to maybe their past
lives?
Absolutely.
David is the only one we don't have the origin of and we got his name through him giving
us various equipment as well as different mediums that have read the lighthouse.
So David didn't live there.
He apparently drowned nearby very quickly and traumatically when he was about two and
that is just heartbreaking.
But he, the lighthouse was the closest building to where the accident happened and he attached
to it and he's been there ever since and he's a happy little fella.
We'd love to cross him over because it's just sad to me that he's there instead of with
his family.
Sometimes when a drowning like that happens so quickly, they don't even realize what happened.
I don't know.
That's more Trisha's department than mine.
But the other two and there's literally layers upon layers of spirits up there we've been
told.
We have just scratched the surface.
Un's going on that we haven't interacted with, including the screaming lady.
We have a lady keeper that isn't there all the time, but she'll pop in and she's wonderful.
And then we have a keeper, an assistant keeper who actually is the only person to have died
in the lighthouse and that's our biggest strongest ghost.
So if you want a little history on them, I can toss you a little history.
Definitely.
That'd be great.
Okay.
The lady keeper is Eliza Truckee and she was actually with the first lighthouse in Marquette.
So the one that was built in 1853.
It was a separate house and a tower structure and it was made primarily of wood so it lasted
less than 10 years because that's a bad spot to be building anything out of wood.
So the one that is currently standing there, the big red one was built in 1866, which you
guys probably know, but Eliza was with the first lighthouse.
Her husband Nelson was the keeper and they lived there with there, I believe four children
at the time.
Nelson felt the call to go fight in the civil war and off he went.
He left Eliza with four children under the age of 10 and expecting number five and she
became the acting keeper for three and a half years.
So at that point, the wick on that lens had to be trimmed every two hours at night, if
you can imagine and not fueled up and you're hauling water from the lake, you're keeping
house, you've got all these little kids and you're pregnant.
I don't know when she slept.
She was amazing.
She developed a great rapport with the natives in the area and they nicknamed her mother
of the light.
Her inspections, the surprise lighthouse service inspections were always perfect.
They never caught her in a mess or disorganized and yeah, she did a whopping good job, not
knowing if Nelson was alive or dead most of the time.
So when he finally came back after the war, he had taken a musket ball to the lake and
could no longer be the keeper.
So you'd think that she would be the logical choice for a replacement because she's just
done it for three and a half years perfectly.
But the US lighthouse service told her that a woman cannot possibly be a lighthouse keeper.
Yeah.
And they gave the job to a man with no experience.
Yeah.
That irritates me every time I tell that story.
So Eliza, she likes the tourists and she loves to watch the tours and she'll pop in and out.
She's not there all the time, but we recently, probably a month ago, had four of Eliza Truckee's
great great granddaughters visit us.
Wow.
Right?
How cool is that?
They contacted the museum and the museum contacted us and we met them and gave them a private
tour and because Trish has had really good luck talking to Eliza with her equipment.
So Eliza, sometimes she really likes Trish.
I don't have much to do with her, but she really likes Trish and her equipment.
She follows me around in the lighthouse.
I carry a recorder with me as well as have them placed all around the lighthouse.
And when I get home and listen, she's just chattering behind me and talking.
And there was one time I had put one in the kitchen and she's well aware of what I do
and what to do with the recorders.
But I told her and so I went back to listen to it.
She says, I heard you.
Trish had an attitude.
Yeah.
She's really cool.
So sometimes we get her if she's there.
But the major player who's there all the time, it is his lighthouse and he is still working
is second assistant keeper Adam Byron Sales.
And he passed away in the lighthouse in the 1940s, the late 1940s from a cardiac event
upstairs in his room overnight while he was sleeping.
He was himself in his 40s when this happened.
So he passed very young and he is a very strong presence there.
He's not a big fan of the tourists because they're interrupting his work day.
He's not a fan of women either.
So we've kind of come to an understanding over the past few years and he's the one that
seems to really understand the monetary side of things.
He had a really colorful history with the lighthouse service.
He worked at Split Rock Lighthouse as well for a bit.
And yeah, he was married a couple of times and there were some bootlegging rumors circulating.
I've read through all his letters between him and the lighthouse service.
He was an interesting character, but in poor health as well.
He was a type one diabetic and often ill and whatnot.
So he's still there and he's working.
And if he's in the mood, he's told us how he passed.
We've got an EBP of him telling us heart.
When we asked how he passed, he will say his name.
He will say his son's names just to kind of show the tour who he is.
And our director, Hillary, has actually put a framed picture of Keeper Sales and his sons
in the lighthouse now, as well as a map of the park cemetery in Marquette showing guests
where he's buried.
Oh, that's nice.
Yeah.
So he's very, very strong.
Nobody slams a door like Keeper Sales.
So there's one tied up shut and one has been removed from the hinges to stop that from
happening.
It's like you don't get to do this anymore.
He really understands economics.
It's really hard on your nerves, right?
When you're standing there and a door just bam, it all footsteps.
The other night sounded like boots on hardwood floor.
Very loud, very heavy.
Yeah.
Trish and I got run out of the lighthouse last summer by Keeper Sales, actually.
We think it was him anyway.
We were going to stay late and investigate after one of our tours.
And he gave us a lesson in I don't want you here and I'm going to scare you right out
of this lighthouse.
So he sure did.
50 mile schedule.
Yeah.
As we were leaving, like so much a flurry of activity happened that just I was, I've
never been so scared in my life.
But as we were hustling out the door, because we were done, I was just about to close the
door and from the basement of the lighthouse, we heard a man's disembodied laugh.
And nothing rattles me really, but that did.
It did.
And Trish looked at me and she's like, did you hear?
And I said, yep.
And we booked it down those steps.
Like something was chasing us because it felt like something was.
He was having a wonderful laugh at our expense.
I was never going to go back in the lighthouse again that night.
I was done.
But here we are.
Yes, I keep coming back.
Susan, do you think it was him that touched your neck that day outside of the door?
Yeah, absolutely.
So fun story about that.
We actually had a medium confirm that for us.
I thought for a couple of months after that happened, I thought the other gal that got
touched is a huskier gal as well.
I thought he's got a thing for the plus size ladies.
He's getting fresh with us.
And Trish had told me to go in and tell him, you don't have my permission to touch me.
Do not lay hands on me again.
And I did that and he's never touched me again.
A medium was communicating and reading the lighthouse and he told her that he was trying
to push us down the stairs.
He thought it was funny.
I went in there after I heard that and I was mad.
You push people down the stairs.
How rude are you?
I was slightly offended as well.
Want some company.
Yeah.
Wow.
I thought you found me attractive.
I guess not.
You never know how people express themselves.
So he's quite the character.
If he's in the mood to talk and perform, we'll get oodles of evidence.
But if he's not feeling it, he'll just stonewall us and we get nothing.
So can you always tell who is visiting you during the tours?
Is it a trademark for some of them to be doing something specific?
I think he's the one that we hear the boots most of the time.
Walking.
Yeah.
We'll hear him walking.
He'll talk to us as well.
When he shows up or when he wants to talk, everybody else backs off.
He's so strong that the rest of them seem to just defer to him when it's his time to
talk.
I think Eliza.
I feel like I can feel her around me.
It's like a feminine energy.
If I listen back, I can hear her talking to me.
I think she likes what we do because we're women probably.
And David, I have a great rapport with little David.
Him and I get along wonderfully.
And he's always in the basement for the most part.
If we go down there and there's lights and toys and stuff, that's where we're going to
get him interacting.
And his energy is really warm and it's tingly and you can feel him around you.
It's the neatest thing.
And he'll move around the tour.
He's curious about people.
Somebody might get a little pinch or their hand grabbed or just feel like almost warm
air swirling around you.
We always tell them to watch for the spider web feeling as well.
Granted, there are some big spiders up there.
But if that spider webby feeling, that can be paranormal energy moving around.
So is there anything specific that you have to do on your tours that elicit a response
or is your presence alone enough?
We don't really have to do anything.
They're always there pretty much.
If they don't want to talk to you, they don't.
Yeah.
It's not a command performance, but they know we're up there.
We only do it once a month.
We tried once a week the one summer and they didn't like it.
They seemed annoyed almost.
And they just started ghosting us.
And so we backed it off to once a month and they seem to tolerate that pretty well.
Because they've got three daytime tours coming through as well.
They don't soak them and aren't trying to communicate with them, but it's still an interruption
in their day.
And when we go in before the tour, or I do, I'll spend an hour with them and I just remind
them that we're going to have people coming through here.
I hope that's okay.
But they're doing it because they want to learn about you.
They want to learn about the lighthouse, but they're also paying money to do it.
So they get something out of it too.
And I feel like they respond to that.
We acknowledge that they're not like, people aren't there to mock them or make fun of them
or anything.
And I do think they like that we respect them.
Very much done in a very respectful, non-provoking manner.
And we're very careful about who comes in and how they act.
Other paranormal teams, some of Trisha's friends, paranormal teams that she's friends with,
have come in with her.
But we don't let just Joe Blow and his team from wherever come in and investigate.
We don't know what people are going to do or invite or provoke.
And it's wonderful up there.
They're just wonderful.
So we are very careful to protect them.
That's good.
That's awesome work.
So Trisha, it sounds like you said you spent about an hour setting up before setting up
your equipment.
And then my curious mind is thinking about all this data.
How do you go through all of the recordings and all of that after the fact?
A hard part.
Like I said, I was just there Saturday night.
And what I'll do is we got that scream.
And so that's the first thing I wanted to check out was what I caught it on.
That way, you know, that's kind of that was the highlight of that night.
So I already know I have that.
I listen back.
I can hear it.
So then now I can take my time listening to the recorder.
So I'll just while I'm cleaning the house, I'll throw a recorder on and listen to it
while I'm cleaning or when everyone's asleep at night.
Because I have adult children that won't move out.
So yeah, but it is it is daunting sometimes.
You literally start falling asleep from the white noise from the recorders.
And it's hard to go through literally an hour without wanting to go to sleep.
Yeah, gotta take that work home with you.
And then you guys are close, it sounds like.
So you get together and kind of talk about what's going on with the analysis and maybe
what you heard that month on the tour.
Or is that just kind of come up and natural?
Susan can't come for whatever reason.
I message you here.
We heard this.
We heard that.
Yeah, actually, this weekend was a great example of that.
The Maritime Museum and Lighthouse just had we did our big Halloween fundraiser that we
do every year.
It's called the Ghosts Lighthouse Point.
And we do it for three nights.
And it's all volunteer driven.
So the entire grounds of the museum and lighthouse are set up with different stations of volunteers
portraying historical figures, but the ghost version and just some spooky, creepy Halloween
fun like werewolves and whatnot.
Roll grounds.
And we have tours that go every 15 minutes with volunteer guides that are also dressed
up and carrying spooky lanterns.
And so they'll take people all over to each station.
And then the pinnacle is coming up to the lighthouse and coming through.
So this year we had a couple of volunteers portraying Nelson and Eliza Truckee.
Yeah.
And then a man portraying keeper sales yelling, get out of my lighthouse from the dark.
Then they come to the tower at the end.
And I am on the tower stairs, all creepy and ghosted up and either being a crazy woman
or with a cardboard sign that says kissing booth, two souls, no refunds.
And then they walk out the front doors and back down.
And that's the end of it.
And that's with three nights from 7 to 10 PM and hundreds and hundreds of people had
come through.
And then Trish was coming up Saturday night after we were done with a team that she's
friends with from Wisconsin.
And I bowed out because I was just whipped from staying up late a few nights in a row.
And I knew they were going to have a good time because when I was in the tower, I heard
footsteps above me coming towards the door, big heavy footsteps.
And I yelled down to Eliza Truckee, our volunteer, and asked if her husband was upstairs.
And she says, no, he's right here.
And I'm, okay.
It was also really windy and the lake was really roaring.
And that's between all those people and the waves being big, that's going to give you
some good activity typically.
And sure enough, Trish heard the same big footsteps with that team.
But when she's not there, I get, I'm like, oh, I know Susan would love this.
That's why I have to mess with her and everything that's going on.
I'm like, it's three o'clock in the morning, but I don't care.
I'm going to mess with her anyway.
I read that message.
Heck yeah, that was great.
So besides the things that you've mentioned, has there anything that's been really shocking?
Like anything that, like you've been leading a tour and you've been shocked by something
that happens?
Oh, the screen.
Yeah, that's a bad one.
I would say that the secret word game, the nub story.
So Trish came up with a way to interact with the ghosts basically.
And we played what's called the secret word game.
And so we will, when we're up at the lighthouse and Trish is setting up, we'll come up with
what the secret word is going to be for that night.
And sometimes we'll let somebody else pick it.
It can be random sausage, whatever, like just a random word.
Well a couple of years ago, I lost my dog.
My beloved nub was her name and she was so sweet.
And I lost her before we did a paranormal tour.
And so we were setting up and I'm telling the ghosts how horrible my week has been and
my dog passed away.
Our secret word tonight is going to be nubs.
Because that's not a common word that you're going to get through a radio frequency or
a random app.
That's a hard one to debunk.
And so we always say, remember it and repeat it later, please, if you could.
And that'll show the guests how good you guys are, that sort of thing.
Sometimes they're not in the mood to play the secret word game, but probably seven out
of 10 times they're going to play because they like it.
But I went down and picked up the tour and I'm telling them my dog just died and I'm
starting to cry and I'm like, okay, drain it in.
So we're going to play the secret word game when we get up to the lighthouse.
And our word tonight, we already told the ghosts up there, I'm telling you guys now,
our word is nubs.
That was the name of my dog.
And they're like, okay.
But probably I'm not, they're not wrong.
Anyway, so we go up, we're doing our thing.
This was the end of the tour, we went down to the winch room in the basement and Trish,
I can't remember what you were using one of your apps.
I guess it was a phone app that I was just trying out the spirit box app she was trying.
And so we're getting random stuff coming through.
And she said, do you remember the secret word from earlier?
Can you, can you say it?
And we're getting garble garble, nothing, you know, and she asked again, and I had my
phone out and was doing Facebook live from, and sure enough, right on Facebook live, nubs.
Comes through, there's anything.
And I of course, you know, so we crop that down and that's on the YouTube channel as
well.
But interest enough, we heard them say nubs four times that night in different spots in
the lighthouse with different equities.
So and to this day, they may not, you know, tell us the name of so and so on the tour
or, you know, the secret word that night, but I can often say what was the name of my
dog that passed away and we'll get nubs.
So there was a moment where something kind of shocking happened when Susan did the very
first late night investigation with you prepare normal and we had a news crew with us.
And there was a man who came over the spirit box and said, hello, Susan.
We actually, there was a TV crew doing a Halloween special and that's on YouTube as well.
We can email you guys a link to that if you want to watch it.
You can watch the horrified look on my face.
Oh my God.
I was so scared.
Anyway, now when it happens, it's like a party trick and we know who it is and it's like,
hey, how's it going?
But that first time, oh my God, she was white as a ghost.
Pretty freaky.
But yeah, as soon as you go in that lighthouse, they know who you are and I don't know how
that works, but they quite often they'll give us the name of somebody on the tour.
We can say what's this person's name or it's super weird.
They said one of the names of one of the girls that was with me Saturday very clearly.
And they'll get fancy and they'll give you a last name sometimes too.
Or what somebody does for a living.
The one gal, the one time they said weed and she was a bud tent.
Has anyone on the tour ever just freaked out and been like, I'm done, I'm going to leave?
People leave sometimes because it's powerful.
If they get really close to you, you get physically affected, like you can have a headache, you
can start to feel some shortness of breath.
And we ask them, if you feel that, please let us know and we'll go outside and get some
fresh air.
But yeah, we have had people really uncomfortable and leave because it's real.
And sometimes I think people don't realize that it's the real deal.
And that's overwhelming.
I can't remember if he left as soon as he got to the door.
Yeah, he did.
He was having chest pain right out of the gate.
That could be the 46 stairs to get up there too.
Definitely could be that.
But yeah, the moment you walk in, you can feel it's not your normal energy.
And sometimes a couple tours ago here, we had a new, I don't know, there was an energy
up there that we haven't run into before and it was very strong and it seemed very curious
and almost invasive and it was right up on us.
And it was just a lot and we kind of wrapped up and departed because I don't know who it
was.
We had some really difficult peeps, but we didn't really want to.
No, I got a headache, a really bad headache and very nauseous.
I've never been that sick to my stomach.
Yeah.
And it was just whoever it was, was just very, very strong and they were right curious about
what we were up to.
And because of that closeness, it was, you know how when you tell, you can tell someone
standing over your shoulder.
Yeah.
It literally felt like there was someone standing looking over my shoulder.
It was very uncomfortable.
It was like breathing down your neck.
It was like, what are you doing almost?
It was just really weird.
Yeah.
Strange.
Wasn't there the last few nights, so that was good.
That's good.
That's really interesting.
Are most of your guests on these haunted tours, are they guests that have been on the other
tour that is more standard or are they kind of standalone?
It depends.
We actually have had, so the tours are 18 and up.
Just to be clear, we don't let kids on the paranormal tours.
A lot of people have come specifically to town for the paranormal tour.
We've had some people coming in from out of town just to do that.
So we always recommend that they visit the Maritime Museum the next day, you know, and
grab a daytime tour if you want more history as well.
But we do have some locals that come up as well.
And we have some locals come up for the paranormal tour that have never done a regular lighthouse
tour there and they live there forever.
Well, a lot of them, they see it on Facebook on the You Proper Paranormal page and they're
like, oh, I want to try that.
And then some of them come back every time.
Yeah, we have people that will come on tours because they liked it so much.
So that's kind of neat.
Amazing.
That's really special.
It's never the same.
Yeah.
Are they does the time of the tour vary as well kind of depending on how you guys are
feeling and how things go?
The date of the tour is usually subject to our schedules in the summer.
We got to find a date when we're both free to do it.
But we usually try to stick with 7 p.m.
We don't want to be up there in the dark.
When I say we, I mean, I don't want to be up there in the dark.
The vibe changes when it's dark.
And it's almost like when it gets dark, they don't want you up there.
That's their time.
Get out is kind of the vibe I get.
So we try to keep it.
This last one that we did in September, it was getting pretty dark when we wrapped up
about nine and I was, come on, folks, let's move it out the door.
People are like, oh, it's really spooky up here in the dark.
I'm like, get out.
Because I don't want them to have that maniacal laugh experience that will make them have
nightmares for weeks.
You know, I don't want to scare them to the point where they tell people not to do it.
So we try to keep it to early evening seems to be a good time.
But some of the coolest stuff I've seen up there or heard up there has happened in broad
daylight Tuesday afternoon.
Like it's nothing to do with it.
It's yeah, it's neat.
They're there during the day.
They're there at night.
They're there all the time.
All the time.
Yeah.
But it's neat when you walk in and you hear a closet door slide open.
But you know, you're the only people in the lighthouse and there's no one in that room.
And then you go into that room and you close the closet door and you're like, that was
neat.
That sort of thing.
We had a group of guys that came.
They were standing in front of the door when they heard the loud knocks coming from the
closet.
Yeah, three big boom, boom.
It scared them a little bit.
Oh, that one guy was almost hanging onto my leg like a koala.
It was great.
But oh, that was the same tour.
That was the asshole tour.
Yes.
So we were downstairs with these people and there was three young guys.
They got the knocks in the closet.
They were scared from that.
But we'd said, can you tell us the name of this gentleman?
And through the spirit box, we hear asshole.
His friends are laughing and they're like, that's right.
You know, I was horrified because we've never heard profanity.
Yeah.
So anyway, that was, that was new.
But yeah.
Must have been a very special guest.
Yeah.
At least they found it funny and no one was offended.
But yeah.
Are you guys going to come up for a tour?
Where are you guys based?
We would love to.
We're in Kansas City, so we're smack dab in the middle of no lighthouses at all around
us.
But yeah, we've got nothing around.
But we do make a trip about every year to go see a couple of lighthouses.
And Marquette's been on our list since we did an interview with Fred Stonehouse and
Carl Lindquist.
Yeah.
Well, if you guys come up, let us know and we would be very pleased to give you a private
paranormal tour.
And if you want to do a late night paranormal tour, I'm sure Susan will be more than happy
to sit there.
I would love to be up there in the dark with you guys.
We would never do that to you.
You guys want to do that?
But no, come on up.
We'll take you, take you through and introduce you to our ghosts.
That'd be amazing.
Yeah.
I would love to cover all of the haunted, the spooky stuff.
And there seems to be so many instances of haunted lighthouses and spooky things going
on.
And Vince and I have talked about on the podcast, it's like, you know, lighthouses are for guiding
people, they're for bringing people to safety or keeping people away from stuff.
And so we talked about like when people pass on and they hang out, like they're drawn to
the lighthouse because it is a point of guidance for people.
And maybe that's why it's so common for lighthouses to be somewhere where they may have permanent
residence.
I like that.
I would have never thought of that.
But yeah, it makes sense.
Yeah, it's awesome.
But see ours now, I don't know about other lighthouses, but ours, it sits on a quartz
hill.
It's got that powerful lake right there.
It's got so much rich history.
So I think that's, that's why ours is haunted and will be forever.
It's really interesting.
You guys must come check it out sometime.
Yep, it will definitely it's definitely on our list high up there.
Appreciate you doing the work.
It sounds like Marquette's full of special people.
I mean, talking with the other two gentlemen and and then hearing from you guys about all
the volunteering efforts.
And of course, the story with every lighthouse today is all the maintenance and all the significance.
But culturally, every lighthouse that we look at, there's always a good story.
There's always something interesting.
There's tourism.
I mean, we're a little bit biased, right?
But seems to be growing and learning more about it.
So it's really awesome.
I had no idea.
I moved here from Saskatchewan six years ago.
And so I'm also from no lighthouses, no big water.
And I think that fell in love with it at first sight and wanted to volunteer and be a part
of it.
But Fred Stonehouse, you guys know what a treasure he is.
So he is the chairman of our board and just a tireless, tireless spokesperson and a wonderful
man as far as maritime history and that lighthouse.
He's a treasure.
Well, thank you so much very, very much for doing this for us.
We are very happy to get to talk to you.
And we're going to post this the day before Halloween.
So hopefully our listeners enjoy some spooky content.
Awesome.
Are we able to listen to you guys on any streaming?
Or we're on anywhere you listen to podcasts, we're Apple, Google, Spotify, Pandora, all
of that.
We also have YouTube where we post pictures as we're talking about anything to do with
the lighthouse.
So people watch that as well.
Awesome.
If you send us a link, we would love to check it out.
Absolutely.
And you guys have your YouTube, right?
As well as?
Yes, you prepare normal.
You'll be able to see our, I think I've only put a handful of videos up there just for
lack of time, but the techie stuff.
Yeah.
Secret word game, the nubs thing and little David on the SLS camera.
Those three are up there so far.
Go on the paranormal page.
I posted the video of the scream that we captured.
It tells you when it's when it comes on.
So yeah, it says I did put earphones recommended or whatever, but everyone's told me here without
it.
That's like that.
I've never heard anybody scream up there.
So that was my son happened to come with me because he was helping me film some stuff for
another event thing.
And he was standing on the hallway and he was actually the one who heard it first and
scared the jeepers out of him.
That's awesome.
Well, I'll include some links.
Yeah, I think, I think that's all the questions we had.
Okay.
Well, it was lovely to meet you both.
Thanks for having us on.
So nice to meet you.
You're the best I've ever met.