Most Haunted Places in America: Old Presque Isle Lighthouse
Presque Isle, which means “almost an island”, is a located on the eastern shore of Lake Huron. It was used by French trappers in the 1800’s and it was this group the named this natural harbor. The harbor eventually grew in traffic and importance until Congress eventually appropriated $5,000 and built the Presque Isle Lighthouse.
The lighthouse stood 30 feet high with a base of 18 feet and 4 feet thick walls. It came with the typical spiral staircase leading up to the top of the tower to the Fresnel lens. It first showed its guiding light in September 1840. This light was a constant presence over Lake Huron for the next 30 years. It was decided that the keepers house needed to be rebuilt and money was set aside by Congress to repair it when a change in plans saw a new Presque Isle Lighthouse built about a mile north.
What is now called the Old Presque Isle Lighthouse was abandoned; the top removed and sat in disrepair for almost 26 years. The lighthouse was eventually sold in an auction and this was the beginning of a long list of owners until the early 1900’s when the Stebbins family bought the lighthouse. It eventually passed down to a brother Francis Stebbins in 1930.
Francis repaired the old lighthouse and even restored the lens by replacing the top with a salvaged one from the Southern Fox Island Lighthouse. He started giving tours and even shining the light once again. The Coast Guard however eventually told him to cut the light out for good so not to confuse the ships coming in the harbor and even went as far as removing the gears and rotating the lens.
Francis passed the lighthouse down to his son Jim. Jim took his father’s idea and expanded it turning the lighthouse into a museum, eventually turning the duties of running the lighthouse to George and Lorraine Paris in 1977. George and Lorraine were the caretakers and tour guides for the lighthouse and became well liked by all that visited. They moved into the keepers house during the tourist season and really enjoyed their work until January of 1992 when George died of a heart attack.
Though there was a story attached to the lighthouse of a past keeper who locked his wife in the tower till she went crazy and you could hear her screams on certain stormy nights, it wasn’t until the death of George that the paranormal activity really began. Lorraine, after talking with her kids, decided to keep her duties at the lighthouse after George passed.
Lorraine was returning to the lighthouse one evening when she took notice of the lights being on at the top of the lighthouse. She was bewildered because not only was the mechanism removed and the light rotated but George had even taken out all the electricity to the tower as another precaution. As Lorraine got closer she claimed that the light was blinking and it was not the rotating lens. When she got to the tower no one was there.
Since then many have claimed to see the light flashing from the tower. Children, whom George was especially close to during tours, have even claimed to see his apparition at the top of the tower itself. Visitors have claimed to be touched on the shoulder or taken by the hand. The Coast Guard has also seen the light and has investigated. Finding no evidence of electricity, mechanisms or anything else that could possibly be the cause have officially claimed it is an “unidentified” light.
Currently the lighthouse is open to the public daily, from 9am until 6pm, mid-May through mid-October.
Related posts:
