Training investigations: haunted cemetery, historic cemetery

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The Lake Forest Cemetery, located in the busy little city of Grand Haven, MI, has a colorful history with roots dating back to the start of the city.  The cemetery was moved to its current location back in the year 1900. Several members of the city's prominent leaders and their families were given the first plots, on top of the cemetery's tallest hill, which is now called Ferry Hill. 

The city made offers to all of the families who had loved ones buried in the old cemetery as an incentive to make their decisions easier. The old cemetery was turned into what is now called Central Park and that is a whole different story which we will do another time.

There are reports of everything from shadow people to apparitions of civil war soldiers in full uniform making patrols. The most famous stories that surround the cemetery are probably the legend of the “Blue Man” who is believed to be the spirit of founding father William Ferry, and the infamous “Stairway to Hell” which leads to the top of Ferry Hill and the grave sites of  William Ferry, his family and close friends

On our first adventure to Lake Forest Cemetery, we had a lot of unusual things happen to our team. The layout of the cemetery is quite hilly, with lots of turns and dark corners. It is really easy to get lost in this place. Add the fact that the cemetery borders Duncan Woods, which is a nice little forest nestled right in the heart of the city. This takes the “creepiness factor” for the cemetery up about 4 notches.

At one point, we were in the woods following one of the trails and stumbled on a group of gravesites. We could not figure out why these graves would be here, in the middle of the woods, maybe 150 yards from the border of the cemetery. This was very puzzling until we started our research and discovered that the city was starting to expand the cemetery into Duncan Woods and had yet to start to clear all of the new land.

A short time later we found our way into the cemetery again. We were heading to one of the lower plateaus when one of the team members, Bill, saw a shadow dart from behind a headstone, about 20' in front of him. It ran very quickly behind a large tree, another 20' from there. 

He was caught off guard by this and made a rookie mistake, he never took any pictures when he saw this. I did (I mean “he”) manage to snap a photo of the tree that this shadow went behind. This photo turned out to be an interesting one, Bill did as he was trained, held the camera correctly, and took 3 shots of the tree. Photos 1 and 3 were normal, photo 2 was more interesting.  

This tree was shrouded in a bluish mist. This photo was later incorporated into the G.R.A.S.P.P. banner which we used on our site.

As we worked our way around the area, we started to hear some strange growls coming from the wooded areas around us.  These sounded unfamiliar to us, and we can't rule them out as critters in the woods but we are leaning that way. 

Other members of the group reported uneasy feelings and feeling like they were being watched. While these experiences are hardly credible evidence, they did add to the total experiences of the night.

As we made our way back through the woods, Bill did have another unusual experience.  He was in a small clearing, about a 30' circle, and was firmly struck in the left arm just below his shoulder. He called out to the group and they all took photos and other readings. Which yielded no evidence. 

While examining the area, we could not find any branches sticking out, or freshly fallen debris. Nothing to explain what had happened. This made an interesting evening.

After talking with others who had their own experiences in Lake Forest Cemetery and Duncan Woods, we found that we were not the only ones with questions about this beautiful, creepy place.  Tony, from Grand Haven Paranormal, told us about the time that he and his wife were in the area of the Civil War section when they heard marching and turned to see several soldiers, in full Civil War battle gear, marching as if they were on patrol – weapons at the ready.

The infamous “Blue Man”, who is believed to be the spirit of William Ferry, is said to be seen near Ferry Hill and other parts of the cemetery as if he is watching over the city he helped build. 

Then we have the "Stairway to hell" which has its own legends. The stairway ascends to the top of Ferry Hill and it is said that when a person is buried in the cemetery, their soul must climb to the top of the stairway and await judgment. If they see a white light, they can proceed to heaven. If no white light is shown to them, they must return down to the bottom of the stairway and a trapdoor to hell will open and take them.  

No one has as yet, proven this story to be true, and I'm not sure when or even where this story started. I did do some research on this and discovered that there are many cemeteries out there with similar legends. So, I think we can chalk this up to myth.

We actually do cemetery investigations more for training our members. These are great places to hone your skill and learn how to debunk your findings. 

Still, Lake Forest Cemetery is a great place to investigate and we recommend if you get the chance to do so, just make sure that you have permission.  There has been a lot of vandalism in the cemetery and the police will issue you a hefty fine, should you decide to be sneaky.