The Most Haunted Island on Earth: Mackinac Island

You know it’s one of the most haunted places on earth when the number of ghosts that are said to live in your city outnumber the people who are alive. Mackinac Island in Michigan is home to not only amazing tourist attractions, lakefront hotels, and a no motorized vehicle law, but ancient Native American burial grounds in which the entire city is built upon. In addition to reports of ghostly apparitions and poltergeist activity, many people have come up mysteriously missing or deceased by way of incredibly odd circumstance, further adding to the luring mystery of this town. Despite all of these facts, though, Mackinac Island typically pulls in about fifteen thousand tourists each day during the spring, summer, and fall seasons. In this article, we’ll talk more in-depth about the hauntings that occur on Mackinac Island.

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A Brief History

Experts theorize that it was around 900 A.D. that Mackinac Island first became inhabited by Native Americans from both Canada and the southern Michigan areas. This was about seven hundred years before any type of Europeans came to explore the land, and it was a peaceful time. Once the Europeans entered the territory, it became a huge port for the Great Lakes Fur trade and brought prosperity in a westernized way to the area.

The Native Americans, however, were fighting for their right to remain in the area, and over time, the battle of 1812 broke out, and the area was an enormous site of bloodshed for that particular battle. Hundreds of thousands of casualties fell upon Mackinac Island’s soil, and just about anyone who has visited the island will tell you that their spirits still linger the area even today.

The Drowning Pool in Mackinac Island

Amidst the hundreds of ghost stories that circulate in the area, one remains prominent. It’s that of the drowning pool in Mackinac Island. Despite its’ ominous name, the Drowning Pool is actually a small little lagoon in the heart of Mackinac Island. After the Europeans invaded the area in the seventeenth century, a brothel popped up in the area. Soon enough, the women who worked in this brothel were being accused of witchcraft by the wives of men who were apparently “lured” into paying one of the women for their services. Whether they were simply angry, scorned wives who banded together against the prostitutes or there was any truth to it, we don’t really know. But what we do know is that after a short amount of time, the women working in the brothels were arrested and then subject to death without so much as even one hour in a courtroom.

There were seven women in totality who were accused. Each of them was constrained by rope into a makeshift chair type of device and then thrown into the lagoon. The logic at the time was that if they floated, they were witches, and would be burned alive immediately. If they did not, however, float, and instead drowned, they were not witches. One by one, they released these women into the water to see which they would do, but one after the other continued to drown. It put a bleak mood over the entire town until it was re-vamped to be a tourist attraction in the late 1800s. This is the most prominent because the lagoon is one of the spots that most tourists take photos by and even rent out hotel rooms by for the extravagant view there. It is said that their spirits can be seen as dark, misty figures, and the evil, vengeful energy that they give off is one to remember.

Over six hundred people have drowned in the lagoon since the seven senseless deaths, and though it is a more heavily guarded area as of now, many still say that they hear evil sounding screeches and ghostly manifestations of women who appear to be decaying and are soaking wet. In addition to that, much of the wildlife that visit the lagoon at night typically washes up dead in the morning, more than anywhere else on the island. The popular ghostly visitor in this area according to most tourists is one woman who had long, white, tattered hair and completely black eyes who seemed to stare into the souls of those who look back at her. She is believed to be the first one who was accused and executed.

All in all, Mackinac Island is truly a fun place for families to visit, sightsee, bike ride, and eat delicious goodies that are only made there. However, is it that witch draws in so many tourists? Or is it the ghostly phenomenon on the world’s most haunted island? You be the judge.