Mike Sonnenberg, Author at Lost In Michigan

Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouse

Posted on June 22, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Lighthouses .

This post is a little different than what I normally post. Dianna Higgs Stampfler was kind enough to send me a copy of her book Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouses. It tells the story of several great lakes Lighthouses and whose spirit might possibly be haunting them to this day. I liked that it explored the history of the lighthouse along with the hauntings. She has done a lot of research for the book and has done a wonderful job of telling their stories making it a pleasure to read. If you love Michigan lighthouses and like a good ghost story be sure to check out her book. By the way, she used my photo of the Saginaw River rear range lighthouse for creating the image on the cover. You can get a copy of her book on Amazon HERE or learn more at her facebook page HERE

Bessemer Building

Posted on June 21, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places .

I saw this old building north of Bessemer in da U.P. It looks like it may have been a schoolhouse at one time but I don’t know. I come across many old buildings especially in the Upper Peninsula that I wonder about.

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The Ghost Town of Allenville

Posted on June 19, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Ghost towns .

If you take M-123 to Tahquamenon Falls a few miles from I-75 is where the town of Allenville is or at least was. About all that remains is an old general store that stands on Brevort Lake Rd.

I have found two different origins for the name of the town. One says it was named after Allen P Hulbert the superintendent of the Martel Furnace Company that had charcoal kilns in the town. The other source is Wikipedia that said the town was named after J. Alley, head of the Alley Lumber Company and was known as Alley Town. Which is correct I am not sure but like the town, its history is slowly fading away.

Because Amazon has pushed back shipping of books I have started selling books from my website. I have them in stock and you should have them in a few days if you live in Michigan. You can order them HERE

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A Blissful Church

Posted on June 16, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches .

In the small town of Bliss in northern Michigan stands this beautiful white church. The historical marker proudly posted in front of it gives some of the history of this old building. It reads:

The congregation of the East Bliss United Brethren Church was organized in 1880. During the pastorate of the Reverend Edward McFarland, this Carpenter Gothic style church was erected. It was dedicated on May 4, 1903. The congregation flourished until 1923, then declined. Financial difficulties forced it to disband in 1949. Former members purchased the church from the United Brethren Conference in 1965 and renamed it Bliss Pioneer Memorial Church. Memorial Day and fall homecoming services are held in it annually.

If you are wondering the town of Bliss is between Mackinaw City and Cross Village and it’s south of Wilderness State Park. It has an old general store and is a nice stop while out sightseeing.

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The Historic Sowers House in Ovid

Posted on June 15, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Houses, Michigan Historical Markers .

Built in 1869-70 for George D. and Carrie Sowers, this house in Ovid is an excellent example of Italianate architecture. Sowers, the first of several prominent local businessmen to live here, owned a planing mill located across the street with his partners George Fox. Sowers later became a partner in the Ovid Flour Mills. In 1882 Frank Scofield and his wife, Adelaide, purchased the house. Scofield co-owned the Ovid Carraige Works, one of the village’s largest employers during the late nineteenth century. His business declined with the rising popularity of the automobile. Henry and Sophia Hudson purchased the house in 1907, one year after Henry founded Hudson and Son Farm Implements, another prosperous Ovid business.

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Michigan’s Forgotten Fort

Posted on June 13, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places .

Long before the Mackinaw Bridge, expressways, wineries, and craft breweries, tourist destinations were a lot different. They were more like roadside oddities and strange-looking places to attract motorists. One of the earliest tourist attractions in the Upper Peninsula was Fort Algonquin north of St. Ignace. The fort was built by Vaughan Norton in the 1920s to look like an old fort from Michigan’s fur trading days. He also purchased Castle Rock, but sold it during the Great Depression. He entertained tourists for decades displaying his Native American artifacts and selling trinkets to tourists.

An old postcard of the fort

The old fort sits on the Mackinac Trail north of St Ignace and because of its location away from town, it is mostly forgotten. It’s no longer open but the fort style structure is still standing. I drove past it and wondered what it was and found their facebook page HERE

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The West Bluff

Posted on June 11, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Houses .

Taking the ferry over to the island it travels past the west bluff. You can see the magnificent houses looking over the straights next to the Grand Hotel. It’s a little bit of a walk around the back of the hotel but it’s worth it to see these magnificent looking homes. I especially like Edgecliff Cottage, you can read my post about it HERE The yellow house next to it is Cairngorm a gorgeous Victorian Cottage which was built in 1888. By the way, it’s for sale for only 5.8 million. To see more of the house click Here

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Martini House

Posted on June 10, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Houses, Thumb .

In a quiet subdivision not far from downtown Sebewaing is this ornate yellow house. The historical marker prominently standing in front of it reads:

Sebewaing businessman John C. Liken built 5 houses, one for each of his children. Constructed in 1890 – 95 in the fashionable Stick Style, this house remains the only historically intact structure associated with Liken, one of Sebewaing’s most prominent citizens, Liken intended this house for his daughter Mary and his son-in-law and business partner, Richard Martini, but the Martini’s never lived here. Instead, their oldest child John C. Martini (1878 – 1974) moved into the house with his wife, Tillie Kemp, in 1909. John C Liken retired in 1913, leaving control of the business to the Martini’s, Richard became president and John succeeded him. The Liken and Martini families were integral to Sebewaing’s development.

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The Mother Church

Posted on June 9, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches .

Built on a site that once had a log cabin for service the sandstone steeples of St. Peter Cathedral can be seen towering over downtown Marquette. Bishop Frederic Baraga laid the cornerstone for this heavenly looking church in 1864 and it became the mother church of the Diocese of Marquette. It has survived two devastating fires. The first in 1879 and the second in 1935 that destroyed everything but the sandstone walls.

Two years after Bishop Baraga dedicated the Cathedral he died and his remains were placed in a plain pine coffin and interred under the cathedral altar. After the first fire, a crypt with six niches was built in the southwest corner of the cathedral. After the second fire, A bishops’ chapel was added to the restored cathedral. A decision was made at this time to excavate the space under the chapel and build a crypt where the bishop’s remains are laid to rest to this day.

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Michigan’s Haunted Train Depot

Posted on June 8, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Haunted Places, Train Depots .

One of the largest Victorian-era train stations in the United States and the second largest train station in Michigan the old train depot in Saginaw is said to be haunted. Known to local residents as the Potter Street Station, the Flint and Pere Marquette Railway Saginaw Depot was constructed and opened in 1881, and was designed by the famous New York Architect Bradford Lee Gilbert. In 1964, the last passenger train departed the Potter Street Station. The rail line would continue to be used for freight until the station was closed in 1986.

There are several sources that claim the station to be haunted, bodies of soldiers who died in the war were shipped back to Saginaw by train to this depot. Richard Froeber was a casket maker in Saginaw and his shop was in the depot and he would build a casket for the fallen soldiers. There have been reports of people seeing a ghostly figure of a woman in white roaming the station.

the Depot was featured in a ghost investigation documentary “A Haunting on Potter Street”

Potter Street Station is owned by the Saginaw Depot Preservation Corporation, a non-profit organization based in Saginaw, MI you can find their website HERE

PLEASE NOTE the station is private property and under video surveillance and anyone trespassing will be prosecuted.

Since I live in Saginaw, and know some people in the Saginaw Depot Preservation Corporation, and have a membership, I was able to take some photos of the inside.

If you are ever in Saginaw, if you look closely you can see it from I-675 to the north and a few blocks east of the Saginaw River. I suggest you drive by it because it’s hard to capture the immense size of the depot in a photo. It truly is a spectacular building, and I hope someday it will be restored.