Waugoshance Was Abandoned to the Ghost Who Lived There: Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouses
Rather than continue to provoke the spirit of a dead keeper, new lighthouses were built and this tower was left empty and alone on Lake Michigan.
Before Fort Gratiot Light, Michigan's oldest, was built in 1925, a lightvessel- a ship, strategically placed to warn passing ships of dangerous waters, was placed in Emmet County at Michigan's fingertips. Later, the beacon was lit on Waugoshance Light, a permanent structure that was in use from 1851-1912. They say shipping traffic dictated a change and Waugoshance was decommissioned and replaced with two other lights. There may be more to the story.
John Herman is central to the legend. A devious prankster and mean drunk, Herman worked at the Waugoshance Light, first as an assistant in 1887 and was promoted to keeper in 1892. Stories say that one night while he was on a bender, John Herman locked his assistant in the tower and drunkenly staggered off into the night, never to be heard from again. Men who held the position after him reported strange instances of coal buckets filling by themselves and furniture being moved about the room as if by a poltergeist.
Because the haunted happenings were so frequent, they eventually had a hard time staffing the light, so they built a house at White Shoals and left Waugoshance to the ghost who haunted it.
With that story in mind, take a trip out to the light in the video below.
Bonus Video: Climbing All 302 Steps Up Saugatuck's Mount Baldhead
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