This hotel was originally built for Henry Ford who had logging operations in the area. While staying overnight, we had strange spikes on our EMF detector and heard a whistle while conducting EVPs. Our REM pod also went off, so this location might need more investigation!
Date: October 12, 2019
Location: Big Bay, MI
Investigators: Chris, Matt
Location History
In the quiet rural village of Big Bay, MI lies the well known Thunder Bay Inn. This building was originally constructed for Henry Ford and his executives who had logging operations for car paneling in the area.
In 1959, the hotel was also the setting for the famous James Stewart film “Anatomy of a Murder.” Based on a true story, it was notably the only murder in Big Bay history, and had happened just down the road at a local bar.
Today the Thunder Bay Inn and Restaurant is a hub open to guests wanting to rest from their explorations of the great wilderness of Michigan.
Our Experience
While visiting family in Michigan’s U.P., we decided to spend a night at the Thunder Bay Inn after reading an article online claiming the inn was haunted.
We booked the Henry Ford room, which was notably the swankiest room of its time. Most of the other rooms originally had a private sink but shared toilet/shower facilities, and today still have shared showers.
The inn is quite small with the first floor space consisting of a restaurant and lobby / guest / shared living room space. There are 13 rooms on the 2nd floor connected by a wide hallway chocked full of antique decor. The 3rd floor is a private living quarters for the owners.
Gretchen, who checked us in, said she’d spent 11 years at the inn but had no personal paranormal experiences. Some folks in the community had heard tales of eerie sounds and visual apparitions.
Our initial sweep with the EMF detector noted some areas around outlets and smoke detectors giving off energy waves. There was one wall section in our room that spiked to 40+ milliGauss (G) on our EMF detector. That wall was shared with a hotel private space so we assumed there must be some electrical wires running behind that section of the wall.
Unexplained Phenomena
While nestling in for the night, Matt and I were laying in bed with the EMF detector and noted some strange spikes up to 28 G.
We decided to conduct an EVP session and when we asked the question “who are you?”, we captured a strange whistle sound in real time that seemed to come from near our bed. But we never heard it again.
While sleeping, we were awoken by the REM Pod alarm going off. The REM Pod is a device that creates its own electromagnetic field and can detect disruptions in the field. It sounds an alarm when a conductive material, such as a person, animal, or arguably a spirit, enters the field.
When we checked the device, we could find no logical explanation.
A Skeptic’s Perspective
For the EMF spikes we were getting, we can maybe debunk some of those from the wiring I mentioned.
We also may have been picking up some disturbance from our mobile phones. I had fiddled with my phone to test what the EMF detector would pick up. At a range of about 2 feet away, we’d see spikes on the EMF detector of 2-5 G, and when I moved it within inches of the detector we noted spikes of up to 18 G.
But we had a hard time explaining away why we got a 28 G hit. We were not by the walls, nor was a mobile phone in the immediate proximity.
Did we capture paranormal evidence?
Maybe. We captured some unusual EMF detector spikes, an audible whistle noise, and were awoken in the middle of the night with the REM Pod sounding off.
