The Mining Journal

Marquette

MARQUETTE — The bright red Marquette Harbor Lighthouse has been a historic staple in the city for more than a hundred years.

Residents and tourists alike have walked its grounds, taken photos of it and have toured the inside. While the living roam the beautiful structure, they have no idea that ghosts could be walking right alongside of them.

“Can I get a show of hands, who does not believe in ghosts?” Marquette Maritime Museum board member Susan Hill asked the audience during the Maritime History on Tap “Ghosts of Lighthouse Point” presentation earlier this month at the Ore Dock Brewing Co.

Only a few in the audience raised their hands.

Hill not only believes in ghosts, she said she has seen them, and felt them within the lighthouse. Some of her more spooky encounters have been with Yooper Paranormal’s Trish Kautz.

Years ago when Kautz was living in Ishpeming with her husband and children, they started noticing odd things happening in the house — furniture moving, objects levitating, seeing apparitions and hearing voices.

“We didn’t know who to call. So, I told my son-in-law, and he got me in touch with a group in Wisconsin who told me to get a recorder, ask questions and if you get a response then you know something is in your home. That intrigued me so much, I was like, I want to do this for a living,” Kautz said.

Kautz and her sister, Kelly, formed Yooper Paranormal after they attended a paranormal event in Illinois.

“After that, it was like, ‘Oh man, we have to do this because there are going to be people that need our help,'” Kautz said. “We just started buying equipment and doing it. Then we started going to other states.”

They’ve been doing paranormal tours and investigating private residences ever since.

They use tools such as parascopes, which work off static, and K2 meters that work off electromagnetic fields. Other pieces of equipment they use include Spirit Box, SLS cameras, the necrophonic app and digital recorders.

Hill met Kautz when she saw a Yooper Paranormal speech in 2017. Hill didn’t believe in ghosts at the time. About that same time, Hill became a volunteer as a daytime tour guide at the lighthouse.

It was the last day of the tour season when Hill had her first paranormal experience. She was on the first floor, closing the lighthouse up for the day, when she heard the door on the second floor creak and then slam shut. She was the only person in the lighthouse at the time.

“My brain is telling me that door slammed from the inside out to the tower,” Hill said. “It wasn’t the wind.”

Hill felt uneasy about the incident but didn’t think much about it after that day.

Hill said when tours resumed in 2018, the paranormal activity in the lighthouse had increased so much she finally contacted the Yooper Paranormal team to investigate. By then, she believed in ghosts.

“They had enough activity to be grinning from ear to ear,” Hill said about the first time Yooper Paranormal visited the lighthouse. “We had singing, there was lots of EVPs (electronic voice phenomenon), it was right out of the gate those ghosts were really happy to have a talented audience.”

Yooper Paranormal had so much fun on that first visit, they decided to go back and start doing paranormal tours.

In 2019, Hill sent a psychic medium three photos of the inside of the lighthouse. Through her powers, the psychic determined that the ghosts in the lighthouse were an adult named Eliza Truckey and a child named David. Eliza’s husband, Nelson, left Eliza to fight in the Civil War from 1862 and 1865. They had three small children and one on the way. While he was gone, Eliza was the keeper of the lighthouse, although it was a different lighthouse, built before the current one was erected.

“This woman was amazing. They used to do surprise lighthouse inspections. The lighthouse service would send out an inspector. All of hers was perfect. There was no clutter, everything was clean,” Hill said.

Nelson returned from war, but he had taken a musket ball to the leg and was no longer able to be the lighthouse keeper. Instead of replacing him with Eliza, the lighthouse service told her a woman could not be a lighthouse keeper, hiring someone else. The Truckeys retired.

The primary ghost in the lighthouse, according to Hill via the psychic, is assistant keeper Adam B. Sayles. He is the only person to have died in the lighthouse, passing away from a heart attack in 1942. He is buried at Park Cemetery in Marquette.

“If he’s happy and we’ve told his story right, he’ll interact with us,” Hill said. “We’re very respectful with our paranormal tours. There’s no disrespect. When we get to the point where sometimes he’ll say ‘Get out,’ we do. The tour is over.”

The ghost child, David, is a 2-year-old boy who had drowned in the lake. It is assumed that David attached to the lighthouse because he drowned close to it. Hill said David has held her hand, will scoot toy trucks across the floor and can occasionally be heard singing.

On the tours, Hill says they play a secret word game.

“We will tell the ghosts up at the lighthouse what our secret word is going to be. Then I’ll go down to the museum and pick up the tour, and I’ll tell the tour what the secret word is going to be. Then later on during the tour, we’ll say ‘Do you remember what the secret word was?’ when we’re doing Spirit Box, or the necrophonic app that Trish likes to use, when we’re doing some kind of interactive stuff we’ll ask for the secret word. Sometimes we don’t get it, and sometimes we do,” Hill said.

She then played a recording of a ghost repeating the secret word on a lighthouse tour.

“They know that we’re doing the paranormal tours to fundraise to repair their lighthouse. So we say, ‘If you guys can ham it up a little, walk around, slam a door, we’re gonna make this as quick and easy as we can, we’ll try to be out in 45 minutes; help us out.’ I know that sounds crazy, but it works,” Hill said. “They know we’re there for the greater good, and we’re there respectfully and they help us out. It’s pretty cool.”

The Marquette Maritime Museum and Marquette Harbor Lighthouse will open for the 2022 season on May 17. They are looking for volunteers to help with the lighthouse tours. Applications and tour information can be found at www.mqtmaritimemuseum.com.

Yooper Paranormal can be found on Facebook.

Taylor Johnson can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248, or tjohnson@miningjournal.net.