Bay City, Michigan 48706
Front Page 04/24/2024 20:50 About us
www.mybaycity.com October 15, 2008
(Prior Story)   Arts/Theater ArTicle 3182   (Next Story)

Could The Masonic Temple Really Be Haunted

Ghost Hunters from B.O.G.U.S. Invite Public To Join Their Investigation

October 15, 2008       2 Comments
By: Stephen Kent

Printer Friendly Story View

After years of speculation, the professionals have been called in to investigate reports of ghosts, spirits and haunts in the old Masonic Temple in downtown Bay City. A team of paranormal technicians from B.O.G.U.S (Benign Observers of Ghosts Under Stairs) is on site to answer the questions.


B.O.G.U.S Investigators Cary Ewing and Kelley Kent
calibrate detectors.
The red sandstone temple at 700 N. Madison almost saw its end several years ago when the Masons found it was not economical to maintain the structure. On the virtual eve of demolition the Bay Arts Council put together a plan to purchase the building and make it a center for the arts. Built in 1892, the temple is considered one of the nation's finest examples of a Masonic lodge center, the Temple is a jewel of Bay City's history downtown.

The B.O.G.U.S. investigation will take a hard look at the spiritual nature of the building. As a completely above board organization B.O.G.U.S. has invited the public to join the search by touring the building on Friday and Saturday nights through Halloween. An entrance fee of $10 for adults and $6 for students and seniors will be charged with proceeds going toward the Temple restoration project.

The "Haunted Temple" event is sponsored by the Bay Arts Council. "Cary Ewing has been talking about this for three years" said Joy Butler, Arts Council Executive Director. "We're supporting the event but it's Cary's vision and he's pulled it all together."


Ghost of Chris Halm
Ewing recruited about thirty junior and senior high students, friends from Delta College and interested area adults to work on the project. "We're developing this as a huge interactive play" said Ewing. "It will be a theme park style event" he added. The tour is scripted and guided. Besides the search for ghosts, visitors will get a unique look at the historic Masonic Temple.

The public will enter from the street on the south. The Arts Council will be selling refreshments and other items there. "We think it will be like a street party" said Butler. Small groups will be escorted through all three floors of the temple. There will be stair climbing so guests should be prepared.

"It's great to see this interest in the building" said Arts Council President Guy Greve. "We (the Arts Council) are providing support but it's all being put together by Cary and his volunteer group." The Arts Council made a number of safety improvements, including adding seventeen more smoke detectors, just for this event.



B.O.G.U.S. technicians check their equipment for an evening of ghost hunting.


B.O.G.U.S. control center is the heart of the high tech monitoring system.


The ghost of SVSU student Chris Halm has been said to appear to some visitors.


The web covered grand stair case.


Do ghosts actually play piano?


The game and pool room on the second floor.


The ghosts of 13 year olds Rachel Griffin and Haley Kowalski, once known to be students at Handy Intermediate School.


Printer Friendly Story View
Prior Article

February 10, 2020
by: Rachel Reh
Family Winter Fun Fest is BACC Hot Spot for 2/10/2020
Next Article

February 2, 2020
by: Kathy Rupert-Mathews
MOVIE REVIEW: "Just Mercy" ... You Will Shed Tears, or at Least You Should

"The BUZZ" - Read Feedback From Readers!

Anonymous Says:       On October 19, 2008 at 07:18 PM
no....it is not haunted....my daughter went there and she was very disappointed with the waste of money sent. She felt like it was a big scam. Thanks Masonic Temple for the big nothing show.
Anonymous Says:       On November 06, 2008 at 10:45 PM
Your daughter wasn't impressed...poor thing. It was GREAT! Thank you Masonic Temple, and thank you Bay City.
Agree? or Disagree?


Stephen Kent

Steve Kent and his family have lived in Bay City for 40 years. He is VP of Technical Services at MMCC which produces MyBayCity.Com. Kent is active in many Bay City civic organizations.

More from Stephen Kent

Send This Story to a Friend!       Letter to the editor       Link to this Story
Printer-Friendly Story View


--- Advertisments ---
     


0200 Nd: 04-20-2024 d 4 cpr 0






12/31/2020 P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm

SPONSORED LINKS



12/31/2020 drop ads P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm


Designed at OJ Advertising, Inc. (V3) (v3) Software by Mid-Michigan Computer Consultants
Bay City, Michigan USA
All Photographs and Content Copyright © 1998 - 2024 by OJA/MMCC. They may be used by permission only.
P3V3-0200 (1) 0   ID:Default   UserID:Default   Type:reader   R:x   PubID:mbC   NewspaperID:noPaperID
  pid:1560   pd:11-18-2012   nd:2024-04-20   ax:2024-04-24   Site:5   ArticleID:3182   MaxA: 999999   MaxAA: 999999
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)