HAUNTED TOURS: Will Ghost Greet Visitors at Saginaw River Lighthouse?
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Historic Saginaw River Rear Range Lighthouse is an attraction in itself even without a rumored ghost in the tower.
Guides from the Saginaw River Marine Historical Society (SRMHS) will host tours of the Saginaw River Rear Range Lighthouse during the Tall Ships Festival July 11-14.
But perhaps the tourists will get a special treat: a lighthouse ghost.
Chances are the ghost won't appear during daylight hours, and no one is allowed on the grounds at night by the owner, the Dow Chemical Company, so such a sighting would be extremely rare.
Coastal Living magazine featured an article last October about the ghost reportedly haunting the historic structure near the mouth of the river.
The magazine highlighted its picks for the top 15 haunted lighthouses in the nation, also including other Michigan sites, Old Presque Isle Light and White River Light at Whitehall.
Don Comtois, longtime stalwart of the SRMHS says he doesn't know where the magazine got the ghost story, but he has his own source -- a former Coast Guardsman from Cape Cod, Massachusetts who was stationed here the last year the station was open, 1980.
No one has reported seeing this ghost; he, or she, has only been heard.
Mr. Comtois said he knew the Coast Guardsman when he attended Visitation Church where he sang in the choir during his Bay City tour of duty.
At the changing of the guard one dark night, the sailor hit the sack, only the be awakened by his relief man, a young salt who said he had heard something in the tower, going up and down the steps, according to Mr. Comtois.
Checking all the doors, they were found to be securely padlocked. But the noise persisted, and an eerie glow came from one side of the tower even though the moon shone on the other side, he related.
The youngster said the incident should be written up and sent to district headquarters in Detroit. "No way," the savvy older man said. "The last thing I want is to be called on the carpet before a bunch of officers in Detroit asking about a ghost!"
Comtois said he tried to contact the Coast Guardsman after he left here, but mail was returned from his parents' home on Cape Cod "unable to forward." He later learned the man had entered a monastery in Spain and he has been unable to contact him.
Tours of the lighthouse will begin at 9 a.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the festival, leaving from the tennis courts area in Veterans Park, and will run until 6 p.m. Mitchell Motorcoach will transport tourists to the lighthouse and may make the rounds of the Dobson Toy and Fire Truck Museum and the USS Edson destroyer, depending on arrangements with those facilities.
Sponsors are being sought for the lighthouse tours; alternatively, donations will be sought, according to Mr. Comtois. The Fire Truck Museum and the USS Edson, if they participate, will have their own fees, he said. ###
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