An infamous haunted lighthouse has been awarded $40,000 (£30,000) to carry on lighting sailors' way – but also because its hauntings have become part of local history.
The Sable Points Lighthouse Keepers Association in Ludington, Michigan will use the money plus a $20,000 match amount to hire a contractor to complete a historic structures report for the Big Sable Point Light Station.
But while they are completing the vital work, it's important that they don't disturb the dead who are known to reside in the lighthouse.
In 2017, reports emerged that a lighthouse volunteer named Gayle Turnwald had encountered the spirit of the previous owner on several occasions over the span of her two-decade-long service.
She claims that the spirit of the previous owner, Henry Vavrina manifests with various smells including cigar smoke and freshly baked bread.
She explained to IPR how she would often smell hot, freshly baked bread, which Vavrina was known to bake before he passed away in 1965.
Reading memoirs of other incidents, the executive director of the Sable Points Lighthouse Keepers Association, Peter Manting said: "In June and July of 2003, keepers reported smelling cigar smoke during the night several times.
"None of them smoked, and there was no smoking allowed in the lighthouse.”
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“The all 2003 season, the new mannequin Henry exhibit would be on in the morning, and the keepers were sure they had turned it off when closing up the day before.
“This occurred on and off all season. Other lights would be on that keepers insisted they had turned off as well. And this happened mostly in the basement and the gift shop.”
While none of the claims has been definitively proven, the stories have become part of the building's 150-year history that has attracted tourists from across the US.
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