Go Ghosthunting in Michigan! As part of the America's Haunted Road Trip series, Ghosthunting Michigan takes readers along on a guided tour of some of the Great Lakes State's most haunted historic locations. With a background in library science, author Helen Pattskyn researched each location thoroughly before visiting, digging up clues to the paranormal aspect of each site. Her approach allows readers to decide whether or not the ghost stories are really true. In Ghosthunting Michigan, Pattskyn takes readers along as she explores some of her home state's most haunted locations, starting with a visit to the Whitney in Downtown Detroit. Other sites include Belle Isle, historic Fort Wayne, the Grand Plaza Hotel, Eagle Harbor, the Point Iroquois Lighthouse, and many more. "In Ghosthunting Michigan Pattskyn relates tales from 30 haunted sites in Michigan, including the Baldwin Theatre in Royal Oak and Camp Ticonderoga restaurant in Troy. She uses a conversational style, with plenty of asides about food and traveling, as she recounts stories told about the various haunts." - Joe Ballor, The Daily Tribune "In Ghosthunting Michigan Pattskyn relates tales from 30 haunted sites in Michigan, including the Baldwin Theatre in Royal Oak and Camp Ticonderoga restaurant in Troy. She uses a conversational style, with plenty of asides about food and traveling, as she recounts stories told about the various haunts." - Joe Ballor, "The Daily Tribune" EXCERPTS Bowers Inn / Mission Table Restaurant Traverse City Although probably best known for its wineries and annual Cherry Festival, Michigans Traverse Bay area is also the home of the Mission Table Restaurant (formerly called the Bowers Inn). Located twenty minutes north of Traverse City, on the coast of the Mission Point Peninsula, the Mission Table Restaurant was the first stop on my ghost hunting journey. Id never sought out and visited reportedly haunted hotels or restaurants before, so I was a little nervous, unsure how my questions about specters would be received by staff, other guests, and owners. I was pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome I got at the Mission Table. The drive up from Detroit was a long but pleasant one, and despite technical issues with my GPS, I had no difficultly locating the summer retreat turned fine dining restaurant using the directions from their Website (missiontable.net) as my only guide. The big blue building sits on the peninsulas main road, and though it is sheltered amongst the pine trees, its not hard to miss. As I drove around to the parking lot, which looks out over a vineyard, I tried to remember as much as I could of the story of Genevieve Stickney, the Mission Tables resident spectral inhabitant. Genevieve and her husband J.W. Stickney, then an up and coming Chicago businessman, purchased the property in the late 1800s. At the time, the property consisted of an old farm house with a small orchard of fruit trees, and was one of only a handful of homesteads on the peninsula. While J.W. built his million-dollar-plus lumber and steel empire, Genevieve went to work building her own successful, home-based business, making jams, jellies, and brandy. Eventually, the couple tore down the old farmhouse and built the mansion that stands on the property today, which they used as a summer retreat. Sadly, a story that should have been happily-ever-after ended in betrayal and heartbreak. As she aged, Genevieve became increasingly overweight, which resulted not only in a decline in her health, but increasing depression and emotional insecurity. One of the employees at the restaurant told me that at one point, Genevieve removed all of the mirrors on the property, presumably because she didnt want to look at herself any more. Genevieve is often described by historians of the Inn as bitter and jealous. It was during this period of physical and emotional decline that the Stickneys installed an elevator between the first and second floors, because Genevieve was no longer able to climb the stairs. J.W. also hired a young nurse to assist his ailing wifebut it turned out the nurse was doing more to help J.W. than Genevieve. When J.W. passed away, Genevieve discovered that J.W. and the nurse had been carrying on an illicit affair behind her back for years. J.W. left his entire fortune to the nurse; Genevieve was left with only the house. She fell into a deep depression and eventually hanged herself from the rafters in the elevator. Since Genevieves death, the property has changed hands several times, with little if any reports of ghostly phenomena, until 1959, when Jim and Fern Bryant purchased and renovated the old house, and began converting it into a restaurant. Since then, there have been many sightings of Genevieve, and even a few of J.W. In 2006 John Carlson and Greg Lobdell, natives of Mission Point Peninsula, purchased the property and changed the name to the Mission Table. Carlson and Lobdell have worked closely with the Gra