Findlay Cemetery – Grand Rapids
A lot of ghost hunters get very weird feelings in Findlay Cemetery in the Grand Rapids suburb of Ada, thanks to a 19th-century rural legend about a cuckolded man slaying his wife, who now allegedly haunts the area. Legend has it, the woman who became the white-clad witch is buried in the cemetery, around which bored teenagers have gathered at night, and witnessed the scene re-enacted in the woods by misty apparitions, or heard the witch’s screams, or been touched by invisible hands.
Of course, the real woman in that grave died of typhoid, and no credible evidence exists suggesting the murder ever took place. Ada Witch sightings peaked not long after “The Blair Witch Project,” a 1999 movie bearing a remarkably familiar storyline, became a box-office smash. That doesn’t stop people from experiencing weird feelings, or insisting the area is haunted anyway.
Paulding
Way up there in the U.P., by the Wisconsin border, town of Paulding. And off a less-beaten path off an even more less-beaten path is a valley, and if you look down a line of power poles at night, you’ll see a white light off in the distance, floating right toward you. Legend says it’s a will-o’-the-wisp – an “atmospheric ghost light” that resembles a lantern. It could be the ghost of a railroad brakeman killed on the tracks, if you believe local folklore. It could be the ghost of a Native American dancing on the power lines. It could be an E.T., even. Per pauldinglight.com, some have seen “the GRIM REEPER”.
In 2010, the phenomenon brought the Syfy network reality show “Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files” all the way to Paulding to investigate, and the hosts, concluded that it was inexplicable. A group of Michigan Tech students concluded when they brought a telescope to the valley that it’s headlights traveling on a stretch of US-45.