On the top of Ferry Hill in Lake Forest Cemetery rests one of the founding fathers of Grand Haven. Rev. William M. Ferry was born in 1796 and was the first Protestant missionary to work with the American Indians. Together, he and his wife founded an Indian Mission on Mackinac Island in 1822.
In 1834, their “calling” took them further south in Michigan where they cofounded the city of Grand Haven with Rix Robinson. This was followed by the neighboring city of Ferrysburg. Lake Forest Cemetery has a high hill with wooden stairs leading up to a fencedoff area named Ferry Hill. The hill contains the remnants of the founding fathers of the Grand Haven community and their families.
In the late 1940s, Ferry Hill was horribly vandalized, especially Rev. William Ferry’s flat slab gravestone. It is believed this may be the reason why Rev. Ferry may not be able to rest and why he haunts his gravesite to this day. Sightings of a pale, bluish male apparition has dated back to the 1950s. This apparition is always spotted hovering over the flat slab gravestone.
Many teenagers, armed with Ouija boards, have run away from Ferry Hill swearing never to return. When visiting the cemetery at night, others have had their cars stall out and die, as if the battery had been drained, at the bottom of Ferry Hill. The West Michigan Ghost Hunters Society (WMGHS) has periodically visited Rev. Ferry’s gravesite on Ferry Hill from 2000 to 2004.
Investigations have led WMGHS to believe that Ferry Hill, in itself, holds much paranormal activity. This includes orbs, mists, black shadows, voices, and extreme temperature and geomagnetic variances. WMGHS will continue to investigate this site many times in the future, in hopes of capturing the apparition on film or video.
Written by — Nicole Bray Founder, West Michigan Ghost Hunters Society
LAKE FOREST CEMETERY
FERRY HILL, LAKE AVENUE
GRAND HAVEN, MICHIGAN
SEE ALSO:
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of Haunted Places -Ghostly Locales from around the World – Compiled & Edited by Jeff Belanger – Copyright 2005 by Jeff Belanger