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Mysterious Michigan

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Mighty_Emperor

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Theatre Bizarre bewitches 2,000 revelers

October 25, 2004

BY M.L. ELRICK
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

It was just past midnight Saturday when Satan darted across a backyard pulsing with techno music on Detroit's west side to introduce the Virgin Mary to Jesus.

He need not have bothered. They've been dating for years.

Still, Satan, who has many names but is known to his colleagues in the Detroit Police crime lab as 44-year-old Thomas Feliccia of Roseville, seemed pleased with the uncharacteristically magnanimous gesture.

"I just thought it was the right thing to do," he said, his pointed chin wagging.

Mary, sitting across from a hellacious bonfire, appreciated it.

"Satan and I decided tonight that we would be friends. But only for tonight," she said.

"She's calling a truce," said Jesus who, as 27-year-old James Drain of Hamtramck, was dating 22-year-old Stacy Dumas of Hamtramck long before she donned her homemade Mary getup.

Such is life at the Theatre Bizarre, a one-night-only extravaganza that has transformed six lots on an otherwise unremarkable stretch of State Fair near Woodward into an eye-popping macabre carnival midway each year since the dawn of the new millennium.

Starting in a seemingly abandoned house filled with faux dead bodies wrapped in plastic and hanging from hooks, partygoers entered a bloody kitchen adorned with realistic-looking human limbs.

Spurred on by intermittent blasts from a hidden air cannon, visitors entered a long, winding corridor sheathed in black plastic and full of fog but devoid of light.

After a few tense, sensory-deprived minutes of fumbling forward, they emerged into a vibrant spectacle of light, sound and humanity.

On their right, volunteers in a cinder block garage filled mugs with beer. On their left, a skeleton hanging at the end of a noose hovered above a dunk tank.

Giant placards touting Zombo the Clown and circus freaks loomed above the crowd of about 2,000 people. A Swiss Miss, Pocahontas, a witch and a would-be Madonna from her Material Girl phase dirty danced on stage while Country Bob & the Blood Farmers spit out a punk tune.

In the middle of it all was John Dunivant, a seemingly mild-mannered freelance illustrator.

Clad in a costume that suggested a dog-faced homeless boy, the 33-year-old Oak Park artist said he and four friends began Theatre Bizarre five years ago when they transformed six rather plain backyards into one massive party space.

"It was never meant to be like this," he said as the Detroit Cobras went on stage around 1:30 Sunday morning. "It was a just a backyard party, and we just kept challenging ourselves."

Exhausted from the rush to complete final details -- the giant clown skull above the stage was finished hours before doors opened at 7 p.m. Saturday -- Dunivant said the entire affair is produced by friends and family who volunteer their time and labor.

Planning for the next year's event begins right after the party, as volunteers start dismantling a set as elaborate as a Hollywood production, Dunivant said, adding that part of the discussion is whether the hosts have the energy to do it again.

Last year was almost the last show, Dunivant said. But organizers decided to do it again this year. Construction typically begins on Aug. 1, but started a bit late this year.

The purpose of the party is pleasure, not profit, Dunivant said. Although admission is a bit pricey -- in advance or at the door -- it includes beer, live bands, a DJ and more mundane amenities like portable toilets and security guards. A film crew was on hand recording this year's spectacle.

Detroit police monitored activities from the street and forayed into the party to make observations, but the crowd, at least from 11 p.m. Saturday to 3 a.m. Sunday, was well-behaved. While the aroma of marijuana occasionally wafted overhead, there were few obviously intoxicated people in the crowd, which was limited to people 21-and-over who were required to wear costumes.

Mike Hard, singer for punk rockers the Thrall, said the party is one of the secret events that make Detroit great.

"I've played all over the (expletive) world and there's nothing as good as this," he said. "It's so (expletive) Detroit; it's decadent, but still proud."

Dunivant's mother, Ginny, flew up from Florida to take tickets and help out. Her husband, Larry, used his carpentry skills to help create the party's abandoned carnival atmosphere.

Ginny Dunivant said her son's dream is to run a haunted house that looks like Norman Bates' Victorian mansion in the film "Psycho." She said she took him to a carnival when he was young, only to learn that he was terrified of clowns.

Those days are over.

"Most children look forward to Christmas," she said. "John looks forward to Halloween."
Click to expand...

http://www.freep.com/news/locway/bizarre25e_20041025.htm
 
Posted Apr. 05, 2005

Bill Wangemann column:

‘Michigan Triangle’ may be to blame for weird occurrences


Editor’s note: This is the first of two parts.

Almost 18 percent of the earth’s supply of surface fresh water is contained in the Great Lakes.

Water is essential to life, but great expanses of water can also be a hostile environment. Searching for a lost object just a few hundred feet under water can be a daunting task, requiring special equipment and training. The cold dark depths of any great body are also mysterious, and in some ways frightening, because they conceal the unknown.

Many stories have been written of weird and unexplained happenings in an area off Florida known as the Bermuda Triangle.

It is said that in this area, boats and planes have disappeared in good weather with no evidence ever found as to why they vanished. UFO sightings are supposedly frequent in the area. Many boats have also reported compass failures and unexplained trouble inside the triangle.

But did you know that almost at our very doorstep, another “mysterious triangle” exists? The triangle I am speaking of is known as the Michigan Triangle. The boundaries are said to be from Ludington, Mich., to Benton Harbor, Mich., and then across the lake to Manitowoc and back to Ludington.

Numerous stories have been told of unexplained disappearances, weird happenings, periods when time seems to slow down or speed up and the appearance of strange creatures.

A well-documented case is the disappearance of Capt. George R. Donner of the lake freighter O.M. McFarland from his cabin while the ship was under way on April 28, 1937. The McFarland had picked up 9,800 tons of coal in Erie, Penn., and then headed west through the lakes bound for Port Washington.

Because it was early in the season, the lakes and the locks in the upper part of the Great Lakes were still choked with ice, which slowed the McFarland’s progress.

Capt. Donner had remained on the bridge many hours guiding his ship through the treacherous ice floes. When at last the ship turned into Lake Michigan, the exhausted captain retired to his cabin, with the instructions that he be called when the ship neared Port Washington.

Some three hours later as the McFarland neared her destination, the second mate went to the captain’s cabin to awaken him as instructed, but the captain was not there. Thinking that Donner had gone to the galley for a late-night snack, the second mate checked the galley and learned that the captain had not been there.

The mate and other sailors began an exhaustive search of the vessel, but to no avail — the captain had disappeared. No clue as to what happened to Donner was ever found.

Ironically, the day Donner disappeared was his 58th birthday. The captain’s disappearance is as much a mystery today as it ever was.

Believers in the Lake Michigan Triangle point out that the O.M. McFarland was in the triangle when Donner vanished.

A more recent event took place on June 23, 1950, when Northwestern Airlines flight 2501 took off from New York with a crew of 3 and 55 passengers bound for Minneapolis.

Later that night at 11:37 p.m., the large, four-engine DC-4 reported that it was at 3,500 feet over Battle Creek, Mich. Due to bad weather near Chicago, the plane changed its course to a northwesterly direction over Lake Michigan, with an estimated time of arrival over Milwaukee of 11:51 p.m.

From there, the plane simply vanished — nothing of the plane or its 58 occupants was ever seen again.

A massive Coast Guard search turned up only a blanket bearing the airline’s logo. Triangle believers again point out that the tragic loss of flight 2501occurred near the center of the Lake Michigan Triangle.

Next week in the second part, we will explore sea monsters and other creatures seen in or near the triangle as well as the creature in Elkhart Lake, and other strange happenings in the area.

-------------------
Today’s Tidbit: When Captain Donner vanished from his cabin on the McFarland, it was said that his cabin door was locked from the inside.

Author’s note: All the columns from 2003 have been compiled into a book, “Meet Me Down By Prange’s” and may be ordered by contacting the author at 920-458-2974 or e-mail at [email protected]

Note: Each Tuesday morning at 7:20 a.m., a discussion of today’s column can be heard on radio station WJUB “The Breeze,” 1420 AM.

Bill Wangemann is the city historian of Sheboygan and writes weekly about the history of Sheboygan County. Contact him at (920) 458-2974 or e-mail him at [email protected].
Click to expand...

Source
 
Emperor said:
"It was never meant to be like this," he said as the Detroit Cobras went on stage around 1:30 Sunday morning. "It was a just a backyard party, and we just kept challenging ourselves."

--------

Mike Hard, singer for punk rockers the Thrall, said the party is one of the secret events that make Detroit great.

"I've played all over the (expletive) world and there's nothing as good as this," he said. "It's so (expletive) Detroit; it's decadent, but still proud."
Click to expand...

Thrall and The Detroit Cobras at one show would be awesome! Detroit is one of the last great party towns. :_pished:

Actually, nothing too weird goes on here (the Paulding lights notwithstanding). The whole 'Great Lakes Triangle' thing doesn't carry much weight around Michigan - everyone knows the Lakes can be treacherous (with weather that's very unpredictable). Lots of shipwrecks and plane crashes over the lakes... :(
 
Things can roll uphill here...

My apologies if this has been posted already, I searched and found nothing though. I bet theres other places like this in the world but let me explain this:

About 10 miles from where i grew up in rural michigan, there stood an old church, people call it the "Blaine Church". It sits randomly at some rural crossroads. It could very well be an optical illusion, nobody that i know of is totally sure of how this works but I will tell you what happens. Next to the church is a road which goes up a bit of a hill (probably 10 feet or so) before coming to the stop sign where it crosses another street. I beleive this is a 4-way stop.

If you were to park your car at the bottom of this hill, and put it in neutral you would seriously roll slowly up to the peak of this 10 foot incline. I've done it with a basketball and it surely rolls upward as well. Pop-cans on their side do the same. When I was younger I always thought my dad was just messing with me, hitting the gas and saying that he wasnt, but when i tried it myself, sure enough you do roll upward.

Any locals can tell you where the "Blaine Church" is, and often times if you were to drive past, there would be people messing around on the hill. Pretty much everytime I've went past there, children were playing there rolling things uphill, or cars doing the same.

Heres the storey that goes with. 2 People were married at this church way back when. For whatever reason, when they were going to leave, their parked car rolled down the hill and smashed into the bride, crushing her head and she died there. What people say is that when your car will roll uphill as such, its the ghost of the groom, pushing your car back up the hill off from his dead wifes corpse as he did in an ill-fated attempt to save his lovely brides life.

There you have it.
 
Human, we have the same phenomenon here in Canada. It is in New Brunswick and is called "Magnetic Hill." If you did a search online, there is probaby tons of info about it.
It is a very popular spot.

I forget the true explanation of it but i believe it is some sort of optical illusion.
 
In keeping with the title of this thread, here's a few links to Mysterious Michigan:
http://www.prairieghosts.com/glgship.html
http://members.tripod.com/mainorg/index.html
http://williamtozier.com/slurry/nanohis ... pears.html
http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/fljo ... 269810.xml

More on the 'Michigan Triangle':
http://www.wisinfo.com/sheboyganpress/n ... 4839.shtml

(And if you love orb photos - http://www.glpr.org/Index.htm)

More on the Paulding lights:
http://www.astronomycafe.net/weird/lights/paulding.htm
http://www.pauldinglight.com/clip.html - a clip of the actual lights!

And of couse, Michigan's own Hell:
http://www.hell2u.com/

Not Fortean, but related and interesting - Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals:
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802870104/

This is a great read of famous shipwrecks on the lakes - in Michigan it's world famous! ;)

[Emp edit: Neatening Amazon link.]
 
Comic Book Features 'Hellish' Mich. Town


Jul 2, 8:27 AM (ET)

By OLIVIA MUNOZ

HELL, Mich. (AP) - A woman takes an ax to her husband in their new home, someone is boiled alive in a public pool and a father is swallowed by the earth. Just another day in Hell. The gruesome acts never actually happened in this rural hamlet with the diabolic name, but those and other macabre tales are brought to life - and death - in the new comic book, "Hell, Michigan."

Two years ago, Tilman Goins Jr. heard about Hell while watching a news report on religious representations in state flags and names.

"I was, like, 'Is there really a Hell, Michigan?' And then, 'Wow, that would be a great story,'" said Goins, a 28-year-old resident of Morristown, Tenn.

The longtime comic book fan quit his job as an Army air traffic controller two years ago to form Funnel Cloud 9, a company he expects will produce comics, children's books and movies.

Goins hopes "Hell, Michigan" leads to bigger things, including a film version of the horror comic.

The first issue, which debuted in late June, was written by DC Comics veteran Dan Jolley and illustrated by Clint Hilinski, who have collaborated on several "Voltron" comics.

Many of the violent scenes are set apart from the rest of the narrative by a bloody red background, a setting that lets readers and characters know there's an atrocity to come.

The debut issue goes gruesome right away. A young couple moves into Hell, and a pregnant wife chops up her husband and then shoots herself. Later, a pack of wild-eyed thugs attacks a couple at their home.

Husband and wife Dixon and Diana Cole are two of the few people in the fictional town that realize something horrible is going on. They've seen crime in their community grow increasingly more vicious. They sense a wickedness all about them.

Then resolute newcomer Regina Lockridge shows up, claiming to have premonitions about the place. The Coles bring her into their circle of trusted friends, the few good people in town: the elderly mayor and his wife, a priest and a town eccentric.

The group of unlikely heroes bands together to find the source of evil.

The real Hell - located 60 miles west of Detroit - has a population of about 250 and no elected government. The origin of the name is unclear. One of the most popular theories holds that George Reeves, an early settler, was asked what he thought the town should be named. He reportedly replied, "I don't care, you can name it Hell if you want to" and the name stuck.

The comic book version has a mayor and a population of 19,199. But after a number of freak deaths, that number begins to dwindle.

"In the comic book, the town is the main character. It's trying to rid itself of good souls - the less good there is living in it, the more evil it gets," Goins said.

John Colone, a business owner in the real Hell, hopes the comic sends his hometown a few more souls.

"Any time we can get our name out there is not a bad thing," said the 60-year-old who owns Screams Ice Cream and Hell Country Store and Spirits, two of the three businesses in Hell.

"My only concern is that people will think Hell is an evil place," said Colone, who plans to carry 200 copies of the monthly comic.

Goins said the first run is sold out to mom-and-pop comic book shops across the country. He also shipped some copies to Europe. A single copy sells for $2.95.

Barbara Barden, executive director of the Livingston County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said she finds it hard to be enthusiastic about the book.

"I see no parallels between the evil theme in the comic and the actual Hell," she said.

"Hell - well at least the Hell on earth - has always been a family oriented place," said Barden, who acknowledged she could see how the name might lend itself to horror.

The concept of hometown recognition has boosted sales of one of Goins' previous efforts, "Genie," which is set in Morristown.

"Superman has Metropolis, and Batman has Gotham. Why not put them in a real town?" he said.

Goins has never been to the real Hell but said he expects to make it up there soon. "I figure I'd better go to Hell at least once," he said.

---

On the Net:

Funnel Cloud 9: http://www.fc9.net
Click to expand...

http://apnews.excite.com/article/200507 ... 8GIG0.html
 
The Michigan Dogman/Wisconsin Werewolf is an intriguing beastie. Steve Cook hasn't been heard from for a while: he was peddling a film known as Gable 2, which purported to show a police body-recovery scene where the victim had been ripped in half.
He then started claiming that 'the authorities' had demanded he hand it over for examination. Seeing as Michigan State Police, or at least men in MSP uniform, were seen in the film it's reasonable to assume that were this actually true, it would be them.
However as far as I know there has been nothing said anywhere since, and the whole case is beginning to smell a bit.
Still, there's plenty more to the dogman/werewolf than just the gable film.
 
Gable Film pt.1
Gable Film pt.2

It smells more than just a bit, but as you say, it's the "plenty more" that makes it fascinating. And with the gray wolf population rising in Michigan, along with perhaps other mysterious factors, it seems further reports are to follow.

Ghosts at The Landmark Inn

Never experienced anything myself, but while in college in Marquette, I met a few people claiming paranormal goings-ons on the 6th floor of the Landmark. True or not, they were great fun to listen to over a few pints in the 6th floor bar. If ever in Marquette yourself, The Landmark is a historic and beautiful accommodation choice.
 
Unique history in Benton Harbor:

House of David - Benton Harbor, MI(video intro)
Mary's City of David
Virtual Tour of Park and Zoo
Good collection of baseball and band pics
House of David,Shiloh House Tour(video)
Baseball Team Book

Last time I visited Benton Harbor, there were plans to restore the children's train depot and railway.

hodpic1.jpg
 
A staff member at Michigan State University (East Lansing) has assembled a veritable 'museum' of moist towelettes / wipes.
Tiny East Lansing museum has more than 1,000 moist towelettes

The past two years have made many of us want to stock up on sanitizing supplies. John French was ahead of the game.

The production coordinator at Michigan State University's Abrams Planetarium has been collecting moist towelettes since the 1990s, and his collection of wipes is now well into the thousands. ...

The Moist Towelette Museum, housed in French's office in the planetarium, has wipes from all corners of the world. Texas, Japan, Russia, Germany Kuala Lumpur,and Tahiti are among the dozens of places represented in the collection.

Most of these towelettes were donated to the museum, sometimes by strangers.

"I've not actually been to the places where these moist towelettes have come from," French said. "They've come from all around the world and I've just benefited from having them."

Some of the towelettes in the collection serve a specific purpose, such as denture cleaning, removing tar from shoes or wiping away radioactive contamination. One wipe is specifically for secretaries to clean typewriter ribbon ink and carbon paper.

The oldest wipe? A "Wash Up" towelette from 1983. ...
Click to expand...
FULL STORY: https://www.fox47news.com/neighborh...g-museum-has-more-than-1-000-moist-towelettes
 
Are they still... moist?
 
Only yesterday I was reading about the 'Michigan left turn' and now I find this thread.
 
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