My first interaction with anything paranormal came when I was 13 years old. Every summer the aunts, uncles, and cousins on my mom's side of the family would go on a week-long trip to a lakeshore resort in northern Wisconsin called Thunder Bay Resort on a lake on Wisconsin's border with Michigan called, Lac Vieux Desert. It just so happened that this resort sat roughly a short 15 miles from Summerwind Mansion. The Victorian-style home was owned by Robert P. Lamont, the 5th Secretary of Commerce under Herbert Hoover. It would seem his life would not improve after presiding over the stock market crash of 1929, because his early retirement would send him to this twisted and unnatural home.
Summerwind Mansion, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
After purchasing the house, he quickly renovated the house to match his prestige. However, only a few short years after his purchase and renovation he would be forced to leave the property. One night, as the family was asleep, Mr. Lamont was walking through the house when he saw a ghostly figure appear before him. Lamont was so shaken by this apparition that he fired several shots from his pistol towards the entity which quickly disappeared. It is said that the bullet holes from this event could be seen many years later, but Robert and his family would move out directly after the figure appeared before him. The Lamonts, it would seem, had escaped the horrors; however, the subsequent owners of this home would not be so fortunate.
After many years, the house sat vacant. It was only when Arnold and Ginger Hinshaw purchased the home for a considerable premium, that the mansion would be taken up at residence once again. The Hinshaws would immediately realize the scope of the horror. Upon purchasing the house, they started renovations on the house that had not been changed since the early 20th century. They did not know why contractors wouldn't take the job no matter what sum of money they offered until the job finally began after spending much time and money. Veteran carpenters would measure the dimensions of rooms only to come back and see that they had been incorrect by considerable amounts. It would seem as if the rooms were changing shape and size. A worker would measure a 14' by 16' room for new carpeting only to find that he didn't order enough carpet to cover the floor. This would continue, extending the renovation by months until by luck or the grace of God it was completed.
Once the Hinshaws settled in they recall hearing footsteps at night, around the house, through hallways, and right past their bedroom door. They would hear doors open and close while they lay in bed. The couple was overtaken with fear and the sense that they were being watched by something that wanted to harm them. Sadly, this fear would overtake both of them. Arnold Hinshaw had a severe mental breakdown that sent him away from his family to receive treatment, and sadly, his wife would attempt to kill herself. After many years of struggle, the two left the home, following the pattern of its previous owner; unfortunately, they could not get out before it left a permanent scar on them.
The Hinshaws were the last the live in this house, at least permanently. It would be left uninhabited for explorers, ghost hunters, and wayward youth to investigate or turn God's grass into holy clouds. In the mid 80's my mom would explore this place and experience the usual scary business in a house like this. There was a pool table that was said no one could lift. Everyone who was there heaved but could not get in to budge. They continued looking about the property and returned to that room to find the pool table flipped upside down! The house would not survive much longer as during a thunderstorm, it was struck by lightning and destroyed; save for the stone foundation laid over a century before.
Then in the summer of 2015-2016, our large family drove from our resort in 5 packed cars to view the rubble that they had explored once before. I, being a young lad, had to go to the bathroom while we spent a few minutes checking out the wreckage. I saw no better place than into the stone-foundation basement while standing on a crumbling wall, to pee. We had to quickly leave shortly after that, as the current owners of the land are known to park in any cars that go up the drive to the mansion and call the police to have them trespassed.
I would spend the rest of that summer week convinced that I had caused some supernatural force to attach itself to... me, and perhaps it did because I would go on to continue feeding an insatiable desire to go ghost hunting - a desire that would materialize later on.
Two days after graduating high school, two of my friends and I drove 9 hours to stay for one night only in Atchison, Kansas' Sallie House. Arriving at 3 pm and leaving at 7 the next morning, we spent more time on the road than in the actual house. We captured some great evidence from Maglite responses, Rem-Pod proximity sensor activity, a large thud in the downstairs that we captured on audio while all three of us were out eating at McDonald's, and whispering in the basement that it would seem no one else can hear but me.
I am not certain in my belief. I certainly think that some shenanigans are going on in this world that we do not fully understand; could it be ghosts? I don't know for sure, but I would say that this club would be a great way for me to meet others who are wholehearted believers, skeptics, or somewhere in the middle - all who want to work to find out for themselves the truth behind all of this mystery that we see out there.
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