Come on boys and ghouls! It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular
Paranormal Road Trip. This week's stop is Detroit and our special guide is Laura Bickle author of the Anya Kalinczyk series.
The Anya Kalinczyk series is set in Detroit, Michigan so it seems fitting that our guide for this week's Paranormal Road Trip be the amazing Laura Bickle. Let's see what terrifying places Laura has planned for our tour.
Detroit's Top Five Spooky Places
As Detroit is the setting for my Anya Kalinczyk series, I’ve had a lot
of opportunities to explore spooky places in the Motor City. By day,
Anya Kalinczyk is an arson investigator for the Detroit Fire Department.
By night, she’s the rarest kind of spiritual medium, a Lantern. While
other mediums allow spirits to use their hands and voices to
communicate, Anya devours and incinerates them. With the help of her
fire salamander familiar, Sparky, and an eccentric group of ghost
hunters, Anya chases down unseen threats to her city.
Sparky and Anya have visited some of these chilling sites. Others are
still on their bucket list. See what you think about some of these five
spooky places in Detroit!
The Detroit Salt Mine. Unknown to many residents, a salt mine has
stretched beneath the streets of Detroit for more than a century. The
mine is vast (more than a hundred miles), cavernous, and smells like the
sea. It’s easy to imagine that there are all kinds of light-averse
creatures lurking in the dark. Anya and Sparky found a slumbering dragon
in the depths of the mine, one that could devour the city if disturbed.
What kinds of creatures might others find in this hidden underworld?
The Majestic. Many of Detroit’s speakeasies and bars date from the time
of Prohibition, and a fair share of them are rumored to be haunted. The
Majestic Theatre has been touted as the site where Harry Houdini gave
his last performance (though there’s still some debate about that).
Regardless, it’s rumored to be haunted by shadowy figures and ghostly
applause. It’s still open for a variety of shows and one’s choice of
food and spirits.
Northville Regional Psychiatric Hospital. If this site isn’t haunted, it
should be. The abandoned psychiatric hospital sits on the outskirts of
Detroit, crumbling in place, since 2003. Weeds grow through the
pavement, and the mid-century disintegrating building makes me think of a
post-apocalyptic landscape. Stories of madness and untimely deaths have
peppered its history, and no one really knows how many patients passed
through its on-site morgue.
Fort Wayne. A perennial favorite of ghost hunters, the historic fort has
gathered a collection of restless apparitions, disembodied voices,
slamming doors, and untraceable footsteps. Built in 1854, the site has a
nest of underground tunnels and its own partially-excavated burial
mound that’s over 900 years old.
Michigan Central Station. Once a busy hub for rail travel, this
magnificent building has sunk into disrepair. It seems that very little
glass remains in its beautiful façade, and the interior is little more
than a shell of what it once was. Anya and Sparky have investigated
Michigan Central Station, where they discovered that it’s a way station
for ghosts traveling from our world to the spirit world beyond. Hopping
the wrong train can take one to dark corners of the underworld.
Are there any spooky places in your local area that you’d like to share?
Is there any place that you’ve visited that you’d bet your bottom
dollar was haunted? Please share in the comments below!
Thank you Laura for giving us such a haunting tour of Detroit!
To learn more about
Laura Bickle and her books, please visit her website. You can
add the Anya Kalinczyk series here on Goodreads.
Readers, was this your first visit to Detroit? Have you experienced anything supernatural in and around Detroit, Michigan?
What did you think of Laura Bickle's picks for spooky places?
Last week on Paranormal Road Trip we visited
Tokyo, Japan with Steve Bein. Next week we'll be traveling to
Bruges, Belgium with E.J. Stevens (yep, that's me! *wink*).
Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!
