Exploding the legend of Genevive Stickney, two sisters shared their findings about what really happened at the Bowers Harbor Inn generations ago — and what's happening today.
The oft-told story has it that Stickney, wife of a successful Chicago businessman, Charles, committed suicide by hanging herself in the elevator shaft. Obese and ill, she had been despondent after Charles left her for her nurse, who inherited his property after he died.
Legend has Genevive haunting the upscale inn, which was built in the late 1800s, ever since: episodes of unexplained lights, footsteps, sightings and other events have been noted for years. Beverlee Rydel and Kathleen Tedsen of Macomb County see Genevive's story another way. Compiling information for their upcoming book "Haunted Travels of the Michigan Vacation Guide,” the sisters unearthed contradictions about the place and mode of death.
Saturday evening at the Inn, the pair presented a special program, "The True Legend of Charles and Genevive,” for an audience of 35 people. The four-course meal preceding their talk included dishes Genevive might have offered guests at a dinner party 100 years ago.
Rydel and Tedsen shared the results of their research, which included two days in the Traverse Area District Library sifting through old newspapers and documents plus contacting family members of the childless couple.
"The thing special or unusual about Bowers Harbor Inn is the legend of Gennie has been propagated for a very long time,” said Rydel, who declined in an interview to give specifics negating the myth, teasing the book's publication. "The legend is wrong yet there is some potential truth.”
As for haunting, Rydel and Tedsen conducted an on-sight paranormal investigation conducted last May with members of the West Michigan Ghost Hunters Society. Their findings indicate that while Genevive's legend may have missed the mark, inexplicable events definitely happen.
"We actually got some very interesting evidence,” said Tedsen. "One of them was some movement, an object floating, we got that on video. We collected some of what we call electronic voice phenomena, EVP, and then we got some photographs of a mist outside, a mist you see coming in and exiting.”
The pair approaches this facet of their writing as skeptics.
"We have to show there's activity, we don't go in believing there's activity,” said Rydel, as her sister added: "You wouldn't believe some of the stuff we've been told. They make up stuff because they want to believe something.”
Rydel and Tedsen have collaborated since 1991 on writing and updating the "Michigan Vacation Guide,” which lists as well as tells stories about homes, cottages and bed and breakfasts. Ghost stories kept cropping up as they visited lodging owners around the state, with unusual happenings often related to restoration projects.
"They would say their establishment was haunted or they knew of a place in the area,” said Rydel. "It got us interested in the whole haunting thing.”
Combined with an existing interest in the paranormal and hearing additional stories relating to historic sites and lighthouses, the haunted travels concept was born.
With a publication set for next September or October, Rydel and Tedsen have completed their meticulous research and documentation process on six or seven legends, including the Bowers Harbor Inn. The completed book will include between 10-12 stories of paranormal activity at public places, which allows readers to visit and check out legends for themselves.
Their final analysis is based on first person experiences from on-sight investigations backed with physical evidence and results of their research.
"We peel away layers of these urban legends and find the facts,” said Tedsen, noting that their web site will include multi-media evidence accessible only to buyers of the book. "We really want to bring the reader into the investigation, not tell just a bunch of third person ghost stories.”
For more information about the forthcoming "Haunted Travels of the Michigan Vacation Guide,” see the web site http://www.mivg.com/hauntedtravels/