HAUNTED PLACE: Osceola Inn

LOCATION: The Osceola Inn is located in the historic downtown section of Reed City.

Address: 110 E Upton Ave, Reed City, MI 49677.

Cross Street: Between South Mill Street and West Upton Ave.

Cell: 231 / 832-5537 * Reed City Pics

DESCRIPTION / HISTORY:

In the late 1800's, Reed City was a growing village situated in a most advantageous area in Osceola County. Located by the Hersey River, and in a spot where the junction of Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroads crossed over, a town couldn't ask for more in being a place where business and people could make a good living. The land surrounding the town was fertile, and there was good ground to build the homes of people who came to start businesses and raise their families. The trees and oil in the area also supported robust logging and petroleum industries. Plenty of opportunities to work and better yourself were available, living conditions were pretty good; so it is no wonder that Reed City grew big enough to be incorporated as a city by 1875.

In 1870, businesses began to arrive and set up shops. The first in line to do so was the Devenport Brothers' general store, followed by Mr. Gibb's who provided competition by also opening up a general store. A Drug store soon followed, and other investors jumped in to start business community rolling.

By 1881, enough visitors were coming to Reed City to inspire Daniel Oaks to build a nice wood-frame hotel. Not too long after the hotel was built, the enterprising King brothers from Port Huron bought the place and called it The King Hotel and Saloon. Alas, this structure unfortunately suffered the fate of many wooden structures of that era in that it burned to the ground in a fire in 1884.

The King brothers fixed that problem by rebuilding their 3 story hotel and saloon using bricks instead of wood, and continued running their hotel and saloon until they sold it in the early 1900's, when it was renamed The Osceola Hotel, which provided a nice place for visitors to rest and relax, for a moderate price.

The hotel changed hands once again in the 1940's when Ray and Anita Rogalla purchased the hotel and the building which surrounds it, making both buildings into their hotel, now called The Osceola Inn.

Throughout the years of this Inn, many kinds of people stayed here, and some did die here unfortunately. It seems that quite a few entities have decided to make this inn their home, according to the various ghost stories reported by the townspeople, the inn workers and the inn keepers themselves. They have a signs posted on the walls around the check in desk, requesting that inn guests report all ghostly activity to the front desk.

It seems that entities have appeared or let their presence be known to the living, in probably the usual ways, mostly with a benign attitude, though a few can get grumpy: Cold spots, voices, unexplained electrical abnormalities, unexplained noises and bumps, opening and shutting of doors, felt presences and appearing apparitions, in either full view of the living, or just seen out of the corner of the eye of the living.

Some known MANIFESTATIONS AND THE HISTORY BEHIND EACH ENTITY:

As reported by The West Michigan Ghost Hunters Society (Osceola Inn Web-Page) Check it out for more details.

1) Josephine and Andrew stayed in the hotel in the early 1900's, on the 3rd floor. Andrew had an explosive temper, wasn't a real nice guy, and often became abusive. Andrew severely beat Josephine, and it seems she still can't bear to leave him even now!

2) Peter haunts a second floor room - He was a frequent visitor at the hotel during the 1940's, trying to make a living as a gambler which he failed at miserably. He wasn't real sociable and spent a lot of time by himself. He killed himself in his room.

3) Audrey, a female ghost likes to hang out in the bar area on the first floor. Audrey had lived at the hotel with her children but died here from an unknown illness.

4) Louisa - haunts the 2nd floor - She died when she fell from the 2nd floor stairway.

5) In the early to mid-1990's, a man died of a heart attack in his room on the 2nd floor while sleeping.

6) Other entities also reside in the The Osceola Inn. Some have made themselves known to psychic investigators, who have come on several occasions to set up paranormal recording devices, wire the building for sound and temperature changes and to investigate the evidence of the hauntings expereinced by the living.

PSYCHIC RESEARCH - Done or being planned for The Osceola Inn.

West Michigan Ghost Hunters Society - Have sent an investigation team with a psychic and have come up with proof that the hauntings are real. This psychic indentified the names of the entities in # 1, 2- 3 and 4.

Paranormal Investigators Timothy Harte and Michelle Hajdu are planning a joint investigation of The Osceola Inn in October of 2005.

MESA Project: The Home of Paranormal Science - - Clinical Psychologist, Timothy Harte is leading a paranormal investigative team for the Mesa Project, a group of people who investigate hauntings, using a laptop computer system, MESA: multi-energy sensor array. This system can answer the question regarding the Osceola Inn: "Is the Osceola Inn verifiably haunted, or just a receptor of environmental factors that mimic hauntings?"

Michelle Hajdu of Marion - founder of the Marion Michigan Paranormal Investigations. Michelle has been hunting ghosts since 2001 with her team. When she started, Michelle relates, "There were no other paranormal teams in the northern part of Michigan and maybe one or two in the Upper Peninsula. Thanks to the INTERNET, I have met and joined several other teams from Michigan on hunts as an honorary member." She just had two new people join her team, with one going to be their team sensitive. She has the goal of acquiring a Thermal Imaging Camera.

Michelle Hajdu already has done some investigation with her own team at this inn and has gotten some proof she needs that the place is indeed haunted, including a disembodied voice recording, from someone introducing himself as Jason.

Timothy Hatre's team worked with Michelle Hajdu of Marion - Marion and Tim did a joint investigation in October 2005, on the Osceola Inn and came up with some interesting results!

Michelle Hajdu kindly shared their results with HauntedHouses.com: "We got quite a few EVP's this time, one in which you can hear a ghost dog bark and then the voice of a female spirit say, "Shanta!" and after that you can hear her slap her legs as if she were calling her dog to her. I was very surprised to capture this EVP and especially to capture a dog barking!"

Michelle Hajdu also reports, "Tim Hatre with his M.E.S.A. machine did get some unusual readings from the machine and some that were higher than he has captured before. Tim himself saw a female apparition in white go across the lobby area and disappear into a wall. His brother Harold Harte also saw a face of a woman in a window in one of the rooms on the 2nd floor."

Still Haunted?

Yes indeed!

It will be interesting to see what Timothy Hart and Michelle Hajdu discover when they work together!

Other Sources include: reedcitycrossroads.com