Haunted hotel guide · Mackinac Island, Michigan

Haunted Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island: Ghost Stories of America's Summer Place

A white pine palace built in 93 days in 1887, with the world’s longest porch, five presidents in the guest book and a set of ghost stories the island loves to tell, even if the hotel itself does not.

By The Haunted Rooms Team · Updated November 2026 · How we rate hotels

3.0/5Haunted Rooms Score
1887Year opened
660 ftFront porch

Visit hotel websiteMeet the ghosts

The Grand Hotel sits on a bluff above the Straits of Mackinac, a long white wooden hotel with yellow trim, flags and a front porch of about 660 feet that is billed as the longest in the world. It opened on July 10, 1887, it is a National Historic Landmark, and it still runs much as it always has: a summer-only resort reached by ferry, with horse-drawn carriages from the docks and an evening dress code.

It also has ghost stories. The hotel does not promote them, and a 2018 local radio piece noted that its employees do not endorse paranormal claims. But Detroit TV, Michigan radio and island storytellers keep telling them: human remains under the foundations, a dark shape with glowing red eyes on the theater stage, a man in a top hat at the piano and a woman in Victorian dress who wanders the halls. This guide sets out what is told, where it comes from and what the records actually say. For more around the state, see our guide to haunted hotels in Michigan.

Grand Hotel at a glance

3.0/5
Haunted Rooms Score
Haunted reputation3
History5
Ghost hunter access1
$$$ · Over $300No pets
  • Address 286 Grand Avenue, Mackinac Island, MI 49757
  • Opened July 10, 1887; West Wing 1897, East Wing 1989, Millennium Wing 2001
  • Most haunted spots The fourth-floor halls, the theater stage, the bar piano and the front porch after dark
  • Best-known ghosts A woman in Victorian dress, a man in a top hat, a woman in black walking a white dog, and a little girl called Rebecca
  • Booking the haunted room No guest room is linked to a ghost. If you want to be near the stories, ask for a room on the fourth floor when you book.
  • Good to know Open early May to the third week of October. Evening dress applies after 6:30 p.m. in the main public rooms. No pets.

Visit hotel website

The ghosts of Grand Hotel

The bones under the foundations

Almost every version of the Grand Hotel’s ghost story starts underground. Local legend says that when workers dug the foundations in 1886 and 1887 they found human remains, so many that they lost count and gave up trying to move them, and the hotel was built on top. ClickOnDetroit repeated the legend in 2022, and a Michigan radio station told it the same way in 2018.

Nobody has named who the remains might have been. Retellings suggest Native American burials, soldiers from the island’s forts or victims of frontier fighting, and Mackinac Island does have a long history of all three. But we have found no contemporary report from the 1880s of bones being found on the site, and the hotel’s own history says nothing about it. Treat it as island legend: a very old one, and the root of most of what follows.

The shadow on the theater stage

The most dramatic story is set in the hotel’s theater. As ClickOnDetroit told it in 2022, a maintenance worker on the stage saw a black mass with glowing red eyes. It rushed at him and knocked him off his feet; he woke up two days later and never came back to work. Other versions say he was taken to the hospital.

The worker is never named and no date is given, so there is no way to check it. It is still the tale island guides tell most often about the Grand, and it is why the theater is on every list of the hotel’s haunted spots.

The man in the top hat

In the hotel’s bar, staff are said to have seen a man in a top hat sitting at the piano and playing. Some retellings add that he smokes a cigar, and that the smell of cigar smoke turns up in one part of the room and nowhere else.

Nobody claims to know who he is. Given how many men in top hats passed through the Grand in its first decades, he fits the building well, and he is the gentlest of its ghosts.

The woman in Victorian dress

The most often repeated sighting is of a woman in Victorian clothing, seen walking the halls at night. The stories go further than most: ClickOnDetroit and others say she has climbed into beds, and one version says those beds belonged to hotel staff rather than guests. A 2018 radio piece said figures in 1800s dress, usually women, have been reported in the hotel, in employee housing and on the grounds.

The woman in black and Little Rebecca

Two quieter stories come from the same 2018 radio piece. One is a woman dressed in black who walks a large white dog along the front porch after dark. The other is a little girl called Rebecca, said to have died on the grounds, who is seen walking or floating along the fourth-floor halls before she disappears.

Neither has a name, a date or a record behind it, and we could not find a death on the grounds that matches Rebecca. They are told as legends, and that is how we tell them here.

An island full of stories

The Grand is only one stop on Mackinac Island’s ghost map. Island storyteller Todd Clements has written several Haunts of Mackinac books and leads the walking tour of the same name, and WWJ reported in 2022 that a paranormal index had ranked Mackinac Island the most haunted small town in America. Fort Mackinac, Fort Holmes and Mission Point Resort, with its story of a ghost called Harvey, all have their own tales.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

  • The fourth-floor halls: Where Little Rebecca is said to walk. The 2018 radio piece suggested walking these long corridors late at night, between 2 and 4 a.m., when they are quietest.
  • The bar and its piano: Where the man in the top hat is said to play. Sit near the piano in the evening and see if you notice cigar smoke.
  • The front porch after dark: Where the woman in black walks her white dog. Walk it late in the evening, when the crowds have thinned.
  • The theater: The setting of the hotel’s most frightening story. Ask at the front desk whether you can see it during your stay.
  • First Lady suites: Not haunted as far as anyone says, but these suites are named for Lady Bird Johnson, Jacqueline Kennedy and Betty Ford, and are the most historic way to stay.

History of Grand Hotel

Mackinac Island was already a summer resort in the 1880s, served by Great Lakes steamers and railroads that brought visitors north from Detroit and Chicago. In 1886 the Michigan Central Railroad, the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad and the Detroit and Cleveland Steamship Navigation Company formed the Mackinac Island Hotel Company to build a large hotel for the trade. Detroit architects Mason and Rice designed it, and builders Charles Caskey and Alphonse Howe put it up in Michigan white pine in just 93 days. It opened on July 10, 1887, with rooms at three to five dollars a night.

The hotel grew in stages. A West Wing was added in 1897. In 1919 the hotel hired a desk clerk called W. Stewart Woodfill, and by 1933 he was its sole owner. He ran it for decades, with R.D. Musser Jr. as president from 1960, and the Musser family bought it from Woodfill in 1979. Under the Mussers the hotel added the Cupola Bar and the Woodfill Conference Center for its centennial in 1987, an East Wing in 1989 and the Millennium Wing, with 42 more rooms, in 2001. By 2019 it had 397 rooms.

The guest list explains the hotel’s nickname, America’s Summer Place. Thomas Edison gave a public demonstration of his phonograph on the porch, Mark Twain spoke here, and Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Ford, George H. W. Bush and Clinton all visited. Hollywood came too. Esther Williams filmed This Time for Keeps here in 1947, and the hotel pool now carries her name. Somewhere in Time, starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer, was shot at the Grand and released in 1980, and the hotel still holds a Somewhere in Time weekend in October.

The Grand Hotel became a Michigan State Historic Site in 1957, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1989. In 2019 the Musser family sold it to KSL Capital Partners, and Davidson Hotels and Resorts now manages it. A five-year restoration began in 2023, and the hotel’s 140th season in 2026 brought a restored front porch and redesigned rooms and suites.

Tips for a haunted stay

  • Plan for the season. The hotel opens in early May and closes in the third week of October, so plan an autumn visit early if you want the darker evenings for ghost stories.
  • Pack for the evening dress code. After 6:30 p.m. the porch, parlor, bars and main dining room ask for suits, dresses or a sport coat and tie, with no denim or shorts.
  • Take a ferry from Mackinaw City or St. Ignace. The hotel is a 15 to 20 minute walk from the docks, or a short horse-drawn carriage ride for a small cash fee, and checked ferry luggage is delivered to your room.
  • Book the Haunts of Mackinac walking tour for an evening in town. It covers about a mile in 90 minutes and is busiest in the fall.
  • Not staying? Day visitors pay an admission fee to see the hotel and grounds, which includes a self-guided tour map.
  • Add a second haunted night on the mainland: the Terrace Inn in Petoskey is under an hour’s drive south of Mackinaw City.

Want to investigate, not just sleep?

Sleeping in a haunted hotel is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through the building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and lets you explore on your own during free roam.

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Frequently asked questions

Is the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island haunted?

It has a well-known set of ghost stories: human remains under the foundations, a dark shape with red eyes on the theater stage, a man in a top hat at the piano and a woman in Victorian dress in the halls. The hotel does not promote them, and none has been documented. They are island legends and staff tales.

Was the Grand Hotel built on a burial ground?

Local legend says workers found human remains while digging the foundations and built over them. We found no record from the 1880s that confirms it, and the hotel’s own history does not mention it.

Which floor of the Grand Hotel is haunted?

The fourth floor is linked to a little girl called Rebecca, said to walk the halls at night. No guest room is singled out.

When is the Grand Hotel open?

The hotel is seasonal. It opens in early May and closes in the third week of October, and is closed in winter.

Was Somewhere in Time filmed at the Grand Hotel?

Yes. The 1980 film with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour was shot at the hotel, which still holds a Somewhere in Time weekend in the fall.

Does the Grand Hotel have a dress code?

Yes. After 6:30 p.m. the main public rooms ask for evening wear such as a suit, a dress or a sport coat and tie. Denim and shorts are not allowed.

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

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About the authors

The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every hotel in our guides using hotel histories, local archives, news coverage and the accounts of guests and staff, and we review each guide regularly so you are not booking a hotel that has closed or changed its name. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.

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