The Lighthouse Keeper Who Never Checked Out

On a lonely point of Lake Michigan shoreline near Gulliver, in the U.P., stands the Seul Choix Pointe Lighthouse — a name French sailors gave the spot, meaning “only choice,” because it was the only safe harbor for miles along a dangerous stretch of coast. The light has been guiding ships since 1895. But the keeper’s quarters, folks say, never fully emptied out.

The ghost in residence is believed to be Captain Joseph Willie Townshend, an Englishman who served as keeper from 1901 until his death in 1910. Townshend was a devoted cigar smoker, a habit his wife is said to have banned indoors. He died inside the lighthouse, and because the winter ground was frozen solid, his embalmed body reportedly had to be kept in the cold lower level of the building for weeks before burial.

And here’s what visitors and volunteers have reported for decades since: the strong, unmistakable smell of cigar smoke, drifting through the keeper’s quarters where no one is smoking. A face glimpsed in an upstairs mirror. Silverware that gets rearranged — set, the story goes, in the proper English fashion rather than the American way. The longtime president of the local historical society has said she can’t even bring her dogs inside; they stop at the door and refuse to cross.

Is it real? A paranormal author who’s investigated more than 350 sites around Michigan — and who describes herself as a skeptic who mostly debunks — named Seul Choix Pointe the one lighthouse where she found evidence she couldn’t explain. Make of that what you will. We just think a haunted lighthouse on a fog-wrapped point is about as good as a campfire story gets.