The Ghostly Tales of Flint

By Anna Lardinois

Ghost stories from the Vehicle City have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery!

The haunted history of Flint comes to life--even when the main players are dead. Visit the Capitol Theatre to spot ghosts from the basement to the balcony. Or check in to a certain haunted hotel and see if the restless spirits keep you up all night. Flint is so spooky, there's even a whole haunted neighborhood--Carriage Town! Dive into this spooky chapter book for suspenseful tales of bumps in the night, paranormal investigations, and the unexplained; just be sure to keep the light on.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: Aug 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781439673416

Anna Lardinois

Anna Lardinois tingles the spines of Milwaukee locals and visitors through her haunted, historical walking tours known as Gothic Milwaukee. The former English teacher is an ardent collector of stories, an avid walker, and a sweet treat enthusiast. She happily resides in a historic home in Milwaukee that, at this time, does not appear to be haunted.  Visit her at www. annalardinois.com to find out more!

Book preview

Introduction

Welcome to frightening Flint! Ever since the city was founded in 1819, Flint has been the home of some of the most industrious people in Michigan. In the early days, hardworking residents made their livings in the lumber business. Later, fortunes were made building carriages and, later still, manufacturing automobiles. The people of Flint know how to make things happen!

Flint has a long and rich history, and as you know, history comes with ghosts! These ghosts seem to be everywhere: in theaters, in museums, even walking down the street. Whether you are in Carriage Town, River Village, Grand Traverse Street District, or any of the other neighborhoods in Flint, chances are you have strolled by a place where people have experienced paranormal phenomena.

Flint might be known as Vehicle City, but if you ask me, it should be known as Spooky City! Let’s explore the spook-tacular side of Flint together. Just turn the page for some spine-tingling fun.

Horrors Beneath the Haunted Hotel

How does a building become haunted? Sometimes, after a terrible event, a ghost refuses to leave the place where it took its last breath. Sometimes a plot of land itself might be cursed. Every so often, a ghost haunts a building it never even set foot inside while living. That’s the case with the ghosts at The Holiday Inn Express on Robert T. Longway Boulevard and Interstate 475.

The story of this haunted hotel begins way back in 1842, when the first settlers arrived in Flint. They built a graveyard on the ground where Longway Boulevard now meets W.H. Schwartz Drive. Many of Flint’s first citizens were laid to rest here. Later, it became known as the Old Flint City Cemetery.

Years passed. People moved away from the area. No one took care of Old Flint City Cemetery.

Gravestones crumbled or toppled over. Wind and rain eroded the headstones, making them hard to read. It was no longer clear who was buried where. Weeds choked out the flowers that loved ones had planted on the graves of the dead. The grass was overgrown and wild. Candy wrappers and garbage blew across the unkempt grounds. The graveyard looked sad and shabby. In fact, it looked like just the kind of place that a ghost might haunt. No one wanted to bury their loved ones in the spooky, tumbledown cemetery. People started using new cemeteries. The graveyard continued to decay. It looked spookier every year.

After many years of neglect, the city moved the dead in the Old Flint City Cemetery to the Flint City Cemetery on Linden Road and Pasadena Avenue. In 1952, a total of 1,199 of Flint’s dearly departed were moved to the new graveyard. In 1958, the remaining 132,122 bodies—along with their grave markers— were moved to the Avalon Cemetery. The Old Flint City Cemetery was empty. Or at least that’s what city officials THOUGHT. It would take years for them to discover how wrong they were.

After