The Haunted Post Cemetery on Mackinac Island

The cemeteries on Mackinac Island are said to be haunted, some more than others. After her children died from illness, a grieving mother is said to be haunting the Post Cemetery on the island.

In the glistening waters of Lake Huron between Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas, Mackinac Island is a serene retreat known for its picturesque beauty, historic charm, and an eerie reputation for the supernatural. In fact, Mackinac Island was called the most haunted town in America in 2021, with many stories having been covered over the years. And with only a full time population of around 583 people, the ghosts perhaps even outnumber the living.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from the USA

With no cars allowed and transportation limited to bicycles and horse-drawn carriages, the island offers a unique step back in time. Some come to enjoy the quiet seaside and enjoy the famous fudge. The island has become a perfect summer destination for Americans, but after the tourists leave in the fall, the fog from the Straits comes rolling in, and the leaves turn color, the ghost of the island remains to haunt it.

The cemeteries on Mackinac Island are said to be haunted, some more than others. After her children died from illness, a grieving mother is said to be haunting the Post Cemetery on the island. — **Fort Mackinac Post Cemetery**: Located a half mile north of Fort Mackinac, near Skull Cave, a burial site for American Indians. The earliest interments in the post cemetery likely date to the mid-1820’s and is considered haunted. The military occupation of Fort Mackinac throughout the 18th century suggests there was an earlier post cemetery, yet the location of pre-1820’s burials remains elusive.// *Source*

A Brief History of Mackinac Island

Mackinac Island’s history stretches back thousands of years, with indigenous peoples such as the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Huron considering it a sacred place long before European settlers arrived. The island’s name itself, derived from the Ojibwe word “Michilimackinac,” means “big turtle,” referring to the island’s shape when viewed from above.

Read more: Check out all ghost stories from Mackinac Island

The French established a fur trading post here in the 17th century, and the island later became a strategic military outpost during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. In the late 19th century, it became more of a summer colony and a tourist destination that it still is.

The Haunted Post Cemetery

Mackinac Island is also home to several cemeteries, each with its own ghostly legends. One of them is the Mackinac Island’s Post Cemetery, the oldest cemetery on the island. It was built in the early 1800s to house both British and American soldiers who were killed in the War of 1812. After this, civilians and veterans of the American Civil War were also buried here. The cemetery’s history is closely knit together with the reportedly haunted Fort Mackinac.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from haunted cemeteries

Many have been buried here, not many are named. The wooden crosses marked with their name have long since decayed and only 39 of the 108 souls under the ground are identified with headstones. A lot of mystery lingers over the cemetery as a lot of its history is forgotten because of how bad they were at keeping records at the fort.

Visitors have reported seeing ghostly apparitions among the gravestones and hearing the faint sound of weeping, believed to be the spirits of those who met tragic ends during the island’s tumultuous history. One such story tells of the ghost of a weeping mother. She is seen over the 19th century graves of her two young children.

The Cowles Siblings Haunting Fort Mackinac

There were a lot of children staying at the fort who died, including Josiah and Isabel Cowles who died in infancy. Could these be the children behind the haunting happening at the Stone Quarter? Could the ghost of their mother be the one said to haunt the Post Cemetery?

The family had moved from post to post the last ten years and came to Fort Mackinac in 1884, a booming tourist town. Mary Ella Hitchcock was born in 1855 in Rochester New York and married Calvin Duvall Cowles six months after they met. They had children and were known to be caring and loving parents, the opposite Victorian stereotype of a strict and not very affectionate upbringing model.

The move to the island was supposed to be a fresh start, but shortly after they arrived, Josiah died, only five months old. They moved away for a while, but came back with their daughter, Isabel, born in New York. Just before her first birthday, she died as well on the island in 1887.

Their mother never recovered and deeply mourned their passing. Although she spent the rest of her life traveling from post to post, taking care of her family, she never forgot or got over the children she lost on the island and buried next to each other.

She died in 1906 after watching both the Spanish-American war and the Philippine-American wars from the posts. She was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

It is also said she is haunting the fort, often seen in the Officer Hills Apartment Quarters, standing helpless and watching her babies die of a sickness she no one could cure.

Thirteen other children died at the fort over the years and were all buried at the Fort Mackinac Post Cemetery, and if the haunting is real, there could be plenty of mothers coming to mourn for their little ones for all eternity.