Robb Kaczor's Other Side Paranormal Tours opens in Mackinaw City

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Robb Kaczor's Other Side Paranormal Tours opens in Mackinaw City
August 15, 2009
by Mary Stewart Adams
Petrovsky News-Review

When you've seen all there is to see in Northern Michigan, then it's time for the unseen.

In Mackinaw City, that means a guided ghost tour with Robb Kaczor's "Other Side Tours."

As solo host of this season's inaugural paranormal tours along the streets of Michigan's No. 1 tourist destination, Kaczor, 39, is a very capable guide.

The former corrections officer of Polish/Catholic descent is confident that unveiling the city's haunted sites, while not dispelling the mystery of why the unseen are still hanging around, will increase tourism beyond the typical May-to-September peak season.

"We're planning a huge party at Halloween, because it's the time of year when people are thinking about this kind of thing," he says.

When pressed for his experience of whether hauntings are more prevalent at one time of year or another, or during one time of day as opposed to another, he is vague. "In most hauntings you don't have a history," Kaczor explains. "You just have a strange feeling when you pull into town."

Kaczor pulled into town from Hudson, Mich., and brings with him the experience of delving into paranormal research in Lake Orion, Mich., Ohio and even in Salem, Mass., where the witch trials happened in 1692.

So why did he choose Mackinaw City? "There's a lot of 'mojo' in this town, so it's not surprising that there's a lot of haunting," he says, referencing the tribal battles that took place in the area, and the conflicts between the French and the English.

Kaczor's tour begins outside Mama Mia's Pizzeria on Central Avenue with the story of a now-deceased former customer whose favorite booth often brought complaints from customers, people who say they felt cold chills or who felt as though they were being watched. The booth was not replaced after a fire at the restaurant.

From Mama Mia's, the tour leads east to the store Monadnock, a name which means “prominent natural outcrop,” according to store owner Charlie Heilman. Heilman is eager to share tales of his friendly ghost, whose footsteps he hears regularly pacing above the original tin ceiling.

There's also the story of Ed from the Keyhole Lounge, and a World War I soldier from the pier where the Mackinaw Ice Cutter Museum is now moored, and even the tale of the 30-to 60-foot “sea monster” that was purportedly documented in 1976 by the Cheboygan County Sheriff's Department.

Most of the sites include stories from the living about unexplained noises or movements, such as doors closing or, as in the case of the Keyhole, pool balls skittering across the table without explanation.

But Kaczor's most-prized Mackinaw haunting to date is upstairs at the old train depot, a 119-year-old building moved to its current site 12 years ago, where it houses the Depot Restaurant.

Here Kaczor has done a “full investigation” complete with cameras and multiplexors, to verify whether a genuine haunting is taking place. Tour guests will be led upstairs at the Depot, where Kaczor encourages everyone to take a break in the boardroom. There, he unveils the tools of his trade, many purchased through the Web site ghost-mart.com, and he explains how paranormal researchers confirm for themselves their investigations.

Kaczor recognizes the controversial nature of his work, which he pursues both as a business venture and as a mystery-solving service. He is a self-described agnostic who does not consider himself to be psychic, and moreover, he believes his work "is not going to hurt the area."

Future plans include a riding tour that will allow him to cover more area, especially burial ground over which streets have been paved and buildings constructed.

Participants in the approximately one-hour tour — timing is dependent on group size, the number of questions and the occasional paranormal incident — should not expect to be led too deeply into the stories behind the buildings, sidewalks and waterways along Kaczor's tour. But they can expect to learn about the differences between residual and intelligent hauntings, about electromagnetic field measuring and electronic voice phenomena.

"You don't know what to expect until you find it," Kaczor says, demonstrating an affability and open-mindedness that fortifies him in this current venture of examining the unknown.

Tour guests can call ahead to make a reservation, or they may show up outside Mama Mia's at 6 or 9 p.m. seven days a week, May 21 through the end of October. Cost is $10. Fellow paranormal researchers are invited to bring their own equipment and join in the research, and those who would like verification of whether what they're experiencing is a genuine haunting according to this type of investigation may contact Kaczor at (517) 442-5537.