Spirit trackers take on Idle Hour 'ghosts'
http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061229/NEWS01/612290307

Spirit trackers take on Idle Hour 'ghosts'
By SHANNON MURPHY
Times Herald

HARSENS ISLAND-"Some glad morning when this life is o'er, I'll fly away;
To a home on God's celestial shore, I'll fly away."
No one was near the jukebox in the Idle Hour Yacht Club on Thursday
night when it began belting out the Alison Krauss song I'll Fly Away.
The machine wasn't even on.
"This is the fourth jukebox we've gone through to try and make sure it
wasn't a problem with the machine," said Beverly Wilkens, advertising
and marketing director at the yacht club. "It just keeps playing. It
really likes Gene Autry, but spits out Elvis songs."
The jukebox, along with several rooms throughout the large club, was
part of an investigation by Spirit Trackers of Rural Michigan, or STORM,
a paranormal investigation team.
Club members for years have reported strange occurrences in the
building, such as items moving from one spot to another.
The investigation team spent Thursday night through this morning at the
island yacht club, a 115-year old former hotel, to search for any
paranormal activity.
Cameras were set up throughout the club to track any activity.
Investigators went in groups to different parts of the building with
electromagnetic-field detectors, digital cameras and thermometers to see
if any activity could be discovered.
"We try to explain the unexplained," said April DeBoer of Eastpointe,
one of the founders of STORM. "We try to find every reasonable
explanation of why something is occurring. When we can't, we term it
paranormal."
After the investigation, STORM investigators will review the data
they've collected, which could take up to a month, then give the club a
report on any activity found there.
In certain rooms of the club, such as a bedroom on the first floor,
investigators claimed to sense something paranormal. In certain corners
of the room, the scent of lilacs would become overpowering, yet no one
was wearing perfume, and there were no flowers in the room.
Club members have attributed the scent to a ghost they've named
Annabelle, Wilkens said.
Other rooms just give some of the investigation team spooky feelings.
"I won't go back in the tower," DeBoer said, referring to a small
upstairs bedroom. "The moment I walked in I got a headache and nausea,
but I felt fine when I came back downstairs."