Dianna Stampfler has worked for the tourism industry in Michigan for over 25 years and is the executive director of Promote Michigan, so she's seen almost everything the state of Michigan has to offer. However, her favorite locations on the Great Lakes are the state's many lighthouses, specifically ones with a haunted backstory.
The author of "Michigan's Haunted Lighthouses" now has another book focusing on lighthouses, but this time she's showcasing the lighthouse keepers and their haunted stories called “Death & Lighthouses on the Great Lakes”.
In summary, the book shares how common and likely it could be for a lighthouse keeper to lose their life on the job. The likelihood of drowning while at sea or becoming injured while on the job was common back in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The book also covers more rare and unnatural causes of death of these keepers like murder, suicide, and other tragic causes of death.
In the pages of Death & Lighthouses of the Great Lakes: A History of Misfortune & Murder, readers will find an amalgamation of true crime details, media coverage and historical research which brings the stories to life, despite the deaths of those featured in the book.
Dianna Stampfler will be speaking about her book tonight, April 12, at Paw Paw District Library from 6-7:30.
To learn more, visit promotemichigan.com/speakers-bureau.
