At the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron lies historic Bay City, a gorgeous town with a dark past. In its early days, a six-block strip known as Hell's Half Mile was an epicenter of debauchery and brutality. This tumultuous history has left a deep paranormal imprint on the area. A sinister Victorian lady terrorizes those who visit the upper level of the Bay City Antiques Center. The ghost of a disfigured little girl roams Sage Library. And the former caretaker of the USS Edson lovingly tends the ship after death as he did in life. Local author and paranormal investigator Nicole Beauchamp takes you on a bone-chilling journey through Bay City's most haunted locales.

Join author Tim Younkman for a wild ride into Bay City's wicked side. From unscrupulous lumber barons to Hell's Half Mile, Bay City history casts a sinister shadow. Pope Leo XIII was forced to intervene when rioting Catholic immigrants seized St. Stanislaus Catholic Church and battled one another in the city's streets. The police discovered prostitute Lou Hall nearly beaten to death in the Block of Blazes. And respected publishing mogul Edwin T. Bennett's secret life led to the death of a young woman in a Bay City hotel room.

Michigan's foremost lumbertowns, flourishing urban industrial centers in the late 19th century, faced economic calamity with the depletion of timber supplies by the end of the century. Turning to their own resources and reflecting individual cultural identities, Saginaw, Bay City, and Muskegon developed dissimilar strategies to sustain their urban industrial status. This study is a comprehensive history of these lumbertowns from their inception as frontier settlements to their emergence as reshaped industrial centers. Primarily an examination of the role of the entrepreneur in urban economic development, Michigan Lumbertowns considers the extent to which the entrepreneurial approach was influenced by each city's cultural-ethnic construct and its social history. More than a narrative history, it is a study of violence, business, and social change.