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Printer-Friendly ModeMasonic Temple offers new kind of scare
October 26, 2009 —
I thought the haunted Masonic temple would be a waste of time and money after reading that I would be going on a “guided tour conducted by members of B.O.G.U.S., a (fictitious) scientific team investigating reports of paranormal activity.”
But I walked away more than impressed Friday night.
This atypical haunted house located at 700 N. Madison in downtown Bay City held impressive Hollywoodstyle circus props and a whimsical plotline that played off actual historical events.
Apparently, the B.O.G.U.S. team is hired to search for souls who died during a fatal (and factual) train collision in Durand at the turn of the century.
The train housed members of a traveling circus en route to this Masonic Temple.
The dead were buried next to the railroad tracks, and the living continued onward to perform on schedule.
As legend has it, the souls of the dead continued on with the others, but stayed in Bay City to haunt the halls of the temple.
This was not meant to be the typical scare-the-crap-out-of-you haunted house, said the director, Cary Ewing.
Instead, it was to be a hilarious, yet creepy and shocking way to explore the history of one of Bay City’s oldest buildings.
“It’s the open-minded people that are impressed when they leave, and typically it’s the people who are expecting blood, guts and gore that walk away disappointed,” said Ewing, who is also a Delta alumni and a student at Ferris State University.
Built in 1892, the temple feels eerie naturally, Ewing said. The hard part was getting volunteers together to spend countless hours researching and planning the event.
It was designed to be more of an “interactive play” rather than a typical haunted house, Ewing said.
Groups are taken from room to room by a B.O.G.U.S. team member to watch ghostly scenes, where they can expect ghouls to follow them around and get in their face.
The team member leading the group caused frequent laughs by “pretending” not to see these ghosts. He explained that documenting an encounter requires endless amounts of paperwork, and no one wants to do it.
Needless to say, the B.O.G.U.S team has never spotted a ghost. Behind these quirky scenes of legendary goblins were nearly 75 volunteers.
Proceeds of the event will go into renovating the monumental building that is key in downtown Bay City’s history.
These renovations may include the eventual rebuilding of original onion-shaped domes that were destroyed by a fire in the early 1900s.
There weren’t any masked men with chainsaws chasing people. No one jumped out of the dark depths of the corners. None of that cliché haunted house stuff that I expected.
Instead, a member of the B.O.G.U.S. staff lead my group through the multistory building, telling small bits about each room as black lights lit the rooms, unexpected ghosts snuck up on us, and eerie sounds and happenings occurred throughout.
If you like being forced to walk blindly through pitch-black tunnels or being suffocated by 15-foot inflatable walls that hug your body, then I wouldn’t recommend this haunted house.
But if you’re looking for whimsical and creepy insight on some of the most historical buildings in Michigan, then this one’s for you.