Riverbend Paranormal Society

Chuck Most · October 15, 2023

Since 1980, the members of the Riverbend Paranormal Society have spent the week of Halloween investigating old ghost stories, urban legends, and other odd goings-on in and around the Gratiot County area. Leader Josh Werner and his shabby 1966 Cadillac hearse can frequently be found in and around the spookier parts of Central Michigan. That is, when he's not busy coaching his daughter's softball team or preoccupied with his "day job" as a Gratiot County Sheriff's Deputy.

And, since 1998, the members have tended to a forgotten corner of a quiet cemetery. That first year the plots were overgrown and several markers were toppled, but the team straightened it out and have maintained it ever since. It's the one place they haven't done a ghost hunt. "Contrary to popular belief," Josh says, "cemeteries are seldom, if ever, haunted. Unless someone has died violently or unexpectedly in the cemetery itself, they aren't going to stick around."

The display is just some 12' x 24" plywood with a grass mat. The trees and headstones are Woodland Scenics, with Gamer Grass flowers at the foot of the headstones. Playing the part of the "company car" is an old Johan Surfin' Hearse I built a year or so back. My buddy Erik created the Riverbend Paranormal Society logos on the hearse. I felt compelled to make a fall/Halloween themed display and the idea for the hearse was always to become part of such a display so here we are.