Paranormal Factor

This research project involves Owosso, Michigan and the urban legends, stories, strange fires and alleged hauntings. We will be updating this post regularly with our findings.

#1 The Pink Bridge

It is said that a couple around the age of eighteen committed suicide by jumping off this bridge in 1900. We were led to believe that their spirits haunt the bridge at night.

I grew up in the area of this bridge and I never witnessed anything unusual. It is a very interesting bridge. I plan on investigating more into the history of this bridge, particularly into the legend about the double suicide.

I can tell you that many people in the area had trepidation when near this bridge, though we would often ride our bikes over it. Before it was a footbridge, which is the manner in which it was used today; I recall my parents driving over it in our van. I never liked it.

The bridge may have originally been located on Washington St. or Main St. Built in 1876, it is probably the oldest of only three double-intersection Pratt (Whipple) trusses in Michigan. It was built by the Iron Bridge Company of Canton, Ohio. Numerous bridges in Michigan were built my this company.

It is one of the oldest surviving examples in Michigan of the work of the Wrought Iron Bridge Company. You can find more historical information (including an image but not paranormal) on this bridge here

9-27-08 UPDATE: According to the 1901 State of Michigan, Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics which reported on Suicides in Michigan, two people committed suicide in Owosso during 1900. The first was C. Scott who killed himself on March 21, 1900. The second suicide being D. Clapp who killed himself on May 4, 1900. The men were ages 35 and 55 respectively. Both men were married. So assuming that the year, the deceased being a couple, and their age of 18 is correct, the suicide story at this time may have no basis.

#2 Rosevear Park

Who growing up in the Corunna Avenue area of Owosso hasn’t visited Rosavear Park (I always spelled it Rosavere)? It was just across the railroad tracks from the neighborhood I lived in. My mother and father would take me there when I was a kid. There was a spot between two trees where I used to sit. A sort of bench inbedded in the trees.

My mother used to tell me that there once was a community swimming pool there when she was a kid and she used to go there as did my father when he was little. I remember her taking my hand as we walked upon the foundation of where it stood. It was closed down according to my mother, due to an outbreak of polio. She said that the polio may have spread this way. I am not certain if this is how my father got it, or if this is urban legend.

Rosavear Park has been the subject of many legends, including the rumor that it was the scene of Satanic Worshippers. This has also been said of Green Meadows, another park in Owosso located of M-52. The only evidence I saw was at Green Meadows, where I found a circle of black goat hair on the ground while I was in high school during the eighties.

Rosavear Park is said to be haunted. Misty ghosts have been spotted at the end of Glenwood Avenue. The Park was also the scene of a murder deep in the woods, so perhaps the conditions are right for unrested souls, evil or the subject of urban legend. The park always made you feel like you were being watched.

DISCLAIMER: I have been reading posts on the web that warn that Rosavear Woods is not the place for an unseasoned ghost hunter, so they warn to use caution. It has also fallen prey to thugs, so that should be considered also.

 #3 Mysterious Fires

Owosso, Michigan seems to be plagued with many mysterious fires. Some former townspeople believe that the fires are more than just unusual. To suggest that Owosso is being punished is to mock a community’s tragedy, but according to someone that grew up there (wishing to remain anonymous), “Owosso has been judged and found lacking.” Is this a case of lapse buidling inspection (somehow I doubt this, since whenever any building is altered or even a small shed is built, a building inspector comes a-snooping).

• July, 1867 Josenhan’s Tannery and the Ball & Green’s Woolen Mill
  on Race Street (later it was the 100 block of South Water St.)

• 1871 Forest fires west of Owosso

• 1890 Owosso Casket Co.

• 1885 Wesener Block (100 block of N. Washington St.) burned.
  Loss-$50,000

• 1896 Dewey and Stewart’s Mill

• 1898 Mueller Brewery &
  Woodard Plaining Mill ( Across the street from each other - the fire jumped
  across the street)

• 1898 Payne & Graham’s Implement Co.

• 1898 A Serious fire destroyed property valued at $200,000 - Daily News Almanac and Political Register
  

• April 1, 1900 when the old Central School burned to the ground and two Owosso citizens
  lost their lives. The fire killed Fireman J. Fred Ross and Owosso High School student, Frank Tucker. Damages in the amount of $125,000 More Information Here - This website has a great deal of fire department history and images as well.
• 1905 Bryant School
• 1906 Estey Manufacturing (Plant “A”) - May
  
• Nov. 18, 1911 Pearce and Ward Store 100 N. Washington St.
• 1912 Owosso Food Factory
• 1924 Isbell Bean Co.
• 1924 J.A. Byerly Co. Warehouse S. Lansing St.
• 1929 Dinty Moore Bulk Gas Station - In 1929, a fire that started
  with an explosion in a gas tank truck at the storage depot of the O.E. Moore Co.
  on S. Lansing St. Owosso, is the worst in the city’s history. Four firemen were
  burned or overcome with smoke. The buildings of the Owosso Boiler and Welding
  Works and the Square Deal Coal and Furniture Co. were saved although smoke was
  too dense to assess all of the damage.
  
• 1932 Field Body Plant (formerly Owosso Carriage Co.) Burwood Products.
  Washington and Stewart Sts.

  Today the site of the A. O. Smith Co. plant.

• 1937 Elks Temple ($8,000 in damage)
• Feb. 1942 Baptist Church, Rebuilt on same site.
• Spring 1943 Central School Annex. Shiawassee and Oliver Streets.
• 1944 Gambles Store 116 N. Washington St. One employee died in the
  basement.
• Feb. 1948 Gute’s Drugstore located on the northwest corner of
  Washington and Exchange Streets.
• 1949 Eagles’ Home on North Washington St.
• March 1951 Mid-West Abrasive Plant on North Washington St. (2 million
  dollars in damage.)
• March 1952 Wildermuth (Milner) Hotel - Frank Charvat died, in an upstairs room,
  of smoke inhalation. He was not a guest of the Hotel, according to Bryce
  Hoshield, fireman, who also remembers that Flint Fire Dept. was called for
  Mutual Aid assistance because Owosso did not have an aerial ladder truck.
  Flint’s ladder collapsed and luckily no one was injured. By April of 1952 the
  City took delivery of their new ladder truck. Monetary damage or cause unknown.
  
• Oct. 1953 The Minor Building -Kline’s Store - middle of the 100 block of East Main St. Feb.
  1955 Mitchell-Bentley Corp. Loss-($2.5 million)

• 1957 Mobile Home Corp.

• Sept. 28, 1965 Montgomery Ward Warehouse 200 block of West Exchange St. Loss-$100,000 - the north side of the block was turned into a parking lot due to this fire.
  

• Sept. 24, 1970 Economy Mills
  

• Nov. 10, 1970 Carpart Corp. Warehouse Loss-$100,000 (Mitchell-Bentley Corp.)
  

• Oct. 30, 1972 American Record Pressing Co. - 1810 W. King St.
  

• 1977 Westown Freight Depot
  

• June 13, 1978 Raycliff Foundry - 715 Martin St.
  

• 1978 Three Grand Trunk Locomotives
  

• Jan. 11, 1981 Gittleman’s Store - Oakes-Coons Insurance - Main and Park Sts. (Fireman Elmer Hodge died)
  

• 1982 Selleck Insurance - Melco Decorating (Owosso Barber, Joseph Radon dies.)
  

• 1985 Valley Lumber Co.
  

• 1992 Bryant School Fire - 3 Juvenals were apprehended for this arson.
  

• 1992 Partz Corp.*** This fire contained many types of hazardous chemicals.
  

• June 1, 1993 Colonel’s Bumpers (Loss-$30,000,000-reputed
  to be largest $ loss in State)120 firemen from 12 area Departments
  

• July 17, 2000 A smoking accident at Kona Vila resulted in a
  working structure fire in a 72 unit, three story elderly apartment
  complex. All occupants evacuated with no major injuries. Additional 6
  mutual aid Fire Departments called. And 3 mutual aid ambulance services
  were called for potential life hazard. The fire was contained to one
  wing of the two wing complex. The fire damaged wing has since been
  rebuilt.
  

• November 14, 2001 A fire of suspicious origin broke out in the
  Flat Iron Building on the corner of Washington & Water streets.
  This building contained a taxidermy shop, a tattoo shop and several
  apartments on the second floor.

• April 2002, a fire destroyed the building that housed the Owosso State Police Post and several other businesses.
  

• April 16, 2005 An empty factory building caught fire on a sunny
  Saturday afternoon while the department was busy with a stubborn grass
  fire. 9 departments assisted Owosso Fire before the block long building
  was extinguished. Departments from 3 of the surrounding counties
  assisted as did 3 of Shiawassee County’s ambulance services.

• April 2005 when 100 people had to be evacuated after a fire broke out at the Vaungard Warehouse.

• 2005? 2006? The Liquor Station

• January 2006, the Capitol Bowl also caught fire in downtown Owosso.

• February 2007  the historic Lebowsky Center caught fire.

If you know of a fire that happened in Owosso, Michigan, email us with your details; we will give you a link!