Ghosts and Legends of Lake Erie's North Coast

by Victoria King Heinsen

The residents of Lake Erie's North coast have trouble leaving-even after they die. The area is flooded with the spirits of locals, some friendly, some not. See the sorrowful eyes of the Hauntingly Beautiful High School Student, who floats the corridors looking for her lost boyfriend, and head to an old Port Clinton hotel to watch the ghost of a maintenance man wander haphazardly through the inn, making routine repairs. Read about the figure that lurks in the clock of the Port Clinton Courthouse every night, never moving, simply watching, until disappearing with the sun. Local ghost tour guide Victoria King Heinsen has a personal connection with every story, and her firsthand accounts will turn every paranormal skeptic into a believer.

112 pages, Paperback

First published August 20, 2010

Reviews

[Erika Schoeps]

I love books of ghost stories, I really do. But this book is dry and ridiculously boring, and most of these aren't actually ghost stories at all. The story starts with a description of a person's life. This description is bland and factual, and the person's lives are so boring that I don't know why the author decided to write about them. Most of the ghost stories don't even seem like ghost stories, because they're usually a short description of a lightbulb going on and off or a bright orb. So boring and stupid. Who wants to read about an erratic lightbulb or a flash of light? This book was ridiculously lame.

[Gerald Matzke]

The title of this book caught my eye because I live about a mile from Lake Erie. However the book only talks about out a small area of the North Coast just west of Sandusky. The ghost stories and legends that the title promises are told in the context of the historical background of the area. It should be noted that the author leads ghost tours in and around her home town of Port Clinton so she is in no way skeptical about any of the stories she tells. It would be counterproductive to her business if she did. She considers herself a believer so for her it is all true. I found the history of the area to be the most interesting thing about the book. The ghost stories seemed a bit repetitive.

[Christine]

1.5

Despite the title, most of the supposed ghost stories center around Port Clinton. Additionally, a good portion of the book is biographical information about author's family (both blood related and found family). This would be fine it if were a memoir, but it's not. So how legendary these stories for other residents of Lake Erie's North Coast, I don't know. Also most of the ghosts are orbs. And the story telling when it comes to history is way off. Dolley Madison, for instance, did not stop the White House from being burned. She saved the portrait of Washingon, or is at least credited for it.

[Lynn]

It needed more editing. The grammar wasn't great & the overall writing needed to be better. I think all of the stories did the whole, "names have been changed to protect the innocent" thing, but that was TOO obvious & sometimes repeated within the same story (for example, one story said something along the lines of "Peter Rabbit saw this spooky thing. A line of text. Peter Rabbit (we'll call him) said this about the spooky thing he saw"). Some of the stories didn't seem to serve a purpose (no ghosts etc that I saw).

[Debra]

I need to qualify that I only read about 2/3 of this book and then I put it down. It's a collection of short snippets about ghostly haunts around the Lake Erie region. First of all, I'm not from there. I've never visited there. Maybe if I had a connection to these places, the book would have meant more.

The writing style and voice drove me nuts. The tales came of as hearsay and there was no clear evidence presented for any (that I read). "A ghost might have been spotted here once and it might have been the old janitor."

Not a fan.

[Barbara G. Graybill]

A Summer Visitor Rejoices!

My grandparents down to my grandchildren have been visitors to the Port Clinton area beaches for years,; my parents honeymooned at Rye Beach in 1945 after my dad had learned to love the area. (They even missed the last ferry back from Cedar Point!). Two years ago, 11 of my extended family stayed on the north side of Middle Bass Island. This book is fascinating as it connects the dots of history and the culture of the Lake Erie area. Kudos to the author!

[Kel]

I love ghost stories so I was excited at first to see what this book had to offer. It was more like a book on the history of the place, the buildings, and the people who lived there than a book about hauntings. It was very dry and boring. When it did talk about hauntings, it was very quick of just a fast sighting or some flashing lights and nothing more.

[MANDI V]

More proof anyone can publish a book these days. Sophomoric and simple, the author rambles about her magnificent self in the opening and then bores us near to death with non-ghost stories.

Skip it.

[Derek Smith]

The stories are like the book - thin.

[Kristin Vogel-Campbell]

This was gifted to me a few years back by family in Port Clinton. I wasn't impressed with the writing style, nor the tales themselves.

[Raeanne Malie]

It was very dry, I found it difficult to read. The stories were not about hauntings as much as they were about people, or stories that had no relevance to the haunting.

[Kathy Mathey]

Creepy!