Big Bay Point Lighthouse, located on a remote stretch of Lake Superior shoreline in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, is reportedly haunted by the ghost of its first keeper, William Prior. Prior served as keeper from 1896 until his death in 1901, when he hanged himself in the woods near the lighthouse after years of personal tragedy — his son died of tuberculosis, his wife abandoned him, and he suffered from severe depression. His ghost, described as a red-haired man in a keeper's uniform, has been reported by guests and staff since the lighthouse was converted to a bed-and-breakfast. Guests have described seeing Prior's apparition in the lantern room, on the staircase, and standing on the cliff overlooking Lake Superior. Some guests have reported being woken by the sound of footsteps climbing the tower stairs and finding the lantern room door open when it was locked. The light, which was automated and later decommissioned, has allegedly been seen glowing on nights when no power source could account for it. The lighthouse's dramatic setting — on a cliff above the vast cold waters of Lake Superior, surrounded by dense forest — creates a profoundly isolated atmosphere. Prior's ghost is generally described as melancholy rather than threatening, a lonely keeper still maintaining his watch.
