GALIEN, Mich. - For most, Halloween is a day that's observed and celebrated on one day each year - Oct. 31.
But for a small village in southwestern Michigan, many of the residents believe the spirits there are stirring every single day.
Galien is located in southern Berrien County, about 15 miles north of the Indiana state line. The village was platted by founder George A. Blakeslee in 1861, then incorporated in 1879.
For close to a century, Galien survived as small businesses began to dot the downtown. The village would get its own bank, grocery store and high school.
"It was a very prosperous little town at one time," said Donna Potter, who's on the board of the Galien Woods Historical Society. "But we had three major fires in the village and that pretty much took the town downhill."
In the summer of 1971, a fire broke out at the hardware store in downtown Galien. It was destroyed, as well as an adjacent restaurant and beauty salon.
Three months later (October 1971), another fire would extensively damage the town's supermarket.
For the next four decades, the village continued to erode, as the once busy shops began to board up and go out of business.
When Galien High School closed its doors in 2011, most of the remaining businesses downtown followed suit.
"After the school closed, the bank closed, then we lost our grocery store," said Potter. "The town pretty much folded up."
Today, it's estimated that only 400 people are living in Galien.
"Galien has literally become a ghost town," said Kim Rowe, who is a long-time resident, and also runs The Michiana Paranormal Society. "It's a ghost town in more ways than one."
Rowe started her ghost hunting group with her friend Peggy Williams in 2010.
"I told Peggy that I was going to start a ghost hunting business because I want to prove they don't exist," said Rowe. "I was never a believer in any of it."
Rowe, Williams and two others who eventually joined the paranormal group - Cory Kovacs and Terri Roberts - cobbled together cash and purchased some ghost hunting equipment such as K-2 meters (battery operated units that allegedly detect paranormal activity with spikes of light), special audio recording devices and video cameras.
After three months of doing paranormal investigations around Galien, Rowe became convinced that ghosts exists.
"I changed my mind quickly after going on ghost hunts and feeling my hair get pulled and seeing shadows go by and there's nobody there but you," said Rowe. "Or, you hear somebody call your name very loudly and there's nobody there but you.
"If it isn't a ghost, you tell me what it is."
The group has investigated countless locations in Galien, including landmarks and private homes.
"I don't think there's a house or a business or an empty building in Galien that doesn't have at least one ghost in it," said Rowe. "I believe the ghosts outnumber the people in this town by a long shot."
Kim and her group decided to investigate inside the high school soon after it closed.
"We've seen just about everything at the high school you can see," said Rowe. "We've seen shadow people, orbs, and we've heard voices and we've all been touched and scratched."
The high school is also where Rowe and her group captured hundreds of EVPs (electronic voice phenomenon).
"We recorded voices inside the high school saying, "You're going to die," and "he's coming for you," and "get out."
Galien's American Legion Post 344 is another location where these ghostbusters have investigated and claim to have communicated with the paranormal.
"When I used to clean the bar area at the Legion, I made sure that all the stools were facing the bar," said Rowe. "I would go into the kitchen, come back out and one of the stools would be turned completely around.
"There was nobody in the building but me."
The Legion is also the location where Rowe claims to have seen her first ghost.
Another area landmark the group has investigated is the old Galien two-cell jail, which was built in 1879. Rowe and her team say they've seen shadow people and have captured several EVPs inside the cells of the jail.
"Back in the day, there were two inmates named Richard Smith and Cora Swenk, who were both accused of killing Lloyd Dynes," said Rowe.
Dynes' murder happened in 1906. To this day, it remains one of Michigan's longest-running unsolved cases.
"We did an EVP session in one of the cells and I was calling on the spirit of Richard Smith to find out if he was guilty or not," said Rowe. "I flat out asked, 'did you kill Lloyd Dynes?'
"We got a very clear EVP of a male voice that said, 'guilty.'"
"Was that Richard Smith? I don't know."
Rowe says her team gets several direct messages to the their Facebook page from Galien residents claiming they think they have ghosts in their homes. Rowe, and her band of Galien Ghostbusters visit each home for an initial walk-through, then scheduled a later date for the investigation.
"We'll take all the audio and video recordings and scour through them over and over to listen for or try to see if we captured anything unusual," said Rowe.
A few weeks later, the team returns to the home and reveals their findings to the homeowners.
The best news is that their services are free.
"I can't see charging people for us to come in, stand in the dark, and talk to dead people," said Rowe. "There's a lot of [paranormal] teams out there who will do the ghost hunting for free, but if you want to hear or see the evidence they caught on tape, you have to pay them.
"We're not going to do that."
Rowe believes in the service that she and her paranormal team provide, especially since there seem to be so many cases of unexplained activity in Galien.
"People here are concerned about what's happening in their homes," said Rowe. "They want to know what it is and if it could harm their children, so that's why we do this."
The membership of The Michiana Paranormal Society has changed over the the years. Rowe says the drop-off has mostly been due to fear.
"It does get scary at times," said Rowe. "New members think because they enjoy watching paranormal shows on TV, they'll like doing this, but sometimes when they participate in the investigations, they get freaked out."
In September 2018, the team added two new investigators, bringing their membership to six. Lisa Renee joined as an investigator. She's a married mother of three. Eric Kener has also joined the team.
Kim Rowe is convinced that Galien is chock-full of ghosts and she's thrilled that she and her team of Galien Ghostbusters are ready, willing and able to answer the call when residents are certain they have unwanted visitors in their homes.
"It's not our job to prove anything to anybody, except to who we're trying to help," said Rowe. "I don't care what skeptics think because I used to be one.
"Ghosts do exist, whether you want to believe it or not. I've got proof they exist."
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