Inside Manistee’s Ghost Ship

Ghosts, ghouls and gore await

By Ross Boissoneau | Oct. 24, 2026

Each October, the City of Milwaukee is overrun by the dead and the undead, from vampires and werewolves to zombies and mummies. Visitors find their nightmares have come to life.

Sounds like a movie set in the largest city in Wisconsin, but A) it really happens, and B) it’s not in Milwaukee but on board the ship S.S. City of Milwaukee. The retired railroad ferry car docked in Manistee now serves as a museum, but during the Halloween season, it undergoes a transformation into a ghost ship, complete with actors, animatronics, and effects, all put together by a crew of about 40.

Robby Laurain is the executive director of the nonprofit Society for the Preservation of the S.S. City of Milwaukee and the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Acacia. The group oversees tours of the both ships and efforts to maintain them and tell their stories. “We’re so very lucky” to have them, says Laurain of the two historic watercraft.

The ships offer tours throughout the summer which draw numerous visitors, but those numbers are dwarfed by the throngs of people who wait hours in line to tour Manistee’s Ghost Ship and get the bejeebers scared out of them. The lines snaking through the parking lot testify to its ever-increasing popularity. Laurain says the ghost ship tours are the biggest fundraiser of the year for the nonprofit.

“Some wait in line one and a half to two hours,” he says, before it is their turn to enter the haunted engine room, galley, staterooms, passageways, and other areas of the ship. If they dare—even from the parking lot, they can see the occasional flashing lights and hear the screams, moans, and other sounds from the ship. But don’t feel too sorry for those waiting in line; they also enjoy live music from a band of the undead and can make purchases from on-site vendors.

A Haunted History

While the story of the S.S. City of Milwaukee is relatively mundane, her birth came about due to a true horror.

The ship was built in 1930 to replace the S.S. Milwaukee, which sank in October 1929 during a gale just three miles from its home port of Milwaukee, killing all 52 men aboard. The S.S. City of Milwaukee subsequently operated from 1931 until 1978, carrying railroad cars between Muskegon and Milwaukee. She was then chartered to the Ann Arbor Railroad, for which she sailed until being retired in 1982.

Now a national historic landmark, the City of Milwaukee also offers overnight stays in the summer. It also hosts private events, even a wedding or two each year. “It’s unique, a beautiful setting,” Laurain says.

Her more recent history is full of mayhem, murder, terrifying supernatural happenings, and scarifying incidents involving mad scientists, severed limbs, and other accoutrements of carnage. Fortunately, that’s only been the case since 2000, when Manistee’s Ghost Ship first opened her hatches.

The Halloween makeover attracts around 5,000 people each year. Its appeal is so widespread it was named “Haunt of the Year” in 2024 by Michigan Haunted Houses—yes, there is such an organization—and has been nominated several other times.

How the Horror Gets Made

Laurain credits the crew that transforms the ship and scares the heck out of people. “It is an amazing group of people that comes together. It’s like an unorganized symphony,” he says with a laugh.

Laurain says the volunteers meet a couple times prior to opening to come up with a plan for that year’s attractions. While they rely on things that have worked in the past—he mentions staples such as clowns, spiders, darkness, and a hospital—they also change things up to keep the scares fresh. The route through the ship changes yearly, and the 20 or so rooms have different themes. “Every year is different. This year there’s a mineshaft,” he says.

The ship closes for the summer tours at the end of August, leaving just a month to transform it into a house—err, ship—of horrors. “It’s our biggest challenge and biggest opportunity,” says Laurain.

Making it work is up to the cadre of volunteers. They each have their area of expertise. “Maybe they’re good at lighting or makeup, sound or set building.” Others portray the various inhabitants of the ship in all their gory glory. “We are always looking for more volunteers. All are appreciated,” says Laurain.

That appreciation seems to go both ways. Many volunteers return yearly, some for a decade or more. Laurain says while most come from the Manistee area, some hail from Traverse City, Reed City, Scottville, and beyond. “Some come from Wisconsin,” he says, though typically just for a weekend.

The three dozen-plus volunteers take great pains to make sure the ship is festooned with spider webs, instruments of torture, and other props, with special effects adding to the fear factor. They are sourced from various places: “Halloween tours and shops, thrift stores, a lot are homemade,” says Laurain. While some are contrived by the volunteers, a number are purchased through Poison Props, a high-end Halloween supplier of props, animatronics, lights and more.

Visitors are able to pace themselves so they can catch their breath before moving on to whatever awaits them around the next corner, and groups of guests are deliberately spaced out to provide the maximum amount of terror.

Laurain says in some places you can’t even tell you are on a ship. In those you can, the setting and narrow passageways themselves can induce claustrophobia, adding to the thrills and chills. “The ship itself is creepy. If you turned the lights off, that would be sufficient,” he says.

Manistee’s Ghost Ship is open every Friday and Saturday in October from 7:30-10:30pm and Sunday, Oct. 25, from 7:30-10pm. Admission is $15 to $20, depending on the night. New this year is the Fright Club, offering endless admissions for $85. That also provides for discounts on merchandise and a free Fright Club sticker.