Pomeraning House hauntings: The true story of the 'Hell House' that could give 'The Conjuring' a run for its money
The story of the Pomeraning house in the small farming town of Saginaw County, Michigan, is not well known, but it definitely should be. Reports of haunting in this home have been reported since the late 1970s but rarely has it been examined as Steve Shippy's Travel Channel show 'Haunting in the Heartland' does. The show features a farmhouse on Dice Road about four miles north of Merrill.
The distraught homeowners sought help after their granddaughter Aidabelle is driven out by some seriously eerie incidents where the spirits seem to be targeting her. Unexplained scratches, black smoke, mysterious footprints and a presence just not allowing her to live inside the home, this haunting is right out of James Wan's 'The Conjuring', just the first one though.
Unexplained fires
Currently, the home is occupied by the Midcalf family and their granddaughter. All of them have described strange occurrences in the house from feeling locked out of a room due to an unseen force or seeing black smoke come out of nowhere, making it impossible to see. One such occurrence is said to have happened to Josh, the son of Celeste and Mike Midcalf. One night when he was in the kitchen, he was forced to sleep on the counter after a presence refused to let him pass and go up to his room. He had seen black smoke fill the room and he was unable to scream for help.
Records and media reports from earlier have shown similar things happening in the house wherein a boy almost died of suffocation. There have also been incidents of constant unexplained pounding sounds near the home that left the local and state police absolutely baffled. There have also been reports of a toilet paper roll catching fire with no accelerants around and burnt in such a way that it was humanly impossible for it to get the amount of oxygen it did - enough to fill the room with smoke. Police from different agencies and university researchers even stayed overnight in the house, and deputies staked it out on several occasions. Priests, a K-9 unit and a paranormal expert from Sweden were also called in for the investigation. However, none could explain the mysterious occurrences.
Shippy, whose rapper stage name is "Prozak," told the Detroit Free Press: "I don't know that I've ever seen any case that could remotely come close to the police reports, to the documentation, to the eyewitnesses of what happened in Merrill, and to me, it's definitely one of the most shocking cases in paranormal history."
The real story of the Pomeraning home and the town of Iva
The history of the home dates back to 1845 to the town of Iva, where the structure used to be the only general store within a good few miles. Located at Iva and Dice roads, it was a hub for the community that was yet to be incorporated in the nearby areas, where people were buying land and clearing the area for farming. The tiny town was hit with the smallpox plague and instead of getting help, they were forcefully shut inside their home and the town set on fire. Men, women, and children affected could have been burned alive or left to die miserable, terrifying deaths.
The property is on a straight road a little away from where everything went down.
Shippy's new show explores the little known hauntings in the country.
You can catch 'Hauntings in the Heartland' on Travel Channel on Fridays at 10/9c.