Room #30: The Haunting of the Lakeside Inn, Berrien County

Any time of year is a good time for a ghost story – not just during Halloween season – and this is a good one.

The Lakeside Inn Resort is less than a mile southwest of the town of Lakeside in Berrien County. The story began in 1901 when Arthur Aylesworth and his brother discovered the resort during a family camping trip. The boys were so taken with the place that in 1901 they coaxed their parents into buying it, which Arthur eventually inherited years later. He operated the business during Prohibition, and the inn was not without its share of gambling and illicit alcohol. Bootleggers traveled down Lake Michigan with boatloads of illegal booze; once docked, there were inn customers willing to enter the water, wade to the boat, and help unload cases of booze.

With visits from mob members, it was alleged that Al Capone himself came here to relax (where didn’t Al Capone visit in Michigan?). Perhaps influenced by the lifestyles of gangsters, Arthur shot and wounded his second wife for reasons unknown. Claiming it an accident – to the disbelief of locals – she survived, and the marriage continued for a number of years.

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When Arthur's wife passed away in 1953, Arthur spent much of his later years falling asleep in the lobby in front of a TV set.

Each night, one of the inn’s handymen would be awakened from a sound sleep by who he referred to as the ghost of Arthur’s wife. She would proceed to tell him to go wake Arthur, tell him to undress and go to bed. Since then, many guests of the inn have reported experiencing the spectre of Mrs. Aylesworth, usually in - or near - Room 30.

In 1962, after the inn was foreclosed by the Niles Bank, Arthur died a broken man in the University Hospital at Ann Arbor. The staff was unaware who this man was, and they were all set to hand the body over to medical students for dissection and experimentation. After Lakeside was contacted by attorneys and found out where Arthur’s remains were, some locals went to Ann Arbor, claimed the body, and returned him to Lakeside, where he was buried properly in the Lakeside Cemetery.

Along with Mrs. Aylesworth’s spirit, the ghost of Arthur himself has been detected.....and they both walk the halls together to this day, in the vicinity of Room 30...