Forever searching for her lost love who was killed on the Great Lakes, Minnie Quay appears now and then, walking the shores of Lake Huron near Forester, Michigan, gazing longingly into the horizon, hoping a ship appears but always left heartbroken when no ship is seen.
During the 1800’s, the tiny town of Forrester was busy with the lumbering business. Minnie, who was fifteen at the time, fell in love with one of the sailors who came to port there. Her parents didn’t want their daughter with a sailor and the budding romance was forbidden by Minnie’s parents. During 1876, a spring storm took down the boat Minnie’s lover worked on and he died. Torn with grief and the fact she didn’t get to say goodbye to him the last time she saw him, she jumped off the pier in Forrester and killed herself in the waters of Lake Huron.
They say Minnie can be seen along the shores of Lake Huron, looking off into the distance. Some women have even claimed she has called to them from the water, trying to lure them into death the same way she died within the cool waters.
Michigan’s Otherside took a visit to the tiny town of Forrester in the fall of 2006 and stopped by the Forrester Cemetery to pay our respects to the grave of Minnie Quay. Flowers, tokens and pennies adorn her grave from others who know her story. We stayed in a cottage on Lake Huron but alas, didn’t find much in the way of her ghost. If we ever visit again, hopefully Minnie stops by to say hello, but forgets to try and lure us to our deaths.
