By David Fleet
Editor
Ortonville-A nighttime Nanny Cam of a baby watching a glowing orb which appeared to be floating across a nursery in an rural Oakland County home was enough of an unexplained apparition to attract paranormal investigators.
On Oct. 22, an area historian and The Old Mill museum were included during an episode, titled “A Nightmare in the Nursery” of the Ghost Nation. The show aired on The Travel Channel. The team of investigators were trying to help a terrified Highland Township family desperate for answers about the ghostly guest allegedly living under their roof. The team sorted through fact from fiction and realized a haunting isn’t always the usual suspect.
The team of Dave Tango, Jason Hawes and Steve Gonsalves responded to the Higgins’ family who have alleged paranormal activity in their home.

After an investigation of the family home with state-of-the-art technology, a meticulous methodology and local contacts, the team tracks down some possible sources of the unexplained phenomena.
The investigation leads to Ortonville and Judy Miracle of the Ortonville Community Historical Society. Miracle is interviewed by paranormal investigator Tango regarding an historical map of Native American trails in Groveland and Brandon townships that also incorporate Highland Township. The Old Mill is home to an Native American exhibit that Tango needed to assist in supporting alleged paranormal activity.
“It’s a good story and well explained,” said Miracle, following her television debut. “So now I know where my tiny part in it fits.”
The investigation team suggested that the extensive Native American trail network parallels the same lake area the Higgins’ home is located.
“The area was home to some very, very old Native American tribes,” said Tango to the other investigators. “They buried their dead in huge mounds. Michigan had over 1,000 mounds. I looked at the maps and compared the maps (to present day maps) myself. There’s a very good chance that the Higgins’ house could be very near or on top of one of these mounds.”
While the paranormal investigation drew no conclusions or proved anything regarding the aberration—the Native American trails and mounds do exist say historians.
Carol Bacak-Egbo, Oakland University special lecturer and Historian and Project Advisor for the Oakland County Parks confirms the area Indian trails and burial sites.
“Historical evidence exists describing Native American trails in Brandon and Groveland townships,” said Bacak-Egbo, a Brandon Township resident. “In Brandon the most significant trail ran from the area around Seymour Lake heading northwest and passing north of Bald Eagle Lake. This trail was likely part of a network that also included waterways since Native Americans used lakes and rivers as well as land for travel purposes.”
“Perhaps even more significant was the existence of a group of mounds near the center of Groveland,” she said. “Very few of these features, which were most likely burial sites, were known to have existed in Oakland County. Such mounds were usually over one thousand years old and sadly they were often destroyed by farmers who found them to be in their way.”