Chelsea Area Historical Society (founded 1974) · 1853 Boyd House museum · Michigan Central Railroad Chelsea Depot (1880) · 1966 Michigan UFO reports
The Chelsea Area Historical Society was formed in 1974 to preserve the history of Chelsea, a Washtenaw County town west of Ann Arbor. After years in temporary quarters, the society bought its first permanent home in late 2014: the 1853 Boyd House at 128 Jackson Street, just opposite the Michigan Central Railroad's 1880 Chelsea Depot, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The museum is open Saturday afternoons year-round.
The society's October ghost walks go back at least to 2018, when it ran After Dark walking tours from the museum at $10 a ticket, led by Jasen King. That year's tours covered the tragedy on the tracks, the Dexter/Chelsea Road ghost, and the North Lake and 1966 UFO sightings. By 2024 the walk was billed as Haunted Chelsea and run with the Chelsea Area Players, a community theater, and in 2025 Vicky James of the Chelsea Area Players led it. The 2026 tours, on October 3 and 10, are led by Bill O'Reilly, the society's president and historian. Proceeds go to both organizations.
The UFO stories draw on a well-documented episode. On the night of March 20, 1966, a mass sighting of lights over marshland near Dexter, the next town east, and another near Hillsdale College the following night brought an Air Force Project Blue Book investigation. The investigator, astronomer J. Allen Hynek, suggested swamp gas as a possible explanation, and the "swamp gas" reports became national news.
Sources
- https://chelseamich.com/events/chelsea-haunted-tours/
- https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chelsea-historical-society-presents-haunted-chelsea-tickets-1999681633596
- https://chelseamich.com/events/chelsea-area-historical-society-haunted-tours-2/
- https://thesuntimesnews.com/haunted-chelsea-returns-presented-by-chelsea-area-historical-society/
- https://chelseaupdate.com/chelsea-area-historical-society-after-dark-walking-tours/
- https://www.chelseahistory.org/about-cahs
- https://annarborobserver.com/guide/chelsea-area-historical-society/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_station_(Michigan)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_%22swamp_gas%22_UFO_reports
Local ghost storiesA tragedy on the railroad tracksA ghost on the Dexter/Chelsea RoadUFO sightings, including 1966
The Chelsea Area Historical Society describes Haunted Chelsea as a walk through the town's scary, gory and supernatural past, with tales of ghosts, tragedies and murder. The published program for 2026 names stories of UFOs, Murder Mountain, the railroad tracks and the Pink Palace. The society's earlier after-dark tours told of a tragedy on the tracks, a ghost on the Dexter/Chelsea Road, and UFO sightings at North Lake and in 1966.
The society does not publish the route or the stories in full, and HauntBound has not taken the tour, so this page records only what the society publishes about its program.
