A 1932 Prohibition-era tavern in tiny Kewadin, Antrim County, where a basement suicide is said to have left behind cold drafts, moving objects, and flickering lights still reported by staff and patrons.
7204 Cairn Hwy, Kewadin, MI 49648
Age
21+
Cost
$$
Operating bar and grill; standard food and drink pricing. No cover for the paranormal lore.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Single-level tavern interior with paved parking
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1932 · Antrim County Prohibition-era tavern · Northern Michigan roadhouse history
Kewadin is a small unincorporated community in Antrim County, in the Elk Rapids area of northern Michigan near the shores of Elk Lake and Grand Traverse Bay. The Oasis Red Bull Tavern, located at 7204 Cairn Highway, has been a community gathering spot for decades.
The tavern building dates to 1932 — a notable construction year, as it fell during both Prohibition and the depths of the Great Depression. Roadhouses and taverns of that era in rural northern Michigan frequently operated on the margins of the law during Prohibition, and many such buildings carry layered local histories.
The Oasis remains an operating bar and grill today, listed across travel and dining directories and active on social media. Its reputation as one of the better-known small-town haunts in northern Michigan rests on a single recurring ghost story tied to the building's early years, retold by regional outlets and haunted-place directories rather than on any documented historical tragedy with a named individual.
Sources
The Oasis Red Bull Tavern's haunting, as documented by 99WFMK, Michigan Haunted Houses, and HauntedPlaces.org, centers on a single recurring story: that a man died by suicide in the building's basement around 1932, when the tavern first opened. No name, date, or contemporary record for this individual appears in the sources, so the figure functions as an unnamed legend rather than a verified historical person.
Reported phenomena are the kind typical of a long-standing bar haunting. Patrons and staff describe hearing footsteps when no one is there, watching objects move on their own, and feeling sudden, brief ice-cold drafts across the neck or shoulders even on warm summer nights. One often-repeated account describes a patron feeling a cold hand on the shoulder while seated at the end of the bar on Halloween night, with no one nearby. Lights and televisions are said to switch on and off without explanation.
Notably, every retelling stresses that the activity has never harmed anyone — the ghost is described as a benign, if unsettling, presence. The story is well known locally and has made the Oasis one of the more frequently cited haunted bars in northern Michigan.
Notable Entities
Visit the operating Oasis Red Bull Tavern in Kewadin for food and drinks while listening for the bar's well-known ghost story. Patrons report cold drafts, moving objects, and flickering lights attributed to a man said to have died in the basement when the tavern opened in 1932.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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