The last fleet submarine from WWII's Pacific theater open to overnight paranormal investigation in the Midwest.
1346 Bluff Street, Muskegon, MI 49441
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
General admission for museum tours; overnight paranormal investigation events are separately ticketed at higher cost.
Access
Limited Access
Submarine interior requires climbing through narrow hatches and crawling through tight passageways; not wheelchair accessible
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1941 · National Historic Landmark · WWII Naval History · Pacific Theater Operations · U.S. Submarine Service
The USS Silversides was commissioned December 15, 1941, just eight days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. A Gato-class fleet submarine built at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California, she departed for her first war patrol on April 30, 1942, and would complete 14 patrols in the Pacific before the war ended.
Over those patrols, the Silversides sank 23 enemy vessels totaling approximately 90,080 tons of shipping, making her one of the top ten most productive U.S. submarines of the entire war. She received the Presidential Unit Citation and twelve battle stars. During the war, several crew members died aboard or in combat operations — a fact that gives weight to the reported paranormal activity in her cramped quarters.
After the war, Silversides served as a Naval Reserve training vessel in Chicago before being decommissioned and transferred to various preservation efforts. She arrived in Muskegon in 1987 and became the centerpiece of the USS Silversides Submarine Museum, which also includes the Coast Guard Cutter McLane. The museum was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
The submarine retains most of her wartime configuration, including the forward and aft torpedo rooms, crew bunking areas, the control room with its original navigation equipment, the galley, and the conning tower. The museum estimates 40,000 to 50,000 visitors annually. The Southern Michigan Paranormals organization ranked the Silversides second most haunted location in West Michigan, citing consistent reports of unexplained activity during overnight investigation events.
Sources
The USS Silversides lost crew members during her wartime patrols — men who died in the tight confines of the very compartments visitors walk through today. That history underlies the paranormal claims made about the vessel, which are more consistent than the typical haunted-location report.
The Southern Michigan Paranormals, a documented paranormal investigation group active in the West Michigan region, conducted investigations aboard the Silversides and ranked it the second most haunted location in West Michigan. Their findings are referenced by the Visit Muskegon tourism bureau. Reported phenomena concentrate in the forward torpedo room, the crew sleeping quarters with their narrow pipe-frame bunks, and the control room.
Overnight investigators during museum-hosted events report footsteps moving through compartments when no one else is present, localized cold spots in the torpedo rooms, and a general sense of being watched that visitors consistently describe as more intense in the aft sections. The claustrophobic geometry of the submarine — hatches the size of a washing machine drum, passageways that require turning sideways — amplifies any anomaly. Whether the reports reflect genuine paranormal activity or the psychological pressure of sleeping in a wartime combat vessel is a question the museum wisely leaves open.
Self-guided and docent-led tours through the USS Silversides and the accompanying Coast Guard Cutter McLane. Visitors walk the full length of the submarine, moving through the crew quarters, torpedo rooms, conning tower, and engine compartments. The tight spaces and preserved equipment give a direct impression of the conditions under which the crew operated during wartime patrols.
The museum hosts organized overnight paranormal investigation events aboard the Silversides. Participants spend the night in the submarine's crew quarters and conduct investigations using their own equipment in areas identified by prior investigators as active — the forward torpedo room, the crew sleeping quarters, and the control room. The Southern Michigan Paranormals group, which ranked the vessel second most haunted in West Michigan, has conducted multiple documented investigations here.
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