Harry Bennett LODGE
Paul has left a new comment on "HARRY BENNETTS CASTLE":
Harry Bennett also had a log-cabin looking (solid cement) home on what is now Lost Lake Scout reserve, it has hidden tunnels and a gun mount in a BBQ pit on the roof. It also had a runway across the lake and it it rumored to have a tunnel leading over to it.
Thank Paul we also have heard rumors that their was a Bennett cabin hidden off Geddes Rd across the street from Cicarelli's Farm way way back. My friend Bob Fox used to live in it and he told us stories about the tunnels way back in the 70's
Thanks for commenting and ANYONE else that has info please send it in!
Thank you Paul for the pic too!
From Kelsey J:
My friend and I just searched the hideout today (the one on Geddes Rd and Prospect) it was really cool. We found a cement log cabin, two small cylinder brick/cememnt towers, and some under ground rooms. If anyone has ANY info about these and there possibly being tunnels, please comment back!!!! thanks!
From Bob Fox my friend who lived in the cabin in Ypsilanti:
"Bennett had a sculptured cement cabin in Superior Twp. I lived there. There is a big red concrete barn on Geddes between Prospect and Leforge. On the wall inside is inscribed 'Bennett 1941'. The men in the Service Dept wore 'X' badges— a collector's item if you can find one. There are 2 more sculptured cement homes nearby on Stommel Rd.,off Vreeland Rd."
Tell more Bob!!!
Read more about Harry....
NEW* Video Tour of The Castle
Castle Photos From 1984
Harry Bennett's Lodge HERE
Harry Bennett's Cabin HERE
The Rise and Fall of Harry Bennett HERE
17 comments:
"We tried to find the one on Geddes. Got my license that day and got the family car in a ditch trying to find the cabin. Thank goodness a passerby helped us get it out!"
"There was also Hickory Farms horse farm out about Saline that the Bennett's owned. The walls to the study were soundproofed with walls two feet thick and the doors also were armored."
"Bennett's Castle is easily seen from the Huron River and a canoe......"
has anyone ever heard of devils hole and the creek that has iron spikes that leeds too it
this house has a lot of things. there is a bookcase door in the basement library that goes down uneven steps into a secrect room. the ceiling is full of passages that you could crawl through. the lodge is on an island that a moat was dug around. the moat was filled with spikes and the only bridge onto the island was loaded with dynamite. at the bottem of the lake its on, there are five cars with doors welded shut. Devil's hole is a sinkhole on part of the moat with a depth that is unknown.
i have been there. it is very cool. & yes it is very hard to see from the road. when you find the roadway to go up to the house its a really bad dirt road and has alot of turns. the house itself has a moat around it & you cross a little bridge. the house does have secret tunnels and it has a flat roof and Harry Bennett would have security on the roof looking out for the police. he had also put explosives under the brige so when cops came he could blow it up. the cabin on lost lake is an amazing thing to see. i loved it. & i had went to for a field trip. i was so happy i went.
I stumbled on your site once before when researching the Michigan murders and here I have found you again while looking up Harry. :)
Anyway, when I was in high school in the early 90's my friends and I used to skip school at this strange little cabin in the woods off Geddes and LeForge. Now I know it belonged to HB.
It was 2 open rooms divided by a stone fireplace that went to the roof. There was a ladder secreted in a sliding wall that led to a tiny room with a tiny window. From there you could squeeze around the chimney to an identical room. I always wondered what those rooms were for, but it seemed the only reason for them could be lookouts with the tiny windows to stick guns out of.
There were also 3 small stone outbuildings. If there were tunnels, I never saw them.
Around 2006 I tried to take my daughter and her friend there to show them, but there are houses built all around the area now and I'm not even sure if the cabin still stands. The roof had begun to fall in the last time I was there.
Very creepy and interesting!
The lodge at the Boy Scout ranch has a exit tunnel from a secret room, in the basement. The room is hidden behind a bookcase that is on hinges. From the room, a exited near the in ground pool.
I was told there was a tunnel that went to the airstrip, but didn't see it.
There is a huge fireplace in the main living room and there is a secret staircase inside of it that leads to the roof.
actually I was one of the staff memebers who worked on the beach in front of the cabin and there was a tunnel, but it didnt lead across the lake, it led across the moat to decorcy lodge which used to be a horse stable. however there was always a boat running with gas at the dock ready to carry bennet across the lake to an airfield which had an airplane also always running with gas so if he had to he could run from people trying to kill him
WOW thanks for the info Connor!!!
I really wish people who leave negative comments would be brave enough to leave their name and email...the information in this story came from people who stayed there as boy scouts and a woman who was the caretaker there for many years..anonymous above doesn't reveal any information that might actually convince us of their comment's validity...can't believe what some people post....K
Sorry Kim,
Only posted Anonymous because I thought I had to set up an account... I have never blogged before.
The boat used was not gas powered, there was a small room in the basement that was used to charge the batteries for the boat motor so that it would be quiet. There was a really large fire place, but not secret passage up to the roof from it. The tunnel is behind a book case but it wasn't from a secret room. The room was used by us as our recreation room and was lined by bookshelves. The only tunnel was the one behind the bookcase that led to a locker room (for changing into swimsuits) and then a few steps down to the bar area that was at the end of the pool. It had a window behind the bar that looked into the pool. My understanding is that they bussed in women to swim naked in the pool for their entertainment. The picture that you used as Bennett's turret is really the climbing walls built and used by the boy scouts. I wasn't a caretaker, I moved there when I was in fourth grade and grew up in that house. My father was the Ranger for the Boy Scout camp.
thank you for the information Becky.. guess I will have to make a trip up to Clare for a visit...
Felisa is correct as relates to the cabin off geddes.....I have been there many times and had a girl friend who lived there......it was HB's hunting lodge.....had a hidden ladder to a passage way where from you could clearly see into all the rooms thru vents....all the bricks in the passageway were rounded off.....there was a built in bar with it's own seperate entrance.....there was a nearby maple sugar cooker building and at least two large underground rooms built with the bricks facing end to end , not length wise that we were told were for "cleaning game"......we always wondered if some poor union workers ended up planted out there , but never saw any sign of it......over 100 acres of woods and a pond at the entrance....this was during the early 1970's.......my friend lived in the caretakers house at the entrance of the property.....the house later blew up.............
I own the land and the cabin now and would appreciate it if you would no longer venture onto my property to visit the cabin.
RE: the LODGE
There was a tunnel behind the bookcase which did add many hours of fun during birthday parties. No secret room where you could hear conversations throughout the house, other wise it would have come in very handy when we were kids. Never heard anything about cars in the lake with welded shut doors. Divers have gone down and the bottom of the lake is so mucky nothing was ever found. Growing up we did hear first hand memories of things being dumped in the lake, but the workers at the time didn't ask questions because it wasn't their business. Devil's Hole is a small lake that was connected to Lost Lake and the moat that was dug to make the island. No other secret rooms or tunnels...believe me, I had 5 brothers who even went into crawl spaces.
I have not been to to that cabin since 1971 and have not sent anyone to go see it.
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