12 of the wildest Michigan news stories from 2024

2024 was certainly a headline-making year. Here are the wildest Michigan news stories, from a giant cake to mysterious underground holes.

It’s a New Year, which means it’s a great time for reflecting on where we have been and what has happened in the past year. In Michigan, that sometimes means looking back at some of the most interesting, head-scratching, and sometimes surprising news stories of 2024.

Whether that’s a couple discovering a mysterious room filled with water under their house, medical emergencies turned miracles, or a life-sized cake celebrating everyone’s favorite football team, here are some of the weirdest Michigan news stories we saw in 2024. 

1. Michigan husband and wife find a hidden room filled with water 20 feet under their house

In April of 2024, Trevor Gilmartin and his wife Hayley discovered a manhole cover that led to a secret room located 20 feet underneath their Port Huron, MI house—and the room turned out to be a giant holding tank of water. According to the couple, the room is directly connected to Lake Huron, which makes it impossible to remove the water (and also makes it safe for them to go into). The Gilmartins just happened to be certified scuba divers, so Trevor went to explore the tank, only to find another secret passage with a “bolted wooden wall” in front of it.

The Gilmartins documented their saga on TikTok, quickly going viral. They have learned that their house used to be a water pumping station and they have used their scuba diving skills to explore the tunnel that connects the room out into Lake Huron. The current theory is that the room and tunnel were part of a smuggling route for alcohol during Prohibition. 

2. Woman made a home in Midland Family Fare sign

The Midland police department in Michigan made a surprising discovery after they found that a 34-year-old woman had taken residence inside a Family Fare store’s sign. The sign sat atop the store’s roof and had an enclosed area with a door underneath it, where she had made her home. 

The woman had been living in the sign for over a year and told police officers that she was homeless but did have a job. There has been no update as to whether or not she has been able to find housing. 

3. Lion’s offensive lineman Skipper scores first-ever touchdown, then attends his son’s birth the same day

2024 has unarguably been a record-breaking year for the Detroit Lions football team, but for offensive lineman Dan Skipper, it’s been memorable in more ways than one. During the December 15, 2024 game of the Lions vs. Buffalo Bills game, Skipper caught a pass and scored his first-ever touchdown, even taking down a defensive player along the way. And later that night, his wife was induced and gave birth to the couple’s first daughter. 

4. Michigan man freed after spending 38 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit

In a news story that had both hope and sadness, a Michigan man was freed in early 2024 after spending 38 years in prison for a crime he was eventually cleared of. The man was awarded 1.7 million after his name was cleared. 

5. Shaquille O’Neal gave 34 Michiganders free chicken and drinks for a whole year

Famed former Lakers basketball player Shaquille O’Neal, also known as simply “Shaq,” brought his Big Chicken restaurant to Michigan in 2024. The chain already has 300 locations across the country and plans to open more Michigan locations in Ann Arbor, Flint, Lansing, Mount Pleasant, and Saginaw. 

The restaurant serves Shaq’s childhood favorites, including, of course, crispy chicken and Cheez-it crusted mac-and-cheese. To celebrate the opening of the Hartland, MI location, Shaq gave the first 34 customers free chicken and drinks for an entire year, an homage to his former number “34.” 

6. Michigan fisherman fined for digging trench to change water flow in Sleeping Bear Dunes Park

A 63-year-old man was fined $26,000 for manually diverting water flow from between the mouth of the Platte River and Lake Michigan back in 2022. Officers found video evidence of him digging a trench and using rocks to divert the river, causing the new channel to grow 200 feet wide only in days. 

The new river allowed for “unauthorized access” for large boats to get into the bay and diverted the river’s natural water flow. The man maintains his innocence and claims that the river was already diverted before he added the rocks. 

7. Kalamazoo County spends 6 figures trying to take over family lakefront home

According to a May 2024 article in MLive, the county of Kalamazoo spent $182,867 in legal expenses from November 2019 through February 2024 in an attempt to take over a lakefront cabin on property the family has owned since the 1940s. The county wanted to make the property part of the adjacent Prairie View County Park. 

In an Instagram post about the cabin, it’s claimed that the family donated the rest of the land for the park and there was a “handshake” agreement that the land on the cabin would eventually be donated as well, but current owners are not ready to sell. 

8. Grand Rapids runner died during a marathon, but strangers stopped and brought him back to life

While competing in Grand Rapids’s marathon in November of 2024, 47-year-old Tim Ruff suffered a heart attack and died for nearly a full four minutes on the course. Ruff just happened to collapse next to a fellow marathoner who was also a nurse. She initiated CPR and as she worked to save Ruff, another marathoner—a doctor—happened to run by and stopped his own race to also help. 

What makes the story even crazier is that the doctor who stopped to help was walking the course instead of running as usual because of an injury. He told media outlets that while he was initially disappointed about his setback, he ended up feeling grateful he was in the “right place at the right time” to help. 

9. “Bermuda Triangle” found in Lake Michigan

Satellite imagery in April of 2024 revealed a very strange and unprecedented circle of much warmer water in Lake Michigan. The spot was found to be at least 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the lake, which scientists say can be attributed to the area having light winds that let the waters warm up faster than the water around it. The warm spot likely has an easy explanation, but that didn’t stop some people from trying to dub the spot as Michigan’s own “Bermuda Triangle.” 

10. Faygo introduced a new green pop flavor

Iconic Michigan soda maker Faygo introduced a brand-new flavor called “Jolly Green Apple” in 2024. The new flavor—as you may have guessed—is said to taste fruity and bright, like a candied green apple. 

The Detroit Free Press described the new flavor as “sweet” and “tangy” with a “slightly tart apple flavor similar to green apple hard candies and licorice.”

11. Michigan’s voting stickers went viral

There’s no doubt that the election was a highly-charged event for the entire nation, but Michigan attempted to bring a bit of brevity into the situation with a voting sticker contest. Michigan hosted a voting sticker contest, which drew 480 designs, and a lot of smiles at the voting booth. 

Students from elementary through high school across the state submitted designs for the stickers and the public voted on their favorites, which were distributed to voters at the polls. The winning designs included a friendly Midwestern-themed “Ope, I Voted” and Michigan familiar figures, like a deer and fish. 

12. Rochester bakery goes viral for headstand cake

Last but certainly not least and in the spirit of hopeful celebrations to come in the new year for the Lions—who are now the predicted pick for the Superbowl for the first time in history—one of the viral Michigan headlines of the year was a Rochester, MI bakery creating a lifesize headstand cake.

Rochester’s Home Bakery baked and decorated a cake shaped like Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown doing his infamous endzone headstand celebration during the November 3rd game against the Green Bay Packers. The cake has drawn national attention, visitors who want their picture snapped with it, and as of January 5, was still standing in the window of the bakery. (I can’t be the only one who is wondering if someone actually gets to eat the cake, right?)

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.