Read Online Chasing Spirits: The Building of the "Ghost Adventures" Crew by Nick Groff, Jeff Belanger - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Nick Groff, Jeff Belanger
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Hotel that stands on the outskirts of Virginia City. Built in 1859, it’s Nevada’s oldest hotel. If this building could talk, it would have quite a tale to tell. It’s seen just about everything, including its fair share of tragedies.
The hotel’s Miner’s Lodge building is the former mining office of the infamous Yellow Jacket mine. It was a place where miners would collect their pay and wash up after work, and also where the accounting books were kept.
The Yellow Jacket silver mine was discovered in the spring of 1859. The mine consisted of 957 feet of the region’s Comstock Lode and produced over fourteen million dollars worth of silver.
On the morning of April 7, 1869, disaster struck when a fire broke out eight hundred feet below the surface inside the Yellow Jacket mine. When rescuers tried to enter, they were pushed back by the flames and smoke. The more the fire burned, the more poisonous smoke seeped into the nearby Crow Point and Kentucky mines. All rescuers could do at this point was to seal off sections of the mine to keep the fire from spreading. It took years of smoldering before some sections finally cooled down.
At least thirty-five miners were dead after what was the worst mining accident in Nevada history up to that point. Some bodies were never retrieved and are still down there today.
The only thing firefighters could do was to collapse sections of the mine to keep the fire from spreading. According to local reports, the cries of the widows who gathered near the mine’s office could be heard for miles around. Some people will tell you they can still hear those cries today—a residual haunting, an echo of tragedy from the past.
One theory for the cause of the fire was that a worker left a burning candle too close to the timbers inside the mine. Another theory was that Nevada state senator William Sharon was behind an arson that was intended to close the mine for good and offer the senator a political advantage.
Whatever the cause, the result was nearly three dozen dead and a scar left on the land.
Today, just a few yards behind the Miner’s Lodge, you can still see where the mine was collapsed. The lodge itself is believed to be haunted by former miners who might still be calling out for help.
When you think about this history, it helps you to tune in to the past. I start to imagine the horror of being trapped by fire. Imagine that moment when you realize you’re not going to get out alive. Knowing your death is moments away must be the purest form of fear.
During investigations, we almost always use an audio recorder to try to capture electronic voice phenomena, or EVP. The idea is that spirits can imprint their voices directly on our recorders in response to questions being asked. Though you can’t hear theresponse at the time, you hear it on the playback. This is some of the most compelling evidence we have of spirit contact.
The EVP we caught in that room at Miner’s Lodge is still one of the most amazing pieces of evidence I’ve ever heard. You can clearly hear, “Is it the devil?” We’d let that tape roll for an hour; we hadn’t expected anything, but that one quiet voice on the tape freaked us out.
As I was investigating Virginia City, I noticed a transformation taking place within me. I’m a filmmaker, a documentarian who wants to document everything I’m discovering in a raw and original way. But now, I realized, I’m part of the story—I’m in it. And not just in it—I was getting way into the investigation itself.
QUESTIONS FANS ASK
How can you be sure what you’re seeing is paranormal and not your eyes playing tricks on you?
This is why it’s good to have other people investigate with you or have your video camera rolling. If you see something weird, you can ask the people around you to describe what they’re seeing. If it’s really in the environment, then others will see it too and you can film it with your camera. You need a second opinion
The hotel’s Miner’s Lodge building is the former mining office of the infamous Yellow Jacket mine. It was a place where miners would collect their pay and wash up after work, and also where the accounting books were kept.
The Yellow Jacket silver mine was discovered in the spring of 1859. The mine consisted of 957 feet of the region’s Comstock Lode and produced over fourteen million dollars worth of silver.
On the morning of April 7, 1869, disaster struck when a fire broke out eight hundred feet below the surface inside the Yellow Jacket mine. When rescuers tried to enter, they were pushed back by the flames and smoke. The more the fire burned, the more poisonous smoke seeped into the nearby Crow Point and Kentucky mines. All rescuers could do at this point was to seal off sections of the mine to keep the fire from spreading. It took years of smoldering before some sections finally cooled down.
At least thirty-five miners were dead after what was the worst mining accident in Nevada history up to that point. Some bodies were never retrieved and are still down there today.
The only thing firefighters could do was to collapse sections of the mine to keep the fire from spreading. According to local reports, the cries of the widows who gathered near the mine’s office could be heard for miles around. Some people will tell you they can still hear those cries today—a residual haunting, an echo of tragedy from the past.
One theory for the cause of the fire was that a worker left a burning candle too close to the timbers inside the mine. Another theory was that Nevada state senator William Sharon was behind an arson that was intended to close the mine for good and offer the senator a political advantage.
Whatever the cause, the result was nearly three dozen dead and a scar left on the land.
Today, just a few yards behind the Miner’s Lodge, you can still see where the mine was collapsed. The lodge itself is believed to be haunted by former miners who might still be calling out for help.
When you think about this history, it helps you to tune in to the past. I start to imagine the horror of being trapped by fire. Imagine that moment when you realize you’re not going to get out alive. Knowing your death is moments away must be the purest form of fear.
During investigations, we almost always use an audio recorder to try to capture electronic voice phenomena, or EVP. The idea is that spirits can imprint their voices directly on our recorders in response to questions being asked. Though you can’t hear theresponse at the time, you hear it on the playback. This is some of the most compelling evidence we have of spirit contact.
The EVP we caught in that room at Miner’s Lodge is still one of the most amazing pieces of evidence I’ve ever heard. You can clearly hear, “Is it the devil?” We’d let that tape roll for an hour; we hadn’t expected anything, but that one quiet voice on the tape freaked us out.
As I was investigating Virginia City, I noticed a transformation taking place within me. I’m a filmmaker, a documentarian who wants to document everything I’m discovering in a raw and original way. But now, I realized, I’m part of the story—I’m in it. And not just in it—I was getting way into the investigation itself.
QUESTIONS FANS ASK
How can you be sure what you’re seeing is paranormal and not your eyes playing tricks on you?
This is why it’s good to have other people investigate with you or have your video camera rolling. If you see something weird, you can ask the people around you to describe what they’re seeing. If it’s really in the environment, then others will see it too and you can film it with your camera. You need a second opinion
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