Ghost Mine – S01E06 – Gold Fever – The Finale

So here we are at the final episode of Ghost Mine and it’s been quite an interesting adventure. The team has experienced Tommyknockers, shadow figures, power drains, phantom winds, mysterious “explosions” and what could very well be a secret entrance to a tunnel ripe with gold. They’ve seen wild EMF spikes and have done investigations in multiple locations. But at the end of the day the miners are still going for gold and are determine to see what’s at the end of that new mine shaft.

As Stan, Eddie, Patrick and Kristen check out the new shaft, the EMF meter spikes on a repeated basis. Eddie and Stan hear all sorts of noises including what sounds like a growl. Patrick and Kristen both see a figure moving in the darkness and Patrick actually walks away with what looks like a man standing at the very end of the mine shaft.

The shaft is wickedly unsafe, but as a group they decide to “rehab” it, fix the support beams so they can do a quick in and out to get as much gold as possible. Although hesitant they’re all in agreement, especially Bucket who’s bravado is more than likely going to get him killed.

They show the new tunnel to Larry who is all for extracting as much as possible. And with that they head in to shore things up. Along the way they find plenty of old tools, dynamite boxes and even an old bottle perhaps filled with moonshine. They say the previous miners gave a hasty retreat.

Everyone is now saying they feel odd or strange in this new tunnel with Patrick going so far as to say it feels “wrong”. Even the wives are scared for the lives of their husbands as they begin work on this new mine.

Besides the odd picture of the figure wandering around, after they blast the rock away, Dingus disappears into the mine saying he saw a figure and chased it. He is all manner of delirious. Why the devil would he chase someone into the mine, especially without asking for help?

Undeterred by all these events they press on and get ready to work the new mine. But it’s simply not meant to be as the entrance to the mine has caved in sealing the shaft once again. All the wood surrounding the opening has buckled and splintered. Clearly, they won’t be getting any gold out of this one. Eddie even goes so far as to say the mine owner Larry caused the cave in so he can come back later and cut them out of the deal.

It wasn’t a total loss though. In the end each man walks away with $80k for their efforts. It could have been a lot more had that other shaft not collapsed, but it’s far better than a handful of nothing. Will they come back next year and finish the job? Will Larry bring back this same crew or as Eddie put it, will he handle it himself and cut them out of a massive payday?

Overall this was an interesting series since it was an investigation that stayed in the same place over time. However, I can’t really agree with their assessment of dark energy and all this gloom they place on the mine.

First of all, no one has been hurt, touched, scratched, or abused in any way. If there is an energy there it certainly didn’t cause any harm. If anything it may have been warning them of the dangers.

Simply because a place is owned by the Masons doesn’t make it sinister and evil. That is such a cop out these days. The Masons are not Satanists or cultists or practitioners of witchcraft. That’s basically the same as saying that since something was owned by the government it holds alien technology.

You also have to wonder about this mysterious “Jay” who told Kristen and Patrick about the additional mineshaft. If he knew so damn much, why not bring it up to Larry himself? And just who is he anyway? Just some concerned citizen passing by who just happens to know there is a secret mine tunnel? This whole clandestine meeting seems a little suspect to me. How come he didn’t buy the mine and reap the benefits of the gold? Or is that perhaps his plan?

The use of the word “portal” was over used and overly dramatic. It’s simply a barrier across a tunnel. Everyone is jumping to sinister conclusions about why it’s there. Oh my goodness, it has to be holding dark energy in the tunnel. It’s a gateway to keeping evil from reaching the surface. Really? Evil can’t pass through wood? Maybe the original miners considered it to be too dangerous to work with at the time and blocked it off until they could come back to it. Perhaps they ran out of time and winter came early. That would cause them to make a hasty retreat otherwise they would be trapped on the mountain. Considering the time period, they may not have had enough food and supplies to last a winter up there. It’s not like they could just jump in a car and zip down the hill in 40 minutes like they do now. It would have been a major undertaking. There is nothing to suggest they were in danger and had to flee.

Despite the first episode where they found bones, and since it was never brought up again we can assume they were “lunch”, they never found remains, graves, clothes or anything else that says a huge number of men died up there. With that kind of work it’s certainly likely deaths occurred, but the all important evidence doesn’t support atrocities up there.

In all the evidence there are really only two things I find noteworthy. First is the massive “explosion” that happens while they were playing cards. There was no explanation for that. Was that rocks coming down?

Second, the figure in the picture Patrick took. It does indeed look like a figure. And? It’s not like it attacked them or anyone else for that matter. Nothing bad happened. If that was indeed an entity saying he’s dangerous is ridiculous.

All the noise from the mine, the growls, groans and phantom winds could just as easily be the rotting wood, the water dripping, beams creaking and considering there is a hell of a lot more to this tunnel system than they know about who knows where the air is coming from. Who knows what gases are down there. Don’t forget, miners used to take canaries down there because the air seemed fine, but it wasn’t.

This was a fun series and I would really love to see how this all plays out. But, I feel there was a lot of “made for TV drama” that just doesn’t have a basis in reality. I think far too many of the events would be par for the course within an old mine. The Earth is a strange mistress. There is a lot of stuff under the surface and so much of it seems foreign, but is perfectly normal. And there were far too many suspect characters on the periphery that could have had their own agenda and could have been out for their own gain.

As I said before, so many of these guys give off a “Scooby-Doo” vibe. There were plenty of Miner 49ers that turned out to be nothing more than a greedy land owner trying to get his hands on some gold.

So what do you think? Haunted mine? Crafty mine owner? Dark spirit? Cursed city? Masonic influence? Cover up?

Other Articles of Interest:

• Ghost Mine – Secret Passage – S01E05
• Ghost Mine – Shadows in the Drift – S02E11
• Ghost Mine – Return to Darkness – S02E01
• Ghost Mine – S01E01
• Ghost Mine – Phantom Wind – S01E04
• Ghost Mine – The Final Barrier – S02E12 Season Finale
• Ghost Mine – Wandering Spirit – S02E04
• Ghost Mine – Vengeful Spirit – S01E03
• Ghost Mine – Town Wide Terror – S02E09
• Ghost Mine – Disturbance at the Inn – S01E02