Ghost Mine – Wandering Spirit – S02E04

For this episode of Ghost Mine, the investigation and research continues into the history of the Chinese miners that worked at the Crescent mine. Turns out there was a lot of anger and prejudice towards the Chinese works. In fact, not only were they forced to work "dried up" gold veins, but when the overall amount of gold began to deplete, tempers flared and the Chinese were blamed. To that end, 3 dozen Chinese miners were massacred and their bodies thrown into the river. According to Gregory Nokes, it was a "savage act of racial hatred". The story is quite shocking, but sadly, I doubt it’s the only story like that.

Aside from the brutal murders, part of the Chinese culture believes that if you’re buried on foreign soil your spirit will never be at rest and will wander aimlessly. At first, the bodies of massacred miners were buried where they were found, some as far as 65 miles down river. However, over time their bodies were rounded up and taken back to China so they could be buried properly. Since so many of the miners were unaccounted for, did all of them make it back to their native land?

Gregory also discusses the remnants of the structure Patrick and Kristen found. While the symbols on the rock mean place of cremation, Nokes believes the building the found is a collapsed burner house, a place where prayer scrolls and incense would be burned. Since the Chinese were so segregated from the rest of the workers, this would have been their makeshift "temple". While not quite the burial ground the name would imply, it’s still "holy ground" and would have been of great significance to the Chinese people.

Nokes tells Patrick and Kristen of the separate Chinese cemetery and Chinese Walls where the miners were buried until their bodies were exhumed and taken back. The Chinese Walls contains tens of thousands of rocks the miners would have sifted through looking for gold. As they investigate and look around there is an almost constant sound of falling rocks. Now, that would perfectly normal since it’s a gigantic rock pile, but oddly, the rocks seem far to big and far too heavy to simply fall on their own. It just seems odd rocks of that size would just be crumbling all the time. Of course you have wonder, as do Kristen and Patrick, is this the residual sound of the miners continuing to work?

Meanwhile, within the mine things are little odd. The miners have finally broken through the "dog leg" they made to reach the backside of the tunnel. According to them it looks like someone collapsed the mine on purpose. They’ve brought this up multiple times with the notion that the mine was collapsed to keep something in. That just seems strange. Is there specific evidence? It’s a mineshaft, a cave-in could have just happened because of weak support. There doesn’t inherently have to be something sinister about it. Or, the season was over and the miners sealed off the entrance so a claim jumper wouldn’t sneak in there and steal their gold. Considering the hatred and prejudice those miners had for the Chinese, would it be any surprise for them to collapse or destroy the mine to make sure they never got a nugget? I agree there are some odd things going on, but not everything has to have a paranormal angle to it. Some times events happen for perfectly normal reasons.

We end the episode with Patrick and Kristen back at the Chinese Walls where Patrick’s camera goes dead amidst the sound of tumbling rocks and he declares, "something is with us". I guess we’ll have to wait and see to find out if he’s right.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Ghost Mine – Ghosts of the Geiser Grand – S02E05
• Ghost Mine – Return to Darkness – S02E01
• Ghost Mine – Shadows in the Drift – S02E11
• Ghost Mine – Secret Passage – S01E05
• Ghost Mine – Supercharging the Supernatural – S02E08
• Ghost Mine – Season Finale – Final Thoughts
• Ghost Mine – The Lost Chamber – S02E02
• Ghost Mine – The Final Barrier – S02E12 Season Finale
• Ghost Mine – S01E01
• Ghost Mine – Phantom Intruder – S02E03