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For this episode of Ghost Mine, we have a whole lot of little evidence coming together that may all be related to the mine and how the Chinese immigrants were treated, or more to the point, mistreated as they worked in the mines. At least that seems to be the road we’re following for right now.

The focus is on the Geiser Grand Hotel, a prominent building during the gold rush. Land deals, mining deals, lumber and railroad deals were all made here. As with any mining town there was plenty of gambling as well and mines would have been won or lost on a game or cards.

Oddly, the Geiser Hotel is said to have it’s own paranormal events. And just as odd, there are tunnels down in the basement that would have been used by the Chinese workers so they could travel back to Chinatown. Why did they have to travel this way? Chinatown was open at sunrise and closed at sunset. Outside of those times, Chinese wouldn’t be allowed to walk the streets.

With all that in mind, Kristen and Patrick set about their investigation and when asked if the Crescent Mine was used by the Masons as a lodge, a glass tumbles off the shelf. Maybe tumble isn’t the right word, it might have been thrown. It doesn’t just land on the ground right in front of the shelf, but a few feet away. And when listening to the recordings, there appears to be a voice right before the glass hits.

Additionally, when Kristen asks, "Did something bad happen up there?" in regards to the Crescent Mine, she gets a response of "Yes".

While in the basement, they also get a motion sensor going off and the sound of someone tapping on glass. Up in the main dining room, they get the sound of chairs creaking and perhaps a slight shuffling sound as Patrick pulls out a deck of cards and some money. There are also spikes in the EVP, minor but spikes non the less, as they try to get a game started.

Aside from the investigation, the mine owner Larry has brought in a security guard to monitor the place since they feel a trespasser is wrecking the equipment and possibly causing damage to the mine. This new security guard also sees a trespasser and says he’s head right toward the camp where Patrick, Kristen and Stan are waiting. No one ever appears.

Patrick and Kristen then investigate and feel they may have captured a shadow figure in the woods. They’ve also made the claim they feel the old broken structure they stumbled on might be a burn house and there might still be bodies buried in the area. They can’t say for sure, but there is a possibility.

Lots of odd things are coming together with tons of strange noises like the rocks falling, the bangs against the cabin as they all talk about the evidence, some trespassing figure they can never catch and voices that show up on the audio. Seems like Patrick and Kristen either need to lean some Chinese or get someone who speaks the native language so perhaps they can bridge this language barrier. If there is a supernatural cause to these events, they might have better luck asking the miners in their native language.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Ghost Mine – Wandering Spirit – S02E04
• Ghost Mine – Phantom Intruder – S02E03
• Ghost Mine – Supercharging the Supernatural – S02E08
• Ghost Mine – Mystery Train – S02E06
• Ghost Mine – Shadows in the Drift – S02E11
• Ghost Mine – Vengeful Spirit – S01E03
• Ghost Mine – The Lost Chamber – S02E02
• Ghost Mine – Massacre at Hell’s Canyon – S02E07
• Ghost Mine – Town Wide Terror – S02E09
• Ghost Mine Season 2 Special – Back on the Mountain

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

So we last left the Ghost Mine team with a pretty big dilemma on their hands, the fuses for hundred pounds of dynamite they packed into the mine didn’t go off. Now they’re sitting on a powder keg and someone needs to see what happened. Oddly, it’s the job of RIPA to go in there and check out the scene. It’s a good call and there is no reason to risk life and limb over something so dangerous.

Everything looks pretty good, until the fuse re-ignites and goes off. It blows RIPA to hell and causes yet another cave in. The area they were trying to blast through comes down and reveals tons of boards and previous work. This area is looking pretty damn unstable. But, Kristen and Patrick head in to check it out from a paranormal perspective. Everything seems normal, but they keep hearing rocks fall. That’s not usual considering what just happened. But the frequency of the rocks keeps increasing until it sounds like they’re in the middle of a cave-in. They sprint out of the mine and are met by Stan and Eddie. Fearing the worst, Stan and Eddie go check it out. Strangely, nothing is out of place. No rocks are falling, there is no new debris and nothing new appears to have fallen. It appears Patrick and Kristen were in the middle of a residual cave in. It could have been the sound of rocks falling further down the tunnel, but clearly you can hear rocks yet nothing was disturbed.

With the cave-in experience behind them, they investigate a possible problem with one of the cameras they places in the trees. The memory card is full, but yet there isn’t anything substantial in the photos to have made it go off. There is an odd vertical line that shifts position from frame to frame. It has no bend and is always the same width. Doesn’t seem to be a hair or stem or pine needle. Nor does it seem to be a problem with the lens or the camera itself. It’s the exact same line over and over again, yet it’s not always in the same place. As they investigate the area they stumble across what looks like the remains of an old shack. On one of the rocks there appears to be oriental writing. This shack would have been in the line of the sight of the malfunctioning camera. Stan tells them that Chinese miners were all over these hills, a fact confirmed by the local historian. There may have been as many as 3000 Chinese miners in the area, who worked and labored with everyone else, yet they weren’t treated too kindly.

Patrick takes a rubbing of the rock and is told the translation of the words means, "place of cremation". I suppose we can take that to mean burial ground. There doesn’t appear to be any headstones so whether this is a literal translation or a reference to something else remains to be seen.

Additionally, the current batch of miners keeps running into setbacks. Their equipment has been drug out of the mine and vandalized. Several of the hoses have been cut and it looks like their trespasser is getting bold and vengeful. However, even with all the cameras and all the people wandering around they have yet to actually see this trespasser. If there is such a person, he’s elusive.

Patrick and Kristen also discovered another video glitch that comes right before an unusual event. When RIPA goes into the mine to check the blasting caps, the video footage is fine, except for right when the explosion happens. The picture pixelates the same way it did when Jay felt there was someone walking past him in the mine. So is something showing up on the camera right before something odd happens?

For the final piece of evidence, we have Patrick playing the previous EVP which Patrick sent off to have translated since he believes it’s now tied to the oriental writing. Turns out it mean, "I’m lost" in Cantonese and right as he’s talking about this another huge bang crashes into the side of the shack they’re all sitting in. These are those same incredibly loud and mysterious bangs we heard from last season that had no explanation. Stan, Jay, Eddie and everyone else flies out of the room ready to kick some serious ass only to find there is nothing there. No dust, no rocks, no evidence of anyone running away. Just the calm and serene mountain scenery. Just like last time there is no evidence of rocks smashing into the cabin or someone running away. So where in the hell is this insanely loud banging coming from? And I find this incredibly odd since so many people hear it, it’s during the day time and there is absolutely no trace.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Ghost Mine – Town Wide Terror – S02E09
• Ghost Mine – The Final Barrier – S02E12 Season Finale
• Ghost Mine – Secret Passage – S01E05
• Ghost Mine – Passageway to the Unknown – S02E10
• Ghost Mine – The Lost Chamber – S02E02
• Ghost Mine – Disturbance at the Inn – S01E02
• Ghost Mine – Supercharging the Supernatural – S02E08
• Ghost Mine – Shadows in the Drift – S02E11
• Ghost Mine – Phantom Wind – S01E04
• Ghost Mine – Vengeful Spirit – S01E03

So we’re back into the mine for more thrilling adventures and maybe get some answers to all the questions that have been raised. But for the moment, the questions keep piling up.

The episode starts off with Jay saying he felt someone was still in the mine with him. Mike had left the mine 20 minutes ago, but Jay keeps saying he’s in there. When Patrick and Kristen check the cameras, there are odd glitches as Jay is walking.

Additionally, Mike and Bucket experience some sort of strange "paranormal time distortion" where they feel they’ve been working for an hour, but it’s actually been 6. Stan actually has to go into the mine and get them.

Patrick and Kristen head into the mine to check things out. In this new "chamber" they feel this is writing on the wall that appears to be "VI" when seen under black light. Additionally, they feel they’ve been chasing a "miner’s headlamp" right into a dead end. So Jay swears he saw someone that wasn’t there and now Kristen and Patrick are chasing someone that disappears into the rock. Kristen is also quite sure there is something written on the wall. That seems a bit of a stretch until Patrick and Kristen head to the library.

At first it seems they’re still working the Masonic angle to try and make it work for them, but they do come up with some very intriguing information. Kristen finds information about the "Chamber of Reflection" which is a room that should literally or figuratively contain a scythe, an hourglass and the VITRIOL. Doesn’t sound like much except the guys found what looks to be the handle off a scythe, the remnants of an hourglass and the letters "VI" on the wall. They could indeed have pieces from the "Chamber of Reflection". So did the Masons hold meetings in the mine because it was a secure and private location? Now, it doesn’t sound like any of this is sinister though. It just sounds like the mine may have been a meeting place. An odd choice, but considering the time period it would be easy to guard and very private.

So we might have an explanation about the chamber, but what about this time loss (if there was such a thing)? Strangely, Patrick takes a compass to where Mike and Bucket were working and the needle can’t find true North. It keeps moving in large arcs. It’s not spinning like you see in the movies, but it’s nowhere near steady. To be honest, I believe the readings off that old school compass more than EMF detectors. It does appear there is some sort of EMF that could be disorienting if you stayed in there long enough. So, not exactly time distortion, but it may have warped their perception of what was going on in the tunnel. I have no idea what that would feel like, but some sort of phenomena is in there. It’s natural, not paranormal.

And for the last piece, the miners have heard a lot of knocking lately. As Eddie says, that would just be rocks falling, debris or even the water. But when Patrick knocks on the wall with a rock, he gets a definitive knock in response. It doesn’t sound like an echo either. It doesn’t have a reverb quality to it. Very strange indeed.

The evidence is mounting up. It appears the mine was used as a meeting place for the Masons of the area, but it doesn’t seem sinister at all. The chamber may have been used as a meeting room and there seems to be some naturally occurring EMF in the mind that might be messing with the miners. Now, if we take the EMF into account, it could be why the previous miners left. They could have felt ill, disoriented, felt like someone was there when they weren’t, they may have felt like they were losing time and it may explain the noises they keep hearing. And considering the minders in the 1800 would know very little of EMF, it would explain why they took off as well. What they thought might be evil or spirits could have been their reaction to EMF. These are all very interesting things, but are we in the middle of paranormal activity?

There is still one big question left to answer, is there someone trespassing on the mine? We keep hearing about this elusive stranger, but as of yet, nothing has been found.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Ghost Mine – Return to Darkness – S02E01
• Ghost Mine – Shadows in the Drift – S02E11
• Ghost Mine – Supercharging the Supernatural – S02E08
• Ghost Mine – Wandering Spirit – S02E04
• Ghost Mine – The Final Barrier – S02E12 Season Finale
• Ghost Mine – Town Wide Terror – S02E09
• Ghost Mine – Secret Passage – S01E05
• Ghost Mine – S01E01
• Ghost Mine – Ghosts of the Geiser Grand – S02E05
• Ghost Mine – Massacre at Hell’s Canyon – S02E07