Ghost Adventures – Vulture Mine – S04E07

Zak, Nick and Aaron head out to Arizona (one of my favorite places) to investigate the Vulture Mine, an abandoned gold mine which might actually be a real ghost town. The mine is obviously old, dating back to the 1800’s and the gold rush where fortunes could be made or lost overnight. It was the lawless Old West so any offense you committed would be dealt with by way of the gun or the rope. There are many reports of people being killed for attempting to steal the gold from the mine’s repository. Plenty of other offenses took place as well such as rape and murder. In many cases the bodies were simply left to rot in the sun, they couldn’t be bothered to bury the dead.

Sometimes fate would intervene on the thievery and we also have a story about a group of miners that went out into the quarry to steal some gold. Unfortunately the mine collapsed and all the miners were buried alive. They claim the bodies were never found.

Not to mention there were deaths from ailments like influenza that killed the miners and many school aged children.

So far this all sounds like the setup for a campfire ghost story!

After the team learns of the history of the mine they head into a neighboring town to get supplies. All the while a massive storm is brewing and unleashes it’s fury while they’re trying to make it back for the lockdown. The roads are a complete washout and the area is getting record rainfall. Perhaps showing a little more bravado than they should, the guys seem to be contemplating making a run to the mine. But that idea is thwarted as the police show up and escort them back to town.

Two days later they pick up where they left off and get started on the investigation. They hope the storm has charged the area and increased the paranormal activity.

Strangely they begin the investigation in the caretakers house. How we ended up here I’m not sure, but the guys claim to get EVPs right off the bat. The caretaker supposedly left because of the activity, but either I missed it or there wasn’t much detail given about this part of the story. Just seems like an off place to start.

After the caretaker’s house the guys head over to the hanging tree and break out the word database tool which brings up words like "tied" and "running". This all happens while they’re stringing up a noose. Sure the words seem to match the mood and situation at the tree, but I still don’t like this device. Again no real explanation of how it works and to be perfectly blunt that would be far too easy to pre-program ahead of time to give the right, but spooky responses.

They move indoors and head to the actual gold vault. Not only is it the scene of multiple attacks but apparently a Charles Stanton was convicted of some nasty crimes involving a young girl. Zak begins with some taunting to throw a bottle and they hear the sound of rock coming at them and hitting the floor. Do we just have some loose dirt falling from the shaky ceiling or did something really happen? They also claim to get some EVPs of "Get Out" and "Leave".

Zak also tries to lure the spirits out with some silver dollars. They seem quite interested as an EVP of "I want your money" is supposedly captured.

Nick heads into the vault itself and gets and EVP of "take the gold". This seems to happen while Zak is playing with the gun and fires off one of the blanks. Perhaps the spirits think a robbery is taking place? Do they want in on the action or trying to stay out of the way and not get hurt?

In the Assay’s office they use a seismic meter and have it go off while they hear footsteps. They also claim there is a scream captured by the night vision camera. It’s interesting but I don’t really find this to be all that substantial.

The make a brief stop to try and talk with Mexican Rita in the bordello. They claim to hear her talking through the radio waves, but they only capture the word "Yes". It’s a short conversation and they move on pretty quickly. I don’t think the got too much out of this one even though they’re excited about hearing a voice.

The old school house is also another claimed hotspot since many of the children died of influenza during this time period. They claim to get EVPs of a child taunting Aaron over his bald head. And they claim that as Aaron leaves the school and heads back to their base for another camera the piano starts playing. Both Aaron and Zak prove the piano can’t be played by hitting all the keys and jumping around to cause vibrations. It does seem to be a pretty stuck device.

I really enjoy stories about the Old West and ghost towns so I especially enjoyed this episode, but as far as evidence goes I don’t really think too much happened. I don’t like the word database nor the radio device. The supposedly thrown rock could have been from anything considering the entire place is weathered and rocks are everywhere. The only think that I found interesting was the piano playing in the recording. The piano obviously doesn’t work and they are miles away from any additional noises so did something vibrate the piano enough to make those sounds or is there something else going on here? I’m not sure what it means but I would like to have seen them do a little more investigating after that happened. A recorder in the room and a camera on the piano seems like something they should have set up. As it stands now it seems like a lucky coincidence rather than anything paranormal…

This was a pretty adventurous episode, the guys were getting a little crazy with trying to make this lockdown…

Other Articles of Interest:

• Ghost Mine – S01E01
• Ghost Mine – Wandering Spirit – S02E04
• Haunted Highway – Beast of Bray Road and Tonopah Mine – S02E03
• Ghost Mine – Passageway to the Unknown – S02E10
• Ghost Mine – Secret Passage – S01E05
• Ghost Mine – Shadows in the Drift – S02E11
• Ghost Mine – Supercharging the Supernatural – S02E08
• Ghost Mine – Town Wide Terror – S02E09
• Ghost Mine – Vengeful Spirit – S01E03
• Ghost Mine – Phantom Wind – S01E04