Haunted Abandoned Mine - a photo on Flickriver

            The three-story stamp mill is a rough-timbered building named the Yellow Jacket II on the outskirts of Colorado Springs. A stamp mill (or stamp battery or stamping mill) is a type of mill machine that crushes mined ore by pounding rather than grinding. Legend goes that  It was owned by a man named Jeremiah McDygut, the 'Richest Man of the West.' He started getting paranoid, thinking the miners were stealing from him, smuggling gold out in their stockings. So supposedly, he drew plans for a new shaft, one that was supposed to lead to a large vein of nearly pure gold but actually led to a large drift filled with explosive methane gas. The entire place exploded, killing all the miners. To cover his tracks, Jeremiah hired a rescue team to go down and try to find the missing workers. Once they were down inside, he collapsed the mine, killing everyone inside. He then cashed in on the insurance money, which he put toward the reopening of the mine. But then strange things started happening. His house started makin strange noises, things started to change places for no reason, equipment kept failing. The nearby shacks where the miners used to sleep caught on fire, then put themselves out. But Jeremiah persevered, even installing a "state of the art" 1300 foot Descender Hoist, the largest fastest man-bearing mining elevator of its time. He staged a grand re-opening.  He was about to take the newspapermen down the elevator to show them his amazing progress. He stepped onto the hoist  when it all went wrong. Lights flickered, circuits started shorting out, and then, from the depths of the shaft, came a ghastly moan. The doors to the lift slammed shut, trapping Jeremiah inside. The gears kicked into motion, slowly lowering him down. Well, y'all can imagine what happens when a 2-ton elevator drops 1300 feet and then hits rock bottom. The Colorado territory legislature decided to close the mine, due to it's "hazardous" nature. But every 13 years, they passed the deed down the McDygut line, as was law. This has happened thirteen times and it became the property of Mr. Steve McDygut, who was smart enough to give it to a charity that educates people about mining. The charity operates the mill once a year to keep the machines in working order.
   

Taken in: United States / Colorado / Colorado Springs (show map)

Taken on: January 7, 2009

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