Our story this time comes from Brandon Miller who lives in Texas. Arizona is home to nearly 300 ghost towns, some indiscernible from the landscape. While it can be tough to figure out what some of these once lively towns looked like or how daily life operated, there are some towns that are well-documented, thanks in part to their notorious histories.
Hello Ron, first let me thank you. Your show is amazing and has some of the best ghost stories in the world. I investigate Ghost Towns as a hobby. My group the GTHA (Ghost Town Hunters of America) has traveled the countryside looking for and investigating these places. Probably 95 percent of the time we find nothing, but we love it. However, on June 9th, 2018 we hit ghost gold. Here is our story:
The Vulture Mine was a gold mine and settlement in Maricopa County, Arizona. The mine began in 1863 and became the most productive gold mine in Arizona history. From 1863 to 1942, the mine produced 340,000 ounces of gold and 260,000 ounces of silver. It attracted more than 5,000 people to the area, and is credited with founding the town of Wickenburg, Arizona. The town that served the mine was known as Vulture City.
The Vulture mine began when a prospector from California’s gold rush, Henry Wickenburg, discovered a quartz deposit containing gold and began mining. After the mine closed in 1942, the city was abandoned and became a ghost town. Today the mine and ghost town are privately owned, but tours are offered. Also, it might interest you to know the mine was a Lock-down site on Ghost Adventures (that show on the Travel Channel). Our group signed up on an overnight ghost hunt which included a two-hour guided walking tour and an overnight stay in some of the remaining buildings of Vulture City. The tour was great, but a bit campy for my tastes. However, that night I will never forget.
Our team was given a roofless building for the night. I think it might have been an old gas station. There was a shell of a 1940’s ford sitting out front and it just felt like it was waiting to be filled with gas. We set up our camp, built a fire, and got started with… hunting the ghosts.
John, our photographer, had the first experience. He was getting his equipment together trying to figure out his strategy for the evening when he felt the tap on his shoulder. He turned and there was no one there. Thinking something fell on him, or something like that, he shrugged it off, and went back to work. A few seconds later there was another tap he turned and this time he saw an outline of something but it faded as fast as he saw it and he wasn’t even sure if he actually saw what he saw, but he still informed the group of his experience.
I was walking the perimeter of our building. I was calling out to the spirits asking them to join us for the evening around the campfire. I remember I was telling them that we had plenty of beans and franks and that we had enough to feed everyone that wanted to come. The whole time I was holding a recorder. What I captured was quite surprising. I can’t be sure because it was so garbled but I think it said something like, “I don’t like beans”.
We did a lot of EVP sessions, tried some triggers, made some gold digging references, and a few other things. By the end of the night we had a few EVPS and some strange experiences. Feelings that we were being watched and even one case of being warned to be careful.
The biggest event of the night came when we had all settled into our sleeping bags until morning. About an hour after we had settled down I heard a rustling sound in the nearby bushes. Thinking that it was some sort of animal I got up to look around. What I saw I will never forget. A half a man. He had no legs but he had arms, torso, and a head. His face was dark black with a shroud or a cloud around his head. It’s very hard to explain.
I called out to John to wake up and to grab his camera. John came running but when he got there the creature was gone. Thinking that we had lost our chance to get something truly remarkable on film, John set up to stay there the rest of the night to wait for the entity’s return. I decided to walk around some more and see if I could find anything or any evidence that someone had been around. Taking my flashlight I looked at the ground and I found some odd footsteps. The problem was that they were leading away from the camp but I couldn’t find any coming towards the camp. I should point out that the ground in this area was quite loose, very dustlike, and footprints were left very clear and detailed. It was easy to see the difference between our tennis shoes from these prints. They looked very much like the boots we saw on the tour that would’ve worn in the late 1800s.
The rest of the night was uneventful John never did get his photograph and the entity never made a return visit. We collected a lot of evidence and personal experiences. All in all it was one of the best ghost hunts we have ever been on. – Brandon Miller
This Week’s Podcast: On the podcast this week we have two classic stories. The first comes from Analog Magazine February 1963 edition. It is a strange tale about a TV repairman and the use of magic! The second story is from the OTR series Suspense and is titled The Lost Ship. I can guarantee that this is not what you would expect by the title. We also have a listener story sent in by Faye Rodgers. It is quite creepy and Faye has titled it Dagger Heart Station. You can listen to this podcast on Thursday at Ron’s Amazing Stories, download it from Apple Podcasts, stream it on Stitcher Radio or on the mobile version of Spotify. Do you prefer the radio? We are heard every Thursday at 10:00 pm and Sunday Night at 11:00 PM (EST) on AMFM247.COM. Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this link
Your Stories: Do you have a story that you would like to share on the podcast or the blog? Head to the main website, click on Story Submission, leave your story, give it a title, and please tell me where you’re from. I will read it if I can.
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