Welcome all to what could be considered our first investigation blog. Now just to be clear, I wouldn't necessarily consider this to be on the same scale as an investigation but rather a sweep, as we brought very limited equipment and the purpose of this hunt was just to get a feel for the location to determine whether or not a full investigation would be required. So anyways, lets move past this boring banter and get into the good stuff!
The boys and I were all really itching to get our feet wet and jump right into a case. Not a single person had reached out to us about a potential haunting and we were beginning to grow impatient. I had been handing out business cards left and right hoping to get a bite or even just a nibble but alas, the Boo-Phone (the phone we use for official Boosiness) remained completely silent. After several weeks of waiting, we decided that if the fish weren't going to come to us, then we would have to dive in after them ourselves, which led us to decision to take a hike out to the Treadwell Mine Ruins in search of paranormal activity.
SOME BACKGROUND
The Treadwell mine was one of four gold mines operating on Douglas Island, Alaska from 1882-1917. During its peak, the Treadwell Mining Complex was the largest operating hard rock gold mine in the entire world. The mine was hydro-powered, allowing for 24/7 operation except on certain holidays with miners gathering 5,000 pounds of ore per day. Throughout the entire period of it's operation, it would gather 100 tons of gold, and had the capabilities of extracting gold from veins as deep 2,400 feet. This would all change, however in April of 1917 when the mines had to be evacuated due to flooding, which ultimately led to the Treadwell operation's end. Miraculously, all miners were successfully evacuated and accounted for; that is except for one. Though it is speculated that this man did actually survive and fled town, in this blog post, we will attempt to make contact with this unaccounted for miner and quite possibly find evidence that proves the existence of ghosts.
After settling on a date and time to set out, I gathered a lightweight selection of tools to use for the hunt. Seeing as the ruins were spread out along a walking trail that stretched about a mile one way, I figured it would be best to pack light in order to remain mobile. Besides the obvious gear such as flashlights, I decided to bring two EMF meters, a digital voice recorder, the SB-7 Spirit box, and a portable charger. This seemed like an adequate loadout considering we had never heard of any potential hauntings at the location we were going to, and if we did just so happen to capture something of interest, we could return later.
We arrived at the trail-head just after sunset. With the darkness gradually creeping in, we were eager to start our hike towards the abandoned structures that at one time found daily use by past residents.
The first building that we came across showed many signs of wear and tear, and there was graffiti on just about every wall. We decided to stop here for several minutes to explore the structure and attempted to reach out to whatever spirits might be in the vicinity. Jerrod patrolled the structure using the K-2, meanwhile I was armed with the ENGINDOT. I invited any nearby spirits to make contact by shaking my hand, touching me, or coming close enough to the EMF meter to set it off, however we received no alarms, found no unusual drops in ambient temperature, and did not receive any physical interaction from unseen forces. After somewhere between 5-10 minutes of exploring the inside of the structure, we decided to depart and continue following the trail. We walked for another 10 or so minutes before coming upon our next area of interest: the abandoned Treadwell Mine office.
The old office contained many old photos and a plethora of interesting information for any curious hikers. This was the spot in which we decided to conduct most of our testing. Jerrod and I both activated our EMF meters and sat adjacent from one another at the tables provided within the building. I once again asked for the spirits to interact with us, and requested that they have a seat beside me in the hopes that they might set off my EMF meter. Along with this, I decided to pull out my digital voice recorder and ask several questions in an attempt to capture an EVP, or Electronic Voice Phenomena. I asked a variety of questions, such as "Are there any miners here that may have been left behind?" and "What is your name?" Upon later review, I was unable to hear any responses or unusual noises. I continued to ask questions for several minutes before turning to the use of our SB-7 Spirit Box for further attempts at communication, however we decided to test the Estes method to avoid misleading responses or leading answers. I put in my earbuds and covered my ears to ensure that I would not hear any of the questions being asked by my colleagues, then I activated the sweeping function on the box. Utilizing this method of communication with spirits requires that I clearly announce to the other members of the team anything that I am able to hear or make out, while making absolute certain that I am unable to hear what is being asked by my team so that any potential responses are not led by the questions being asked. Below are a few of the questions and answers from the experiment:
Q: Are you here?
A: No response
Q: Do you need something?
R: I need *unintelligible*
Q: What do you need?
R: Apple!
Q: Are you unable to move on?
R: Booty!
As you can tell, this is some pretty compelling evidence and there is definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, a spirit here who desperately needs apples and booty before they can move on. Truly heartbreaking :(
Nearing the end of our journey, we stumbled upon many more decaying and decrepit structures that we were able to explore, and conducted further testing at each area hoping to capture evidence of the paranormal. Some of these structures were filled with junk and trip hazards, and others contained concerning amounts of mold that seemed to be in stalagmite-like formations along the ceilings. We found some pretty neat tunnel-like structures, as well that had me wondering what some of these building might have been used for.
The trail wrapped up at a beach along the Southern shore of Douglas Island. We took some time to enjoy the change in scenery and walk along the beach before finally deciding to wrap up our investigation and return to the trail-head, stopping in some of the previously explored buildings for additional photos and testing.
CONCLUSION
Though we did not find any concrete evidence pointing to the existence of ghosts, this was an awesome experience for us to be able to explore the ruins of the Treadwell mining operation and we highly recommend for anyone that happens to be in the Juneau area to explore this trail and really take in the scenery and history of this place. We will probably return during the day at some point so we can view it in a different light (pun definitely intended), but for now we are perfectly content with the experience that we had at the site.
So, is this location "BOO BOYS certified" as haunted? well, survey says...
NO!
Though this also does not mean that it is certified "not haunted" so I just want to throw that out there for anyone who might have had an experience there unlike us. Anyways, tune in next time when the BOO BOYS explore the haunted town of TOMBSTONE, ARIZONA. Until then, I hope you all stay safe out there and if you see anything strange or unusual, you know who to call ;)
-Ron :)
Bonus dad joke: Why did the ghost haunt the bar?
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For the BOOS :D
(I'm sorry, I'll stop lol)
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