In July, I posted an entry about the haunted Independence Mine. Allegedly the ghost is a former miner and caretaker, Phil Coleman. During the 1950s, as an elderly man, Phil Coleman had been painstakingly preserving the mill, performing maintenance and shoveling snow off from the structure’s roofs. The caretaker’s work was cut short when the Alaska Pacific Consolidated Mining Company auctioned off the equipment housed in the mill complex (the ball mill, generators, etc.). Without notifying Coleman, the mill structure was ripped apart in order to retrieve the machinery. Soon later, he died of a heart attack (in what is now the visitor center).
I have more to add…former ranger Pat Murphy was in the living room of the visitor center one autumn night, and while looking out the window, he saw the reflection of a man walking in the room. When Pat turned around, no one was there.
Within the visitor center, where I have lived for the past ten weeks, I have recently had some abnormal experiences. One morning around 545 am, I awoke to the sound of knocking on the kitchen door. I got out of bed, expecting to find one of the other volunteers in the building. I found no one at the door. I looked out the upstairs kitchen window, to see if anyone was knocking on the main door to the visitor center. No one was standing outside. I then walked to the other side of the building to see if anyone had knocked at the back door. Again, no one was waiting there. The question is: did I actually hear any knocking? I think I did, something woke me up. Did I imagine it?
Well a few days later, I awoke around 8 am, to the sound of the kitchen door opening and closing. I have a better recollection of this event, since it took place around 8 am, as I was beginning to wake up. Plus, the kitchen door (which is upstairs and marks the entrance to my small apartment) has an audible creek when it opens and closes. I heard the noise, but this time I stayed in bed.
My last odd experience took place in the mess hall, which has been the site of quite a bit of paranormal activity of its own. Past volunteers have noticed open doors in the building, when they swore they had closed and locked them. Perhaps this was people who had broken into the building to explore? A few weeks back, as one volunteer (Desi) gave a tour she believes she saw a man out of the corner of her eye. When she turned, the man was not there. The guests noticed her reaction, and no doubt had a memorable tour in which their guide saw a ghost. Ok, so over a week ago, Matt Weaver and I decided to go into the basement of the mess hall. So far this summer, we had not ventured there (it’s the location of a shooting range, a room used to store potatoes, etc.) Well the door to the staircase had been nailed shut, thus we had never entered. Matt and I took a hammer, to undo the nails. Downstairs in the basement, we noticed a plastic lantern. Now the mess hall no longer has electricity, and during our tours we use plastic, battery-powered lanterns to light the way. Matt bought these lanterns at the beginning of the summer. It was one of these lanterns that we found in the basement. The question is: how did it get there? We did have some break-ins around that time. Did one of the people who had kicked in the outside doors, remove the nails to the door by the basement staircase? Did that person take a lantern downstairs and leave it there, to then nail the door shut when he/she left? Who knows? One last part to this story: when Matt and I were in the basement we heard footsteps on the floor above us. When we went upstairs, we didn’t find anyone there. Logically, that could have been the footsteps of intruders.
So maybe the mine is haunted? There have been a number of incidents. Most have logical explanations. Maybe we just want to scare ourselves?
Hi Dan,
ReplyDeleteI am a producer for an upcoming tv series that is planning on filming at the Independence Mine. I was wondering if you still live the Alaska area? We are looking for people that have had experiences at this mine. Please feel free to email me at hiremefortv@gmail.com.
Thanks!
I was a volunteer this summer, 2013, at the Independence Mine. There were several things that happened to me and one of my co-workers, Patrick. I had just arrived and after settling in, I was eager to see Mr. Stoll's office. I was in the office area sitting at his desk for about three hours. I was looking through boxes of old things totally enjoying ll the history. I was kind of talking to myself just saying how happy I was to be there, how much I loved it, how interesting everything was...on and on. I started smelling cigar smoke. No one wa there but me. I don't smoke period. Anyway its not allowed now any way. Then I felt very influnced to have a large glass of scotch! Later I found out that Mr. Stoll always offered his managers scotch. The cigar smoke must have been him too. As for Phil he may have been the one who left wool hat on my bed and entered the bunkhouse one evening. The blinds flew up for several nights in my co-worker's room after we had just gotten there. Then there were times hen the adding machine was going and going....it was unplugged!I never really felt alone but never saw anyone either. Ranger Amy did see a man in the mess hall only to have him disapear when she ordered him to get on the ground! After I had made up my mind to make Alaska my home I had a vivid dream. I was actually back in time being driven up to the mine in an old car. There on the steps were the Stoll's welcoming me. " we thought it would be you". They showed me to my room in the manager's house. So very real!
ReplyDeleteI was visiting family in Palmer one summer when I was 20, back in 2006. My uncle thought a good day trip to the mine would be fun for us visiting relatives. It was a nice summer day, clouds brushing the tops of the mountains that surround the valley the mine is located in. Near the end of my journey through the different buildings and trails that wound around, I went up a trail that led to a building near the upper rear of the options available. It had a wooden floor entry that came to a padlocked door with two open doorways to either side. The walls had all sorts of historic pictures and brick a brac around for historical veiwing. As I made my way to one of the back rooms reading and onbserving, i hear someone with boots i presumed walk into the front seven or eight steps i presume to where the padlocked door was, as well as many pictures and items. At the time I thought it was just another patron of the mine. But as i wound my way around the rooms to the front of the square four roomed loud floor building, a person was not where their footsteps would have ended. This took me a minute or three from when i heard them come in. So i rush outside to see if someone had walked out oddly quietly compared to their entry, and look down the long path to see no person. So i run down confused and in disbelief of what I heard, loud and plain as any other footsteps on old wooden floors, to ask my uncle if he saw anyone else up at the building I was just at, he said no. At that time in my life I was a firm believer in science, but I know what i heard in that medium sized 4 square room building, there should have been a person still there in that timeframe parusing the articles and pictures on the walls. I wouldnt in a million years believed a story like that, until it happened to me at that old mine. Im glad others have had similar experiences, or i might have thought of my own story less.
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