A video making the rounds for paranormal scrutiny is an interesting one.
The description of the video posted earlier this week states that the footage is from a surveillance video at a gas station in Bulgaria. You be the judge whether there is probable paranormal activity caught on tape.
Fake or real, it’s pretty creepy.
In 1946, Doris Siebold, a teacher in Patagonia, Arizona, gave her students an assignment. She asked them to collect and write down the folk tales of the Patagonia area for preservation. The collection was published in 1949.
The resulting treasure trove of tales from 61 years ago contains many gems worth reading. The Patagonia area is rich in history and folk tales alike. Many of those tales originate in the ghost towns of Mowry, Harshaw, Lochiel, Duquesne and Washington Camp in the Patagonia Mountains.
Kansas Mine/Photo by C. Strong
Today, we’ll explore the Kansas Mine near Washington Camp.You can see the chute on a drive down Duquesne Road, while driving through a narrow mountain pass toward Nogales.
Still perched on the side of the mountain on a dirt road, the mine has a story to tell. We’ll dig into this story to see what parts of the story can be substantiated.
Student Luz Rivera contributed this tale of the haunted Kansas Mine:
The Kansas Mine is a mine on the Nogales and Washington Camp road. It is about half a mile from the Camp. This mine has killed more men than any other mine in the camp. It has killed forty-eight men in eighteen years. The last man killed Mr. Tony Rivera of Nogales, Arizona.
The reason this mine kills so many men is because it does not want to be worked because it is believed that it has a large amount of buried treasure either in ore, zinc or lead. This mine was closed for a period of nine months because the miners stated that it was haunted by a young man who was drowned in it just before the last man was killed. – Folk Tales from the Patagonia Area, The University of Arizona Press, 1949.
A search through Arizona Genealogy records reveals that Antonio ‘Tony” Rivera was killed at the mine on January 28, 1941, eight years prior to the story being published by The University of Arizona Press. Rivera’s death certificate online states the manner of death as a disturbing one. His head was crushed by a falling rock. It had been only his fifth day working at the mine.
It is unclear while researching this story whether the student, Luz Rivera, was related to Tony Rivera.
Kansas Mine remnants/Photo by C. Strong
The number of men killed at the mine was not verified via research. Searching through Mine Inspector records and death certificates did not support that many deaths. However, we can’t depend solely on records of the time. Records have been known to be lost or misplaced, or simply not recorded, especially as we research further back in time.
There was also no record of death by drowning in the years before Mr. Tony Rivera was killed. However, this doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen. Records reveal that there was a mine explosion that killed two men eleven months prior to Mr. Rivera’s death.
Pedro Camez, 23, and Robert Landers, 48, were killed in an explosion at the mine on February 21, 1940. It is possible that the manner of death nine years later was mistaken by the informant of the tale. It is also possible that someone did drown at the mine, as reported, but there is no record of the victim. The young man haunting the mine could have been Camez, if the story of the haunting is true.
more Kansas Mine remnants/Photo by C. Strong
The nine month closure of the mine could have been caused by the explosion. It was also not uncommon for mining to cease operation periodically for various reasons.
If it was closed for nine months due to a haunting, there would be no record to substantiate that claim, there is only oral history to consider.
Doris Siebold asked her students to name the informant of each story submitted to the book. This story is attributed to “Many Informants”, which does lend some credibility to the lore.
Whether the mine is haunted or not, this story and others are fascinating.
The Patagonia Union High School and the entire community is fortunate to have had a teacher like Doris Siebold. She had the foresight to preserve the area’s rich history and folklore for many generations to come.
* Correction: The date that the folk tale collection project began was 1946, instead of the 1949 date posted in the original version of this post. The University of Arizona Press published the collection in 1949.
The Bank of America at 902 North Stone Avenue in Tucson is closed today due to the 4th of July holiday.
That doesn’t mean that there is no activity at the bank. Ghosts don’t work bankers’ hours and they don’t take holidays. The branch is bustling with paranormal activity.
The strange goings on at this location have been reported for several years.
This particular location was established in 1948 as The Bank of Douglas. By 1960, the bank operated under the name Arizona Bank. In the 1990′s, bank mergers and acquisitions brought the names of banking giants like Bank of America and Wells Fargo to town. Banking customers at First Interstate and Arizona Bank underwent the painful process of bank account conversions. Perhaps that is what stirred up the ghost at 902 North Stone Avenue. The ghostly activity at the bank was rumored to have accelerated around that time.
Employees saw apparitions. Doors swung open. Doors slammed shut.
One dreaded door, the door to the furnace room, was avoided as much as possible. Employees considered that room to be the source of activity and simply steered clear of it. In 1997, Alan D. Fischer of the Arizona Daily Star paid a visit to investigate the rumored haunting. He witnessed the furnace door swing open for no apparent reason. He investigated the area and found no prankster around. He examined the door, which was too heavy to simply swing open by itself. He concluded: “I don’t have an answer, but I do have a strong belief that there is something going on there.”
One has to wonder whether there is something going on there today. The next thing to ponder would be whose spirit feels compelled to haunt the bank and why they would haunt it. No one knows the answers yet. It could be someone associated with the bank, or someone associated with the property prior to 1948.
While future dreaded mergers and acquisitions could change the name of the place, the activity of a nameless ghost may remain unchanged.
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