Subject: Our Investigation Adventures At Coaldale Junction, Tonopah & Columbus Nevada....
Date: 2/4/2016 10:15:10 AM Pacific Standard Time
From: paranormalghostsociety@googlegroups.com
To: ParanormalBuffalo@yahoogroups.com, ParanormalGhostSociety@googlegroups.com, paranormalghostsociety@yahoogroups.com, ParanormalGhostSocietyConnections@yahoogroups.com, TheParanormalGhostSociety@yahoogroups.com, SupernaturalFlorida@yahoogroups.com, ParanormalCalifornia@yahoogroups.com, ParanormalNevada@yahoogroups.com, Paranormalflorida@yahoogroups.com, sierraparanormal@yahoogroups.com, PGSPhantoms@yahoogroups.com

Columbus Nevada
 
As I drove into the storm the snow actually tapered off to some flurries I was surprised but figured this is a sign for us to make our way to Columbus. There is at least three different roads which all lead to the town site. All of them were buried under about six inches of snow. I drove past two of them before making a decision back and forth checking out the road. You have to understand then once I leave the highway I would be crossing a vast expanse of snowy desert. Even if I could see the town afar during the snowstorm I would not therefore finding this place I thought to myself might be a needle in a haystack.
 
Two roads head NE to the town site both are very narrow while another road heads to the town from the west up in Coaldale. I was not sure how I would do because I studied these maps for awhile but in a snowstorm roads are just roads so I had to make sure I knew what direction to travel but also what roads not to take. You see Columbus resides in some salt flats normally in the warmer months you can see the salt spread thin across the desert since this is also the site of an ancient very large lake or perhaps sea. When gold and silver mining was a bust four borax mining companies opened up mines here as well as millings to process it.
 
Its very intimidating driving towards this ghost town in a storm. Your basically driving towards mountains you cant see because the visibility is so poor. The winds are so high its blowing the snow across the expanse and the road is covered. There were no fresh tracks we were the only people for miles out in the middle of Nevada. When I pulled onto the dirt road it was covered in snow and I did it with great speed in case I would bottom out in the snow I could keep gassing it so I would not get stuck. My sons and there friend were really quiet I think they were thinking oh boy he is going to get stuck and were going to have to hike for help in a blizzard lol. When I pulled off onto the road it was a hit or miss I did not know how the road was under the snow as I drove through the middle of this frozen salt marsh.
 
The ride out to Columbus was flat the entire way again salt flats and dry lake bed means less obstacles during your trek. I was amazing at how well my drive went actually I thought the highway was much worst then driving down this snowy dirt road. I could not see the mountains, sand of the desert or white residue known as salt that spans across this expanse. Hell I could not see the ghost town till I literally came around this corner and see in the distance a few structures in a sea of milky white frozen fog. Beyond the cabins was just white I mean there is nothing to catch the snow it just blows across the valley from one range to the next therefore it can leave someone on high alert if they are not use to mountainous winter weather.
 
I did celebrate when I reached the town I had not one single issue on the way up here I just was worried I may not find it. This is not a big town not much remains but your talking a small town site in an expanse that runs for miles in every direction. As on a clear day you can see the town site from miles away however on this day I could only see it as I pulled on into what would have been downtown. My older son said dad you said if it snowed we would not have to do this place. I was like ummm no I said if its an all out blizzard and the road was not accessible we would not do it. But the road had a few inches of snow and the snow tapered off to a degree that it was mildly flurrying. Sure there was fog here but it made the investigation more intense and it looks really great in our photo session. A little snow has never stopped anyone what's the difference snow showers? rain showers? fog? etc so what I get a little wet and cold the ghost will always haunt these locations night or day.
 
I am from Buffalo so when people bitch about the snow I just tell them look I was in the blizzard of 77 then again I was in many major blizzards. In WNY we would get snowed in with snow up to our roofs at times. But you still had to go to the store, work and conduct paranormal research. So I did not feel the weather was terrible enough to turn back. I also trust my jeep and know what it can do it drove through the snowy salt flats like a charm. I parked right within the town site nobody wanted to leave the jeep. I had my older son come with me of course he was complaining its cold. Not sure why my son or anyone thinks winter is supposed to be like a tropical paradise. This kind of weather is normality for the region back in the 1800's they had gotten 10 times more snow then they do now. Last year we had none and look at all them fires that burned so many places down. I considered the snow a blessing and was able to work with it. I was a bit discouraged that I could not get any scenic photos hardly because no mountains were visible and a few briefly appeared as some of the fog subsided or snowfall tapered off.
 
I started off examining this giant stone structure it was in ruins but it had a basement and a few rooms. Not sure if this was some kind of general store there appeared to be this trough next to the structure also. If you looked around the town site there also is piles of bed springs, bean cans, rusted pieces of metal, wiring etc etc. Spread around the town site are numerous stone foundations or basements left behind. More then likely they stored food in the underbellies of the miner cabins to keep it from spoiling. There was a mine shaft with a wooden frame around it but it was filled in with debris such as aluminum roofing.
 
Most of the debris left behind from when the town existed was under snow so I could not see much of it. But you could see piles of wood, rust, metal and anything typical that would be found at such a town site of a once booming town. Anywhere that had a giant square hole in the ground was probably a cabin site that a miner lived in. This town boasted it all restaurant, hotel, newspaper, school, saloons, stores, businesses, houses, blacksmith, mills etc etc. However today not much remains if you look across from the towns stone ruins you can see off in the distance two homesteads.
 
The first homestead was a rectangular fairly large wood structure. The room had this white table inside and a giant queen sized mattress. The mattress looked fairly newer it did not come originally with the town. However if you walk around the town site you will find bed springs that miners slept on back in the day. This cabin was in bad shape typical no windows, doors and walls with holes in it. Most of the wood boards or flooring was gone the cabin had half of dirt flooring inside. It was good to get inside the cabin I needed that break because by the time I had walked out to them the snow begin to fall again. It was steady but it still was not enough to be a nuisance just yet.
 
The second cabin is also not far away only this one is made of wood, covered in chicken wire and covered in some adobe like material which was just crumbling away. Inside this cabin was a giant wood table looked like someone made it using the materials around them. This cabin was a bit more dangerous with old wood boards with nails sticking in them. My son seen me step on a nail and he says dad what is wrong with you did you not feel it. Serious I stepped on it and kept walking guess my feet were so cold I did not feel shit either that or I was to wrapped up investigating these sites. Nails are going to get you its a fact. I think I became distracted because their was this rare exotic bird inside the miner cabin with us. I tried to get his photo but it was just moving around to fast. The bird was red, white and black never seen a bird like this in the state of Nevada but no less I thought it was pretty cool.
 
Behind this cabin is another collapsed cabin but its just a pile of wood also behind it is this giant open mine pit. It looked collapsed and was filled with a bunch of debris such as wood beams. It would not be uncommon for miners to mine behind there home afterall the borax mined here at this dry lake bed was found throughout the town. Therefore maybe some of the miners here did a little mining behind there homes to make some spare change. I know when I was in Tonopah one of the miner cabins had a four foot shaft within a rocky flat area behind it. It was just merely a hole that went so far down and perhaps they only went so far because they just did not find anything of value here. Very little remained of the town site but you could see in the sage brush allot of piles of junk left behind from the towns heyday.
 
If you head north of town there is a cemetery about a mile away by this time the snowflakes were the size of quarters. The boys did not go to the cemetery with me I went in alone and I am glad I did. You have this cemetery supposedly with two hundred graves all by itself in the middle of Nevada. I mean literally most folks who visit Columbus have issues finding the graveyard but I could see it from the window of one of the miner cabins in the distance. The cemetery is a testament to those who braved this frontier and mined the rich borax found within these salt flats.
 
The only legible grave which I did not find as other sites stated you would was a man who shared my last name called Benjamin Rowe. As a matter in fact every single interment here is unknown except the one grave. There is one or two gravestones but they are broke while all the others are wooden crosses. None of the crosses have names on them as a matter in fact many of them are broke. There is a few areas where there are no graves I read there is 200 interments here so since I did not see that many crosses its safe to say those open areas probably contained unmarked grave sites.
 
The fence around it was just fence post with barbed wire while the gate off to the side was chain link fencing with two wooden crosses on each side and a wreath made of some kind of wiring often used in mining. This is a poorman's cemetery believe me. These people are buried behind the town site in the middle of the mountains on some salt flats. There is no fresh flowers or signs of any visitors perhaps a few a year that is it. But the people buried here are relevant to the towns development and history. While some people buried here were outlaws or hung from their crimes it is a piece of the town left behind. I read a story about how one man stabbed another man over a lady and the townsfolk ended up lynching that man inside one of the buildings because here in Columbus their were no trees and today due to the salt being so dominate nothing hardly grows out in the expanse.
 
Also their is a ghost town on the other side of the mountains behind Columbus about four to six miles away called Candelaria. The problem is that over the years new mining claims are often purchased within these ghost towns and once that occurs such historic sites often get demolished. I would not being going to Candelaria which is Columbus's sister town as I heard not only is it all private property but almost everything has been removed therefore Columbus is your next best bet or as close as most ever get to it nowadays. But the reason why I mentioned it is that some of the residents of Candelaria also lived in Columbus while some of them also are buried in the town cemetery.
 
After spending time in the cemetery I had to take it to the road another snow storm band was coming through. I was getting really annoyed because the entire trip I spent cleaning my camera lens. Every time my son would take a photo of me or I would take some pictures id have to wipe the lens to dry it off. So when you see some of my photos or even videos from the Coaldale Junction, Tonopah or Columbus areas keep in mind it was snowing hard through portions of every one of these locations. One or two snow flakes on the lens causes huge blurry spots it sucks and well as far as my videos go it just adds to the entire footage that we really were battling the elements. No less I am surprised my cameras never stopped worked within 10 seconds they were covered in snow and the lens had so much moisture on it photos were completely blurred.
 
I made my way eastward down to the industrial part of town well it was at one time but today its just a couple mill sites on a hill. Very few folks know this but the Spanish came to this area to mine had very little success while when miners came from Candelaria they took advantage of what was around them which was a plentiful supply of borax. Although Borax has many uses such as polishing gems or is found in laundry soap it was the cream of the crop for the townsfolk here. The the road I was on was actually the main road through town or as some know as Main Street. I was amazed how maintained this road was yea it had snow on it but it was three car lengths wide and was as good as driving on pavement seriously. Their was no large rocks, pot holes or dips like you would find in most wagon roads. For the most part the flats are just that flat and wide open. This would work towards my advantage as the mountains were getting hit harder then Columbus since this town sits at a lower elevation.
 
Through the fog and snow we seen a gigantic mill it had fencing around it, machinery, smoke billowing from a smoke stack and you could hear machinery running. I am sure this is some kind of mine or borax company. They probably mine it here then it goes into our laundry soaps but not sure there was no sign at the entrance to the mill. Since the mills sit on the outskirts of town we never have to worry about them tearing up the town site like other mining operations in some of these other ghost towns like Rawhide for example. Not much has changed however they did milling in the mid 1800's here and once again a mill operates in the towns mining district.
 
Across from this mill or factory was the old abandoned mill of course its not the original stamp mill used in silver or gold processing but it was one of the more successful borax mills. It is possible the internal foundations are older then the walls that surround it since the construction materials used to build it derive from two different eras. Its quite possible that over the years new sparks may ignite in these ghost towns to reopen the mill and claim the minerals that may have been missed by previous mining operations. The mill itself was made of concrete back in the day they made concrete on site sometimes they would mix all sort of things in it like native rocks, stones, sand and even metal. The mill was in ruins but it sat on a hill across from the newer one in operation. Jarrod came with me its not that he did not want to come but he was so tired from the day before so he missed Columbus.  
 
The older kids however were not digging it and my sons friend was calling me crazy behind my back. Not sure why considering he asked if he could go adventuring and its obvious if you browse our website or my albums online such as on facebook you can see I do allot of hardcore extreme adventuring. For example if you look at our Belmont album I have snow up to my waste in that ghost town so its not a surprise when I take you to the middle of nowhere and we battle the elements to find the paranormal it really isn't. The thing about me being the leader of our team and society is that you can put your trust in me. Ill get you in a place and out of a place alive even if the odds are stacked against me TRUTH!
 
Complaining will not change things nor will whining I cant change nature I can only work with the hand I been given. If people listen to me when I say dress warm it will make your life allot less painful. I find it sad that over the years others put me down when they know that this is a resilient group and we are explorers. Its no secret that folks up in Alaska who live near the poles have to go out in the elements to hunt, fish and gather supplies. If people complain about jeeping in a snowing ghost town how would they fear in an post apocalyptic world or if they lived back in the days when the west was wild and you had to reside in such a location such as Columbus isolated from the rest of civilization? Everyone wants to be an explorer but few know what that entrails or the sacrifices you must make to be the best of the best. What does not kill you makes you stronger. You cant live the adventure on your couch or through your cell phone if you ask to come you should expect it to be dangerous, risky, wet, cold etc not a walk in the park with the birds and the bees.
 
So the older boys stayed in the jeep while Jarrod and I begin to climb the hill. I have to say the mill was impressive it had a basement  The mill was about a 100' in length perhaps 50' wide. It had nothing but walls their was no ceiling or roof. It may have had a second floor the walls and open windows were much higher up. There was some kind of pipe protruding out from this rectangular area with enclosed walls also a giant power box which may have had power switches that controlled various operations. There was a slanted trough which looked like it ran off into another rectangular section within the mill. There was foundations everywhere most of them had rebar protruding out from it so we had to be careful.  Their was also piles of wood, metal and piping everywhere this includes behind the mill. Actually behind the mill I found railroad ties or rather evidence of a tram system that probably was utilized for ore carts that may have held the borax before it was dumped into the mill for processing. I also found a few wood ladders on the ground it must had been quite the complex back in the day.
 
On the other side of the hill Jarrod and I found a second mill. This one was much older while the mill we just went was all concrete on the inside with cinder block walls this mill was made mainly of wood. As a matter in fact you could see many large piles of wood which probably were from the walls and roofing when the mill stood. The mill was tiered you had massive concrete slabs about waste high eventually leading up to this giant wooden wall. Each foundation was about 6' high there was stacks of metal pipes all over as well and cans of beans that the miners ate on site.
 
The wooden wall had some pipes that came out from it and this entire mill was built right into the side of the mountain. The mountain looked as if it had been strip mined and it may have for its borax. I also found this cyanide drum the top and bottom were missing as I carried it around. Yeah the cyanide was long gone but back in the day some miners had gotten sick from ore processing when it came to working with mercury and cyanide. This mill had cyanide processing once I seen the sodium cyanide words written across along with the elemental properties I knew the kind of milling that was done here. No less the snow stopped at this mill so we had fun climbing around plus it was on a hill so we had gotten a few nice  short glimpses of some of the peaks nearby but still it was very foggy and snowy out.  The storm had no end in site not a single patch of blue or a ray of sun just a blanket of white.
 
I decided to head further down the road it was getting pretty terrible out the major band was staring to come through the area. The flakes coming down were coming down hard and fast. I was only a few miles from the highway not that this would make a difference. The highways are not plowed often in Nevada or by the time they do hours have passed. It did not matter if I skipped the town or I did not skip it we still would have to journey through this storm that covered most of the state. Their was no escape it did not matter where you were at whether it was Columbus or by my home near Tahoe.
 
When I was journeying out to the highway I found another miner shack with bedsprings in it. This shack or shanty was made of aluminum held up by wood framing. Their was also some kind of wooden head frame over this mine shaft that went about 50' down. Their was a ladder to the bottom of the mine which had some water in it but the ladder itself was being held on but two rusty metal brackets. Their was no way I was doing to climb down the pit of death with a ladder only help by a couple of brackets. I may be adventurous and daring but I am not stupid. Although I climbed between the barbed wire to take a gander I had no interest in going down into the pit. Someone lived in this shack and they more then likely spend many months to years climbing into the depths of this shaft.
 
Inside this miners cabins I seen a pile of these cactuses which were probably carried inside by rodents. The rodents use them to build nest or eat the pulp inside of them. You can also eat the pulp if you can find a way to remove the sharp piercing spikes. Rats are not uncommon critters to find in ghost towns and mill sites. People think NYC has some big rats I once seen at night in a mill a rat bigger then a cat no lie. I did not see any on this trip in particular but there were droppings near where they were trying to build a nest. I am not sure if this was a borax mine or silver its hard to know considering how deep the shaft was which was about 50' down as I looked down into it. I was not going to climb the weak ladder and find out it was on its last leg. Back in the day four mining companies took hold of the area and milled this borax.
 
As I made my way past this old mine I found this massive open pit mine that went over a 100' down. At the bottom of it was a small pond and you could see brush perhaps some small trees growing within the pit all the way to its depths. It was very steep I did not climb in could have but it was far better of a view to stand above it. The water at the bottom of the pit was deep from the rain and the snow melt. Although borax was mined in the area some miners did try a hand in gold and silver. Whoever dug this open pit was very serious about mining the area. If all this brush and trees are growing within it this means its fairly old not from a new operation. The pit gets very little sun and it stays fairly lush due to water flowing in it so this is perhaps why foliage grows all within the inner walls of it.
 
As I had gotten out near the highway their was a feeling of celebration because I took an old wagon road in and left the town traversing Main Street all the way to the highway I had to take to get home. At the junction of Columbus and the Hwy. their is actually a historic plaque which talks about Columbus. Its not to often you find a ghost town or get near one and find a good read in the middle of nowhere. I took a half hour break at this plaque gathering food, drinks and chilling for awhile till I was able to make the four hour journey home. It may have been a bit quicker but the main epicenter of this winter storm was beginning to strike. I was making Jarrod laugh I was outside catching snowflakes it was coming down hard but I did it I manage to pull it off I made the right call by going up here. I did not have allot of time to beat this storm but it was doable even in the snow and it was a fine ghost town to check out. I smoked a nice bowl of OG Lemon Kush while adoring the snowy mountains all covered in a layer of fog.
 
If you drive about 15 miles north of this location there is a couple other ghost towns or milling sites we visited those being Soda Springs, Mina and Luning. I visited them a few years ago. These are very accessible semi ghost towns that have rest stops, gas stations and some signs of civilization but not much. Before you pass through Soda Springs which btw is a really fantastic ghost town with allot of creepy large old homes and even a hotel. I love it there is dirt roads that go up into the Excelsior Mountains which overshadow these small ghost towns. This area is full of old Nevada mining history towns that date make to the mid 1800's, stage stops, mills, mines etc. Its an area I slowly been working with that way I can connect the dots or hot link them on our website since many of the local ghost towns all had significant ties to one another.
 
 Just south of Sodaville is a turn off for the mining camp known as Silver Dyke which today is this abandoned small ghost town high up in Silver Dyke Canyon. I really hated to abort our exploration of Silver Dyke it has quite a few relics of the past including a few miner cabins and a huge tungsten mine that I plan on conducting a paranormal investigation in. The road to get to the town site traverses a vast expanse then begins to ascend in this rugged canyon which is very steep. You have to have a jeep with four wheel drive as the road gets so terrible due to rock slides and washouts therefore when you can go no further you hike the rest of the way. I had to abort this project for now their was no way I was going to get stuck in the canyon it could be days before help would even arrive here. It was a 12 miles to the town site in this storm and if I drove up here I probably would have never gotten out of there that I do know. I could look across the expanse and see a sea of white the snowstorm was becoming more aggressive it was not just flakes falling anymore but rather winds blow and allot of thick fog. I will have to reschedule a trip to Silver Dyke when the weather is more favorable this is not a place you want to break or get stranded at its VERY remote!
 
Our expeditions had come to an end up but the places we visited were very amazing and I did have some paranormal experiences. One can always hope to experience paranormal activity while on investigation. It does not happen often but when you work hard to explore these locations and you do enough of them you should get some solid results. Its a trial and error sort of thing and if you cannot enjoy the ghost you can definitely respect the history. I put allot of work into the Tonopah Region some places I found exploring others I had to research. But my second trip polished off Tonopah itself then when you throw in Coaldale Junction and the ghost town of Columbus it made for a really awesome weekend of adventure. I did not get to play football on this trip wish we could have but I did get allot of research, adventuring and investigating done. Not many can say they went out all weekend long to investigate these creepy sites in a winter storm. Sometimes I like doing that its desolate, quiet and you increase the possibilities of encountering something paranormal. Like I told the boys hey we might be out in the winter weather but for all you know we might show up at one of these ghost towns or be driving across an expanse and see some aliens walking around a flying saucer. One thing I learned in this field is you never know what you might see when I climbed to the top of Slide Mountain back two years ago little did I know I would see a massive UFO rise out of a lake and split off into a bunch of smaller craft. You have to put yourself in strange predicaments in order to see strange things lets just leave it at that!
 
The ride home was a quiet lonely one the snow was coming down hard the entire ride home the road was a wall of white I could not even get any radio station and we all were very waiting with great anticipation to slowly head north through the storm. I could not see any mountains which exist on both sides of the highway. Walker Lake which is one of the largest in the state was completely under fog as I drove along the cliffs above it. When I arrived in Hawthorne which is a military town in Nevada I stopped to get a couple hot apple pies. My son ran into his friends grandfather three hours south of us what are the chances of that? Especially in a winter storm! It is a small world here you may be out exploring some ghost town and end up drinking beers somewhere seeing that person later during the day a hundred miles away. The weather was not getting any better the storm was so massive I traveled hours through it there was no escape the roads were slick and thankfully not many people were out in this. I did see a really bad car accident that involved a car and an SUV they were in pieces. Some people should not drive in the snow if they do not know how and anything can happen. Those boys are lucky I did not break down, get stuck or hit anyone I can attribute my experience to living in Buffalo my whole life where were use to this. People here see a few inches they freak but where I am from easily in a few hours we would get a couple feet.
 
I did taken Devin home he lives higher up in the mountains of the Pine Nuts its a beautiful area with woods and beautiful views. But the road to his home was really bad its all dirt roads up in that area but it looked like since he lived higher up in the mountains that they had gotten more snow. Id say their was around a foot of powder mixed in with allot of dirt from the road. By the time I had gotten him to his house front door service of course the jeep was covered in brown mud and slush from the snow mixing together with it. I was slipping and sliding all over the road thought to myself taking him home was more of a challenge then offroading to Columbus lol. An hour later I would be home the further north I went the worst it had gotten. It felt so good to get home kick my feet up and relax I put logs into the fireplace then called it a night. I feel quite content with our expeditions to Coaldale Junction, Tonopah and Columbus Nevada. I feel like we won this time I mean as most of you know anything could go wrong at any time. You could run over a nail, blow a tire, break down or have someone smash into you on the road. You have to be prepped for anything but it went well we never had gotten stuck and everyone is safe we survived one of the worst winter storms in Nevada the past four years. I just know that everyone is going to enjoy these locations and have great respect for our efforts to get them done. The next time I am up this way ill be mountain an expedition high up in the Excelsior Mountains in the ghost town of Silver Dyke! Wild is as wild does its been an exciting new year so far and you never know what I might have coming to all of you next!

"BELIEVE"
Lord Rick aka AngelOfThyNight

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