Speaker 1: Welcome to Haunted Road, the production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky listener. Discretion is advised. Hey, gang,
Speaker 1: this is just a quick reminder that I have a
Speaker 1: massive fall tour coming up starting in September, and so
Speaker 1: if you want to head to my website Amy dash
Speaker 1: Brunei dot net and click on the appearances page, you
Speaker 1: can see if I will be anywhere near you. A
Speaker 1: lot of these do have meet and great options too,
Speaker 1: So if you want to get a photo of me
Speaker 1: or ask me a question personally, this is your chance.
Speaker 1: I can see just looking at my schedule, I'm going
Speaker 1: to be in California, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas,
Speaker 1: Louisiana and more. So please check it out and hopefully
Speaker 1: we will get to meet in person and talk about
Speaker 1: spooky things. My favorite. When I was a young child,
Speaker 1: maybe four or five, my parents made me a toy
Speaker 1: box by maid. I mean they found an old trunk,
Speaker 1: probably at a garage sale knowing them, and they turned
Speaker 1: it into my own toy chest with a little love.
Speaker 1: It was perfect. They painted it white and used modge
Speaker 1: pods to add a m Y on the top in
Speaker 1: playful letters. For good measure, they also added raggedy Ann
Speaker 1: and Andy. I loved that chest. I loved it so
Speaker 1: much that I would even sometimes sit inside of it
Speaker 1: and pretend it was a boat or a car. One day,
Speaker 1: not long after I received the chest, so I must
Speaker 1: have still been about five years old, I was pretending
Speaker 1: I was sailing away in a boat. Sitting in the chest,
Speaker 1: I let my imagination run wild, and at one point
Speaker 1: the lid came crashing down toward me. In an effort
Speaker 1: to avoid hitting my head, I ducked, and suddenly I
Speaker 1: found myself in darkness. The lid had crashed down and
Speaker 1: latched from the outside. Honestly, I don't remember a lot
Speaker 1: after that. I don't know how long I was in there,
Speaker 1: but I remember snippets of me screaming for my mom
Speaker 1: and her definitely not hearing me from the other end
Speaker 1: of the house. And I remember the feeling of not
Speaker 1: being able to breathe and being very hot and sweaty,
Speaker 1: until finally the lid opened and my frantic mother was
Speaker 1: asking if I was okay. I was, I thought. Ever
Speaker 1: since that fateful moment, I have had terrible claustrophobia. I
Speaker 1: blame it on that experience, though I guess I'll never
Speaker 1: know for sure. But when I have to investigate small spaces,
Speaker 1: I am visibly anxious and have to take frequent breaks.
Speaker 1: Being underground is especially worrisome, So tunnels and caves are
Speaker 1: also a major problem for me. I can't shake the
Speaker 1: feeling that at any moment I could be buried alive.
Speaker 1: So imagine my trepidation when we agreed to investigate a mine,
Speaker 1: a big one. Come with me as we ventured to
Speaker 1: New Jersey and explore the very haunted Sterling Hill mines.
Speaker 1: I hope you'll hold my hand if I need it.
Speaker 1: I'm Amy BRUNEI, and this is haunted road. Beneath the
Speaker 1: ground in Ogdensburg, New Jersey, caves glow brightly with subterranean treasures.
Speaker 1: The thirty five miles of tunnels which were once the
Speaker 1: Sterling Hill Mine are among the richest in the world,
Speaker 1: with fluorescent minerals, vibrant red colcite, deep yellow espirite, lush,
Speaker 1: violent hard distonite, and vivid green willomite, the phosphorus and
Speaker 1: glow of which emanates even after there is no energy
Speaker 1: source attached to it today, people tore the tunnels to
Speaker 1: learn the history of mining in New Jersey, which dates
Speaker 1: back to the sixteen hundreds, and to see the natural
Speaker 1: wonders of the light show under the ground. They also
Speaker 1: go to the Sterling Hill Mine looking for ghosts spirits
Speaker 1: who remained behind after terrible accidents that happened when the
Speaker 1: mine was still in operation. I know firsthand. I was
Speaker 1: one of those people, and I found ghosts who still
Speaker 1: had some of the most intense emotional energy I've ever experienced.
Speaker 1: It turns out guilt and grief can last even in death.
Speaker 1: The Sterling Hill Mine, now known as the Sterling Hill
Speaker 1: Mine Tour and Museum of Florescence, is a former iron
Speaker 1: and zinc mine in northern New Jersey near the New
Speaker 1: York border. Legend has it that early Dutch settlers to
Speaker 1: the area started mining on the site in the sixteen
Speaker 1: thirties in search of highly prized copper and iron deposits. However,
Speaker 1: those claims are unsubstantiated. According to a history of Sterling
Speaker 1: Hill mind by Daniel Russell As he wrote, the earliest
Speaker 1: documentary evidence of mining activities on the Sterling Hill site
Speaker 1: date from seventeen thirty, when the property, then known as
Speaker 1: the Copper Mine Tract, was divided to the hairs of
Speaker 1: Anthony Rutger's by the proprietors of New Jersey in seventeen
Speaker 1: sixty nine. William Alexander, who called himself Lord Sterling, though
Speaker 1: he had no noble title, acquired the property. He might
Speaker 1: iron from the site, sending many tons of ore to
Speaker 1: his furnace in Hibernia and New Jersey, and tons of
Speaker 1: what he incorrectly thought was copper to England. While Lord
Speaker 1: Sterling ultimately failed to effectively mind Sterling Hill, he was
Speaker 1: partly right. There were rich deposits of minerals in that ground,
Speaker 1: over three hundred seventy different minerals actually, and more than
Speaker 1: twenty minerals found nowhere else in the world. He just
Speaker 1: couldn't get to them. The Franklin Knight in the ground,
Speaker 1: which bore iron inside, was resistant to smelting by the
Speaker 1: technology of his time. Lord Sterling drank himself to death
Speaker 1: during the American Revolution, and the mines went to the
Speaker 1: Ogden family, owners of the profitable Ogden Mine and nearby
Speaker 1: iron furnace. The Ogdens didn't extract iron from Sterling Hill,
Speaker 1: but did mind zinc there that was used for brass
Speaker 1: during the War of eighteen twelve. The Ogden family ran
Speaker 1: three separate mines in the area for most of the
Speaker 1: nineteenth and early twentieth centuries until the New Jersey Zinc
Speaker 1: Company took over operations. The company began producing or in
Speaker 1: nineteen twelve and had a superstar consultant, Thomas Alva Edison,
Speaker 1: inventor of the telegraph, the phonograph, and the first long
Speaker 1: lasting light bulb, among about a million other things. Edison,
Speaker 1: according to Daniel Russell, had acquired an iron mine several
Speaker 1: miles from the Sterling Hill mines and had developed several
Speaker 1: innovative techniques and processes for beneficiating the ores and smelting metal.
Speaker 1: He maintained an active correspondence with the officers and management
Speaker 1: of the New Jersey Zinc Company, offering detailed advice on
Speaker 1: process technology as well as designing equipment for the company.
Speaker 1: The work was difficult and dangerous, but the New Jersey
Speaker 1: Zinc Company substantially improved the quality of life for miners
Speaker 1: in Ogdensburg. It built a hospital, club rooms for the
Speaker 1: miners and their families, bowling alleys, tennis courts, swimming pools,
Speaker 1: and even a summer camp for the miners children. The
Speaker 1: mining company even provided companies subsidized housing for employees, consisting
Speaker 1: of four room bungalows for laborers at eight dollars per
Speaker 1: month in ninety two, and comfortable houses for staff at
Speaker 1: seventeen dollars a month. Those costs in today's money would
Speaker 1: be about hundred forty one dollars for the bungalows and
Speaker 1: three hundred dollars for the comfortable houses. During their shifts,
Speaker 1: miners would descend as far as two thousand, six hundred
Speaker 1: seventy five feet below the surface to excavate thirty five
Speaker 1: miles of tunnels. Before and after their shifts, miners would
Speaker 1: stop at miner's change house. Each miner had a locker,
Speaker 1: there were three hundred of them, which had a chain
Speaker 1: attached to it. The chain was attached to a pulley
Speaker 1: in the ceiling and had a basket at one end.
Speaker 1: Miners would take off their wet, muddy clothes, put them
Speaker 1: in their basket, and hoist the basket up to the ceiling. Overnight,
Speaker 1: the drier air would dry the clothes so they were
Speaker 1: ready for work the next day. The mining was so
Speaker 1: successful and the minerals so in demand that during World
Speaker 1: War Two the mine never closed. There were three shifts
Speaker 1: around the clock mining zinc for the brass to make
Speaker 1: bullet and artillery shells. According to a History of the
Speaker 1: Mind by Sussex County, New Jersey, the site was considered
Speaker 1: a vital strategic interest and was protected by armed soldiers.
Speaker 1: Rock and Gem magazine reports that over the one hundred
Speaker 1: thirty six year period the Sterling Mine was an operation,
Speaker 1: it mined eleven million tons of ore, of which was zinc.
Speaker 1: In fact, the deposits found in the ground in Ogdensburg,
Speaker 1: which are about one hundred three billion years old, are
Speaker 1: exceptionally rich in zinc. The History of the Mine on
Speaker 1: the museum's website claims that no similar deposits of richness
Speaker 1: impurity have been found anywhere else on Earth. Zinc might
Speaker 1: not sound like an essential mineral, but you'd be surprised
Speaker 1: at how many uses it has. Essential car parts like carburetors,
Speaker 1: door handles and fuel pumps are all made from zinc.
Speaker 1: It's integral to making galvanized metals, ceramics, batteries, tires, sun block,
Speaker 1: even pennies. And of course we need to make sure
Speaker 1: we eat enough of it to keep our immune systems strong.
Speaker 1: The fourth oldest mine in the country, Sterling Mine was
Speaker 1: the last working underground mine in New Jersey when it
Speaker 1: closed in nineteen eighty six, and closed only because of
Speaker 1: a tax dispute with Ogdensburg. The town foreclosed on the
Speaker 1: property in nineteen eighty nine, and it was bought at
Speaker 1: auction for seven hundred fifty thousand dollars to Richard and
Speaker 1: Robert Howe, who opened the Sterling Hill Mine Museum in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety. The next year, it was added to the
Speaker 1: National Register of Historic Places and eventually became a nonprofit
Speaker 1: educational foundation managed by a board of trustees. Today, the
Speaker 1: Miners Change House is the Zobel Hall Museum. That building
Speaker 1: houses everything from inventions by Thomas Edison to dinosaur fossils
Speaker 1: to actual meteorites from space. It also has a stunning
Speaker 1: multimillion dollar display of minerals from as far away as
Speaker 1: Russia and China, and a huge display of the Periodic
Speaker 1: Table of elements. For each element, there's an example of
Speaker 1: the ore it's extracted from, an example of an object
Speaker 1: made using that element. The Mind's Old Mill building, which
Speaker 1: dates back to nineteen sixteen is now the Warren Museum
Speaker 1: of Fluorescence, which displays more than seven hundred different fluorescent
Speaker 1: minerals and objects. The museum claims to have the largest
Speaker 1: collection of fluorescent minerals in the world. Today, both the
Speaker 1: main shaft, which goes down two thousand sixty five feet,
Speaker 1: and the lower shaft, which goes down two thousand, six
Speaker 1: hundred seventy five feet, are totally flooded. In fact, everything
Speaker 1: lower than the very top level of the Mind, less
Speaker 1: than one hundred feet below ground, are totally submerged. The
Speaker 1: temperature is a constant fifty six degrees inside. Visitors to
Speaker 1: the museum can explore not just the collection of artifacts,
Speaker 1: but the mines themselves on guided walks through the parts
Speaker 1: of the Mind that are still accessible. The subterranean walk
Speaker 1: goes through a new two hundred forty foot section called
Speaker 1: the Rainbow Tunnel, which they blasted in nineteen ninety using
Speaker 1: forty nine blasts and at a cost of two dollars
Speaker 1: a foot. They're short wave UV lights are turned on
Speaker 1: to illuminate the entire tunnel and show case various mineral
Speaker 1: samples glowing with florescence. Fans of the movie Zoolander might
Speaker 1: find Sterling Mind familiar. The mining scenes in the movie
Speaker 1: were filmed there. That's when he said, I've got the
Speaker 1: blacklong pop. Paranormal researchers have claimed that there was a
Speaker 1: terrible accident resulting in the deaths of seventy seven people
Speaker 1: inside the mine nearly a century ago. But when I
Speaker 1: was researching the Mind for the episode of Kindred Spirits
Speaker 1: we filmed there, I did not find any historical record
Speaker 1: of that accident. What I did find, however, was a
Speaker 1: history of smaller accidents that have left impressions in the
Speaker 1: space for centuries. In particular, Caven's injured miners. On November fourteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty, a cave in at the mine injured a
Speaker 1: mining expert who was rescued by workers but died on
Speaker 1: the way to the hospital. A similar accident happened on Monday,
Speaker 1: February ninth, nineteen forty two. John Under was killed by
Speaker 1: what the Courier News described as a fall of rock
Speaker 1: and dirt. But in eighteen fifty eight, a very serious
Speaker 1: accident happened that had nothing to do with the cave in.
Speaker 1: Workers in the mine were building a new shaft and
Speaker 1: some miners were tasked with salvaging and dismantling the old
Speaker 1: shaft For many months, Doug Francisco wrote in the Sterling
Speaker 1: Hill Newsletter, a handful of men were tasked with shutting
Speaker 1: her down. One night, a crew of five men were
Speaker 1: sending scrap metal to the surface through an elevator cage.
Speaker 1: Three men prepped the metal on the mine floor, and
Speaker 1: two rode the cage up and loaded the scrap. As
Speaker 1: Francisco wrote, level by level, the cage rattled downward at
Speaker 1: a nice, steady pace. At six hundred eighty level, the
Speaker 1: neglected maintenance took its toll. The cable clamps let loose,
Speaker 1: and the cage, with its human cargo free fell hundreds
Speaker 1: of feet, gathering speed until it crashed to the floor
Speaker 1: of the shaft bottom. The men were pitched off, One
Speaker 1: died instantly, and the other, Ralph Romans, was hurled into
Speaker 1: a puddle of water. The three men on the bottom
Speaker 1: rushed forward and one of them rolled Ralph onto his back,
Speaker 1: keeping his head out of the water, and cradled him,
Speaker 1: hoping to allow him to breathe. Ralph Romans died in
Speaker 1: the man's arms. Years later, Francisco described a former minor
Speaker 1: turn chaplain named Bob Romans was visiting patients in Newton
Speaker 1: Hospital in the spring of around to comfort sick and
Speaker 1: dying patients. On entering one of the hospital rooms, he
Speaker 1: saw a whispy haired, frail old man and approaching the bed.
Speaker 1: Chaplain Bob reached out his hand and took the old man, saying,
Speaker 1: I'm Bob Romans, a chaplain here at the hospital. The
Speaker 1: old man's eyes struggled to focus, and he finally said,
Speaker 1: I knew a Romans a long time ago. He was
Speaker 1: a friend of mine, many years ago. The old man said.
Speaker 1: We worked the minds together. The old man went on
Speaker 1: to say that they had worked at Sterling together. I
Speaker 1: was there the night he died, the old man said.
Speaker 1: He went on to describe the night of the accident.
Speaker 1: I was there the night he died. It was nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty eight. The cage cut loose and slammed down to
Speaker 1: the bottom. We heard it coming and got the hell
Speaker 1: out of the way the best we could. When it
Speaker 1: we ran forward and I found Ralph broken, bleeding and
Speaker 1: lying face down in the water. I held his head
Speaker 1: up out of the water, hoping he would be able
Speaker 1: to breathe but it only took a few moments to
Speaker 1: realize he was already dead. I just held him in
Speaker 1: my arms, As Francisco wrote, Bob left the hospital that
Speaker 1: night amazed that he had been given such a privilege
Speaker 1: to personally thank this man for trying to help his
Speaker 1: grandpa and his last moments on earth, and how such
Speaker 1: a holy moment could come so unexpectedly from such a
Speaker 1: tragic event so long ago. Bob later learned that the
Speaker 1: man had passed away the next morning. When Adam Barry
Speaker 1: and I investigated Sterling Mine for kindred spirits, we made
Speaker 1: contact with the spirit we believe was involved with that
Speaker 1: very accident, and who carried a great amount of grief
Speaker 1: and guilt about it. He didn't die in the mind,
Speaker 1: but his spirit lingered there. We believe he stayed behind
Speaker 1: to warn people about the dangers of the mind and
Speaker 1: to not let anyone go anywhere inside the tunnels that
Speaker 1: wasn't safe. Another spirit who's reported to appear off in
Speaker 1: in Sterling Mine is Bicycle Pete. According to legend, he
Speaker 1: was a miner who would ride his bike to the
Speaker 1: mind daily. One day, Pete went into the mines but
Speaker 1: never returned. The only way they noticed was that his
Speaker 1: bicycle remained parked outside well into the night unclaimed. Supposedly,
Speaker 1: he was never seen again. Pete's ghost is believed to
Speaker 1: haunt the mind to this day, and also to this day,
Speaker 1: the Mining Museum leaves a bike parked outside the entrance
Speaker 1: in his honor. Visitors also claimed to hear footsteps, voices,
Speaker 1: the sound of machinery, and whispers inside the mine. But
Speaker 1: the hauntings aren't just underground. Some people claim to have
Speaker 1: seen shadow figures in the museum buildings or faces in
Speaker 1: the windows peering out. To talk more about the hauntings,
Speaker 1: I have genroggerro coming up next. He is the founder
Speaker 1: of New Jersey Paranormal and has spent many nights investigating
Speaker 1: the mines. We talk about our experiences there and it's
Speaker 1: quite chilling. Literally it's cold in those mines. That's coming
Speaker 1: up after the break, Ye all right, So I am
Speaker 1: sitting here with Mr John Riggiero, who is the founder
Speaker 1: of New Jersey Paranormal and you may have seen him
Speaker 1: on Kindred Spirits in the past when we investigated Liberty Hall,
Speaker 1: but we actually go way back. He has a really
Speaker 1: great event that he and his team put on every
Speaker 1: year in New Jersey, which we'll talk about at the end.
Speaker 1: But that's how we know each other and we have
Speaker 1: a lot of mutual friends. And so he's the one
Speaker 1: that brought the idea of Sterling Hill Mind to us
Speaker 1: for Kindred Spirits because they were having some crazy activity
Speaker 1: and wanted answers, and so he's the perfect person to
Speaker 1: talk to. So welcome John him. Thank you for having
Speaker 1: me on. I appreciate it. Of course. The mine is
Speaker 1: a really wild place to investigate. Now. I have claustrophobia
Speaker 1: pretty badly, and I hate being underground. It is I've
Speaker 1: talked about a number of occasions, and when they came
Speaker 1: to me and said we have this mine that would
Speaker 1: like you all to investigate, I was instantly like, well,
Speaker 1: that's too bad for them. But eventually they talked me
Speaker 1: into it and it turned into a really interesting case. Now,
Speaker 1: you guys have investigated it a number of times, right right.
Speaker 1: We were contacted by them a few years back about
Speaker 1: the activity there. They had multiple reports of seeing and
Speaker 1: hearing things, and we asked if we could go into
Speaker 1: the mine and see if we could see for ourselves,
Speaker 1: and we had gotten in there actually three or four
Speaker 1: times over a couple of weekends. And like you said,
Speaker 1: the initial initial visit, when you go in there with
Speaker 1: the lights on, it's pretty intimidating with the lights on
Speaker 1: as you're walking through there in the mind. And then
Speaker 1: when they turned the lights off and we were in
Speaker 1: there and the pitch black, the very first thing I
Speaker 1: ever experienced there was hearing voices back and forth talking
Speaker 1: to each other in the echo and the water dripping,
Speaker 1: and we literally just said quiet, quiet. We stayed quiet
Speaker 1: for ten minutes and listen to these people just back
Speaker 1: and forth talking to each other. It was one of
Speaker 1: the most bizarre experience I've ever had. I mean when
Speaker 1: you say that, I am literally getting chills because I
Speaker 1: remember that feeling of being in the mind and hearing voices.
Speaker 1: And so here's the thing. The mind is not an operation.
Speaker 1: It's a museum. We had it to ourselves. There's no
Speaker 1: way for anyone to get in there. And if you
Speaker 1: sit quietly, you will hear voices. And the darkness is
Speaker 1: like when you turn off the lights. It is the
Speaker 1: darkest of dark and you are so aware that you
Speaker 1: are underground. And then when you hear voices at the
Speaker 1: same time, your entire body reacts like you want to run,
Speaker 1: but you can't because because you will fall or run
Speaker 1: into a wall of some sort. But but it is
Speaker 1: I would say it is one of the eeriest experience.
Speaker 1: I mean, that whole investigation was just solid, Like I
Speaker 1: never felt relaxed, I never felt at ease. I was
Speaker 1: constantly having anxiety and like MANI panic attacks and so
Speaker 1: I guess that added to it for me. But the
Speaker 1: activity itself is just wild. So we were in interviewing
Speaker 1: someone who worked in the Mind for a number of years.
Speaker 1: I can't recall his name, but he was. He was
Speaker 1: fabulous and he had so much information. And in the
Speaker 1: middle of the interview, I was like, can you just
Speaker 1: come with us because we were kind of describing the
Speaker 1: sounds we were hearing, and we just asked him, you know,
Speaker 1: can you come with us and explain some of these
Speaker 1: because you've been in there so long and working there still.
Speaker 1: So we brought this man back to the Mind that night,
Speaker 1: and he actually wore his full like mining gear for us,
Speaker 1: and we thought that would be neat to kind of
Speaker 1: maybe use that as kind of a trigger, like use
Speaker 1: him as a human trigger object. He was teaching us,
Speaker 1: like what he did and everything, and so then we said, well,
Speaker 1: let's just sit for a minute and let's be quiet.
Speaker 1: And so we sat and we hear this very loud
Speaker 1: rumbling coming from below us, and then we hear it
Speaker 1: kind of from above us too, and I just looked
Speaker 1: at him, like that's the sound, Like what are what's
Speaker 1: making that sound? And he looked at us and he said, well,
Speaker 1: that sounds like a mining cart, but that's impossible. And
Speaker 1: I said, well, thank you, we're not we've not lost
Speaker 1: it here because we thought this, say, like it sounded
Speaker 1: like something mechanical. And he just said, you know, I've
Speaker 1: worked in here so long, he said, but I'm always working,
Speaker 1: he said, I've never just sat and listened. And he
Speaker 1: was baffled. And this is a man who was hugely
Speaker 1: skeptical of the idea of ghosts. And he didn't say
Speaker 1: it was a ghost, but he definitely was like, I
Speaker 1: have no explanation for what we're experiencing right now. And
Speaker 1: he heard the voices to these like loud, gruff male
Speaker 1: voices talking down at the end of the mind, and
Speaker 1: he had zero explanation. But it did make sense when
Speaker 1: he said, no one's down here listening who works here.
Speaker 1: They're all just working, you know. No one just wants
Speaker 1: to just sit in the mind and meditate. They want
Speaker 1: to get in and out, you know, so that was
Speaker 1: really cool for us. You had mentioned a good point
Speaker 1: during the episode about you know, the people that run
Speaker 1: the mind now or men of science. They have degrees
Speaker 1: in engineering and other degrees, and these are people that
Speaker 1: do what we do, so they're not big believers of
Speaker 1: the para normal. And when I first went in there
Speaker 1: and they were describing seeing shadow figures, having things rush
Speaker 1: them here, and growling getting pushed, it was just so
Speaker 1: believable because again, these aren't the typical people but that
Speaker 1: we deal with. And then when we went in there
Speaker 1: ourselves and we were rushed at least two or three times.
Speaker 1: Something just comes at you and you feel the rush
Speaker 1: of wind or air and you sometimes in your ear
Speaker 1: you'll hear or you'll hear a growl, and it is
Speaker 1: again a bizarre experience to know that, again you're in
Speaker 1: the dark, you can't see who's ever there, but they're
Speaker 1: definitely around. And that noise you're describing, we heard that,
Speaker 1: but we also heard what sounded like residual dynamite. They
Speaker 1: have a display there. I don't know if they showed
Speaker 1: you that where they demo the mind how they used
Speaker 1: the dynamite and it has lights and you hear when
Speaker 1: you do that. You want to talk about a trigger object.
Speaker 1: If you do that and then wait an hour or
Speaker 1: two or three, you will hear the residual in the
Speaker 1: mind in different areas. Again, bizarre how that works. It
Speaker 1: is very strange activity. And I know too there are
Speaker 1: shadows seen in there a lot, and we definitely saw
Speaker 1: one at one point. And what's your experience been with
Speaker 1: like shadow figures or apparitions in the minds. I've got
Speaker 1: a good one for you. The office space where I
Speaker 1: know you were in the chip in the last year
Speaker 1: since you've been there. Actually a lot of the miners
Speaker 1: that work there, they'll come back if they're from California,
Speaker 1: different parts of the country, and they let them actually
Speaker 1: stay in the office. They have like little bedroom set
Speaker 1: up with refrigerators and beds, and they've been doing that
Speaker 1: for years. But lately, over the last year or so,
Speaker 1: they won't stay on that bottom floor of that office
Speaker 1: anymore because they've seen a shadow figure above them when
Speaker 1: they're sleeping and they're hearing banging on the pipes and
Speaker 1: things like that. Now they actually have a trailer outside
Speaker 1: the office because these guys, and you know, the guys
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, these are you know, guys that are
Speaker 1: used to manual labor and tough guys. They will not
Speaker 1: stay in that building. So I'm in there and we
Speaker 1: had just finished an event, and I'm grabbing all of
Speaker 1: my things, and I kid you not, a shadow figure
Speaker 1: went right in front of me, paused, and then went
Speaker 1: down the stairs and around into one of the old bedrooms.
Speaker 1: I froze because I had never seen a shadow figure
Speaker 1: do that before. And that's the office to where people
Speaker 1: have to work every day, right, Oh jeez. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: was surprised at the activity in that building. So this
Speaker 1: part is not even like part of the mind. It's
Speaker 1: kind of connected. You can kind of get to the mind.
Speaker 1: I remember not really being familiar with that part. When
Speaker 1: they asked us to look there because they've been having activity,
Speaker 1: I was like, Oh, of course, any place that's not underground,
Speaker 1: I'm happy to investigate. And so we get there and
Speaker 1: then I'm like, mmmm, this might be creepier than the mine.
Speaker 1: Definitely had a strange feeling, and that was when we
Speaker 1: did a really interesting spirit box session there s to
Speaker 1: session there and we got this man who felt he
Speaker 1: was communicating and feeling very responsible for some thing. We
Speaker 1: don't know if he was affiliated with. There was a
Speaker 1: really terrible mining accident that happened there. Weren't sure if
Speaker 1: he's affiliated with that, but he definitely felt some sort
Speaker 1: of remorse and also like he was being blamed. And
Speaker 1: so I mean, I don't know, maybe he's trying to
Speaker 1: make himself known, especially to miners, or maybe he knew
Speaker 1: them from before, Like maybe he's trying to reach out
Speaker 1: to them for some reason. Sounds like we might need
Speaker 1: to revisit. That's actually a really good point, and I
Speaker 1: had forgotten about that from the episode because I had
Speaker 1: also done spare box and EVP sessions there, and there
Speaker 1: is somebody that talks about a fire, talks about a fire,
Speaker 1: and he talks about being burned, and the last thing
Speaker 1: he remembered that I got on e VP was paying.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of strange that you mentioned that, because
Speaker 1: you know, most of the people that die their cavens
Speaker 1: and explosions and horrible ways to go, so they do
Speaker 1: linger with those memories, and unfortunately yeah, the mining industry,
Speaker 1: especially back then. I mean just in general, mining is
Speaker 1: such a dangerous occupation, but even back then, like they
Speaker 1: did not have OSHA standards, they did not you know,
Speaker 1: it's funny to look at photos when you look at
Speaker 1: historical photos of these guys just covered in dirt and
Speaker 1: ash and smile all smiles, and they often talk about
Speaker 1: it with kind of a fondness, like there's something that
Speaker 1: it's kind of like a brotherhood. You know. Even the
Speaker 1: miners that we met, they're kind of nostalgic for it,
Speaker 1: like there's something about it which I don't understand. I
Speaker 1: mean a lot of us don't understand. I'm sure you
Speaker 1: know you think, okay, you're doing this really dangerous job.
Speaker 1: But maybe that does create kind of, like I said before,
Speaker 1: like a brotherhood or this feeling of like you have
Speaker 1: to kind of really get emotional about it and begin
Speaker 1: to love it. To risk that, I don't know, I'm comping.
Speaker 1: You have to count on the person next to you,
Speaker 1: because if something happens, it's just you and that group.
Speaker 1: Because that went down that mine. So if something happened
Speaker 1: on level and you're with a bunch of people and
Speaker 1: you're working and you're in it together. Whatever happens is
Speaker 1: going to happen to all of you. And that was
Speaker 1: every day. I'm sure they lived with that, the notion
Speaker 1: of hey, yeah, I think could happen. It happened a
Speaker 1: year ago. It may have happened five years ago, but
Speaker 1: they know things happened in that mind, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: and that's when I think about the idea of them
Speaker 1: going down so farcus. When you see the elevator shaft,
Speaker 1: it is so far. And then one of the things
Speaker 1: we did in there, and we were with that gentleman again,
Speaker 1: he was demonstrating to us like he just picked up,
Speaker 1: like there's pipes and stuff all he just picked up
Speaker 1: a random pipe. There was a pool of water that
Speaker 1: was basically one of the old shafts, and he threw
Speaker 1: it and we could hear it pinging all the way down.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, that thing went on for like a
Speaker 1: minute and a half, just getting further and further away,
Speaker 1: ping ping, And I was just thinking of all those
Speaker 1: shafts that are down there, flooded, all of the gear
Speaker 1: and stuff that's probably still there, and are there people
Speaker 1: still there? You know, like are there people that were
Speaker 1: never recovered that are down there, like it's it's really
Speaker 1: eerie to think about. Females, especially get kind of the
Speaker 1: they get attention in a different way. We've we've heard
Speaker 1: a lot of females get cursed that there, and they
Speaker 1: hear the growling a little more. So. I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's because females sit and work in the mine
Speaker 1: and maybe they did believe they were bad luck. I
Speaker 1: don't know, but definitely they get a different kind of
Speaker 1: interaction from what I've seen, right, I experienced that. I
Speaker 1: tried to explain, you know, I'm always trying to talk
Speaker 1: to these spirits like I would want to be talked to,
Speaker 1: and I just tried to explain, you know, hey, the
Speaker 1: year is twenty twenty one or whatever when we were
Speaker 1: there and women are now allowed in minds. You know,
Speaker 1: I've tried to be though, you know, and and uh,
Speaker 1: you know where this mine is an an operation anymore.
Speaker 1: You don't have to worry about me being bad luck.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it doesn't help on the redhead, like just
Speaker 1: trying there perfect Yeah, but I mean maybe that's there's
Speaker 1: something to that, because I do you remember hearing the
Speaker 1: voices quite often, and a lot of them sounded very angry,
Speaker 1: and actually we heard them back where you were talking
Speaker 1: about that dynamite area. That's where I heard the voices
Speaker 1: the most often, and we even followed them back to
Speaker 1: this whole back area I didn't even know existed, and
Speaker 1: they weren't stopping. They were chattering, and they were men.
Speaker 1: They didn't sound happy per se, so I wasn't sure
Speaker 1: if it was like they were talking about what they
Speaker 1: were supposed to be doing. It it's some sort of
Speaker 1: residual working environment that we're hearing, but very wild. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: like I said, very creepy feeling to be in a
Speaker 1: mind hearing ghostly voices, especially when it's the middle of
Speaker 1: the night. I think it's a mixture of both. I
Speaker 1: think there's a residual and I think there's intelligent and
Speaker 1: it's such a weird mixture, like you said, when they're
Speaker 1: around you. We've had so many things happen in that mind,
Speaker 1: where so many different people walking through experiencing different things,
Speaker 1: and they're not shy about coming up to you that.
Speaker 1: That's another thing that's kind of strange about that mind
Speaker 1: is that the odds are if you're wandering through that
Speaker 1: mind and there are people that work there will tell
Speaker 1: you as well that they'll hear the footsteps. That happens
Speaker 1: a lot where you could be in one area and
Speaker 1: you've been there, so you know there's water on the ground,
Speaker 1: and you can hear the foot even sneakers, but boots
Speaker 1: you can hear especially, and you'll be by yourself and
Speaker 1: setting things up that you hear the wet foot steps
Speaker 1: coming towards you and you just stand there with a
Speaker 1: flashlight pointing it in the direction and seeing nothing yet
Speaker 1: they're still coming. Yeah, and also bring a backup flashlights.
Speaker 1: Speaking of that, I think it was Freddie. He was
Speaker 1: telling us a story about how he was out there.
Speaker 1: He you know, because he goes in and out of
Speaker 1: that mind all the time. Again, it is one of
Speaker 1: those stories that gives me the hebg bees. He was
Speaker 1: there and he he started hearing footsteps and then so
Speaker 1: Freddie was the gentleman who we interviewed. I believe he
Speaker 1: heard footsteps and then his flashlight went out and he
Speaker 1: couldn't he couldn't get it back on, and he's in
Speaker 1: the pitch darkness by himself, hearing these footsteps approaching from behind.
Speaker 1: He had to make his way out of the mind
Speaker 1: without his flashlight whole like guiding on. Thank god he
Speaker 1: knew how to get around in there because he'd been
Speaker 1: in there so often. He had to touch the wall
Speaker 1: and get all the way to where he could see
Speaker 1: the doorway off in the distance. I would probably just
Speaker 1: drop dead right. I would be like, okay, this is it,
Speaker 1: I'm good goodbye, ye help, And there gigantic metal doors
Speaker 1: and there's no other way to access it, so you're
Speaker 1: stuck in there until you get out of there and no.
Speaker 1: So one of the things that I love about that
Speaker 1: place is that it's actually a huge It's very educational,
Speaker 1: like obviously we're talking about the haunts and the ghosts,
Speaker 1: but it isn't amazing sing museum experience, and there are
Speaker 1: tons of field trips and kids going in out of
Speaker 1: there all the time. Like it is not at all
Speaker 1: a place that I would deem like a dangerous type haunt.
Speaker 1: I do think that they're no. I think there are
Speaker 1: ghosts there that have a lot of questions or are
Speaker 1: needing something, and over time, as people investigate, you might
Speaker 1: find that out. But I don't think people are Like
Speaker 1: the minor that we worked with said, if you're in
Speaker 1: there and you're walking around the sound and everything. It
Speaker 1: moves so crazy you would not know if a ghost
Speaker 1: was talking to you. You're not going to have a
Speaker 1: paranormal experience in there, really unless you really sit still
Speaker 1: and look and listen. And so I don't want to
Speaker 1: dissuade people from going because I think it is such
Speaker 1: it's such a great place, and they have some really
Speaker 1: amazing displays. They have like a huge uranium glass collection.
Speaker 1: They have a really great mining area where kids can
Speaker 1: do their old gold panning my daughter and my daughter
Speaker 1: was there for filming, and she clearly was fearless during
Speaker 1: she literally ran off into the mind. I had to
Speaker 1: follow her. She wanted to go in the mine and
Speaker 1: no one was in there because we were down for
Speaker 1: like lunch akee or something, and she wanted to go
Speaker 1: in the mine, and so I had to like put
Speaker 1: on a brave face. I think she was six or
Speaker 1: seven at the time. By seven, and I'm sure we
Speaker 1: can go on the mine. So it's just the two
Speaker 1: of us and she's running ahead like living it up,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, oh my god, I'm so scary. But anyways,
Speaker 1: kids love it. The fluorescent minerals as well, that's another
Speaker 1: big draw. They turned the black lights on and there's many,
Speaker 1: many pictures of those minerals, and it's just I don't
Speaker 1: think those minerals are in a lot of other mining
Speaker 1: museums that I think they're kind of exclusive to the
Speaker 1: Sterling Mine, at least in this area. Maybe for places
Speaker 1: that you could actually visit and you can't do it justice.
Speaker 1: You could look at the pictures, but when you're actually
Speaker 1: in the room and they turned the black light on,
Speaker 1: it really does just it's like a rainbow inside this mountain.
Speaker 1: It is why. I mean, I didn't even know to
Speaker 1: expect that. You know, we had done so much kind
Speaker 1: of researching and hearing about the ghosts, and then when
Speaker 1: they showed us that, I was like, this is the
Speaker 1: most beautiful thing. Like it was. It is. It's a
Speaker 1: very cool place. It is very very haunted, but it's
Speaker 1: a haunt unlike any other. And I can't wait to
Speaker 1: get back there eventually. And so at some point we're
Speaker 1: going to have to arrange something because it is one
Speaker 1: of my favorite places. I meant, here's the thing. I
Speaker 1: investigate so many places. It's rare that a place really
Speaker 1: gives me kind of the chills and I think it's
Speaker 1: a combination of the ghosts but also just the location.
Speaker 1: Like so it's always fun to pine find a place
Speaker 1: that actually scares me a little. But it's funny you
Speaker 1: mentioned that because, like you said, when when you walk
Speaker 1: in there and the lights are on and they take
Speaker 1: you through the general tour during the day, that mine
Speaker 1: is always fifty six degrees no matter what the temperature
Speaker 1: is outside, so there's a little chill in there all
Speaker 1: the time. But walking with the lights on, it is
Speaker 1: a little kind of intimidating to think that people were
Speaker 1: working in that and underground. But then you turn those
Speaker 1: lights off and it is kind of the other side
Speaker 1: of the coin. It's night and day. That's when you
Speaker 1: had mentioned, you know, children go there for fultures. They
Speaker 1: have been forever. That's where most people know that mine.
Speaker 1: But and and the dark. When you're trying to address
Speaker 1: the spirits that are there, that's when you have the
Speaker 1: most experiences, when you're actively trying to interact with them
Speaker 1: and communicate with them. Yeah. Absolutely, And you know, I
Speaker 1: don't think there are a lot of people going in
Speaker 1: there and talking to them that way, and so they
Speaker 1: do seem a bit eager, So well, tell me what
Speaker 1: what are you guys? Do? You know? You run what
Speaker 1: I would consider one of the largest paranormal conventions in
Speaker 1: the country, the New Jersey Payer Unity Expo, which you
Speaker 1: just had recently, and it was the first year. I
Speaker 1: hadn't been able to come in a while because I
Speaker 1: was on the Strange Escaped crew. So how did it go?
Speaker 1: Are you guys going to have another one next year?
Speaker 1: How do people find out about all this fun stuff
Speaker 1: you do? We did miss you guys being there. I
Speaker 1: told you that before for the interview. It's just feel
Speaker 1: the same without you and Adam, But um, yeah, we
Speaker 1: just had it two weeks ago. Are big just turn
Speaker 1: out ever, which we try to add to it every year.
Speaker 1: This is an event for charity. All the proceeds go
Speaker 1: to the Woodbridge Charity Fund. We try to keep it
Speaker 1: affordable for everyone. We try to give people the big
Speaker 1: corporate casino experience, but on more of a grassroots level,
Speaker 1: which is why we keep it affordable. Kids are only
Speaker 1: five dollars. We bring in great people like you guys,
Speaker 1: and Destinations here and the ghost hunters and ghost Brothers,
Speaker 1: and we're thinking of October for next year late September
Speaker 1: but the goal is again to add to the number
Speaker 1: of guests that are going to be there, the number
Speaker 1: of exhibit rooms that are going to be there, more
Speaker 1: free lectures, and to just keep growing it. That's our goals.
Speaker 1: Just give people as much as we can for only
Speaker 1: twenty dollars. That's really what we're all about. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: it's always a huge success. I know. I'm always just
Speaker 1: amazed at how welcoming everyone is there. And it's one
Speaker 1: of those conventions where Adam and I will have a
Speaker 1: line all day long and we just it's so touching
Speaker 1: to meet so many people and it's just it's so fun.
Speaker 1: So I love that you put it on. You guys
Speaker 1: do an amazing job. You should be very proud of yourself.
Speaker 1: And so people want to find out about that. What's
Speaker 1: your website so they can follow that it's New Jersey.
Speaker 1: You have to spell out New Jersey Power Unity Expo
Speaker 1: dot com. And one of the things that makes it
Speaker 1: as good as it is is people like you and
Speaker 1: the other guests that we invite that really do care
Speaker 1: about their fans, and it shows it's the given the
Speaker 1: take between the two where you could tell people like
Speaker 1: you and people like destination fear. They really do appreciate
Speaker 1: the people that come to see them, and they give
Speaker 1: them a great experience. That's part of the overall feeling
Speaker 1: of the convention as well. I love it. I hope
Speaker 1: to make it next year. Well done, as always heard
Speaker 1: great things. So yeah, well, thank you. I really appreciate
Speaker 1: you taking the time. Thanks for bringing Sterling Hill Mind
Speaker 1: to our attention again. One of the cool haunts I've
Speaker 1: been to in a long time, and I can't wait
Speaker 1: to get back. Thank you for having me me. I
Speaker 1: appreciate it, and we will see you at the next year.
Speaker 1: There's something special about mines and mining culture. It's one
Speaker 1: of those industries that we sort of forget is incredibly
Speaker 1: necessary when it comes to our supply chain, but the
Speaker 1: miners feel it. Those miners in New Jersey felt it.
Speaker 1: I think that's why they took their jobs so seriously
Speaker 1: and why their brotherhood seems to survive even beyond the grave.
Speaker 1: Please go visit the Sterling Hill Mines when you get
Speaker 1: a chance. Yes, there are ghosts, but the educational aspect
Speaker 1: of it and the full experience of it can't be beat.
Speaker 1: If you do see me there, though I'll probably wait
Speaker 1: up top in the gift shop. It's above ground and
Speaker 1: that's also where the ice cream is. I'm Amy Bruney
Speaker 1: and this was Haunted Road. Yeah. Haunted Road is a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from
Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey. Haunted Road is hosted and written by me
Speaker 1: Amy Brunei additional research by Taylor Haggerdorn. The show is
Speaker 1: edited and produced by rema El Kali and supervising producer
Speaker 1: Josh Thing and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.