The Haunted West

Fall is here in the Truckee Meadows and we have been blessed with wonderfully warm weather for the holiday weekend. Halloween is a busy time for our paranormal community, most groups have some sort of event planned. It seems to me that it is a common thought is that Halloween is a perfect opportunity to gain exposure, promote the field of paranormal investigation and educate the curious. So why, on the eve of Halloween am I not out there hanging with my para buds converting the masses to the cause of seeking answers to age old questions? Because it's Halloween...and I am not willing to slap a "Kick Me" sign on my back for some drunken, snickering revelers seeking a little spooky thrill to take a swipe at. Really, take a ghost tour and you will inveribly hear references to proton packs and ectoplasmic slime. Think about it...we are not taken seriously by most people. It's not so much that people find what we do ridiculous - I myself admit there...

Just west of Goldhill Nevada on State Route 341, lies American Flats; and the remains of the Comstock Merger Mines cyanide mill. Time and wind have reduced the mill to strangely beautiful skeletal remains. The crumbling reinforced concrete monoliths (there are eight of them), rise out of the desert like post-apocalyptic temples, whose clandestine devotees leave cryptic messages and painted images as offerings to the silent, long dead gods. Some regard the ruins, complete with falling concrete, unprotected drop-offs, flooded tunnels and subterranean vaults a public hazard; others see it as an important piece of Comstock history. History   Circa 1925, courtesy of BLM  Gold and silver mining began in American Flat after 1860 when the Comstock discoveries extended beyond the Gold Canyon ravine. By 1864 American City had become a town and its citizens tried to secure the territorial capital from Carson City. Promoters at American City offered $50,000 to the Nevada ...