Our Exploration On The Comstock Trail Feb. 11th 2012.....

Perhaps their is none other greater history to the Virginia City NV area then the Comstock Lode. Allot of mines began then the town grew into something so much more. I found this jewel while doing a bit of urban exploring into the town itself and decided to return here for a hike. A hike with great views of six mile canyon and awesome overlooks of the town below their truly is nothing that compares to it in this region.

My first initial hike would include some mild ghosthunting however our second one will intensify just as we wrapped up our second investigation of the Union Mill & Mine. My goal is to work with Virginia City as much as possible that way we can investigate many of the local residences eventually which all have well known haunting's.

I was a bit concerned with the weather its touch and go up here in the mountains in the winter months. It was extremely overcast with an 80 percent chance of snow and icy rains. Despite those factors I decided to chance it afterall PGS is an all weather group. It just adds to the whole adventure factor but all in all despite the tribulations we turned out a great exploration.

The Comstock Trail is known for a series of mills, mines and even black pits that lead to the cities underworld. Personally I am not into diving into pits but trampling around some of the mills and mines can be a real treat if your into the history as well as the haunting's surrounding them.

This would not be a large exploration as we were prepping for our trip to San Francisco as we were touring the Winchester Mystery House and Alcatraz. We packed the back packs, drinks, food and gear our adventure would start just a few blocks from the old hospital.

Comstock Trail

The trail starts off at the recycling plant which actually sits on the edge of an old mine sadly allot of people do not dump here they do it instead where the mines are behind it.

Although the trail would split off in many different directions to various mines all that is really left is allot of tailings and filled in shafts. Our first one being remnants of the Savage Mine. Thousands of miners operated these milling and tunneling operations. Some were lucky to have came out of places like these with their lives.

There was another place called the mint shaft one and eventually a giant hole that led down into the Sutro tunnel. How deep this hole was its hard to say but from when I threw some rocks in I didn't hear them hit the bottom. The Sutro tunnel ran underneath Virginia City to Dayton for four miles. It connected various mines and back in the day some miners thought it was haunted. You could almost feel an eeriness emanating from this giant hole within the ground.

I came across a series of mill foundations and another hole in the ground near by that seemed also very deep. Just beyond that was another series of mill foundations that led to this giant wall that overlooked all of Virginia City. The views were very nice especially of this eerie mountain called Sugarloaf which will be exploring come spring.

It was raining mildly on the investigation which eventually turned to sleet and flurries. Despite that we kept pushing on so that we could complete the trail. I did do some wandering and found this mine. I almost went in until I decided it was not safe. It sloped down into a hole then dropped off god knows how far but definitely off limits.

Its strange hiking along this trail their is just so many mines, foundations and debris piles scattered throughout it. All of them have history all of them have ghost stories and some of them were at one time big money makers which caused the town below to thrive back in the day.

I somehow didn't find the pioneer cemetery maybe their are no graves left but its one of the oldest in Virginia City which very few know about. I assume that these were miners who died and were buried right within the Comstock Lode since some of them had no family or were emigrants.

At times the trail was very rough their was a considerable amount of snow in certain sections while others were very muddy. At times my shoes sunk so deep in the mud they were soaked and brown in color. There really was not allot of room to go around as the area is full of drop offs, volcanic rock, steep grades and a Pinyon Juniper Forest.

Off in the distance I could see other head frames, canyons, peaks and even the sierras. The pine nut mountain range was covered with snow and the town of Virginia City was looking miniscule. There was plenty of deer and coyote tracks at higher elevations. We were nearly equal with Mt. Davidson one of the cities highest peaks and above Sugarloaf just by hiking a mere couple miles.

When we nearly reached the top I seen another side to the Comstock I didn't even know existed which might work to our favor with future investigations in the area. I seen a pipe protruding out of the ground and we even found an old quarry site which contributed to the building of Virginia City and its mine. You needed the quarry to build the walls and foundations.

I have to say I took some amazing photography on the trail you as viewers are going to be quite intrigued I busted ass on this trail. There was something that did strike us interesting on our way back down the trail looping around.

Tammy heard nearby the sound of a dog barking the EMF at that time seemed to go off as I went off into the forest and found a wooden grave marker. The EMF readings were going through the roof at the grave site while their was a pile of stones and twigs. Across the split wood grave marker was the name Ralph it could be a miner or a dog. Nonetheless wood grave markers were used in the 1800's this was very old and it was obvious that this was the highlight of the investigation. I have dealt with animal spirits before and ghostly dogs near some of the mines in Nevada so it was a nice finish to making our way back down the trail into the city.

On our way back down the trail I took an unmarked mining road in hopes to intersect with this massive of mill and mine that greets those who enter into Virginia City. I later found out they called it the combination mine and its massive. The heap of debris removed from the mine is enough to create its own mountain which means that it had some pretty deep tunnels.

There was a series of foundations including a building to house the elevator mechanisms. This building also contained giant cables the wheels were all rusted as well. The floors were wooden and the foundations outside of this building all had metal rods throughout it protruding vertically.

Near the edge of the cliff was a giant wheel with a drop off into this giant crevice below which was the mine. I stood right on the edge of the foundation looking below although the fall may not kill you the slope below that drops off into the mine probably will. Their was a series of giant wooden beams that extended beyond the cliff with two giant rusty iron wheels.

I found a compass on the edge of the mine I had to be careful but I managed to get to it as to where someone probably left it out of fear. It was dangerously close to the 30 foot drop off into the crevice of darkness and I can guarantee most people would just leave it but I like the thrills and frills. I tend to climb lately everything I see whether its beams, foundations, ladders and buildings lol.

The combination mine was a great experience its a landmark that graces Virginia City and I stood on the edge overlooking the entire area. I could count from that look out point multiple haunted sites all within my grasp.

I carefully made my way down the hill pulled pinched a nerve it was bad I couldn't barely walk. We threw some rocks down the crevice which was below this giant wheel. The rocks took a few seconds to make it to the bottom so probably a couple hundred feet down no doubt there.

After leaving the area we found a road that connected with the main trail where I found a mutilated rabbit. Perhaps coyotes got to it but strangely if that were the case then it would have been eaten. The rabbit rather was twisted and mangled it was a bit out of the ordinary maybe a dog tossed it around its hard to say.

On the back side of the recycling area was a giant wash which I decided to hike down into. I found all sorts of things such as old cars, garbage, mining parts etc It was scattered all over the place down the entire wash and hill sides. I read somewhere that this area back in the 90's sunk 2000' it was plugged with cars and debris. It eventually gave way thus this may be what it was that I was looking at when I hiked down into this lower area.

When I reached the truck there was a bunch of high school kids hanging around Tammy dropped her lighter turned around and some kid and his mom ran off with it WTF. If I was there it would have been a whole other story I hate thieves and I hate people who disrespect a lady period. I do not care how old you are or who you are if I see it you'll be wishing I didn't.

In conclusion it was an amazing hike full of vistas, historic sites and many places I never been to in Virginia City. I can imagine the entire area has stories of miner ghost afterall many injuries and deaths occurred in the Comstock. I heard a few strange stories in relation to this area that date back to the 1800's.

I know one thing is for sure I will return here to do a night investigation in the near future that way I can enjoy standing above Virginia City at night and see if some of these haunting's hold any truth.

Our next stop would be a second investigation of the Union Mill & Mine a place where ice slammed my truck into a tree. This time I had hoped for better results and better results is what I would get.

Union Mill & Mine
Investigation 2

I just had to see this place during the day it was the least I could to do considering that I stumbled across it at night. I have to say that visiting during the day revealed to me so many more sites then I could ever find in the dark of night.

During the day the walls are even more magnificent as the bottom of the canyon is the debris dump where it was processed. Of course Tammy was probably a bit nervous about going back down into the canyon due to our first jaunt which was a huge pain in the ass due to snow, mud and very rocky roads.

I came back down into the canyon to get some photos of the massive wall and foundations. This is an interesting canyon as nearby their is a Jewish Cemetery and other mines. After taking some photos I decided to visit the core of the Union Mine which if I am correct played a part in our civil war at one time.

As I made my way out of the canyon the weather was really getting lousy you have to understand that this is a very mountainous area and Virginia City is surrounded by many peaks. Snow here is common more common then even where I currently reside. So the flurries began it was getting cold and the sun was about to go down.

I parked up at the cemetery which btw anybody visiting Virginia City knows that the Silver Terrace Cemeteries are some of the most historically beautiful on the west coast. I did not take Tammy or I on this exploration sometimes the risk are to great so I had them stay behind and relax.

I packed my bag then started off on my journey down a dirt road just a little below the cemetery. I had a really hard time walking lots of pain in my left leg shooting down. I am surprised that after all the years of doing this I am still in one piece seriously lol.

Along the road just before I made it to the mill I came across a giant building made out of stone with two doors and two rooms. It appeared they were used as a local hangout this also goes with the rat droppings and graffiti.

One of the rooms had a wood stove in it the other one the flooring collapsed. Maybe the miners of the Union Mine lived in this stone building its hard to really say. There was also a smaller stone building where the hillside collapsed all around it not sure what its purpose was. I also found a single small roomed stone building as well so maybe these buildings were part of the Union miner serving as cabins or administration.

The stone buildings were rather cool I did try to take some EMF and EVP's here something I do very often on my explorations in search of the strange. Sometimes we get some really great EVP's other times we get nothing but a few EMF readings out of the blue. This is why I enjoy doing what I do because I never know what I may find upon my journeys.

I continued up the road where I met a gate which was open leading to a giant open area with the mill and mine site. It was amazingly huge overlooking the giant canyon below where I have offroaded a couple times. The debris pile for the mine was everywhere surrounding the mill and pouring down the hillside below where the giant wall was found earlier in our explorations.

I came across what was left of the mill which was allot of foundations most made out of big stone blocks from the quarry taken from the Comstock Trail where we had hiked up to earlier that day. The same blocks were used in the stone buildings I found and investigated.

I was wondering where the mine was however all that remained were tailings surrounding be heaps of debris that were removed from the mines. I did actually find one mine entrance which was this slope going underground the problem was it was so caved in that id have to crawl in on my chest through a two foot dark hole and I really wasn't feeling it lol. It appeared that the mine was collapsed so even if I were to make it inside it was a death trap but at least I found one of the entrances.

At one location I found a wood building completely decimated with the walls laying on the ground and wood spread out everywhere. The main part of the mill was surrounded by this giant pit which I climbed down into. When I reached the bottom I found this giant alley surrounded by two stone walls going partially underground where I found elevator cables much like the Combination Mine I visited earlier that day.

I traversed around found that allot of the mill was buried under dirt and sand as metal rods were protruding out of the ground much like most of the foundations had. I spent the last part of the exploration climbing debris piles and standing on the edge of the hillside that overlooked the dump area hundreds of feet below.

The Union mine was intriguing then again most sites in Virginia City are. Just below these mills and mine entrances lay miles of tunnels. I mean even when you visit VC you have mines behind homes hell some of the houses are build on piles of debris brought out from the mines. The town was built within the mining district and the Union mine sits right beside the grave yard making it a possibly good haunt.

It was also one of the oldest mines and perhaps at the time the deepest in the country with depths of over 3,300 feet deep. I seen a BW photo of the mill at one time and the mill was amazing in size which had giant water pumps to keep the deep tunnels from flooding so not only is there allot of history here but its amazing that so little remains of it.

I made my way back to the truck was pretty excited just to relax was in allot of pain and ready to have a nice hot meal at Denny's. It was well earned and well when the content comes out on our site our viewers will be exceptionally pleased. We took some great vista shots of Virginia City and some of the oldest mining operations in the state of Nevada. Haunted or not these explorations will go into our own history books!
Lord Rick aka AngelOfThyNight
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