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 Post subject: Our Investigation Of The Ponderosa Saloon & Belcher Mine VC
PostPosted: Thu Dec 18, 2014 11:29 am 
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Location: Las Vegas, NV
Our Investigation Of The Ponderosa Saloon & Belcher Mine Virginia City - 12/13/14

Every year for the holidays I make a trip up to Virginia City generally we go out for lunch, shop at some of the stores downtown and we do one major investigation. I also dress as Lord Rick Claus and from what I learned the kids eat it up they always want to wave at me so really its a good cause. I wave at all the little kids while walking downtown so really some of what I do is for the youngins to them Santa is the man that bares gifts only gifts in my sack are green and not for kids lol.
 
Tammy and I lined up an investigation at the Ponderosa Saloon which in the back are these giant iron doors that take you into the Belcher Mine. I chose this location because John Mackay had stakes in this mine as a matter in fact he bought the claim. Everything we do whether its in Virginia City, High Sierras or some ghost town in NV are all connected to relevant tycoons or are related to one another. For example the mills in Empire City NV were in direct correlation with the Comstock Lode just as the saw mills lumbered the trees to build these historic towns some ghost towns others today thriving towns.
 
Back in the day many of the mines went right under the mansions of these Comstock tycoons others ran under banks or vaults so that ingots could be stored here in there vaults after processing took place at the local mills.  As prior to this place being a saloon it was the Bank Of California but instead of people doing business transactions they now come here to drink ales and share some laughs. There is a story above the vault about it being robbed and how some of the gold was hidden we have a general location we can look for it but its a hit and miss. However no less that gold is still buried in those hills surrounding Virginia City somewhere and I love a good treasure hunt.
 
Prior to investigating the saloon and mine we went to lunch. I had a nice Philly, homemade onion rings with a famous Suicide Ale at the Delta Saloon home of the cursed suicide table. I almost always eat here I am perhaps an regular customer the food and the service is pretty decent. Just something you may want to keep in mind if you visit Virginia City. The Delta has allot of artifacts of the past, games, food, live shows and its just a really great atmosphere. I was at a table in the lounge smoking a cigar and this old timer patted me on the back about my Santa gig cracking a joke with me so you can see why I love chilling here all the time.
 
I always enjoy visiting here the shop owners are all so friendly even the locals to just chat with. Its a friendly place nobody ever looks at me differently then people online or even facebook. When I am up there I feel like its a second home so of course every place I visit or experience gets rave reviews from our society.
 
The saloon is quaint keep in mind it was a bank so its not very large. You have the main bar, pool table, small stage, storage room and a bunch of artifacts of the past. For example the walls have old paintings of historic figures of Virginia City while other pictures are B&W's of miners or locals. You see pictures of men in top hats and women in Victorian dresses.
 
They have three curio cabinets with dozens of minerals some of them are so pretty I have seen some on hikes and we have found some but not all. There are minerals in that cabinet found in NV I never heard of or even knew existed but it just motivates me more to seek them out on hikes.
 
They have mounted high above the saloon floor various Elk, Deer and even a couple of boar heads. They are pretty amazing hard to say who hunted them or if they are catches from the region. I know that back in the 1800's many animals that roamed these mountains no longer do for example the sierras had grizzly bears but now they are unfounded.
 
Between the mine and saloon there are over 300 artifacts, mining equipment, minerals, pictures and antiques including the fancy custom lamps that dimly hang above the floor. The same floor that still has wood boards and that old look to it. I did not investigate the upstairs I guess right now those serve as apartments for the tour guides, owners etc which is the case with downtown Virginia city.
 
The miner I ran into at the Belcher of mine our investigator Sue kissed him on the lips back in April of 2014 yeah she had to much to drink lol. He told me all about the mine which has everything from crosscuts, raises, shafts, tunnels, stopes and even winzes. I even was shown some glowing rocks now that was the best part of being in the Belcher Mine 50' below downtown Virginia City. While in the past this very same mine was at least 7 stories deep as I was shown an old layout of the mine pretty cool stuff. Men died in this mine the number I think I was told was 12 perhaps as many as 18 miners.
 
I wish we could count on the EMF detector problem is the mine now has flood lights so any reading has to be discounted. The only thing we could count on was photography and EVP sessions. Sometimes it is all you need to prove a location is haunted.
 
I also seen a wild western gun collection, swords, lanterns and tools from the 1800's. I love old school stuff it feels like your stepping back in time. Even the register near the mine had to be from the 1870's max it was all gold plated had big buttons on it.
 
The mine itself was pretty typical it did not always connect to the bank the owners had dug a shaft on into it so they could give tours. I did seen an ore cart, chute and other pieces of machinery. Allot of the shafts and machinery is blocked off so you can only peer through chicken wire or glass which is the downside to it for pictures.
 
I spent as much time in the Belcher Mine as I did the saloon. It was kind of a hard investigation to do there were allot of people around its the holidays everyone drinks and is merry. Hell I even ran into two other Santa Clauses haha which both talked to me. I guess I am part of the Santa club now or something lol. I never took that beard off except to eat lunch earlier other then that I drank and everything with it out welcome to my world lol.
 
After our investigation we visited more shops one gave away free root beer barrel candies. Other shops had some of the things I was trying to find for my family. They have so many cool things in VC swords, cool canes, awesome tshirts and jewelry. They even have a discounted leather shop and two gem stores with every kind of mineral you could ever want. Some of them are made into lamps while they have these giant spiders as well as other critters embedded in glass. So shopping downtown is fun and along the way is allot of scattered remnants of the past like old fire engines on wheels or mining carts etc.
 
This time of year downtown is heavily decorated shop by shop and every street lamp has a wreath. Everything is lit up shop windows have Christmas decor while Xmas lights are everywhere lighting up all of downtown its really pretty at night. I seen quite a few lit up Xmas trees in some of the shops or just outside of them.
 
I also visited The Way It Was which houses outside a flume, mining machinery and other artifacts of the past. It was a nice day out so I also took allot of pretty photos of the Flowery Mountains and Sugar Loaf which we climbed. On a clear day you can see for 200 miles so its very scenic from downtown VC all year around. I was a bit disappointed all the snow melted up here last year around this time when we came we had gotten stuck in the snow had to be dug out not this year though even though while we were hiking around there was mild snow flurries.
 
It was nearing the end of the day sun was almost down when I was standing downtown at a street corner filming. That is when about five wild horses walked right past me. The one horse was much larger while the other ones may have been still adolescents as they were very small. But I could not believe my eyes I kept the camera rolling and took some photos. This is why I love living in the wild west because how many can say they went to such a historic place and had wild horses just slowly walk past them lol?
 
On the way heading up to Reno there is this place I like to go in VC its a dirt road that takes you behind the cemetery and overlooks the scenic high desert far below. I toked one up at this vista point to celebrate my day you have to how can you not? Brews, tokes and good times that is what it is all about. My day was not done though I had to take the Geiger Grade down to Reno to do some more Xmas shopping for the kids. I live very far from Reno but if you really want to find the right gifts sometimes you have to get up to the cities.
 
One thing is for sure this was our special holiday investigation so when you see it on our site your going to see allot of antiques, media from the mine, saloon, downtown Virginia City and I took tons of photos of all the Christmas decor. Its going to make a fine addition to our website we already have other investigations lined up next year in VC till we complete the entire area which were getting there as the past few years we have investigated allot of well known historic sites here. I even had time to visit the haunted stairwell and enjoy the city park. I took a ton of photos, video and hopefully the EVP's will reveal something since this investigation kind of correlates with the John Mackay Mansion we visited last December.
 
Our final investigation of the year will take place a few days prior to Christmas as we take on a second night investigation of the NV State Orphan Asylum or what is known as Sunny Acres. There is not much standing but the grounds are haunted and well this orphanage was a bustling place around the holidays so I expect some good results especially with our EVP sessions besides the fact its our last investigation of 2014 so we want to finish the second part of our investigation and close this case. So we have had a busy month all the way from Overland Mail Stations to ghost towns all the way to historic sites like the Ponderosa Saloon to a once thriving orphanage that disbanded in the 1960's. So I have to say its been quite a month one I soon will not forget!
Namaste,
Lord Rick
PGS Founder

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