Subject: Our Winnemucca Nevada Ghost Town Expeditions - March 11 -13th 2016
Date: 4/8/2016 3:38:28 PM Pacific Standard Time
From: paranormalghostsociety@googlegroups.com
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Jumbo Nevada
 
Prior to entering the canyon we had to go through herds of cattle its not uncommon you just share these dirt roads with them. The past couple months I been photographing cattle with the snow capped peaks in the background. Both kind of go hand in hand together  The further we went towards the canyon the more lush it had gotten but also some of the road was washed out. When I was driving this road parts of it were so bad that I had to drive off in the desert and that gets allot harder to leave the road once your in the narrow canyon itself.
 
The road had deep gashes where floods may have washed it out and trust me if you get stuck in one you could end up tipping the entire jeep. I had to be careful trying to maneuver around them at times the dips were so deep I was looking almost straight at the ground. Its not a bad canyon road to take but with rock slides, flash floods, seasonal creeks etc it could pose some risk if you do not know how to handle it.
 
The road continues to climb up along the walls of Jumbo Canyon eventually to the top of the Slumbering Hills. There are literally some areas you could just pull off on and enjoy the scenery from up here. Hell from on top of here you could see the mountains off to the north in Oregon and the entire snow capped Santa Rosa Range. The views are top notch so one can imagine what the pioneers thought when taking this exact same road up to Jumbo.
 
There are cliffs and the road is very narrow along with some larger rocks from slides. So at times when your climbing over rocks you are on the edge of the cliff of the canyon itself. When you get to the top of the Slumbering Hills then there are roads all over the top of them you can take most of them however loop back around. Its no the most difficult offroading I have done but its easy to miss the town and mill site since its nestled in the hills towards the top of the canyon. Problem is that you cannot see it from afar you have to really pull up on it otherwise the hills surrounding it kind of hide this place.
 
Not only does the road switchback to the top of the range above the canyon but it also goes off in other directions once you reach the top giving off views of multiple mountain ranges and expanses. In my journeys I found that Jumbo is one of these more scenic ghost towns that is because it sits so high above the region. The Slumbering Hills are not very wide or long of a range therefore you literally from the top can see a few valleys surrounding by mountains at every angle.
 
The first site I came up on was a giant wooden head frame. Below it there was a deep mine shaft I did not get to close the whole thing is collapsing and if you fall down there its over without a doubt. But at one time the ore kegs were being lowered down and hauling out tons of rock everyday from this frame. If you go over the hill because the road splits a couple different ways you can look down into another canyon and there is what might be a mill. I looked at my videos and photos it has a slanted aluminum roof with some kind of ore cart tracks leading from the side of it. There were only three mills in the area one was based in Davey's Town in the valley below. another is found right below the Jumbo town site and the final mill was this one I located while journeying at the top of the range. I did not check out the mill in the other canyon simply because the weather was about to get really treacherous here.
 
Literally the winds were whipping, fog was rolling in, temperatures dropped and it begin to sleet a little. If it begin to snow we would have been in trouble the descent anywhere off this range is treacherous and with ice on it that spelled danger or being stranded here possibly. I was pressed for time the storm was right over us and here we are at the top of the Jumbo Canyon. Seeing snow on other peaks is a shear sign that things can get ugly up here and that the miners must had lived a rugged life due to the towns locations. Rather then try to journey a few miles down into another canyon I really had to make a choice and that would be to take on Jumbo itself.
 
I came down over this hill then off in the distance on the side of a hill at the top of the canyon was a bunch of miners cabins, debris, rusty water tanks and structures. Below the miner cabins was the mill and a massive mixer. On the hill going into the town is a massive steam boiler looking like its about to fall onto the road. From afar the place just looks creepy and it did not help with the storm over us either. You could tell on some peaks in the distance it was snowing while the vast expanses were filling with fog. Were in the thick of things for sure how do you try to beat a storm when your caught up in it thousands of feet above sea level?
 
I made my way to the town parked right by the massive water tank which probably provided miners with water back in the day. Collapsed mines and shafts kind of line the hills behind the miner cabins. More then likely the men lived in the cabins while working in the mill below or the mines above. Either way if you lived here you were more then likely a miner period. The view these miners seen out there cabin windows was very amazing so I am sure with that in mind it was much easier to live and work here.
 
I have to say Jumbo is a bit creepy something does not feel right about this place. I been doing this type of work for years and most ghost towns do not have the dismal vibe Jumbo has. Most of the miner shacks are standing however they are merely shells. There is probably about seven wood cabins still standing I know one of them is about to collapse.
 
Behind the cabins are the foundations of the old dance hall and saloon.At least that is what I was told to me it just looked like a couple small foundations with a pile of wood and stones. Jumbo is a bit in peril although I have talked to others who use to chill here thirty years ago so it has over the years been home to many explorers like myself.
 
Some of the cabins are about to fall of the edges of the hillsides due to erosion. You have to understand that the town was built on a steep hillside of Jumbo Canyon in this bowl like area that overlooks the valley below. In a few years they wont be standing some of the cabins have to be entered from other doorways because of them siting on the edge of the hill. One good rain or flood its all over here sad to say so Jumbo for me was important to document every single location we could find at the town site. I just am not sure how long its all going to last but the town site is clinging to the edge for now.
 
A couple of the cabins were actually duplexes which is something I never seen in any mining town out west. But those cabins were divided equally into two rooms with a shared chimney. Each miners who lived in the duplex would have his own little wood stove, kitchenette area and what appeared to be a closet maybe a stand up shower. The windows in each cabin overlooked the massive valley and canyon below. The mines were practically just a few feet away most miners could suit up and be to work in minutes.
 
There are two cabins or homesteads found within the town that are much larger. Such residences may have served the superintendent and his family or some other prominent resident. One of the homesteads had a desk, bookshelves, bed springs and even a passage that led into the hill for cold storage. It also had shutters on the windows and was held up in the living quarters area with a bent wooden beam.
 
I think I even seen a couple fridges and old hot water tanks. The town was not state of the art but it had electricity therefore early appliances were used here while it remained a mining camp. In some of the cabins you could even see some of the old wallpaper. I mean these cabins did not always look deplorable at one time they all had glass in the windows, doors that closed and the town probably looked allot nicer in its hey day.
 
Everything is riddled with bullet holes some cabins have allot of rat droppings. There is this giant workshop also found in town not to far from the water tank. There are piles of stones, ruins, wood and debris all over the hillside spread out behind the miner cabins. Allot of milling and mining was done surrounding the entire town site.
 
The storm made our expedition a bit more difficult as most of you know I can film but when the winds rip through here it basically sours the video. I did as much filming as I could even took some readings as well as EVP's in some of the creepy cabins. I could not stay long and had to stay an extra half hour because for some reason the recorder just kept shutting off. This is about the only thing that really upset me because here I spent an hour recording EVP and find out I had gotten nothing. But that is okay shit happens I know Jumbo is haunted some of my friends had ghost experiences here.
 
Below the residential part of town is a giant mine there is a head frame protruding out the top but you can tell its all now collapsed and there is no shaft. Not to far from the dump pile is the mill at least foundations left of one nothing more. You can see where the mill once sat on today they are just massive concrete foundations with rebar protruding from the top. Nearby is another water tank but its all mangled and crushed as it sits on the hillside. There is also a similar water tank up by the mines laying on its side as well. You had to have water for the miners to shower, drink and the mill to operate.
 
There is also this chute and what appears to be some kind of smelter I found on the hillside. I found a smaller rusty water tank also on the hill above the mill. I did not see it till I physically went to the mill site itself looking up at the town itself. There was also a pile of bean cans, rusty frame from an old car, piles of wood, twisted pieces of mangled metal, broken glass, piles of foundations and aluminum everywhere. All remnants of the town nothing abnormal unless you count all the graffiti written on the water tank.
 
 There was an office building which was also a workshop which appeared to have stored tools and have equipment for the miners to use. You could see over twenty little cubby holes that the miners could utilize to store there work boots and hard hats perhaps even a packed lunch. I am sure they had to check in here first before going down into the mines just a few feet away! Below the office where miners checked in was this massive giant mixer. I have never seen one this size for ore processing its a must see and at one time the mill was probably built over it. More then likely such massive machinery was used in cyanide gold processing.
 
By this time the weather was really getting bad I drank a beer and toked one. I had a challenge on my hands and that was getting us off the Slumbering Hills back down to a lower elevation. Even as I stood on top of the hills I seen a few roads go off into various expanses that looked eternal. Hell some of those roads looked straight down. When I sat back looking at the road I had to take to get out of here there was a real dismal foreboding feeling. You could see the road meandering along cliffs for miles above and through the canyon. Looks can be deceiving as the road almost looked like it went straight down and yeah some of parts of it were very steep so you definitely do not want to be caught in a storm one mishap its over.
 
So I tried to chill out and had noticed we had a few flurries but it was not substantial enough but I would not wait around to find out. The night before this area was hit with snow hardcore local peaks signified that. This time we had more bands coming through the area which was hard to believe since Davey's Town was so sunny just a couple hours prior to all of this.
 
There is also a mining camp its more of a suburb of Jumbo called Awaken. I never did find it maybe the mill below the range was part of it hard telling. However I did get to enjoy the luxury of Awaken Peak we were at the highest point within the range really which is the Jumbo area. Not much remains of Awaken I just did not have time to work with it although from what others told me all that remains are piles of cans. I also was told that Jumbo may be haunted. I did not get to go into any mines the ones on the hillside were all collapsed or simply shafts into the darkness below.
 
This is a fine ghost town though the best part of it are the views and the miners cabins which although deplorable today still stand. We were happy to find this place not allot is known about it but I know that a couple American presidents took an interest in the mines here. I hears they even stayed in Jumbo along with quite a few other prominent people during its hey day. Its not an easy place to get to your talking offroading high up on old mining roads. If you stare across the top of the hills you can see above the snow lines of the Santa Rosa Range from afar.
 
The town begin in 1910 and it remained somewhat active till almost 1960. It was a very quiet place but you always feel as if something is watching you or hiding here. I was just relieved to get out of the Slumbering Hills and off of Awaken Peak. It was a treacherous trek down the canyon and I had to make sure to avoid all the washed out sections of the road. There was some areas nearly voids 6' deep you drive into a hole that deep your not getting out. I was never so relieved to leave the canyon and pass by herds of cattle grazing.
 
We went back into Winnemucca to bunk up for the evening and have dinner. It was a great day but the jeep did not think so as it went from a red to a muddy brown. We were so lucky to never get stuck there was a few times up in Jumbo and Davey's Town exploring that we almost did not make it. Nobody wants to get stuck on some no name pioneer road in the middle of nowhere. There are roads back here that nobody takes for months at a time its just not safe. I could not wait to get into town to relax at the hotel and have dinner. We went to the Winnemucca Inn Restaurant which has surprisingly some good food. I had a hot turkey sandwich with gravy, cranberries, sierra beer, appetizers such as chicken wings, jalapeno poppers, mozzarella sticks and a few other morsels of wholesome goodness.
 
As most of you are aware having beers and good food after a day of ghost towning is a long standing tradition. To sit down break bread talk about all the crazy things you experienced all day long. Sometimes its just good to know you succeeded that you had no issues getting stuck or dealing with some hills have eyes idiots. I was pretty hungry it was a long day that includes four hours of driving, hiking, two ghost towns, gun show and offroading all day long. I could not wait to crash at the room luckily for us we had the opportunity to do it all over again the next day as we would take on two more great ghost towns known as Paradise Valley and National Nevada!

Lord Rick

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