Headless Ghost Haunts Mine, 1901

The, Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah 13 January 1901
GHOST IN COAL MINE

Superstitious Miners at Scofield Have Concluded Winter Quarters Workings Are Haunted
Headless Man Alleged to Be Walking About The Property
At Times He Boards the Coal Cars and Rides to Mouth of Tunnel-- When He Disappears Number of Miners Throw Up Their Jobs
[TRIBUNE SPECIAL.] Price, Utah, Jan 12.—In connection with the impending strike of coal miners at Scofield and Winter Quarters, which General Manager Sharp of the Pleasant Valley Coal company is now on the ground trying to settle, there is a story told which is very likely at the bottom of-the whole trouble and which it is hard to think men would believe in this, the twentieth century. On the first day of May last there was an explosion in the Winter Quarters mine and 200 lives were at the time lost, besides a number were crippled and maimed for life. Ever since, by reason of the great shaking up in the mine from the blast, numbers of men have been injured by falling debrls and rock, and for weeks there was hardly a day that some one was not brought down the hill injured to a more or less extent.

HEADLESS MAN IN MINES

The superstitious miners, who are foreigners, have come to the conclusion that the property is haunted, inhabited bv a ghost. Several of them have heard strange and unusual noises, and those favored with a keener vision than their fellow workmen have actually seen a headless man walking about the mine, and according to their statements have accosted the ghost, and addressed it or he.At other times the headless man would get aboard the coal cars to which mules and horses are worked and ride with the driver to the mouth of the tunnel, when he would mysteriously vanish and again reappear in the mine. Many supposedly Intelligent men have claimed this, and some twenty-five or forty have thrown up their jobs in consequence.

MYSTERIOUS LIGHT SEEN

These same people and others have seen mysterious lights in the graveyard on the side of the hill where many of the victims of the explosion of May are buried, and all efforts to ferret out the cause have been fruitless, though close investigation has been made by reputable citizens of the camp. These lights are always followed by a death, so it is alleged by others than the miners who might be disciples of the super-natural.

Tombstones where the light appeared have been blanketed but the light remains clear to the vision of those who watch from town. The ghost- of the mine is known among the workmen as “Sandy McGovern.”

A foreigner from the camp lately visited a clairvoyant in Salt Lake City, and this woman on reading his hand, so it is alleged, told him where he was from, recited the details of the accident, and informed him the one of May was nothing in comparison to the one that was to occur at some future time.

REAL FOUNDATION STRIKE TALK

This is really the foundation of the Scofield strike which was to have been inaugurated, tomorrow, and taken together with the quarantlne regulations and the dissatisfaction over wages, is likely to bring about a bad condition of affairs.