The men and women who place themselves in precarious circumstances for a living each day are a superstitious group.
The workers of the Comstock Lode were much the same. The similar component being that they were often ill-educated European immigrants, each bringing various beliefs in demons and spirits to their new lives on the American frontier.
Welshmen called the ghosts pwca; the Irish name was puca; but to a Comstock miner from Cornwall, England, the spirits who inhabited the mines were the bucca (or bucca-boo), and like most little beasties, they needed to be appeased or else they act up. Small meatpies and treats were often left around the mine.
One of the most famous Cornishmen was called "Uncle Jack." Unknown to him, a bucca stowed away in his travel pack on the long journey from England to Nevada. The critter escaped and took up residence at the mine in which Jack was forced to work.
Jack was always careful to please his impish companion, for as long as the bucca was happy, the miner would not be harmed. His kerosene lamp would stay lit, his tools did not vanish, and the support timbers stayed true. The bucca would also issue a warning by tapping urgently against the tunnel walls should a cave-in occur...
A strange event that occurred in the mine was reported by the Virginia City Chronicle in late 1884.
Two English prospectors reportedly heard the clicking of hammers as they climbed down the Baltimore Mine stope of the Comstock Lode. This kind of excavation usually takes the form of steps when the silver vein is steeply inclined or vertical.
After a long descent, the men found the source of the noise: two hammers floating in midair striking alternately at the head of an old drill. Though no human was in sight, the hammers continued to bang away at the old drill--which was turning as if under its own power.
Even more bizarre, the men claimed to have heard an animated conversation coming from whatever entities were holding the hammers.
When they climbed out of the mine and told the story to the miners at the entrance, they were laughed at and ridiculed. Until, that is, they dragged several doubters down into the mine and they, too, saw the hammers flailing away, the drill turning--and even heard snatches of conversation floating toward them. You can join Unsolved Mysteries and post your own mysteries or
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