Ghost Town and Mushroom Mines

 

 

 As a Kentucky Library Associate and Local Historian These days, it is not uncommon for me to be in the Archives or on the net researching  some strange place or scanning old news clippings. However the existence of The Old abandoned Mushroom mines was brought to my attention by a fan that is also into haunted and abandoned places. I was intrigued and put the Mushroom Mines on the back burner, but a definite must look into status item. As it turns out ,One recent weekend I found myself hankering for a quick Sunday trip, just me ,my files  and the road .The Mines came into my mind and doing a GPS  search I discovered they were just down the road from me. Camera in hand I headed off to Carter County in search of the mines.

  

 The Rabourn & Sons Country Store is Fading away with each passing second

Now it is not every day I get two for the price of one but the Mines are located in Lawton, KY a now completely abandoned creepy town. I am not sure how long it has been vacant but there are some sagging electric lines in some places indicating someone lived in the area at some recent point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stairs to nowhere

 

 

A still used back road passes right through the downtown which makes it even stranger. People pass through but rarely stop [Unless they are like me and an enthusiast for the strange, the macabre and the unusual]. So if the Ghost town of Lawton was not enough to get my fill of weirdness, I soon headed up the nearby hills to the Mines.

 

 

 

This was a scouting mission and I did not take a lot of exploring equipment

 Digging for limestone was the Original cause of the Maze of Tunnels 
and then up until the 70's a Mushroom farm

Explorers have posted on there Blogs that the mines are extensive and
that a huge underground lake is deep within

 It was once a big teen hangout and rite of passage and So far local gossip goes ,Occult Groups perhaps Satanists ,gather there on Solstices and equinoxes of the year to conduct rituals. If true this may have been a few years ago since my basic understanding is Satan worship and an interest in magick ritual has not been in vogue in Eastern Kentucky for quite a few years now. Drug deals are also reported to take place at the site, and The Place is reported to be extremely haunted by strange sounds to boot.Even with all that in the background I was completely alone there and really determined to come back when I had more people and some lights and gear. Even on a bright sunny day it was a chilling place to visit, when I stepped into the darkest areas I felt as being watched and it was with that ‘’gateway to the Abyss ‘’sensation.

                                                           VIDEO OF THE MINES

             
                                                                   Click above to start Video



Mine Entrances and rugged cliffs are all along the mountain



 

                               Stone Mountain Data Complex

One of Several half-built structures that were part of a recent failed scheme
to utilize the property for commercial purposes 

Tentacles From The Deep

              Six foot Octopus pulled from Ohio River

   This is real ! My good readers , I love Physical evidence in a strange mystery and every now and again something strange washes up on a bank or beach someplace and you cant ignore it. Well ,At least I cant ignore it ,Man I love this kind of stuff. In August of 2006 A fisherman pulled a 6-foot octopus out of the Ohio River while fishing Across from the Lousville KY area .The Indiana fisherman named David Stepp 20,was using a net when he found the already Dead cephalopod. Perplexed he surmised at first it might be a Squid .




A great View of the Ohio River from the Jeffersonville side near where the octopus was found. No telling what else is down there.

Marine species tend to be extremely sensitive to pollution and changes in water chemistry. and it would seem it would have not lived in the River for very long. However who knows how it got there in the first place, Even If it was a hoax I would think someone would have reported it missing from somewhere.



 

According to experts who examined the carcass  it appeared to be a Pacific Coast octopus,

In 1999, Park rangers recovered a smaller, Atlantic species octopus out of the Ohio River not far away from the 2006 incident.

    A few days later another Octo-body turned up when a man named Ray Ehringer was seining for minnows in the river and found a smaller 3 foot specimen. So ,Are there such things as Fresh water Octopi ?Can certain Sea dwellers Slip through to inland waterways and adapt? Or did someone throw the creatures body into the water and it just happened to be found before it decayed or was eaten by fish? It certainly raises more questions than answers and It does not make a lot of sense,but I know of many tales of Sharks, Crocodiles, Alligators, Giant catfish, and Piranha in the Ohio River . Either way lets just say it makes sense to never go swimming in there.