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.

Night Of The Bus

 This Tragic Story Ends In Kentucky but Begins Just over the Border in Cincinnati Ohio, On A Dark Saturday Night in July back in 1953.His Name was Elbert Ashton Thomas 29 [AKA Baby Brother] of Olympia KY . He had been working as A helper to the Greyhound Bus Mechanics at the Bus Stop Garage In Cincinnati. In The Parking area Was a New $38,000 Greyhound bus that had returned from a Lexington- Cincinnati Trip.It was sitting alone after being serviced ,washed and fueled and made ready for another run .At about Midnight For reasons never made clear, Elbert entered the empty vehicle and drove it away unnoticed.

Elbert drove the Bus south into KY through Cynthiana and Paris and Then on U.S 60 to Owingsville .Just a few more miles and he was Home in Olympia, and As it turns out this was to be the last stop for this Bus….. Pretty much Forever.

A C&O Diesel Engine of the Type that Hit The Bus 

 

 

  Of all places Elbert abandoned the Greyhound Bus in the middle of Olympia right across the Railroad tracks and walked away. It was not long before an East bound C&O Train came along, Unable to stop at the crossing it burst right through the bus cutting it in two. There is no record of anyone being hurt but Elbert was subsequently charged and arrested for the theft of the bus And Extradited to Ohio.

 

The Bracken Devil Sightings

  Many know that New Jersey has the Jersey ’’Leeds’’ Devil of the Pine Barrens, sometimes described as having Hooves and a horse like head ,but few are aware Kentucky Had a Devil also. In an 1868 sworn affidavit there is an account of a demonic creature sighted in the area of Willow creek near a fence in Bracken County. On October 10,1868 the first witness  of the creature rode his horse to town. Relating his fantastic story to a crowd of townspeople he quickly gathered a party of armed men to go dispatch the fiend. According to him it apparently was walking on two legs but the legs ended in hooves and was half horse but with a manlike or apelike face.
                                                           

A Devil head by Austin Osman Spare [1886 – 1956]
 

When the group of armed citizens arrived at the sighting area near the fence the Devil was still there. The Party consisted of Upstanding Citizens, Merchants, Doctors, Ministers and Lawyers and a small crowd who all swore they saw the creature ,which was now snorting fire and pacing back and forth. A Hail of Gunfire bore down on the Devil but it was soon apparent it was having no effect. Finally it vanished into thin air.

  This sounds similar to another sighting a few years before also in Bracken .In 1866 an entity that was also supernaturally impervious to gunfire and had the ability to appear and reappear at will was reported. 

A witness Nathaniel G Squires wrote this description in his account of being awakened in the middle of the night with the Devil outside his Cabin.

It was nearly as high as the comb of the cabin, and had a monstrous head not dissimilar in shape to that of an ape; two short very white horns appeared above each eye; its arms were long, covered with shaggy hair of an ashy hue, and terminated with huge paws, not unlike those of a cat, and armed with long and hooked claws. Its breast was as broad as that of a large sized ox. Its legs resembled the front legs of a horse, only the hoofs were cloven. It had a long tail, armed with a dart-shaped horn, which it was continually switching about. Its eyes glowed like two living coals of fire, while from its nostrils were emitted sheets of bluish coloured flame, with a hissing sound, like the hissing of a serpent, only a thousand times louder. Its general colour, save its arms, was a dull, dingy brown. The air was powerfully impregnated with a smell of burning sulphur… I do not know how long this monster, demon or devil, was visible after we reached the window – possibly some three seconds. When it vanished, it was enveloped in a spiral column of flame that reached nearly to the tops of the locust trees adjacent, and which hid his horrid form completely from view. The extinction of the flame was instantaneous, and with its disappearance we were relieved of the presence of this remarkable visitor.

 Medieval woodcut of a tempting Devil .Such depictions often resemble Fauns and Centaurs of Classic Myth.

 

Satyr Sightings

                                  GOATMAN -The Pope Lick Monster
           


  A monster that has long been rumored to be seen standing atop a 100 foot high rail road trestle in the eastern partof Louisville for many years, people have reported seeing the creature that many now refer to as the Pope Lick Monster on the trestles over Pope Lick Creek. It is said to be half human and half  goat. The encounter with it is so startling that anyone daring to brave the walk across the trestle would rather fall the 100 foot drop to the paved road below than to stay in its presence a second longer.

The stories and legends behind the Goatman origins are as varied as the sightings of the creature itself. It is said that the monster was the offspring of a farmer who had unnatural relations with his animals. Another legend states that the Goatman was a farmer who practiced Satanism and would sacrifice his goats for power, when he was close to death he swore to live again. He was then resurrected as a half-man, half-goat being, which is fated to walk the trestles.

Louisville and Jefferson County, as with any area that has it's fair share of scary tales. In 1984, a low budget movie featuring the Goatman story was produced and filmed on location near Pope Lick. It received mixed reviews. Younger people were ecstatic that one of their favorite urban legends had been brought to life, so to speak. Older adults were worried that interest in the movie would lead people to venture out onto the trestle and risk their lives in pursuit of nothing but a good scare….
  

Atavistic painting by Austin Osman Spare [1886 – 1956]

    Numerous urban legends exist about the creature's origins and the methods it employs to claim its victims. According to some accounts, the creature uses either hypnosis or voice mimicry to lure trespassers to the tressle to meet their death before an oncoming train. Other stories claim the monster jumps down from the trestle onto the roofs of cars passing beneath it. Yet other legends tell that it attacks its victims with a blood-stained axe. It has also been said that the very sight of the creature is so unsettling that those who see it while walking across the high trestle are driven to leap off.

''Sabbatic Goat'' A Drawing of an Alchemical Sphinx
Eliphas Levi [1810 – 1875]

Related article

The Bracken Devil

Oddities on The Road: The Junk-Mobile

 

 

 

     Owingsville may of 2015, I spotted this strange vehicle with an equally strange driver.I could not tell if the occupant was male of female as they were covered in Heavy dark clothing and hood.Since it looked almost like a cross between being a mobile homeless shelter and some crazy Art-car I snapped a quick shot.I did not know until later that I had encountered the Mysterious Junk-Mobile.Apperently the vehicle had been seen passing through central KY ,including Winchester ,Montgomery and Bath counties.

BIGFOOT ''UNSOLVED''

     

                                    The White Bigfoot Flap of 1980

  A series of creepy incidents involving a strange looking prowler took place in Mason County and surrounding areas in the fall 1980.In Mays lick on the night of October  7, Charles Fulton and his family were watching TV when one of the children came into the living room and said someone was turning the back door knob. Thinking the child was joking, Fulton made him sit and watch the television. "A few minutes later, something like to have tore my front door off," Fulton said. Fulton peered out the front door and flipped on the porch light, he saw a ‘’white, hairy creature with pink eyes that must have weighed about 400 pounds and was about 7 feet tall’’. The creature was holding the family pet rooster by the neck and then threw it against the side of the house. It then proceeded around the back of the house in a vacant lot. Fulton claimed to have grabbed his .22 pistol and followed the intruder. It appears that the Intruder was capable of dodging obstacles with ease that Fulton ended up stumbling into in the yard. There was a clothes line that stretches from a tree to the back porch. He did not know how the creature evaded the line in the dark,He fired on the creature twice, as it ran out of sight.

 

Fulton said that its white hair was very long - much like a horse's mane. He also stated that the creature was "man-like", although you could see that it was not a person by looking into its eyes.

  

  In nearby Fleming County on October 10 just a week after the Fulton report, James‘’Chink’’Tumey of Ewing sat down to watch TV Just Like Fulton had when at about 8:15pm he heard a noise on the back porch of the his trailer.He grabbed a pistol and went out to the back porch just in time to get a glimpse of the noisemaker " That is when I saw what looked like a big man running towards the woods. I emptied my pistol at it as it ran." Tumey said that he then ran back into the trailer to reload the gun  When he approached and old stable behind the trailer, the creature ran out and started towards the woods.  He fired two more times at it, but didn't hit it.  "It was very dark, so I really couldn't tell exactly what it was.  It stood up like a man and it was big, but it was so dark, about all I could see was a big shadow.  It made a thumping noise as it ran," he said. Just after all this, Mrs. Tumey came home.  When her husband told her what had just happened, she called The Sheriff. Someone or some thing had broken into the closed in porch and made a mess.White hairs were found [supposedly the Sheriff collected samples and sent them to the Kentucky State Police crime lab for analysis. The Hairs were determined to be of human origin.]. There was a freezer on the back porch, Two loaves of bread, a frozen chicken and a package of hotdogs were missing from the freezer. 

 Seen here driving a Road Horse at a show is James L.Tumey,  Known as ''Chink'' to those that knew him well .

      However the strangeness did not end there, On November 5^th Mr. Noble Clay, a truck driver from Alabama was on U.S. Route 68 into Maysville, when he saw a figure on the opposite side of the highway. He slowed his vehicle and turned on his high beams thinking that it was a hitch hiker. When he approached he was shocked to see an giant humanoid creature covered with white hair. He was under the impression it might be an Ape that had escaped So he called local authorities.When police investigate his sighting, they took his statement and filed a report. He stated to the Officers that he had never been to that area before and knew nothing about previous sightings of a white hairy creature.