The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1905-04-12
A HAUNTED MINE IN THE STATE OF TEXAS
No Able to Make Exploration Horrible
and Astonishing Things Told by All Who Have Entered It,

made to explore the shaft and under
ground workings of the so-called
haunted Refugino mine in the Chispa
mountain, 60 miles southwest of Al
pine, Texas.
The mine was worked by the Span
iards more than a century ago. II
was abandoned and forgotten until
about 20 years ago, when an Ameri-
can mining engineer, Henry Boyd,
while looking up the title to Mexican
mining property, came across a men
ton of it in the archives of the state
of Coahuila at Saltillo, Mexico
The recods give a careful descrip-
ton Of the property and its location.
They showed that it was worked fol
40 years prior to 1871, and that it pre-
duced during that time more than 81
600, 900 of silver ore, a large share Of
the revenue derived from the mine 90.
ing to the crown of Spain.
Mr.. Boyd was greatly surprised al
the information contained in the re-
cords and proceeded to make a copy
of them with a view of locating the
lost mine. Accompanied by Next
can guide he left Saltillo for the CHS
pa mountain.
The records showed in a general way
where the mine was situated, but the
exact spot could not be found until
Mexican sheep herder informed Boyd
that he could show him the ruins of
an ancient smelter. These ruins were
situated in a deep canyon, and after
patient search Mr., Boyd came upon
the mouth of the shaft
A crude ladder, made of the hides
of wild animals, still hung in the
shaft and other evidences of a sud
den abandonment of the mine were
seen. What occurred when Mr.. Boyd
attempted to explore the mine is told
in a letter which he wrote to James
Z. Meade who resided in San Anton
10 at that time, but has been engaged
in business in Alpine, Texas for sew
eraI years. The letter read:
"a horrible and most astonishing
thing happened to me when [ attempt
ed to explore the mine. My mozO,
Pedro, let me down to the bottom of
the shaft, distance of about 100 feet,
by means of rope.
"The candle gave me very poor
light, but [ could that great deal of
ore still remained in the workings. [
had started to explore one of the drifts
when a noise like the bursting of
thousand cannons sounded in my ears,
and was followed by a most terrible
rush OF air which came from the drift
that [ was about to- enter.
II was lifted off my feet and was
thrown against the rock walls of the
shaft with such force that [ was bad
ly bruised and almost knocked sense
less. The rush of air gradually sub
sided, and as it did so there came
echoing out of the murky drift one of
the most piercing and plaintive cries
[ have ever heard.
1T was a wall that produced indie
scribable and uncomfortable terror in
me. | fed to the rope, and quickly
tying it to my body yelled to the Mex
lean to draw me up.
EErNho,.0 ,,-C @ =, =, F,,,,,,
I yelled and yelled, but Pedro did not
come to the rope. | then realized that
he had heard the mysterious demon
stration and had fled in his supersti-
tiOus terror.
''It was lucky that the rope was fas-
tened to mosquito trunk on the sur
face, as | was able to draw myself out
of the shaft hand over hand, bracing
my feet against the walls. Just as |
res ched the surface the underground !
phenomena was repeated"
Mr.. Meade then took charge of the
exsedition. They spent three months |
at the mine, but only one attempt was
made to explore the underground |
workings, and that experience was SO
terrifying that the men, including the
Americans and Mexicans, threatened |
to leave if forced to make another eff
fort.
They sunk shaft near the old one
to a depth of 80 feet, but the noise be-
came so pronounced that the work |
men refused to go on with it, and the
whole project was abandoned.
Since then many attempts have been
made to explore the mine, bat the ex-
perience has proved more than any
man is willing to stand a second time. I
Captain Louis Seton was at the
head of the latest expedition to the
haunted mine. He is one of the most