Excerpt from The Victory Mine Gazetteer, ed 4, vol 13, pp 6 thru 8, October 13, 1840. Researched and re-told by Keith Reily, September 2006:
Well, story goes that this used to be one of the most productive and successful mines in the Rockies. It was owned by a man named Jeremiah McDygut, the 'Richest Man of the West.' Why, that man had more money than a blizzard has snow. There was only one problem: He was greedy. Men with that much gold usually are. He started getting paranoid, thinkin' the miners were stealin from 'im, smugglin gold out in their stockings, depreciatin' the McDygut Mines' value.
So supposedly, he drew out plans for a new shaft, one that was supposed to lead to the Sanford vein -- a large vein of nearly pure gold -- but actually led to a large drift filled with explosive methane gas. Once they hit it, the entire place exploded, killing all the miners. To cover his tracks, he hired a rescue team to go down and try to find the missing workers. Once they were down inside, he collapsed the mine, killing everyone inside. All evil like.
Yessir, he was in the clear -- got a cartload of insurance money, too, which he put toward the reopenin' of the mine -- a solo effort, nat'rally. But then strange things started happ'nin. His house started makin strange noises, things started to change places for no reason.... Equipment kept failing, breakin' down. The nearby shacks where the miners used to sleep caught on fire, then put themselves out. Yessir, it was one peculiar circumstance. But he persevered, even installing a "state of the art" 1300 foot Descender Hoist, the largest fastest man-bearing mining elevator of its time -- (Y'all will see it shortly). He was ready for reopenin'.
...
It was the grand re-openin' -- just about 169 years ago, to this day. He was about to take the newspapermen down the 1300 feet to show them his amazing progress. He stepped onto the hoist, big grin on his face, when it all went wrong. Lights flickered, circuits started shorting out, and then, from the depths of the shaft, came a ghastly moan, the moan of a thousand dead men coming back for revenge. The doors to the lift slammed shut, trapping Jeremiah inside. The gears kicked into motion, slowly lowering him down. Terrified, McDygut hit the "Emergency Stop" button, but the hoist just started speeding up. He kept pressin it, but it dropped faster, and faster, and faster until.... Well, y'all can imagine what happens when a 2-ton elevator drops 1300 feet and then hits rock bottom.
The Colorado territory legislature decided to close the mine, due to it's "hazardous" nature. But every thirteen years, they passed the deed down the McDygut line, as was law. This has happened thirteen times, it has, and it is now the property of Mr. Steve McDygut, proprietor of this establishment. He petitioned to re-open it for charity work; the state allowed it. So far, it's been doin pretty well; the lift's only broken down twice. But there's still some question as to the population of the mines.... You may find that y'all aren't the only ones down there.
Continue to the McDygut Journal...
