Article by Brent L. George

Coloma, CA

February 6, 2016

The S.P.I.R.I.T. team was contacted by the paranormal group NCI (Non Corporeal Investigations) in Sacramento for a joint investigation in Placerville, California. The occupants of the country home in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains had contacted NCI with an emergency request for immediate help. The occupants claim was that the home had suddenly “exploded” in paranormal activity for no discernible reason. There had reportedly been no previous paranormal activity in the home.

Four members of the S.P.I.R.I.T. team and two members of NCI met at the driveway to the home in Coloma. This presented the first challenge – a  S.P.I.R.I.T. member does in fact own a 4×4 vehicle, but sadly, we didn’t bring it on this occasion.

Well, live and learn. We parked the cars on the grass and walked up the hill, though for subsequent trips up and down the hill the homeowners graciously shuttled us in their 4×4 SUV.

The home in Coloma (just outside of Placerville) is located six miles from Sutter’s Mill, where gold was first discovered in California.

Upon making friends with two of the largest German Shepherds any of the team members had ever seen, the team interviewed the homeowners about the recent paranormal activity they had experienced. It turned out that the activity had begun shortly after the homeowners made a discovery on their land while clearing a portion of their property for an orchard they planned to start: the vertical opening to a long forgotten mine shaft / claim that had been filled in, sealed off, and grown over with dense vegetation for decades. The homeowner then decided to excavate the opening, breaking the seal of time and opening the mine. The same evening they did this, their home reportedly exploded in paranormal activity, including flickering lights, the dogs tracking unseen objects and never letting their guard down, unexplained knocks on the walls and footsteps on the wooden floors, and unexplained shadows in doorways. Because of the geographical location, and the vertical dig style to access what once was undoubtedly a vein of gold on the hilltop, matching the “claim style” of dig that was common at the time, it is extremely likely that the homeowners had uncovered a forgotten and more than likely mined out small claim shaft dating back to the beginning of California’s Gold Rush, which began with the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill on January 24^th, 1848.

The Investigation:

Team members set about documenting an abnormal number of bright orbs in the home (the home was not at all dusty). Of particular note, notice how the dogs appear to be looking at the orbs and even guarding against them as the orbs attempt to and do enter the home from outside. This makes a strong case that these orbs, captured in flash photography, are not mere dust: the dogs are seeing and reacting to them.

More indoor orbs captured in the home that don’t seem to be explainable at this level of occurrence:

The team was also able to verify the phenomenon of shadows crossing doorways with two pictures taken within seconds of each other, both taken with a flash:

Next, the team conducted a Spirit Box session with the SB 11 Spirit Box.

When asked who they were and why they were in the home, we got the clear reply, “Miners.”

When asked if they knew what year it was the SB11 said “2005.” (There was an old calendar from 2005 hanging on the wall in the room where the session took place.)

When asked if they knew what all of the devices we were using were (K2 meters, digital recorders, MEL Meter) we got the clear reply “Science.”

These SB11 Spirit Box hits do, in the opinion of the S.P.I.R.I.T. team, go well beyond coincidence and make a reasonable case for intelligent spirit communication.

The team then conducted an EVP session. We ask how many spirits were there with us and we receive a Class A EVP “2-4.” This is significant for two reasons: First, it substantiates the level of paranormal activity that was seen elsewhere in the investigation, as well as the level of activity claimed by the homeowners, validating their experiences. Second, in the 1800s, it was a common practice for mine workers and other blue collar workers to say each digit separately and clearly for numbers with more than two digits – this was often to be heard over the noise of machinery. This practice is still common in some vocations even today.

The Cleansing:

The team saged the house and advised the spirits in the home that they could move on. The occupants were instructed on re-saging the house, and encouraging the spirits to move on. The homeowners were also advised to plant a fruit tree at the mine entrance (they resealed the mine for safety purposes) in memoriam of the miners who apparently lost their lives in the mine over 150 years ago.

Conclusion:

Given the fact that the homeowners had never experienced any paranormal activity before, and were suddenly inundated with paranormal activity inside and outside of their home upon opening the mine, and given the fact that NCI and S.P.I.R.I.T. were able to verify much of the activity being claimed, we feel that there is a strong case to be made here that sometime shortly after the beginning of the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800s, a group of 24 miners lost their lives in a small claim and were never heard from again. Given that many gold diggers in the Gold Rush were from other parts of the country, and the site is only 6 miles from Sutter’s Mill, this is a completely plausible scenario, given the evidence. Indeed, small mining teams routinely consisted of between 22 to 33 miners, depending on the size of the strike, during the California Gold Rush, according to Wikipedia.com.

The homeowners followed the team’s advice, saging the home regularly and planting a fruit tree at the mine site, remembering the miners at long last.

No further paranormal activity has been reported in the home.

Case Closed

Classification: Active Haunting Caused by Accidental Disturbance of an Unmarked Grave