Kindred Spirits

I think there's something like 200 miners died

inside this place.

My flashlight went dead. I started hearing footsteps.

You can't see it's preying on your most vulnerable state.

I'm sorry. What the **** was that?

Do not blame me.

You want a piece of me, I'll give it to you.

Something was following us at a distance.

It's a very weird place.

What the ****?

All of a sudden.

- No. - No.

- No. - No.

The power is going off.

The dead want a voice.

We just want to help this family.

The living need our help.

Have you always been here?

He was watching already.

here we are at sterling hill mining museum.

This mine only closed in the '80s.

I know that while the mine was an operation,

it was something like 200 miners died inside this place.

The sterling hill mine was once

one of the world's richest zinc ore deposits.

Cave-ins, broken cables,

and controlled explosions gone awry contributed to

the deaths of countless miners over the years.

Mining began on site in the 1630s

and it was the last working underground mine in new jersey

when it closed in 1986.

There are a lot of miners who are still

kind of involved with this organization

because they want to keep the history of this place alive.

And, you know, this is the heart of this town.

They've been grappling with a lot of strange activity,

voices, shadows, footsteps,

the sounds of mining equipment moving in there,

people being tapped on the shoulder.

Being sworn at. Things like that is intimidating.

When somebody is tapping you on the shoulder

or like talking to you

or you hear a voice in the middle of darkness.

I mean, that's kind of frightening. Yeah.

Everyone here is very science based, fact based,

and they've been grappling with it

for a number of years now.

They finally were just kind of like this part,

we don't understand.

They're not sure what's happening

and they don't love going in there to do their jobs.

And so that's why they contacted us.

They're just anxious for answers.-

Logistically, it's gonna be different

than what we're used to. Also dark.

Very dark and underground. And I don't really love that.

Well, I mean, I guess we go see what fred has to say

and then try to figure out what's going on.

Yeah, I'm fred's been here for a number of years, too,

so he's got a ton of experiences

and a lot of knowledge of the history here.

So he's the right guy to talk to for sure.

- Welcome. - Hey. Hi, I'm amy.

Welcome to sterling hill.

Wow. It's a lot bigger than I imagined.

Thirty five miles of tunnels underground.

- Really? -2,850 feet deep.

- Okay. - You're basically in a mountain.

How long have people been doing tours in it and everything?

We started in, 1991. You have, you know,

a bunch of school kids every year come through here

like 20,000, 25,000. Wow.

This is how the miners went to work.

What happened here? What do we need to know,

as far as paranormal activity.

Well, we have a lot of that in here.

One of the weird things in here,

you hear sometimes it sounds like an explosion

like they're dynamiting.

- Wow. Okay. - You get growling in here.

- Okay. - Really nasty growling.

Did it sound like an animal?

No, it didn't sound like anything I ever heard of.

We heard that back. Put it by the shift station back here.

This is where the miners would load onto the skip cart.

Okay. And they would go to their levels.

I was with friends of mine. Big, tough guys.

Funny when you see a big, tough guy get scared.

- Yeah. - Total darkness.

And all of a sudden we heard this hideous growl.

You can't pinpoint where it's coming from.

Right. Especially the acoustics here

are...Every time you talk, you hear your echo bounce.

- Exactly. - Right.

Some ladies say they saw figure.

It was all, like, deformed looking,

like he was, like, injured. Okay.

And a woman had asked if if you were injured.

And the answer was, you know,

was crystal clear was, **** you.

Boy, it just seems really intimidating.

It is intimidating.

- alright. - Okay.

Now we're walking up to the intersection.

I don't get scared that easy. But the first time was here.

So I'm walking down here. I started hearing footsteps.

They were walking fast.

And they're walking towards me.

You got really, really cold and my flashlight went dead.

It was unnerving because I couldn't see nothing.

- That sounds like a nightmare. - But my light came back on.

Very dull enough where I could see and walk out of the mine.

But those footsteps were so distinct and so loud.

- And did they sound like boots? - Did it sound like this?

Just like...Yeah. Okay.

You know, what was it? Yeah.

I don't know.

this leads to, in the mining days to the powder magazine.

For the... For the dynamite.

Yes. When they would they would bring the dynamite

and bring it down to their works.

Yeah.

This is where an angry guy hangs out.

He likes to push people. - An angry guy?

I've had a couple of people that got pushed here.

Wow. And so you've heard something in here.

I've heard, it sounded like music-box noise

it went on for like five minutes.

Then it finally faded away.

And people ask you where the music comes from.

And it was like all around you.

You couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from.

Like I said, we hear the sounds here.

A lot of times it's like it's all around you.

Right. So we'll probably have to learn our way around that.

In this room, the old shaft station.

How long was this one used? 1916 to 1960, maybe?

We had the chain up here.

And every time we walk up to it,

all the lights would come on, and when we'd go back there,

they would go out, and we did this several times.

It was like, don't go here, don't go here, don't go here.

So we're gonna head to the office.

there's a lot of weird stuff going on here.

I was sitting here...

...And we're all hanging out talking,

and outta the corner of my eye I see something.

I look up, and right around the bend

there's this gray face.

It looked like, it looked like, dark gray smoke.

He had a beard and he had a hat. And I'm looking right at it.

And I'm like, I didn't -- get from getting goose bumps.

And then it just zipped really fast.

- Wow. - And then my whole body

got full of what it felt like electricity.

My legs went numb and it was really creepy.

Another time, my cajun buddy was making

jambalaya in the kitchen.

He came in all spooked and he goes, why is your face

staring at me in the window?

And I said, "what window?" "this window."

I said, "its can't be we're two stories up."

but that's one of the things that happens here.

Faces in the windows.

It's almost sounds like there's constant activity

happening all the time. And you are still working here.

Yeah. This place is screwed up.

And so what would you like,

what would you like for us to accomplish while we're here?

I'd like to find out what's here. You know.

I've dealt with it for a long time and it's not friendly.

And you sort of see what's going on there?

- Exactly. - But thank you so much.

You've been super helpful.

And I'm sure we'll be in touch.

- Alright. Thank you. - Alright. Thank you.

I think some of the experiences

that fred has had have been pretty intense.

I mean, and that are scary.

The sound of explosions, the growling shadow figures,

footsteps coming up behind you,

which is completely unnerving when you are inside of a mine.

And this is a huge location.

We have to be cautious about what we hear

and what we feel and what we think,

because sound echoes like crazy in this space.

The biggest thing that we need to do is approach it like

we always do and find out who, what, and why.

Tonight, we're going to start by the main shaft,

and that's where the miners would kind of assemble

and be sent to where they were gonna be spending their workday.

Freddy told us about how they had heard groans there.

They had seen a figure in that area

and I would like to experience that

and see if we can see them for ourselves.

When he was describing the activity in here,

I would not be able to understand him sometimes

because his own echo was coming back and like talking over him.

I mean, if you barely talk, I can barely whispering.

It sounds like it's everywhere.