Haunted Winter Quarters Mine

Winter Quarters Mine

May 1, 1900, was a bright sunny day Scofield, Utah. This town had been established in 1875 after rich deposits of coal were found in the area.

At 10:28 a.m., the residents of the town heard a deafening explosion. A stray spark had ignited coal dust deep within the mine.

Wives and daughters rushed to the Winter Quarters mine #4 to find only 104 men still alive—seven of them severely injured.

Father and Son killed in
disaster.

Another a hundred and ninety-nine men were killed, one hundred in the initial explosion and ninety-nine were killed by poisonous gases that leaked into the #1 mine.

This was the worst coal mining accident in American history, a hundred and five women were left widowed, and two hundred and seventy children were left without their fathers.

Rubble at the mouth of mine after the explosion.

Men from all over came to help with the rescue efforts. Many of the bodies found were burned beyond recognition or mutilated to the point where they could not be properly identified.

Graveside service after the disaster.

When these bodies were buried in the northwest quadrant of the local cemetery—many were buried under the wrong names.

This mine remained in operation for twenty-eight more years. After this disaster, the Pleasant Valley Mine Company that owned the Winter Quarters mine was plagued with problems.

These troubles all stemmed from the fact, the miners after the 1900 explosion firmly believed the mine and the nearby cemetery was haunted.

This belief was well documented in the newspapers of the time.

Within the first year after this disaster, forty to fifty miners stated that they had seen a ghost in the mine. In this same year, 1901, all the miners at Winter Quarters went out on strike—their reason was the mine was haunted.

The Pleasant Valley Mine Company scrambled to do damage control—they were worried they would not be able to find men willing to work in the mine—so they cited “safety conditions” as the reason for this strike.

But the numerous newspaper reports at the time belied their reason.

In 1901, various articles in the Anaconda Standard, The Salt Lake Herald, Fort Wayne Daily News and the Utah Advocate all mentioned the strange activity these men had seen and heard.

The local miners also felt the nearby cemetery was haunted. They refused to go into this graveyard after dark because strange blue lights had been seen around the mine disaster victim’s headstones.

Scofield Cemetery

But what they saw and heard deep within the mine was more disturbing. Most of this activity was experienced where the deceased had been found.

It occurred everyday oddly between the hours of 12:00 and 2:00 p.m. Even before the strike, many of the men had refused to enter Winter Quarters during these two hours.

They heard cries and moans without source, and many saw the apparition of a miner believed to be a Scotsman by the name of Sandy McGovern, whose body was the last to be recovered.

His head blown off in the explosion was never found. So his ghost when seen was headless.

One miner was said to become hysterical after he heard a voice state, “Go back, go back.” He rushed out of the mine and had to be sedated. He refused to return to work after this.

McGovern’s ghost was seen in various shafts. Miners reported looking over their shoulders only to see Sandy’s headless body standing close behind them.

Drivers that led the mule driven coal cars out of the mine reported seeing this headless figure sitting next to them—it would only disappear as they reached the sunlight or entrance to the shaft.

Here is a sample of a newspaper article that appeared in the Utah Advocate in January of 1901.

“Several of them (miners) heard strange and unusual noises, and those favored with a keener vision than their fellow workmen have actually seen a headless man walking about the mine and according to their statements have accosted the ghost and addressed it or he.

At other times the headless man would get aboard the coal cars to which mules and horses are worked and ride with the driver to the mouth of the tunnel when he would mysteriously vanish and again reappear in the mine. Many supposedly intelligent men have claimed this, and some forty have thrown up their jobs in consequence.

These same people and others have seen mysterious lights in the graveyard on the side of the hill where many victims of the explosion of May are buried . . .

Tombstones, where the light appeared, have been blanketed but the light remains clear to the vision of those who watch from town. The ghost of the mine is known among the workmen as ‘Sandy McGovern.’”

Excerpt from Ghost Stories of the Rocky Mountains by Barbara Smith

The Ghosts of the St. Francis Dam Disaster

Moments after midnight on March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam broke near Santa Clarita, California. 12.5 billion gallons of water, * initially 150-foot high crashed down the narrow San Francisquito Canyon, killing and demolishing everything in its path. 

It wiped out the Tesoro site, then it demolished the famous Harry Carey Ranch and Trading Post, and much of Saugus. It joined the Santa Clara River at Castaic Junction and destroyed Piru, Fillmore, Santa Paula, and Saticoy before it reached the Pacific Ocean near Ventura. It was over in just 5 and 1/2 hours

This was the second-worst disaster in California history, the first was the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. When the St. Francis broke Approximately 500 men, women and children were killed. The exact number will never be known. 

One body discovered afterward had washed all the way south to San Diego, and in the 1950s, skeletons were still being found. Today vast chunks of concrete from this dam still litter the site; some state they stand like gravestones over the dead. Despite the magnitude of this disaster, it was not widely publicized at the time or even today.

The cause of why this dam broke is still in question.

“No one is certain what caused the (St. Francis Dam) collapse. Possibilities range from unstable ground…to the concrete used…and an underlying fault.”  
                                       --Los Angeles Times (April 23, 2000)

A retired civil engineer, Clarence N. Freeman who lives in Fillmore, was quoted in this LA Times article:

William Mulholland

“In the case of the St. Francis Dam, William Mulholland, chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, surrounded by a flawed organization with a siege mentality, used poor judgment, improper geological consultation, faulty engineering design, and development of the dam to the maximum storage capacity possible without proper consideration of the consequences.” **

One family, the Ruiz’s, who lived close by the dam all perished, this included their four children, aged eight to thirty. This family was buried in a small peaceful cemetery on a shady hill that overlooks the San Franciquito creek bed. 

This cemetery has over 100 graves, where other victims of this tragedy rest. It is said when photos are taken of this area, they often do not turn out. 

One young boy with blonde hair was found—wearing a cowboy outfit— he was not identified for several years—a western film star of the time, Tom Mix helped with his burial. It was later found that he was the young son of a family who had been camping in the area—his whole family was killed when the dam broke. 

Since this disaster, many people who are residents in the surrounding area claim that they have encountered ghosts. One specific documented account I find very compelling involves the Ponton family. 

This family moved into the area in 1976 and bought land near where the dam broke. Their property included the Ruiz Cemetery. 

One night a cast iron horse trough that could only be moved with a crane was found moved several feet and completely turned around. There were no footprints or drag marks in the sand that surrounded it. 

Most unusual was this trough was full of water, and afterward, this water seemed undisturbed. The weight of this trough ruled out the possibility that it was moved as a joke.

Joyce Ponton stated years later that she did not believe in ghosts, but what happened with this trough still puzzled her.

“But I have to admit the (the horse trough) was strange. That’s the one thing we’ve never been able to explain.”

Another unusual incident occurred when Joyce and her husband Andrew moved an old house from Sand Canyon, onto their property. Joyce had just painted an inside door jamb when a child’s fresh handprint appeared on the paint. 

The Ponton’s did not have any small children at the time this happened. They did have a grown daughter who often heard the sounds of a crying baby in the area around the creek bed.

The film star Harry Carey Sr. told another fascinating story connected to this disaster. As mentioned above, he had a ranch in the San Francisquito Canyon area. Before the catastrophe, he employed a group of Navajo men and women who manned “an Indian village “ on his ranch—I guess this was for the tourist trade. 

Days before the dam broke, Carey, who was visiting New York, received a phone call from the village medicine man. This mystic informed Carey that he “dreamed of an impending and epic disaster” he then asked Carey permission to temporarily move his people off the ranch and back to their home on the reservation in Arizona. Carey agreed to this, and these Navajos packed up and left just two days before the dam broke.

Each year on the anniversary of this tragedy, the Santa Clarita Historical Society offers a lecture and provides tours of the site.

*  The St. Francis Dam was built in the years 1924 to 1926 as a reservoir to provide water—a year's supply for Los Angeles.

** William Mulholland did take full responsibility for this disaster, and he resigned shortly afterward.