Haunted Old West
This review of Haunted Old West by Matthew P. Mayo was originally reviewed and posted on YouTube on October 17, 2021, but can now be watched and Rumble or listened to on PodBean.
This book covers a whole lot of legendary ghost stories from out west, covering the gamut from phantom cowboys, spirit-filled saloons, mystical mine camps, and spectral Indians….which happens to be the subtitle of the book.
But if it’s west of the Mississippi, he probably has it in the book. Not all of it. I mean I’m from Reno, NV and our closest spook spots are in Virginia City, but the ghosts from there that I’m familiar with are not in this book. What is in this book is the Bandit Ghoul of 6 Mile Canyon, who I’ve never heard of before. Which isn’t all that surprising, actually. If you read through the story, the ghoul only goes after those who are hunting for his stolen loot. He used to own a business in Virginia City with like a side gig robbing silver deliveries and stage coaches. He eventually gets caught and serves jail time, and when he got out, he picked up right where he left off, and was ultimately shot during a robbery. And so now he haunts 6 Mile Canyon. I’ve driven there before, but never been stopped by a ghoul. But then again, I’m not looking for his gold. Apparently, he only goes after those who are trying steal what he’s already stolen.
Also, there are a surprising number of people who think it’s ok to steal from the dead. I have never been to Bodie, CA, although I do know where it is, because my day job has oddly enough had me drive right past it, I’ve just never stopped. The day job does not require me to go to haunted locations. Unfortunately. But if you do visit Bodie, the dead like their stuff exactly where they left it. And how they left it. Don’t mess with their stuff! Apparently the Park Rangers at Bodie receive A LOT of mail from people asking the rangers to return X item to X location because the thief has had nothing but bad luck since stealing said item. A lot of people steal from the dead. And in Bodie, they’ll just follow you back home until you return what’s theirs.
The spirits of the Anasazi at the Anasazi cliff dwellings in Colorado won’t even let you leave with whatever it is you tried to steal. And I don’t mean the Park Rangers. I mean the Anasazi spirits will stop you dead—pun emphatically intended—and rat you out to the Rangers on site. I believe it’s technically a crime to steal from these parks anyways, because they fall under Federal Jurisdiction, so theft would be a crime.
I think the most intriguing one is a spot that no one can visit. There are cattle ranches in Wyoming. Two ranchers got lost in a blizzard in Park County, Wyoming in the 19th Century, and out of nowhere they found a random building. They were at the point of freezing to death when this abandoned saloon, in the middle of nowhere where there was no reason for a saloon to exist, appeared. So they went in, broke up the furniture left behind for firewood, and throughout the night they could hear this wild party at a saloon going on, but could see nothing. The next morning they ran like hell from that location and resigned from the ranch where they’d been working. And the only way to visit this haunted saloon is to become so lost in a blizzard that you are on the point of death.
All the other locations are pretty doable as a vacation destination. He includes an index in the back of the book with websites and contact information. This was just a fun read, a series of vignette’s, a little formulaic but not bad in context of this book. Sounds like fun!
One final thing I learned in this book were Tommyknockers. Not the Stephen King version, I’m actually not a King fan, I find his writing disappointing. So I gave up on him decades ago as a hack writer. Tommyknockers, however, which I had only heard of because of the Stephen King book which I hadn’t read, but apparently Tommyknockers are a Welsh myth. They’re little men who live in the mines, and the Tommyknockers wreak havoc with the minors. The mine at Cripple Creek, Colorado, Raven Hill, something like that, apparently, the Tommyknockers killed men there, and of course the men’s spirits were then also trapped in the mine. And what an awful way to die!
Bodie, CA back in its day was known as the sinkhole of sin and damnation. He talks about Tombstone, which I’ve been to, but not since I was like 6. He talks about a bride who died at the gold fields in Alaska, he talks about the prison in Yuma, AZ and how no one who’s hunting ghosts have been able to stay the night. He talks about the battlefield at Little Big Horn, Reno’s Crossing, Winchester mansion, all are mentioned and discussed. Cattle wars in Texas and how ghosts came from these ranch wars.
All these really haunted places are covered, and this was a pretty cool book, whether you believe in spirits or not.
