Rocks that moan and creak, absolute pitch darkness, clouds of black dust and scurrying rodents set the stage for terrifying tales. Added to that are the gruesome tragedies that took place underground where black diamonds were mined – explosions, men trapped and suffocated by poisonous gases, eye-sockets taken out with pickaxes and bodies severed by underground rail carts.
If ghosts don’t exist in coal mines, they don’t exist at all.
Several coal mines offer underground tours where visitors can get a first-hand look at a grim, but fascinating history….. and perhaps even a glimpse of the supernatural. Here’s a look at one of the best.
The Big Pit: Blaenavon, Wales
Blaenavon, once considered a bleak pit town, is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognized for its industrial legacy that includes the world’s oldest surviving iron works and the Big Pit, one of only two remaining coal mines, now preserved as a museum.
The underground tour here is the real deal and the experience is an authentic one and as one member of our group finds out – it’s a haunted one as well.
We store all of our cell phones, cameras and other battery-operated devices because of the real safety risks of the gases emitted underground. Then, we’re outfitted with a hard hat and a surprisingly heavy belt, the same equipment worn by the miners, before we’re ushered into ‘the cage’ (elevator) with our guide Jake. As we descend 300ft, he tells us that he started mining when he was 17 and, “loved the pits”.
Now underground we start our walk through the mile-long tunnel. It’s hard to see what there is to love. It’s hard to see -period -with only the light off our hats. And it’s damp and more than a little eerie.
“AHHHHH!” A scream pierces the damp air. “I felt someone pulling me,” says a tourist. There’s nobody behind her.
Jakes shrugs it off. “That’s one of our ghosts, happens all the time”
Our guide then begins to recount what the conditions were like not only for the men, but the women and children who used to work here.
“Kids as young as five worked 12-hour shifts underground as ‘trappers’, opening and closing ventilation doors.” Jake explains that since candles cost money, they would work in complete darkness. “Many went blind; many died.”
To show how dark it would have been, we are asked to turn off our lights. It takes a few moments as we fumble around with unfamiliar equipment, but finally the last light goes out and we’re in the dark. Pitch black darkness. We can see absolutely nothing and the only indication that there are people around us is the nervous laughter that occasionally erupts.
A chill goes up my spine thinking of a boy my son’s age working here in the darkness and what his thoughts would have been.
And that is scarier than any ghost story.