So, has anyone seen yesterday's premier of the new reality series Ghost Mine on Syfy? It has been billed as a cross between Gold Rush and Ghost Hunters, two different reality shows about placer gold mining and paranormal investigations respectively. Unlike Gold Rush and its slew of mostly lesser quality spin-offs, this is the first of these shows to take place underground.

The so-called Crescent Mine in Sumpter, Oregon, is a hard rock gold mine abandoned 80 years ago when the town nearly burned itself right off the map. As you already guessed, the mine is purportedly haunted so two paranormal investigators have been hired to make sure the miners don't become so spooked, that they all walk out like the last crew did. All the cliché superstitions you'd expect of miners gone by are brought to life here, including the blatant fear of women in the mine, due to the fact that in the "old days", the only time you'd find a woman in the mine was right after her husband had died. Considering one of the investigators is an attractive young woman, this serves to put the miners' superstitions to the test, add drama and inject some much needed estrogen into the otherwise all male cast. Add to that, the fact that some of the characters look like they were plucked right out of the 19th century, such as Graybeard, seen at times with pipe in beard, the show truly takes you back in time.

This new crew is tasked with rehabilitating the dormant mine then resuming production. The footage illustrates blasting, mucking, collecting ore samples, even hammering the last nail into the freshly re-timbered adit. However, with its occasional creepy music and suspense ridden style of filming, it will likely keep paranormal aficionados quills raised high, while leaving skeptics either scratching their heads or shaking them in disbelief.

Has anyone else had a chance to watch the first episode? Any thoughts?

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"If you thought old, abandoned mines were only in the west, then you haven't been to IronMiners.com!"

"shaking them in disbelief"

Yep, that's me!

Chris
in New Zealand

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Alive and Well....for now

im getting sick of the reality show crap on tv. thats all it is anymore. the final straw is how, lets say gold rush, is only about a 20 minute episode that they draw out for an hour. first there is the intro, showing what happened last time. then a commercial. then the show for a few minutes. then a commercial, then when they come back, they play the previous 2 minutes before they went to the commercial again! every time! and they dont care about showing cool equipment stuff, that makes up about 10% of the time. they want to show DRAMA screw that. bet this new show is going to be just the same darn thing, they all follow the same formula. ridiculous.

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Come over to the Dark Side....... We have Cookies!

I watched about 20 minutes of it before i turned it off...... its a joke

I strain the good parts, but there is way too much drama.

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I don't have all the answers.
I don't even know all the questions!

on what? Gold Rush or Ghost Mine? BTW, Whatever happened to Coal! on Spike?

Adam was talking about the ghost mine show, I was talking about gold rush.

Coal went off the air after the Feds gave them several violations afte seeing things on the show. I called that from episode 1. If you search for it here there's a big thread about it. Same thing happened to rs&w after dirty jobs. And same thing happened to us after we took a film crew in an abandoned mine for a documentary. Thsts why we don't take anyone underground with us anymore.

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Come over to the Dark Side....... We have Cookies!

I was talking about Gold Rush or Bering Sea Gold.

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I don't have all the answers.
I don't even know all the questions!

I thought the Ghost Mine Show was interesting. While I can agree that some of the reality shows are getting over done, its about time seeing some under ground mining. At the very least, it is interesting seeing the different processes in action. You've got placer mining in Gold Rush, seeing the equipment, wash plant, etc. Then Bamazon has the hydraulic mining (although I don't see making any real profit in that show). Then you have a lode mine in Ghost Mine. I guess I don't care for the Ghost part, but we'll have to see further episodes if they go more into the process used there.

Miner Greg

I think that Bering Sea Gold is just dumb, and Bamazon is the same. Jungle Gold is also stupid. I love how History is trying to cash in on the craze of mining shows. It is like Deadliest Catch. After that took off, everyone else had to get a fishing show that had big fishing boats. On the topic of Deadliest Catch, I don't watch it anymore, because after Captain Phil passed away, the show just went downhill from there. I don't watch Ice Road Truckers or Ax Men anymore because it is now over the top. I think that Spike had a good idea with Coal, but they needed to find a better mine. I would like to see a show on open pit mining in the Taconite region. I also love the new show on History called Great Lakes Warriors. it is about Tugboat captains on the Great Lakes and it shows just how bad the weather can be out there. It is really interesting.

I think you are right. Hollywood is cashing in on the Gold crazy based off of the success of Gold Rush (Alaska). I still think Gold Rush is a good show, but I'm seeing it in the other shows.

I watched the next Ghost Mine episode. I am concerned about the direction of the show as it is starting to lean more on Ghosts than mining. I have watched some of these Ghost Hunter reality shows, while some of these hauntings could be real, Hollywood seems to make stuff out of nothing. 95% of the time during these EVP sessions, I never hear it. You hear a little bit of static and then they translate it to some phrase that it doesn't even sound like. It could easily be someone breathing, walking, wind, who knows. I just hope this show doesn't go down that direction.

Miner Greg

I agree. I believe in the stories that the White House is haunted and that certain old buildings are too. I believe the White House is haunted because when we were takeing a tour if it when my family and I were in D.C., I was the last in line and I felt something touch my shoulder. It was cold, but it was a very hot day out, and I was in a short sleeve shirt. I didn't feel cold, just that spot. I also saw a man standing outside of a locked door in a Civil War uniform. I was the only one to see him, and he was looking at me in a sad kind of way. I have also heard that one of the most often sighted ghosts is that of Abraham Lincoln, and my tour guide had seen him.

I see no reason to watch ghost mine........ Other than that red head of course

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Come over to the Dark Side....... We have Cookies!

you sirry round eyed merican! Re Chinee rerry rike to mine in the dark rith ronry patio heater. re do not care if mine haunted, we mine anyray. How was that JohnR?

(And yes, I agree, the redhead is the only reason to watch!)

I watched the last episode of Bamazon... I was kind of still watching to see the results, but I kind of figured that that operation would fail. Well after all that work they got 10 oz's of gold. I don't know what kind of agreement the owner made with his people, but generally the people don't make a share of the profit until the expenses are paid off. I am sure their expenses were far above 17,000.. I don't understand how you could setup an operation down there with no redundancy, no ability to get parts, bad fuel, and to only have a 45 day mining season? Doesn't make sense..

Miner Greg