SPIRIT SIGHTINGS --GHOSTS AGAIN

by Pam North

Continuing the saga of local ghost stories, a Black Hawk resident has
stepped forward to share his experiences with the unseen world.  This
individual will be called Ron Brown in this article, because that's who
he is in real life.  He had no hesitation whatever about being
identified because he said he's already told these stories to so many
people that everyone would know who he was anyway.

Ron's experiences began in 1981, when he was residing in the upper floor
rooms of the building at 101 Main Street in Black Hawk. A fourteen-step 
stairwell led from a sturdy door at street level to the apartment upstairs. 
Frequently, always around noon or midnight, Ron began hearing slow, trudging 
footsteps ascending the stairs, despite the fact that the downstairs door was 
securely locked.  After this had occurred several times, Ron would lie in 
wait upstairs until the eleventh or twelfth step was heard, then he would 
fling open the door to confront whoever was headed in his direction.  Always 
the result was the same - no one was there.

Ron occasionally had overnight guests who would sleep on the living room
couch.  Three different people had similar experiences of awakening
during the night feeling freezingly cold, and realizing that they were
being held down, unable to move, by an unseen presence.  A house sitter,
staying there while Ron was on vacation in Arizona, endured the same
scenario one night, and he steadfastly refused to return to complete his
tour of duty.

Ron had a live-in lady, skeptical of anything associated with purported
ghostly activity.  She heard a clicking sound on one occasion, and
turning toward the open doorway she saw a patch of fog gradually taking
a human form.  The figure was that of a
man in his twenties dressed in work clothes.  Connecting telepathically
with her, he told her he had come to court her.  She replied that she
was already with someone, and the shape dissolved back into fog and
disappeared.  A week or so later, the apparition manifested itself, this
time dressed in nicer clothes, and repeated its telepathic courting
intention to Ron's lady, and for the second time was rebuffed.   He
disappeared and was not seen again, but he began to play little tricks
on Ron, once stealing his favorite hairbrush.  Exasperated after a
thorough search of the small, sparsely-furnished apartment for the item
to no avail, Ron  suspected the ghost.  Addressing the empty air in
general, Ron verbally ordered the ethereal prangster to return the
hairbrush.  Shortly thereafter, the hairbrush was found lying in plain
sight in the second drawer of the bathroom vanity, a place the couple
had checked previously, and could not have missed seeing the hairbrush
had it been there.  Ron addressed an emphatic "Thank you!"
to the ghost in case he happened to be around.  Things were quiet after
that, although about three months later the footsteps on the stairs were
heard again.

Ron worked as a bartender for the old Mine Shaft Bar in the Gilpin
Hotel.  Ron related that on one evening he was drinking
coffee with Herb Bowles, when suddenly Bowles' cup and saucer flew off
the counter and smashed on the floor.  Another time, on a quiet mid-week
night, Ron decided to restock the beer supply, and headed toward the
stairs that led to an upper room where the extra beer was kept.  As he
reached the bottom step, an icy blast of wind met him, resounding with a
harsh whispering voice that slowly intoned his name.  After hesitating a
moment with the initial shock of the incident, Ron continued in his
mission, but was again hit with the rush of frigid air and heard his
name repeated in the drawn-out rough and breathy tone.

The Gilpin Hotel burned in the mid-1980s, and after the advent of gaming
in 1992, the building was renovated.  Ron revisited the Mine Shaft Bar
one week night, having no expectations that any ghosts remained after
all the remodeling changes to the structure.
He was in for a surprise, however.  A mass of liquor bottles suddenly
flew off the backbar, as if an unseen arm had cut a swath through their
ranks.  A stunned Pat Cate, on bartending duty that evening, was witness
to the startling occurrence.

Do ghosts exist in Black Hawk and Central City?  Lots of people think
so.  You'll have to decide for yourself.