Some of the deepest mines in the world extend miles below the surface of the Earth. Deep, dark pits that stretch on into forever. The world is littered with them and we’ve used them to mine everything from salt to gold to obscure metals like tantalum and gallium. But every so often you’ll find a mine in the world that is less about the ore hidden inside it than some other bizarre inhabitants. 

10. A Preserved Body

A body in a mine is, tragically, not that uncommon. Disasters in mines occur more frequently than anyone would like. Over the last century, numbers have dropped significantly, but the final figure is in the millions when you total them all up. And that’s just in coal mines. 

What was unusual was what miners discovered at the Falun copper mine back in 1719. Miners had pulled a body from a flooded section of mine, missing his legs but otherwise in good condition. His clothing and the rest of the body looked well preserved and suggested he may have died only a few days prior. This was unusual because that section of the mine had not been used in years.

When the body was put on display publicly in the hopes someone could identify the man, a woman came forward. Her name was Margaret Olsdotter, and she said the man was her fiance. He had gone missing 42 years earlier.

As the body began to dry out, it also began to petrify, according to witnesses. It became hard like wood. This was because he had been preserved in water full of vitriol, also known as copper sulfate. As it started to evaporate, the body began to decay.

Weirdly enough, they kept the poor man on display for 30 more years. He was later buried in a church. During renovations he was discovered again, and then permanently buried in a cemetery. 

9. A Data Archive

Once mining operations are done, a mine is a big, empty space with not a lot of purposes. Some places store toxic materials in them. But others are storing more useful things. As it happens, a man is a perfect environment for preserving just about anything. Temperature and humidity are ideal for storing something like a data archive.

GutHub has archived over 21 terabytes of data from their servers, open source software they want to preserve for future generations, and taken it to a mine in the Arctic. In July 2020, they stored everything in the Archive Code Vault in Norway. 

Now the data lives in a retrofitted storage contained in a decommissioned coal mine. If all goes as planned, the coded material should stay safe and sound for at least 1,000 years. 

8. A Wild, Toxic Dog

Lots of communities and neighborhoods end up with unofficial pets. A stray animal that hangs out and everyone in the community comes to know it. That was the case with the dog called The Auditor. He lived in the Berkeley Pit, an open-pit copper mine in Montana.

The shaggy dog came and went as he pleased. He would disappear for weeks on end, then return and get fed by whoever was willing to toss him snacks. Although miners and employees would feed him, he was skittish and avoided direct contact.

The Auditor, so named because he showed up unexpectedly, was first seen in 1986. He passed away in 2003, making him at least 17 years old, which is pretty good for any dog, let alone a stray. More remarkable was that an environment engineer performed some tests on the dog’s hair after it passed away. 

The Auditor had been living in the mine for so long that he’d managed to soak up a baffling level of chemical compounds. His hair contained arsenic at 128 times the level of a typical dog. 

7. The Titanoboa

The largest snake in the world is the green anaconda. Although a reticulated python may be longer, the anaconda is far heavier. It can weigh over a quarter of a ton and reach 30 feet in length. The idea of an anaconda devouring a human is not far-fetched, though reports of this ever happening are extremely rare. For many people, it is the ultimate nightmare animal. But it could be worse.

In a coal mine in Colombia, the fossil of a snake was discovered that blows any anaconda on earth today out of the water. The snake, dubbed the Titanoboa, reached a length of 40 feet. And while that length is dramatic, it’s not too hard to believe compared to some current pythons and anacondas. But it’s the mass of the snake that makes it remarkable. Titanoboa would have weighed over 2,000 pounds. One full ton of snake. That’s about the weight of a black rhino or a moose.

At its thickest part, the back of a Titanoboa would have been the same height as a full-grown man’s waist. At this size, there was likely no prey too large for it back when it slithered through swamps, around 58 million years ago.

6. Federal Retirement Files

When it comes time to retire, most people probably expect a nice, smooth transition. If you work for a big company, the HR department probably has paperwork to file. Things to process for retirement benefits and any other relevant info to categorize you as someone not working there any longer. The Federal government more or less does this as well. Except they don’t have any of this on a computer. It’s all in a mine.

Iron Mountain in Boyers, Pennsylvania is an old limestone mine about 630 feet underground. Around 600 people work here at the Office of Personnel Management facility, where every single paper record for every retiring federal employee is stored.

Truckloads of paperwork are delivered every single day to the mine. About 7,000 Federal employees retire every single month. The government employs about three million people, so the number isn’t that drastic. And, despite the 600 employees at this facility, they run at a massive backlog. With thousands of retirements to process, it’s just too much work.

The reason the whole facility is in a mine is because they have so much paperwork to store. Yes, it would be more efficient to do this electronically, but so far no one has done that. In fact, all the work they do on a computer gets printed and filed away, too. Congress has pointed out how inefficient this process is as far back as 1981. But fixing inefficiency seems as inefficient as everything else. 

5. Two-billion year old water

Water in a cave doesn’t qualify as unusual. Caves are often damp places, and underground lakes and rivers have existed for eons. But not all water is created equal. Nor is it created at the same time. In one mine in Canada, the water they discovered there predates multicellular on Earth.

The water was discovered deep in a mine in Timmins, Ontario. The age was determined by analyzing traces of elements like helium and xenon discovered in the water. For scientists, it was a bonanza, as it was the oldest water ever discovered, and shed some light on what ancient Earth might have been like.

Technically speaking, the water isn’t toxic. It has trace elements in it, but drinking it would be a bad idea. It’s also eight times saltier than seawater. 

4. A Bike Trail

If you enjoy bike riding for fun or exercise, then you probably know more than a few local bike trails. Depending on where you live, these can take you through some really beautiful parts of town and the surrounding countryside. 

If you head to the lead and zinc mines in Mežica, a town in Slovenia, you’ll find arguably the most unique bike trail in the world. The Black Hole Trail is about 10km long and descends into the earth 150 meters over 5 different levels. The mine itself was abandoned over 25 years ago until someone got the bright idea to bring it to life again as a trail. 

It’s a challenging enduro trail for serious riders, and you can’t navigate it without a guide. Like any mine, there are a lot of twists and turns that could be dangerous if you don’t know where you’re going. 

3. A Stash of 1930s Cars

In 2016, a Belgian teacher was roaming through a mine in a French quarry, as one does. When he was down there he stumbled upon tunnels and tunnels of old, European cars dating back to the 1930s. The cars were showing their age, but they had all clearly been parked in there on purpose at some point nearly 100 years ago. 

It’s believed the cars date back to World War II. The Germans took cars as they needed or wanted them. Because of that, it’s possible the mine was used as a secret stash to hide the cars until the war was over. Unfortunately, it looks like whoever put them there never came back to retrieve them after the war. The end result is a mine full of rusted out husks that have little monetary value but are certainly historically significant.

2. A Theme Park

Salina Turda may not sound enticing to English-speaking thrill seekers, but it’s definitely worth a look if you want some unique fun. Located in Romania, the Salina Turda mine was a salt mine that dates back an incredibly long time. The first mention of it in books was from the year 1075. It continued producing salt for hundreds of years until 1932.

During the Second World War, the mine saw use as a bomb shelter before being shut down yet again.

In the 1990s, after some extensive and expensive renovations, the mine was reopened to the public. Not just a halotherapy spa, which means salt therapy, it’s also a subterranean amusement park.

The facility features mini-golf, bowling, a Ferris wheel, an underground lake, and billiards, among other things. It’s located 120 meters down and you can choose to take the elevator or try the stairs.

1. World’s Largest Freshwater Dive Resort

The Bonne Terre lead mine was carved into the rock under the town of Bonne Terre over the course of 100 years. When the mine finally shut down in 1962, the company in charge shut the power off, including shutting down water pumps.

Soon enough, water began to fill in the mine. But it wasn’t just a little bit of water by any means. The current owners bought the abandoned mine in the 1970s and by that time the three lowest levels of the mine were totally underwater. That was roughly 88 miles of tunnel. The surface has 17 miles of navigable shoreline, making it the world’s largest underground freshwater lake.

Over 500,000 watts of lighting have been installed to make the mine the world’s biggest underground dive resort. The water stays at a constant temperature all year round, and visibility is excellent. The depths feature all the mining equipment that was abandoned to time.

They call it the Billion Gallon Lake and, at that many miles of tunnels all underwater, with some locations going down 40 to 60 feet, it seems an appropriate name. There are dozens of passengers to explore, and many are only accessible to experienced divers due to the complex winding of tunnels.

You’ve probably heard of haunted houses and haunted hotels. You might even have heard about a haunted castle or two. But have you ever heard about a haunted mine? While deadly gasses have overtaken some ghost mines, others remain completely untouched for the enterprising explorer.

Some people believe ghost miners remain behind because they have unfinished business to attend to on Earth before moving on. Others believe there’s no evidence that ghosts actually exist. And while we’d love nothing more than an opportunity to clear up this debate once and for all. We’re going ahead with our original plan: listing some places where you can expect some ghostly activity.

Here are 10 ghost mines from around the world.

10 Lambi Dehar Mines

The Lambi Dehar mines, Mussoorie Range, was the first iron ore mine in India and is in the Nagar district of Uttarakhand. The workers who lived near the mine died coughing up blood because of a lung disorder caused by the poisonous gasses coming out of the mines. Children of miners would play hide and seek in the mines, and they also contracted lung disease. They abandoned the mines after being shut down in 1995.

There are stories that people who have gone into these mines have never returned. If you have plans to visit this place, then make sure you go with a group of people and are not alone. Because you might get lost inside the tunnels and not be able to find a way out.^[1]

9 Ringwood Mine

The Ringwood mine is in the town of Ringwood, New Jersey, and was once one of the largest producers of iron in the world. The mine has been abandoned since the early 1900s, but it’s still open to tourists who want to explore its dark depths.

During its time as an active mine, thousands of workers labored in dangerous conditions, and many lost their lives due to cave-ins and other accidents. The mine was also known for its poor working conditions and low pay rate. Miners were expected to work in unsafe conditions for less than a dollar per day.

Many locals claim they’ve seen paranormal activity here, such as hearing footsteps or voices coming from inside the abandoned mines. Some even say they see ghosts walking around their homes with lanterns in hand. Visitors claim to have heard footsteps, voices, or whispers while exploring this place.^[2]

8 Oaks Mining Pit

Oak’s Pit is an abandoned mine near Barnsley, West Riding, England. The pit was the site of one of the worst mining disasters in British history, when 361 men, boys, and rescuers died during two days of explosions on December 12, 1866.

It was firedamp—the gases commonly found in mines, usually coalbed methane—igniting that caused the first explosion, which resulted in an underground fire that raged for several days. The exposition would go on for two days, destroying all wooden supports and equipment in the area. About 100 tons of coal collapsed into a crater at the mouth of the shaft.

A few years ago, a team of paranormal investigators visited this site to uncover some information about what happened here so many years ago. They hoped they might communicate with any spirits who may still linger around these old tunnels and shafts. The team concluded that the land itself was cursed.^[3]

7 Tonopah Mining Park

The Tonopah Mining District in the western part of the Wrangell Mountains is now a museum. The park has many historic buildings that were used during the glory days of the early 1900s silver rush. These buildings include a hospital, assay office, blacksmith shop, bunkhouse, and more. There are guides that can tell you about how the miners lived, worked, and played during their time in Tonopah, Nevada.

Many ghost stories are associated with this region because of its history. Some say that prospectors who died in an avalanche or a cave-in haunted it. Others say that Indian spirits haunt it to scare people away.

The mineshaft has been restored so visitors can see what it was like for miners working underground. It is also possible to take part in a guided walking ghost tour at night, where you are taken into dark buildings and told stories about ghosts that others have seen over the years.^[4]

6 Sterling Hill Mine

Located in Ogdensburg, New Jersey, the Sterling Hill mine is one of the most popular ghost mines in America. The mine is over 2,500 feet (762 meters) deep and has a network of tunnels that span 35 miles (56 kilometers).

In 1897, the Sterling Hill Mining Company started mining operations at the site, hoping to find zinc or iron deposits. Unfortunately for them, their search did not meet those expectations—but not before it cost many miners’ lives! Throughout its 90 years of operation, the mine saw nearly 77 deaths from accidents and explosions.

Visitors to the Sterling Hill Mine have reported several paranormal experiences. They claim to have heard footsteps, voices, whispers, and even an apparition of a miner carrying a lantern. Some visitors even claim that unseen hands have touched or pushed them. Sterling Hill Mine has a variety of haunted tours available online that people can indulge in.^[5]

5 Vulture Gold Mine

The Vulture mine opened in 1863 and was one of the first to produce gold in Arizona. It was also one of the most prolific mines in the state, producing millions’ worth of ore by 1946. When it closed in 1917, it was one of the richest mines in the Southwest. The mine reopened during World War II when it produced $2 million worth of gold from 1942 to 1944. The mine closed again after World War II ended.

Paranormal investigators from the Travel Channel reality show Ghost Adventures visited the site during a season and were chased out by locals saying they would die if they went back there again.

They were only able to spend an hour inside before being chased out by locals who said they were trespassing on sacred land. In addition to seeing apparitions inside the mine, Zak says he heard what sounded like gunshots coming from above during his investigation on one of the upper levels of the mine shaft.^[6]

4 Nenthead Mines

Nenthead mines are a series of abandoned mines in the Lake District, United Kingdom. The mine was opened in 1737 and closed in 1961. They used it for lead, zinc, and copper extraction. The mine is near the village of Nenthead, Cumbria.

Many poor workers died in these mines because of explosions and the horrid accidents that happened here. They abandoned the mine after the first time it happened, but when it opened again in 1864, more deaths occurred. The mine closed for good in 1868 because they were losing too many workers and dwindling lead deposits.

There are stories of haunting at Nenthead over the years, with reports of ghosts and strange events, such as footsteps being heard inside empty cottages. Some people say they have even seen a ghostly priest roaming around the village. The place has been explored by many paranormal researchers, but no one has been successful in finding any evidence of ghostly activity so far.^[7]

3 Geevor Tin Mine

The Geevor tin mine in Cornwall was one of the last active tin mines in Cornwall and the last to close down. The mine opened in 1911 and closed its doors for good in 1990. At one time, it was the largest tin mine in Europe and held a significant place for years.

The mine is accessible by foot, but it’s not recommended because there are many hazardous holes and cracks in the ground. This place is considered to be haunted because of its history and the stories about ghosts that have been told.

The stories about paranormal activity at this site are many, with some claiming to see or hear ghosts of miners who lost their lives there. These “ghost miners” died at work or were killed by accidents while trying to escape the dangerous situations underground.^[8]

2 Atlas Coal Mine

The Atlas coal mine, located in Alberta, Canada, opened in 1936 and closed down in 1979. The mine was used to produce bituminous coal, primarily for electricity generation and heating purposes.

The mine had two shafts, which were both connected by a tunnel at their base. The owners of the mines also built housing facilities for their employees and families. They even built a school, library, and hospital. Some buildings are still standing even though the mine was closed in 1979.

It is said that about eight people died inside this old abandoned mine. There are many legends surrounding this haunted ghost town and its history. Many people who have ventured into this ghost town have reported seeing strange lights inside the building or hearing strange noises coming from within its walls.^[9]

1 Black Diamond Mines

The Black Diamond mine is a ghost town in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California. It is located within the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the United States Forest Service.

Black Diamond was once a mining town with several hundred residents, but today only one family remains. The town was named “Black Diamond” because of the enormous amounts of coal it produced. Established by miners in 1857, Black Diamond was first known as the Mount Diablo Coalfield.

The site has been inhabited since before Gold Rush times and was once used as a staging point on the pack trail between Truckee and Reno. There have been many ghost sightings around the graves of miners who died while working in the Black Diamond mines. Several people have reported seeing apparitions in the cemetery at night. Some say they’ve heard voices coming from inside the grave site when no one is there. Others claim that they have seen shadows move along the ground while they were driving past the road below.^[10]

Some of the deepest mines in the world extend miles below the surface of the Earth. Deep, dark pits that stretch on into forever. The world is littered with them and we’ve used them to mine everything from salt to gold to obscure metals like tantalum and gallium. But every so often you’ll find a mine in the world that is less about the ore hidden inside it than some other bizarre inhabitants. 

10. A Preserved Body

A body in a mine is, tragically, not that uncommon. Disasters in mines occur more frequently than anyone would like. Over the last century numbers have dropped significantly, but when you total them all up, the final figure is in the millions. And that’s just in coal mines. 

What was unusual was what miners discovered at the Falun copper mine in Sweden back in 1719. Miners had pulled a body from a flooded section of mine, missing his legs but otherwise in good condition. His clothing and the rest of the body looked well preserved and suggested he may have died only a few days prior. This was unusual because that section of the mine had not been used in years.

When the body was put on display publicly in the hopes someone could identify the man, a woman came forward. Her name was Margaret Olsdotter, and she said the man was her fiance. He had gone missing 42 years earlier.

As the body began to dry out, it also began to petrify, according to witness. It became hard like wood. This was because he had been preserved in water full of vitriol, also known as copper sulfate. As it started to evaporate, the body began to decay.

Weirdly enough, they kept the poor man on display for 30 more years. He was later buried in a church. During renovations he was discovered again, and then permanently buried in a cemetery.

9. A Data Archive

Once mining operations are done, a mine is a big, empty space with not a lot of purposes. Some places store toxic materials in them. But others are storing more useful things. As it happens, a man is a perfect environment for preserving just about anything. Temperature and humidity are ideal for storing something like a data archive.

GutHub has archived over 21 terabytes of data from their servers, open source software they want to preserve for future generations, and taken it to a mine in the Arctic. In July 2020, they stored everything in the Archive Code Vault in Norway. 

Now the data lives in a retrofitted storage contained in a decommissioned coal mine. If all goes as planned, the coded material should stay safe and sound for at least 1,000 years. 

8. A Wild, Toxic Dog

Lots of communities and neighborhoods end up with unofficial pets. A stray animal that hangs out and everyone in the community comes to know it. That was the case with the dog called The Auditor. He lived in the Berkeley Pit, an open pit copper mine in Montana.

The shaggy dog came and went as he pleased. He would disappear for weeks on end, then return and get fed by whoever was willing to toss him snacks. Although miners and employees would feed him, he was skittish and avoided direct contact.

The Auditor, so named because he showed up unexpectedly, was first seen in 1986. He passed away in 2003, making him at least 17 years old, which is pretty good for any dog, let alone a stray. More remarkable was that an environment engineer performed some tests on the dog’s hair after it passed away. 

The Auditor had been living in the mine for so long that he’d managed to soak up a baffling level of chemical compounds. His hair contained arsenic at 128 times the level of a typical dog. 

7. The Titanoboa

The largest snake in the world is the green anaconda. Although a reticulated python may be longer, the anaconda is far heavier. It can weigh over a quarter of a ton and reach 30 feet in length. The idea of an anaconda devouring a human is not far fetched, though reports of this ever happening are extremely rare. For many people, it is the ultimate nightmare animal. But it could be worse.

In a coal mine in Colombia, the fossil of a snake was discovered that blows any anaconda on earth today out of the water. The snake, dubbed the Titanoboa, reached a length of 40 feet. And while that length is dramatic, it’s not too hard to believe compared to some current pythons and anacondas. But it’s the mass of the snake that makes it remarkable. Titanoboa would have weighed over 2,000 pounds. One full ton of snake. That’s about the weight of a black rhino or a moose.

At its thickest part, the back of a Titanoboa would have been the same height as a full grown man’s waist. At this size, there was likely no prey too large for it back when it slithered through swamps, around 58 million years ago.

6. Federal Retirement Files

When it comes time to retire, most people probably expect a nice, smooth transition. If you work for a big company, the HR department probably has paperwork to file. Things to process for retirement benefits and any other relevant info to categorize you as someone not working there any longer. The Federal government more or less does this as well. Except they don’t have any of this on computer. It’s all in a mine.

Iron Mountain in Boyers, Pennsylvania is an old limestone mine about 630 feet underground. Around 600 people work here at the Office of Personnel Management facility, where every single paper record for every retiring federal employee is stored.

Truckloads of paperwork are delivered every single day to the mine. About 7,000 Federal employees retire every single month. The government employs about three million people, so the number isn’t that drastic. And, despite the 600 employees at this facility, they run at a massive backlog. With thousands of retirements to process, it’s just too much work.

The reason the whole facility is in a mine is because they have so much paperwork to store. Yes, it would be more efficient to do this electronically, but so far no one has done that. In fact, all the work they do on computer gets printed and filed away, too. Congress has pointed out how inefficient this process is as far back as 1981. But fixing inefficiency seems as inefficient as everything else. 

5. Two-billion year old water

Water in a cave doesn’t qualify as unusual. Caves are often damp places, and underground lakes and rivers have existed for eons. But not all water is created equal. Nor is it created at the same time. In one mine in Canada, the water they discovered there predates multicellular on Earth.

The water was discovered deep in a mine in Timmins, Ontario. The age was determined by analyzing traces of elements like helium and xenon discovered in the water. For scientists it was a bonanza, as it was the oldest water ever discovered, and shed some light on what ancient Earth might have been like.

Technically speaking, the water isn’t toxic. It has trace elements in it, but drinking it would be a bad idea. It’s also eight times saltier than sea water. 

4. A Bike Trail

If you enjoy bike riding for fun or exercise, then you probably know more than a few local bike trails. Depending on where you live, these can take you through some really beautiful parts of town and the surrounding countryside. 

If you head to the lead and zinc mines in Mežica, a town in Slovenia, you’ll find arguably the most unique bike trail in the world. The Black Hole Trail is about 10 kilometers long and descends into the earth 150 meters over five different levels. The mine itself was abandoned over 25 years ago until someone got the bright idea to bring it to life again as a trail. 

It’s a challenging enduro trail for serious riders, and you can’t navigate it without a guide. Like any mine, there are a lot of twists and turns that could be dangerous if you don’t know where you’re going. 

3. A Stash of 1930s Cars

In 2016, a Belgian teacher was roaming through a mine in a French quarry, as one does. When he was down there he stumbled upon tunnels and tunnels of old, European cars dating back to the 1930s. The cars were showing their age, but they had all clearly be parked in there on purpose at some point nearly 100 years ago.

It’s believed the cars date back to World War II. The Germans took cars as they needed or wanted them. Because of that, it’s possible the mine was used as a secret stash, a place to hide the cars until the war was over. Unfortunately, it looks like whoever put there never came back to retrieve them after the war. The end result is a mine full of rusted out husks that have little monetary value but are certainly historically significant.

2. A Theme Park

Salina Turda may not sound enticing to English speaking thrill seekers, but it’s definitely worth a look if you want some unique fun. Located in Romania, the Salina Turda mine was a salt mine that dates back an incredibly long time. The first mention of it in books was from the year 1075. It continued producing salt for hundreds of years until 1932.

During the Second World War the mine saw use as a bomb shelter before being shut down yet again.

In the 1990s, after some extensive and expensive renovations, the mine was reopened to the public. Not just a halotherapy spa, which means salt therapy, it’s also a subterranean amusement park.

The facility features mini-golf, bowling, a Ferris wheel, an underground lake, and billiards among other things. It’s located 120 meters down and you can choose to take the elevator or try the stairs.

1. World’s Largest Freshwater Dive Resort

The Bonne Terre lead mine was carved into the rock under the town of Bonne Terre, Missouri over the course of 100 years. When the mine finally shut down in 1962, the company in charge shut the power off and that included shutting down water pumps.

Soon enough, water began to fill in the mine. But it wasn’t just a little bit of water by any means. The current owners bought the abandoned mine in the 1970s and by that time the three lowest levels of the mine were totally underwater. That was roughly 88 miles of tunnel. The surface has 17 miles of navigable shoreline, making it the world’s largest underground freshwater lake.

Over 500,000 watts of lighting have been installed to make the mine the world’s biggest underground dive resort. The water stays at a constant temperature all year around, and visibility is excellent. The depths feature all the mining equipment that was abandoned to time.

They call it the Billion Gallon Lake and, at that many miles of tunnel all under water, with some locations going down 40 to 60 feet, it seems an appropriate name. There are dozens of passengers to explore, and many are only accessible to experienced divers due to the complex winding of tunnels.