The Lost Lemon Mine S01E14

08/20/17 • 14 min

This is Unsolved Mysteries of the World, Season One, Episode 14, The Lost Lemon Mine

The legend of the Lost Lemon Mine is one of the most enduring unsolved mysteries of the Canadian Rockies with adventure, murder, madness, ghosts and a curse at the heart of the story.

The tale has many versions but we will stick to the most plausible one that begins in 1870 in Tobacco Plains Montana where a group of prospectors hearing that there could be gold in the rocky mountains of what the British were calling the Northwest Territories and present day province of Alberta in Canada.

Two men from the group, Frank Lemon and his partner, a man known as “Blackjack”in the modern telling of the story, or Dancing Bill in previous accounts, set out on a route of their own to the Highwood Range. As they passed through the valley near The Highwood River they noticed outcroppings of minerals that would indicate that just below them were most likely veins of gold.

Not wanting to share the discovery with the others, the two men made quick work and located a small vein and took samples from the rock. They would need some samples to take back to an assayer to determine the quality and also to convince wealthier individuals to bankroll the mining effort.

Once they had collected a sufficient number of ore samples, the pair set up camp for the night. They planned to begin heading back to Montana early the next morning.

Sometime during the night, Frank Lemon, convinced that Blackjack was going to cut him loose from the claim, took a pick-axe and drove it into Blackjack as he slept killing him in after several violent swings.

But Blackjack remained. Frank Lemon stumbled backwards and stayed close to the fire all night as the vision of Blackjack haunted him. Frank Lemon later stated that glowing eyes watched him from the darkness and the translucent form of Blackjack was haunting him throughout the night and into the next day. Frightened, he set off for Tobacco Plains and confessed his evil deed to a priest.

The Priest indicated that perhaps the only solution to stop the haunting was to give Blackjack a proper burial and a man named John McDougall was sent north to find and bury Blackjack’s corpse.

After following Lemon's directions, he found the corpse and buried him in a shallow grave covered with stones. Upon returning to Tobacco Plains, he learned that the burial did nothing to stop the tormenting of Lemon. The Priest indicated that not only did Jack Lemon appear insane, but he was at times possessed by some sort of evil spirit, perhaps one that previously convinced him to carry out the murder itself.

But insane or not, possessed by evil spirits or not, the lure of gold was too strong and a group of men encouraged Jack Lemon to accompany them back to the area to find the lost gold. At first, Lemon seemed almost normal, but as he drew closer to the area where he murdered Blackjack he started going insane and when he reached the area he was totally uncontrollable. One man subdued Lemon, and rode back to Tobacco Plains with Lemon bound to a horse. Once in Tobacco Plains he seemed less frequently bothered by the spirit of Blackjack and what other evils bothered him. He decided to travel to Texas to live with his brother, but years later, the ghost of Blackjack followed him there and he was forever tormented by the haunting.

The men who were looking for Lemon's lost gold were unsuccessful. Several fell ill, while others gave up early when no sign of gold, or indications at least, that gold may be present were noted. The entire expedition was a bust.

McDougall, the trapper who had buried Blackjack a year previous was hired to lead a party of prospectors back to the site to find the gold. On his way to meet the group he stopped in Fort Kipp, Montana. He would never leave this place; he ended up drinking himself to death taking the location of the mine with him to his grave.

Lafayette French, the one who funded the original expedition went searching on his own for the mine. He searched in vain for close to 30 years with the help of the Blackfoot tribe. On a few of his expeditions, he lost some of his men to unknown sicknesses.

Over the course of many years many prospectors tried to relocate the lost gold but all came up empty handed or ended in disaster – forest fires, death, illness and even another prospector coming down with the same type of possession noted in Lemon.

Upon returning from his last expedition, he wrote a cryptic letter to a friend that stated he had found the location and would explain everything when he had the opportunity. After mailing the letter he made camp in an old log cabin close to the town of High River. Mysteriously that night his cabin was burned to the ground, with French inside. The location of the mine, once again, gone.

Rumours swirled t...

This is Unsolved Mysteries of the World, Season One, Episode 14, The Lost Lemon Mine

The legend of the Lost Lemon Mine is one of the most enduring unsolved mysteries of the Canadian Rockies with adventure, murder, madness, ghosts and a curse at the heart of the story.

Once they had collected a sufficient number of ore samples, the pair set up camp for the night. They planned to begin heading back to Montana early the next morning.

The Priest indicated that perhaps the only solution to stop the haunting was to give Blackjack a proper burial and a man named John McDougall was sent north to find and bury Blackjack’s corpse.

Rumours swirled t...

Previous Episode

The Stardust Ranch Arizona S01E13

This is Unsolved Mysteries of the World Season One Episode 13, The Stardust Ranch

Most people in the UFO community are familiar with The Skinwalker Ranch, and what mysterious events have gone on there for years, but close by in the Valley of the Sun in Arizona lies another strange place, another ranch, with incredible stories of alien creatures, paranormal activity, UFOs and one man's attempt to keep his family safe even it means shooting at ET with AK 47s and taking them on with Samurai Swords.

Indeed the story of the The Stardust Ranch is absolutely mental. But lets take a look at this location, the people involved, the research conducted and why billionaire and researcher Robert Bigalow (who owns Skinwalker Ranch) took interest in the property.

Psychiatric therapist John Edmonds and his wife Joyce, a former FBI employee, saved enough money to buy their dream ranch where they hoped to rescue and raise horses and K9s and in 1996 they purchased the Stardust Ranch in Buckeye, Arizona.

The dream ranch would immediately start to prove problematic. The previous owners had left all their belongings inside the house. John reached out to the real estate agent that had sold the house, and was advised that everything would be removed in a few hours. When John returned to the house later that day, all the belongings were at the bottom of the empty pool.

John became furious and rang the real estate agent. He was advised the previous owners arrived at the ranch only to find the stuff already inside the empty pool and refused to retrieve it. John would end up discarding everything himself but has always wondered who moved everything into the pool when the main gate was locked and secure.

After cleaning up the pool and the yard and moving into the ranch house, John found a stranger approaching, Machete in hand. John, unarmed at the time, and very apprehensive approached the man and asked him what he was doing and to leave the grounds.

The man indicated he lived on the ranch. John assumed the man was mentally ill, and in a calm but assertive voice asked the man to leave. The man, hearing that John was the new owner turned and walked away but then stopped and said, “You are going to wish I was here. There are monsters on this property, and I kill them”.

John watched the man leave the property and decided to keep an extra watch in case he returned. On several nights both John and Joyce started seeing lights. They believed it was a flashlight and went to investigate only to find these orb like lights zoomed off out of sight, sometimes across the land, other times up into the atmosphere.

For several years John and Joyce never mentioned the orbs or the other incidents that occurred at the ranch. They were both credible, intelligent, hard working folks who operated a horse and K9 rescue ranch and did not want the stigma of being witness to paranormal or UFO encounters. They did not need that kind of attention.

But things seemed to escalate as several of their rescue horses were found dead, mutilated with their eyes and tongues removed. Researchers have claimed the deaths and mutilations were not consistent with animal or scavenger attacks.

And then things got even stranger. Both John and Joyce started seeing beings late at night following sightings of the light orbs. They claim that they see what we typically describe as grey aliens. Small 3 feet tall beings, with large heads and bulging eyes and skinny limbs.

John indicates that the alien beings have recently been making more appearances but before that were more discreet making clandestine visits to them while they slept.

They seem especially drawn to Joyce, who has been harassed on numerous occasions, during which she is unable to move or scream. They have woken up to puncture like wounds on their skin with blood as if syringes were used on them during the night. Many times they have large bruises in their inner things, abdomen, and chest.

There are also occasions that they cannot account for lost time and fear they were abducted.

One time John and Joyce were awoken to find that three rescue rottweilers were barking and then attacking one of the alien creatures. The creature retreated and the dogs were called back unharmed, however, just days later they simply dropped dead.

When the visits increased and the attacks were getting more invasive, John decided to arm up including purchasing knives, swords, handguns, shotguns and assault rifles.

On several occasions he shot at the creatures and kept them at bay. In one hand-to-hand encounter, John took a Samurai Sword and pierced the creature but it seemingly vanished into thin air.

According to John a chuck of flesh remained on the sword. John sent this piece of evidence to be tested by scientists. The samples were sent to Michigan to be ...

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The Disappearance of Zachary Ramsay S01E15

It was a crisp, cold winter morning in February in Great Falls Montana when 10-year-old Zachary Ramsay stepped out of his apartment building and was on his daily morning walk to Whittier Elementary.

To Zach and his family, this was routine, and no one had any reason to fear for his safety, but on that 6th Day of February, evil would make its presence known. Zach would never make it to his school and he would never return home. You Zachary would disappear completely with speculation that he was abducted, murdered, cannibalized and portions of his organs and flesh sold to the community.

This is Unsolved Mysteries of the World Season One, Episode Fifteen, The Disappearance of Zachary Ramsay.

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