Some of the most frightening things began to take place in 1874 when one wintry night the people of Virginia City awoke to see a column of flame sixty feet high shooting up from an old shaft of the Ophir Mine. Men rushed to the spot to put out the fire before the mine timbers could burn and the shaft collapse. But when they reached the edge of the opening and peered down, there were neither flames nor smoke, only a weird light at the bottom of the shaft unlike anything they had ever seen.

The light filled the entire shaft, but this was not all. Down at the seven-hundred-foot level a sound like that of a prospector's pick striking rock could be heard. The men began to argue about who could be in the deserted section of the mine in the middle of the night, but no one was ready to go down and see. Gradually the sound and the eerie light began to fade.

On the first shift at the Ophir Mine the next morning another strange thing happened. The engineer who worked the elevator received a signal to send the "cage" down to the seven-hundred-foot level. He did so and next he got a signal to go one level below, then to bring it back to the surface. But when the elevator arrived, it was empty! No one had worked at the seven-hundred-foot level for many years, as the mine was now much deeper. But the miners reported hearing noises from this level when they passed it in the elevator on their way down to the diggings. They whispered among themselves of hearing a terrible, gurgling laugh that froze the blood.

A young miner named Frank Kennedy bragged that he would go down there and find out what was going on. He took the "cage" to the dreaded seven-hundred-foot level, stepped out, and throwing the light from his lantern before him, he walked along the tunnel. As he expected, it was empty, nor did it appear to have been worked for many years.

Kennedy walked for over a mile exploring the tunnels of the Ophir Mine. He knew the mines were all interconnected and he was afraid that if he were not careful, he might wander into another mine and get lost. With his mind on this possibility he did not hear the faint sound in the tunnel just ahead of him. If he had heard it sooner, he might have turned back, for it was the sound of a miner's pick where no miner could possibly be!