One Night in 1870 two best friends were out in the Wilds of the Canadian wilderness when they discovered this gigantic gold mine but within just a few hours of this seemingly incredible Discovery something horrible happened to these two men that kickstarted a chain of tragic events that today we still do not fully understand but before we get into that story if you're a fan of the strange dark and mysterious delivered in story format then you've come to the right place because that's all we do and we upload once a week so if that's of interest
to you please offer to make the like button their favorite dish fetuccini Alfredo but replace the Alfredo sauce with poisonous sea urchins also please subscribe to our Channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads okay let's get into today's story [Music] on a spring morning in 1870 a gold prospector named Frank Lemon rode his horse along the shore of the North Saskatchewan River which is a river that runs through Alberta in Saskatchewan in Canada Frank was at the back of a line of about a dozen men who had
all been hired by a rich investor named Lafayette French he had commissioned them to search the Canadian wilderness for potential gold mines and if they found a gold mine then French would bankroll a fullscale mining off operation and pull out all the gold he could and these men who found it would get a cut of the profits when Frank had signed up for this job he had thought it was a great opportunity in fact he thought it was such a big opportunity that he had convinced his best friend whose nickname was Blackjack to come along
as well but now after weeks of searching the Wilderness for these mines and not finding any all Frank really wanted to do now was just go home and so as this group of men continued their ride along the shore Frank sort of zoned out and just kind of stared off into the forest all around him and then at some point as he was doing this as he was looking off to his right he noticed amongst the thick trees there was this little Trail this dirt trail that kind of wound off into the distance and for
some reason Frank was just immediately drawn to it and so he pulled on his horse's RS and came to a stop and just stared at this strange Trail Frank thought about how for all this time they've been out here searching for gold they'd basically only looked In this River and found nothing and so he thought to himself you know maybe the gold is not in the river but it's maybe out there in the woods and maybe this trail that he was looking at might lead them to gold and so Frank turned back around to tell
the rest of the group about his big idea you know to try to go down this Trail here but when he looked he saw all the men in the group except for his best friend Blackjack had continued on without him they basically hadn't even stopped when Frank had stopped however Frank really didn't care that the group had left him cuz he was totally over this trip and frankly didn't want to be with this group anyways and so he just looked over at Blackjack and just kind of gestured towards this Trail as if to say you
want to go this way and blackjack who was also totally over this trip just smiled and nodded like yeah let's go and so the two men turned their horses and began heading down this thin dirt Trail off into the woods for several hours Frank and blackjack continued on this Trail deeper and deeper into the forest you get a picture of very thick trees all around and it's just this little winding dirt Trail on the ground they had no idea where this Trail was going but there was just something so powerful about Trail it was like
calling them to go but as they rode along Frank kept getting this bad feeling like he kept hearing what sounded like voices and footsteps right behind them on the trail but every time he turned all he saw was Blackjack there was nobody around them at all they were deep in the forest and after a while you know Frank kept hearing these noises and he asked Blackjack like hey are you hearing that stuff too and blackjack said yeah I am but he too would turn around and see nothing they were all alone and So eventually you
know the men convinced themselves that you know what those sounds must be is the sound of their party who's discovered they have you know left the group and maybe they're out there looking for them but Franken Blackjack really had no intention of rejoining the group they kind of didn't like the group and so they said you know what let's just keep on going eventually the path these two friends were on LED them to a stream and so they stopped they got up their horses they knelt down and they scooped their canteens into the water to
get a drink and as Frank did that he looked into the crystal clear water and he saw nuggets of gold just sitting there in the Stream Frank couldn't believe it I mean he's out here looking for gold but he was not expecting to find it right here in the middle of nowhere despite you know his Instinct that maybe the gold was out here and so he just froze and he's staring at this he can't believe it he grabs Blackjack who hadn't seen it yet and pulls him over Blackjack looks and the two men they're like
oh my goodness we've done it but Frank said look before we celebrate let's see what we're dealing with here let's go Upstream here and try to find the source of this gold and so the two men that got up they're super excited they start walking along the side of the stream looking in the water and as they're moving Upstream they're seeing all this gold in the water it's getting more and more and eventually they reached this Rock Ledge the water was pouring over down into the stream and literally in the ledge are these massive veins
of gold they had found a gigantic gold mine that clearly nobody else had tapped before I mean this could be worth not just millions of dollars but billions of dollars and so at this point the two friends began to celebrate they were ecstatic I mean this is unbelievable they're jumping around they're hugging each other and then at some point they just kind of stopped and went silent because they realized they now had a big dilemma so the whole reason Frank and blackjack were out here in the Canadian wilderness was to look for gold but they
were looking for gold on behalf of the rich investor Lafayette French which meant they were contractually obligated to tell French if they found gold and so here they are they found this massive gold mine and that's what they're supposed to do again based on their contract but if they did that French would get rich Beyond his wildest dreams from this mine and yeah he'd cut them a check you know a piece of the profits but it would be like nothing compared to what French would get from this gold mine or and this is where the
Dilemma comes in Frank and blackjack could hide the fact that they had found this mine and then they alone could come out here anytime they wanted take the gold and become rich themselves now granted they would have to be kind of subtle about it because if they started showing up with Barrel fulls of gold you know lafay at French is going to find out about it and they're going to be in trouble but you know there was a way to do it where this mine could effectively be theirs and they could get rich but obviously
there was a lot of risk involved in that second choice and so Frank and blackjack decided that you know what this is way too big of a decision for us to make just on the fly right now so let's just stay here in the area let's camp out for the night and just sleep on this and come to a decision tomorrow so the two men left the stream and headed over to this clearing that was right nearby and decided that's where they would pitch their camp for the night Blackjack left to go gather firewood and
Frank began to pitch their tent and as Frank did that as he began setting up their tent he began hearing whispers kind of like the voices he was hearing as they were walking in on that trail and they kept thinking it was maybe the group that was looking for them he began hearing those voices again it was kind of all around him in the trees but every every time he looked there was no one there now Frank convinced himself that maybe these Whispers were actually Blackjack cuz he had gone off to get firewood and maybe
it was him but at one point when Frank heard these Whispers he looked in the direction of The Whispers there was no one there and he realized Blackjack was at the same time on the opposite side of the clearing it could not have been him and so Frank couldn't help but feel really unsettled it was like there was somebody or something here watching them or listening to them but he just couldn't tell who or what it was but Frank just told himself to shake it off you know don't worry about that instead just focus on
getting the camp set [Music] up we recently launched our newest podcast at Ballin Studios called redacted Declassified Mysteries with Luke lman and so far you guys are loving it so much so that I am now happy to announce that we've created an official YouTube channel for the show redacted so now you can enjoy listening to and watching this show in a beautiful new animated format and if you love binging things like I do well you're in luck because we just dropped the first three episodes of this new animated series and from here on out every
Tuesday you'll get a brand new upload on this channel to give you a sense of the stories and the artwork that you'll see on this brand new redacted YouTube channel here's a look at a clip from episode 1 and keep in mind what you'll see in this clip is reflective of how all the episodes will be on this channel at 10:35 p.m. on January 3rd 1961 a physicist named ed valario pulled up to a secret nuclear test site in the Idaho desert Ed had received an emergency call about an explosion at the nuclear reactor known
as S1 no one had been able to contact the three men who were working that night valario waved at his partner who was waiting for him in front of the reactor building the two men grabbed their gas masks and rushed inside they hurried up three flights of winding stairs that led toward the reactor's control room passed pipes and motors and condensers towards the cramp nerve center that controlled the reactor the building was completely silent save for the Frantic static from their Geer counters valario glanced down and saw the needle pointing to maximum radiation levels he'd
never seen levels that high before when valario opened the control room door his heart skipped a beat the scene inside was total devastation Twisted Metal scattered across the floor clouds of steam hovering above the shattered control board pools of blood and water everywhere two bodies lay on the floor bodies so badly mutilated it was impossible to tell who they were but where he wondered was the third man then something above him caught his attention something on the ceiling something that would haunt him for the rest of his life head on over to the official redacted
YouTube channel today the handle is @ redacted Mysteries make sure you go over there and subscribe so you don't miss any uploads I will also put a link to the channel in the description below wry plus subscribers can also watch redacted on the wry app okay back to the [Music] stories a few hours later Frank and blackjack were sitting on a log in front of their campfire are eating rations talking about what they were going to do with the gold at some point Frank said what he was really thinking about this whole situation he told
Black Jack look I think we'd be so stupid to tell lafay at French why should we take a small payday one time when we can basically have an endless supply of wealth for the rest of our lives but when Frank looked over at Blackjack to see what his reaction was to this pitch he could see right away that Blackjack disagreed Blackjack was kind of looking down and he kind of turned to Frank and was like look it's morally wrong to lie here I would rather be poor and honest than rich and morally bankrupt and So
what had started as a civil discussion from this point on really escalated and just became a full-blown yelling fight with both men absolutely refusing to budge on their stance about what to do with this gold and eventually when the two men were standing up and just screaming in each other's faces Blackjack finally just threw his hands up and said you know what enough and he turned around and stormed over to the tent and disappeared inside for a minute minute Frank just stood there stewing by the fire just completely Furious that Blackjack didn't see it the
way he saw it but eventually Frank kind of calmed down and thought you know what I need to go to bed too obviously we are not near a decision we need to sleep on this and so even though Frank was still upset he walked over to the tent too didn't say a word to Blackjack he just climbed inside got into his sleeping bag and tried to go to sleep but after laying there for a while when Frank had not fallen asleep and his friend Blackjack had he was snoring and passed out Frank just could not
help feeling enraged again at his friend like how can you not see this opportunity here why in the world would you tell lafi at French that's so stupid and so Frank just laid there restlessly tossing and turning listening to the sound of blackj snoring and getting so mad at him and as he did you know Frank went from you know I need to convince blackjack in the morning that we need to keep the gold for ourselves to I need to stop Blackjack from telling anyone he is an obstacle he's not a friend he's a problem
and as he thought about this these dark thought Loops were going through his head Frank just became consumed with rage it was like he couldn't control what he was doing and in that moment Frank found himself getting up walking out of the tent and grabbing an Axe and before he could even think about it he had walked back into the tent raised the axe and driven it into blackjack's skull killing him instantly a few minutes later Frank was was outside sitting by the campfire looking at his bloody hands wondering what just happened how could he
have just done what he did that was his best friend what had come over him it was like Frank was a different person he couldn't understand but as Frank was sitting there grappling with what he had just done a twig suddenly snapped over in the direction of the tent and instantly Frank looked over like who's over there what's going on and as he looked in the direction of the tent he began to hear this low guttural moaning it almost sounded like a dying an animal and he thought for a second like wait a minute is
Blackjack not actually dead is that him making that noise but at the same time Frank's thinking that's not possible I practically split black che's head in half with that axe he can't be making that sound but before Frank could even begin to process what he was hearing this sound this moaning sound got louder and it got closer to Frank like it was moving in his Direction but there's nobody here and so Frank is horrified and then right as the sound is practically un top of him he began hearing those Whispers those voices he had been
hearing in the woods on the way out here except this time the voices were clear they were talking to Frank and they were saying you're going to be tortured for what you did to Blackjack and then just as soon as these voices began suddenly they stopped the moaning stopped and the entire Forest just went deadly silent and Frank is just stuck there staring in the tent wondering what's happening and then the silence was broken by this unbelievably loud high-pitched blood curdling human scream coming from the tent and it was at that point that Frank just
got up and sprinted to his horse and began riding away away from the gold his friend's body everything he didn't care he needed to get out of there as soon as possible but the second he began blindly Galloping through the forest away from this area he began hearing whispers and heavy footsteps right behind him as if they were following him out of the forest but Frank was so scared he didn't even dare turn around to look he just rode as fast as he possibly could hours later Frank suddenly emerged from the Dark Forest and just
by absolute happen stance he arrived right in the town that he and the other gold prospectors had passed through on their way out into the woods and the moment Frank left the tree line and actually entered into this town the whispering and the footsteps which had basically chased him all the way to this point they stopped suddenly Frank was all alone now by this point Frank had convinced himself that everything he had heard in the woods the voice telling him he was going to be tortured for what he'd done you know the heavy footsteps the
whispering the screaming the moaning all of it everything that had caused him to flee was actually the ghost of blackjack that after he had killed his friend his friend's Spirit had immediately risen and sought revenge on Frank that's what was happening and this horrified Frank so much that he didn't care at all about the gold anymore he just wanted to get out of the spiritual danger he thought he was in and so as he rode into this Village all he looked for was was a church and when he found the church he went to the
front steps and he sat there waiting for the priest at dawn the priest finally arrived at the church and found Frank sitting there looking horrible and Frank instantly stood up rushed over to the priest and began begging him to save him from blackjack's Ghost now at first as the priest listened to Frank tell his story about this ghost he just thought that Frank was crazy but once he got Frank to slow down and sort of go over the details step by step the priest realized that perhaps there was some truth to the story it sounded
like it was probably true that Frank really did find a gold mine with his friend named Blackjack and at some point the discovery of this gold mine prompted Frank to murder Blackjack but despite the fact that this man Frank had just openly confessed to a murder the priest could only focus on the gold the gold that apparently Frank had found out in the forest it was like this this intense feeling had come over the priest this darkness that just made him suddenly so greedy he had never felt this way before in his life but it
was like he was laser focused on finding a way to claim that wealth that was just out there right now and so against all his better judgment the priest turns to Frank and says you know what we'll help you but for right now you need to get out of town get out of here don't come back we'll go out we'll find Blackjack we'll give him a proper burial and that will protect you from his ghost and so Frank was so thankful to the priest and he took off not realizing that the priest did not care
at all about Frank at this point all the priest cared about was getting Frank out of the picture so that that gold mine out in the woods could be his the next day the priest asked his friend an Outdoorsman named John McDougall to head off into the Wilderness to try to find Frank and blackjack's campsite and so that's what John did and after a few hours of looking he found the campsite and sure enough he found blackjack's dead body still inside of the tent with the axe lodged his head and right away John the ever
loyal friend to the priest began doing what the priest told him to do which was to bury Blackjack to cover up the murder because the priest and John were planning to claim this gold mine for themselves and they couldn't have this murder getting out to the public because then officials would come out and investigate the scene and then they would find the gold mine they couldn't have that and so John began digging a grave for blackjack and as he did he began hearing whispers all around him in the trees remember he's all alone out there
and so he began looking around trying to figure out who's out here did somebody follow him but there was no one Jon did his best to keep trying to dig as quickly as he could but these Whispers these awful voices they just kept getting louder and louder and more pronounced and closer to him eventually to the point where Jon was spooked I mean Jon was this Avid Outdoorsman who routinely spent time by himself out in the wild but here he was feeling very unsettled by these voices but despite his fear John did what he was
told and dug the grave as fast as he could grabbed blackjack's body threw him inside he covered him up and he put a couple of big stones on top of the grave site to kind of make a a makeshift Tombstone and then afterwards again despite feeling totally unsettled out here John did the next part of the plan which was to go look for gold go to the stream find the gold these guys were talking about but as JN is down by the water looking for gold he began hearing more and more of those voices all
around him he kept spinning around but nobody was there there and then finally this awful high-pitched laughter cut through the trees he whipped around there was nobody there but it was so terrifying that Jon just abandoned the search for gold and just hopped back on his horse and fled out of there but within a couple of days John and the priest had convinced themselves that those weird noises and that laughter that John had heard out there was just some bird that it was all in John's head he was spooked for no reason when in reality
it was just that incredible pull of that gold being out there waiting to be claimed it was like John and the priest they just they couldn't not go looking for it and so John decided to go back out into the woods except this time he did not go alone he brought a group of men with him and so this group led by JN retraced Frank and blackj steps down that skinny Trail all the way to their campsite and when they got there JN just froze he could not believe what he was seeing the rocks that
were sitting on the grave where JN had just buried Blackjack were gone these huge rocks just missing and also the tent the bloody tent where Blackjack had been murdered had also been cleared there was no trace of it anywhere it was like the campsite had never existed and this made no sense to John because he knows this is a totally isolated part of the Wilderness like nobody comes through here who in their right mind would just happen to pass by and randomly grab all these rocks and the tent covered in blood and take it out
of here it made no sense like who could have done this now until this point John really had convinced himself that everything he had experienced the time before was in his head it was just a bird or you know it was just normal forest sounds and he also like the priest had convinced himself that Frank's original story about blackjack's ghost chasing him out of the forest with just the ramblings of a crazy guilty man a murderer's guilty conscience had created that story but now as John was surveying the scene in front of him he couldn't
help but think maybe this place is haunted and so once again JN just turned and fled he and the men they got out of there as fast as they could and when John got back to town instead of going to the priest he just went right to the bar and just started drinking and he kept on drinking until he died of alcohol poisoning just a couple of days later and John's death started a chain of unexplained catastrophes all connected to this gold first the priest after discovering what happened to Jon didn't really spend any time
grieving the loss of his friend instead the priest just saddled up and headed out into the woods to find the gold himself however he found the trail that led out to the campsite and the gold had been destroyed in a forest fire then Lafayette French the rich investor who had bankrolled the original Expedition he heard about the mine and decided he would go find it however the guide that he hired to take him there literally died on the way into the forest by this point French had heard all the stories about how you know blackjack's
ghost was out in this Forest haunting the area preventing people from finding the gold but French ignored all those stories just like with Frank and the priest and John it was like that gold had an unbreakable hold on him and so for 30 years French kept going out into that Forest searching for that gold mine and eventually he found it or at least that's what he said in the last letter he wrote back home but we'll never actually know for sure because after sending that letter on that same day lafayette's C been burned down and
he died without telling anybody the location of the mine and so with French's death that sort of solidified the rumors that the haunting was real and people began to believe that there was only one thing that could explain this almost magnetic pull the gold had on so many people and also all the terrible Fates that befell everybody who tried to go look for it and that was that the gold mine was cursed and today people still believe that that blackjack's ghost is out there in the forest preventing people from finding the gold but whatever the
truth is whether the curse is real or not to this day no one has ever been able to successfully find the gold again and live to tell about it are you the type of person who has binged basically all of my YouTube videos and every week you anxiously wait a new upload if so thank you but also you're in luck because if you didn't know this we actually have a separate podcast the Mr Ballin podcast that has literally hundreds of stories that are not on YouTube that you can binge right now that podcast is available
on all podcast platforms again it's just called the Mr Ballin podcast and on Mondays on that podcast we upload exclusive new content that is not on YouTube to the podcast so that's Mondays and then on Thursday we remaster the audio of your favorite videos on YouTube and put those on the podcast but again Mondays those are brand new and exclusive to the podcast but if you want to hear those exclusive episodes one month ahead of apple and Spotify and all the other platforms well there's only one place you can do that and that's on Amazon
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