Dumont

S. MIchael Siegal

Description

Recounts the past and present of a wood cabin in Dumont where a gold miner was brutally murdered and the terrifying events that followed.
From the author of COP COHEN and CONTRA LEGEM.
S. MICHAEL SIEGAL
DUMONT
This novel is partially based on a true story. When the author was in elementary school, the parents of his best friend had purchased an old dilapidated cabin in the town of Dumont Colorado. A skeletal hand was found and it was presumed the cabin was haunted. The author was to spend the weekend in the cabin but a mysterious fire destroyed the cabin. He recalls many onlookers witnessing murky images of ghosts rising into the sky while the cabin was burning.
S. Michael Siegal takes you on a terrifying tale beginning with the murder and decapitation of a Colorado gold miner in a wood cabin in Dumont. The cabin; which was believed to be haunted, amasses more lives throughout the years until a fire mysteriously destroys it. The land, where the cabin once stood, is purchased by Danny Goodstein, a real estate developer, who builds the Mill City Casino and Hotel. Did the ghosts find a new victim to torment, was Danny the one they had chosen? Will he eventually yield to the horrors where the gold miner’s cabin once stood?
Suspenseful – Spellbinding – Historic – Shocking

Sujets

• Horror
• Dumont
• Fiction
• Colorado

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 03 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669839460
• Langue: English

Extrait

DUMONT









S. MICHAEL SIEGAL






Copyright © 2022 by S. Michael Siegal.

Library of Congress Control Number:
2022913956
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-3948-4
Softcover
978-1-6698-3947-7
eBook
978-1-6698-3946-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.





Rev. date: 08/03/2022





Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
844273



CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24

Epilogue



CHAPTER 1
T his secluded gold mine in Colorado was located on a steep mountainside at an elevation of nine thousand – three hundred feet above sea level. A small path from the entrance, or adit, was manually carved into the ground which only permitted human movement to and from this entrance. A horse and pack mule were left by a natural trail, down the embankment, nearly a half-mile away – virtually out of sight.
The sun was barely visible as it appeared to descend behind a much larger mountain range to the west of the mine. The sky appeared dark, with equally dark clouds, as white snow silently fell from the sky and covered the ground as well as the leafless branches of trees that were growing on the mountain. With this snow came a bitterly cold breeze which formed icicles on the branches.
Other than the occasional sound of a distant animal, there stood an eerie silence that hung over the area. No humans were visible anywhere which appeared to leave a void in the surrounding area.
It was the beginning of March in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-three. Colorado had become a state seven years earlier and the county where the mine was located was deemed Clear Creek - named after the body of water that ran through the vicinity.
Gold was first discovered in Colorado Territory in eighteen hundred and fifty-eight. People began coming from nearly everywhere with the intention of becoming rich from the gold that was hidden in the mountains and streams. It was back-breaking work which made some rich and others conceivably poorer than when they first started the tedious task of prospecting.
A faint gleam of light appeared within the mine shaft that seemed to become brighter and brighter as it moved closer to the entrance. A dark figure holding a lantern and miner’s pick axe stopped before stepping out of the mine. He wore a scruffy Stetson hat and a thick jacket which had been torn by the jagged rocks that protruded in different areas of the mine.
The miner, who was born in Germany in 1838, came to America with his family in 1850 at the age of twelve. He and his mother, along with three of his siblings, arrived before his father and moved in with relatives in Philadelphia. The miner’s father was forced to remain in Germany to handle matters before he departed and reunited with them. While his father was away, he helped to support his family.
His parents, who spoke only the German language, enrolled him in school and once he spoke fluent English, they used him to interpret for them. In America, his family truly believed that they had the best of both worlds. They were in America – the land of opportunity - and were among their fellow countrymen from their native land.
He remained in Philadelphia, employed in various jobs, until he became twenty. At that age he reached the conclusion that living in a large city was not for him. In the year 1858 he enlisted in the United States Army where he was assigned to the Calvary.
By the start of the Civil War, he had been promoted to the rank of First Sergeant for his company. His unit fought in many campaigns and, at one point, he was wounded by a Confederate soldier. Luckily for him, the wound was considered minor and allowed him to fight another battle.
After the war had ended, he was discharged from the army and worked various jobs for the next fifteen years until he heard about the gold rush in Colorado. He used the money he had saved to get him to Colorado where he went to work as a miner.
Working as a miner for some large conglomerate was back-breaking work. From the time the sun rose to the time it went down that evening. The pay was quite dismal but allowed him to save up enough money to purchase a horse and mule; along with a small cabin. It was finally time for him to find his own gold mine and reap the benefits it would produce.
Strapped over his left shoulder was a satchel that carried samples of rocks he had mined over a span of several months. He suspected that many of the rocks contained gold ore and looked forward to the long journey he would take to have them assayed and to file a mining claim. He felt quite confident that he hit the mother lode and will be quite wealthy someday, maybe soon.
The man stepped out of the mine and onto the icy path where he had lost his footing, uncontrollably falling onto his back. The momentum of his weight, and the slippery slope, thrusted the man wildly down the steep incline until he reached an area where a tree had stopped his decent.
He slowly got up and onto his feet by using the tree as a guide. He felt pain on his upper back, neck and the back of his head where his hat once covered it. The miner reached back with his hand and sensed a warm wet substance that he believed was his own blood.
The miner panicked in knowing that the weather was becoming more extreme and he needed to get to his horse and mule as quickly as possible. Once he got to them, the sooner he could return to his cabin miles away.
He took a brief moment to locate his lantern and pick axe before cautiously walking on the icy path to his animals. When he got to them, both the horse and the mule appeared ready to leave and find shelter away from the cold-blowing snow.
He sensed more pain from the wound on the back of his noggin and a slight headache appeared to wrap around the top of his brain. He took off the kerchief he was wearing around his neck and stuck it in the snow. When it felt cold enough, he folded it into quarter sections and used it as a cold pad on his head wound. Although it stung immensely, it appeared to be working.
The miner grabbed the reins attached to the mule and while holding them tightly, he got up on the saddle of his horse and began to ride towards the direction of his cabin. Blowing snow had formed ice on his beard and he was developing frost bite on his exposed skin. He felt a throbbing numbness in his hands and on his face.
With the mule walking at an unhurried pace, the horse was somewhat limited on how quickly he could get them to the cabin. It was all downhill on ground covered in fresh snow and ice. The blowing wind made a whistling sound as it gusted through the trees all around him.
After a long two hours of excruciating pain; the miner, horse and mule made it to the wooden cabin in the town of Dumont. Dumont, a mining town named after Colonel John M. Dumont – a prominent miner, was previously known as Mill City.
Although his head wound had stopped bleeding, he was now completely overcome by pain. Slowly he got down off of his saddle and led the horse and mule to the side of the cabin where the wind was not as severe. There he gave them fresh hay from the shed behind the cabin.
The water, which was previously in the trough, was completely frozen and he used his pick axe to chip away the ice in hope that the animals would be able drink the frozen water. He found himself too exhausted and in extreme pain to obtain fresh water from his water well and give it to them. He then made the immediate decision to wait until the morning to provide them with the water.
His satchel, with the load of rocks, felt heavy. He released the strap from his shoulder and dragged the satchel into his cabin.
The interior of the cabin was quite frigid after being absent of a fire in the stove. Next to the stove was an iron container with a few dry logs that he used to start a fire. As the logs began to burn brighter and release some heat, he made an attempt to get himself warm. He found that he was much too cold for the small amount of heat that the stove produced to bring his body back to its normal temperature.
His headache was still bothersome but he had nothing in the cabin to relieve the pain. Reaching around to the back of his head, he gently touched the wounded area and glanced down at his fingers tips to see if he was still bleeding. Seeing that no additional blood was present, he was satisfied that the part of his head that hit the ground was possibly healing up.
Hunger was th