Spooked - "Ghost Town" (Classic)

Podcast by KQED and Snap Studios
Aired: August 22, 2025
Host: Glynn Washington

Overview

This episode of Spooked, titled “Ghost Town,” delves into the eerie, true-life supernatural encounters experienced by two people in California: a professional gold miner who finds more than just riches in a remote mine, and a family whose innocent visit to an old mission chapel turns into something inexplicably chilling. Both stories explore what lingers in the forgotten places—echoes of the past that haven’t moved on.

Main Discussion Points & Insights

I. Introduction: The Haunting of Abandoned Places

[01:49] Glynn Washington:

• With bustling California as a backdrop, Glynn paints a picture of how much of the state’s landscape is actually empty, filled with abandoned towns and spaces “where every single person has fled or been consumed.”
• All ground is described as “hallowed ground”—suggesting that history and tragedy physically and spiritually remain.

II. Story One: The Ghost Mine

Shannon Poe’s Account

Narrated by producer Adizah Egan, followed by firsthand storytelling by Shannon Poe, gold miner.

A. The Setting and the Sounds

• Shannon, drawn to solitude and adventure, mines alone near Yosemite in an isolated region called the South Mother Lode.
• Repeatedly while alone, especially during lunch breaks, he hears strange sounds—like "china, you know, porcelain dishes...clinking," and the "muffled voices" of many people, with occasional banjo music ([05:30]).

“I kept hearing it sounded to me like a cafeteria, like using real dishes...I kept hearing clinking. You could hear muffled voices. It was like a bunch of people talking, but you couldn’t make out anything they were saying.”
—Shannon ([05:47])

• His wife hears the same mysterious sounds on her first visit, confirming Shannon’s experience ([07:02]).

B. Local Lore: Tommyknockers

• They confide in Al, the local caretaker, who describes these phenomena as “the old timers”—ghosts of miners, called Tommyknockers, who are known to “still work” the abandoned mines ([08:05] onward).

“Well, yeah, that’s just the old timers down there, you know, you’ll still hear them.”
—Al ([08:45])

• Al advises: leave them alone, they’ll leave you alone ([10:25]).

C. A New Discovery After Fire

• After a wildfire exposes forgotten mines, Shannon and friends explore a promising shaft, which feels immediately foreboding ([12:14]–[13:44]):
  • Burned landscape, skeletal trees, a “gaping black hole mouth” of a mine, with “orange little gooey stuff flowing out of it.”
  • Inside: thick, muddy ground; old tracks; strange nervousness, despite Shannon’s previous fearlessness.
  • They leave, but Shannon’s curiosity about gold outweighs any fear.

D. The Ordeal

• Shannon returns with more people, hoping to debunk the noises.
• While deep inside, they unmistakably hear the “rock pick on solid rock”—a familiar miner’s sound, but no one else is there ([16:21]).
• Suddenly, a “deep, guttural rolling sound” echoes from the mine’s depths, growing louder and traveling right through the group ([16:56]):

“It sounded to me like an earthquake was starting...deep, guttural kind of rolling sound deep in the earth...It kept getting louder and louder and louder and louder. The sound came down the mine shaft, went between us, and then out towards the entrance beyond us.”
—Shannon ([16:56]–[17:43])

• On video playback, Shannon later discovers a chilling growl he didn’t hear at the time, frightening him more than any animal he’s ever encountered ([18:43]–[19:32]).

“This was not an animal. It raised the hair on the back of my neck...that actually terrified me. I don’t know if it’s a bad omen or are they trying to tell people to get out?...It just gives me the impression of evil.”
—Shannon ([19:32])

E. Aftermath & Reluctant Return

• Shannon swears never to return to that shaft—“not for all the gold in the world”—but wrestling with reputation and curiosity, he admits he’s considering taking people in again, though with reluctance ([20:50]–[21:25]).

“Yeah, I’m reluctant to go in there, but, you know, I’m gonna do it...And then after everybody goes in, then I don’t have to take them in again, do I?”
—Shannon ([21:25])

III. Story Two: The Chapel Visitors

Jenny’s Account

Told by Jenny Prangburan, a listener.

A. Idyllic Setting Turns Ominous

• Jenny, her husband, and her mother visit the historic San Fernando Mission in Los Angeles ([23:50]).
• As her mom heads across the sunny plaza to cool off in the fountain, Jenny is overtaken by “total humility” and worries they’re being disrespectful; her mother shrugs it off ([24:40]–[25:06]).

B. The Vision in the Chapel

• Jenny enters the shaded chapel, passing through heavy curtains, and is struck by a powerful, oppressive atmosphere.
• Inside, the pews are filled with “rows and rows of people...in heavy brown woolen cloaks,” all male, deeply bowed in prayer. Their faces are obscured ([25:39]).

“There were probably two dozen of them, and they were just lined up in these wooden pews, and they were sort of bent over. And I knew that they were praying. And it felt like, oh, my gosh, what have I interrupted?”
—Jenny ([26:15])

• She quickly retreats, tells her mom, who doesn’t believe her and decides to check herself. Mom leaves unimpressed, but Jenny, doubting, returns.

C. Abrupt Change and Aftershock

• On re-entering, everything is altered: the curtains are now velvet, the lighting is brighter, the decor modern and joyful, and a woman is prepping for a wedding as if nothing strange has happened ([27:25]).

“Now it was light and bright in there...The atmosphere was as different as the interior. It was light and airy and felt joyful...I mean, and I literally was shaking. I just stood there, you know, and saying, I don’t know what I just saw.”
—Jenny ([27:55]–[28:48])

• Jenny feels physically ill, profoundly shaken, and compares the experience to living through an earthquake—a moment when reality itself feels uncertain. How could the entire room change in just twenty seconds?

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “All ground is hallowed ground.” Glynn Washington, setting the episode’s theme ([01:49])
• “If you shut everything off and just listen, sometimes the past talks back.” Paraphrased from Shannon’s repeated strange experiences ([05:30]–[07:30])
• “I was more interested in the gold than the ghosts.” Shannon, on why he kept returning despite warnings ([15:01])
• “It just gives me the impression of evil.” Shannon, on the mine’s unseen presence ([19:32])
• “The closest thing I can liken it to is the first time I felt an earthquake...something I so strongly knew to be true my whole life...is now shaken.” Jenny, describing her shock and altered perception after the chapel experience ([29:10])

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:49] – Glynn’s introduction to forgotten, haunted landscapes
• [03:52] – Introduction to Shannon Poe, gold miner
• [05:30] – First mention of supernatural clinking and voices in the canyon
• [07:41] – Shannon’s wife confirms hearing the same sounds
• [08:45] – Al explains the “old timers”/Tommyknockers
• [13:44] – The first exploration of the eerie mine after the fire
• [16:21] – Group hears classic miner’s pick noise with no source
• [16:56] – The “earthquake” sound experience underground
• [18:43] – Video playback reveals the inhuman growl
• [19:32] – Shannon admits to being genuinely terrified
• [21:25] – Shannon reluctantly agrees to return to the mine
• [23:50] – Jenny’s chapel story begins
• [25:39] – Vision of cloaked figures praying in the chapel
• [27:25] – The chapel’s sudden transformation
• [29:10] – Jenny compares experience to the world-changing feeling of an earthquake

Tone & Style

• The episode blends first-person tension and awe with Glynn Washington’s poetic and ominous narration, sustaining a tone of reverence for the supernatural and the unknowable.
• Both storytellers maintain a grounded, sometimes humorous approach—skeptical yet open, which deepens the effect of their brush with the uncanny.

Concluding Thoughts

“Ghost Town” demonstrates why Spooked is so compelling: it doesn’t just collect ghost stories; it lets listeners feel the chilling intersection of the modern world and the haunted past through the unnerving firsthand testimony of ordinary people pushed to the edge of belief. Whether the hauntings are the echoes of history, the persistence of tragedy, or something else entirely, the episode insists: some ground keeps secrets and doesn’t easily let them go. Be afraid.