Mike Greene is an Arctic miner in Alaska, developing his gold mines north of the Arctic Circle since 1980. He joined guest host Connie Willis (info) on Friday's show to talk about his adventures in mining, and the unexplained moments and weird finds he has made along the way. (Related Photos). Greene described the challenges getting supplies to his claim, which can only be accessed by river so he packs what he needs into a canoe. "Most of the stuff we take down stays there, it's too hard to get back out," he explained, adding an airboat would be ideal for moving supplies back and forth. Greene reported finding gold on his claim that is roughly the size of BBs, instead of the typical flake gold. He admitted knowing of miners around his region who found gold nuggets the size of tennis balls or potatoes.
Greene shared a story about the dad of his geologist friend who was prospecting on top of a mountain in southeastern Alaska, and discovered a quartz vein filled with gold. "As soon as they had the gold in their hands, they heard something, and they looked down the slope, and here are these... devil creatures," he said. According to Greene, these creatures looked like goblins with stringy hair; they were hideous, fierce, and screaming. He recounted a tale of an indigenous man who had discovered a trail of what he thought was three-toed horses and followed it to a cave in the White Mountains. Inside he found the cave walls were strangely iridescent, and he could hear something speaking gibberish. "It scared him so bad that he... ran back to his village," Greene said, pointing out he has had his own encounters with strange creatures, such as Sasquatch. "They're absolutely there watching all of the time," he revealed.
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Open Lines followed in the latter half of the program. Michael in Sedona, Arizona, told Connie about a gold mine he owns north of San Francisco, where he has been mining for most of his life. Michael shared a Sasquatch encounter he had in the region of Lake George, New York. "There were Sasquatch that lived in the woods, and you could hear them at night... they screeched unbelievably loudly," he recalled. Michael claimed to have given the creatures apples and other fruit from a local grocery store.
Pete from Charlotte, North Carolina, shared what he believes was a Bigfoot encounter in Virginia. According to Pete, he was camping with his singing cockatiel, who was humming along to BB King, when he heard simultaneous whistling come from some bushes 15 feet in front of him. Walt in Allentown, Pennsylvania, lamented the loss of wild Alaska due to the construction of the oil pipeline and gold mining operations. Walt recalled the last fishing trip he took there with his father in 1967. "The old Alaska is essentially gone," he said, noting how the oil and gold industries have permanently changed the landscape. "I fear that gold fever, like black gold fever, has really changed Alaska - it's no longer the last frontier," he opined.