Haunted Hangings

Justice in the old west was swift. Many times a lynching mob would take matters into their own hands and lynch an unfortunate man without benefit of trial.

Adam Uber was a young man who didn't get along well with others. Some say it cost him his life. In a bar room skirmish Uber shot and killed a well liked man in Genoa Nevada. When the shooting stopped, he was taken to jail to await his trial by a jury of his peers. But it wasn't to be. On that cold winter night in 1897 an angry mob rushed the jail, overtook the sheriff and pulled Uber to a tall Cottonwood tree. As they prepared to hoist him into eternity, Uber cursed each and every member of the crowd.

The incident was soon forgotten. Until Adam Uber's ghost began appearing to every man who'd been a party to his lynching. Several of them met with terrible accidents and one met death near the very tree where Uber was lynched. Some say his angry ghost still makes an occasional appearance at the tree the town has dubbed "The Hanging Tree"

Austin Nevada is a small town on Highway 50, The Loneliest Road in America. The town is another of Nevada's towns that came to glory because of silver mining. By the time the mines played out, the town's population was already starting to dwindle. In 1979 Austin faced the final defeat when, after a long and bitter battle, voters moved the county to Battle Mountain. The century old courthouse was no longer needed for county court business, so commissioners moved their offices in. They probably didn't realize they'd be sharing the building with a ghost or two.

Courthouse employees have told of hearing the ghost as he walks up and down the stairs. One person felt him rush passed in a blast of icy air. Ghostly pranks include misplaced pens, pencils, and other items. There are two theories as to the ghost's identity. Some say he is the spirit of a man who was lynched from the courthouse balcony on December night in 1881, others believe he is the ghost of a convicted murderer who was legally hanged at the site in 1868.

Much of California's early state business was conducted at Colton Hall in Monterey. Some insist the spirits of several men who were hanged one morning outside the hall still haunt the historic building.

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