The Bismarck Tribune

August 31, 1923

“Miners See Ghost; Won’t Work Nights.”

Billings, Mont., Aug. 31. - The Murray oil-drilling rig at Lake Basin has been shut down at night because the drillers say they saw the ghost of Bill Culbertson on four successive nights. Culbertson was killed in a fall from the derrick two months ago, and his mates now assert that they have seen his specter each night, standing on the identical spot on the derrick from which he fell to his death. The first night or two the drillers did not pay serious attention to the apparition, they say, but when it appeared on four nights, the last time while the crew were singing to keep up their spirits, they quit.

The story is told that shortly after the drilling started, one of the Murrays consulted a clairvoyant to find out how the well would pan out and was warned that a man would be killed. He is said to have passed the warning on to his men and advised them to be very cautious. Culbertson was killed a short time after Murray’s return.

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