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Black Mountain (Kalkajaka) National Park is a 781 hectare protected area in Queensland, (Australia).

Wikipedia says:

The area has a bad reputation as numerous people and those searching for the missing have disappeared without trace giving Black Mountain the nickname ‘mountain of death’.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mountain_(Kalkajaka)_National_Park#cite_note-3

Have numerous people disappeared "without trace" at Black Mountain National Park?

Sklivvz
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Amelia Sabrina
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1 Answers1

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From the A Far Northern Landmark Sydney Mail 24 April 1935:

COOKTOWN, Queensland's most northerly town, which for nearly half a
century has been one of the 'ghost' towns of the far north, is booming once again. An army of timber-getters is at work removing the trees from 100,000 acres of Crown lands in the little-known country south of Cooktown, and, according to a report, some fine timber has been found growing near the Black Mountain. Few people are aware of the existence of such a mountain. It is not indicated on any maps, but it is doubtful whether there is another mountain in Australia of such unusual formation and with such a remarkable history.

About two miles long and a mile wide, the mountain is flat-topped and is composed almost entirely of huge black granite slabs, block on top of block, and devoid of any soil or vegetation. In the gloom of the evening it looks forbidding to a degree, and this, coupled with the fact that there is no bird or animal life on it, has always made it an unpopular spot with the aborigines. Since the early days the natives have always declared that a 'debil-debil' lives in the mountain, and the aborigines will not go near it.

THE natives' belief in this 'debil-debil' has been strengthened by the fact that grim tragedy has been associated with the mountain ever since it has been known by white men; down the years five white men (three of them with horses) have completely disappeared at the mountain. They have vanished as if the earth had opened and swallowed them up, for absolutely no trace of them has ever been discovered, although in each instance police, black trackers, and hundreds of local residents scoured the mountain and the surrounding country. The first man to disappear there was Phillip Graynor, a carrier, who vanished when looking for straying horses early in July, 1872; ten years later, in November, 1882, a local settler, named Harry Owens, vanished with his horse when looking for cattle; a month later another settler, George Hawkins, disappeared with his horse; and in August, 1892, a prospector, named James Wren, also vanished. The last known disappearance was in 1928, when a veteran prospector, named G. Packer, disappeared whilst prospecting in the vicinity of the mountain.

The disappearances read more like chapters from a book of fairy-tales, and they constitute one of the most amazing stories in the police history of the Far North, for not one of the mysteries has been solved, and probably never will be. When the Cook Highway is continued from Port Douglas to Cooktown the road will pass close to the Black Mountain, and this grim pile of granite slabs should prove of interest to geologists and others, in view of the fact that the aborigines declare that the mountain was erected years ago by a now defunct tribe of giants! There is some beautiful country around the mountain — dense forest teeming with marvellous bird and insect life.

See also

UNSOLVED TRAGEDIES of Cooktown's Mystery Mountain Sunday Mail 28 January 1934

A Mountain of Mysterious Tragedy Sydney Mail 27 December 1933

The Road of Tragedy. Grim, Unsolved Crimes of the Black Mountains of the Palmer The Brisbane Courier 25 February 1933

Old Miner Missing The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld 21 May 1892)

pericles316
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DavePhD
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  • DavePhD You're INCREDIBLE! – Amelia Sabrina Dec 16 '16 at 23:11
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    What seems kind of weird is a 10-year interval between the dissapearences1872, 1882, 1892. Could this story be just a newpaper hoax or is there any evidence that these people really existed? – Amelia Sabrina Dec 16 '16 at 23:20
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    @AmeliaSabrina There are several May 1892 articles about James Wren going missing. http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/173295743?searchTerm=wren%20cooktown&searchLimits=dateFrom=1892-01-01|||dateTo=1892-12-31 ; http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/173292536?searchTerm=wren%20cooktown&searchLimits=dateFrom=1892-01-01|||dateTo=1892-12-31 ; http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/229593196?searchTerm=wren%20cooktown&searchLimits=dateFrom=1892-01-01|||dateTo=1892-12-31 – DavePhD Dec 17 '16 at 02:44
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    @DavePhd-Regarding James Wren, the papers you have referred to record that police believe that he had committed suicide by drowning himself. – pericles316 Dec 18 '16 at 08:02
  • @AmeliaSabrina If I were to write up a hoax regarding five deaths over the course of five years, I would _not_ put them at regular intervals. – John Dvorak Dec 18 '16 at 15:33
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    @AmeliaSabrina In the same general area William Owen went missing in August of 1887. http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146784105?searchTerm=%22William%20owen%22&searchLimits=exactPhrase|||anyWords|||notWords|||requestHandler|||dateFrom=1887-01-01|||dateTo=1887-12-31|||sortby ; http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146776497?searchTerm=%22William%20owen%22&searchLimits=exactPhrase|||anyWords|||notWords|||requestHandler|||dateFrom=1887-01-01|||dateTo=1887-12-31|||sortby – DavePhD Dec 18 '16 at 17:56
  • @Jan Dvorak Being suspicious about dates with regular interval goes out the experience with other case http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/36078/did-lightning-strike-major-summerford-three-times-and-his-gravestone-too – Amelia Sabrina Dec 20 '16 at 00:45