Spurred on by the ghostly apparition of his father, a rebellious young man escapes his guardian’s domination to seek his fortune in the silver mines, finding freedom from his past when he takes responsibility to free a horse from a lifetime underground.

SYNOPSIS:

Chicago, 1909 – A propensity for trouble gets defiant seventeen-year-old Jamie expelled from an exclusive college, to the chagrin of his wealthy uncle and guardian, Daniel Fitzgerald. Only his widowed mother’s intervention gains Jamie a last chance to redeem himself working for his uncle, but when Fitzgerald, angered by Jamie’s failure in the business world, banishes him to the seminary, the ghostly nightmare of a Spirit Miner prompts Jamie to sneak away and follow his dream. In the company of a couple of hard-rock miners, Jamie hops a westbound freight train, convinced by pulp novelettes that he’ll make his fortune in silver. Jamie’s romanticized notion of mining and his ego are deflated, when he’s hired, not to blast for silver ore, but as stable boy for a temperamental Indian paint pony, Crazy Horse.

Sensitive to the miners’ superstitions and myths, Jamie has visions of a Mysterious White Stallion in the mines and is further haunted by the Spirit Miner. Jamie soon discovers the thin line between life and death in his friends’ lives. Although his knack with the difficult Crazy Horse earns him a promotion, when Jamie sees the Spirit Miner as a rock face is about to blast, he causes an accident, barely escaping injury and losing the trust of his friends. Witnessing the horrific sight of a terrified horse being lowered headfirst down a shaft into the mines, Jamie faces the sobering realization that Crazy Horse is doomed to live his life underground, but when he wins a miner's double jack contest, Jamie is inspired to use his winnings to purchase Crazy Horse’s freedom.

A tragic mining accident brings Jamie’s psychic abilities to the attention of his friends, when the Spirit Miner delivers a message from the dead foreman. Jamie admits to his friends that he believes the ghost to be his father, lost prospecting before his birth. Planning to move on to their own claim, Jamie tries to buy Crazy Horse’s freedom, but is refused by the manager on the orders of his uncle, who owns the mine. As his friends set off for the new claim, Jamie remains, determined to find a way to get Crazy Horse out of the mine. Hope fades when he is fired from his job. Desperate to return to the mines, Jamie accepts the deadly job of clearing ore chutes, only escaping alive when Crazy Horse drags him out of the tunnel as tons of rock unexpectedly clear.

While a couple of miners create a diversion, Jamie sneaks in through the mine’s main entrance. Pursuit ensues when Fitzgerald notices the ploy. Clearing a passage through an old working, Jamie is about to escape with Crazy Horse when Fitzgerald catches up. After a cave-in traps his pursuer, Jamie makes the difficult decision to turn back and free his uncle. As the mountain threatens to collapse upon them, the Spirit Miner appears with his White Stallion, confronting Fitzgerald with the sins of his past. Jamie discovers the fate of his father and the fortune that his uncle has stolen. Jamie mounts Crazy Horse. They leap from an old mine opening into the night and lake below. With Crazy Horse, he sets off to make a new life, having gained freedom with the help of the Spirit of the Mountain.