Original subtitles

-[frog croaks] -[narrator reading]

In their search for the lost Aztec treasure...

-James! Buenos dias. -Hey, how're you doing, Julio?

[narrator] ...James traveled to Mexico City...

[Julio] Let's take a look inside.

[narrator] ...and uncovered old maps

that suggest the Aztec homeland

could be located beneath Blind Frog Ranch.

[Julio] The Aztecs, we do know

that they came from the north.

[James] Holy [bleep].

This is what could be under Blind Frog Ranch,

or Montezuma's treasure.

[Chad] Even over there. Like, there's these little holes where smoke goes up.

[narrator] At the Bead Site,

Duane and Charlie learned that the black soot collected from the vent holes...

[Charlie] We did an X-ray fluorescence analysis.

It comes back as charred plant material.

[narrator] ...indicates that an ancient culture

might have once lit fires inside the rock formation.

-[Eric] That's amazing. -[Chad] Yeah.

-[Eric] Right in there. Now, I see it. -[Chad] Yeah, yeah.

[narrator] While at the South Cave,

Chad and Eric resumed the hunt for a hidden entrance

into the Keyhole Chamber.

This cave points exactly towards the energy zone.

[Eric] Wow.

[narrator] And gathered samples

of the mysterious hand-hewn logs

to see if they were left behind by the Aztecs.

[Eric] They may have been in here looking for gold.

-[narrator] But a strange tremor... -[rumbling]

-...and a dangerous rockfall... -[bleep].

-Out, Chad... - [narrator] ...left them scrambling for safety

before they could learn more.

-[rumbling continues] -[objects rattling]

-[Eric] Chad! -[exclaims]

[thunder cracking]

-[opening theme music playing] -[narrator] Northeast Utah is a place of mysteries,

including legends of treasures buried by long-dead civilizations.

[man] Oh, wow.

-[crow caws] -Look at that.

[Duane] This has to be hundreds of years back.

-[narrator] Unexplained phenomena... - [indistinct utterance]

[James] What the hell is that?

[narrator] ...that defy human understanding.

I've never seen anything like that.

[narrator] All these mysteries meet at a crossroads.

A 160-acre property known

-as Blind Frog Ranch. - [frogs croaking]

Duane Ollinger has owned Blind Frog Ranch for over a decade.

And each year, he's drilled closer to the truth...

-Hell, yeah. He can go faster than that. -[mechanical whirring]

-[man] It's working! -[whirring continues]

[narrator] ...and long-lost Aztec gold

he believes is buried deep beneath his ranch.

[Chad] It's freaking massive.

Could the Aztecs have discovered this?

[narrator] But the closer he gets...

[Chad] Whoo! Feeling alive, boys!

Finally get to hold [bleep] gold in my hand.

[narrator] ...the more the land fights back.

[man] What would eat the head off of it?

Weird [bleep] goes on around here.

-[Chad] It's blinking red. -[Eric] It's poison gas!

[yelling] Let's get out! Go!

[screaming] [bleep] Go!

[narrator] But Duane will move heaven...

-and earth... -[Chad] Fire in the hole.

[explosion]

[Chad exclaiming]

-[narrator] ...until he gets to the bottom of the mystery. - [liquid burbling]

[Duane] We've started this whole deal,

and we're sure as hell gonna finish it.

[narrator] And solves what's lurking below...

[Eric] Holy [bleep]! There's something in there.

[Chad] Hell, yeah!

-Come out! -[Eric] [imperceptible]

[Chad] Josh!

-[rumbling] -[rocks tumbling]

[narrator] ...at Blind Frog Ranch.

-[Chad] All right, let's get this out of here. -[Eric straining] All right.

-One more pull. Let me get down a bit. -[Chad] Okay.

[narrator] At the South Cave, Chad and Eric are beginning to clear out

the rockfall from the collapse.

Their plan is to stabilize the tunnel with timber.

[Eric] Chad, I'm gonna call out some numbers.

For our timbers.

-Twelve. -[Chad] Six-by-six-by-twelve?

[Eric straining] Yep.

Sixteen-by-six-by-six.

And then 48,

that's going to be a four-by-four.

So now, the fun part begins.

[mechanical whirring]

[electrical saw whirring]

-[electric saw buzzes] -[Eric] Okay.

[narrator] Mining timber supports have been used for centuries.

And entire forests were cleared in the American West

to support the growing mining industry.

Chad and Eric's timber support frame will consist of vertical timber posts,

connected by a horizontal cap beam.

The frame will then be covered on the top and sides with lagging beams.

[Chad] Let's move these into the fracture site.

-[timber clatters] -[grunts softly]

[Eric straining] Here we go. [grunts]

[timber clatters]

[Chad] This is just brutal, man.

This tunnel is so narrow.

Everything has to move one piece at a time.

It's like building IKEA furniture in a closet.

-[timber moving] -[Eric strains]

We do the furthest-back timber set first.

[Chad strains]

[narrator] Using timber supports has advantages.

-[drilling] -Wood can be cut to size

and can support over 1,200 pounds per square inch.

It's easier to acquire than steel supports.

[drilling]

And the sound of a cracking wood beam...

[wood beams cracking]

...could warn them of an impending collapse.

[Eric grunts]

The design of these supports isn't complicated,

but we do have to be precise.

Because if we're off just by a hair,

it could collapse, and the results could be deadly.

[drilling]

[drilling continues]

-[Eric] All right, we're stable. -Okay.

[Eric] Now, we'll put in--

-Okay. -...the 2-by-12s on the top.

-[Chad] All right. -Yeah.

[Eric] That's looking pretty solid.

I feel safer under here already, Chad.

[radio static]

-[engine whirring distantly] -[Duane] What do you think, Josh?

[Josh] Beautiful.

What a place you got here, Duane.

It reminds me of home.

[Duane] It ain't bad.

We have two areas we're exploring to see if it'll lead us

into the Keyhole Chamber.

[Chad] It's Josh, huh?

[Duane] Y ou know, that's more projects than we've ever done before,

so we're going to get professional help.

So, I'm bringing in an expert to help us decide

which one needs to be prioritized,

and figure out where the area is most likely to pay off.

Come on up here, Josh.

-Fellas, this is Josh. -[Chad] Welcome.

-[Josh] How's it going? -[James] How you doing?

-[Josh] Josh. -James.

-Pleasure to meet you, sir. -Yeah.

-Charlie. -Charlie?

-Nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you.

-Josh, Chad. Good to meet you, brother. -Chad?

-Nice to meet you. -[Chad] Hell, yeah. Hell, yeah.

-I know this old cowboy right here. -[Eric] Yeah, yeah.

-Good to see you again, Eric. -Good to see you again. Yeah.

[Josh] Duane's been telling me you guys have been doing a lot of work,

and he thinks maybe I can lend a hand.

Well, it's good to have you.

[Duane] You know, Josh, he's got a hell of a background

in mining and treasure hunting.

[Josh] Yeah. I hope some of my experience can help

the project here.

I'm Josh Feldman. I'm a gold miner from Arizona.

-[rocks tumbling] -[yelling] Rocks!

I've been treasure hunting since I was a little kid with my dad.

[man] Here I go!

[Josh] I've been all over the American Southwest...

That's a good one.

...searching hundreds of different treasure stories.

We've had some success.

There's been a few that we've discovered at the site.

He and his family has found the Lost Dutchman's Mine.

[Chad] Damn. Really?

That's a big find, man.

[narrator] Josh and his family have discovered what they believe to be

the remains of the Lost Dutchman Mine,

hidden away for years in Arizona's Superstition Mountains.

It's believed to contain millions of dollars' worth

of gold bullion, left there by its last owner,

a German prospector nicknamed "The Dutchman."

After "The Dutchman's" death,

the mine's location was lost to time,

until Josh and his family's years

of historical research and geological surveys revealed its secrets.

Duane believes that Josh's experience with that discovery

could be the key to helping the team find the Aztec treasure.

[Josh] What happened at the Superstitions,

is it took us boots on the ground.

-[Chad] Yeah. Okay. -And reading the ground itself and understanding the geology,

understanding the people that were there before us,

their history, their motivations,

and listening to their old stories.

Legends are not created out of thin air.

They're not just a story around a campfire.

Something happened that motivated that story.

My dad searched for it

-for well over 50 years. -[Chad] Wow.

The last 20 years of that, I was with him side by side,

that's where I cut my teeth.

It's really my dad's life work.

I was with him finishing his unfinished business.

I see Duane and his son, Chad,

and it reminds me of my father

and all the treasure hunting that we did together.

So, if I can help them out, I'm all for it.

Well, we can talk all day out here.

Let's go inside and we'll catch you up on what we want.

-[Chad] Let's get done. Let's do it. -[Josh] Man, sounds good.

[Chad] We've always brought out various experts to the ranch.

But recently, my dad's had some health complications.

And let's face it, he's not getting any younger.

[Duane] Hell, yeah.

Here we go, fellas.

[Chad] So, he's bringing in Josh

to try to help expedite this treasure hunt.

So, I'm just going to lay it all out here.

We're looking for Montezuma's lost gold.

That's why you're here, brother. That's why we brought you in.

I've followed that story. I mean, it's... [chuckles]

the oldest treasure story in the Southwest.

We are sitting on, what I believe is,

not just Montezuma's treasure, but their homeland.

That's the legend.

The story is, is that a lot of their great wealth

went north back to their origin.

You're speaking our language right now.

Here's a copy of a Spanish map I brought back from Mexico.

It translates, "Fom the shores of this lake,

the Aztecs left to found their empire."

We are looking at this area.

This is Winter Mountains, right here.

This is Blind Frog Ranch.

Right here.

[narrator] The map that James brought back indicates

that the ancient homeland of the Aztec people,

before they established their empire in Mexico,

was located in Utah.

[James] I honestly believe

that they brought the treasure back to their origin site

and added it to additional artifacts that were here.

The Aztec knew about it,

and they brought treasure back

to a location that they were familiar with,

and that had been used for thousands of years by the indigenous people.

[narrator] For centuries, it has been a mystery

why the Aztecs might have fled north to Utah

after the Spanish invaded their empire in 1519.

James believes he might now know why.

They were returning to their land of origin, Chicomoztoc,

which some scholars suggest is in Utah.

[James] So, this map shows Chicomoztoc,

which is the legendary homeland of the Aztecs.

It translates roughly into the seven caves.

Here's the thing. According to local Mormon stories,

there are seven caves leading into the Lost Rhoades Mine, right around this area.

We think they're the same thing.

[Chad] And here's another thing.

We had quantum imaging come out here last year.

And they found this keyhole-shaped chamber underneath the ranch,

and it stretches for, like, a quarter of a mile.

Look at this.

Keyhole Cave from last year.

Seven caves, Chicomoztoc.

It matches up.

[Chad] So, this keyhole could be the home of the Aztecs.

I mean, we're right on top of it.

I bet you anything we're going to end up

finding something very similar to these seven caves.

These maps are awesome.

I take this very seriously.

And it looks like you're on the right track.

We need as much detail as we possibly can.

[James] Somewhere on this ranch,

there's an entrance to that cavern.

We just can't quite find the way in.

I can help with that, for sure.

These maps are pretty impressive. I got to admit,

that's really something.

James has done a lot of work to connect the dots here,

and it's definitely worth investigating.

We have a lead.

There's a breadcrumb right here,

and I want to find the next breadcrumb, and the next breadcrumb.

And maybe it does lead to some something great.

You guys have already done a ton of work here,

and I am really excited to learn everything

that you've done in great detail.

Everybody's bringing something to the table.

We need to go out there. Because I guarantee you,

with this team, we're gonna figure this son of a bitch out.

[Chad] Hell, yeah.

I need to see these sites.

Let's look at the ground

at the hard evidence. Let's look at the research.

That's how I can help them find

the entrance to this Keyhole Chamber.

[Duane] What do you think, Josh?

[Josh] I want you to show me everything

that is important to you on this property.

And then, my plan is to come up with a plan.

[Duane] All right, let's do it.

[narrator] Duane has brought professional miner

and treasure hunter, Josh Feldman, to the ranch,

to seek his advice for their two best leads to gain entry

into the Keyhole Chamber,

the South Cave, and the Bead Site.

[Duane] You know, Josh, right here,

this is the Bead Site that we're talking about.

[Josh] Wow. It's impressive.

[Duane] Our hope is that

-this ties into a cave system. -[Josh] Gotcha.

And this was all dug out with the trackhoe, I assume?

[Duane] We thought this was a pretty good target.

We dug this deal out.

And the deeper we got, the more we found.

-What have you found here so far? -Lots of the beads.

[Duane] Trading beads, you know, 15th, 16th century.

[James] We have found bone masks.

And metate.

So, it sounds like all Native Americans so far.

-So far. -[Josh] And right now, you're trying to see

if there was any Aztecan influences going on here?

-[James] Correct. Absolutely. -Okay.

[James] This is the Shelter Area.

There was a lot of soot, a lot of charcoal remains--

-[Josh] Sure. -...while we were digging with the bones,

-that looked like they'd been cooked. -[Josh] Interesting.

The beads are everywhere.

It's impressive how many beads are on the ground here.

Wow, there's just hundreds of them.

-There's red, white-- -[James] Yeah.

...blue.

These are definitely trade beads.

There's no question about it.

This is some fine-grained material, isn't it?

It's covered up so much.

[James strains]

[grunts softly]

[Josh] Here you go. Right here.

There's a bottom of an arrowhead right there.

We've been here for no more than an hour,

and we're pulling out all kinds of stuff.

It's a pestle, a mano,

for the metate.

They can grind their food down.

Stuff that I can't fully explain.

This is interesting.

You see this here?

That's dinosaur bone.

-[James] Petrified? -[sighs] Yeah, for sure.

This formation we're standing under,

it's late Triassic, early Jurassic.

So, this bone would be from, like, 170 million years ago.

This is from a Therapod dinosaur, from that era.

I've never been to a Native American site

-and ever found a dinosaur bone. -Really?

-[Josh] Yeah, that's incredible. -[chuckles]

Somebody was bringing in these fossils.

The only other explanation is there's actually a dinosaur fossil here,

and those are things that we need to keep in mind.

[Duane] In the last ten minutes,

Josh, looking around, he's found a dinosaur bone.

We've been out here

for 14 years and we've never even had a clue...

about a dinosaur bone or anything like that. So,

you know, it's just amazing what that kid knows.

[Charlie] Hey, Josh.

-Yeah? -[Charlie] This appears to be a timber.

It's like it's been worked on that end.

-You see that? -[James] I sure do. That is interesting.

Why is this site so important,

and has been so important to so many people through the years?

You see this straight cut here?

This is probably getting into the 19th century.

It's showing us that people were interested in this site for centuries.

And my Spidey senses are tingling.

There is something to find here.

Very interesting.

[Charlie] Let me show you the smoke vents.

[Josh] Okay.

[Charlie] But we've got... what looks like

little chimneys coming out of there, little vent pipes.

You've got one that goes...

right in there, where you see all that black right above it.

-[Josh] I sure do. -All right. The hole's right below it.

-Right here? -[Charlie] Yeah.

Okay.

This right wall right here is blackened,

almost like you'd see on a chimney.

-It's, uh, like soot. -[Josh] Hmm.

We're just wondering if... If all this doesn't have something

to do with the fire that's way down below the earth.

And if there was a fire,

does that mean that people were living down there?

[Josh] That's interesting.

We had Dr. Bob Morton come on out,

and he actually was able to analyze that soot.

And he confirmed that it was from campfire smoke.

Something's going on.

-We want to get to the bottom of this deal. -[Josh] Understood.

Duane has all kinds of questions,

some of the questions I don't fully understand yet.

We're in the middle of nowhere.

And yet, here's this little spot

on this rock,

and all these people have come here,

and all of their stuff has been left behind.

That's interesting to me. The answers to those questions,

if they're going to be found anywhere,

they're going to be found right here at this site.

One thing I notice here,

we're at much higher elevation here

than we are down there at the Shelter Area.

I think it would help if we were able

to move all of this dirt back.

Once we open it up,

and we get our eyes on the entirety of it,

then we can start answering some of these mysteries here,

because this dirt's in our way.

You know, Josh, I agree with you. If it gets us down

to where the cavern is, that's all well worth it.

Totally agree.

[Duane] Josh, Let me take you over to the South Cave.

[Josh] Let's go.

[Duane] Josh, this is our South Cave right here.

[Chad] Yeah.

-Entrance is just right over there. -[Josh] Okay.

It's at least a couple hundred feet.

-[Josh] Wow, it's a long ways in there. -Yeah.

[Chad] We think that this could lead us to the Keyhole Chamber...

if we could find a connecting tunnel.

Okay.

-Let's take a look. -Sweet.

Make yourself at home in there.

I'm too big for that damn cave.

[Josh] Yeah, that's a bunch of bull-[bleep].

-[Chad laughs] -[Eric laughs]

-[Josh] Let's do it. -[Chad] All right.

-[Josh] All right. -Let's go check it out.

[narrator] The cave mouth sits 1,000 feet south of the Keyhole Chamber,

in the side of a rock formation.

Chad and the team believe there is a hidden tunnel

that connects the two cave systems.

[grunts softly]

[pants]

Yep. Here's the cave right here.

-[Josh] This is the entrance? -Yep. Right in there.

-This is it. -[Josh] Man,

-that's a coyote hole right there. -Yeah. Exactly.

It's tight, too.

Are you claustrophobic at all?

[Josh] I'm a gold miner, Chad.

It's kind of tough to be a gold miner

-and be claustrophobic. -[laughs]

All right. Here we go. Are you ready, brother?

-[Josh] I'm ready. -All right.

There is no room--

-[Chad] No. -...in there whatsoever.

[Chad] No, it's tight, man.

It gets worse.

-That's fantastic news. -[laughs]

You'll like it.

[grunts]

[grunts]

[breathing heavily]

[Eric] How's that shoring looking?

[radio static]

[Chad] The shoring is still solid. It's holding up really well.

Copy that.

[Josh] Oh, my God.

This is not safe in here, Chad, I'll tell ya.

You don't think so?

[Josh] No, it's pretty sketchy.

[grunts softly]

[Chad] Some of these spots you've got to get kind of sideways...

-[straining] to get through. -[Josh] Yeah, I got you.

[grunts in effort]

[strains]

[pants]

-[whispering] Okay. -[Josh grunts]

Got it. Nice job.

[Josh] Your head is tight going through there, Chad.

It's, like, what is... It must be what it was like being born.

[Chad chuckling]

[Josh] I'm seeing some quartz veins coming through here.

Quartz veins, that's where you find gold.

This isn't usually the type of rock you find gold in,

but with these quartz veins,

that's something weird.

[Chad] Right.

All right. Right up here is where the fork is.

You can see there's been, like, rocks stacked in there,

or, like, it's been collapsed.

-[Josh] I see that, yeah. -But that's where we put the endoscope.

And we saw something, like, a shadow or whatever moving in there.

[Josh] Man, I don't think the animal got in from here.

-There's no way he made it through this. -[Chad] No. No, no.

Especially this... It looked big.

It was, like, a big shadow, too.

[Josh] There's got to be another opening somewhere then,

-if there was an animal in there. -Has to be. Exactly.

And I think if we were to get all the way in there,

we could figure out where this opening is.

[Josh] Whoa. I swore I just saw something move.

-[Chad] Really? -Yeah.

Right there, about 12 feet in to the right.

-[water drips] -[Chad] Do you hear that?

Right... Hey, hey. Do you hear that?

[water drips]

[echoing drip]

-[water drips] -[echoing drip]

Do you hear that?

-[water dripping] -[water dripping echoing]

[water drips]

-[echoing drip] -[Josh] Yeah, there's an echo.

[Chad] That's loud.

[Josh] You can just tell by the way the water is dripping and hitting,

there's a bigger void back there.

[water drips]

If that was just a tiny little opening,

-you wouldn't hear any noise. -[Chad] It's true.

-Yeah. -You saw an animal back there,

-a large animal? -Yeah. Uh-huh.

-I'm hearing echoing coming from the back. -Right.

[Josh] I... I think for sure there's a larger opening back there.

[Chad] Exactly.

You think we could, like, bring a jackhammer and clean some of this [bleep] out?

Or is it too risky?

[Josh] Yeah. I mean, you're gonna need a jackhammer to move some of this material.

-[Chad] Right. -But you got to be careful,

because you could destabilize this area.

You start moving rock, and this gets destabilized...

Man, it could be dangerous.

When you excavate a gold mine, it's a slow process.

Because safety is first.

So, we can totally dig the side tunnel out.

But we're gonna have to do it inch by inch,

one set of timbers after another.

-Look at all this stuff, all this rubble in here. -[Chad] Right.

This is actually giving stabilization to the wall.

-[Chad] Gotcha. -So, it's literally a rock and a hard place.

-[Chad] Yeah. -We'll need to shore every foot of this up.

[Chad] All right, let's go to the cavern

-where it opens up. -[Josh] Okay, cool.

[rocks clatter]

-Whoa! -[Chad] Watch your step, man.

There's ice all over the place.

Some of it is sharp.

You don't wanna step on it.

[Josh] ...Look at the size of this room!

-This is massive, Chad. -[Chad] So, back here,

that's where those big, hand-hewn logs are.

[Josh] Yeah, right through here.

[Chad] These are those hewn logs that I was talking about.

[Josh] Look at these things.

These definitely did not get in here

-through the way we just came. -There's no way.

-[Josh] All those twists and turns. -Right.

[Josh] Looks like they've been in here a long time.

[Chad] Yeah.

[Josh] Look at that.

Boy, they did a lot of work on this one.

-That's been axed. -[Chad] Axed?

[Josh] Yep. [pants]

This timber has been hand-worked,

but I have no idea how they got in here.

[Chad] My only thought that where they could have came from,

is there is a spot back over here,

that sounds like the floor is hollow. [grunts in effort]

-[knocking on floor] -[hollow thudding]

I mean, you hear that? It's like there's a void

underneath the floor there.

There's definitely a hollow back there.

-[Chad] Yeah. -For sure.

You don't drag timbers in this size just for the heck of it.

Whoever was here had a major operation going on.

-Huh. -I mean, this almost looks like the portal to me,

-like on a mine. -Uh-huh.

The portal of a mine, you're gonna have

a bunch of timbering holding the opening.

So, this was your header right here.

It would have been holding the ceiling.

And then all of this,

these would have been upright over this way.

And then over time, they collapsed.

Uh-huh.

What do you think about inside, like the structural stability?

[Josh] This stuff is caved in right here.

-That's a lot of material-- -Yeah.

-...to hold a lot of ground. -Right.

That tells me that it's maybe sketchy back there.

But the thing is, is...

-that's where we gotta go. -Yep,

that's where the answers will be.

This takes a lot of manpower

-to bring in this type of timbering. -Right.

So, what they were doing meant something to them.

So, they could have mined here,

and then used this as a... site too, huh?

I'm not sure yet. And if we can move all of this stuff out

and get through this rubble, it's gotta open up.

And then, maybe see what they were actually after.

-[radio static] -[Chad] Hey, Eric, you copy?

[radio static]

[Chad] Hey, we're heading back out, man.

[grunts in effort]

[strains, pants]

[Chad exhales sharply, breathily] Oh, thank you.

[pants, straining] Ooh.

That's not that safe underneath there.

-[bleep]. -[Josh] I mean, there's a lot of fracturing.

There's a lot of stuff being held by imagination.

-One rock comes down, that's it. -Yeah.

You're dead.

Chad's right.

The South Cave is drifting down towards the Keyhole Chamber.

But as a miner, I'm seeing rockfall,

back defaults, smashed-up shoring

from centuries ago.

We're going to have to be extra cautious as we excavate it here.

[Duane] Let's go, fellas.

[wind howling gently]

-[Duane] Gentlemen. -[Chad] Hey.

-[Eric] Hey. -[James] Guys.

-[Josh] Hello! -[Charlie, softly] Hey.

[straining] Hey.

Well, Josh just saw the property.

So, let's see what he's got to say here.

[Josh] Duane asked me to put a plan together.

So, I wanted to lay out my perspective

of what I think should be done.

I mean, the thing that really stands out to me is that Bead Site.

This is an important place.

We should really focus in on investigating that.

So, Duane, Charlie, I think we need to excavate

underneath those smoke chimneys,

and determine what it actually is.

All the sand that's blown in here

is hiding so much.

Pull all of that overburden and topsoil off

and expose what's underneath those chimneys.

There could be an entrance sitting right there.

-[Charlie] Right. -I like it.

[Josh] And then the other side of that Bead Site,

James, you and I, we need to excavate that by hand, layer by layer.

-Sure. -Pulling out artifacts,

and recording everything we find to figure out who those people were,

and what was really going on there.

Learn as much as we possibly can.

-Find that virgin layer. -[Eric] Yeah,

might give you a clue to where that entrance is.

-Exactly. -[Josh] Chad, you and Eric should continue,

-absolutely, at that South Cave-- -[Eric] Yep.

...looking for some other entrances.

-I mean, you guys are already underground. -[Chad] Mmm-hmm.

[Josh] We can't visually see where the tunnel is.

So, let's get a magnetometer in there and see if we can find a void.

[Chad] Yeah, I like it.

More technology, magnetometers and--

-[Eric] Yeah. -...metal detectors.

But we've got to do it safely.

Absolutely. Be super cautious.

I think both sides are great. But if we divide and conquer,

we hit the South Cave,

and y'all hit the Bead Site, I think we can get somewhere.

There's many possible entrances in.

-[Chad] Right. -That's got to be the goal.

We're doing three things at the same time.

-There's enough of us to do that. -Mmm.

[Josh] That's what it's going to take,

because it's possible that only one of those is gonna get us in.

Right. Yeah, very possible.

[Josh] These guys have been trying to find a way into the Keyhole Chamber

for quite a while now.

But they've got to remember that hidden treasure

is hidden for a reason.

I mean, one of the greatest treasures

to have ever been discovered is King Tutankhamun's tomb.

That thing laid there for 3,000 years. Nobody found it.

Hell, it took almost a decade for Howard Carter to get into King Tut's tomb.

So, just because they haven't found an entrance yet,

doesn't mean that there isn't one.

It took tons of research,

and I think we need to keep that in mind.

Divide and conquer,

three different sites, and just go as hard as we can.

[Duane] Hell, man,

we're not getting any younger.

So, we need to light this thing up.

-[Chad] Hell, yeah. -[Eric] Let's get to work.

[Chad] All right. Here we are.

[Duane] Mary, this is our Bead Site right here.

[Mary] Have you found old things?

[Duane] Beads and all the artifacts.

[James] We've found a lot of mammal bones.

[Mary] Gotcha.

[narrator] Before beginning excavation,

Josh has invited a local tribal elder out to the bead site.

[Josh] Let's take a look.

There's a lot of questions that we need answered.

[Mary] Okay.

We'll walk right in here, Mary.

[narrator] ...who might be able to shed some light

on the significance of the location,

and the artifacts the team has found.

[Duane] Watch your step on these rocks here.

[Josh] We need to understand the history of who was here at the Bead Site.

That's how we're gonna find the treasure.

Hopefully, she can give us some insight into who was here

and how they used this site.

[Chad] So, here's some of those beads we find,

even some scrapings.

Yeah, I won't touch them because I don't know what they were used for.

When you make something, you pray over it.

Like, if I was gonna make something for you,

the prayer would be for you.

-Somebody else touching that-- -[Chad] Yeah.

...diminishes that.

-[Chad] Gotcha. -It affects it.

It's a transfer of spirits...

-is what happens. -[Chad] Right. Okay.

-[Mary] Depending on what that was used for... -Right.

...I might not want that spirit on me.

My name is Mary Murdock Meyer,

and I am the chief executive of the Timpanogos Nation.

For our people, I think it's an important thing

to share what you know,

because it gives them a voice where they can be heard.

Mary, why would there be so many of these beads, the deeper we dig?

[Mary] I would think that they came off something large

that disintegrated,

or a lot of things.

-[James] Okay. -What would you use these for?

-Ceremonies, possibly. -[Eric] Ceremonies. Mmm-hmm.

[Mary] Or burial sites.

Whatever this place was,

this has a spiritual meaning.

Otherwise, people wouldn't be leaving offerings.

That kind of explains the beads,

because this site meant something.

People don't leave offerings

unless there's a reason.

That's why I'm saying you guys need to be... careful.

[Josh] Understood.

[Duane] You know, Mary, thanks for coming out here and helping us out.

[Mary] Sure.

[Chad] We have a lot of questions. I hope that's all right.

Well, I just hope I can answer them all. Well...

Where do you want me to start?

We'd like to straighten out the history of the area,

so we have a better understanding of what happened here.

"Timpanogo," it's... Which is who we are,

is an Aztec word.

-It's amazing. -So, there is a connection.

And... Which is why the Shoshone language is called "Aztecan."

So, when Montezuma sent people here

to hide his gold,

Cortes sent his Spaniards after them.

Because they wanted that gold.

[narrator] Some scholars believe

when the Aztecs fled Mexico in 1521

to their ancient homeland in Utah,

it is believed the Timpanogos,

who are the indigenous people of these lands,

helped the Aztecs protect their treasure in underground caves.

Our people looked at it as something... You can't eat it.

It can't do anything for you.

It's a rock.

If the Aztec brought the treasure back up here,

would Native Americans have closed off those caves

or sunk the known tunnel systems?

They would have done something

to try and protect themselves,

because everybody was after gold.

Shortly after the Spaniards came,

they used our people as slaves to try and retrieve it.

Good God.

[narrator] The Spanish Empire was determined

to find Montezuma's treasure,

and dispatched numerous expeditions to Utah to locate it,

forcing the Timpanogos to aid them,

slaughtering those who would not cooperate in their quest for the gold.

[Mary] They never did find it.

But so many of our people were killed.

Jesus.

Gold has a spirit with it.

It always has.

And that spirit is powerful.

The gold miners of old get gold fever,

and they go crazy over that rock.

It causes people to be sucked into it.

And when you mess with that,

it can kill you.

[Eric] Mary, uh, I'm a scientist,

but we've had some experiences out here.

[Chad] Um...

I guess, paranormal, strange experiences out here.

He's had some difficulties, um,

-in the caves, and some-- -[Chad] Yeah.

...some very close calls.

Chad and I, um, we heard a rumble,

-and we don't know where it came from. -True.

I mean, it was shaking rocks off the ceiling.

But, there's... There's some bearing to what you say, I think.

Mountains could rumble for several reasons.

There's an old legend about a hill that, um, rumbles all the time.

And it's going to rumble until things are fixed...

for us.

A lot of our people are upset

when they see gold hunters.

The gold hunters back in the day, they would take and hurt you guys.

And that... Well, the only thing we want to do is work with you.

[Josh] I'm with Chad.

Finding what has become lost is the key to the truth.

And sometimes, that what you find is gold.

But... it's cursed.

We've always believed that gold is cursed.

And everybody that I know that's gotten around it,

has got sick or died.

It's not meant to be...

found.

Certain things are to be left alone.

[Duane] I understand the risk of searching for this Aztec gold,

but it makes me push harder.

It's been hidden for centuries.

And if we find it, we'll add our names

to the history books.

You know, we're just trying to find out, kind of, what the truth is, and...

And you're opening, uh, a big light for us, and I appreciate that.

[Mary] It's not something to mess with.

Not to be taken lightly.

[narrator] While the first records of the Timpanogos Nation

were written by Spanish explorers in the 1700s,

archeological evidence and tribal tradition indicates their ancestors

have called the American West "home" for at least 12,000 years.

A hunter gatherer society,

the Timpanogos had no boundaries or divisions on their land.

In the 1800s, other tribes from outside of Timpanogos land

were forced into the area by the federal government,

displacing the Timpanogos, who now had to share a reservation

a fraction the size of their traditional homeland.

-[Josh] Duane? -[James] Hey, Duane.

[narrator] After meeting with Mary,

the team heads out to the Bead Site

-to go over their plan for excavation. -[Josh] I'm thinking,

we can conquer two sites at the same time.

We'll start leveling this site right here,

working our way up there next to the cliff,

-so we can open it up. -Okay.

[Josh] And once we get to that wall and we move all this back...

-[James] There could be an entrance. -[Duane] Exactly.

[Josh] We're going to excavate two areas at once at the Bead Site.

On the right side, Duane's going to clear away 10 foot of soil,

all the way up to the wall.

Once it's clear, we'll be able to see if there's a cave opening,

something to tell us where the smoke vents lead.

Hopefully, they connect to the Keyhole Chamber below.

Meanwhile, we'll continue excavating the Shelter Area

on the left side by hand. We're going to be looking

for artifacts that might give us additional clues

to where the entrance was into that cave system.

Charlie, you're going to be spotting Duane.

So, as Duane's digging,

just keep your eyes on everything,

so we make sure that we don't miss any artifacts.

While you're doing that, we'll be over there

-with the detectors. -[Charlie] Okay.

[Josh] I brought this thing.

This detector goes deeper than any other detector you've had here before.

-I like it. -[Josh] So,

we might be able to find something really great

-at depth. -[Duane] Perfect.

I think we've got a good plan here.

Let's go. Let's get to work.

[Duane] Charlie boy, let's do this.

Duane, we're ready to go. Fire it up.

Ten-four. Here we come.

[excavator engine whirring]

[continuous whirring]

[Duane] Hell, yeah.

[excavator beeping]

[gear lever clicks]

-[Josh] All this stuff here, this is just overburden. -[Charlie] Yeah.

[Josh] It's just in our way. It's got to be removed.

-[continuous whirring] -[excavator beeping faintly]

This is the first layer taken off.

[excavator beeping continuously]

This soil over here,

at the Bead Site, it's dark.

We see dark soil,

we're gonna have to really take a close look.

[narrator] From Bob Morton's analysis of the soil,

the team now knows that any dark soil

could contain carbon from ancient fires lit by humans

at the Shelter Area,

and somewhere inside the rock formation that connects to the chimneys.

[Josh] Not an artifact in sight--

-[James] Nothing. -...in any of this stuff.

I think he can take this down, deeper down at this level here.

And then we can start working and getting deeper, deeper, deeper,

to, you know, where you're standing.

[Charlie] We'll start on the left side,

take it down another two foot.

[Duane] Go ahead and shut that door, if you don't mind.

My tootsies are getting cold.

-[excavator engine revs] -[beeping continues]

I'll just start detecting then,

-this whole area-- -[James] Sounds good.

-...to see what I can come up with. -Okay.

[Josh] I'm setting up my metal detector.

This one... [strains softly] is a pretty large one,

so it will go fairly deep.

So, that will give us a little bit more assurance

-that we're not going to miss anything metal. -[metal detector sounding]

I use this machine at our gold mine.

So, if there happens to be gold here,

we got the exact machine to find it.

But it will also find

any other type of metallic objects.

And those are almost as important as finding gold here,

because that's going to help answer the questions

of who was here, and what did they do.

[indistinct background chatting]

[rattling]

What have we got here?

This is interesting.

That don't look natural.

[metal detector sounds, beeps]

Oh! It's a metal.

This is really interesting, James.

[James] What do you got?

The heck is that?

[James] I'm coming over.

[Josh] Some sort of larger beads, James?

[James] Let me see.

What you got?

[Josh] Man, let me put my loop on him first.

[James] And that's hitting as metal, huh?

[Josh] It did. It hit as metal.

These look like to be some sort of copper beads.

Yeah, it's oxidized. I can see that from here.

-Yeah. -They don't look modern, do they?

No. They don't feel modern at all.

They look like they've been done by hand.

Copper beads. We got smelting.

I mean, were they making these things right here?

Who traded copper beads the most that you and I both know of?

-The Aztec? -The Aztec.

That was what they traded in,

was copper beads.

I mean, that was more important than gold to them.

[Josh] Copper beads are found in the American Southwest through trade,

but this is the first time

we have ever found copper beads here at the Bead Site.

This could absolutely show that there's a connection

to Aztecs being here at this site

on Blind Frog Ranch.

This is freaking awesome.

-Bag it and tag it. -Wow.

[narrator] Next time on Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch...

[Charlie] Hey, hold up, everybody.

I've never seen anything up here like this before.

[Eric] That is, in fact, concrete.

I've seen it all throughout Mesoamerica.

I think this could be a religious site.

[Josh] Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

[Duane] What the hell?

-[Josh] Around my neck of the woods. -[rumbling]

call it the thunder gods.

[Charlie] Every time we get close

to an answer, something throws a monkey wrench into it.

[drilling]

[Chad] I feel, like, cool air coming out of here.

This could be it.

-[Eric] Yeah. -[object thuds]

-[object creaks] -[rocks tumbling]

-[rumbling] -[Eric yells indistinctly]

-[Chad grunts] -[rocks continue tumbling]