Original subtitles

[narrator] Previously on Blind Frog Ranch...

In their quest to find the Aztec gold,

the collapse of the south cave...

-[Eric] Everyone get out? -[Chad] Yeah.

[narrator] ...cut off Chad and Eric's most promising lead

to the keyhole chamber.

[Chad] There's no way we can go back in there.

No, we gotta find another entrance, dude.

[narrator] Forced to change strategies...

Using high-tech LiDAR...

[Duane] I'll be darned.

[narrator] ...to find a possible mine tunnel...

-You see right here. -Yeah.

It looks like an open pit mine.

[narrator] ...deep in the mountains.

[Chad] There it is. Right behind.

[Eric] Oh, my!

[narrator] It could lead to the lost gold.

[Chad] This is a treasure hunt. We're looking for entrances.

We're looking for clues.

I mean, this could be something big.

[narrator] But it also put them in the path...

[Chad] Hey, look at this.

Watch out, watch out, watch out.

[narrator] ...of an unknown predator.

[Eric] There's a lot of predator prey going on here.

I just hope we're not the prey.

[narrator] Meanwhile, Duane was able to crack open

a hidden void at the bead site.

-[Josh] This keeps going, James. -[Charlie] And that's

going down underneath it, too.

[narrator] It could lead to the keyhole chamber

and the treasure.

[Josh] We're gonna hook up this smoke machine,

take this hose, and put it right in that hole.

[narrator] The smoke test revealed multiple entrances

connecting to the void.

-[Josh] Look up! There! -[James] Yup.

[Josh] That smoke is pouring out of there.

[narrator] And the team uncovered

what could be a sacred altar.

[James] I'm thinking this is an altar piece.

I think there really is

something to these smoke pipes.

[narrator] But when they scouted one with an endoscope...

What the [bleep] is that?

[narrator] ...the team made an unsettling discovery.

It's a skull.

[narrator] Legends of ancient treasures...

This has to be hundreds of years back.

[narrator] ...and unexplained phenomenon...

[James] What the hell is that?

[narrator] ...meet at a 160-acre property in northeast Utah

known as Blind Frog Ranch.

There, Duane Olinger and his team

are digging in search of long-lost Aztec gold.

[Josh] Could the Aztecs have discovered this?

[narrator] But the closer they get...

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

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

-[Josh] Poison gas. -[Chad] Let's go! Let's [bleep] go!

[narrator] Now, Duane will move heaven

-and Earth... -[man] Fire in the hole.

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

[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.

[bleep] God!

[narrator] ...at Blind Frog Ranch.

I'll be spotting from over here.

-Let's drill it. -All right.

[narrator] At the bead site,

Duane is ready to cut into the side of the rock wall

to access an opening at the bottom of the vent

where they discovered two burnt animal skulls.

[Josh] How did it get in there?

We're not seeing any other bones around it or anything,

so I don't think an animal drug it in there.

[Duane speaking]

Well, there has to be a larger opening then,

somewhere.

[narrator] Duane theorizes the skulls

must have been placed there

via another entrance further underground,

perhaps one that eventually reaches the keyhole chamber.

[Josh] There he goes.

While Duane is excavating the soil away,

we're gonna be looking for clues

to tell us where there could be

an additional entrance into the cave system.

You seeing anything, Charlie?

[Charlie] Nah, nothing yet.

[Charlie] Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up,

hold up! You're hitting something hard up in there.

Josh, can you look at that to see what it is?

[Josh] Duane, pull that back.

-[Charlie] We need to get a closer look. -[Josh] Yeah.

That sound was way different than anything else.

[Josh] I think we're gonna have to hand dig this.

[James] All right. I'm gonna go grab some shovels and trowels.

[Charlie] Yeah.

[Josh] Excavation is a serious business.

You gotta know what the hell you're doing.

You gotta put everything in place one inch at a time,

or somebody's gonna get killed.

[narrator] The team starts digging away the loose dirt around the rock face.

He hit something hard, didn't he, Charlie?

[Charlie] What is this?

[James] You got something?

[Josh] I just...

Boy, there it goes.

Look at that.

-Look at it. -[James] Look right here.

-You got something there. -[James] Yeah.

Look at that, Duane. Another one.

Look at that.

-What do you got? -Charcoal.

-[Josh] Really? Charcoal. -[James] Look at that.

[Charlie] Well, we saw the discoloration on the endoscope,

so maybe it's the charcoal.

There's, like, charred all around the other edges, and then

there's this skull right there.

[Josh] Whoa, look at this, guys. Look at this.

Look at this. This is going.

Oh, my God. It's just falling away.

There's, like, a solid rock face right here.

[James] Wow. Now this is interesting.

[Josh] These are big, flat sheets of sandstone,

but they're sitting like this.

This was put here.

-[Charlie] Yeah. -For sure.

-This didn't come in naturally. -Yeah.

This sandstone would not be sitting like this. These flat sheets,

these are puzzled together.

Now you're talking.

[Charlie] This looks like a structure or something.

Let me grab... Hold on here.

Look at this. Look at this.

[Charlie] Put it in. Put it in.

[James] Look at this. Look at this.

[Josh] Nice and easy.

I think it's a ceiling top, so be careful.

We found what appears to be the roof of the sandstone slabs.

It's almost like it's forming the roof

of a man-made dome structure.

So I'm really hoping that we're closing in on that chamber

that we found with the endoscope.

Look, I'm starting to see a recess. Look at this.

Oh. Oh, here we go. It's giving way.

-[Josh] What do you got? -[James] Look.

[Josh] Oh, my gosh. You're getting your arm in there.

[James] Check this out.

You know, James, you're sticking your arm in there.

That could be a snake pit too, so be careful.

[Josh] Yeah. You should take a look before you

-shove your whole arm in there. -[James laughs]

[James] Oh, hold on here real quick.

There's just a little bit more.

[James grunts]

Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

[exhales] Oh, my God.

Duane.

The skulls are here.

[Duane] From the scope?

From the endoscope.

And the walls

are completely charred.

That'll make more sense about some of this charcoal

-scattered all over here. -[James] Yeah.

Wait a minute. Hold on.

Man, guys, you know what?

I don't think this is some random rock chamber.

It looks like some type of crematorium.

What?

-[Chad] What a spot, huh? -[Eric] Yeah.

We got a good spot here, Chad.

[Chad] Oh, yeah. Overlooking the mine.

[Eric] Good view of the mine.

[narrator] After following the fault line

that leads north from the south cave,

Chad and Eric have located the abandoned pit mine

they first identified on the LiDAR map.

With the south cave now collapsed,

they hope this will lead

to a new way into the keyhole chamber.

[Chad] How old do you think this mine is?

[Eric] Um,

hard to say, but from what I'm seeing,

probably...

Mormon era was maybe the last to work it.

Just by the roughness of the timbers.

So, I mean, we see nails in some of it.

But others, it's just like it was rough-hewn.

But it could have been worked,

-you know, far earlier than that. -Yeah.

There could have been several different mining...

[Chad] Spaniards or something like that.

Even going back to the Spaniards. Yeah.

And this still seems like a really rich dig site.

So why did they leave?

[exhales] That's a very good question.

[narrator] The Uinta Mountains of Utah

hold a long history of hunting for gold.

In the mid-1500s,

the Spanish dispatched search parties

to find Montezuma's lost Aztec gold

that was rumored to be hidden underground.

This led to large-scale mining operations in the area.

And by the 1800s, the Mormons were bringing in gold

from at least 40 gold mines across the Uintas.

[Eric] This area has been mined and explored

for hundreds of years,

regardless of who mined it last, um...

But it'll be really interesting to see what we find tomorrow.

-How's it looking? -[Eric] Ah,

it needs a little while longer.

[branches snapping]

[branches snapping]

[branches snapping]

[Chad speaking]

[Eric speaking]

[Chad speaking]

[Chad speaking]

[Chad] [bleep]!

[Chad speaking]

[Eric speaking]

[cameraman speaking]

[narrator] After being awakened by a strange animal nearby,

Chad and Eric rouse the camera crew.

[Chad speaking]

[narrator] But one of the crew is missing.

[Chad speaking]

[Chad speaking]

Dude, where were you?

[Chad] Hey, hey, hey.

[narrator] At the open pit mine camp,

one of the crew heard the midnight intruder

and decided to investigate.

-[Chad] Joel, show me where it's at. -[Joel] This way. Over here.

-[Chad] Right. -[Joel] This straight.

-Over here. Yeah. -[Chad] Straight ahead?

-Camera set? Let's go. -[Joel] Yeah.

[Eric] What is that smell? It smells like

a dead animal or something.

I can still smell it.

[Eric] Hey, Chad.

You think we should make ourselves known here?

-[Chad] Like a bear or something? -[Eric] Yeah.

Hey!

-[Chad] Down there. Down there. -[Eric] Look at that.

Look at that. Right there. Hey!

Cameras. You see it?

Right there. There's something down there. Lights.

Lights over there.

-Right there. Right there. -[Eric] Yeah, there. Right there.

-[Chad] What's that? -[Eric] What is that? What's that?

[Chad] Oh, my God. It's huge. Whatever it is.

What is that?

[Eric] Whatever it is, I want it to know that we're here.

[Chad] Oh, he knows.

-[branches snapping] -[Eric] Oh.

[Chad] Right there. Right there.

-[rustling] -It's running.

Where'd he go?

Lost it.

It's gone now. I don't hear it anywhere.

Ah.

We're gonna take sentry shifts.

I'll be first. Y'all down with that?

-[Joel] Yeah. -Yeah.

All right, we'll keep the machete handy just in case something else comes by.

Let's do it. [bleep]

[Chad] Get some sleep. I'll stay up.

All we can do now,

you know, keep the fire going.

Last night, we had a crazy night.

This morning I checked the perimeter

to make sure whatever it was is gone.

Hey, guys.

Whatever it was, it's gone.

I was looking for tracks, but there's so many rocks

that I couldn't actually track anything.

Yeah, it'd be hard to see.

[Chad] Yeah, so...

I think today I want to look for

a cave entrance that goes underground all the way to Blind Frog.

I want to look for more of that rich ore.

I mean, this is significant enough

that it can lead us to a tunnel system

that connects to the south cave.

I mean, I don't think it's a coincidence

that this mine right here

is right in line with the fault and right in line with

-the collapsed cave system. -[Chad] Exactly.

The same fault zone,

I think likely we could find something

-and follow it all the way back. -[Eric] That'd be awesome.

So, you'll take a cameraman, I'll take one too.

-Sounds good. -[Chad] We'll split up.

-[Eric] Yeah. -[Chad] Be safe.

Ready?

[Eric] This morning I'm focusing on

where that rich vein might be.

Mineralization,

meaning the accumulation of gold,

happens along fault lines.

And that's also where caves form.

So anytime we see traces of gold,

that could lead us to the underground cavern system.

And Chad, he's looking for cave openings.

So we're diversifying our exploration a little bit.

Oh, this is a good spot.

Let me take a look at this in more detail here.

First thing I'm looking at is...

You'll see some...

There we go. Look at that.

We're seeing some malachite here.

That's one of the indicating minerals

that could show you where to

look for the gold, basically.

The other good thing I see is in the wall here,

you see they have this reddish-brown material.

And this is hematite, another gold-indicating mineral.

I'm not gonna take a sample here

because the walls here look very unstable.

This has definitely been worked significantly by others

before us.

This debris pile here

came from there.

And so if you were to be standing there

when that debris came down, you'd be buried.

This mining business can be kind of dangerous.

Uh, we don't know when that mine was last mined,

but it was a pretty long time ago.

We've already experienced a couple of cave-ins,

so we've got to be really careful around this old mine.

[Chad] Big cave right here.

[narrator] Chad has identified a cave

on the hillside near the open pit mine.

[Chad] I got a camera.

[narrator] He's hoping there are other tunnels inside

that could lead back to the collapsed south cave.

[Chad] Let's see where it'll go.

Yeah, there's four different directions they went.

They went that way.

I guess they didn't find anything. Went that way.

That way. And then back that way.

There's five. Then down here.

These caves these guys are digging are so tight.

Like, this one, you can barely fit through.

So these guys would prospect.

If they weren't finding anything in a certain direction,

they would stop and go a different direction.

There's so many tunnels here.

One of them could lead back

to the keyhole chamber through the fault line.

I mean, they're obviously digging here for a reason.

There's a whole lot of that green rock

down at the bottom.

Oh, yeah, right here too.

You got that green rock all over the place here.

Yeah, that's definitely what they were tracking.

One over here.

This one stops.

So you can see,

this definitely won't get us back to the cave system in our ranch.

It goes back, I don't know, 20 foot?

Keep looking.

[Eric] Yeah.

So I'm liking what I see here.

Um, I see both

the hematite and the malachite right here.

This looks good enough for me to, uh,

to grab a sample of it and bring it back.

There we go.

So we have a nice piece. We've got, um,

the indicator minerals, um, in here.

The headwalls are looking pretty good.

We're seeing the greens and the reds.

And so

it makes sense geologically.

We follow the fault.

We follow the indicating minerals.

We look for the cave.

So we'll bring this back and look at it.

All right.

[Chad] Got another cave right here.

Yeah, they were serious about whatever they were doing.

You see that shoring.

And they're following this hematite the whole way.

Usually where these entrances are,

there's hematite all around it.

And shoring.

Metal all around.

Old stuff.

Stuff like this is proof of the teams that were here.

I mean, they weren't just mining

and shoring and everything. They were living up here.

There are those same logs again.

And they look like the ones at the south cave.

All these cave entrances have hematite

all over it.

That's not our way in.

There's another cave right here.

Doesn't look like it goes very far, though.

[soft rumbling]

[Chad] Hey, Eric?

Eric!

Eric!

[Eric] Yeah?

-[Chad] Did you hear that? -[Eric] No.

There's [bleep] moving up here, man.

-[Eric] Something's going on. -[Chad] Let's go.

[bleep] was that?

[Chad] There's [bleep] moving up here, man.

Let's move, but we gotta be careful.

[narrator] At the open pit mine,

Chad and Eric are caught off guard

by something lurking in their camp.

[branches snapping]

Joel, come on.

[bleep] was that?

Hold on.

So whatever this thing is, it's like it's stalking us.

I mean, same smell, same sounds

and all this [bleep].

-[Eric] Chad! -Hey.

Hold on.

Hold on. Hold on.

[bleep]!

It's gone. Whatever it is, it's gone.

It's... It's that same [bleep] thing.

Big movements, branches snapping.

Right over there.

[Eric] I don't know, Chad.

[Chad] All right. All right, [bleep] it.

Let's pack our [bleep] up and go. Come on.

I checked out the biggest tunnels,

and I feel like there's much more to explore at this site.

But right now, we're like sitting ducks here.

I mean, we can always come back,

but more prepared next time.

We're definitely gonna need some kind of protection, like bear spray or something.

Let's go, guys.

I mean, we've got enough to worry about without something stalking us.

And so, uh,

I don't want to come back here unless I have, like,

more people

and probably some weapons, too.

[James] Wait a minute.

It looks like some type of crematorium.

[Charlie] What?

[narrator] Yesterday at the bead site, the team discovered an opening

at the base of the chimney vent

covered by slabs of sandstone.

When they opened it up,

they discovered burnt animal skulls

that looked as if they had been placed there.

If you pull this one, I'll be able to put

a camera down through the crevice right here.

[narrator] To document their findings,

they must carefully remove

the larger slabs of sandstone to make way for the camera.

-Yeah. -[Josh] I see the void now, James.

Let me get the camera going here.

[Josh] Okay.

You don't hear any rattlesnakes, do you?

[chuckles] It's too late now.

I can see the larger skull is

-right around where you're at. -Over here?

Right there, yeah.

[Charlie] Okay.

[James] That's as far as I can go in with the camera,

but you know what?

-[Josh] Okay. -[James] I think we can start removing

these front stones right here.

-So then we found the chamber. This is... -[James] This is it.

[Josh] This crematorium

holds a lot of answers

to the questions that Duane has

about this property.

-Easy, easy, easy. -[James] Yeah.

-Slowly. -[James] Yeah. There you go.

There you go. There you go.

Wait, wait, wait.

Look, look, look, look. Right here.

[Josh] Is that more bone?

[James] Yeah. I think so. Hold on.

[James exclaims]

-There's an eye socket right there. -[James] Yeah.

-[Charlie] Yeah. That's the top of the skull. -[James] Look at this.

You know that the Native Americans locally didn't do this,

but the Aztec, the Mexica did.

[Duane] What do you think it is, guys?

You think it's some kind of an oven?

You know, Duane, this was not an oven.

But that vent that connected into

this chamber was used for fire.

Duane, this is some type of sacrificial altar.

The Mexica, the Aztec that were in Mesoamerica...

This was common.

[Josh] You're talking about animal sacrifice?

[James] Not just any animal sacrifice.

This animal,

it looks like a fox or a coyote,

could very well have been

sacrificed for their war god,

Huitzilopochtli.

And if this dealt with the war god,

this was protecting something.

The only thing I can't tell from it,

is it the area that's important,

or are they asking to protect something with it?

[narrator] According to the historical records,

the ancient Aztecs made monthly sacrifices

of both humans and animals

to their gods throughout the year.

Over 400 different animals were sacrificed

in the Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlan,

including pumas, jaguars,

wolves, crocodiles, and snakes.

These animal sacrifices were often made

to win the favor of the gods

or gain their protection.

But one god received a special offering.

To appease the warrior sun god,

Huitzilopochtli,

the Aztecs reportedly

would make a human sacrifice every 52 years,

or else the universe would come to an end.

They would then burn the body and use their rekindled flame

to light new fires throughout the empire.

Come on, James, what are they protecting?

If they were doing this to protect something,

then maybe the cavern is behind this

and they were protecting their treasure.

[James] Look where it's at.

I mean, we're talking about underground,

something in front of it.

It's got to be the treasure.

So what are you thinking?

There's a cavern behind it, below it?

There may very well be something underneath it.

No, I don't know if we want to drill through that thing.

I think there's

things there that we don't want to disturb.

We want to leave where we found

that little altar piece alone,

but we still have to get inside there,

so what we'll do is

we'll just move over quite a bit

and see if we can't grind in there

and see what we can find

as far as a void or a cavity.

You know, I think we need to grind right beside it,

see if we can find more of an opening.

Uh, that's my vote.

Yeah, I think we're gonna have to.

[James] I second your vote.

[narrator] To avoid disrupting the altar area,

Duane will angle the drill to dig around it,

and search for another entrance

that opens up to the keyhole chamber.

[wind blowing]

[Charlie] What the hell? Where's that wind coming from?

[Josh] It feels like a storm's coming.

It seems God don't want us in there.

-[Chad] What you got, Eric? -[Eric] Hey, Chad.

[narrator] After trekking along a fault line

out to an open pit mine...

These caves these guys are digging are so tight.

Like, this one, you can barely fit through.

So these guys would prospect.

If they weren't finding anything in a certain direction,

they would stop and go a different direction.

[narrator] ...and fending off a nocturnal stalker...

[Eric] Whatever it is, I want it to know that we're here.

[Chad] Oh, he knows.

-[Eric] Oh. -[Chad] Right there, right there.

[Eric] Yeah, there. Right there.

[narrator] ...Eric and Chad have regrouped to process

the ore samples that Eric collected.

-[Eric] Shall we go to work here? Let's do it. -[Chad] Let's crush it, baby.

[Eric] We're gonna do some crushing,

then sieving, then panning,

and we'll see what's in it.

[narrator] By crushing the rock to reveal

the makeup of his samples,

they hope to find signs of gold and other rich minerals

that might indicate a tunnel system

that could lead back to the collapsed south cave.

[Chad] Well, hopefully we found something,

'cause that was a hell of a trek up there, man.

[Eric] You bet it was, man. If you want

to man the crusher here, this is

like a mortar and pestle on steroids.

-[Chad] Okay. -[Eric] So let's break it up.

We're following these highly mineralized zones

that were deposited by water.

That same water could have carved out a huge cave system.

[Chad] Whoo!

-You don't need to go to the gym today, huh? -Feel the burn.

The gold and precious minerals will often occur

within the limestone.

To liberate that, you need to crush it,

bust up this rock,

and sift the pieces to see what's inside it.

[narrator] A fault line is a break in the Earth's surface.

Over thousands of years,

water leaks through fissures in the rock walls

and into the larger caves,

carrying mineral traces with it.

These traces form deposits in the surrounding rock,

acting as a mineral-rich

breadcrumb trail through the caverns.

If Eric is correct,

the presence of gold in his ore sample

could indicate a vast cave system

and a way back to the south cave

and keyhole chamber.

If not, it means another dead end.

-[Eric] Put it right in here. -[Chad] All right.

-[Eric] Here we go. -[Chad] Ready?

I always like to save the oversize 'cause you never know.

Save that.

-So that's what we're gonna pan. -Okay.

[Eric] It's just a matter of washing it.

-[Chad] And the heavies of the gold stay down? -[Eric] Yeah.

I mean, we can take our time with it.

This is the moment of truth here.

So I don't see anything there.

-[Chad] Damn it. -[Eric] I know.

-It's a lot of work for nothing. -Yeah.

So we'll just dump this out.

And we'll try again.

Miners have been doing this, you know, for hundreds of years.

It's a very basic process.

And it ends with just panning it out

to hopefully find gold

or silver or copper

or something of value.

I kind of like the looks of this one.

Uh, it was from a more mineralized zone.

[Chad] Yeah.

If we find gold in this sample,

it could be a good indication that

there's an extensive tunnel going back to the south cave.

But if not, we've risked our lives for nothing

and right back where we started.

-Let's do it. -[Eric] Go for it.

Almost there, brother.

That looks pretty good, Chad.

-[Chad] You like it? -Yeah.

-Let's see what we got. -[Chad] Hell yeah.

[Eric] All right, here we go.

I'm starting to see a little more black sand in this.

Black sands are a good sign because they're the heavy minerals

that gold is often associated with.

There's a potential for

-bigger pieces in it. -[Chad] Nice.

Come on.

Come on, man.

[bleep] come on.

-[Chad] Huh. -[Eric] [bleep]! [bleep]!

You thought that that one had something in it?

[Eric] I did. I thought this was our best chance, man.

[bleep]!

[Eric exhales]

[Chad] Well, [bleep].

Um...

[bleep]!

Uh, this looks like a good sample.

When I see areas of rich ore,

it means to me that there's highly concentrated minerals

that could have carved the cave system.

Let me just run the detector over that

and see what we got, if anything.

So what I'm doing here is just...

-[device beeps] -[Eric] Oh.

[Chad] Something in there? [bleep] yeah.

[Eric] There's something in here. There's something right in my hand.

-[Chad] [bleep] yes. -[device beeping]

Let's see it.

-Is it still on? -Yeah.

-This one. -[Eric] Here.

Whatever it was, it's still here.

What's that? What's that? What's that?

That's it. Look at that. Yellow.

[laughs]

-That's it. That's what we're looking for, brother. -[Chad] [bleep]!

-Whoo! -Yeah!

[Chad laughs] Yeah.

[Eric] When you're looking for gold or gems or what have you,

you put a lot of work into it, man.

And, you know, it doesn't always pan out.

You don't always find it.

But when you do, it's just amazing.

-Hell yeah. Nice job, man. -[Eric laughs] Yeah.

This rich ore is significant enough

that it can lead us to this

tunnel system that connects to the south cave.

-We got gold, boys! -[Eric] Yeah!

[Chad] This is significant, not just because there may be

gold veins under Blind Frog Ranch,

but because we may have found a tunnel that can

ultimately lead us back to the keyhole chamber.

-[Eric] We got to go back up there, man. -Yeah.

I mean, every little clue we find

can lead us possibly into another entrance

to this underground cavern system we have.

I'm super stoked about this

'cause that means we could find some cool [bleep].

It could lead to a huge find, basically.

And it's on the same fault

-that we're looking for everything else. -It is. It is.

It just means we got more work to do.

Let's go, boys.

Whoo!

[James] You know, you see all this rock back here that's charred?

It was all brought here to create this.

Look at this. I mean, we're looking at an altar.

[narrator] Everyday altars adored Aztec houses and walkways

and held incense and clay figures

used for ritual prayer, such as honoring family.

But for the most culturally significant moments

such as coronations and sacrifices,

lavish altars sat atop temples

in the highest places of worship.

In 2021,

researchers in Mexico City

unearthed a secret altar

dating back to 1521,

containing a jar of human ashes.

Experts believe it was hidden from the advancing Spanish

by an Aztec family

and contained the ashes of an ancestor.

As they mourned, the sun setting on their civilization,

it marked the location of a final desperate prayer

for survival.

[Josh] So you want us just spotting you,

making sure you're not getting into anything of interest?

[Duane] It's gonna eat up anything we get into,

so just keep an eye out

so we don't hit another one of those altars.

[narrator] The team's excavation at the bead site...

Easy, easy, easy.

[narrator] ...revealed an ancient stone altar.

This is some type of sacrificial altar.

[narrator] Proof of human habitation.

-[Josh] Is that more bone? -[James] I think so.

[narrator] And the smoke test

showed a couple of chimney structures clustered around the area.

-Oh, right there. -Yep.

[Josh] That is a beautiful sight.

[narrator] So Duane and the team are

preparing to dig around the altar

in hopes of uncovering an entrance

to the keyhole cavern beneath the ranch.

-[Duane] Let's get it started. -[Josh] All right. Will do.

[Charlie] We followed a chimney vent down to the altar,

but it seems to be a dead end there.

We don't want to damage the altar,

so we're gonna drill into the rock wall on the left side.

Hopefully, we can intercept another chimney vent

that will lead us down into the keyhole chamber.

I'll be overseeing what's going on,

be looking for anything that's out of the ordinary

while he's drilling,

because whatever that rock drill gets into,

it's gonna destroy.

So I've got to be pretty close to the drill itself.

[Charlie over radio] All right, Duane.

Give me a chance to kind of look through this right quick,

make sure we're not hitting into anything.

[Josh] You seeing something, Charlie?

[Charlie] The whole composition of this soil changed

as soon as he got to that point right there.

It's kind of weird for all that soft dirt to be in this deep.

[narrator] The sudden accumulation of soft dirt

within the hard sandstone

could indicate an opening in the rock face.

Look at that. That's a...

I mean, you're just in there with your hand just pulling that out like it's beach sand.

[Charlie] Yeah, that just goes way back in there.

[Josh] This must be part of the chimney system that's in this rock.

[Charlie] Well, if it's part of the chimney system,

it's got to be going into the cavern then.

[Josh] Oh, yeah.

-Yeah, he's got to dig this down further, so... -[Josh] It's still going

-this direction. -[Charlie] Yeah.

[Josh] Let's have him drop the rock wheel down a couple feet,

and if that's just all soft dirt coming out of there,

-that could be an entrance in. -[Charlie] Yeah.

We've got a void here,

and it just keeps going, uh,

deeper and deeper inside the cliff face here,

and so we want to chase that down

and just see how that opens up,

'cause this very well could be what we're looking for.

[over radio] Duane, looks like we've got an opening over here.

Copy that. That's what we're looking for.

[Charlie] Yeah, if we can get this down a little bit more,

let's see what it opens up as.

Copy that. Coming at you.

[Josh] Here he goes.

[narrator] Charlie has found an opening in the rock formation.

However, the team must dig down

to see if it continues deeper.

If it does,

it could be the secret entrance Duane has been looking for.

There he goes. There he goes.

Let's open this baby up.

We're into somethin'.

[Josh] Here we go. Let the dust clear.

Yeah, perfect.

What do you think, Charlie?

What do you got?

[Charlie] Yeah, let's see.

Charlie saw that there was a void there

right in the hard rock, that doesn't make a lot of sense.

God only knows what it could be.

I mean, that could be the key that gets us in.

[Charlie] Hey, Josh. Come over here and look at this.

This could be a game changer, Charlie boy.

[Josh] Hyah, hyah.

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

[Josh] There should be a way across right over here.

[narrator] Chad and Josh trek deep into the wilderness...

-[Chad] Finally here, brother. -[Josh] What is going on with this place?

[narrator] ...to follow a lead that may finally get them to the keyhole chamber...

-[device beeping] -[Chad] Holy [bleep].

[narrator] ...and discover a strange anomaly along the way.

[Chad] There has to be an entrance somewhere.

[narrator] Meanwhile, thousands of miles away,

Eric uncovers eerie similarities to Blind Frog Ranch.

[Eric] We're seeing the same type of phenomena

out at the ranch.

[narrator] And Duane embarks

on his most ambitious excavation yet...

[Josh] Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop him, stop him, Charlie.

[narrator] ...as he tries to crack open the top of the bead site.

-Is that the machine doing that? -No, that's not the machine!

[narrator] But something else stands in the way.

The hell is that?

Shut it down!

Careful! Watch out! Watch out!

[bleep]!