All language subtitles for Mystery+at+Blind+Frog+Ranch+S06E01

I was born to be a treasure hunter.

I've seen every map.

Heard every mystery.

I've seen almost every
treasure story there is.

But nothing compares to montezuma's

$3 billion lost treasure.

And I know it's somewhere
on blind frog ranch.

Duane locked the gates
to blind frog ranch last year,

but I have to keep going.

So with Duane's blessing,

I'm reopening the ranch and taking over.

So I'm bringing in someone
with a long history of success

in hunts like this, my father.

My name's Ron feldman.

For most of my life,

my profession has
been treasure hunting.

Over the past 50 years,

Ron feldman has led
treasure expeditions

at 24 sites across four countries.

In the 1990s, Ron's discovery
of the lost dutchman mine

cemented him as the
greatest living treasure hunter.

There's my dad.

Dad!

Hey! I made it!

How you been?

Good. It's good to see you.

Good to see you.

My dad taught me everything
I know about treasure hunting.

He's the perfect guy to bring
in and help me lead this hunt.

- Ron? James Keenan.
- Yep, James.

We have been looking
for treasure for five years,

and now we're about to find it.

Legends of ancient treasures...

It could go thousands of years back.

And unexplained phenomena... This.

I'm not messing with that.

Meet at a 160-acre
property in northeast Utah,

known as blind frog ranch.

For decades, teams
have searched the land

for long lost aztec gold.

But the closer they get...

- That's it.
- Look at that.

- That's gold!
- Yeah.

The harder the land fights back.

The hell is going on?

Now, a prolific miner...

We're standing on a pile of gold.

And a legendary treasure hunter...

There must be another
tunnel entrance, something.

Armed with new evidence...

- Look at this.
- What did you find?

And a fabled artifact...

There's a date on that, 1912.

Will take on a 500-year-old curse.

Fire in the hole!

A land littered with traps...

- Go, go, go!
- Whoa, whoa, whoa!

To find a $3 billion treasure.

Whoa!

They won't stop until
they uncover the mystery

of what lurks below... Guys, it's caving!

Run!

At blind frog ranch.

- All right, dad.
- Yeah.

Let's take you for a tour.

I wanna show you around
the whole ranch here.

I'm telling ya, there's just...

there's more there than you'd think.

Getting inside the keyhole chamber

has been the main focus
for us the past few years.

We believe there's a
keyhole-shaped chamber

300 feet below blind frog ranch.

And inside is where the aztecs hid

over a billion dollars worth of treasure.

This treasure is my white whale.

It would be a life-changing discovery.

Maybe I'll have enough
input by the time I

get some of this stuff under my belt.

Well, that's why I brought you in.

- Right.
- I figure there's...

you know, in my world,
there's nobody better.

Treasure hunting is something
we used to do as a family.

Working with my son on
one of these treasure hunts,

that was the plus.

Even when Josh was a baby,

when we used to go
traipsing off in the high sierras,

looking for gold, I
carried him as an infant

in a knapsack on my chest.

This would be the biggest
discovery of my career.

If I can help my son find one
of the richest lost treasures

in history, what more can a dad ask for?

And what I can lean on is my 60 years

of treasure-hunting experience.

My method is researching stories first.

I like following other people's footsteps

that have gone before me,
looking for these lost places.

This is the keyhole chamber, dad.

Ok.

Duane has believed in this site,

I think, ever since he's had the ranch.

They did some sort of quantum mapping.

The results were that there
was a big chamber right here,

right where Duane thought there was.

They've drilled this. They
can't quite get through.

They keep having
problems with drilling...

all kinds of different issues.

It just hit something hard.

Looked like a chunk of metal.

There's a... a fault that
we've been following

that runs right through
there that Eric identified.

- Right.
- And that's where you have

these cave openings.

Just over those hills there,
near the open-pit mine,

I found an entrance I thought
could lead all the way back

to the keyhole chamber.

The cave Josh discovered
descended 250 feet underground,

but was filled with
collapses and dead ends.

And before exiting the cave,

he found mysterious
symbols etched on the walls.

Look at this.

It looks like a marking.

The biggest thing I
wanted you to see, dad,

were those symbols.

That, obviously, is not
an Indian petroglyph.

No.

It doesn't look anything
that would be Spanish

or anything like that.

It would have to be the mormons.

They were the ones that were here.

The big question is... what
were they doing in there?

Studying the mormon
history, the mormons are tightly

involved in this story.

In 1845, mormons migrated
westward and settled in Utah.

They developed their own writing system

called the deseret alphabet.

The symbols Josh discovered
near the keyhole chamber

appear to be deseret characters.

Were they actually
looking for the aztec gold?

That's what we need to find out.

The mormons were
known treasure hunters.

So if they found the mormon symbol

that close to the keyhole chamber,

this, to me, can only mean one thing...

I believe that what they
were actually looking for

was aztec treasure in
the keyhole chamber.

They were looking for something

that they heard of that was there.

And they would have known
about montezuma's treasure

- there's no question of that.
- Well, 100%.

You know, I'm just coming in here new.

I'm excited just getting
on this mormon thing,

because I think this has a lot to do

with everything you guys
have been looking for.

My dad is on to something here.

Duane followed the aztec legends,

because that's all he had to go on.

But if the mormons were
looking for the keyhole chamber,

they would have kept detailed records.

If we're able to track
down their documents

and combine that with our skill set,

I think that gives us a great
chance of finding the gold.

All we gotta do is get
our eyes on the ground

and see what we can find,

and that'll help us drive the hunt.

- Let's do it.
- All right.

Sounds like a plan.

I reached out to a
fellow named Greg lowe.

He is a treasure hunter,

knows more about mormon
treasure than anybody.

He's been out there for over 50 years.

And he's got 70 claims in the uintas.

And if anyone has mormon documents

that maybe we could
get, it would be him.

Yeah.

We're heading out to
town to meet with Greg.

He's been prospecting all
over the world since the 1970s.

I know he's got a lot of
information about the mormons.

I'm hoping he can help get
us into the keyhole chamber

under blind frog.

But treasure hunters,

they're not forthcoming all the time.

They hold their information
tight to their chest.

They're not going to share it normally.

But, you know, we'll just go try.

We'll see what he will talk to us about.

Maybe he's done searching for it.

He wants to pass it on.

There's a lot of passing
on in treasure hunting.

This is it.

Ok, well, hopefully he's
got some good stuff for us.

Well, we'll find out, I guess?

Where are we supposed
to meet him, did he say?

- I think in there.
- Here?

Yeah. He's in the garage.

All right.

Greg?

Greg?

Yeah.

- Greg lowe, I presume.
- I think I am.

- Ron.
- Ron.

- Pleased to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, too.

- Yes, thanks for doing this for us.
- I bet you we've

actually crossed some paths.

- Might have, might have.
- Great.

If you've been down around
Arizona, we probably did.

- I have.
- Ok, there.

I heard you guys own
the mammoth mine.

- We do, yeah, we do.
- Yeah.

Excellent.

I actually did some samples from that.

- Did you? Ok.
- Assay samples, yeah.

- Come on in.
- Ok.

Thank you.

I never met Greg, but I've heard of him

because in treasure
hunting circles, it's small.

It's well known he has
extensive knowledge

of treasure hunts in the Utah area

and has worked closely
with a descendant

of the famous mormon
family, Gale rhoades.

How long have you been
searching for gold out here?

I was first introduced to it, in 1972.

And then later on, Gale
rhoades called me out of the blue,

and he said, "Greg, I've seen..."

"Seen your name on a
couple of claims here.

I'd like to talk to you."

We worked together
on a number of projects

up until his death.

Gale rhoades was a direct descendant

of a legendary mormon gold
prospector... Thomas rhoades.

For centuries, his descendants hunted

for lost treasure in Utah.

Gale and Greg spent 30 years
scouring the family's documents

for clues that lead to gold.

Now Greg has possession
of all the family's research.

So you have basically all of
Gale rhoades' hunt on paper,

- all of his information?
- Yes.

So this is all handwritten,

- and by Gale rhoades.
- Gale rhoades, yeah.

- 1978.
- 1978.

He updated that throughout his life,

assembling all the
family entries and journals.

Now we come over. This is blind frog.

- Down in here.
- This is where blind frog is.

Yes.

And these were the
old mine tunnels here.

I can let you look at it temporarily here.

"This map and description
shows another source of gold,

"known to Caleb rhoades.

Start at the slope and head
east until you come to a fault."

I mean, if this is legit,

then we should be able to
find the location of this mine.

It's legit.

Greg has a compilation
of maps and passages

about the rhoades family treasure hunts,

including some on blind frog ranch.

If the mormons were
looking for aztec treasure,

I think it's possible, there
could be information in here

that could lead us to
the keyhole chamber.

So whatever they
wrote, we need to read.

It's extremely important.

And Greg knows a lot of things,

but I'll bet you there's a few
things that maybe we know

that he doesn't.

Now, we gotta strike a deal with him

and see what he'll let
us walk out of here with.

Greg, we found something recently

that put us on this trail.

This information here
would be vital to us.

It's in this binder.

If we agree to share information together

and also share any
treasure we may find...

any way that we can take
some of that information with us?

I mean, how do we move forward?

Well, this binder is a copy.

I may have something
I can, provide you with.

There is a handwritten journal...

and I happen to have it right over here.

Original maps and all the
family entries and journals.

Ooh.

It may help you find
what you're looking for.

According to Greg, this journal contains

original notes and maps
written by the rhoades family

on the hunt for aztec gold.

We'd rather have the binder

that has all of Greg and Gale's research,

but the journal is the second best option.

If this journal is legit, this thing is exactly

what we need to push us forward.

I mean, it is the... it is our key into this.

Thank you for all of this. Appreciate this.

- We'll be in touch.
- Great.

- Ok.
- Thank you.

The fact that these
could have possibly come

from the original source...
These are very valid.

And this is something
that we need to follow.

2 let's get that thing open.

Let's see what we got.

Look at this, dad.

"Gold as far as the eye could see."

It sounds like treasure to me.

After acquiring a copy of
a rhoades family journal,

Josh and Ron eagerly
decipher its cryptic contents.

See, this is different handwriting

- than some of this other.
- This... that...

this has to have been
done by multiple people.

The journal contains maps and research

from the rhoades family,

legendary mormon treasure
hunters in the uinta valley.

So, this book has been
in the rhoades family

- for generations?
- Yes.

Well, yeah.

- Maybe.
- And multiple people

in the family have written and logged,

and probably searched for this thing.

You know what... what's really cool

is it... this is only,
maybe the rhoades family

and Greg lowe that have ever seen this.

We're the first removed
people from that line

that has probably had
our eyes on this journal.

This is interesting.
Somebody doodled out a mine.

It says, "the entrance is
described as four-foot-tall..."

Now, wait a minute. This it...

there's a date on that... 1912.

It looks like this is all mining stuff.

Lots of written stuff.

This journal that Greg lowe
gave to us is not an exact map.

It's a compilation, I
believe, of rhoades' relatives

that maybe searched for the aztec gold.

- Here's another list...
- Yeah. - ...Of equipment.

Look at this. This talks
about a powder horn.

Yeah.

A powder horn hasn't
been used for 150 years.

I know, right.

We're gonna have to decipher a lot in it.

We're gonna have to study it.

But it's... it's an artifact
that could absolutely help us

locate what we're looking for.

They have all these little notes

that are, like, in here.

- See, people were working out of this.
- Yeah, right.

- This was a working journal.
- Right, right.

Look at here.

Whiterocks creek.

Wait a sec. I know white rocks.

There's a white rocks canyon
not too far from blind frog.

It's down the uintas,
a bit further from us.

Right, right, right.

This note here says... directions.

So it's saying... it's saying
that these are directions.

- This note is saying...
- Yeah, that's what I'm reading here.

That these are... these are
directions - that's what I'm reading.

That's what we should be reading
right there. Go ahead, keep going.

"Take the first branch right
canyon, and climb to the top

of a flat mountain."

It says, "travel in a straight
line across the canyon."

What does this say?
Can you make that out?

"Travel in a straight
line through the canyon,

"using tree markings to guide,

then at the end of it, the shaft."

"The shaft"?

Do you think shaft
could mean an entrance

to the keyhole chamber?

You know... I don't know.

A shaft could be a cave, a tunnel,

even a hole in the ground.

And this passage sounds
like it's referencing an area

near blind frog.

I think that could mean
that this shaft is an entrance

to the keyhole chamber.

People have been hunting these things.

They've written down what they've done,

but they didn't know blind frog like we do.

So, we can take
information in this journal,

places they never could.

Listen, there's so much in here to digest.

I think when we get back, we'll get a topo

and sit down with James and... and Eric.

I think we need to go to white rocks

and follow those instructions,
and see where it leads us.

All right.

Gentlemen, we got
some big news for you.

This journal right here,

- the journal that Greg gave us.
- Ok.

There is information in
there from the rhoades family.

So we're talking firsthand account.

- Really?
- Yeah, their writings.

And what do you think?

There is information in here
that I have not heard of before.

Have any of the sites
that we know about,

show up in there?

There's stuff in here that's familiar to me,

that's right here on blind frog ranch.

Let me get the topo
map. Let's... yeah, yeah.

This passage that refers to white rocks

seems like it put you right
here on blind frog ranch.

The passage says, marked
trees lead us to the shaft.

We think that could mean
some kind of an entrance.

And if we're right, I think
this could be leading us

to the chamber that we've
been calling the keyhole chamber.

Up white rocks creek.

Ok, so where's the
mouth of white rocks creek?

It's gonna be to the west

- of blind frog, right?
- West, correct.

It's the next canyon over, isn't it?

- Yes.
- There's mountain...

yeah, so it's gonna be below chalk cliffs.

It'll be down here.

- It's white rocks canyon.
- Right.

And then it says, "take
the first right canyon

and climb to the top of a flat mountain."

It seems that that could
be here somewhere.

"Travel in a straight
line across the canyon.

Using the tree markings to guide."

That passage says
tree markings will lead us

to some kind of a shaft,

but it's hard to tell which
direction a flat mountain is

from this map.

I think if we get up
to this peak right here,

we'll be able to figure out
which direction we have to go.

That passage right there takes us

to just above blind frog ranch.

We need to get boots on the ground.

If there's a possible
entrance that's right there,

we need to uncover it.

This journal gives us a starting point,

but from there, we'll have to
figure out where to go next.

We're looking for a
bank of marked trees.

I don't know what it's leading us to,

but I'm hoping it's an entrance
to the keyhole chamber.

- Ok.
- Let's get to it.

- Let's do it.
- All right.

I wanna get an overview
of the whole area,

so we'll be able to see all the canyons,

the mountaintops, everything.

To locate the entrance
scribed in the rhoades' journal,

the team travels four miles
north into the uinta mountains.

Sitting 10,000 feet in elevation,

the mountain range provides a clear view

of white rocks canyon,

a location described as a starting point

in the passage that could
lead to the keyhole chamber.

Well, we're getting up in elevation here.

Yeah, we are.

I just... my ears are popping.

- I can feel it.
- Yeah.

Deciphering anything is hard.

You don't know what
the author of that meant.

It may have been obvious to them,

but it's probably not
gonna be obvious to us.

These passages
mention canyons, slopes,

and flat ground, so
getting up high in elevation

will give us a great vantage
point of the entire area.

I think we're here.

Wow! Look at that view.

Sumbitch.

Whoo! You get a little vertigo.

So this is white rocks
canyon all through here.

Ok.

Whiterocks canyon
is a remote landscape

stretching across more than 9,000 acres

of unforgiving terrain.

For thousands of years,
white rocks' harsh expanse

was occupied by the
fremont and ute peoples,

and later used by mormon
pioneers as a natural refuge.

The journal entry says,

"you will need to go up the
first branch of white rocks...

"and take the first right
canyon and climb to the top

of a flat mountain."

This is white rocks here.

So that's right down there.

- Ok, so it's right over here.
- Yes.

If we stay to the right and
follow along that canyon,

we're supposed to see a flat area.

And if you look out here, see that?

And that's a flat area right
there, and there's a big grove

of trees in there, too.

And then that's where
they're supposed to be

the markings in the trees is in that stand.

From their vantage
point, the team believes

the journal passage points east

from the first branch
of white rocks canyon

toward a flat stretch of land

just a mile and a half north of blind frog.

And that's where there's supposed to be

all these markings that you can follow

in a straight line.

Then blind frog would just
be southeast of that, right?

- Yes.
- Yeah, down here.

So let's head that way right now.

Yeah.

I mean, I think that we need
to go search that whole site

right there.

- Let's do it.
- All right, let's do it.

When you're following
history like we are,

each one of these
discoveries puts us closer

to finding the gold.

We can see a grove of trees south of us,

so we're headed that way to see

if any of them have any markings.

Every marker we find out here
could put us one step closer

to finding the keyhole chamber.

2 if you look out here, see that?

- Yeah.
- That canyon does come up,

and that's a flat area right there,

and there's a big grove
of trees in there, too.

And that's where there's supposed to be

all these marked trees

you could follow in a straight line.

After decoding an entry in
the rhoades family journal,

the team has identified a grove of trees

that could contain markings
that lead to an entrance

to the keyhole chamber.

Ok, so then we're headed

- this way, right here?
- Yeah.

All right, let's do it.

We just gotta stay
away from these younger,

thinner Aspen.

Gotta be these older coniferous trees.

I see lots of marks on trees,

but there... those are
all definitely natural.

What's that right there, straight ahead?

We got a marked tree over here, James.

Look at this.

Look how that's cut.

That's not... that's not natural.

And that's a definite
direction it's pointing.

And this is an old tree,
too. Look at the size of it.

This marking looks just like

the one described in the journal.

This is a directional arrow marking.

If I can figure out what that is

and what this artist was
actually trying to tell us,

we can maybe get to
exactly where we wanna go.

Tree markings have been
used as a form of communication

for centuries.

Native tribes carved
them to Mark boundaries,

but early explorers and treasure hunters

often used them to relay
information and directions.

The journal entry says, "stand of trees

with markings on them,

follow the ones that
are in a straight line."

We'll head this way. So we'll head this...

- whatever this bearing is...
- Right.

We'll stay on that bearing

and see if we find any other markers.

So we're thinking right in...

- right in this direction here.
- Yeah.

I'm gonna stand on the
opposite side of the tree

and get an exact bearing.

Seem about right,
Josh, where I'm pointed?

- Yeah, yeah.
- Directly opposite?

Yeah, you're directly opposite
of the arrow on the tree.

This is pointing 130
degrees bearing southeast.

- Ok.
- So this way, I'll keep the compass out.

There's a little something here.

That's like a perfect arrowhead.

And that's old. That
tree's grown in on itself.

Pointing in this direction?

Take a bearing, Eric.

What's that bearing?

130.

- It's 130?
- It's 130, man.

So this is pointing
towards blind frog ranch.

Let's go.

- Straight down?
- Straight down.

Somebody put a lot
of effort to create these.

Now, on its own, it doesn't mean much.

But when we put that together

in conjunction with everything else

that we found on this trail,

in a straight line,
headed towards the ranch.

Where the keyhole chamber is.

This means something.

Check this out up here.

You got something?

Look at that.

I mean, that's deep carve.

And that's pretty complex, like, petals.

Those two arrows
brought us right to this.

- Yeah.
- Well, let's stick to that 130.

Let's go.

When I go out there and I can prove this,

and then that next thing
proves the next thing,

and that next thing proves the next thing,

that's how you get to the end of the trail.

That's how you're
successful in treasure hunting.

I think it opens up more over there.

What is that over there?

Yeah, I see that, James.

A primitive shelter or something?

Yeah, but it's dark from here.

That's a lot of dark black.

Yeah, look at this.

That black goes right
here from the bottom

- all the way up this way.
- Yeah.

Right up the side of the cliff line.

Yeah.

It doesn't look natural, I
mean, as far as mineral goes.

No, that's not like
manganese or anything.

No, no, it's too black for that.

Well, look down here.

- Charcoal.
- It's charcoal.

- It's charcoal, yeah.
- Yeah.

Yeah, look, this is all charred up here.

This is all burnt. That was white-hot.

I think that's a piece of Clay.

- You see that?
- Let me see that.

Here's some more of it right here.

Give it the Clay test.

- Yeah, it smears.
- Yeah?

It's Clay, yep.

So what are you thinking?

All this charcoal, all the
charcoal on the ground,

this was a white-hot fire, we're finding...

we're finding pieces of Clay.

I think somebody built
the furnace back here.

That's what all this is from.

Clay furnaces, or smelters,

have been used to
refine ore for centuries.

Clay structures can
withstand temperatures

above 2,000 degrees fahrenheit,

making them ideal for melting metals.

Smelters are typically the
last step in ore processing

and the farthest from
the entrance to the mine.

Guys, we're looking for an entrance

to the keyhole chamber,
somewhere near here.

If they're building a furnace,
they had to be smelting ore.

Which means there's a mine close by.

We need to look around
this entire area because

what if that mine is our entrance?

The journal says,
we're looking for a shaft.

I didn't know exactly
what that meant until now.

I mean, the journal got us here.

We... we followed that thing
and it brought us right here.

And now we found evidence of mining.

I think that means what we're
looking for is a mine entrance

into the keyhole chamber.

The keyhole chamber
could be just at our reach.

2 I think somebody
built a furnace back here.

If they're building a furnace,

they might have been smelting ore.

The team is following a journal entry

across the uinta valley.

After finding a smelter, they now believe

they're searching for a
mine entrance that will lead

to the keyhole chamber.

The mine we're looking for
should be somewhere near here.

Finding this furnace means
that we're on the right track.

It means that the
information in the journal

is proving itself out.

At this point, we've gone as far

as the journal passage can take us.

If what we're looking for
is actually a mine entrance,

we can find useful clues
by looking around the area.

- Let's have a look, guys.
- Yeah.

Yeah.

Get out here and start
canvassing this area.

I'll go up higher.

James, be looking for
quartz, any kind of ore.

- Ok.
- Yeah.

They would have mined
it and then brought it over

to this area where it's more protected.

To then actually process it.

We're searching an area
where they processed ore,

and we're looking for mineralization,

depressions in the ground,

where there might be an entrance.

At the same time, we're looking

for any evidence of mining,
rotted timbers, old tools,

any proof that people
were here and working.

Hey, guys!

Look at this. I got something.

It doesn't look natural.
It doesn't look like the...

- that ain't natural, no.
- It's not like an iron nodule

we've seen around here.

I mean, this is a rusted-out
piece of iron, is what it is.

- It was sitting here?
- Sitting right here.

- Underneath that limb?
- Yep.

If it was washed down,
that's a good place

it would catch.

Where could it have washed down from?

When we're looking at arid climates,

there's a term called "the wash."

It's almost like a... a
dry stream bed, basically.

The idea is during heavy rains,

water would wash
heavier materials down,

and they might be trapped by roots

or behind rocks or things like that.

So those are the areas
we'd like to focus on.

These trees are covering stuff.

What's this... this rock here?

It looks a lot different from
the surrounding bedrock.

Yeah, it does.

It's got a big old flat
bottom on it, doesn't it?

Yeah. This sucker's heavy.

- That's...
- and this is hard.

This is a lot harder than
the surrounding sandstone.

This has been brought in here.

It's not from these cliffs, is it?

Look at this.

Is that a hole?

I don't think that's a natural hole.

That's not... that's definitely not natural.

Why would they have put a hole there?

Well, if you're processing ore...

You know, this could be a drag stone.

- What's a drag stone?
- For milling ore.

If that's the case, then there
has to be an arrastra somewhere

around here, and an arrastra
was a way to crush ore.

An arrastra is a rudimentary
mill often used by gold miners

in the 1800s to crush their ore.

It consisted of a large circular stone base

with a drag stone tied
to a long wooden pole.

The pole arm was
then attached to a mule.

As the mule walked around the arrastra,

the drag stone would crush the ore,

readying it for smelting.

The presence of an arrastra
could indicate a mine entrance

is nearby.

There's got to be more to this.

There's... like the rest of this arrastra

has to be near here.

Then we're talking about
somewhat flat surface.

And rocks that don't
look like they're from here,

because this isn't the type of stone,

- it's not hard enough...
- Yeah.

To use for an arrastra.

Guys, there's something flat.

I'm standing on something flat right here.

- Yes, there is.
- Yeah.

Look at this.

That's perfectly flat.

That's been ground down.

Look at that.

Yeah.

This is... this is the base of the arrastra?

Yeah.

Right about here,
you'd had a center post.

- Ok.
- In the center of it,

there'd be a post that
would go up with an arm.

- Ok.
- And then that's what would drag

that drag stone right there.

Walk around a circle and
just keep dragging that rock

and just keep adding ore into here.

This smelter was the first clue
we were a lot closer to a mine.

But this arrastra gives
us a lot more to go on.

After you pull ore from a mine,

the first place you go is to your arrastra.

And if you do that enough,

you're gonna leave a lot of clues behind.

Foot traffic or wagon wheels

can leave a lasting
impression in the earth,

and ore fragments can
fall off along the way.

If we find anything like
that, it could lead us directly

to the mine entrance.

I think we should metal
detect this entire arrastra.

I agree.

2 hey, reaves, thanks
for bringing this rig up.

On the outskirts of blind frog ranch,

Josh, James, and Eric have discovered

the ruins of a 19th century
gold processing operation.

They believe they've unearthed
the remains of an arrastra,

a crude ore crushing
mill that was widely used

during the American gold rush.

We stumble across this arrastra,

and this is absolute proof

that people were out here working ore.

There has to be a mine
site somewhere nearby.

But the journal doesn't
tell us where to go next.

If we investigate, we
should be able to find

the path of where the
ore was coming from.

Right here is the outer wall.

Just clear out this right here.

Copy that.

I'm not only looking
for gold at the arrastra,

but maybe artifacts left
behind that can tell us

from which direction
this ore came in from.

The ultimate goal here

is to get us into that keyhole chamber.

Yeah!

Look it, see? There's
more of it coming up.

- See what I'm saying?
- Yeah, where the edge stone is.

That's awesome. You just exposed

some more of the outer wall.

Perfect.

A grid system is really
important in an excavation,

so that I know where it
came out of the ground.

I'm gonna start on the
inner portion of the grid,

expanding outwards from the arrastra.

That way we keep good records
of where an artifact came out

of the ground.

That way I can label what
square it's coming out of.

We're using string to help
create these search grids

and then running the metal
detector through each one.

Now that's a signal right there.

Section two.

If we get a hit, we'll collect that pile

and run it through my sifter.

Accretions?

- Yeah, all the same thing.
- Accretions, yeah.

- A lot... look at that.
- Yeah.

So I have my first two sections.

There was nothing in
those other two sections,

so I'm gonna pull the grid for now.

There are definite hits there,
so I'm gonna just shovel.

This will be section...

one, two, three. It's
section three, square one.

What I'd like to do is just
concentrate right here.

This is... this is just like a
crevice in a natural rock.

And so if they were crushing
gold, it's very possible

that it could find its
way down into that crack.

I'm just gonna run this pinpointer over it

to see if it can pick up
anything metallic, basically.

- Do you need me to do anything?
- No, not at this point.

I'm gonna pinpoint it to see if here...

- maybe there's something in there.
- No way.

- I'm getting a hit.
- All right.

- It could just be iron.
- It could just be iron.

But there's definitely
something right there.

I'm gonna dig it a little bit.

- It's right in here.
- Right.

I'm seeing a little something there.

- I'm seeing something.
- Eric, that looks like...

it's unmistakable.

My god!

- You've got it!
- It's gold! It's gold!

It's gold!

- That's it!
- Look at that!

- That's gold!
- Look at that.

We've got gold!

- Whoa!
- Look at this!

Look at that!

Holy! That's gold!

Damn right it's gold.

Everything's coming together here, man.

Everything.

All right, yeah, let's
get this thing bottled up.

Yep.

- Got it.
- Beautiful.

That's a tiny one, but it's gold.

Look at that.

Hey, it's what it represents, you know?

Yeah.

That means the journal is right.

There's a gold mine
somewhere near blind frog ranch.

Hell yeah!

The journal led us to this arrastra,

and we found a piece of gold.

This discovery could change everything.

It gives me confidence in the journal

that the information is correct.

The journal is leading us towards gold.

Now we're about to find it.

Next time on blind frog ranch.

- Look at that.
- What's that... right?

The team unearths
artifacts pointing the way

to the keyhole chamber.

I think we're at the entrance of a mine.

While Ron uncovers
a game-changing lead.

You do feel there are other locations?

I'm sure there's gold.

But the path to gold...
may mean risking it all.

I'm gonna go in.

Guys, it's caving!

It's moving! Pull out, pull out!