All language subtitles for Beyond.the.Unknown.S03E17.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH

WILDMAN:
A television legend uncovers
a sinister spy ring.

BARRETT JACKSON: Lucille Ball
had a bizarre medical emergency

that brought down one of
the biggest wartime threats.

WILDMAN: A fisherman terrorized
by a 20‐foot‐long river monster.

[ Snarling ]

ESPINOSA: He was scared.

He thought, "What is this?
I’ve never seen this before."

[ Snarling ]

WILDMAN: And a glowing secret
rocks a small town.

VADNEY: People thought, "Maybe
the aliens are coming down.

Maybe this is
the first contact."

WILDMAN:
But first, this strange device

recalls a puzzling tale
of a curious farmer

and a seemingly sinister
military cover‐up.

The artifact is connected to one
family’s pursuit of the truth

in the face
of government conspiracy.

♪

WILDMAN: Amazing mysteries,

bizarre phenomena,

and chilling secrets.

I’m Don Wildman.

Join me on a journey
beyond the unknown.

♪

It’s 1962.

David McPherson
lives with his wife and son

on a remote farm in the Canadian
province of New Brunswick.

REIDY: McPherson lived a
quiet life with his family.

He lived off the land. He knew
it like the back of his hand.

♪

WILDMAN: One day, McPherson
is gathering timber in the woods

when he spots something unusual.

Tangled in a tree is a strange
swath of billowing fabric

with long ropes that
dangle down to the ground.

It appears to be a parachute.

Beneath it, on the ground,

McPherson finds
a large white box.

But it’s unlike any
kind of box he’s seen before.

It was made of some
hard metallic substance.

The front and the
bottom of the object

had two small glass panes,

but he couldn’t
quite see through them.

WILDMAN: The box has no
identifying words or markings.

McPherson is intrigued
and begins to wonder what it is

and where it could
have come from.

He had to get
to the bottom of it.

He was totally captivated.

♪

WILDMAN: So the farmer drags
the heavy box back to his barn,

where he begins
searching for clues

about its contents or purpose.

But try as he might, he fails.

REIDY: He tried his
hardest to open the box,

but whatever tools he used,
it wouldn’t budge.

It was sealed shut
no matter what he did.

WILDMAN: McPherson gives the
enigmatic box a simple nickname.

He started referring to this as
"The thing in the woods."

♪

WILDMAN:
Then, just days after his
extraordinary discovery,

McPherson is visited by two men.

They claim to be members
of the Canadian military,

and they tell McPherson that
they have come for the box.

REIDY: At that moment,
he knew this was serious

and much bigger than him.

WILDMAN:
With little explanation,

the soldiers
confiscate the strange object,

put it in the back of a truck,
and haul it away.

REIDY: It was very
frustrating to McPherson

to watch this happen.

Now he might
never discover the truth

behind the thing in the woods.

♪

WILDMAN: McPherson petitions
the Canadian government

to release information
about the curious cube.

[ Typewriter clicking ]

And even though
he never gets a reply,

he keeps making requests
for decades.

He was desperate to
figure out what that thing was

and why they showed up
at his house that day.

WILDMAN:
In 2015, McPherson passes away
without learning the truth.

But his son, David Jr.,
takes up the cause.

REIDY: The mystery of
the thing in the woods

was almost like
a family heirloom.

He wanted to get the answers
that his father never could.

WILDMAN:
So can he crack the case
of the thing in the woods?

♪

For years, David Jr. continues
to pressure the government

for information.

Then in 2017,

the CIA declassifies a trove
of Cold War‐related documents.

Among them is a report that
could crack the case wide open.

It details a long‐defunct U.S.
military intelligence program ‐‐

Project Genetrix.

REIDY: Project Genetrix was
enacted by President Eisenhower

in the 1950s to secretly spy
on the Soviet Union

and Communist China.

WILDMAN: To gather information
on America’s enemies,

the military affixed cameras
to special weather balloons.

Riding the jet stream,

these balloons would glide into
enemy territory

[ Beeping ]
at altitudes that
made them nearly undetectable.

The cameras took
pictures of infrastructure,

military installations,
and missile silos below.

♪

According to CIA records,

the camera equipment was
housed in a sealed white box,

just like the one found by
David McPherson on his property.

REIDY: When David McPherson Jr.
learned all of this,

he was totally floored.

It was so much more elaborate

than anything he
or his father thought of.

♪

WILDMAN: David Jr. believes
his father found

one of these camera housings
that had blown off course

and crash‐landed
near the family farm.

This question that had hung
over his family for decades

was finally answered.

♪

WILDMAN: Today,
this Project Genetrix spy camera

is on permanent display at

the Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque
International Balloon Museum

in New Mexico.

It provides
an intriguing snapshot

into one family’s quest
to uncover the truth.

♪

This piece of jewelry was once
worn by actress Lucille Ball.

And it recalls how
the television titan

may have helped win
the Second World War.

Her bizarre medical emergency
brought down a foreign enemy.

♪

WILDMAN:
It’s March 1942 in Los Angeles.

Lucille Ball is a 30‐year‐old
up‐and‐coming actress

with supporting roles in the
Marx Brothers’ "Room Service"

and "Follow the Fleet" with
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

She’s just starting
to hone the skills

that will make her a star.

BARRETT JACKSON: She had
this magnetism on screen.

She had this grace.
She had amazing comedic timing.

And it was just a matter of time
until she got her big break

to become just
what she wanted to be.

♪

WILDMAN:
But her burgeoning career
is about to be imperiled.

♪

Late one night, Ball is
driving home from a film shoot.

As the starlet
is rounding a curve,

she’s suddenly jolted
by the sound of loud music...

[ Electrical buzzing,
music plays ]

...ringing in her ears.

At first, she assumes
it’s coming from the radio.

[ Static ]
But the device is turned off.

BARRETT JACKSON: The music
just gets louder and louder,

and she doesn’t
understand what’s happening

or where it’s coming from.

WILDMAN: Ball frantically
searches for the origin

of the tormenting tones...

[ Music intensifies ]
...but she has no luck.

BARRETT JACKSON:
It wasn’t from outside.

It wasn’t from the radio.

WILDMAN:
Suddenly, the actress comes
to a stunning realization.

♪

It was actually coming from
within her own mouth.

♪

WILDMAN:
For several agonizing minutes,

the music blares
inside her head.

BARRETT JACKSON:
She clutched her face.

She’d never had anything
like this happen before.

WILDMAN: Then, just as suddenly
as they started,

the sounds stop.

Ball writes the
episode off as a fluke.

♪

But a few days later,

she’s driving through an area
called Coldwater Canyon...

[ Electrical buzzing ]

...when it happens again.

[ Static ]

But this time, it was different.

It wasn’t a song she recognized.

It was this beat, this tapping,
this "dut‐dut‐dut" ‐‐

the sound that was
just recurring and recurring.

[ Tires screech ]

WILDMAN: Terrified,
Ball pulls the car over.

For several minutes, she endures
the throbbing in her ears.

Then, just as before,
the tones abruptly end.

BARRETT JACKSON: Now she’s gone
from just a one‐time event

to this recurring thing
that she can’t explain.

Ball was becoming convinced
that she was going insane,

and she was desperate
for an answer.

WILDMAN: So what’s causing the
infernal racket in Lucy’s head?

[ Electrical buzzing, beeping ]

One day, Ball is on the set
of her latest film,

entitled "Du Barry Was a Lady,"

when she runs into
fellow actor Buster Keaton.

The former silent‐film icon

has become something of
a mentor to the young actress.

And now she decides to tell him

about the strange
noises in her head.

Incredibly, Keaton solves
the mystery right away.

He actually knew of someone
that had experienced

something quite similar,
to which he inquired,

when was the last time
she’d been to the dentist?

WILDMAN:
Ball says that she had, in fact,

recently received
several temporary fillings.

Keaton tells her that
the metal is known to act

as a conductor for radio waves.

The actress then recalls
that during her first episode,

she was driving past
a radio station.

BARRETT JACKSON:
The fillings in her mouth were
picking up the radio signals,

and they were actually
being amplified by her mouth.

It was literally a speaker.

♪

WILDMAN:
But what of the second incident?

It didn’t seem
like anything you’d hear

transmitted
on your local radio station.

Now that she was thinking about
the idea of it not being music,

she had to think about,
"What could it be?"

And that’s when it dawned on her

that she was probably
hearing Morse code.

[ Beeping ]

♪

WILDMAN:
Just months after the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor,

Ball wonders
if it could have been

some sort of secret
military signal.

BARRETT JACKSON:
The United States had just
entered into World War II.

She got this hunch

that perhaps she’d heard
something she shouldn’t have.

♪

WILDMAN: Lucille Ball alerts
the authorities.

They search the area
of Coldwater Canyon,

where the actress said she
picked up the Morse code sounds.

Hidden underneath a house
is a 50,000‐watt radio station,

and the operators
are soon revealed

to be members
of a Japanese spy ring.

The Japanese had been using
the bunker as a secret facility

where they were
sending out messages.

WILDMAN: Within weeks, the
enemy network is broken up.

BARRETT JACKSON: Ball had
unwittingly helped win the war.

This wild and amazing story
was stranger than fiction.

♪

WILDMAN: Fittingly,
just a few years later,

it’s radio that gives
Lucille Ball her first break.

In 1948, she lands a job
performing comic routines

on the CBS Radio show
"My Favorite Husband."

On the program,
she plays the zany housewife.

The show eventually propels
the actress into her iconic role

on the 1951
television sitcom "I Love Lucy."

♪

Today, costume jewelry
worn by Lucille Ball

during her budding
film career is on display

at the Hollywood Museum
in Los Angeles, California.

It recalls the moment
when a soon‐to‐be comedy legend

got the last laugh
on the enemy.

♪

This gruesome
device called a fleam

is linked to a mystery
surrounding the sudden demise

of the United States’ first
president, George Washington.

LOMBARDI:
This is the story of the search

for what caused the death
of an American legend.

♪

WILDMAN:
December 14, 1799 ‐‐

Mt. Vernon, Virginia.

According to the history books,

former first lady
Martha Washington

is woken in
the middle of the night

by the sounds of her
67‐year‐old husband, George,

[ Coughing ]
coughing and gasping for breath.

LOMBARDI:
She found him clutching
at his chest and throat.

He was struggling
to catch his breath.

WILDMAN: Washington had spent
the previous day outside

in cold and rainy
winter weather.

Martha concludes
that her husband

has become ill as a result.

[ Coughing, gasping ]

Martha must have been very,
very concerned.

She told him that she wanted
to go and fetch his physician,

but George refused.

WILDMAN:
Martha urges her husband
to take medication,

but the former general
insists on toughing it out.

He told her that
he never medicated a cold.

And stubbornly,
George went back to sleep.

WILDMAN:
But a few hours later,

Washington’s condition
has gotten worse.

George was now running a fever.

He was complaining that
his throat was swollen and raw.

He was unable to swallow.

He was having
great difficulty inhaling.

WILDMAN: Martha finally
summons the doctors.

One by one,
they try a series of treatments

commonly used at the time ‐‐

drawing blood,
administering potions,

and even applying a topical
preparation of dried beetles

that is thought
to draw out toxins.

But all is in vain.

And as the day wears on,

a helpless Martha watches as her
beloved husband deteriorates.

LOMBARDI: It must have been
frightening for her

to watch this man
who had been her rock

and the rock that our country
had been built on

suddenly decline so fast.

WILDMAN: Despite the
doctors’ valiant efforts

at battling this short
and violent illness,

at just past 10:00 p. m.,

George Washington
takes his final breath.

♪

LOMBARDI: Martha was devastated.

This was the realization
of all of her worst fears.

WILDMAN: The tragic news
is speedily conveyed

to President John Adams.

The nation mourns their founding
father for a period of 69 days,

until February 22, 1800 ‐‐

Washington’s birthday.

The cause of death is given as
an infection of the upper throat

called epiglottitis.

And this diagnosis remains
the official version

for more than 200 years.

But is this
what really happened?

A shocking twist on history
is about to be revealed.

LOMBARDI:
An intriguing discovery brought
new information to light

of what truly killed
America’s founding father.

♪

WILDMAN:
It’s December 14, 1799.

America’s first president,
George Washington, is dead.

His doctors proclaim
the cause of his demise

is an infection in his throat.

But more than 200 years later,
new information is uncovered

that could turn history
on its head.

2004 ‐‐ Los Angeles, California.

Dr. Vimal Vatican
is an expert in hematology,

the science of blood.

He believes that Washington
wasn’t killed

by a throat infection,

but by his own doctors.

The reason why?

A bizarre medical practice
that was common at the time

known as bloodletting.

♪

LOMBARDI: It was
commonly held medical belief

that bleeding a patient
could induce a cure

or alleviate symptoms
of disease.

WILDMAN:
Bloodletting was often performed

using an instrument
called a fleam,

which was similar
to a pocket knife

with different‐sized blades,

just like this one
within the collection

of the New Orleans
Pharmacy Museum in Louisiana.

And Vatican learns
that the president

personally requested his
doctors to do the procedure.

He believed that bloodletting
had helped him in the past,

and he was hopeful
it would do so again.

♪

WILDMAN:
Dr. Vatican then concludes
that the president underwent

at least four rounds
of this treatment

over the course of his last day.

He believes it could have
done him more harm than good.

LOMBARDI:
Because individual doctors
were coming in and out

and each one taking turns
working on Washington,

it was possible that no one
was keeping track

of how much blood
the president had lost.

WILDMAN: Dr. Vatican estimates
that the president,

who was a large man,

had started the day with
approximately 15 pints of blood.

He calculates that Washington
lost nearly 8 pints of blood

within a span
of only 9 to 10 hours.

That’s an
incredible amount of blood

to lose
in a short period of time.

WILDMAN: As a result of this
new information,

Dr. Vatican proposes
a surprising new theory.

It might not have been
a throat infection

that killed the president.

Instead, he may have
been brought down

by severe
low blood pressure and shock

as a consequence of blood loss.

LOMBARDI:
Losing that much blood
is potentially fatal.

It’s possible that
in the doctors’ attempts

to cure Washington,

they actually killed Washington.

♪

WILDMAN:
This mysterious hunk of metal
recalls a spectacular tale

that’s truly out of this world.

VADNEY:
This is the type of story
that seems like it was lifted

straight out
of a 1960s comic book.

♪

WILDMAN: It’s just before dawn
on September 6, 1962,

in northeast Wisconsin.

[ Telephone rings ]

Local police receive a call
from a terrified dairy farmer.

The farmer says that he was
headed out to milk his cows

when he heard a thunderous
noise coming from above.

[ Boom ]

He says that when he looked up,

he saw dozens of
large, bright objects

streaking across the sky.

He’d never seen
anything like this before.

♪

WILDMAN:
At first, the police are
skeptical of the farmer’s story.

[ Telephones ring ]

But when they receive
a string of other calls,

all reporting similar incidents
from around the area,

they start to take
the matter seriously.

You had a lot of calls coming in

reporting strange
streaks of light

and sounds that
were coming from the sky.

WILDMAN: With the nation
in the grip of UFO mania,

some believe this
is proof positive

of a real‐life close encounter.

VADNEY: A lot of
people would have thought,

"Maybe the aliens
are coming down.

Maybe this is
the first contact."

♪

WILDMAN:
Police fan out across the region
to investigate the sightings.

[ Siren wailing ]

And in the town of Manitowoc,

two officers are patrolling
a residential neighborhood

when they make
a startling discovery.

[ Radio chatter ]

There in the middle
of the street,

they see something
embedded in the asphalt.

And it’s glowing.

VADNEY: When the
officers came upon this,

it’s smoking‐hot.

It’s almost liquefied metal.

They had never seen
anything like this before.

♪

WILDMAN:
The officers are faced
with a chilling question ‐‐

did this glowing mass
come from outer space?

♪

WILDMAN: It’s 1962.

After a string
of UFO sightings in the area,

a strange,
glowing mass crash‐lands

in the small town
of Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

♪

After a few hours, the strange,
glowing object cools down,

allowing the police officers
to examine it further.

They determine that it looks
like some kind of metal disk.

The officers
bring it back to the station

and call in local metal experts
to help identify the artifact.

This metal just
didn’t fit the description

that you would normally find.

This was a legitimate mystery.

WILDMAN: Then, the Manitowoc
authorities get a break.

[ Telephone rings ]

A man named Ed Holbeck, a member
of a local astronomy group,

comes forward.

Holbeck explains
that his group was recruited

by the U. S. government
to be part of a secret program

called Operation Moon Watch.

And according to Holbeck,

the strange object isn’t
from an alien spaceship.

It’s part of a Soviet
satellite named Sputnik 4.

Many Americans would
have remembered the news

of the first Sputnik
spacecraft being launched.

This was a modified
version of that

that was much larger.

WILDMAN: Sputnik 4 was launched
by the Soviets in 1960,

but after two years
circling the Earth,

it had fallen out of orbit.

Holbeck had tracked
the doomed satellite

as its remnants slammed
into northern Wisconsin ‐‐

on the same night
that the farmer reported

hearing the loud boom
and seeing the strange lights.

This was a startling revelation.

A piece of a Soviet spacecraft

had landed in
the middle of Wisconsin.

Sputnik 4 was never intended
to land in North America

and certainly was not intended
to land where people live.

♪

WILDMAN:
Eventually, the metal disk
is returned to the Russians,

but not before an
exact replica is made.

Today, this replica of the
satellite is on display

at the town’s
Rahr‐West Art Museum.

It recalls
the unidentified visitor

that fell from space to drop in
on a small Midwestern town.

♪

Sandwiched
between the megacities

of Los Angeles and San Francisco
is a unique environment

seemingly untouched
by modern society.

COOPER:
It’s host to rare ecosystems
and endangered animals,

all kinds of plant life.

And it’s gained its recognition
as a national natural landmark.

WILDMAN: This is the magnificent
Guadalupe‐Nipomo Dunes Preserve.

Peaking at 500 feet,

these are the highest sand dunes
in the Western United States.

This natural wonderland
has become legendary ‐‐

not only for the height
of these massive drifts,

but also for the secrets
that hide beneath them.

COOPER:
There’s a rumor that a lost
relic from another time

still survives
buried under the sand.

WILDMAN: What strange,
seemingly ancient wonder

may rest below
these fragile dunes?

1923 ‐‐
Los Angeles, California.

Hollywood is the world’s leading
producer of silent films,

churning out over
800 movies each year.

And at the
forefront of this boom

is one of Tinseltown’s most
acclaimed directors,

Cecil B. DeMille.

COOPER:
DeMille was a showman.

Everything he touched
turned to gold,

and he really ruled the roost

as far as the
directors of that time.

WILDMAN: But DeMille
wants to expand his horizons,

so he embarks on his
biggest project to date ‐‐

an unprecedented
biblical odyssey

called "The Ten Commandments."

COOPER: $750,000 is going to go
towards this production.

It’s one of the largest‐budget
films of that time.

WILDMAN:
But this epic story of
Moses leading the Israelites

to the Promised Land

is set in the
sweltering Egyptian desert.

In Los Angeles,
there isn’t anything

that’s going to look like
an Egyptian desert.

But the dunes in Guadalupe gave
DeMille the look that he needed.

WILDMAN: While DeMille has
the perfect location,

he still needs to create
an Egyptian city.

COOPER:
These are the days before CGI.

You didn’t
computer‐generate anything.

You built it from the ground up.

So roughly 1,500 workers spend
six weeks building this city.

It includes four
35‐foot‐tall Ramses statues

and 21 Sphinxes

and a grand avenue leading
up to the city’s entrance.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

WILDMAN:
Over the two months of filming,

3,000 actors and 5,000 animals

bring DeMille’s
epic vision to life.

It is Paramount Pictures’
most expensive movie to date.

And when it’s released, it also
becomes its most profitable.

But while the
movie wows audiences

throughout North America,

the story of its elaborate
set is just beginning.

COOPER: It was common in those
days for sets to be reused

by another production
for a lower‐budget film.

WILDMAN: But any filmmakers
hoping to make a quick buck

off the back of
DeMille’s masterpiece set

are soon disappointed.

At that point,
the set mysteriously vanished.

WILDMAN: So how did DeMille’s
massive Egyptian set

simply disappear overnight?

♪

WILDMAN:
1923 ‐‐ Central California.

Cecil B. DeMille
has just finished

shooting his blockbuster
"The Ten Commandments"

on a massive set built on
the Guadalupe‐Nipomo Dunes.

But when the movie opens

to sold‐out theaters
across America,

the giant construction
mysteriously vanishes.

For decades, the fate of
the lost set remains a mystery.

COOPER:
But then over the years,

people began
searching around for clues.

WILDMAN:
1982 ‐‐ Los Angeles.

[ Indistinct conversation ]

Film school graduate
Peter Brosnan and a friend

are discussing
the mystery of the lost set

when Brosnan’s friend announces

that he has the
answer to the riddle.

He buried it.
He said, "You know ‐‐"

What? Bull!
No, no, no! Listen!

COOPER:
Brosnan doesn’t believe him,
and he wants proof.

So his friend whips out
DeMille’s autobiography.

WILDMAN:
Brosnan’s friend points out
a passage in DeMille’s book

stating that
if archeologists dug

beneath the sands of Guadalupe
a thousand years later,

DeMille hoped they wouldn’t
jump to the conclusion

that the Egyptian
civilization once expanded

to the Pacific Coast
of North America.

Enthralled by the text,

Brosnan immediately
makes the connection

to DeMille’s
"The Ten Commandments."

COOPER:
Brosnan knows that if this
set does in fact exist,

it would be one of
the last remaining sets

from a 1920s film.

WILDMAN: For Brosnan, finding
Hollywood’s Egyptian palace

would be a chance to save

a rare and invaluable
piece of movie history.

So in June 1983, with hopes
that DeMille’s creation

may exist somewhere
at Guadalupe‐Nipomo,

Brosnan ventures out
to the massive dunes.

He finds a local who agrees
to show him the location

where they think
the film was shot.

WILDMAN: Brosnan searches the
desert‐like landscape for hours.

And finally, he sees
sticking out of the sand

what looks to be
a piece of the set from 1923.

He realizes at this time
that the rumors are true ‐‐

this lost set survives.

WILDMAN: But something
doesn’t make sense.

How did DeMille’s
mammoth construction

just disappear in 1923

and end up hidden
under the dunes?

Film historians conclude
that DeMille’s ego

had everything to do with it.

COOPER: There were
fears in DeMille’s mind

that another production
would repurpose his set.

He didn’t want that to happen.

He wanted the first time
that people see this set

on the big screen in his movie
"The Ten Commandments."

♪

WILDMAN:
So to protect the unique aura
that surrounded the film,

DeMille secretly
ordered the crew

to dynamite the Egyptian city

and bury it under the very
sands on which it stood.

[ Explosion ]

[ Crashing ]

♪

And in October 2012,
with the help of archeologists,

Brosnan excavates the dunes

and recovers
several undamaged pieces

of DeMille’s wondrous set.

Today, many of
the treasured artifacts

of "The Ten Commandments"

still remain
under a blanket of sand

here at
the Guadalupe‐Nipomo Dunes,

forever preserving
an epic reminder

of Tinseltown’s
golden age of silent film.

♪

This skull recalls
a frightening monster

that terrorized
a tiny community.

ESPINOSA: This is a story
of a small town, a scientist,

and a mythical beast
that lurked in the darkness.

♪

WILDMAN: It’s June 1971 in the
small town of Newport, Arkansas.

A fisherman named Cloyce Warren

is out on his boat
on the White River...

♪

...when he spots something
unusual in the murky depths.

♪

Swimming beneath the water

is what appears to be
a massive creature.

The beast is more
than 20 feet long,

has strange grayish skin,

and appears
to have a horn on its head.

[ Snarling ]

ESPINOSA:
He was scared.

He thought, "What is this?
I’ve never seen this before."

[ Snarling ]

WILDMAN:
Warren grabs his camera

and takes a picture of the
leviathan before it disappears.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Later, he shows the image
to his friends in town.

ESPINOSA: The photo was blurry,
but people could still tell

it was not something
that should be in that river.

People were shocked.

WILDMAN:
Warren concludes that he’s had
a brush with a legendary beast

that’s been seen in
the region many times before ‐‐

the White River Monster.

The strange creature is said to
have a large horn on its head

and is known to make
a terrifying sound.

[ Snarling ]
People had heard this creature.

It had this low, bellowing roar.

[ Roaring ]

It gave them chills.

♪

WILDMAN: As word of Warren’s
sighting spreads,

many residents go hunting
for the monster,

hoping to capture
it dead or alive.

One group even requests
a permit to use dynamite

to blast the beast
out of the river.

But "Whitey," as it’s come
to be known, evades capture.

♪

Over the next two years,

the search takes
on such a frenzy

that even the state
government gets involved.

In 1973, Arkansas legislators

pass the White River Monster
Refuge Act.

The law makes it
illegal to kill,

harass, or harm
the massive animal

in its designated
sanctuary area.

But the government involvement

only fans the flames
of speculation and fear.

ESPINOSA:
Even people who were skeptical
now had reason to believe

there was some validity to this

’cause the local
government had passed a law.

♪

WILDMAN:
So, what’s the truth behind
the White River Monster?

♪

WILDMAN:
It’s 1973 in Arkansas.

A strange beast has been
spotted in the White River.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

The massive creature
is gray in color,

sports a menacing horn,
and has a terrifying roar.

As the latest reports of
the White River Monster

swirl around the country,

they eventually
reach a biologist

at the University of Chicago.

His name is Roy P. Mackal.

ESPINOSA: He was an
accomplished biologist,

but he was also a leading mind
of cryptozoology,

which is the study
of unsubstantiated animals.

♪

WILDMAN:
Mackal makes it his mission

to identify the
monster once and for all.

He first
considers the possibility

that it is not
a living creature,

but an inanimate object,
like a sunken boat or a boulder.

But he immediately
rules the idea out.

ESPINOSA:
Many of the people that
told of seeing this creature

said that it was
darting back and forth.

Well, if it’s a huge boulder,

it’s not going
to dart back and forth.

WILDMAN:
Some locals believe

the monster is an unusually
large snapping turtle,

but Mackal doubts
this could be the case.

He knew snapping turtles do not
grow to the size of a car.

♪

WILDMAN:
Based on decades’ worth
of eyewitness accounts,

Mackal compiles
a comprehensive description

of the White River Monster.

It’s then that he comes
to a stunning realization ‐‐

the beast is not
a previously unknown species

or a mythical monster,

but a northern elephant seal.

As proof, Mackal points to
the creature’s size and color.

ESPINOSA:
The northern elephant seal
could grow as long as 15 feet

and weigh up to 5,000 pounds,

and the coloring is gray.

WILDMAN:
These marine creatures have been
spotted in the Gulf of Mexico

and are known to
migrate up to 13,000 miles.

Mackal suspects one
or more of them

mistakenly swam up
the Mississippi River

and into a tributary ‐‐
the White River.

It made perfect sense that no
one would recognize this thing

because a northern elephant seal
is not native to this area.

♪

WILDMAN:
Male northern elephant seals

get their name
from a large proboscis,

which resembles
an elephant’s trunk.

This physical characteristic
might account for the horn

that some say they saw
on the beast’s head.

[ Croaking ]

Finally, these creatures
are known to exhibit

a particularly noisy trait.

To attract a mate,

male elephant seals make
a deep, bellowing roar.

[ Roars ]

ESPINOSA:
Mackal was thrilled.

He had cracked the case.
He knew what this thing was.

♪

WILDMAN:
Today, this northern elephant
seal skull is on display

at the San Diego Natural
History Museum in California.

It tells the surprising story
of one man’s search for answers

and the murky truth behind a
legendary creature of the deep.

♪

This object recalls one of the
greatest deep‐sea mysteries

the military has ever known.

This is an epic tale of tragic
loss and an amazing discovery.

♪

WILDMAN:
April 26, 1921 ‐‐ Honolulu.

U. S. Navy officials at
the Pearl Harbor Naval Station

are in a panic.

[ Rapid beeping ]

A tugboat named
the USS Conestoga has vanished.

♪

The 170‐foot‐long steel vessel,

armed with a distinctive
.50‐caliber gun,

was en route from San Francisco
to Hawaii with a crew of 56 men.

HANNIGAN:
The journey to Pearl Harbor
was a routine voyage,

and the expectation was
that everyone would arrive

safe and sound.

♪

WILDMAN: Navy officials have
not received a distress call

from the Conestoga, and there
are no other indications

that anything has gone awry.

It was very strange.
The boat had just disappeared.

♪

WILDMAN:
The Navy launches a massive
search‐and‐rescue mission.

They dispatch more than 60
vessels and dozens of aircraft

to cover an area of over
300,000 square miles.

♪

For weeks, the Navy searches
for the Conestoga,

but the effort fails.

The men of the Navy
came up absolutely empty‐handed.

♪

WILDMAN:
Finally, after two months,
on June 30th,

the Navy officially declares
the tugboat lost at sea

and calls off the search.

All 56 members of
the Conestoga’s crew

are pronounced dead.

HANNIGAN: After months
and months of hoping

that their brothers, fathers,
sons, husbands would be found,

many families had to come
to terms with the fact

that they just weren’t
going to get any answers.

♪

WILDMAN:
And in the years that follow,

questions about the
USS Conestoga’s fate

remain unanswered.

Some people
theorize that the crew,

unhappy with their
working conditions,

mutinied and sold the tugboat
to dishonest merchants.

Others believe
that the Conestoga

had been overtaken by pirates

who seized control of
the ship for their own use.

And a few speculate

that the Conestoga ran
aground on a deserted island.

They didn’t know
what happened to these men.

WILDMAN: As the years pass,

the disappearance
of the USS Conestoga

becomes one of the biggest
mysteries in naval history.

So, what’s the secret
of this lost vessel?

♪

♪

WILDMAN: It’s 1921.

A tugboat named the
USS Conestoga has disappeared

while making a routine voyage
from San Francisco to Hawaii.

In the aftermath,

the Navy launches a massive
search‐and‐rescue effort,

but no trace of
the ship is ever found.

♪

2009 ‐‐ Monterey, California.

Scientists James Delgado and
Robert Schwemmer are researchers

at the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration.

They have long been obsessed

by the mystery
of the USS Conestoga.

HANNIGAN:
Both Schwemmer and Delgado

are not afraid
to explore the unknown,

and they are willing
to go all the way

to the bottom of the ocean
to figure out this mystery.

♪

WILDMAN:
In August, they receive
an intriguing report.

One of their research vessels
was doing a routine survey

of the ocean floor 30 miles
off the coast of California

when the crew captured
an unusual image on its sonar.

HANNIGAN: Something that was
the shape of an oval

really stuck out to them.

♪

WILDMAN:
Intrigued, Delgado and Schwemmer
send a remotely operated vehicle

to explore the site
and send up live video images.

♪

And there,
200 feet beneath the surface,

are the remains
of a 170‐foot‐long vessel.

HANNIGAN:
Once they send the cameras down,

this was, in fact, a shipwreck.

That would have been so exciting
for Delgado and Schwemmer.

WILDMAN: The ship appears
to be made of steel.

And as they watch
the video feed,

Delgado and Schwemmer spot
a vital clue on the deck.

♪

HANNIGAN:
They could see a large gun
mounted to the deck of the ship.

That was the "Aha" moment.

WILDMAN: The size of the steel
ship and the large cannon

point the investigators
toward one conclusion ‐‐

it’s the long‐lost
USS Conestoga.

♪

So, what happened
on that fateful voyage?

Examining the wreckage,

Delgado and Schwemmer uncover
structural damage to the ship

that most likely
occurred during a heavy storm.

It seems that after
taking on water,

the Conestoga sank only 30 miles
from her point of departure.

HANNIGAN: Schwemmer and Delgado
were incredibly relieved

that they had solved the mystery
of the long‐lost Conestoga.

♪

WILDMAN: In 2016,

relatives of the crew
members of the USS Conestoga

are invited to the
United States Navy Memorial

in Washington, D. C.

In a solemn ceremony,

a naval bell is rung 56 times
to honor the long‐lost sailors.

[ Bell rings ]

♪

Today, that bell is on display
in the Memorial’s auditorium.

It’s a testament
to the shipwrecked secret

that refused to stay
hidden beneath the waves.

♪