03x07 - Battle of the Black Rock

[bunniefuu]

[narrator reading]

[Charlie]
Got some trespassers.

I think tonight
would be a good night
to catch 'em.

[narrator]
After tracking the poachers...

[man] [bleep] Busted, man.

...and taking them to court,

Duane wins his case
to ban them from his property.

[Duane] They've been
slithering around
on the land,

and they don't get
to do that anymore.

[narrator]
Now, he can double down

on his mission
to breach the underground.

We will have to go in slow,
but we will go in.

[narrator] With the
floodwaters receding...

[man] I don't see any water.

...he can
finally move forward...

[Charlie]
Everybody out of the way.

We got the drill
coming in now.

...with his plan to drill
into the keyhole cavern
beneath the Energy Zone.

That lightning's
two miles away.

-[thunderclap]
-[bleep]

[thunder rumbling]

[Chad] This whole area,
for some reason,

we can't get
[bleep] done here.

We keep on pushing,
and it keeps on
fighting back.

The storm coming.

Lighting and all kinds
of crazy [bleep]

I mean, it seems
like a coincidence.

But whatever it is,
it's always the case, though,

when we're out here
in the Energy Zone.

Hopefully the weather clears.

We'll have
better luck tomorrow.

-How we doing, Oscar?
-[Oscar] Pretty good, man.

[Chad] We'll be able
to tell we're in a void

-'cause it will just drop off?
-[Oscar] Yeah. Yeah.

[Chad] All right, perfect.

[narrator]
After a sudden thunderstorm
shut the team down,

Oscar moves the rathole rig
back into position.

Nice.

[narrator]
The weather has cleared,

and the team
can resume drilling.

Weeks earlier,
they discovered a vent shaft

leading 125 feet down
into the Energy Zone.

[James] Look at that [bleep].

[narrator] But they don't
want to risk a collapse,

so they're
drilling a new shaft
parallel to the vent,

using it as a guide
to orient them toward

the cavernous chamber below.

[James]
This is really exciting.

We've been waiting
for this for weeks.

And I wanna find
some treasure today.

I wanna
at least find an entrance

into where the artefacts
and the treasure is at.

[Chad] Here we go.
This is it.

We're gonna find that
[bleep] cavern today, boys.

-[James] Oh.
-Hell yeah.

[Chad] Yeah. At least.

The vent shaft
goes 125 feet down.

We need to keep on going
till we find something.

-[Oscar] I'll keep going.
-Let's do it, boys.
Hell, yeah.

We've been drilling
out here for years now,
and this could be the one.

Man, this is no [bleep].
We can [bleep] hit it today.

[Chad] What's it
look like, Art?

-Is it?
-[Art] Yeah.

Few parts.
We'll see right now.

[narrator] The rainstorm
has created a wet layer
of dirt,

but the drill operators think
it's only near the surface,

and the
further down they drill,
the drier it will get.

-[Art] Yeah.
-We're still all right,
though.

-[Art] Yeah.
-It's dry right there.

[Art] Yeah,
that's what I was saying.

-If it just sits
for a minute, then yeah.
-[Chad] All right.

-It's not bad. Good.
-Yeah.

So, uh, there's a little
moisture in the dirt there.

As we're drilling,
there's some seepage in there.

But it's still not too bad.

Like, if, uh...
If it gets much worse,

and it turns into a mud,
it's a problem.

But right now, we're okay.

What we got, Oscar?

How far?

[Chad] Ninety feet?

[James] So, my magnetometer
put the top of that cavern
at about 120 feet.

And right now,
we're almost at 90.

With any luck,
we'll punch through soon.

[Duane] What the [bleep]?

-[horn tooting]
-[man] Now.

-That's [bleep] blue dirt.
-[Chad] What?

That's blue dirt down there.

-Is it?
-Yeah.

[narrator]
After drilling down 90 feet,

the soil composition
has changed

from dry sedimentary dirt
to a strange blue clay.

Hey, stop the drill! Hey!

k*ll it.

-This is that blue dirt
he was talking about.
-[Charlie] Holy [bleep].

-[Chad] It's hard to drill?
-[Oscar] Yeah.

-[Chad] Yeah?
-Yeah.

[narrator] Duane claims
he has seen this dirt
before on the ranch.

And according to locals,
it's a bad omen.

[James] So, it's like
a blue clay.

That's it.

That's [bleep] it.

-Is it hard to
drill through this stuff?
-Yeah, it's hard, you know.

-[Chad] It's hard?
-[Oscar] Yeah.

All right. So how much more
do you want to keep going?

-Till we get to the cavern
gotta keep going.
-Okay.

-[horn toots]
-Drill!

[Chad] Damn. That's loud.

Don't give a [bleep].

All right, let's go.

[Chad]
How's the drilling, man?

-[Art] So slow.
-Slow?

It's still not wet, though.

What do you think?

[Chad] Yeah?

-[Oscar] That's what we got.
-[Chad] Oh, [bleep].

-You see, it's barely moving.
-Yeah, yeah.

[narrator]
The drill is working
through the thick clay

at a rate of two feet
every hour,

which is five times slower
than usual.

Oscar was thinking,
like, two to four hours.

We're sitting at,
like, seven hours now.

[Chad grunts]

It's stuck.

-It hasn't moved at all.
-Yeah.

[metallic scraping]

[James] That sounds hard.

That's hard.

[James] Yeah.

It just hit
something hard, hard

'cause it's really slow,
he said, the drill.

You think this is
what slowed us down?

[Ryan] Chad.

They're grinding down there,

and this, I guess,
is some of the stone
that they're grinding.

-You see it's got, like,
reflective properties to it.
-[Chad] Yeah.

-[Ryan] Crystals or something.
-[Chad] Right.

This stuff is super hard.
He's still at 98 feet.

This is the [bleep] that
you're drilling through
right now.

So, this is
still that blue dirt.

And the further we get down,
there's, like, black chunks
in there that are, uh...

That we haven't seen before.

[metal detector beeping]

[Chad]
Charlie, what did you find?

[Charlie]
It's more of those rocks
you've been finding.

Really?

[Charlie] We've been
drilling up here for years

and saw and done
enough drilling.

I know what,
what the rocks looks like

when they spin off
the, the drill.

Uh, that thing spun out,
and it went further
than any other rock,

indicating
that it was heavier.

It was a lot heavier
than a normal rock,
and it was more black.

It did set off
the metal detector

and with a very high
iron content.

Looked like a chunk of metal.

Where it's coming from?
I have no idea.

Oh, this is...
This is strange.

[James] It still needs
to be tested, too,

-before we jump--
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hey, Chad, look at the dirt,
take it over here,

but let's get back
to drilling.

[Chad] Let's keep
going, Oscar.

In all these clumps
of clay down there,

we're finding these dark,
blueish, metal-looking
nodules.

Is this giving it
some kind of unique properties
that energize the Energy Zone?

I think we should
have it analyzed.

[Charlie] Sending 'em off
and have 'em tested

could help us
come up with the answers

as to why
some of this weirdness
goes on up here

as far as the energy
and, and the equipment
not working properly,

batteries draining.

There's just been
a lot of weirdness
that goes on up here.

I don't know if I've ever
not seen this place
cause havoc on something.

-What do you think?
-They're hard as [bleep].

-It's getting harder?
-Yeah.

This could be
the top of the cave.

-'Cause that's
hard as [bleep].
-[Oscar] Yeah.

Yeah.

We've been drilling here
all damn day.

And based on that scan,
we're only ten feet away
from punching in the cave.

Yeah.

[Chad grunts]

[narrator] To pierce through
the hard layer of rock,

the drill team must
swap out the tiger teeth
on the drill bit

with new teeth
that are strong enough
to grind through.

I talked to Jeff.
He has to go get
more teeth for the...

For the drill bit.

You know, I thought
today was gonna be
a smooth and easy day,

just jump in and...

I was, kind of,
hoping that we...

You know, we would
have still stayed in the,
the, um, clay.

-[Chad] Yeah.
-'Cause it would have
made it a lot better.

We passed the clay
and went straight
to something else now.

-[Chad] Something super hard.
-Yeah.

-[Chad] Hey.
-[Duane] Yeah.

[Chad] They're out of teeth.

-He's having
to go get some more.
-[bleep]

And we're still stuck.

Just one more thing.

-[James] I hope it solves it.
-[Jeff] Yeah.

[Chad] So, yeah,
it's like something beyond
our control out here.

I mean, we keep on pushing,
and it keeps on fighting back.

We've had more [bleep] today
than, than ever.

Oh, [bleep].

[Duane bleep] this.

[Charlie] Oh, man.

-[Duane] Emery.
-[Emery] Duane, Chad, Charlie.

[narrator]
While the drill crew works,

biomedical expert Emery Smith
has returned to the ranch
with his findings.

I finally got the report back.

[narrator] Duane asked Emery
to investigate a mutilated
deer carcass...

Multiple spinal fractures.

...as well as strange tracks
that led out of the pond
to Beaver Creek...

[Charlie] These are
fresh overnight tracks.

...where Charlie
captured a photo

of an unusual animal
in the water.

This is what I got.

[narrator] After collecting
samples from the pond,

Emery analyzed them
against his DNA database

and has his findings.

[Emery] This is
the results of the DNA.

[Duane bleep]
Tell us what that means.

We ran it through
this database.

The majority of it
is snake DNA.

But to survive
this cold weather here,

it's not normal
for a regular snake.

And it has other DNA that,
they're prehistoric.

That's just incredible.

Because they're
part of that being
that we don't know.

[Emery] The majority of it
is snake DNA.

But it is has other DNA that,
they're prehistoric.

[narrator] Biomedical expert
Emery Smith has returned
to Blind Frog Ranch

with the DNA results
of his findings

from the water samples
taken from the pond.

-There's part of that being
that we don't know.
-[Chad] Right.

But this is something
that's been around
for a long time.

So, what do you think this is?
Like, some kind of snake?

To survive this
cold weather here, you know,

it's not normal
for a regular snake.

-A snake can't be out here.
-[Chad] Yeah.

-[Emery] Tropical
python or anaconda.
-[Chad] Right.

It's impossible
that something has survived.

But in a cave system...

That stays the same
in a cave system.

So you might have
a large biosphere

under Blind Frog Ranch
is what I'm getting at.

It's some sort of
prehistoric creature.

There's a whole ecosystem,
apparently,

that's alive and well
down there.

This serpent,
more than likely,

has to have been
living underground

hundreds of years
to be that big.

Thanks, guys.

That's worse
than what I thought.

[Chad] Well, you think
if it's prehistoric,

that explains how it's so big,
like a--

Yeah. And has all those
armor-plating scales on it
and stuff.

That's pretty wild, boys.
That's pretty wild.

He's right. I mean,
a snake is not gonna be
in this cold climate.

Well, let's just let him,
figure this out

and we'll get back
to drilling.

[Chad] So, we got
fresh teeth on it
so she's comfortable, huh?

-[Art] Yeah.
-[Chad] Nice.

[narrator] After hitting
a hard rocky layer
at a depth of 100 feet,

the rat-rig team
has replaced the drill teeth

so that they can cut through
the next 20 feet of rock

and penetrate
the keyhole cavern.

-[Jeff] Turn.
-[Art] There you go.

[Chad]
Watch that [bleep] hole, man.

Whoa, whoa.

[bleep]

God damn. You almost fell
in the [bleep] hole, man.

[Charlie] Yeah, I saw that.

[Chad] When I saw
his foot slip in there,
almost had a heart attack.

Anyone gets in the hole,
it's over,
you know.

Someone would have died today.

Watch that [bleep] hole.

[Chad] Send it.

[James]
We're almost at the depth

that the magnetometer
was showing.

Hopefully,
in the right place.

The depth
that we're at right now
is almost 120 feet,

so technically
we're right there

and just haven't hit it yet.

[narrator]
For the past two hours,

the drill has been making
minimal progress.

However, Oscar and his team
start to pull up
some promising signs.

[Chad] Damn.
Look at the size of that rock.

[Art] See where
the bit was spinning
on the top of that?

[Chad] Looks like,
kind of, sandstone,
but it's a different color.

It's another layer.

-That's why we weren't
going down an inch.
-Ah, makes sense.

-[Art] Yeah.
-It wasn't cutting at all.

[Art] Yeah.

[James] This is what
it was just bouncing off of.

[Charlie] It's a big
chunk of sandstone.

That tells you
what that drill bit's
doing, though.

-[James] Yeah, finally was
able to break through.
-[Charlie] Yeah.

[James]
It's got a thick ceiling.

[Charlie] That's a cave wall.

-Ceiling's what that is.
-[Duane] Yup. Gotta be.

That's hard as [bleep].

-That's why this whole
[bleep] went caving in.
-Yeah.

[narrator] Caverns are
lined with thick layers
of stone and rock

that support the weight
of the earth above

and keep the cavern walls
from collapsing.

After passing through
the mysterious blue dirt

embedded with shards of metal,

the team has now entered
a dense layer of sandstone

which they believe
to be the ceiling
of the cavern below.

It's unclear
how thick the ceiling is.

But if they can breach it,

it could mean
they've finally gained access

to the mysterious chamber
discovered by
the quantum team

earlier this winter.

That circle
under the Energy Zone
does look manmade.

No doubt.

-I can hear it, I can hear it.
Rubbing the wall. Yeah.
-Yeah.

[Oscar] Yeah.

[Oscar] Yeah.

[Chad grunts]

[Chad] So, we got
a setback right now.

Uh, problem is,
the slope of this rock

is making
the drill go that way

and, uh,
it's causing a lot of hell.

We could be,
what, ten feet off?

Oh, I don't know. We'll see.

[Chad] Oh, [bleep].

[narrator]
As the drill continues
to labor through

the stone layer that covers
the keyhole cavern,

Drillmaster Oscar
has realized that
the drill bit is sliding.

It indicates
that the rock layer covering
the cave must be rounded,

like a vaulted ceiling
or shell.

But the curve is causing
the drill to deviate.

If the drill continues
to veer off course,

the team might miss
the keyhole cavern entirely,

and would be forced
to start the drilling process
over again,

or it could even collapse
the cavern below.

[Chad] He got to that shell,
and he's pushing hard on it.

And, uh, that rock
is on a slope.

So what happens is
it just pushes...

...angle going towards him.

So, uh... [bleep]

[ominous instrumental music]

[Chad] I talked to Oscar.

He's saying that the hole
has a bend in it
from the rocks.

-Yeah.
-So the rocks are like that
and he got to here,

and he's pushing hard on it
so it's shifting

and going back towards it.

Yeah, it's crooked right now.
That's why it's taking so long
to get it in there.

[narrator] As the team
hits 110 feet,

they have encountered
a dense rock layer

that is causing their drill
to bend and veer off path.

[Chad] We're just trying
to slow it down a little bit.
Keep it straight as we can.

[drill whirring]

[Charlie] Well, that
doesn't sound good.

-You hear that grinding?
He's not at the bottom.
-[Charlie] What?

It's grinding
'cause it's rubbing
on the way down.

So when he gets to the...
He's not even drilling
at the bottom.

So he's grinding
all the way down
'cause it has a curve in it.

[narrator] In order
to penetrate the cavern,

they need the drill
to lock into a straight,
vertical position.

What do you think, Oscar?

-It's still not locking up?
-[Oscar] It's still not
locking up.

Yeah. Oh, [bleep]

[tense instrumental music]

[narrator] As the drill head
slides along
the rock layer below,

it is causing the rig's
Kelly bar, or Kelly,

to spin and bend
due to the immense torque.

If it gives out,
the cost would be
over $100,000.

-What would break it?
-No.

-What would break it?
-How?

What would?
Yeah, how could you break it?

Uh, if...

Yeah.

I don't know what we hit
down there,

but whatever we hit,
it's as hard as diamonds.

I doubt that
even a bigger drill
could push through this.

What could happen
is the drill could break,

or there could be a collapse
and someone could die, man.
So we can't enter in here.

-[Duane] Time to call it.
Let's do it.
-[Charlie] Yeah.

-Tell 'em. Shut it down.
-[Charlie] Okay.

[whistles]

Same [bleep] again.

Yeah, this really is
so disappointing for me.

I mean, this was a big day.
This was supposed to be
a target point hit today,

and [bleep] So it's
a very disappointing day
for me.

I'm kinda pissed off,
to be honest with you.

No drilling now.

We're almost there. It'd be
a shame for all of this
to have been a waste.

-[Charlie] Yeah.
-Yeah.

[Charlie] We'll figure out
a way to get through it.

Every time we seem to be
at this energy zone area,

we're being thwarted
by something.

You know, you just can't help
but believe, you know,

that there is something
to the phenomena that occurs
here in the Uinta Basin

and in the Uinta Mountains.

It just sucks. We're dead
in the water at this point.

We were almost there.

We almost had it.

[Charlie] That's just about
as disappointing
as you can get right there.

[Duane] We'll call in
some folks and bring in
some gap.

Let's get the hell
out of here, fellas.

[dramatic instrumental music]

We really gotta find out
what the hell is going on
over there.

[narrator] After striking
an impenetrable rock layer
in the energy zone,

Duane has phoned
a familiar friend
for some help.

[Charlie] So what have we got
going on?

I got a hold of Stephen Leeah
and he's sending
somebody else out.

[narrator] Stephen Leeah
and his team uncovered
the keyhole cavern

lurking below the energy zone.

[Stephen] You've got a tunnel,
or pathways,
inside your mountain.

Now, what's that doing here?

[narrator] And Duane is hoping
he can figure out

what is preventing the drill
from breaching the cavern.

Who's he sending out?

[Duane] He's sending Dave,
who's an expert.

[Dave] Electromagnetic
radiation is all around
in the environment

and, from that,
we're able to deduce patterns

about what could be happening
in a physical level.

[Duane] And then,
there's Michael Boyd coming,
and he's the real deal.

There they are.

-Hey, hey.
-[Dave] How's it going?

-[Chad] What's up, Dave?
How you doing, man?
-It's good to see you again.

-Yeah, welcome back, brother.
-Thank you so much.

-Yeah. Hell, yeah.
-This is Michael Boyd

Hey.

-Charlie.
Good to see you, my friend.
-Good to see ya.

-I'm liking the ponytail, man.
Doing the long hair.
-[Michael] Yeah.

I get a haircut
every year or so,

and I tell 'em,
"Business in front,
party in the back,

-archaeologist all the time."
-[all chuckling]

[narrator] Michael Boyd
is a quantum physicist
and archaeologist

who has been conducting
field research
for Stephen Leeah

for over a decade.

[Michael] Stephen told us
to come look at
what you guys are finding,

that you've been drilling
and finding all kinds
of cool stuff.

Take this inside
so we can start
taking a look at things.

Perfect. Perfect.
That's what we're here for.

[Dave] Give me just a second
to get set up here.

-[line ringing]
-Okay.

That's it. Oh, here it comes.

-Well, hello.
-[laughing]

-[Dave] All right.
-The presentation right there.

Welcome to my spread.

-Baguettes, jambon, croissant.
-[Chad] What are you
doing there?

We've been working
on European outreach here.

We're in the beginning
genesis of it.

Duane, what's your problem?

We're drilling down
where your scan was, and--

My God, Duane,
you digging down
in that black hole?

Are you crazy?

That's not the point, Stephen.
I've always been crazy.

What do you need
our help with?

So we drilled right over here,

right at the base of the key,

just pushing on something
that's super hard
that we can't get through.

[Mike] Did you hit
a hard pan or anything?

-[Duane] We did hit hard pan
down about 100 foot going in.
-Yeah.

-Took us forever
to drill through it.
-[Mike] Okay.

So there's a couple of things
that could be going on.

Some natural phenomena

that's due to the features
that we have here
that we see underground.

Basically, what's going on is,
where you have the dark area,

that's a higher density area.

And, then, these other areas
are lower density.

[narrator] Michael believes
the quantum scan

shows the center
of the keyhole cavern

to be much more dense
than the surrounding rock.

But whether it's a hard rock
making up a cave ceiling,

or something else entirely,
it is still unknown.

-It seems like that we have
a perfect place to hide stuff.
-Right.

It could be something to do
with the Aztec, possibly.

It makes sense
that you might have
hit something down below.

It could be
some kind of energy

that we don't
quite understand yet.

I'm not quite sure what it is,
but there's something big
out there.

[narrator] Coming up...

[Mike] Okay, everybody,
just step three foot
at the same time.

[narrator] The quantum team
investigates the area
around the energy zone...

[Mike] Look at that.

[Dave] I mean,
you can even see, like,
the impact.

Like it crash-landed into it.

[narrator] ...leading to
a shocking discovery.

It all started
with a meteorite impact.

[tense instrumental music]

[Mike] You might've
hit something down below.

It could be something to do
with the Aztec.

I'm not quite sure what it is,
but there's something big
out there.

Okay, guys, listen,
you know the drill,

I need time progression.

I'm gonna need video footage,

some deeper scans,
and see what's going on
in there.

I need more data.
I need dirt, I need samples
out of that ground.

You got it.

Duane, Chad,
great seeing you all again,

but my wife's calling me.
We got dinner to go to.

We're going to eat
some snails tonight.

-[laughing]
-Pray for me.

[narrator] Chad and the team
take Michael and Dave
to the energy zone drill site

to investigate the area.

[Chad] Yeah, right there
is where we poked the hole.

So that's where we found
the ba*ls, the blue dirt,

and that's where we hit
that super hard object,
whatever it was, at 120 foot.

We've had hell with this site.

We drilled it and we hit
something solid.

We couldn't go any further
through that.

[Charlie] We hit
and it just smoothed
our bits off.

And they were good bits.
They were sharp, they had
tiger teeth on them,

they were raw to bits.
So it is a hard sumbut
down there.

This is some of that mud
that we've been pulling out
right there.

It's wet.
It's just as wet as ever.

Certain elements
produce a blue color
when they're oxidized.

And how deep did you hit
the blue sand?

I think that was around
like that.

[Mike] Oh, boy, that's deep.

What I'm gonna suggest we do
is we survey up above here.

So what we wanna do
is some transects,
it's called.

[narrator] Transect
is a field survey method

where collectors
move in unison
along a fixed path.

By measuring the distances
between similar objects,

they can generate
a scientific sample
of the ground composition.

Okay, so what we're gonna do
is we're all gonna line up
five feet apart.

I'm gonna give you each
a few of these flags

and, then, we're gonna
walk together

and we're gonna look down
and see if we see anything.

Okay, let's line up.

[narrator] Michael hopes
the survey will identify

localized minerals and objects

to give him insight
on the geological forces

that make the energy zone
so unique

and tell them
what's protecting the cavern
from being breached.

Okay, everybody, just step
three foot at the same time.

You see something,
put it down.

[tense instrumental music]

Anyone see anything cool yet?

[Duane] There's a [bleep]
Does that count?

[Charlie] There's something
that's kinda interesting.

[Ryan] I got one.

It looks like another one
of those weird nugget,

metal-looking nodules.

Whatever these things are,

these little molten nodules,

I've never, never,
come across these anywhere
throughout the basin.

And I've spent 17 years
going to all these various
paranormal hotspots,

spending time in the desert.

The hell are these things?

Yeah, there's...
there's a lot of them
in there.

Look at that.

I see something
embedded in the rock there.

That's something else.

I gotta take a picture
of that.

[Dave] I mean, you can
even see, like, the impact,
a kind of depressed...

Like it crash-landed into it.

Oh, right here. Looks like
it might be a stone artefact.

Check that out. Wow!

That's awesome.

-[Ryan] And it's obsidian.
-[Mike] Look at that.

That's beautiful.

[Ryan] You can see
where it's been worked.

[Mike] That edge is sharper
than steel.

Obsidian was like money
to Native Americans.

They called it black gold.

When we do
our geological research
on this area,

I'm hopeful that we'll find
some evidence

of this volcanic rock
in the area.

[narrator] Obsidian
is a volcanic glass

and has been shaped
into tools and weapons

for hundreds of thousands
of years.

Its unique molecular
properties allow it to be
sharpened to an edge

500 times sharper
than a steel blade.

This made it the preferred
weapon of Aztecs and other
ancient civilizations

who would mount
deadly obsidian blades
on wooden clubs.

According to the account
of one Spanish conquistador,

the Aztec blades could take
the head off of a horse
with a single blow.

This could actually be
Aztec material
that we're looking at.

Okay, guys,

I think we're about done here.

We're gonna take the samples
so that we can do
further analysis

in the lab on it.

We'll see what we get.

-Thanks, Michael.
-[Mike] Oh, yeah.

[tense instrumental music]

How many beers have you had?

Had one.

-One at a time.
-[laughing]

You know, when we were
pulling up that blue dirt,

we had these
limestone-looking rocks.

And I don't know
if this was giving the color
to the blue dirt,

but I've been looking at it,
and it looks like

-there's something yellow
and sparkly in the blue dirt.
-Really?

When I ground
some of this stuff up
and I panned it,

and I could see
some really fine color in it.

It was, you know,
like flour dough
or something like that.

But you could see
the color in it.

[Ryan] Maybe this has
some unique properties to it.

And if that is gold in there,
we could be hitting
the mother lode

of some kind of
rich gold vein
underneath here.

[Chad] Yeah, we put
a lot of work into this.

It'd be nice if that blue dirt
paid off.

[dramatic instrumental music]

[Ryan] Taking off.

[narrator] After collecting
geological samples,
including obsidian,

from the energy zone
drill site,

the team has given
the material to geologist
Michael Boyd for analysis.

While they await his findings,
quantum imaging expert
Dave Wilkinson

performs a scan
of the keyhole cavern hole.

[Dave] I'm gonna take
some more footage
so we can scan the area.

We're gonna see
if we get to collect
some more information

about what's going on
with this hole.

[narrator] Earlier
in the year,

Dave's image scans
provided the dimensions
and shape

of the cavern below.

[Dave] There's a round portion


[narrator] But now,
with a 120-foot hole

drilled into the center
of the cavern,

he can get information
on what lies at the dense
center of the cave ceiling.

[Dave] Duane and Chad
told me they hit something
really hard.

What I think happened
is they might have cracked it.

So, hopefully, we can get
some data that can reveal

how big the cavity could be
and what the best way
to get in would be.

Oh, my God. Man, this is...

really interesting.

Holy [bleep]

[dramatic instrumental music]

[tense instrumental music]

[narrator] The next day,
the quantum team returns
to Blind Frog Ranch

and are ready to share
their results with the crew.

[Chad] So, right now,
we have quantum coming out.

We don't know
what the quantum guys
have found,

but they've told us
that they've found

some really interesting stuff
going on, so I'm excited
to hear it.

-Hey, Chad. Great to see you.
-Welcome, guys.

Hey, you too, man.

-How you doing, Dave?
-[Dave] Good to see you, man.

We've got Stephen
on the phone right now.

[Mike] Oh, perfect, let's go.

Duane, it's good to see you
again, man.

[Duane] Good
seeing you, Stephen.

-So we got Stephen on the...
-All right.

-Sorry we're late, guys.
-[Duane] Hey again.

Hey, hey, hey, hey.
How are you doing there, bud?

-[Mike] Good.
-[Ryan] How are you doing?

Duane, I told you
a long time ago,

you're gonna have to end up
taking the red pill
or the blue pill from us.

Well, my boy, Doc,
is ready to give you both.

Are you ready for this?

All over the ground,
I'm finding these little rock.

And, then, I found
this one piece

where it's a big glob
of 'em fused together.

So we did a whole series
of tests to look for
what materials we had.

We did EDX
with a scanning
electron microscope

to look for composition.

[narrator] Used extensively
in topography studies,

an EDX is an energy
dispersive X-ray

that uses electrons
to determine the elemental
composition of ground samples.

We did X-ray diffraction
to look at the crystallography
of the sample,

and we found iridium.

Well, iridium means
off-Earth, right?

It's not natural
to this planet.

It all appears, right now,
to boil back
to a meteorite impact.

Congratulations, boys!
Looks like you all got
a meteor at Blind Frog Ranch.

[narrator] According
to the quantum team,

the fragments of metal
and rock that the drill
was encountering

were the direct result
of a large impacted meteorite

sitting above
the keyhole cavern.

I told you guys.
That's why they [bleep] up.

It's a huge magnetic ball
like a meteorite, huh?

I have never, ever,

have seen such an energy flow
as I saw in your property,

where none should exist.

[narrator] Every day,
thousands of pieces
of interstellar material

enter Earth's atmosphere
and burn up
before reaching the surface.

Meteorites larger than
100 feet, however,

can make impact
and send hundreds
of droplets of melted rock

around the impact area.

These tiny chunks
are called bomblets,

and they contain traces
of minerals and metals.

Their size is proportional
to the mass
of the meteor itself

and force of impact.

[Mike] It would have had to be
a pretty big piece of material

for us to be seeing
such large bomblets
down here on the surface.

-[Chad] Right.
-So there's something big
out there.

I mean, what we've learned
today is there's a huge
[bleep] meteorite

right here.

Well, that explains
why it's so hard.

We couldn't get 120 foot.
It was just rock solid.

And if it was a meteor,
there's no way
we could get through it.

[Stephen] Duane, listen,
I'm gonna be completely
honest with you,

Texas to Texas boy,

there is something huge
going on on your property.

And the only way to find out
is to get down there.

So what might we keep doing
now, Stephen?

[Stephen] Duane,
it's gonna take several months

for our quantum team
to get together

and compile all the data
that you guys have collected.

[Chad] So Stephen's
gonna take more scans

for the quantum guys
to evaluate more of this area,

but it's gonna take months.

So we don't have months.
We have to find
another way in.

There's not telling
when we're going to get
more rain.

We get a bad enough storm
and everything's
flooded again.

We need to get down there now!

[dramatic instrumental music]

[narrator] On the next episode
of Mystery at Blind
Frog Ranch...

[Chad] We brought in
Stephen Leeah,

and he's saying
that it could be
a huge meteorite down there.

[man] These things hit Earth
just like a huge b*mb
going off,

and it's created fracturing
around this large
impact crater

where we could search
for natural openings.

My dad's gonna go over there
and, then, start digging.

-Oh, [bleep]
-[Chad] God almighty!

Piece of [bleep] stuck.

[Duane] We're getting
worse and worse.

[Chad] See that?

We're gonna be out
about a half
a million dollars.

[Chad] Hey, we got something!

There's another chamber
coming off in here.

[Chad] Oh, yes!
It looks like a tunnel.

We are the first people
to see this,

possibly in hundreds of years,
if not thousands.

This is amazing.

Holy [bleep]