"The UnXplained" Strange Tales from the American Frontier

1 00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:03,790 Mysterious ancient earthworks 2 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:06,120 that lead to the land of the dead. 3 00:00:06,290 --> 00:00:10,500 Strange lights that haunt a town for hundreds of years. 4 00:00:10,700 --> 00:00:12,950 And horrifying tales 5 00:00:13,120 --> 00:00:17,410 of monsters said to roam the American frontier. 6 00:00:17,620 --> 00:00:19,330 In 1803, 7 00:00:19,540 --> 00:00:22,500 the United States completed the Louisiana purchase, 8 00:00:22,700 --> 00:00:27,000 acquiring 828,000 square miles 9 00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:31,200 of untamed wilderness from France for $15 million. 10 00:00:31,410 --> 00:00:32,750 Quite the deal. 11 00:00:32,910 --> 00:00:35,000 And almost immediately, scores of explorers 12 00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:37,000 and settlers began pushing westward 13 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:42,386 to discover much more than just an uncharted frontier. 14 00:00:42,410 --> 00:00:46,346 Pioneers spoke of bizarre, man-made structures, 15 00:00:46,370 --> 00:00:50,660 strange mummies and weird, ghostly lights. 16 00:00:50,830 --> 00:00:56,056 Were these merely tall tales spun around the campfire? 17 00:00:56,080 --> 00:00:58,830 Or was the American frontier far stranger 18 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:01,000 than we ever imagined? 19 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:04,660 Well, that is what we'll try and find out. 20 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:12,074 21 00:01:20,330 --> 00:01:23,000 From the 1700s to the early 1900s, 22 00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:26,660 the era of the American frontier marked a period 23 00:01:26,830 --> 00:01:29,200 of rapid westward expansion. 24 00:01:29,330 --> 00:01:31,410 It was a time where explorers, 25 00:01:31,580 --> 00:01:36,080 pioneers and adventurers moved into unknown lands 26 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:39,830 to create a new life and build a new country. 27 00:01:41,870 --> 00:01:45,016 America really starts with the frontier. 28 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:47,660 The father of the country, George Washington, 29 00:01:47,790 --> 00:01:51,580 makes his name by fighting in the French and Indian wars 30 00:01:51,700 --> 00:01:54,660 on the American frontier, 31 00:01:54,830 --> 00:01:58,330 beyond the mountains of those first coastal settlements 32 00:01:58,500 --> 00:02:01,160 that made up the American colonies. 33 00:02:01,290 --> 00:02:04,250 As more people arrived, 34 00:02:04,370 --> 00:02:07,120 a lot of those people went straight to the frontier. 35 00:02:07,290 --> 00:02:11,160 And for the next 100 years, 36 00:02:11,330 --> 00:02:15,620 the story of america is really moving across that frontier. 37 00:02:15,830 --> 00:02:18,330 And as it did, 38 00:02:18,500 --> 00:02:21,870 all of the different cultures and landscapes 39 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:25,290 and the troubles that it took to get through those places 40 00:02:25,410 --> 00:02:29,120 all added up to the myth and legends of america. 41 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:33,410 So on the frontier, the American west 42 00:02:33,580 --> 00:02:35,250 it really became the land of promise. 43 00:02:35,370 --> 00:02:39,250 The idea was that there was unlimited resources, 44 00:02:39,410 --> 00:02:43,750 and all you had to do to get it for yourself was go there. 45 00:02:43,870 --> 00:02:50,370 Be willing to brave danger or strife or difficulty, 46 00:02:50,540 --> 00:02:53,950 and all of the resources, the land 47 00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:56,000 that could all be yours. 48 00:02:56,160 --> 00:02:59,080 This was a really different idea for people. 49 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:02,410 That there was somewhere where anyone, 50 00:03:02,580 --> 00:03:07,120 not of a good family or a particular lineage, 51 00:03:07,250 --> 00:03:11,160 but anyone could achieve their dreams. 52 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:15,500 In 1803, president Thomas Jefferson 53 00:03:15,620 --> 00:03:18,580 purchased the Louisiana territory from France, 54 00:03:18,700 --> 00:03:21,330 doubling the size of the United States. 55 00:03:21,450 --> 00:03:23,516 And for the next 40 years, 56 00:03:23,540 --> 00:03:25,516 around seven million people took part 57 00:03:25,540 --> 00:03:28,500 in the treacherous westward migration. 58 00:03:28,620 --> 00:03:34,330 But in 1848, gold was discovered in California, 59 00:03:34,540 --> 00:03:37,790 igniting a feverish frenzy of treasure seekers 60 00:03:37,950 --> 00:03:42,540 who ventured even farther west to claim their fortune. 61 00:03:42,700 --> 00:03:46,410 When gold was first discovered in California, 62 00:03:46,620 --> 00:03:50,500 that brought a staggering 90,000 people into the frontier 63 00:03:50,700 --> 00:03:53,200 and across the rockies to try to find gold. 64 00:03:53,410 --> 00:03:55,160 And of course, along the way, 65 00:03:55,370 --> 00:03:57,290 they were prospecting the streams, 66 00:03:57,500 --> 00:04:00,556 and they were looking for gold, and they found a lot of wealth. 67 00:04:00,580 --> 00:04:02,660 And some people became quite rich overnight. 68 00:04:02,830 --> 00:04:07,790 The gold rush happened again ten years later in Colorado in 1859, 69 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:11,330 when another 100,000 people decided to brave the frontier 70 00:04:11,540 --> 00:04:13,250 and try to find gold. 71 00:04:13,370 --> 00:04:17,580 The frontier could provide an untold opportunity 72 00:04:17,790 --> 00:04:20,040 for those who knew how to look for it. 73 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:22,000 There was enough people that they needed 74 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:24,176 to bring in cattle to feed them all. 75 00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:25,950 And with cattle, you need cowboys. 76 00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:28,330 And now you have the west. 77 00:04:28,540 --> 00:04:30,660 By 1862, 78 00:04:30,870 --> 00:04:34,200 president Abraham Lincoln signed the homestead act, 79 00:04:34,370 --> 00:04:38,160 granting Americans 160 acres of public land for free 80 00:04:38,370 --> 00:04:41,750 if they were willing to farm and develop their claim. 81 00:04:43,540 --> 00:04:46,080 Around four million people took on the challenge 82 00:04:46,250 --> 00:04:49,620 to be part of a westward expansion. 83 00:04:49,790 --> 00:04:51,080 Yah! 84 00:04:51,250 --> 00:04:55,580 And what they found was a world unlike any other. 85 00:04:56,540 --> 00:04:58,160 The stuff 86 00:04:58,290 --> 00:05:00,620 that they found in the west was truly amazing. 87 00:05:00,830 --> 00:05:05,000 The yellow stone country, the Grand Canyon. 88 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:10,330 Native American ruins, where they were building walled cities 89 00:05:10,540 --> 00:05:13,290 that we never knew that that was going on. 90 00:05:13,500 --> 00:05:15,790 They even found bones 91 00:05:15,910 --> 00:05:19,750 of ancient elephants and sabertooth tigers. 92 00:05:19,910 --> 00:05:22,540 And newspapers at the time were happy to print stories of, 93 00:05:22,700 --> 00:05:24,660 you know, finding giants in the west. 94 00:05:24,870 --> 00:05:27,250 You could believe that 95 00:05:27,370 --> 00:05:29,370 because so much was found in the west. 96 00:05:29,540 --> 00:05:32,330 But is it just legend, or is it truth? 97 00:05:32,540 --> 00:05:33,910 There was a lot of truth 98 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:35,580 stranger than fiction in the west. 99 00:05:36,620 --> 00:05:38,870 You're moving to the area that was not mapped. 100 00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:41,080 A land that had been inhabited by cultures 101 00:05:41,250 --> 00:05:43,410 for thousands upon thousands of years. 102 00:05:43,580 --> 00:05:47,160 Most of the north American continent was native American. 103 00:05:47,290 --> 00:05:50,540 And these cultures have their own stories, 104 00:05:50,700 --> 00:05:52,830 a lot of strange stories. 105 00:05:52,950 --> 00:05:56,620 Many, many million beliefs, native legendary creatures 106 00:05:56,790 --> 00:05:59,500 that had become a part of western folklore. 107 00:05:59,660 --> 00:06:02,370 Even the most classic American supernatural other, big foot 108 00:06:02,540 --> 00:06:04,160 you know, sasquatch 109 00:06:04,370 --> 00:06:07,410 this comes directly from native American lore. 110 00:06:08,370 --> 00:06:10,200 While pioneers experienced 111 00:06:10,370 --> 00:06:12,660 native American mysticism for the first time, 112 00:06:12,830 --> 00:06:16,370 the new settlers were also creating stories and beliefs 113 00:06:16,540 --> 00:06:18,700 that were all their own. 114 00:06:18,910 --> 00:06:21,910 This included a strange form of entertainment 115 00:06:22,080 --> 00:06:25,540 found in traveling shows that toured the frontier. 116 00:06:25,750 --> 00:06:28,450 They passed off questionable relics as genuine 117 00:06:28,660 --> 00:06:31,370 like mcginty, the petrified man, 118 00:06:31,540 --> 00:06:34,330 the alleged mummy of Abraham Lincoln's assassin, 119 00:06:34,500 --> 00:06:36,450 John wilkes booth, 120 00:06:36,620 --> 00:06:39,870 and other oddities that further blurred the line 121 00:06:40,040 --> 00:06:42,500 between fact and fiction. 122 00:06:42,700 --> 00:06:45,160 Frontier settlements were 123 00:06:45,370 --> 00:06:48,580 completely isolated from civilized america. 124 00:06:48,700 --> 00:06:53,540 So, carnivals and related traveling shows 125 00:06:53,700 --> 00:06:56,790 brought a certain kind of novelty to these small towns. 126 00:06:57,000 --> 00:06:59,620 And one of the favorite attractions 127 00:06:59,750 --> 00:07:02,830 of such places was the freak show. 128 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:08,500 And these freak shows would have all sorts of strange animals. 129 00:07:08,700 --> 00:07:12,580 You might have a two-headed bull. 130 00:07:12,750 --> 00:07:16,450 And there was also human curiosities. 131 00:07:16,620 --> 00:07:19,370 Like, very big humans. 132 00:07:19,540 --> 00:07:22,160 People who were eight, nine feet tall. 133 00:07:22,330 --> 00:07:23,700 They would have people 134 00:07:23,870 --> 00:07:26,870 who had hair growing over their entire body. 135 00:07:28,500 --> 00:07:31,950 And for the performers, this was often a way 136 00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:35,330 to get out of a doomed life 137 00:07:35,500 --> 00:07:38,330 where they couldn't really have a regular life. 138 00:07:38,450 --> 00:07:41,040 Instead, they got to travel, 139 00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:44,500 entertain people and achieve a certain kind of fame. 140 00:07:45,540 --> 00:07:47,200 While so-called human curiosities 141 00:07:47,370 --> 00:07:49,540 garnered great attention, 142 00:07:49,750 --> 00:07:53,870 there was also one strange object 143 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:56,790 that attracted so much notoriety in the west, 144 00:07:56,950 --> 00:08:01,790 people claimed it cursed the entire city of San Francisco. 145 00:08:01,910 --> 00:08:04,160 One of the most grotesque, 146 00:08:04,290 --> 00:08:08,120 weird curiosities was the head 147 00:08:08,330 --> 00:08:10,580 of the notorious gold rush bandit 148 00:08:10,700 --> 00:08:13,450 and outlaw joaquín murrieta. 149 00:08:14,410 --> 00:08:16,660 And this was a human head 150 00:08:16,830 --> 00:08:20,500 in a jar of whiskey, the legend goes. 151 00:08:20,660 --> 00:08:23,200 It toured around the state of California 152 00:08:23,370 --> 00:08:26,870 and its last permanent exhibit was 153 00:08:27,040 --> 00:08:29,830 at Dr. Jordan's anatomical museum 154 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:33,660 of weird curiosities in San Francisco. 155 00:08:33,790 --> 00:08:38,540 And it was in that museum in 1906 156 00:08:38,700 --> 00:08:41,160 when the great earthquake of San Francisco struck. 157 00:08:44,410 --> 00:08:46,660 The whole place was leveled. 158 00:08:46,870 --> 00:08:50,830 And the legend grew that perhaps joaquín murrieta 159 00:08:51,040 --> 00:08:55,330 cursed San Francisco for displaying his head 160 00:08:55,540 --> 00:08:57,660 and caused the actual earthquake. 161 00:08:57,830 --> 00:08:59,500 While it's safe to say 162 00:08:59,700 --> 00:09:02,450 that a head in a jar was not responsible 163 00:09:02,580 --> 00:09:04,580 for leveling San Francisco, 164 00:09:04,750 --> 00:09:08,160 could some of the countless strange tales and legends 165 00:09:08,330 --> 00:09:09,790 that are still told 166 00:09:09,950 --> 00:09:14,000 from the American frontier really be true? 167 00:09:14,160 --> 00:09:17,080 We have the historical reality of the frontier 168 00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:18,620 and westward expansion, 169 00:09:18,790 --> 00:09:21,870 and then this real mythical, legendary world 170 00:09:22,040 --> 00:09:25,830 of the wild west becomes this backdrop. 171 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:30,370 Like a landscape against which anything can happen. 172 00:09:30,540 --> 00:09:32,500 If we're looking for a place 173 00:09:32,660 --> 00:09:34,790 where unknowns are going to be encountered, 174 00:09:34,910 --> 00:09:37,660 where strange and bizarre things can happen, 175 00:09:37,790 --> 00:09:41,660 the American frontier is a magnet for stories like that. 176 00:09:48,910 --> 00:09:52,160 This remote frontier town is famous 177 00:09:52,330 --> 00:09:54,450 for a rather strange phenomenon 178 00:09:54,620 --> 00:09:57,226 that has been witnessed since the 1880s. 179 00:09:57,250 --> 00:09:59,660 The spectacle is so well known, 180 00:09:59,870 --> 00:10:01,620 the town constructed a viewing station 181 00:10:01,790 --> 00:10:05,910 for the thousands of onlookers who, every year, 182 00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:09,950 hope to catch sight of... The marfa lights. 183 00:10:11,500 --> 00:10:13,290 My gosh, it's totally moving. 184 00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:17,000 I've been coming out here for a long time, 185 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:18,950 going to the marfa lights viewing station 186 00:10:19,160 --> 00:10:21,370 and seeing what I thought were the marfa lights. 187 00:10:21,540 --> 00:10:25,120 People have been seeing these lights for hundreds of years. 188 00:10:26,290 --> 00:10:28,000 They mostly appear at night 189 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:31,160 and mostly in an area called the Mitchell flat, 190 00:10:31,370 --> 00:10:33,660 which is between alpine and marfa. 191 00:10:33,870 --> 00:10:36,160 The more I reported, the more I realized 192 00:10:36,370 --> 00:10:39,040 that there was no real consistency to the reports. 193 00:10:39,160 --> 00:10:42,910 Everybody had an individualized experience with the lights. 194 00:10:43,080 --> 00:10:46,290 It's, like, flickering and changing colors. 195 00:10:46,410 --> 00:10:47,870 I talked to people that said 196 00:10:48,040 --> 00:10:50,040 they have different colors, they hover. 197 00:10:50,200 --> 00:10:52,830 Sometimes they shot off, sometimes they came back. 198 00:10:53,040 --> 00:10:54,950 They were different velocities. 199 00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:58,200 A lot of people say how playful they are. 200 00:10:58,370 --> 00:11:01,790 It's like they're having a spiritual experience 201 00:11:01,910 --> 00:11:03,830 with these mystery lights. 202 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:06,040 While some eyewitnesses claim 203 00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:07,830 to feel a transcendent experience 204 00:11:08,040 --> 00:11:09,950 witnessing the marfa lights, 205 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:13,950 others have found them to be rather unsettling. 206 00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:19,040 Belle peña-Lancaster was just 13 years old 207 00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:21,790 when she and a bus full of her classmates 208 00:11:21,950 --> 00:11:26,000 got an up-close look at the mysterious anomaly. 209 00:11:26,950 --> 00:11:29,040 I remember sitting in the bus, 210 00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:31,410 and that's when we saw them for the first time. 211 00:11:31,620 --> 00:11:33,160 They were out there in the field. 212 00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:37,040 And they came closer and closer and closer to the bus. 213 00:11:37,250 --> 00:11:39,500 Just kind of playing with each other. 214 00:11:39,660 --> 00:11:41,910 The whole bus lit up with the lights. 215 00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:45,540 It was, like, blue, green, like, a soft yellow light. 216 00:11:45,660 --> 00:11:47,750 But we could see they weren't spherical. 217 00:11:47,950 --> 00:11:49,410 They were two-dimensional. 218 00:11:49,540 --> 00:11:51,410 They were about the size of a big platter. 219 00:11:51,580 --> 00:11:53,200 So, they're flat. 220 00:11:53,370 --> 00:11:57,000 And they went back quickly to the end of the field. 221 00:11:57,160 --> 00:12:00,500 Some of the girls were really upset and crying. 222 00:12:00,660 --> 00:12:02,250 And that's when our coach was just... 223 00:12:02,410 --> 00:12:05,410 Told the bus driver, "we got to go. We got to go." 224 00:12:05,580 --> 00:12:08,290 We got two heading this way. 225 00:12:08,450 --> 00:12:09,910 I grew up here. 226 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:12,830 We all had our own idea what the lights were. 227 00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:14,830 They are very intelligent. 228 00:12:14,950 --> 00:12:18,160 I'll tell you how we communicated with them. 229 00:12:18,370 --> 00:12:21,290 So whenever those lights appeared, we would take a laser 230 00:12:21,450 --> 00:12:23,450 and hit that light with green, blue, whatever. 231 00:12:23,620 --> 00:12:25,450 And they answered back. 232 00:12:25,620 --> 00:12:27,040 But whatever color you hit it with, 233 00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:30,910 it turned that color, and it grew every single time. 234 00:12:31,080 --> 00:12:33,080 Now that is light that did that. 235 00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:35,200 Those lights... Not supposed to talk. 236 00:12:35,370 --> 00:12:37,410 They're not supposed to communicate, but they did. 237 00:12:37,540 --> 00:12:42,330 Can the marfa lights communicate with us in some way? 238 00:12:42,500 --> 00:12:45,120 Well, it's an intriguing claim. 239 00:12:46,370 --> 00:12:50,160 And one that's made even more compelling 240 00:12:50,370 --> 00:12:54,660 when you consider what happened to military personnel 241 00:12:54,870 --> 00:12:57,700 who were stationed here during world war ii. 242 00:12:57,870 --> 00:13:00,290 The marfa army airfield was 243 00:13:00,450 --> 00:13:03,660 the largest training bomber base in world war ii. 244 00:13:03,830 --> 00:13:05,830 During the training progress, 245 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:08,040 whenever those bombers took off, 246 00:13:08,200 --> 00:13:11,200 the lights would come out of the ground 247 00:13:11,370 --> 00:13:14,160 and either fly with the plane or fly in the plane. 248 00:13:14,330 --> 00:13:19,200 And they got to a point where they would interfere 249 00:13:19,330 --> 00:13:24,160 with the communication that base had with pilots. 250 00:13:24,290 --> 00:13:26,330 The military decided to shut it down 251 00:13:26,500 --> 00:13:28,830 because the lights were getting out of control. 252 00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:32,250 The officer in charge of flight ops, his name was Fritz kahl. 253 00:13:32,450 --> 00:13:35,080 He became the mayor of marfa later on. 254 00:13:35,250 --> 00:13:37,700 He was very much afraid of the marfa lights. 255 00:13:37,870 --> 00:13:39,500 He said, "stay away from 'em. 256 00:13:39,660 --> 00:13:41,120 They're not of this world." 257 00:13:42,120 --> 00:13:44,000 Just what are the marfa lights? 258 00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:46,200 While no one can say for sure, 259 00:13:46,370 --> 00:13:50,330 to this day, there is endless speculation 260 00:13:50,500 --> 00:13:54,500 about what this mysterious phenomenon could be. 261 00:13:54,700 --> 00:13:58,660 Since the first time anyone ever saw the marfa lights, 262 00:13:58,830 --> 00:14:00,830 they've come up with theories to explain them. 263 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:02,870 There is gas rising up 264 00:14:03,040 --> 00:14:05,330 from the volcanic floor of the Mitchell flat. 265 00:14:05,500 --> 00:14:07,100 That might have something to do with it. 266 00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:09,290 There's this theory called "fata morgana," 267 00:14:09,450 --> 00:14:11,000 which is what happens 268 00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:13,200 when you see a ship out on the horizon, 269 00:14:13,370 --> 00:14:15,500 and it seems to be floating in the air. 270 00:14:15,700 --> 00:14:18,870 So maybe the lights are just a mirage. 271 00:14:19,040 --> 00:14:20,660 A lot of folks out here think 272 00:14:20,790 --> 00:14:24,250 that the marfa lights are connected to ufos and aliens. 273 00:14:24,450 --> 00:14:26,750 But the biggest theory is 274 00:14:26,870 --> 00:14:30,660 headlights on the highway from presidio, Texas. 275 00:14:30,790 --> 00:14:33,040 Of course, there were no car headlights 276 00:14:33,200 --> 00:14:36,500 back in the 19th century, but that is the number-one theory. 277 00:14:38,540 --> 00:14:41,950 The first recorded sighting of these lights is 1883 278 00:14:42,120 --> 00:14:44,910 by a 16-year-old cowboy named Robert Ellison. 279 00:14:45,080 --> 00:14:48,910 He was driving cattle with some other cowboys, 280 00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:51,540 and he told his family 281 00:14:51,750 --> 00:14:54,910 about seeing these weird lights in the sky. 282 00:14:55,080 --> 00:14:58,120 There is no documentation to these early accounts. 283 00:14:58,250 --> 00:15:02,410 What there are, are oral stories, oral history. 284 00:15:02,540 --> 00:15:05,540 But that doesn't mean that they're not true. 285 00:15:06,700 --> 00:15:08,040 With no other explanation 286 00:15:08,250 --> 00:15:10,620 for the strange, dancing lights on the horizon, 287 00:15:10,790 --> 00:15:13,200 it is said that Robert Ellison believed 288 00:15:13,370 --> 00:15:17,250 they may have been fires set by a local apache tribe. 289 00:15:19,200 --> 00:15:21,080 But what's so intriguing is 290 00:15:21,250 --> 00:15:22,930 that the apache had their own explanations 291 00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:26,120 for these ghostly illuminations. 292 00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:28,950 They believed they were connected 293 00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:34,660 to the death of a mighty apache chief named... Alsate. 294 00:15:34,870 --> 00:15:37,330 The apache had a chief named alsate, 295 00:15:37,540 --> 00:15:40,540 who was killed in the wars with the Mexicans 296 00:15:40,700 --> 00:15:42,290 back in the 19th century. 297 00:15:42,500 --> 00:15:45,870 And what the apaches and the Mexicans thought was 298 00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:48,500 that any mysterious light seen down there 299 00:15:48,660 --> 00:15:51,556 was alsate's ghost. 300 00:15:51,580 --> 00:15:54,676 Are the mystery lights the ghost of an apache chief 301 00:15:54,700 --> 00:15:56,016 wandering through the wilderness? 302 00:15:56,040 --> 00:15:58,120 I don't know. Maybe so. 303 00:15:58,290 --> 00:16:00,500 There are native tribes 304 00:16:00,660 --> 00:16:05,660 that speculate that the ghost lights are the spirit 305 00:16:05,870 --> 00:16:08,910 of a chief, and that the spirits 306 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:11,950 of the warriors are still searching for him. 307 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:15,660 There are native stories in that area 308 00:16:15,830 --> 00:16:18,000 that these are called "ghost lights." 309 00:16:18,160 --> 00:16:21,016 We don't know for sure, 310 00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:25,886 but native stories always have some basis in truth. 311 00:16:25,910 --> 00:16:28,540 I've talked to people that had seen them, 312 00:16:28,700 --> 00:16:32,000 that said that they've actually communicated with them 313 00:16:32,200 --> 00:16:34,410 and would ask them, "move to the left", 314 00:16:34,540 --> 00:16:36,330 "move to the right, move higher," 315 00:16:36,500 --> 00:16:41,200 and these lights would, in turn, follow those instructions. 316 00:16:42,250 --> 00:16:44,120 Stories of the marfa lights are 317 00:16:44,290 --> 00:16:48,200 as old as Texas itself, and continue to this day. 318 00:16:48,330 --> 00:16:51,000 And while there's no definitive answer 319 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:53,410 for what these anomalies really are, 320 00:16:53,580 --> 00:16:57,080 this phenomenon has become an accepted member 321 00:16:57,200 --> 00:17:00,200 of this remote, frontier community. 322 00:17:00,370 --> 00:17:03,500 The marfa public library, which is this really cool, 323 00:17:03,660 --> 00:17:06,410 little small-town library, right off the town square 324 00:17:06,580 --> 00:17:10,200 there's a room full of local history. 325 00:17:10,410 --> 00:17:13,950 And one of the highlights of the room is this binder. 326 00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:15,790 It's about four inches thick, 327 00:17:15,950 --> 00:17:17,910 and it's full of marfa lights stories. 328 00:17:18,080 --> 00:17:19,870 And there's hundreds of stories. 329 00:17:20,080 --> 00:17:22,410 It's like any great mystery. 330 00:17:22,580 --> 00:17:24,830 The great mysteries are unsolved, 331 00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:27,346 no matter how deeply you look into them, 332 00:17:27,370 --> 00:17:30,910 And that makes them live on forever. 333 00:17:31,410 --> 00:17:35,080 Even though the strange marfa lights remain a mystery, 334 00:17:35,250 --> 00:17:38,120 the fact that they're still visible today allows us 335 00:17:38,290 --> 00:17:40,500 to continue to study them. 336 00:17:40,700 --> 00:17:45,080 Which is also the case with a massive, earthen mound 337 00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:47,160 in southern Ohio, 338 00:17:47,330 --> 00:17:51,540 that some experts believe was built to serve as a gateway 339 00:17:51,700 --> 00:17:53,790 to another world. 340 00:18:01,660 --> 00:18:03,250 While mapping the west, 341 00:18:03,410 --> 00:18:06,500 legendary explorers meriwether Lewis and William Clark 342 00:18:06,660 --> 00:18:10,500 discover several strange mounds made of earth 343 00:18:10,660 --> 00:18:14,330 that appear to be hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. 344 00:18:14,540 --> 00:18:18,080 What they had discovered are some 345 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:22,700 of North America's greatest ancient wonders. 346 00:18:22,870 --> 00:18:24,330 One of the 347 00:18:24,500 --> 00:18:26,620 interesting things that Lewis and Clark came across 348 00:18:26,790 --> 00:18:29,290 in their expedition were mounds. 349 00:18:29,500 --> 00:18:35,000 And these mounds are sacred places for native Americans. 350 00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:38,000 Most average Americans, around the 1800s, 351 00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:41,120 they would have had no idea what to make of this. 352 00:18:41,330 --> 00:18:44,500 What they were stumbling on is a tremendous story. 353 00:18:44,620 --> 00:18:47,000 One of the ones that they describe 354 00:18:47,200 --> 00:18:50,160 the so-called spirit mounds... is a natural mound, 355 00:18:50,370 --> 00:18:52,500 not a man-made phenomenon. 356 00:18:52,700 --> 00:18:55,160 This lines up with native American ideas 357 00:18:55,290 --> 00:18:57,250 of sacred landscapes, 358 00:18:57,370 --> 00:18:59,450 that, you know, the land itself has spirit. 359 00:18:59,660 --> 00:19:02,040 But we also have what's called "effigy mounds." 360 00:19:02,200 --> 00:19:06,080 Effigy mounds are large earthen structures, 361 00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:08,870 usually between two to four feet in height, 362 00:19:09,040 --> 00:19:12,660 and they're shaped in the shape of an animal of some sort. 363 00:19:12,870 --> 00:19:14,660 Many of them are bears. 364 00:19:14,830 --> 00:19:17,500 Many of them are birds. 365 00:19:17,620 --> 00:19:20,790 A few of them may have barrels within them. 366 00:19:20,950 --> 00:19:23,580 Most of them don't. And, frankly, 367 00:19:23,750 --> 00:19:27,200 the reason for effigy mounds is not clearly understood. 368 00:19:28,250 --> 00:19:30,160 It's estimated that thousands 369 00:19:30,330 --> 00:19:32,620 of mysterious earthen mounds were constructed 370 00:19:32,790 --> 00:19:37,120 all across North America by ancient native cultures. 371 00:19:39,370 --> 00:19:42,040 But there is one structure in central Ohio 372 00:19:42,200 --> 00:19:45,160 that is more confounding than the rest. 373 00:19:45,290 --> 00:19:48,830 It's called the "great serpent mound." 374 00:19:49,830 --> 00:19:53,000 The great serpent mound is an effigy earthwork, 375 00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:58,500 in the shape of a snake about to grasp, or bite into, 376 00:19:58,660 --> 00:20:01,500 a circular, or an oval-shaped object. 377 00:20:01,660 --> 00:20:04,160 Often described as an egg, but probably not. 378 00:20:05,370 --> 00:20:08,660 It's about 1,300 feet in length, 379 00:20:08,830 --> 00:20:12,080 which makes it longer than a football field. 380 00:20:12,250 --> 00:20:14,040 It's, quite frankly, a masterpiece 381 00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:16,250 of ancient earthwork construction 382 00:20:16,370 --> 00:20:18,950 that has yet to be rivaled 383 00:20:19,120 --> 00:20:20,830 anywhere, frankly, in the world. 384 00:20:22,290 --> 00:20:24,790 The serpent mound is mostly made of Clay and ash, 385 00:20:24,910 --> 00:20:29,250 with a layer of rocks and soil that help it retain its shape. 386 00:20:29,410 --> 00:20:32,120 It was one of the first archaeological sites 387 00:20:32,290 --> 00:20:36,830 in U.S. history to be preserved as a state park. 388 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:38,950 But even after centuries of study, 389 00:20:39,120 --> 00:20:43,660 experts are still working to uncover its many secrets. 390 00:20:43,830 --> 00:20:48,250 In 2010, we took solid cores 391 00:20:48,370 --> 00:20:51,160 like biopsies, basically... from 18 different locations 392 00:20:51,370 --> 00:20:53,080 within the body of the serpent 393 00:20:53,250 --> 00:20:55,450 to obtain radiocarbon datable materials 394 00:20:55,620 --> 00:20:57,790 from the base of the mound. 395 00:20:58,000 --> 00:20:59,200 The object, of course, being 396 00:20:59,370 --> 00:21:00,910 to try to ascertain the best we could 397 00:21:01,080 --> 00:21:02,700 who-who built the effigy. 398 00:21:02,870 --> 00:21:05,620 So, the ground at the serpent mound was dated 399 00:21:05,830 --> 00:21:07,830 to about 320 bc. 400 00:21:08,830 --> 00:21:10,830 I suspect that the initial construction was built 401 00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:12,660 by adena people. 402 00:21:12,790 --> 00:21:15,500 It may or may not have looked like what we see today, 403 00:21:15,660 --> 00:21:18,950 but it was continually renewed, rebuilt 404 00:21:19,080 --> 00:21:21,200 and restored by native Americans 405 00:21:21,410 --> 00:21:23,580 for well over 1,500 years. 406 00:21:24,620 --> 00:21:27,620 What would compel ancient native people 407 00:21:27,790 --> 00:21:32,410 to maintain this enormous site for thousands of years? 408 00:21:32,540 --> 00:21:34,700 Perhaps clues can be found in the tales 409 00:21:34,870 --> 00:21:38,330 of frontier-era discoveries that can only be described 410 00:21:38,450 --> 00:21:40,790 as gigantic. 411 00:21:42,540 --> 00:21:46,500 In the mid-1800s, people begin to find 412 00:21:46,660 --> 00:21:51,410 what appear to be really abnormally large bones 413 00:21:51,540 --> 00:21:57,330 that seem to speak to incredibly tall people. 414 00:21:57,540 --> 00:22:01,290 Some reports say, nine, ten, 11 feet tall. 415 00:22:02,500 --> 00:22:04,450 This is a really interesting suggestion, 416 00:22:04,620 --> 00:22:06,330 that there were ancient people living here 417 00:22:06,500 --> 00:22:09,330 who were literal giants. 418 00:22:09,500 --> 00:22:11,500 And then here we have, in the landscape, 419 00:22:11,660 --> 00:22:16,000 this impossibly large piece of art representing a serpent. 420 00:22:16,160 --> 00:22:21,160 It's not a stretch to think, giant people make giant art. 421 00:22:21,330 --> 00:22:24,870 There was one skeleton that was found 422 00:22:25,040 --> 00:22:28,080 in direct connection with the serpent mound. 423 00:22:28,250 --> 00:22:32,410 They said that the skull was large, the jawbone was huge, 424 00:22:32,580 --> 00:22:37,000 and this skeleton became known as the "adena giant," 425 00:22:37,120 --> 00:22:41,580 and it was put in a museum, like so many others were, 426 00:22:41,750 --> 00:22:44,330 and has been lost to antiquity. 427 00:22:44,540 --> 00:22:46,676 And there still is an accounting 428 00:22:46,700 --> 00:22:49,500 as to where a lot of these remains went. 429 00:22:49,660 --> 00:22:52,330 So, there's a lot of people that believe 430 00:22:52,540 --> 00:22:54,580 that the giants that existed then 431 00:22:54,700 --> 00:22:56,580 had a lot to do with the construction. 432 00:22:57,620 --> 00:22:59,250 Was the great serpent mound built 433 00:22:59,410 --> 00:23:01,000 by an ancient race of giants? 434 00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:05,250 It's an intriguing theory that certainly adds one more layer 435 00:23:05,370 --> 00:23:06,830 to the mystery 436 00:23:06,950 --> 00:23:10,500 of what the extraordinary serpent mound could be. 437 00:23:12,330 --> 00:23:14,500 What else is a burial mound 438 00:23:14,700 --> 00:23:17,120 except a portal to another world? 439 00:23:17,290 --> 00:23:19,846 And that's what I believe serpent mound represents. 440 00:23:19,870 --> 00:23:23,000 It's a portal to the land of the dead. 441 00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:25,660 This was a sacred burial ground, 442 00:23:25,870 --> 00:23:28,160 with the serpent at its center, 443 00:23:28,370 --> 00:23:30,700 as a guardian to that land of the dead, 444 00:23:30,870 --> 00:23:34,330 and as a protector of the people who are buried there. 445 00:23:34,540 --> 00:23:38,950 But ultimately, no one really quite knows 446 00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:41,500 precisely what serpent mound is. 447 00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:44,450 Whatever the purpose 448 00:23:44,620 --> 00:23:46,950 of the great serpent mound might have been, 449 00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:49,540 it's a reminder that the legends of the frontier 450 00:23:49,700 --> 00:23:52,160 stretch back thousands of years. 451 00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:56,500 But there are other mysteries that have yet to be solved, 452 00:23:56,700 --> 00:24:01,330 like the case of a terrifying giant creature who ran wild 453 00:24:01,500 --> 00:24:05,830 in Arizona, called the red ghost. 454 00:24:14,330 --> 00:24:16,080 This land of searing desert, 455 00:24:16,250 --> 00:24:19,250 treacherous canyons and ancient saguaro cactus 456 00:24:19,410 --> 00:24:21,330 is a dangerous wilderness reserved 457 00:24:21,540 --> 00:24:24,410 for only the most resilient frontiersmen. 458 00:24:24,540 --> 00:24:27,500 But after the arrival of the railroad in 1877, 459 00:24:27,700 --> 00:24:30,226 the population explodes. 460 00:24:30,250 --> 00:24:33,790 Settlers are hellbent on exploiting this rugged land 461 00:24:33,950 --> 00:24:39,450 for cattle ranches, agriculture, and, of course, gold. 462 00:24:40,500 --> 00:24:42,910 And around the same time, 463 00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:47,200 word spreads of a strange, new danger in the region 464 00:24:47,370 --> 00:24:51,870 a monstrous creature roaming the desert. 465 00:24:52,910 --> 00:24:57,450 In 1883, there was two prospectors 466 00:24:57,620 --> 00:24:59,790 who were camping at night, 467 00:24:59,950 --> 00:25:04,540 and some terrible creature ran through their camp 468 00:25:04,660 --> 00:25:07,120 and destroyed their tents and scared the heck out of them. 469 00:25:10,540 --> 00:25:13,000 And the next day, when people went to investigate the area, 470 00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:16,660 they found hoof marks that did not look like anything 471 00:25:16,830 --> 00:25:18,500 that anybody had ever seen. 472 00:25:19,410 --> 00:25:21,080 This monster... it was huge. 473 00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:22,950 It was aggressive. 474 00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:26,620 It made this weird screaming noise 475 00:25:26,790 --> 00:25:28,710 that nobody had ever heard anything like before. 476 00:25:29,620 --> 00:25:32,950 Frontier people had dealt with wild animals. 477 00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:36,160 You know, bears and mountain lions and whatnot, 478 00:25:36,370 --> 00:25:38,660 and even crazy horses. 479 00:25:38,790 --> 00:25:41,750 But this huge monster was frightening. 480 00:25:41,870 --> 00:25:43,830 People were scared of this thing. 481 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:49,120 It left long red hairs on the bushes as it went through. 482 00:25:49,290 --> 00:25:52,790 And so, it acquired the name "the red ghost." 483 00:25:53,830 --> 00:25:56,000 As the story goes, over the following weeks, 484 00:25:56,120 --> 00:26:00,160 more locals reported encountering a giant red monster 485 00:26:00,370 --> 00:26:02,450 in Arizona. 486 00:26:02,620 --> 00:26:05,660 Some accounts claimed it was over 30 feet tall. 487 00:26:05,830 --> 00:26:09,000 Others said it could knock over heavy freight wagons with ease. 488 00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:10,700 What possibly 489 00:26:10,870 --> 00:26:14,080 could these frightened frontiersman have witnessed? 490 00:26:16,250 --> 00:26:19,870 Wherever Americans fanned out across the frontier west, 491 00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:22,620 people reported seeing strange animals 492 00:26:22,790 --> 00:26:25,950 that could not be found in any zoology book. 493 00:26:26,120 --> 00:26:28,580 There were stories about creatures 494 00:26:28,750 --> 00:26:30,910 like the wendigo and the skin walker. 495 00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:34,870 These were sort of werewolf-style humanoids. 496 00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:37,500 There were legends of great thunder birds 497 00:26:37,700 --> 00:26:39,540 that looked like pterodactyls, 498 00:26:39,700 --> 00:26:43,450 that would darken the sky... as they went overhead. 499 00:26:43,620 --> 00:26:45,060 A lot of people, at the time period, 500 00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:47,750 would have readily believed in strange monsters 501 00:26:47,910 --> 00:26:49,310 that might have been lurking about. 502 00:26:49,410 --> 00:26:51,870 This was unexplored territory. 503 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:54,410 There were animals not yet known to science. 504 00:26:54,580 --> 00:26:56,620 And so, nobody really knew 505 00:26:56,750 --> 00:26:59,450 what the red ghost was or what was going on. 506 00:26:59,620 --> 00:27:01,660 It was a time of monsters. 507 00:27:02,790 --> 00:27:04,870 In addition to its frightening description, 508 00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:08,040 there was another reason that the red ghost was so feared 509 00:27:08,250 --> 00:27:10,000 in the Arizona territory. 510 00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:11,700 Because according to eyewitnesses, 511 00:27:11,910 --> 00:27:16,370 this giant red monster... Also had a demonic rider. 512 00:27:17,500 --> 00:27:19,620 The story takes sort of a darker turn 513 00:27:19,750 --> 00:27:23,330 when two prospectors saw it crossing a mesa 514 00:27:23,500 --> 00:27:25,500 and described it as being this giant, 515 00:27:25,700 --> 00:27:28,040 red creature being ridden by the devil. 516 00:27:29,790 --> 00:27:31,120 They couldn't quite make it out. 517 00:27:31,290 --> 00:27:34,000 So, they decided to fire at the creature. 518 00:27:35,700 --> 00:27:38,500 And it got away, but something fell off. 519 00:27:38,660 --> 00:27:40,700 So, they went up there to look at it. 520 00:27:40,870 --> 00:27:44,250 And they found the remains of a human head. 521 00:27:44,410 --> 00:27:48,580 So that kind of further added to the legend 522 00:27:48,750 --> 00:27:52,330 and sort of the creep factor of this red ghost 523 00:27:52,500 --> 00:27:55,346 that was sort of terrorizing the Arizona territory at the time. 524 00:27:55,370 --> 00:27:58,950 The legend of the red ghost and its rider spread 525 00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:02,540 throughout the Arizona territory during the late 1800s. 526 00:28:02,700 --> 00:28:05,830 So, what exactly was this strange beast 527 00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:08,080 said to be ridden by the devil himself? 528 00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:11,410 It wasn't until about 15 years later 529 00:28:11,580 --> 00:28:13,160 that, one morning, a rancher got up, 530 00:28:13,370 --> 00:28:14,870 and he looked out his window, 531 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:18,160 and he saw the red ghost in his front yard. 532 00:28:18,370 --> 00:28:21,200 And so, he carefully took his rifle and fired 533 00:28:23,290 --> 00:28:26,000 killing the red ghost once and for all. 534 00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:27,790 It's always an interesting moment 535 00:28:27,950 --> 00:28:29,766 when somebody shoots a legend, because at that point, 536 00:28:29,790 --> 00:28:31,370 it's no longer really a legend. 537 00:28:31,540 --> 00:28:32,870 Now, it's a dead creature. 538 00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:35,410 When people got to examine the dead creature 539 00:28:35,540 --> 00:28:37,410 that the fellow shot on his lawn, 540 00:28:37,580 --> 00:28:39,750 it turned out to be a camel. 541 00:28:39,950 --> 00:28:43,200 Camels are not native to this area. 542 00:28:43,330 --> 00:28:46,910 So, for the people there, this would have been unusual. 543 00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:49,290 The discovery that the red ghost 544 00:28:49,450 --> 00:28:51,040 was not a monstrous beast, 545 00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:55,330 but, instead, an exotic camel, left locals questioning 546 00:28:55,500 --> 00:28:59,540 how on earth this creature found its way to Arizona? 547 00:28:59,700 --> 00:29:02,540 Well, many believe it was a long-lost member 548 00:29:02,700 --> 00:29:05,500 of a frontier expeditionary force 549 00:29:05,660 --> 00:29:09,556 known as "the army camel corps." 550 00:29:09,580 --> 00:29:17,580 In 1855, up to 1887, there was a proposal that was 551 00:29:17,830 --> 00:29:19,660 brought out by the war department. 552 00:29:19,870 --> 00:29:23,290 The head of the war department was Jefferson Davis. 553 00:29:23,410 --> 00:29:27,540 And he recommended that with the American southwest opening up, 554 00:29:27,750 --> 00:29:31,950 that we probably needed camels. 555 00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:36,160 So, they recruited camels from the mediterranean 556 00:29:36,370 --> 00:29:39,790 and brought them over, about 75 of them. 557 00:29:40,700 --> 00:29:44,500 And they were actually pretty successful. 558 00:29:44,620 --> 00:29:46,910 They could go for a week without water. 559 00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:49,250 They could go for a month without food. 560 00:29:49,410 --> 00:29:51,750 But the soldiers were having difficulties 561 00:29:51,870 --> 00:29:54,580 because the camels had an ill temper 562 00:29:54,750 --> 00:29:57,040 and would spit at them and bite them. 563 00:29:57,200 --> 00:29:59,700 The program was finally dissolved 564 00:29:59,870 --> 00:30:02,330 because the railroad started coming through, 565 00:30:02,540 --> 00:30:05,120 and they no longer had a need for camels. 566 00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:08,700 Was the red ghost just the last of a regiment 567 00:30:08,870 --> 00:30:10,160 of camel-riding soldiers? 568 00:30:10,370 --> 00:30:12,750 It's certainly possible. 569 00:30:12,870 --> 00:30:15,160 But even if that were true, 570 00:30:15,330 --> 00:30:19,870 the identity of its skeletal rider is another mystery. 571 00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:23,580 After this farmer killed the camel, 572 00:30:23,750 --> 00:30:27,700 they found that a human body was strapped on its back. 573 00:30:27,870 --> 00:30:30,950 They did not know the origin of the person that was on the back. 574 00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:32,520 They thought maybe it was somebody 575 00:30:32,700 --> 00:30:34,096 that was dying of thirst, and maybe 576 00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:36,040 he would strap himself to the back of the camel, 577 00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:37,830 hoping the camel would lead him to water. 578 00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:39,410 But then they found that the way 579 00:30:39,580 --> 00:30:42,540 that the body was actually attached is not something 580 00:30:42,700 --> 00:30:44,160 he could have tied himself. 581 00:30:44,370 --> 00:30:48,200 So, the question is, who put him on the back of the camel 582 00:30:48,370 --> 00:30:52,000 and tied him there and just let him go? 583 00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:53,830 It is extremely mysterious 584 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:56,750 how someone tied someone else to the back of an animal 585 00:30:56,910 --> 00:31:00,660 that was that unwelcoming of human contact. 586 00:31:00,870 --> 00:31:02,330 How did that happen? 587 00:31:02,540 --> 00:31:05,330 Who was that person and what happened to them? 588 00:31:05,500 --> 00:31:08,370 There is a lot of unexplained stuff here. 589 00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:14,330 Could the red ghost have been a lost army camel 590 00:31:14,540 --> 00:31:18,250 with a dead rider on its back wandering the Arizona desert? 591 00:31:19,750 --> 00:31:21,346 We may never know the truth. 592 00:31:21,370 --> 00:31:25,660 Which might also be the case with a bizarre discovery 593 00:31:25,790 --> 00:31:27,290 found in Wyoming, 594 00:31:27,410 --> 00:31:31,790 where prospectors uncovered a humanoid mummy 595 00:31:31,950 --> 00:31:35,410 that was only six and a half inches tall. 596 00:31:43,290 --> 00:31:46,160 This region in central Wyoming has long attracted 597 00:31:46,290 --> 00:31:48,830 fortune seekers in the search for frontier gold. 598 00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:54,500 But it's also the site of a strange discovery in 1934, 599 00:31:54,620 --> 00:31:58,620 when gold prospectors Cecil mayne and frank carr 600 00:31:58,750 --> 00:32:04,000 unearth a man-made cavern hidden inside the mountain. 601 00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:06,830 Cecil mayne and frank carr 602 00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:08,386 they were looking for gold one day, 603 00:32:08,410 --> 00:32:10,950 and they just happened to find a little bit 604 00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:12,370 on the edge of the mountain. 605 00:32:12,540 --> 00:32:13,926 So, they blew up the side of the mountain, 606 00:32:13,950 --> 00:32:15,070 hoping they'd find more ore. 607 00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:18,950 But what they found was this room, 608 00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:21,000 and it was a room that was obviously 609 00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:22,830 constructed by somebody. 610 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:26,660 It was four-by-four foot wide and 15 feet deep. 611 00:32:26,830 --> 00:32:27,830 It looked like a tomb. 612 00:32:27,910 --> 00:32:30,500 And standing on a little shelf 613 00:32:30,660 --> 00:32:32,540 that was two and a half feet off the ground was 614 00:32:32,580 --> 00:32:34,830 this little figure, a little mummy. 615 00:32:34,950 --> 00:32:37,370 When they looked at it, it was 616 00:32:37,540 --> 00:32:41,410 almost sitting cross-legged, as if it had been posed there. 617 00:32:41,540 --> 00:32:43,950 It was a total of six inches high. 618 00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:47,580 The head was flattened on the top and large. 619 00:32:47,700 --> 00:32:50,346 It weighed about a pound, 620 00:32:50,370 --> 00:32:53,700 and they said that if you stretched it out, 621 00:32:53,910 --> 00:32:57,330 that it would be possibly 18 inches high. 622 00:32:57,500 --> 00:33:01,000 This tiny mummy was nicknamed "Pedro" 623 00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:04,160 in honor of the San Pedro mountains where it was found. 624 00:33:04,330 --> 00:33:07,750 But just who or what is Pedro? 625 00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:12,410 Well, according to the earliest known newspaper reports, 626 00:33:12,540 --> 00:33:15,080 soon after the mummy was discovered, it was sold 627 00:33:15,290 --> 00:33:17,910 to a man named homer f. Sherrill. 628 00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:21,790 And for seven years, he had scientists examine it. 629 00:33:21,950 --> 00:33:25,370 And many of them believed this small mummy 630 00:33:25,540 --> 00:33:29,790 was actual proof of a tiny race of pygmies, 631 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,370 or little people. 632 00:33:32,540 --> 00:33:36,910 Scientists had access to Pedro, and they x-rayed it. 633 00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:38,750 What they found, according to them, 634 00:33:38,910 --> 00:33:41,410 was a full skeleton inside 635 00:33:41,620 --> 00:33:44,910 with fully-formed arms and fully-formed legs, 636 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:47,040 and including a full set of teeth. 637 00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:49,000 Pedro also had very sharp canine teeth, 638 00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:50,660 much like a vampire would, 639 00:33:50,790 --> 00:33:56,000 and they also found what they called meat in its stomach. 640 00:33:56,160 --> 00:33:57,790 According to them, 641 00:33:57,950 --> 00:34:03,200 this was actually the body of a 65-year-old person, and 642 00:34:03,370 --> 00:34:05,410 an actual fetus would not have a full set of teeth. 643 00:34:05,540 --> 00:34:07,580 It would have teeth that were in the gums, 644 00:34:07,750 --> 00:34:09,040 not developed yet. 645 00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:11,040 If this finding was true, 646 00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:13,000 that meant that it couldn't be a fetus. 647 00:34:13,200 --> 00:34:16,080 So, could this be actual proof 648 00:34:16,250 --> 00:34:19,620 of a race of small, pygmy-like people 649 00:34:19,830 --> 00:34:22,410 who lived in that area of Wyoming? 650 00:34:23,660 --> 00:34:25,266 People were very fascinated by this mummy, 651 00:34:25,290 --> 00:34:26,810 which seems to have been a real mummy, 652 00:34:26,870 --> 00:34:30,000 and fascinated by the idea that perhaps there were pygmies, 653 00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:32,870 or little people, an undiscovered, perhaps, 654 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:35,000 branch of native Americans. 655 00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:38,500 Native American tribes, in the early days, 656 00:34:38,700 --> 00:34:40,290 all of them had stories 657 00:34:40,410 --> 00:34:44,330 of little people that inhabited this world. 658 00:34:44,500 --> 00:34:49,160 The Pedro mummy could very well be some indication 659 00:34:49,330 --> 00:34:52,330 that little people did exist. 660 00:34:52,500 --> 00:34:55,330 Now, Pedro does seem to have been native American. 661 00:34:55,500 --> 00:34:57,910 And Pedro came from the area 662 00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:00,750 the shoshone people were living in. 663 00:35:00,910 --> 00:35:04,176 They had longstanding traditions of little people, 664 00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:06,540 which they called "the nimerigar." 665 00:35:06,700 --> 00:35:10,870 These were a very vicious and even cannibalistic race. 666 00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:12,870 Their stories talk about them even fighting 667 00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:14,500 and eating each other. 668 00:35:14,660 --> 00:35:17,886 Now, presumably, if a shoshone individual were 669 00:35:17,910 --> 00:35:19,540 to come across Pedro the mummy, 670 00:35:19,700 --> 00:35:22,500 Pedro would fit perfectly into their ideas, 671 00:35:22,620 --> 00:35:23,940 and in their folklore and support 672 00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:26,250 their beliefs in the pygmy race. 673 00:35:26,370 --> 00:35:29,700 Is Pedro, the mountain mummy, proof 674 00:35:29,910 --> 00:35:34,040 that a lost race of tiny cannibals once roamed the west? 675 00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:36,620 Well, it's certainly exciting to consider. 676 00:35:36,830 --> 00:35:40,830 But after changing hands among various collectors, 677 00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:42,660 in 1950, Pedro reached 678 00:35:42,870 --> 00:35:46,500 the American museum of natural history in New York City, 679 00:35:46,700 --> 00:35:50,330 and underwent a thorough examination by Dr. Harry shapiro 680 00:35:50,540 --> 00:35:56,160 to try and determine who and what Pedro was. 681 00:35:56,370 --> 00:35:58,200 Dr. Shapiro, as he continued his examination, 682 00:35:58,410 --> 00:36:02,160 found that Pedro was actually either an unborn fetus 683 00:36:02,370 --> 00:36:05,580 or a child that was born and died soon after, 684 00:36:05,700 --> 00:36:08,500 suffering from a condition called anencephaly, 685 00:36:08,620 --> 00:36:11,330 where a good part of the brain is not developed, 686 00:36:11,540 --> 00:36:13,500 and often times, a part of the skull, 687 00:36:13,620 --> 00:36:16,330 which would explain why Pedro's head was flattened. 688 00:36:16,540 --> 00:36:19,950 So, his findings did completely conflict 689 00:36:20,120 --> 00:36:23,870 with earlier findings as to Pedro being a small person. 690 00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:28,290 Is Pedro the mummy the result of a rare birth defect? 691 00:36:28,410 --> 00:36:30,330 Well, it's certainly possible. 692 00:36:30,540 --> 00:36:32,330 But the debate rages on, 693 00:36:32,450 --> 00:36:36,120 because the tiny mummy went missing in 1980, 694 00:36:36,290 --> 00:36:38,870 after its last known owner died. 695 00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:44,830 And unless Pedro is rediscovered, the mystery endures. 696 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:46,920 What is interesting to me, as an anthropologist, 697 00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:50,790 about Pedro is that it was loved by a community, 698 00:36:50,910 --> 00:36:54,160 and its burial was very special. 699 00:36:54,330 --> 00:36:56,290 This was not buried in the usual way. 700 00:36:56,450 --> 00:36:58,790 But, of course, we no longer have Pedro. 701 00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:02,370 If we did, we could probably run very different tests now, 702 00:37:02,540 --> 00:37:04,120 genetic tests and the like, 703 00:37:04,250 --> 00:37:06,200 to know a great deal more about this individual. 704 00:37:06,370 --> 00:37:09,040 And since we cannot reexamine Pedro, 705 00:37:09,200 --> 00:37:12,370 Pedro is going to remain a bit of a mystery. 706 00:37:20,870 --> 00:37:24,330 Prospectors James cluggage and John r. Poole 707 00:37:24,450 --> 00:37:27,200 discover gold in southern Oregon, 708 00:37:27,370 --> 00:37:28,750 triggering a gold rush 709 00:37:28,870 --> 00:37:32,000 that yields upwards of $60 million mined 710 00:37:32,200 --> 00:37:34,000 from the region. 711 00:37:35,700 --> 00:37:39,200 But there is one famous frontier legend 712 00:37:39,370 --> 00:37:44,330 that speaks of a massive amount of gold... Being lost. 713 00:37:44,500 --> 00:37:48,500 And to this day, it's said there still exists 714 00:37:48,700 --> 00:37:51,620 a lost cabin in the wilds of Oregon 715 00:37:51,790 --> 00:37:55,540 with gold hiding just beneath the floorboards. 716 00:37:57,330 --> 00:38:00,500 The lost cabin of gold in Oregon is 717 00:38:00,620 --> 00:38:03,250 one of those stories that make 718 00:38:03,410 --> 00:38:06,500 our fascination with the wild west live on. 719 00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:13,700 It starts with two prospectors 720 00:38:13,870 --> 00:38:18,330 who had found a massive amount of gold, 721 00:38:18,540 --> 00:38:20,290 and they had brought it back to their cabin 722 00:38:20,450 --> 00:38:22,450 to hide it under the floorboards, 723 00:38:22,620 --> 00:38:25,000 which seemed like a pretty good idea 724 00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:29,120 until they ran afoul of the local indigenous tribe. 725 00:38:29,250 --> 00:38:32,040 One of them was killed. 726 00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:34,250 And then, the other one just barely made it 727 00:38:34,410 --> 00:38:37,000 and was taken to San Francisco for medical treatment. 728 00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:38,370 It didn't work. He died. 729 00:38:38,580 --> 00:38:41,000 But on his deathbed, he wrote a note 730 00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:43,330 to his cousin back in Chicago, 731 00:38:43,540 --> 00:38:46,620 saying, "I've got a cabin with gold in it, 732 00:38:46,790 --> 00:38:48,790 and I need you to go and find it." 733 00:38:48,950 --> 00:38:51,580 Armed with the alleged location 734 00:38:51,700 --> 00:38:54,700 of this cabin of gold, the prospector's cousin 735 00:38:54,870 --> 00:38:56,330 from Chicago teams up 736 00:38:56,450 --> 00:38:59,330 with a frontier poet named Sam Simpson 737 00:38:59,540 --> 00:39:01,790 to try and find the lost fortune. 738 00:39:01,950 --> 00:39:04,080 And according to Simpson, 739 00:39:04,250 --> 00:39:08,200 these two found more than they bargained for. 740 00:39:08,370 --> 00:39:13,160 Sam Simpson has a story that he wrote in 1899 741 00:39:13,330 --> 00:39:19,120 in which he claims to have found the cabin. 742 00:39:19,250 --> 00:39:23,160 They went into the cabin, there was a skeleton there, 743 00:39:23,290 --> 00:39:27,410 and at that very moment, the cousin from Chicago 744 00:39:27,580 --> 00:39:30,200 accidentally shot himself. 745 00:39:30,410 --> 00:39:31,770 And then Sam went out of his gourd 746 00:39:31,870 --> 00:39:33,330 and was found a gibbering idiot 747 00:39:33,450 --> 00:39:36,500 on the stage road two weeks later, 748 00:39:36,660 --> 00:39:40,250 and was never able to find his way back to it. 749 00:39:40,370 --> 00:39:44,330 But Sam Simpson, by the time he wrote this story, 750 00:39:44,540 --> 00:39:46,660 was deep in the bottle. 751 00:39:46,870 --> 00:39:49,580 He struggled with alcoholism all his life. 752 00:39:49,790 --> 00:39:51,370 So, it's just really hard to say. 753 00:39:51,540 --> 00:39:53,330 You know, maybe it's still out there. 754 00:39:53,540 --> 00:39:57,250 Could there really be a fortune of gold 755 00:39:57,410 --> 00:39:59,660 still buried under the floorboards 756 00:39:59,870 --> 00:40:02,830 of a lost cabin in the Oregon wilderness? 757 00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:04,660 Perhaps. 758 00:40:05,830 --> 00:40:09,540 But as with so many other strange tales 759 00:40:09,700 --> 00:40:13,660 of the American frontier, the truth remains elusive. 760 00:40:14,660 --> 00:40:18,580 One of the sort of inescapable symbols 761 00:40:18,700 --> 00:40:20,870 of the American frontier is this sense of vastness, 762 00:40:21,080 --> 00:40:22,620 this openness. 763 00:40:22,750 --> 00:40:26,330 And any time we have that kind of openness, 764 00:40:26,500 --> 00:40:30,330 it's just waiting to be filled with stories. 765 00:40:30,450 --> 00:40:32,700 And even if the story is not 766 00:40:32,870 --> 00:40:35,790 specifically correct or accurate, 767 00:40:35,950 --> 00:40:39,620 there's usually a kernel of truth there. 768 00:40:39,790 --> 00:40:42,950 And that's what fuels the legend and keeps it going. 769 00:40:45,040 --> 00:40:46,250 What fascinates me the most 770 00:40:46,410 --> 00:40:48,120 about the American frontier is 771 00:40:48,290 --> 00:40:53,040 that nothing like it has ever existed, or ever will again. 772 00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:54,620 Yah! 773 00:40:54,750 --> 00:40:56,016 You've got that expansionist culture 774 00:40:56,040 --> 00:40:59,330 moving across the whole continent, 775 00:40:59,500 --> 00:41:03,160 and there's so much storytelling there 776 00:41:03,290 --> 00:41:07,516 that the truth is not gonna be really easy to pick out. 777 00:41:07,540 --> 00:41:10,450 It's been layered and layered and layered, 778 00:41:10,580 --> 00:41:12,790 with more and more stories and more and more stories, 779 00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:16,700 leaving you to wonder, what's the part that's real? 780 00:41:18,910 --> 00:41:22,080 It's intriguing to think that there may be a lost cabin 781 00:41:22,250 --> 00:41:25,500 filled with gold somewhere in the backwoods of Oregon. 782 00:41:25,700 --> 00:41:28,750 And, as with so many other frontier legends, 783 00:41:28,910 --> 00:41:33,580 the truth, like the cabin itself, is elusive. 784 00:41:34,870 --> 00:41:37,250 But when stories like the mystery of the red ghost, 785 00:41:37,450 --> 00:41:39,120 or phenomena like the marfa lights, 786 00:41:39,290 --> 00:41:43,950 continue to raise questions almost a century later, 787 00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:47,910 it makes you wonder, what other strange tales 788 00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:51,620 from the American frontier might emerge? 789 00:41:51,830 --> 00:41:58,500 Stories of great adventures that, for now, remain... 790 00:41:58,700 --> 00:42:00,790 Unexplained. 790 00:42:01,305 --> 00:43:01,324