01x02 - Wild West Gold

[bunniefuu]

Rick: We grew up on

wild west stories.

Nelson: Butch cassidy was

one of the last of his kind.

Jameson:
The daltons, they had $20,000

from their train robberies.

Sandoval: They needed to get rid

of the gold.

And they did it.

They would have stashed
some loot at the hideout,

- and you're gonna go find it?
- (laughter)

gary:
This is like a dream come true

- for me.
- Yeah.

- (beeping)
- ooh.

I got it. It's an oldie.

All while we were growing up,

my brother and I were fascinated

with finding treasure.

Rick: Pirate treasure,

cursed treasure.

Civil w*r gold.

- (laughter) -Since then,
our work on oak island

has shown us there's
a world of mysteries...

- Whoa.
- ...Waiting to be explored.

So, we like to reach out
to other treasure hunters.

X marks the spot,
right there. Brilliant.

- Marty: We want to hear their stories...
- That's right.

- ...And share our insights.
- "ill-gotten gains."

- rick: And who knows...
- Gary: I got it.

...Maybe we can help
them with their search.

Marty: Not only in america.

Wow. That is gold.

- Rick: But all over the world.
- Yeah!

Marty: Beyond oak island.

Matty: You know, what's amazing

is that no matter how
much information we compile

on these treasure-based stories,

it's like there's just
more and more.

And a lot of them.

Yeah. And I'm always
surprised along the way,

- of-of just how many twists and turns...
- (door closes)

...And yet similarities
these things have.

- Uh-oh. Uh-oh.
- Rick: Hey, there he is.

- Hello, chaps. - (laughter)

- gary drayton. - How you doing?

- My mate from another state.
- Hey, gary.

Gary: How you doing, chaps?

- You find anything today?
- Not today.

But what I have found

is probably a really good
potential treasure hunt.

What's that all about?

I got a call from bill betenson,

who is the great-grandnephew
of butch cassidy,

of butch cassidy and
the sundance kid fame.

Oh, wow!

No kidding.

Gary: His great grandmother

was butch cassidy's sister.

And he wants me
to go out to utah

and-and search a place
called robber's roost,

one of the hangouts of butch and his g*ng,
the wild bunch.

The conjecture, I suppose,
is they would have stashed

some loot at the hideout
and you're gonna go find it.

Yeah, because these guys

were prolific train
robbers and bank robbers

and when they stole stuff,
it was

mainly $20 gold pieces

and they're heavy.

So when they're getting these

- sacks of gold coins, you can't...
- Both: Yeah.

...Take those around with you.

You would have to bury the god

and this hideout of theirs,
robber's roost,

is really remote and so
we're gonna see what's there.

You're not enthusiastic about

- doing that, are you?
- (laughter)

you know, for me,
it conjures up memories of

reading these
stories as-as a child.

I mean,
we grew up on wild west stories.

But what we really experienced
as kids was the old tv shows

because you go to the television

and it becomes more real.

I mean, I was actually there.

You smelled the g*n smoke.

- (g*nsh*t) - You
heard the g*ns go off.

You saw the horses
race down the trail.

It came alive.

And so butch cassidy,
obviously, the question

- presents itself, "have you seen the movie?"
- I have, mate.

You know, I grew up in England,
and that's what we watched.

All the american movies.

(expl*si*n)

think you used enough dynamite there,
butch?

Announcer: They robbed trains.

Looted banks.

- Manos arriba.
- They got 'em up!

Ah, you're so damn smart,
you read it!

Announcer: They were
outlaws running out

of time and out of space.

- You jump first. - No, I said.

- What's the matter with you?
- (both shouting)

you know,
it's a great movie. I mean, it's

- a classic movie. - Yeah.

- Yeah.
- Marty: But it's a funny thing.

While we tend to romanticize

- the wild, wild west.
- Gary: And we all root

for, I know it sounds bad,
but the bad guys a lot.

- The underdog, for sure.
- Yeah.

You know, if the authorities

are zeroing in on somebody,

you kind of want them to prevail,
you know?

I mean, you sort of do.

You know what's
interesting about the movie.

And we've all seen it, right,
you know, other than,

I'm sure they probably
didn't look exactly the same

as robert redford
and paul newman,

uh, I guess the film is rather

historically accurate to
what happened to them.

- Yeah, yeah.
- Oh, I think so, yeah.

Narrator: During the
heyday of the old west,

institutions like railroads
and banks were considered

easy targets for outlaws.

They usually had large
caches of gold and silver...

Especially due to the
payrolls required to pay

the thousands of men who
were working on the railroads

and the increasing number
of settlers who were bringing

all of their earthly belongings
with them from back east.

A better-than-average
bandit could pocket thousands

of dollars with each hold-up,
while the average wage earner

was making $10 a week.

But for outlaws like
butch and sundance,

robbing trains and
sticking up banks

was getting harder
and harder to do...

As automobiles and modern
telephones were rapidly

replacing horses and telegraphs
as tools of law enforcement.

Nelson: Butch cassidy was
one of the last of his kind.

He comes onto
the scene at a time

when the old west is closing.

When the ranches
are being consolidated,

when the railroads are
getting wise to outlaws

trying to steal
from their trains.

Hansen: Butch cassidy
never robbed from poor people.

He only robbed from corporations,
usually,

but also very wealthy people.

And he was famous at
one time for robbing a train.

And a person was objecting
that he was doing that, and he said

simply, "you have great
wealth and we have great need."

narrator: After several
successful robberies,

butch cassidy and his g*ng

set their sights on
what they thought

could be their
last great heist...

The wilcox train robbery.

Nelson: On the morning of June 2,
1899,

the union pacific
overland flyer,

which is a passenger train,
is making

its way outside of wilcox.

And in the distance, they see

men holding red lanterns,

which is a signal that
the tracks are out ahead.

So the train

comes to a halt,
but of course, it isn't workers

from the railroad with
those red lanterns,

it's members of the wild bunch
who quickly enter the engine,

disarm the engineer
and begin methodically

to go about robbing the train.

That includes separating
the passenger cars;

using dynamite not once
but twice to blow up the safe

to get at the money.

(expl*si*n)

narrator: The g*ng made off

with $50,000 in cash and gold,

which would be the equivalent

of a whopping
$1.5 million today.

The robbery was the
most famous of its time...

A fact which only served
to place the g*ng directly

in the crosshairs
of the authorities.

Nelson: So by that point,
the railroads are fed up

with having been
robbed repeatedly

by this one particular g*ng.

Narrator: A $3,000 reward

for each of the bandits
was immediately offered

and a posse of nearly 100 men-

including members
of the infamous

pinkerton national
detective agency...

Were rounded up to ruthlessly
hunt down cassidy and his g*ng

and bring them to justice.

Nelson: The pinkertons are a
sign that things are changing.

The pinkertons, by this point,
have a large database

of criminal photographs.

Just as the old
west is consolidating,

so is law enforcement
and government.

Ernst: If the pinkertons
wanted you badly enough,

they were gonna find you.

They were relentless,
they were vicious.

They were just as bad as the
outlaws and in some ways worse.

Narrator: With the
pinkertons hot on their trail,

the wild bunch needed
to find a safe place

to stash their stolen gold.

The intention was to come

back for it after things
had cooled down.

To escape the posse,
cassidy hightailed it to south america,

along with fellow
outlaw the sundance kid,

and sundance's wife, etta place.

Nelson: There's some speculation
about why they chose south america.

One idea is that it
would be easy pickings

for experienced outlaws,

who'd be able to make
a couple of quick scores

and then live comfortably
for the rest of their lives.

Narrator: In 1908,
seven years after butch and sundance

escaped to south america,

it was reported that two
masked american bandits

robbed a payroll in bolivia.

It wasn't long before
suspicions fell upon

the two former leaders
of the wild bunch.

This is not a
place where they're

familiar with the territory.

They don't know the terrain.

They don't know the people.

They don't have any allies.

So, ultimately,
they have nowhere to run.

Narrator: On the
evening of November 6,

bolivian soldiers and police

surrounded the pair in
a small mountain lodge.

A shootout ensued.

But when the dust cleared,
the fate of the two outlaws

wasn't entirely certain.

Nelson: We don't have, let's say,
the most reliable account

of the ultimate downfall
of butch and sundance.

We have to rely on the reports

of the bolivian authorities.

Narrator: Although most
historians insist that butch cassidy

and the sundance
kid met their fate

on a dusty bolivian street,

there are a growing number
who have become convinced that

not only did at least
one of them survive...

But that they actually returned
to america with the intention

of retrieving their
hidden treasure.

Bill: My great grandma,
butch's younger sister,

said that he wasn't k*lled
in bolivia and she claimed

that he came back and
visited the family in 1925.

Narrator: If butch
cassidy survived,

was he able to claim the
thousands in stolen gold

that reportedly lies
somewhere hidden

near his g*ng's
infamous hideout?

Or if not, could it mean

that the gold is still out there

waiting to be found?

Sandoval: Right here is where

it conjures up memories
of wild west stories.

It enflamed the
imagination because

when you think about it,

the wild,
wild west and the participants...

There are some very
interesting historical figures,

and we're dealing from a
legend perspective, right?

Marty: You know,
the wild west...

There's all kinds of
treasure stories out there,

because there's all kinds of
people moving money around.

And you had gold
rushes going on,

you had people
getting it legitimately,

and people wanting
what the other people got.

You know, I've always been,
since I was a kid,

captivated by the west.

And one of my favorite stories,

just for their sheer audacity

of what they attempted
is the dalton g*ng.

- Absolutely. - Marty: Yeah.

Matty: They took a big swing,
and what

ended up happening
to them is one of the...

It's one of the great stories
of the american west, really.

Narrator: Coffeyville, kansas.

October 5, 1892.

A g*ng of bank robbers
that included four

missouri-born brothers...
Known as "the dalton g*ng"...

Prepared to carry out one
of the most brazen crimes

ever attempted in the
annals of the wild west.

The plan is to rob two banks

simultaneously in coffeyville,
kansas,

which are on opposite
sides of the street.

Three members of the
g*ng will hit one bank,

two will hit the other,
and then they'll escape

with the largest haul
that they've ever had.

Narrator: Before the day ended,

the streets would
be soaked in blood,

and a fortune in gold and
silver coins would lay buried

and unclaimed in a campsite,

somewhere south
of the crime scene.

(train whistle blowing)

nelson: In the month leading
up to the coffeyville raid,

the daltons rob two trains in oklahoma,
taking

anywhere between
$9,000 and $20,000.

Now, the night before the coffeyville raid,
they camp

at a place called "onion creek,"

near the kansas-oklahoma border.

And it's there that the legend

of the lost treasure
of the daltons

emerges.

Jameson: While
they were in camp,

they had $20,000 from
their train robberies,

and they buried
it at the campsite.

They didn't want to burden
their horses down with...

With this $20,000 that was,

by the way,
in gold and silver coins.

Today, that's about 20 millio.

And after they robbed the banks,

they were gonna return to
the onion creek campsite,

retrieve what they
had buried there

and then flee into oklahoma.

Narrator: The next morning,

the g*ng awoke early and rode

towards what would become
their date with disaster.

Nelson: It may be that somehow

the town got word

that the daltons were coming
and were ready for them.

Barndollar: A young man
thought he recognized them,

and he ran in, and he said,
"that's the daltons!"

mccoy: The
townspeople immediately

knew it was the dalton g*ng,

and the alarm went up.

Nelson: The
citizens of coffeyville

promptly arm themselves
and prepare to greet the daltons

after they emerge
from the two banks.

Narrator: Emmett
and bob dalton entered

the first bank,
where the robbery proceeded as planned.

Grat dalton and two other g*ng
members hit the second bank,

where the bank teller
tried to stall them.

Mccoy: Grat... we would
charitably call him "dimwitted."

he wasn't good at
thinking on his feet,

and the teller in the
condon bank told him

that he couldn't
open the vault yet,

that it was on a time lock.

So grat decided to wait.

Narrator: Outside the banks,
the number

of armed citizens swelled
to more than a hundred.

Hansen: They wanted to defend

the honor of coffeyville.

Jameson: And in those days,

there weren't insurance
companies that

covered the loss.

If a bank was robbed,
people lost their money.

Narrator: It was now just
a matter of time before

all hell broke loose on the
streets of coffeyville, kansas.

When the outlaws emerged,

the townspeople greeted
them with a hail of g*nf*re.

What happens
after that is a melee

that is very
difficult to describe.

(g*nf*re)

throngs of citizens
sh**ting at the outlaws,

the outlaws sh**ting back,

blood flying everywhere.

Total mayhem.

Jameson: A couple
of them had climbed

aboard their horses
and were riding away.

Some of the loot was
spilling out of the saddlebags.

Some of it was
dropped in the street.

It was a very
adventurous attempt...

(g*nsh*t)

...But a very
unsuccessful bank robbery.

Narrator: When
the smoke cleared,

four citizens of
coffeyville were k*lled.

Four of the five dalton g*ng
members also lay dead...

Their bodies later
displayed in public

as a warning to other
would-be outlaws.

(g*nshots)

the only survivor is emmett.

He survives being shot

anywhere from 23

to 27 times.

Lives to stand trial.

His hospital bed wheeled
into the courtroom every day.

Jameson: Emmett was found guilty

of his nefarious activities

and sentenced to life in prison.

Narrator: When emmett
was released in 1907,

after serving 14 years,

authorities believed
he would lead them

to the onion
creek treasure site.

They were wrong.

Nelson: He knows
people are following him,

but when asked,
he says that he had no intention

to retrieve the treasure,
because to him, it was even

cursed in a way, so,
he had no intention

of ever finding the money again.

Jameson: As far as we know,
that $20,000

that was stolen in 1892,
in gold and silver coins,

is still buried near that
onion creek campsite.

Narrator: Did the dalton
g*ng leave behind a fortune

in gold and silver
coins near onion creek?

To this day,

treasure hunters continue
to search this barren land

for the priceless cache
that has remained hidden

for more than a century.

Will that treasure
ever be discovered?

Only time will tell.

And you know what's interesting
about that is emmett dalton

went into real estate,
went to hollywood.

He was an advisor on movies.

But he's still stalked,
basically, by the law,

because they believed
that there was a treasure

at onion creek,
and he wouldn't go back.

And it's interesting,

that aspect of,
would you want to go back

to the scene of the
crime type of thing?

You know,
some people, I guess...

Yeah,
some seem to get pulled back into it,

and some think, "nah,
I've had enough of that now."

- right, which is incredible.
- Gary: Yeah, and for him

not to go back,
knowing that there's treasure there.

There are some
parts of your life

I think you want to
just put behind you.

In our own case,

my father was brought
up in an orphanage.

And so, one day, I said, "geez,
dad, maybe we ought to go back

to where you were raised
and just sort of check it out."

and he looked at me,
and he said, "nah." (laughs)

- yeah.
- It was a big part of his life,

but it wasn't the
happiest time of his life.

- Exactly. -Yeah.
- Marty: But then I think,

emmett dalton... he just
didn't want to go back there.

I mean, picture it,
really. Picture that you do have

a new life,
and you're making money,

and you've got
a legitimate life.

And you think to yourself,
"ten kinds of hell

"that I'm going to
create if I go back

and dig up this treasure."

I mean,
you're gonna really wreck your life, right?

Because you might
even go back to jail.

- Right. - It's true.

Yeah, I'd go back.

- All right. - (laughter)

joaquin murrieta

you know, the wild,
wild west and the participants...

What were they? They were land pirates,
really.

- Yes. Yeah.
- That's what they were.

I mean, the same romantic ideas,

the same sense of,
"I'm thumbing my nose at the man."

I mean,
you went from an ocean environment

to a land environment.

- That is true.
- I mean, these people

were actually every bit as scheming,
every bit

as consumed by the
"acquisition" of "ill-gotten gains."

it was rascally rogues.

- Modern-day robin hoods.
- Marty: Exactly.

- Yup.
- Was there one you gravitate to?

Was there one that stands out?

I mean, the real-life zorro,
if you will,

is to me,
a very interesting historical figure.

You know, he was an individual
named joaquin murrieta.

Uh, he was kind of a cross
between robin hood and

- zorro, right? - Hmm.

The legends go that he would

steal from the rich
and give to the poor.

It was less about the
acquisition of treasure

for himself and his
g*ng than it was about,

shall we call it,
the "redistribution of wealth"?

Right. Right, right.

I think there's
substance to that.

Yeah,
there's a... There's even a geographic area

where they think that
he buried the treasure.

Narrator: High in the
diablo mountain range,

13 miles from coalinga,
california,

sit three ominous
sandstone outcroppings

known as the joaquin rocks.

They're named for
joaquin murrieta,

the robin hood-type bandit who
later served as the inspiration

for the legendary
character of zorro.

He's the inspiration for zorro,
because in the process

of hunting down those
that did him wrong,

he would take gold
from those that had it

and give it to needy people.

And in mexico,
"zorro" means "fox."

and they're very conniving,
very smart.

They normally have two or
three pathways to escape.

Narrator: But for legions
of treasure hunters,

joaquin was a gold
miner turned outlaw

who left behind a cache of god

valued at more than four
and a half million dollars.

And there are many who believe

his gold still lies hidden

somewhere near the
three massive stone pillars

that bear his name.

Garza: Three rocks.

If you get on top
of those three rocks,

you can see for miles
and miles around.

You can see people coming from 40,
50 miles away.

It was very important
to have a good lookout.

That's why they would
keep all their gold there.

Narrator: The dramatic
life of joaquin murrieta reads

like it was ripped from the
pages of an old western novel.

No one can say for
certain what is fact

and what is fiction.

Garza: Actually,
for every true fact

that you find about joaquin,
there's about five lies.

Narrator: The story most
generally agreed upon

has murrieta migrating
from mexico to california

in the late 1840s

to mine for gold.

Hansen: When murrieta started,

he was a cowhand, or a vaquer.

They were paid very poorly...
Sometimes a dollar a day,

sometimes two dollars a day.

And so, he was tempted to go off

and do something
for quick money.

And the gold rush was huge

in california,
and especially huge

for people who thought
about easy money.

About 300,000 came out.

They're all hoping to get rich,
and some of them did get rich.

Narrator: Joaquin and his older brother,
jesus,

reportedly amassed
a fortune in gold.

But jealous american
prospectors attacked them,

and falsely accused
jesus of being a horse thief.

Garza: His older
brother was lynched.

Joaquin came out to defend him,

and they horsewhipped him.

(yelling)

his wife also came
out to help him,

and then,
they knocked her down on the floor,

stripped her of her
clothes and g*ng-r*ped her.

42 of them.

And then, she bled to death.

Joaquin wanted
to file a complaint.

And they got the sheriff,
and the sheriff told him,

"can't do anything for you."

they wouldn't give him justice.

They told him to forget it.

Narrator: But joaquin
murrieta did not forget it.

Instead,
he made a fateful decision...

To devote his life to
avenging the murders

of his wife and brother.

Garza: Joaquin got
together with his brothers,

his cousins and his neighbors,

and they were gonna get justice.

Of the 42 that g*ng-r*ped his wife,
he got 41 of them.

And in the process,
when they k*lled them,

they stole their gold,
and they became outlaws.

And once they were outlaws,

everything was... Fair game.

Narrator: Murrieta and
his band of desperados

rode through the san joaquin
and sacramento valleys,

serving up vigilante justice

as they saw fit.

In doing so, this masked troop

not only became
mexican folk heroes.

They also accumulated
vast sums of gold.

Garza: This guy stole

over four and a half
million dollars worth of gold.

He did more than jesse james,
billy the kid,

all those other people
all wrapped up together.

They couldn't even
pull up his socks.

Narrator: The local authorities

were powerless
to stop the thefts.

Eventually,
they called upon the newly-formed

california rangers.

The governor of california
offered a $1,000 cash reward

for joaquin murrieta, an amount

that would be worth more than
$200,000 in today's currency.

Gamino: The california rangers,

under the direction
of captain harry love,

were a posse of
semi-quasi law enforcers

that hunted and k*lled.

Most of the outlaws that he
looked for were turned in dead.

Narrator: For months,
murrieta and his g*ng evaded capture

in the isolated mountains near
the present-day city of fresno,

where some say they
buried their treasure.

They knew that they
were being surrounded

by captain love and his army.

They needed to get rid of the gold,
and they hid it.

Narrator: Eventually,
the california rangers

kidnapped murrieta's
brother-in-law.

They tortured him until
he gave up the location

where the g*ng was hiding.

Sandoval: Right here in this
riverbed is where they claim

captain love k*lled and beheaded

joaquin murrieta.

Narrator: To prove that
joachin was actually dead,

his head was preserved
in a jar of alcohol

and exhibited
throughout california,

where viewers paid one
dollar apiece to see it.

Some people, however,
insisted that joaquin murrieta

did not die, and that another
bandit's head was on display.

They believed that
murrieta escaped capture

and made his way safely back to sonora,
mexico.

Some say the famous joaquin
murrieta was never k*lled,

and died of old age in mexico.

He never came back to three rocks,
as he planned,

to dig his gold and
take it back to mexico.

And so,
this is why the story of his treasure

is still spoken of today.

I think this guy's pretty cool,
right?

I mean,
this is really interesting because

what was he, really?

Was he robin hood,
or was he just robbin'?

That's true with a lot of these stories,
I've noticed, too,

that on one perspective,
there's a group of people that say

"they were a hero
who helped our people."

and there's another group
of people that say, "nope,

just an outlaw who
was taking things..."

well, matty,
our own founding fathers were either

our founding fathers,
or they were traitors.

Right? I mean,
what's ben franklin's famous quote?

"we must all hang together,

or we will surely
all hang separately."

- yeah.
- Because to the british government,

they were certainly traitors;
that's what they were.

I think I'll agree with that.

(laughter)

it's over,
gary. The w*r is over.

(laughter)

they almost come up as myths.

The deaths themselves
of these people are often

shrouded in legend and lore,
and, you know,

we don't want these
legends to die a lot of times.

Marty: No, we don't.

Well,
the reality is that they don't die.

As we would not be sitting

- around this table discussing.
- Yeah.

Marty: Which brings
me back to my key thing,

whether there's a
treasure or not. Right?

If joaquin died and
his head's in the jar,

then I think his
treasure's out there.

If he escaped and was
living it up in mexico,

he probably took it with him.

Same with butch cassidy.

I mean,
there's stories now that he survived

the bolivian shootout,
and he lived his days in the u.S.

That's what people
want to believe.

And now you're going to
bring that story back to life.

And it would be fantastic if

there really is something
at robbers roost.

I believe there is,
mate. And if you see me come back

riding a bike,

singing "raindrops
keep falling on my head,"

- you'll know I found it.
- Yeah. -(laughter)

- go get 'em, buddy.
- Go get 'em. -All right, mate.

- Marty: See you, gary.
- Gary: See you later, chaps.

♪ ♪

gary: This is way out
in the boonies for me.

Bill: Well,
we're not off the pavement yet.

Were you born and raised around here,
bill?

Yeah. So I was born in utah.

Actually, fillmore, utah.

Then I had a lot of
family in circleville,

where butch actually lived,
when I was a boy.

Narrator: Bill betenson,

great-grandnephew
of butch cassidy,

has spent 40 years
retracing every step

cassidy ever took.

Bill: Butch cassidy,

he's my great-great-uncle.

His younger sister was
my great-grandmother.

So I got to grow
up hearing stories

from my great-grandmother
talking about her brother.

My earliest memories
are going to the premiere

of the famous movie.

And I remember watching that,
thinking,

"ah, this is the coolest."

and so I just continued to dig
into it because of my interest.

Narrator: Having grown
up with colorful tales

of his ancestor's exploits,
bill is convinced that

even though butch
cassidy may have returned

from south america,

his hidden treasure
may still lie buried

somewhere near cassidy's
hideout in southern utah.

Bill: He had three key hideouts.

But in visiting
those three hideouts,

robbers roost is
probably the best hideout.

I mean,
it's remote from civilization.

Obscure and well protected.

It takes a lot of
effort to get there.

Even today, it hasn't really
been disturbed a whole lot.

So to me, that would be a great
place to hide a cache of gold.

And there may have been reasos

that they couldn't
get back to it.

Well, I was brought up on
all these old western movies,

- and this is like a dream come true for me.
- Yeah.

Coming in to butch cassidy
and the sundance kid territory.

Narrator: Bill betenson is
taking gary to robbers roost.

Although the area has
been searched many times

by professional
treasure hunters,

bill is hoping that
gary's state-of-the-art

metal detector can
yield new evidence

that not only did the
wild bunch use the area

as the g*ng's hideout,

but also that their
incredible fortune in gold

might still be buried nearby.

Beautiful countryside.

And with the chance of finding

something connected
to butch cassidy.

Narrator: Tucked between the green,
dirty devil and colorado rivers,

robbers roost
boasts tough terrain

that could be easily defended,

and was near
impossible to navigate

unless you were
familiar with the area.

Gary: Sweet. So
we've got the chance

of finding some gold coins.

Butch liked to deal
in gold over currency

because it was untraceable.

Now,
those gold coins are probably gonna be

the larger gold coins.

The eagles,
which is a ten-dollar gold coin.

Or the double eagles,
$20 gold coins.

Bill: Yeah,
that's what I always heard about.

It's the $20 double eagles.

Yeah,
the story is that they used to use

$20 gold pieces as gaming chips.

(laughs)

gary: I mean,
there's got to be some there.

Bill: That would be cool
to find. That's for sure.

Gary: Wow, look at this.

Bill: All right,
let's go find some gold coins.

Bill: All right, let's go find some gold coins.
Gary: Wow, this is really, really rough terrain.

Bill: Yeah, it's really rugged

and you could die out here.

Gary: The first thing

that came into my mind

when we stepped out of the
car at robbers roost was, "wow.

I cannot believe
this site is here."

you're driving up
and all of a sudden,

you're in robbers roost,
with all that history.

So this down here is
some of the carvings

I wanted to show you.

Narrator: Carved into the
stone walls that stand above

a natural spring are the names
of a few of the hardy souls

who previously visited the site.

Pearl baker.

She carved her name in 1920.

And she wrote, of course,
the wild bunch at robbers roost.

So she documented a lot
of the history of the outlaws.

- That's pretty amazing, mate.
- Yeah.

Narrator: Bill leads gary

deep into the canyon,

where they come upon the
only structure still standing

from the days of the wild bunch.

Bill: So, here's the chimney.

Oh, man. That is awesome.

Fantastic that it's
still standing. 1890s.

We might find some
buried treasure around here,

because you don't bury
stuff far from your cabin.

- Okay. - I'm telling you, mate,

- we're gonna find something good here.
- All right.

Narrator: Using a minelab
ctx 3030 metal detector

capable of scanning to depths

of as much as three
feet deep underground,

gary methodically combs
the barren landscape

close to where butch
cassidy's cabin once stood.

(beeping)

gary: You have
to grid a site out.

You can't just meander around.

It has to be a nice box pattern.

So,
if it makes a two-way repeatable signal,

I'm digging it.

(beeping)

ooh. (laughs)

that sounds good.

It's reading two inches.

Just there, mate. So,
if you could dig that out.

Butch cassidy would
have never believed

one of his descendants

would be digging,
looking for his treasure.

(high-pitched beeping)

you know what that is, mate?

That is a little horseshoe nail.

- Bill: Oh, yeah. Shoeing their horses.
- Yep.

That-that's your typical
1800s horseshoe nail.

Yeah,
it's got a lot of corrosion,

so it's definitely old.

- This little nail is a piece of history.
- Yeah.

This is what leads
you to treasure.

Well, great, yeah,
let's keep going.

Gary: Those little
iron nails tell us

that those guys
were really there,

because those horseshoe
nails are from the late 1800s.

They're the exact things

you want to be
finding at that site.

I'm gonna make
my turnaround here.

(beeping)

just down there, mate.

I'll try to pinpoint it,
so I'll cut down

on the digging for you.

(high-pitched beeping)

(chuckles)

I got it.

It's an oldie as well,
by the look at it.

Is that an oldie, mate?

You were telling me
about those long cartridges.

Bill b: It is. It's a
.40-60. That is old.

Very cool.

How old do you think that is,
mate? Is that the period...

Yeah,
that's the period of butch's time, yeah.

So that,
that could've been fired

by butch cassidy or one
of the g*ng members.

Yeah.

- Very good. (laughs) - sweet!

Bill: The .40-60 was invented

for the winchester model 1876,
and that's the same g*n

that teddy roosevelt used.

So yeah, that was pretty cool to find that,
for sure.

That's almost as good
as a double eagle.

That is nice. A
little piece of history.

That is really cool, man.

That's worth the trip for me,
right there.

(chuckles) just to
find that. That is cool.

Gary: I know people
have visited the site,

and it's had a lot of
diggers through the years.

So if you can find an artifact,
what that means

is there's a lot of loot to
be recovered in that area.

You still stand a chance
of finding treasure.

It's not until I've
held those old b*ll*ts

and those horseshoe
nails in my hand

- that I'm convinced there's treasure here.
- Yeah.

And that's what we
came here looking for.

Uh, and looking around,
it's-it's a daunting task.

- Yeah.
- We'd have to put some serious time in.

Spend weeks here,

and do an extensive
search of the area.

There has got to be more
here. I know there's more here.

- Yeah. - For sure.

All right, mate, it's been fun,
but we've probably,

you know,
got to bite the b*llet and leave.

(laughs) it has been fun.

You're gonna be seeing me again.

I'm looking forward to it.

(wind whistling)

there he is. Hello,
gary. How in the heck are you?

I am fantastic.

(laughter)

rick: So, gary,
you know the history,

you know the lore.

You know the reason
why you're there.

But for me, the key question is,

does it actually feel
like you're walking

backwards into time?

Yeah. What is bloody cool
is you are with bill betenson,

one of butch
cassidy's descendants.

You pick up this old
winchester r*fle shell

and you put it
in the hand of bill

and you could see the
emotional connection.

That's worth the trip for me,
right there.

Gary, that's-that's very cool.

Here's another question, though.

Do you or bill feel like

there still is a treasure
to be found out there?

Yeah. Bill-bill and I

both believe there's
treasure there.

But it does occur to me

that if the shells
are still there,

then the area must not have
been worked too extensively

by metal detectors
such as yourself.

Which means that the
treasure could still be there, too,

because those shells would
have been picked up previously.

- Exactly, marty. - Yeah.

You know, gary,
it strikes me that, you know,

you might be, uh,
eminently capable of finding something

that's been missed
in the previous years.

Yeah,
because when I first went there,

I just went for
the good targets.

That was only one area.

It's not till you
walk in that canyon,

and I'm thinking to myself,

"there's so many places

to hide gold coins there."

I don't think you just bury I.

You don't think they
wouldn't have had

a stash of gold coins
in those canyon walls?

When you look around
those canyon walls,

you see all those cubbyholes.

The treasure is probably hiddn

in some crack or hole
in the canyon walls.

I am certain we can find
some gold in robbers roost.

Wow, guys. I mean, gary,
y-you sound really certain,

and when you're
certain on something,

I know that these
guys get very excited.

- Absolutely. - (chuckles)

we've got to go back.

(laughter)

hey, gary, uh,
informative as always,

and an emotional boost,
as always, as well.

So thanks a lot,
and we will be in touch.

- Thanks a lot.
- Matty: See you, buddy.

- Thanks, gary. -See you, gary.
- See you, mates.

There you have it. I mean,
an excited gary drayton.

A positive gary drayton.

He sounds like that
treasure has been stashed.

And how cool is it,
we've got gary,

you know,
literally working with a direct descendent

- of an american legend?
- Marty: Yeah.

- That alone is remarkable. Yes.
- Right?

- Agreed.
- Rick: Yeah. What's interesting

about this is here you're
taking modern science

and you're literally using that
like a time-traveling machine.

- Yeah.
- Right? He's applying modern science

and literally walking back
in time to-to revisit that.

- I mean, that's pretty cool.
- Yes.

Marty: Yeah,
and I think we probably only scratched

- the surface.
- That's what I think.

Marty: That sort of lawless time

in the united states history...

- Yeah.
- ...In, uh... you know, a lot of stuff

moved back and forth and a
lot of plundering and a lot of...

Probably things that
nobody even knows about.

- Yeah.
- But, uh, I'll bet there are a lot of them out there.

Rick: I agree. I-I think

there's stories out there
that need to be unearthed.

No pun intended.

And I-I think there are
a lot of treasure stories.

- And, uh, I look forward to looking into them.
- Matty: Yeah.

In a way, you know,
this... When we embarked

on this little
oak island a-adventure...

Rick has remarked on this
and he's absolutely right...

The way these treasure hunts
are intertwined

with historical events
is really remarkable.

You know, I-it's almost as if

they're a driver somehow
of what's happening.

You know, this-this quest
for treasure, at the time,

drives history,
or is it the other way around?

I don't know, but they're
certainly intertwined.

- Yeah, it's a quest for truth.
- Yeah.

Once again, guys,
this was awesome.

I can't wait for the next one.
And I know you guys

have a lot of work to do,
so I'll let you get back to it.

Well, come on out and get dirty.

Let's do it.