04x08 - Underwater Kingdom

[bunniefuu]

Drill boy!

[narrator] Previously,
on Blind Frog Ranch

Duane's quest to access the
keyhole chamber at the Bead Site

- turned expl*sive.
- [man] Watch out!

Whoa!

[narrator] When his drill head unleashed
a torrent of mysterious underground water.

I mean, it's just strange
that we have that much flow.

[narrator] Believing that the
water might be an aqueduct

deep below the ranch.

Water down the line.

[narrator] Duane and
James travel to Mexico City.

The ancient Aztecs, they were
masters of managing water.

[narrator] Where their tour
of ancient ruins revealed clues

into how the Aztecs constructed
their underground water systems.

And surprising
connections to the ranch.

The concrete that they were using
kind of reminds you of somewhere, huh.

Uh, almost like concrete.

Concrete?

[Duane] Damn, that's a
long way down. How deep?

- Twenty-three meters.
- [Duane] As deep as the energy zone, really.

There is a void right here.

Look at that [bleep].

There has been a
hole there before.

- Right here.
- Huh.

[narrator] Back in Utah,

Duane's plan to trace
the path of the water

and possibly lead them to a new
entrance into the underground cavern system

yielded shocking results.

It looks like it's still moving.

[narrator] As their
acoustic homing beacon

quickly swept under
and away from the ranch.

I got it. It's moving
that direction.

[narrator] After Josh and Ryan
tracked its signal to a nearby lake.

We dunk the ROV in, see
if we can see something?

Here we go.

[narrator] They discovered
an underwater opening.

Right there. Right there.
Look at that. Look at this.

Like, no [bleep], that's it.

[narrator] That could lead the team
straight into the Aztec keyhole chamber.

Legends of ancient treasures.

This has to be
hundreds of years back.

- [narrator] And unexplained phenomenon.
- What the hell is that?

[narrator] Meet at a 160-acre
property in northeast Utah,

known as Blind Frog Ranch,

Where Duane
Ollinger and his team

are digging in search
of long-lost Aztec gold.

The Aztecs have discovered this.

[narrator] But the
closer they get...

Finally get to hold
[bleep] gold in my hand.

[narrator] ...the more
the land fights back.

- Poison gas.
- No! [bleep]

- [narrator] Now, Duane will move heaven and earth...
- There he goes.

Fire in the hole.

[narrator] ...until he gets to
the bottom of this mystery...

We've started this whole deal,
and we're sure as hell gonna finish it.

[narrator] ...and solves
what's lurking below.

Holy [bleep]! There's
something in there.

- [bleep]
- Josh.

[narrator] At Blind Frog Ranch.

- [Ryan] What kind of clarity you got?
- The visibility is not good.

[Ryan] Let's just try
to scan the shoreline.

[Josh] There we go. There
comes some rock right now.

There's a lot of
rubble right over here.

- [Ryan] Oh, yeah.
- And you'd expect to find that if there was, like, a cave in.

So let's keep moving
up this direction.

[narrator] After learning that an Aztec
aqueduct might run beneath the ranch,

the team dropped a
beacon into the waterway

- hoping it would lead them to a new entrance...
- [beacon beeping]

into the underground
cavern system.

Josh and Ryan tracked the
Beacon signal to Calamity Lake,

three miles west of the ranch,

where they believe
it's come to rest.

So now, they are scanning
the shoreline for a passageway.

[Ryan] Yeah, it's


Some run at the far shoreline.

[narrator] Josh and Ryan
will use an underwater drone

to search for a cave entrance
that connects the lake to the tunnel.

Look at this. Can you see that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, it almost looks like
a collapsed wall of stone.

I'm not seeing any openings.

Let's keep heading this
direction. See what we can get.

Oh, look there. Does that not
look like an entrance to you?

Like, no [bleep]. That's it.

Well, there's only
one way to find out.

We're gonna have to
get Chad man out here.

He's gonna have
to put on his frog suit

and put his own eyes
on it and see it for sure.

[Duane] So what
did you find, fellas?

Duane, we were following that
beacon right off the ranch for miles.

Damn.

[Ryan] Eventually, we
chased it up over this ridge.

And we're on this ridgeline.
We come down and then boom.

There's an open body of
water right there in front of us.

That beacon led us
to this body of water.

We were getting a
really consistent signal.

I think that means
that that body water

is connected to the pond
right here on Blind Frog Ranch.

Wow.

[narrator] Based on the
signal from the hydrophone,

it appears that the beacon is located


Possibly trapped in an opening
some 35 feet below the water.

[Josh] The beacon doesn't
look like it's going any further.

It just stopped.

It's stationary right here.

So we think that beacon is in
an opening to the cave system

under that body of water.

And that signal was so strong.

And I'm thinking, "God, maybe
there's an entrance right there."

[narrator] If the opening Josh and
Ryan discovered beneath the lake

is a cave entrance
leading to the beacon,

that means that the team might be
able to follow the underground cavern

all the way back to
the keyhole chamber.

[Josh] This is what Skinner
and I found right here, guys.

- Holy [bleep], man.
- Oh, my God.

Damn boys. It took
a while to get here.

But by God, that could be
one of the Chicomoztoc caves.

I don't feel a lot of expression,
but by God, I'm happy.

[laughs]

Maybe we can swim all the
way back up to that keel cavern.

It's just whether
we can get in there

or not is really
what it boils down to.

Chadro, that sounds
right up your alley.

- Yeah. I think we could do it.
- Yeah.

We could definitely do it. We'll
dive it and we'll see where it leads.

- It sounds like a plan.
- Hell, yeah.

This lake is miles
from the ranch.

So that means the
underground cavern system

is potentially a lot bigger
than we ever imagined.

The ROV Is showing us a little
like gaps and spaces in there

that they think could
be a possible cave.

We're thinking it's right
there, right, Skinner?

Along the shoreline.

- Perfect.
- That's our guess.

This could be one of the
entrances to Chicomoztoc.

So I'm gonna go
in and check it out.

Are you ready?

- So right here. All along this wall...
- Yeah.

There's rubble and
voids all through there.

- That's the area we've got to check.
- All right.

- See, look at this.
- Wow!

Right through there.

Yeah, yeah. I see it.

- It's like, it kinda comes out and then it drops.
- Right.

And then you get up
underneath that. It's... it's black.

You can't see past there.

And I would think if there's
an entrance into a cave,

it's somewhere
underneath all that rubble.

Let me get your
light ready for you.

I mean, that current, as
big as this thing should be,

- you should feel a rush coming out of that void.
- Exactly.

- You'll feel it.
- You'll know right away.

- I'm gonna go down and see what I can find.
- All right.

Good luck, Chad.

- You think you can chase him with ROV.
- I'm gonna try to, yeah.

He's almost in that
bigger void that we saw.

- Right now.
- He's right in the area.

- [Josh] Yeah.
- [Ryan] I wanna see him come up with the beacon.

- Oh, that would be nice.
- I know, right.

Oh, he's way down there.

[bleep]

- Hey.
- What do you got?

- I'm seeing all those rocks you're seeing.
- Yeah.

[Chad] There's
no opening at all.

- No entrance.
- [Chad] No.

- There's no way we can get in there.
- [bleep]

When you're diving, you have
limited air and limited time under water.

And in the time I
had down there,

all I saw was some cracks here
and there and some big boulders

that might have been blocking
whatever entrance was there at one time.

It almost looks like it's
collapsed in certain areas,

but I can't tell if someone
purposely did it or what.

Okay. You're feeling
a current coming out?

No, I didn't feel any current.

[Ryan] Damn it.
How is that possible?

Maybe there's another
opening here. I don't know.

- I think I just need to keep searching the bank.
- Okay.

We struck out with
that first opening.

[bleep]

It is way too tight for Chad
to even consider to dive into.

So he's going to take another
look further up the shoreline.

Dive down a bit deeper and
try to find a wider opening.

What do you see?

It looks like he's
clearing out debris.

- What do you see?
- I see a bunch of dirt kicked up.

- But I can't see him.
- [bleep]

[narrator] After following
the beacon signal

from the beach side to Calamity
Lake three miles west of the ranch,

Josh and Ryan believe they found

where the beacon
has stopped moving,

one thousand feet
east of the lake.

Chad is searching a series of
collapsed rocks along the shoreline.

Looking for a connecting
tunnel to the beacon.

- Hey, I found the [bleep] cave.
- You got it.

That cave is right
underneath us.

- Whoo!
- Right here.

- [laughs]
- [bleep]. No way.

That was awesome, man.

- Freaking awesome.
- Whoo.

Chad surfaces and he
just goes, "I got a cave."

And I'm like, 'You've got
to be freaking kidding me."

You're on the trail
of the treasure,

and when you
hear stuff like that,

it just makes everything, all of
the work and all the pain worth it.

You can get into
it, like, swim into it.

Yeah. It's blocked up with some,
like some, uh, trees and stuff like that.

But the mouth of the cave is
like big, and then it gets tighter.

And it looks like you can
go a long ways in there.

- No [bleep].
- But it's so dark out there.

- This is legit cave diving then.
- This is legit cave diving.

I mean, we're possibly looking into
one of three entrances to chicomoztoc.

This is blowing my mind.
But it's super dangerous.

So there's a current
pushing me out.

Cold water coming out, like
definitely temperature change.

- No way.
- [Chad] There's a couple of different directions

you can go, so I didn't
wanna get lost and [bleep].

But I think we need
to use our heads on it

like we need to be tethered off.

We need lights. We need to
have some master divers with us.

And, uh, we need to map this
whole thing out and do it slow.

So I think if we get that,
we can find the beacon

and find where the beacon
went and follow it all the way back.

I mean, there's a good chance.

Whoo!

[Duane] Chadro,
how did your dive go?

Where we thought
the cave entrance was,

that opening didn't
lead anywhere.

- Really?
- [Chad] It was completely blocked off.

But I went back down
there to take another look.

And started scanning
that whole area.

We can finally find
this big opening

[Duane] Now that's exciting.

There's cooler water coming out
of there like the cave system here.

- So you can feel the flow.
- [Chad] Yeah.

I really think this could
be like an entrance

to the underground
cavern system.

This is potentially the cave
system that we've been looking for

and talking about, something that's
an origin site for indigenous people

that were underground.

It sounds like you guys may have
found a spot where we can get in.

[Duane] Getting that kind of
information is a game changer

for this whole operation.

After ten years of hard work, we're
getting close, but not close enough.

This cave might be our
back door to the gold.

Chad's done one
hell of a good job.

You know, very
proud of that kid.

I mean, hell, don't tell him,
or he'll get the big head.

I didn't go too
far into the cave

'cause, I mean, it's
nothing like the pond here.

It's hairy. It's narrow.

So I think we need to go
back with some master divers.

We're gonna have to
have a mapping system.

I need extra oxygen. I
mean, the whole deal.

You know, this underwater cave
diving it's some serious business.

It's dangerous as hell.

But I do trust Chad on
what he'll come back with.

Right now, I'm loading
up all my dive gear

because I'm heading to
Florida to train for a few days

with some of the best
cave divers in the world.

The underwater cave
is a lot more intense.

I mean, it looks super sketchy,

and I'm just a
regular scuba diver.

So I called this
guy, Wendell. Nope.

He's going with me to Florida.

Wendell works with the
Utah State Police dive team.

He's one of the best
cave drivers around here.

[narrator] Formerly part of the Utah
Department of Public Safety's dive team

for almost 20 years,

Wendell Nope, has conducted
hundreds of search and rescue missions.

He'll act as
Chad's safety diver,

a role that requires precise
coordination and practice.

Me and Wendell can get a
feel for how to swim together,

how to be a better team in
case [bleep] does go wrong.

I mean, it was risky when I
dove in the pond cavern before.

But this cave entrance is half
the width of the pond tunnel.

It's totally unexplored.

So we've got to take
this very seriously.

We can't afford to
get anyone hurt here.

And I'm excited. So
Florida, here we go.

- Chris. [laughs]
- Chad.

Nice to finally meet you.
Yes, sir. You too, man.

- How you doing?
- Yeah, good.

- Wendell.
- Nice to meet you.

The knowledge I do have of cave
diving is just me going out there

and not really doing
it professionally.

You know, it's more like
kind of redneck cave diving.

It's not smart and no
one should do that ever.

We thought it'd be best to
go to Cave Diving Central.

So, uh, I came down to
Florida to meet Chris Brock.

[narrator] Chris Brock
is a master cave diver,

having explored dozens of dangerous
underwater caves across the United States

and around the world.

At his dive school, Chris has
taught several hundred students

what it takes to stay alive

while navigating impossibly tight
tunnels in almost total darkness.

So tell me about
the cave you found.

So basically, we think that
this cave could lead towards

- this Aztec treasure we're trying to find.
- [Chris] Oh, wow.

And it's, uh, super tight.

There's a lot of flow,
not the best visibility.

So I definitely want to make
sure that we do this right.

And, uh, just to make
sure that everyone's safe.

- I mean, me, plus the crew, plus everyone.
- [Chris] Right.

- You say it's a tight entrance.
- [Chad] Yeah.

- We call that a restricted entrance.
- Okay.

And side mount is the tool
you would want to use to do that,

because it gives you complete
separation of both cylinders.

So if you were to
have a failure on one,

you have another
cylinder to get out.

Gotcha.

[narrator] Side mount diving is a
system designed by cave explorers

that uses smaller tanks
attached to the hips with a belt.

Unlike traditional
back mounted tanks,

this allows divers to swim
through tight passageways

with less risk of damaging their
equipment on the rocks around them.

All of our procedures
that I'm going to teach you

are based on what
fatalities have occurred.

And then procedures have
been made that we use in training

to prevent those sorts
of things from going on.

- There have been hundreds of people die in caves.
- Right.

- They die because they get hopelessly lost...
- Right.

And after they get
lost, they run out of gas.

Run out of air and drown.

And I just want you to
understand that it's not easy.

If you don't do it the way I want
you to do it, you're gonna die.

What Chad is trying to do is
probably at the highest level

of danger, there could
be for a cave diver.

Cannot do this
without proper training.

Too many people have
died because of that.

I'm not the easiest instructor.

- You're gonna have to work hard for me.
- Okay.

I think you can do this.

But ultimately, you passing
or failing cave training, Chad,

is up to one person,
and that's Chad.

[narrator] In preparation for
their dive of the virgin cave

discovered at Blind Frog Ranch,

Chad and Wendell must
train for every eventuality.

- You ready?
- I'm ready.

[narrator] Instructor Chris
Brock will put them through

a grueling seven-day
crash course

in a series of submerged caves.

Piece of cake. You got this.
Nice and slow. Nice and steady,

- Yeah.
- No worries. You'll be just fine.

All right, let's drop
down where it's clear.

[narrator] Unlike scuba diving,
cave diving happens in tight,

dimly led, silt-filled spaces
where it is easy to get disoriented.

To prevent this from happening,

cave divers run what
is known as a guideline.

They secure it to the floor as
they descend deeper into the cave.

The thin line of nylon is
often their only chance

of finding their way
back to the surface.

Chris starts Chad in
large, unobstructed lagoons

until he is ready for his first
real test beneath the rocks.

Chad successfully
secures his guideline

and begins marking his path.

Now it's on to a tight passageway
filled with jagged rock edges.

This is a training dive, but the
danger is very real from here.

If he were to sever an air hose,

an emergency
return to the surface

would take nearly 30
minutes and could be fatal.

Chad makes it through
the low clearance void,

but soon realizes
he's lost the line.

Requiring Chris to
come guide him to safety.

And a long swim
back to the surface.

- Welcome back.
- Holy [bleep]!

- Y'all crazy? [bleep]
- [laughs]

- Oh, my God.
- [laughing]

Oh, my God. Are you
[bleep] kidding me?

I definitely had ideas of
what I thought it would be like.

But this is way more
intense than I ever imagined.

This is [bleep] serious.

You remember when we
went around that corner?

- Our line was over here.
- Uh-huh.

- And you went around the corner over here.
- Right. Right.

- [Chris] Did you lose the line right then?
- [Chad] Yeah.

Okay, so always the biggest
key thing in cave diving,

know where that line is at.

Focus on that line.

If you lose that line, how long
do you have to look for that line?

- I don't know. Oh.
- The rest of your life.

- The rest of your life.
- All right, gotcha.

[Chris] All right, so
let's don't lose that line.

It's not easy because a lot of
the caves that you may dive in

have flow water moving out.

I wanted you to feel that flow

because that's going to
be probably reminiscent

of the flow that
you have in Utah.

We're about halfway done
and the intensity is high man.

Chris pushes me and
pushes me and pushes me

and it's making me
a better swimmer.

But that just adds anxiety
to this whole [bleep] thing.

Jesus Christ.

Slow down. Slow is smooth.

Smooth is fast.

Wrap it, wrap it,
wrap it, wrap it.

You want that thing on. If it
comes off, you're dead. It's over.

The margin of error
in a cave is really zero.

You cannot do this
without proper training.

- Congratulations. Good job, buddy.
- [laughs]

You did a cave dive.

From where you started
to where you are now

you're a completely
different diver.

From this point forward, you,
my friend, are a cave diver.

- Congratulations, buddy. I'm proud of you.
- [laughs]

- Thank you, man. Appreciate it.
- Good job.

Where he started from
to where he's at now,

no one in my career I've seen that's made
that much progress over that amount of time.

As an instructor, I know
he knows what to do now,

so I have to turn him
loose and let him go.

Thank you. It was
a long haul, man.

I'm excited right now.

But this cave, it's still
got me a little nervous

because we have
no idea what it's like.

We know it is going to be
dark, likely, silty, a lot of flow.

But this could be where the
Aztec treasure is. So we gotta try it.

- Hell, yeah. All right.
- Let's go find us some Aztec gold.

Chadro, what do you
think about the cave deal?

- I'm ready to dive in.
- I like it.

[Chad] But we just have
to be super cautious.

The cave is super tight, and it
looks like it's pretty silted out, so...

I just want to be
pretty safe about it.

We don't even know how far
we can get back in there. Nothing.

That redneck [bleep]
going in there with a hose

- ain't gonna work.
- Yeah.

We can't hillbilly it no more.

- No shortcuts.
- Yeah.

People get k*lled in
there if somebody panics.

True.

I think we can get into
this cave safely and get out.

But my dad doesn't
want to take this lightly

because there are
deaths in caves.

You know, that's
all real [bleep].

If we can avoid that and
do it as safe as possible,

I think it'd be worth it.

You know, we've come a long way,

but we've got a long ways to go,

and we can't make
no mistakes here.

You know, it looks like he's got a
plan and he found the right people.

If something goes
wrong, he'll take charge.

He gonna get some air.

- I got this.
- Good enough.

- Good luck.
- Thank you.

This is the place I
was talking about.

If you go below that rock,
there's like an entrance.

[narrator] Chad has brought Wendell
to the entrance of the underwater cave

that could be
connected to the ranch.

I really think that this could lead all
the way back to the ranch or it has to.

It's connected, I know.

[narrator] While they attempt to
dive the unexplored tunnel system,

Josh and Ryan will act as safety
spotters from the boat above.

But their ability to
help will be limited.

Once Chad and Wendell
enter the cave system,

they will be entirely
on their own.

Okay, just a couple
of things real quick

- before we get in the water.
- [Chad] Yeah.

This is a virgin cave.

No one's ever explored it.

Now, in virgin caves,
there's ancient silt.

The silt has just
gotten on the wall,

- kind of like dust.
- Right.

When we go in, some
of that dust is going to fall.

It's going to
look a little foggy.

But as long as we
can see in front of us,

- we're okay because we're setting a line.
- Right.

If something happens,
we can find our way out.

As a public safety diver,

I've seen some scary stuff
and some very tragic situations.

On a dive like this, we
can only rely on ourselves.

We've got two tanks each.

And if something happens
to one of these tanks,

we've got to go to the
servers immediately.

This is serious business.

Hey, guys, how
are things looking?

-[beacon beeping] -Yeah,
I'm still picking up that beacon.

And the signal is coming
from under the shoreline.

So that beacon is
underground inside that cave.

[Chad] Josh, the plan
is, see how far we get.

See if we can find that beacon
and see if we find the tunnel

that leads them
back to the ranch.

- You know what you're doing, but be safe.
- [Chad] Right. Right.

If you don't surface, there's not
a damn thing we can do about it.

Okay. Let's just go.

Here they go.

Careful, men.

[narrator] As they
enter the cave,

their fins stir
up the loose silt,

reducing visibility
to almost zero.

They set a guideline so they can find
their way back to the mouth of the cave.

But navigating the path
forward won't be so simple.

In these murky conditions,

the only way to know if
they are headed the right way

is to feel the flow of the
water and then swim against it.

As they get deeper into the
cave, the silt starts to settle.

Following the current upstream
has led them to a near dead end.

With passages no more
than a few inches wide.

[narrator] Exploring
underwater caves

is one of the most dangerous
occupations in the world.

Despite the small number
of active cave divers,

as many as 20 people die
a year while cave diving.

To minimize risks, cave divers
employ redundant equipment,

including a secondary air tank.

Because kicked-up
silt can blind divers,

they use frog kicks
and modified flutter kicks

designed to minimize
the creation of vortices

that can disturb the silt
above and below them.

A special back kick technique
is taught to allow divers

to back out of narrow passages
without having to turn their bodies around.

Cave divers plan to use no
more than a third of one air tank

to enter into a cave system.

Reserving another third
for their return journey.

And the last third
for their safety diver

in the event that the safety
diver's tanks are damaged.

They've been down there a while.

They have been
down there a while.

Have you got enough air?

I hope so.

This is taking way too long.

Something's wrong.

[narrator] Two hundred
feet into the cave,

Chad's hand light has failed.

And his oxygen
tanks are leaking.

An impact with the cave wall caused
Chad's pressure gauge to come loose.

To fix it, he must switch
regulators to the reserve tank.

And use a wrench
to tighten the lead.

Oh, my God.

[bleep]

Are you okay?

How does it feel to be somewhere
where no one's ever been before?

[bleep] yeah.

[laughing]

Holy [bleep]! This is the cave.

Jesus Christ.

[laughing]

Holy [bleep]!

This isn't just like
a series of tunnels.

These are caves that
people could have lived in.

I mean, we found a
deer skull down there,

and it didn't just
float in there.

I mean, likely someone k*lled
and ate that deer down there.

The Chicomoztoc legend
was talking about exactly this.

These hidden chambers that
could house whole civilizations.

This has to lead
back to the ranch.

And that's what
we're in right now.

Oh, my God.

[bleep] wild.

[narrator] Next time on
Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch.

You think he's dangerous?

We've had some wild
[bleep] happen here.

- Is this not a bear guarding the cave?
- Look at that.

[narrator] New discoveries...

These look like ingots
that we found last year.

[narrator] ...bring them
closer to the vast fortune.

There's something of value
here. Some were dying over.

[bleep]

[narrator] Dark secrets
from the ancient past...

That cave, people were in there.

This is definitely death.

[narrator] ...threaten the
future of Blind Frog Ranch,

There's some very weird
stuff going on in this ranch.

Let's just pull a 4-foot
cylinder out of the ground.

That's pretty great.

The DNA that was
there is unknown.

- What?
- It's highly radioactive.

Shut down that ranch.

There was something above it
that perturbed the magnetic field.

Maybe like a UOP.

Their monitoring something.

If I was going to bury
treasure, this would be it.

There's someone in here.

[siren blaring]