[eerie music playing]
[Jessica] Is anybody missing their miner's tag?
Could you please give me a sign?
[clanking]
Did you hear that?
[music increases in tempo]
[Josh] On this episode of Expedition X...
my team visits an Old West ghost town...
[Phil] Look at the condition of this place.
[Josh] ...where spirits of the gold rush
are reportedly staking a hostile claim,
making the present just as dangerous
as the town's Wild West past.
[man] A lot of people see the woman in the black dress.
We really want to get into some of the mines.
[man] I'd recommend not going into the mines.
They're very dangerous.
Water'll shut off. The power'll shut off.
Something is messing with me.
Here, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty.
[clicking tongue repeatedly]
-[cat meowing] -[both shriek]
[exhilarating instrumental music playing]
So I received a phone call from a guy named Brent Underwood.
and he would very much like for the two of you
to come investigate his town called Cerro Gordo.
So this guy wants us to come investigate his home town.
No, no. When I say his town, I mean the town that he owns.
Wait, he owns his own town?
Yes, he owns his own town but here's the thing.
Uh, it is a very remote, mountainous, 150-year-old
former Gold Rush era mining town
that is now a ghost town.
And Brent is very worried that his ghost town
may be a literal town of ghosts.
[Josh] 1848, the California gold and silver rush begins.
In the ensuing years, over 250,000 people
head west from all over America
and around the world,
hoping to get rich.
A few lucky prospectors do. Most don't.
And many die along the way.
Often in 'anything goes' mining towns
where money is plentiful but lives are cheap.
Cerro Gordo is one of those towns,
built high in the Inyo Mountains
to take advantage of its rich seams of minerals.
The prospectors there first mine silver,
then move on to zinc,
with Cerro Gordo becoming the largest producer of zinc carbonate in America.
All in all, they mine precious metals
worth an astounding $17 million dollars at the time.
Or around $300 million today.
It's a 'work hard, play harder' town.
At its peak, the population is over 4,000,
with seven saloons and three brothels.
But no law enforcement.
It also boasts a shocking amount of bloodshed,
averaging a murder per week,
with residents reportedly sleeping surrounded by sand bags
to protect themselves from stray bullets.
And if the other inhabitants don't kill you,
the mining just might,
with hundreds of miners just buried alive from cave-ins and gas explosions.
[explosion]
In 1957, the veins finally run dry.
And when the mining dies, so does the town.
Cerro Gordo and its mines lay dormant for almost 70 years
until it's sold for $1.4 million in 2018.
The lucky buyer is Brent Underwood.
But as soon as Brent arrives,
he and his visitors begin to experience frightening activity
all around the town and its mines.
Inexplicable feelings of dread,
hearing terrifying sounds,
seeing full-bodied apparitions,
including repeated sightings of a mysterious woman in black.
[eerie music playing]
The disturbing activity seems to only be getting worse.
Cerro Gordo recently saw an unexplainable fire
burn down three buildings.
On the night of the fire,
a ghostly figure is reportedly seen
impossibly appearing and disappearing.
Brent has his life savings, and perhaps his life, on the line.
If he loses the town, he truly loses everything.
He needs urgent help.
Is Cerro Gordo's violent past pushing into the present?
Is Brent's ghost town haunted?
What do you think?
I mean, it doesn't surprise me at all to hear that this place is haunted.
I mean, it is the Wild Wild West, right?
And mining towns were known for their robberies, their murders, their violence.
In particular, I want to check out these mines.
If that many people died in there,
and their bodies were left unrecovered,
I mean, that's Haunting 101 right there.
What about you?
Growing up in Colorado, I've visited my fair share of these ghost towns.
And they're spooky places.
You said this one's pretty remote.
This place is very remote, high altitude. It's up at like 9,000 feet.
I guess my big hold-up here is that it's in the name, Josh.
-It is a ghost town. -[Josh] Right.
So when people go there and experience things,
they're gonna try to interpret it through a paranormal lens.
And that 9,000 feet that you talked about,
that's pretty high elevation.
And humans at that elevation are essentially deprived of oxygen.
And they can go through a form of psychosis
where they see things that aren't there or feel like they're being chased.
You think the altitude of this town could be causing people to see ghosts?
Sure, and maybe the mines themselves too,
because mines are known to give off certain gases
that can also cause people to hallucinate.
[Josh] So, obviously, a lot to investigate here.
The mission is to go and meet Brent and help him solve the mysteries
of his Wild West town.
Wagons ho to Cerro Gordo.
-All right, let's go! -Yee-haw.
[Josh] It's a six-hour flight from the Big Apple to the City of Angels.
And then, a three-and-a-half hour drive from LA
to the Inyo Mountains to reach Cerro Gordo.
The dirt road here is only eight miles
but it can take over an hour to ascend
its precarious 4,600-foot climb.
This is a rugged road but look at this view.
[Jessica] It's gorgeous. Oh, God. Go slow.
[Phil] That view is so spectacular
-[Jessica] It's beautiful-- -but I promise I will watch the road...
-Just look at the road. -...at least 90% of the time.
-[Phil] The peak of Cerro Gordo is at 9,000 feet. - [Jessica] Yeah.
[Phil] Really steep incline and that's gonna mess with your brain.
Am I gonna barf everywhere on camera?
-[Phil] Nausea for sure. -Uh-huh?
Dizziness. People can burst capillaries in the brain.
-Oh, my God! -They can hallucinate and you can even die.
[Jessica] So you think all these ghost sightings are people hallucinating?
[Phil] I think it could be a factor.
[Jessica] It looks like we're gonna drive off the edge of the world.
[gasps] [bleep]
-[Phil] Oh, there it is! -Oh, that looks cool!
[Phil] Wow. Okay.
We pull into Cerro Gordo and it looks just as advertised.
Desolate, forgotten, population 1.
-[Phil] Hey, Brent! -[Jessica] Hey, there!
-[Brent] Hey, guys! -[Jessica] Nice to meet you.
-Welcome to Cerro Gordo. -Thank you!
-[Brent] Yeah! -[Phil] So this is your mine?
This is my mine.
[Jessica] How does one buy a town?
Uh... a lot of promises
and a lot of friends that believe in you, I guess.
-[Jessica] That's good. -There you go.
[Brent] I've always been in love with history.
So I used to love everything about the West.
You know, I think the West is a very romantic part of American culture.
-[Jessica] Mm-hmm. -And so the idea that there was gunfights here,
-there was shoot-outs, there was a murder a week. -[horse whinnies]
Guys are just striking it rich.
A lot of dreams came here to die.
and a few came to prosper, I guess.
Nice. A lot of emotions in one relatively small area.
Yes, yes.
[Phil] How many buildings are around here?
So there's about a dozen buildings left.
-Behind me is the general store. -[Jessica] Mm-hmm.
This is where they were selling all the supplies back in the day.
-[Jessica] Do you mind if we take a peek inside? -Yeah, check it out.
-[door slams] -[Phil] Wow.
[Jessica] This place is awesome.
[Phil] Were all these things found around here?
[Brent] A lot of it was here before we got it.
But I've added things to it as I go down in the mines.
-Stuff like dynamite boxes and other things. -[Jessican and Phil exclaim]
[Jessica] What are more of the supernatural stories
that you've heard come out of this place?
I myself have been living here for the last few years.
-[Jessica] Mm-hmm. -I have one kind of, like, main story.
And that relates to the bunkhouse.
Which is a place where miners used to come,
-spend time before they permanently lived here. -[Jessica] Mm-hmm.
[baby cooing]
[Brent] This is a long hallway with three rooms off it either side.
[eerie music playing]
I walked to see a sunset spot.
As I was walking by, somebody kind of looked out the curtain.
[captivating instrumental music playing]
The light was on in the kitchen.
At first, I didn't think much of it, you know.
I thought it was the contractors.
You know, the contractors had been here before.
Then I found Robert the caretaker. I was like,
"Hey, Robert. How long are the contractors staying in the bunkhouse?"
-[Jessica] Yeah. -And he kinda turned and he said, uh,
"Oh, they left two weeks ago."
I know I saw somebody.
I know the light was on.
What are some of the other stories that people have had?
The woman in the black dress is very common.
A lot of people see a woman in the various buildings,
always just wearing the same type of dress.
[Phil] Based on your knowledge of the history here...
-[Brent] Yeah. -...do you have any suspicions on who that might be?
[Brent] There was a woman named Lola Travis.
And Lola owned a brothel up here.
Named Lola's Palace of Pleasure.
She was known as a very blunt woman.
There's a story in where there's an argument about the fee that was being charged
and she shot the guy dead in the street.
And was never charged just because she was kind of respected
in the community to that level.
-So don't mess with Lola. -Don't mess with Lola.
[Phil] Jess and I are really interested in what's happening
underground here, too.
We really want to get into some of the mines.
Uh, I'd recommend not going to the mines.
They're very dangerous.
Because the mines are actually collapsing.
You know, they're collapsing everyday.
And so, in another decade, two decades, they may not all be here.
So my blanket statement would be stay alive and stay out.
-You gotta find an expert to go down there with you. -Yeah.
[Jessica] I'll just call Josh and I'll see
who he can reach out to that can come out here and help us out.
-[cat meows] -[Phil] There's a cat.
We have a cat. That's Radio.
Cats are actually one of the incidents here
that I've heard about, prior to my time.
The story was that husband and wife were sleeping.
The husband awoke to just hear the wife saying,
"Oh, hey, kitty, kitty," just kind of doing this on her chest.
They both saw a cat leave,
and, uh, there was no cat to be found.
I love the idea of a ghost cat.
[meows]
-Well, thank you for all this information. -Of course.
Have fun. Enjoy it.
[Jessica] Brent gives us unprecedented access
to investigate the entire ghost town of Cerro Gordo.
And after I make a quick call to Josh
about potentially getting access to the mines,
Phil and I start prepping our night investigation.
Where do you want to set these cameras up?
-I think, obviously, one towards the bunkhouse. -Yeah.
And then, we can't ignore the Palace of Pleasure.
Because we know there was a lot of people that went there.
[Jessica] We set up surveillance throughout the town.
The plan tonight is to hit all the reputed paranormal hotspots
including Lola's Palace of Pleasure,
where the apparition of a woman in a black dress is often reported.
But we're going to start at the bunkhouse.
It's believed to be the oldest structure at Cerro Gordo,
and I'm curious if that means it might harbor
the most residual paranormal energy.
[eerie music playing]
Hello, we're coming in.
Test, test. Okay, we're good.
-[Phil] Okay. -We're recording.
-I'm gonna record on this, just in case. -Yeah.
[suspenseful music playing]
My name's Jess. I'm with Phil.
If you're here, do you mind turning on the lights?
-[distant creaking] -[Jessica] Did you hear that?
I heard something move down there.
[Phil] Let's go down there.
[Jessica] Was this your room?
Was that why you were looking out of the window?
I hope it's okay if we stay here.
[creaking]
[whispering] What is creaking?
[whispers] It sounds like it's on the outside of that wall.
[Phil whispers] It does.
Go and see if you can see anything hitting the back of the wall.
[ominous music playing]
Was this your room?
[eerie music playing]
There's a lot of creaking activity happening here.
-[Jessica] No, did you just slam a door? -No.
[dramatic music playing]
[Jessica in normal voice] I just heard the door slam.
Maybe when I opened this, it created a cross-breeze?
But... did we leave it open?
-[whispering] I think we left it open. -Okay.
What were you saying? There was some stuff that was hitting the wall?
No, there was just a lot of creaking happening up in the corner.
But it is also incredibly windy out.
[Jessica] Let's check out the front door.
[Phil in normal voice] That was close. That slammed shut.
[Jessica] Oh, my God!
[door closes]
How could the breeze have closed that?
I don't know.
[whispers] Dude.
Is there anyone in this room with us?
Were you a miner?
Let's check out that bedroom where that ghost cat was reported.
[Phil] So, lying on the bed.
-And... -Okay Phil. Now what?
Well, my theory is this.
If you're at high altitude, it's hard to catch your breath.
You're gonna feel like there's a weight on your chest.
I mean, you know I gotta do it.
Oh, my gosh. Are you gonna do a...
like a meow and response?
I'm gonna do a meow and response.
Here, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty!
[clicking tongue repeatedly]
Here, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty! [clicks tongue]
-[cat meowing] -[both shriek and laugh]
[both continue laughing]
[bleep]
I just know the cat was in here.
Where is it? Where is it?
-[laughing] Is it still here? -[Jessica laughing] [bleep]
Oh... my God.
-Oh, I've never hugged you so fast in my life. -Oh, my God.
[dramatic music playing]
[Phil] To see if there could be any truth to the legend of the phantom cat,
we leave our cameras rolling and borrow a toy from Radio,
the real cat who nearly gave us a heart attack, and place it on the bed.
Okay, let's close this door so the real cat doesn't come in here.
[Jessica] Yeah, I agree.
[Phil] If any ghostly paw prints show up on the sheets,
our surveillance camera will capture it.
[Jessica] After the bunkhouse, we set our sights on the infamous brothel,
Lola's Palace of Pleasure.
I have a theory I wanna put to the test.
By isolating myself for a different kind
of call and response technique,
I might be better able to connect with female spirits
from the brothel's sordid past.
[Phil] Wow. Look at the condition of this place.
[Jessica] Whoa.
[Jessica] I'm going to use the spirit box
and conduct a special, uncontaminated call and response session.
To eliminate any bias, I'll be wearing a blindfold
and special noise-cancelling headphones.
I won't be able to see or hear Phil's call-outs
and Phil won't know any spirit box hits that I'm getting.
[both exhale sharply]
So where do you wanna post up?
Maybe I'll post up over here, kind of by the door,
where we walked in.
You want me to sit over here, maybe in the middle?
-Yeah. -Okay.
[Jessica] The spirit box scans the white noise and static of radio frequencies.
[captivating instrumental music playing]
If it lines up with Phil's questioning,
then we'll know we might be dealing
with some sort of intelligent presence here.
Record.
Okay recording.
[ominous music playing]
Jess, can you hear me?
Jessica?
All right, she's not hearing me.
Okay, here we go.
Terrifying.
Wow. She started apparently I'm "terrifying."
Um, hello? Is anyone in here?
My name is Phil. What's your name?
There's like so many voices.
Can you tell me the name of this place?
[Jessica] No.
[whispering] Okay, I'm going to sit here.
[ominous music continues]
[in normal voice] Who usually visits you here?
[Jessica] Bill?
[Phil] Bill?
How long have you worked here?
What is your name?
[Jessica] Maggie.
Maggie, it's nice to meet you. My name is Phil.
Do you... need help?
Scared.
[suspenseful music playing]
Is there someone else in here or something else in here?
[Jessica] Please.
[Phil] If your name is Maggie,
can you tell me something about yourself?
Dirty.
Hold on. Everything just stopped.
-What do you mean? -Everything just went dead.
Everything just went dead.
Like, the whole thing.
[heart thumping]
-[Phil] So that was interesting. -[Jessica] Yeah.
So what was happening when I called out those hits?
When I asked names, Maggie came up immediately.
And then I asked who regularly visited here.
And right away, you said Bill.
The response was direct.
If it's, like, that immediate response
and, like, the fact that
-it's in context to what you were saying and asking... -Yeah.
I need to research those names.
Some very interesting hits.
[dramatic music playing]
[Jessica] The next day, we get an early start and try to make some sense
of our active night investigation.
While Phil checks our surveillance footage for any anomalies
and paranormal activity,
I dig deeper into Cerro Gordo's sordid history.
-Check this out. -What do you have?
When you did the call and response?
-Up at the... up at the brothel? -Mm-hmm?
You know that Maggie?
Is there anybody here. What's your name? And you're like Maggie?
Look at this.
There's a lady named Maggie Moore.
She lived on the mountain.
She ran the old Waterfall,
which was a saloon, dance hall and brothel.
And she had ties to Lola specifically.
They got dragged in front of a judge
for both of them selling alcohol.
So they actually were in court at the same time.
Look at this news article.
[Phil] Lola Travis...
[together] ...and Mrs. Moore.
[Jessica] For violating the Sunday law of selling liquor.
[Phil] Wow.
Remember that other name you picked up?
-Bill. -Bill.
There was a William Crapo
who was wanted for shooting the post master.
-Whoa. -[dramatic music playing]
And everybody was so pissed, they had a reward for $900.
-Which was huge money back then. -That's a lot of money.
Apparently, he took off.
Went into the mines, never to be seen again.
Interesting. So he disappeared into the mines.
Disappeared into the mines. Nobody ever found him.
[Phil] Well...
[Jessica] It's possible that I made contact
with Maggie Moore and Bill Crapo last night.
Which makes me wonder if they're two of the souls
who may be trapped here.
I wanna follow these leads further
and see if I can entice them to communicate some more.
-Wait, wait, wait. Look at this, look at this. -So what have you got?
So this is the bunkhouse then?
This is the bunkhouse. Watch.
Right there, right there.
-You see the movement? -No, I did--
I kind of thought I saw something? Wait! You see that?
Here, uh...
-[Phil] Oh, yeah, look at that. Look at that. -What is this?
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jessica] That's weird. Could that have been a flashlight?
All of us were gone. I literally saw the headlights leave.
I can't tell if that's eyeshine?
-[Jessica] Why's it moving so fast? -'Cause there's two of 'em.
[Jessica] Yeah, but one's up here and the other one's down here.
So it can't be eyeshine, right?
Unless it's two potential animals.
-But then-- -Yeah or if it's looking sideways.
I don't know. I wanna head out there
and see if there's footprints back there.
After watching that surveillance footage of that light anomaly,
I'm not quite sure what to make of it.
This area is home to several agile species
that could be responsible for that eyeshine
but I need to look for more clues.
So it's right in this area where we saw
something last night.
It almost looked like it had two eyes of eyeshine but they were sideways.
I don't think it was reflection off this 'cause it was actively moving.
So right now, I'm checking for any tracks in the snow
that are non-human.
My first guess was that it was either
house cats or bobs cats,
some kind of nocturnal animal with its eyeshine glowing back.
But I'm not seeing any tracks in the snow
that would indicate some kind of wildlife
so, honestly, not sure what we're dealing with.
[Jessica] While Phil checks out the bunkhouse,
I decide to do a little recon of my own up the mountain.
I think we might have made contact with Bill Crapo last night.
And our research shows that in 1892,
he mysteriously disappeared into the mine,
never to be seen again.
So I'm heading to the old tramway which would've been the main mine entrance
that he would've used, and possibly, his last known whereabouts.
I'm on the lookout for any old artefacts
that we can use as possible trigger objects to connect with Crapo
or any other souls who may still be trapped in the mine.
So this right here is the tram.
This is where the ore would be shipped back down to the valley.
This is also where they would pick miners up to come up here to work,
and send them back down.
So, stuff has fallen out of their pockets.
There's probably ore all over the place, who knows what.
But, uh, let's get searching.
[beeping]
Nail.
Because of the frozen terrain, digging is quite difficult.
To help out my search, I'm using a metal detector
which tells me the type of metal and the depth of the object.
There's nails all over the place
so I'm trying to find something a little bit more significant.
But at least we know it's working.
[dramatic music playing]
[beeping]
Something here.
-[beeping] -Ooh!
Right here.
I might have something over here.
[grunting]
What is this?
Oh! I got something!
[dramatic music playing]
[Jessica] Here we go! Nice!
Some sort of tag or something. You see there's just a little hole
at the top.
Don't know if this would be a necklace or pin to something.
And then you got the numbers 403
and then a number 3 at the bottom.
This is what we need for when we try to contact some of the miners.
It's something they would be familiar with.
Something they would be associated with.
After catching a break and finding a possible trigger item
as a needle in a frozen haystack...
Phil and I meet back up in the command center
where we get an update from Josh.
-Hey, Josh. -Hi, Josh.
Howdy, partners. How are things in Cerro Gordo?
Well, we're taking it one very thin high altitude breath at a time.
But this ghost town definitely is eerie.
-Especially at nights. -Mm.
With these beat-up old, Wild West buildings.
You feel really isolated atop this barren mountain.
And the altitude definitely hits you.
So safe to say you guys aren't looking to move in?
And become Brent's new neighbors?
And you haven't been underground yet.
Have you had any luck finding somebody who can get us access to the mine?
Don't let us down, Gates.
Yeah, I got your text and I found a local guide named Craig Leck
who has explored the Cerro Gordo mines extensively.
He's gonna come meet you at the Safeguard entrance of the mine.
Well, perfect. I mean, that must mean it's safe.
-I-- I doubt it. -Hopefully, it safe all the way through.
Yeah.
Phil's definitely right. It's dangerous in there.
But Craig is a seasoned pro. He's gonna take good care of you.
He will meet you tomorrow morning at the entrance
and I'm sure Brent knows where that is.
Sounds good, we'll meet him there.
-Bye, Josh. -See you.
Good luck, greenhorns.
[dramatic music playing]
[Jessica] The next day, we brave the elements
to meet Josh's contact at the mine entrance.
I can't wait to use that trigger object
and attempt to make contact with any spirits.
-[Jessica sighs in exhaustion] -[Craig] Hey, you guys finally made it.
-[Phil] Hey. -[Jessica] Hey!
Come on in here, let's get out of the cold.
-Come on in, guys. -[Jessica] Thanks!
[Jessica grunts]
[Phil] Craig Leck has been working in the Cerro Gordo mines for decades.
When he's not in here pumping water from an underground spring,
he's rehabbing the mine to make sure it's safe to navigate.
All right, come on in, guys.
[Jessica] Look at this.
-[Phil] Oh, my goodness. -[sighs]
So welcome to the Safeguard mine.
This was one of the many, many, many
miles of mines that are here at Cerro Gordo.
The amount of silver that came out of this mine built Los Angeles.
[Jessica and Phil] Whoa.
How many miners do you think have worked in this place?
-Have been in and out of these very-- -Thousands.
-Thousands? -Thousands and thousands.
It was a complete city up here.
How many miners do you think have died in this mine?
Untold.
In the mines, I've encountered very odd stuff.
-Um... -You have? Personally?
I personally have.
[suspenseful music playing]
I maintain the water system down at the 700-foot level.
So... seven stories underground.
I encounter when I'm coming back on the elevator,
water'll shut off. The power'll shut off.
So I turn back around, I start going back down.
It'll turn back on.
Um, I've heard footsteps.
Something is messing with me.
You don't seem like the type of person
-that gets scared of very many things. -I--
You seem a little uncomfortable talking about this.
I, I am. It's a little weird for me.
Turn your lights off, it's total dark in here.
Yeah, so the dark does mess with people. It can mess with you.
-Oh, it will. -Yeah.
And especially down here.
-I carry three flashlights with me at all times. -[Jessica] Mm-hmm.
'Cause if one goes out...
-[Jessica] Mm-hmm. -...you're not coming up.
So I found this out by where the tramway would've been.
Do you know what that is?
That is a miner's tag.
[Jessica] So what would that be for?
So basically, there is a board at the top of the mine shaft before you went in.
There is a board with little hooks.
-And you'd have your name and your number. -[Jessica] Mm-hmm.
So this was number 403.
Probably the third shift.
-So you'd put your tag on there. -[Jessica] Mm-hmm.
And that means you're in the mine.
So if everybody clears out and your tag is still there,
they know you're stuck somewhere.
-Oh, whoa. -You're down. They go... send a search party for you.
-[Phil] That's a pretty important lifeline. -It is.
-[Jessica] That's-- Yeah. -That's... that is very important.
So whoever this tag belonged to maybe never went home.
[Craig] Exactly.
Jess, good find!
-[Jessica] Yeah. All right. -[Phil exhales]
-[Phil] I say we go in. -Go deeper in?
Uh, we got one last test here. Could just have the air monitor.
-[Jessica] Okay. -[Craig] Uh...
I'm gonna keep this on me.
-[Phil] Okay. -You hear me yell, scream,
if you hear this thing beep, get out.
-We're leaving? -Yeah.
-[Jessica] Okay. -So I'll keep this on me and we can cruise on in.
-[Jessica] All right! -All right.
-Okay? -[Jessica] Sweet, let's go.
[suspenseful instrumental music playing]
[Jessica] It's hard to fathom how many souls might actually be entombed here
from all of the accidents over the years.
We're currently at the 200 level
but there's six additional levels of tunnels below us,
going all the way down to nearly 1,100 feet beneath the earth.
Whoa, check this out.
[Phil] Wow.
[Jessica] There's no getting through that.
That is all blocked up. Wonder why that's blocked off.
-Hey, Craig! -Yo?
This area's all packed in over here. Do you know why?
They probably had a severe collapse.
Um, it's hard to say. But that's definitely a no-pass zone
where they wanted to keep people out.
So there could be a collapse behind this?
-Exactly. -Okay.
Well, then, let's, uh, avoid the left.
[Phil] The Spanish name Cerro Gordo translates to 'Fat Hill'.
So it's an appropriate name for a mine with over 30 miles of underground tunnel.
[suspenseful music playing]
Something over here.
[Phil] Okay. What is this?
Another four-way?
[Jessica sighs] Straight.
Looks like it goes deeper this way.
[Phil] Do not touch these boards.
-They seem to be keeping things stable in here. -Yeah.
-[Jessica] Those seem like important pieces of wood. -Yeah.
[Jessica] There's more up here so be careful.
Oh, man. Yeah, that's, that's a no-go zone.
[Phil] I got something I kind of want to try in here.
[Jessica] What do you want to try?
[Phil] As we run into another dead-end,
I convince Jess to try a little experiment with me.
I can only imagine the terror miners faced
with only flame as a light source
and the constant risk of their oil wick lamps burning out.
Craig mentioned earlier that the darkness in here
can really mess with your mind.
I want to put that to the test.
So you just want to sit here in the dark for a little bit?
-I kind of want to see what it would be like. -See if you hear anything?
'Cause, yeah, it's that sensory deprivation. We could use our hears.
See how we feel in that darkness.
I think that's an absolutely excellent idea.
Crew, everybody, let's kill cameras, kill monitors.
-Let's get it as dark as possible. -Yeah.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Phil] Even though our IR cameras are still rolling,
for the two of us, it's complete and total darkness.
[Jessica] Okay! I feel weird
because I feel like I can't see light.
But I can.
-Right? Are your eyes doing that too? -They are.
Where it's like your brain wants to see shapes,
-wants to see lights. -Oh, this is weird.
You just know that your hand is there.
[Jessica] I keep seeing, like, reflections.
-Like little pinpoints of, like, sparkle. -[Phil] Yes!
[Phil] That is literally happening to me right now, too.
-[Jessica] Like if there was glitter on the walls. -Yep. Yep, yep!
[Phil] Or like little fireflies on the wall.
-[Jessica] Yeah. -It keeps changing shape.
Are we going crazy right now? This has never happened to me before.
-Me neither. -Whoa.
So sitting here in this dark,
this is the conditions that some miner
would have met their demise if there had been a cave-in at the far end.
They're just stuck in this absolute blackness.
And silence.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this would be the last thing you'd see.
You'd essentially be buried alive.
[Phil] Okay.
[Jessica] Is anybody missing their miner's tag?
I found one with the number 403-3.
If this is your tag,
could you please give me a sign that this is yours
and that you're here?
[clanking in distance]
What the [bleep]?
Did you hear that?
[dramatic music playing]
Cerro Gordo's greatest calamity came in the 1870s
when over 30 Chinese miners died in a cave-in.
It was tragic but it was also unsurprising.
As tough as it was for American miners,
the Chinese had it worse.
In the early 1850s, 24,000 Chinese,
a quarter of the total miners in California,
arrived in the state chasing Gum San or Gold Mountain.
But instead of finding gold,
they found rampant racism and xenophobia.
Chinese miners were given the most deadly and least valuable claims.
They were also uniquely taxed $20 a month
or around $800 today just to try to mine.
Worst of all, the California Supreme Court ruled
they couldn't testify against Americans,
making it impossible to legally defend themselves
if they were robbed or assaulted.
In 2009, California formally apologized to Chinese Americans
for its racist laws during the Gold Rush.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jessica] Was that you saying hi?
If this is your tag,
do you want to tell me your name so I can give this back to you?
Bill Crapo, are you here with us?
Did you know Maggie?
How about Lola?
Is there anyone else who's here?
How many miners are still in the mine?
I'm feeling a breeze on my hand.
-Really? -My hand, yeah.
[ominous music playing]
Is that you trying to get your miner's tag?
Is that you reaching out to my hand?
Oh, my God.
There's like a distinct breeze
running across my palm right now.
[whispering] It feels like 10 degrees colder.
Yeah, there's this cold spot, something around.
It's right here.
-Right here. Same spot again. -Yeah.
That's bizarre.
That sounded like the earth shifting.
Yeah, it sounded like a rumble.
Is there anyone behind me right now?
I swear I'm hearing wind.
Like a high-pitched... [imitates wind blowing] coming in and out.
Almost like it's coming through the mountain.
[sighs] All right.
All right, we've gotta start moving, Jess.
-It is getting... cold. -Yeah.
-Super cold. -Yeah. Should we throw the lights back on?
Yeah, go ahead. Lights on.
[switches clicking]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Phil] After our sensory deprivation experiment,
we change course and trek deeper into the mine.
And down another level and one of the tighter shafts,
we eventually find out the hard way that we, in fact, are not alone.
Oh! Look at the bat!
-[Jessica] Oh, Jesus! -Oh, my gosh. That almost hit me in the head.
[Jessica] Did it almost get the-- What?
It's like right there. Okay.
Well, it's probably trying to get past us and can't.
-[Phil] Yeah. -[bats screeching]
-[Jessica] Whoa! -Whoa! Another bat.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Phil speaking]
Craig, one question.
Do you think these are chisel marks here?
[Jessica] For sure they are. Or pickaxe.
-[Craig] Yeah, there you go, pickaxe. -Pickaxe right there.
[Phil] Pickaxe marks.
-So these are from the miners back then? -[Craig] Yep.
[Phil] Wow. Okay.
So those are marks from the miners back in the 1870s.
[Jessica] Well, look at that, good line.
[Craig speaking indistinctly]
-[Craig] Hey, guys! -[Phil] Yeah!
Gas meter is kind of flipping out right now.
-[Jessica] Okay! -[Phil] Bad air?
-[Craig] Bad air. -[Jessica] Bad air?
-[Phil] All right, everybody, let's get out, let's go! -[Jessica] Let's go.
[dramatic music playing]
[Josh] In my team's quest to investigate
the reportedly haunted mining town of Cerro Gordo,
they uncovered a rich vein of shocking evidence.
[Jessica] [bleep] Everything just went dead.
[Josh] The strange flashes of light
captured on our surveillance camera by the bunkhouse...
Wait, did you see that?
...did not correspond with any animal tracks...
Not sure what we're dealing with.
...ruling out Phil's wildlife theory.
As for the disturbing noises heard inside the mine
that sounded like tapping...
-[distant clanking] -[Jessica] Did you hear that?
[Josh] ...there is no easy explanation.
Phil thinks it could have been bats
but admits the patten did have an unsettling regularity.
[Phil whispers] Look at that guy.
[Josh] Jess is certain there were entities present in the mines,
made even more so by a bone-chilling EVP,
an electronic voice phenomenon,
that she discovered while processing the evidence.
[Jessica] Bill Crapo,
are you here with us?
-[static noise] -[faint voice speaking]
[dramatic music playing]
[Josh] Brent Underwood remains confident
he can breathe life back into his ghost town.
But my team left Cerro Gordo feeling much more cautious
because any life that returns
does seem certain to be confronted
with the powerful energy of the dead.
For more information on Expedition X,
head to Discovery dot com/ExpeditionX.