Gates: On this episode of "expedition x"...
Chobot: Welcome to nevada city.
Population: 2.
Gates: ...My team investigates the legend of a paranormal curse
On an infamous ghost town in the old west...
It's true you'll hear things all the time.
People that were in here in the past.
...Where an evil presence is said to reside
[ screeching ]
[bleep]!
What was that?
You'll witness bizarre evidence...
Torres: What?
Chobot: Oh, my god.
How are these falling?
...A daring investigation...
Check this out.
That is dynamite.
Torres: Alright. Water's getting deep here.
There's a lot of water.
...And possible proof...
Chobot: Are you angry with the town?
Gates: ...Of the afterlife?
[ creaking ]
Oh, my god! It's moving!
[ crash ] [ screams ]
♪♪
My name is josh gates.
In my travels, I've experienced strange things that defy logic
And made me question everything.
Oh, my god.
Now, I've put together a team
To investigate the stranger side of the unknown.
Let's go!
Phil torres is a scientist who hunts for rational explanations.
Jessica chobot's paranormal research
Has made her a true believer.
Phil, did you see that?
I just saw something run across.
Together we're searching for answers...
Torres: What is that?
...To the world's most extraordinary mysteries.
This is "expedition x."
-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com
Captions paid for by discovery communications
Oh, hey, cowboy. What is with the get up?
Ma'am? Uh...
I'd seemed very appropriate
For your next investigation.
Haunted rodeo.
Uh, no, but that's a great idea.
We should definitely find one of those.
Although this is about a ghost town.
Oh, cool.
It's a place known as nevada city,
Though confusingly, it is in montana.
Love montana.
As someone who grew up in the west,
That is as rugged as it gets.
This is an abandoned gold mining town
That some people claim
Is the most haunted place in the west,
And the blame for that rests on one notorious outlaw
Named george ives.
Gates: Montana, 1863.
Prospectors discover gold in alder creek,
And nevada city is born.
It's soon the richest town in the western rockies,
Raking in $40 million of gold in the first five years.
That's nearly a billion in dollars today.
But these newfound riches bring scores of killers and thieves,
Hell-bent on murder for a profit.
One of the deadliest gangs in the area,
Ironically called the innocents,
Employs a ruthless man named george ives.
To fight back, the town's folk form
A group called the vigilantes
To act as judge, jury,
And executioner.
Ives is the first man they arrest
For the alleged murder of a local merchant,
Nicholas tbalt.
Though there's no confession
Or physical evidence connecting him to the crime,
George ives is sentenced to hang.
In fact, moments before his death,
Ives famously declares,
"tell my mother I died an innocent man."
After his hanging, his body is dumped in an unmarked grave.
Some paranormal researchers believe the execution
And disrespectful burial of george ives
Set off the supernatural activity
That reportedly plagues nevada city.
After ives' death,
Violence only increases in town.
In addition, a massive fire breaks out in 1865,
A horrific cave-in kills hundreds of miners,
And residents later report hearing ghostly screams
Echoing in the hills.
Then the gold dries up,
And fortune seekers abandon the town.
Today, dozens of apparitions,
From dead miners to the town's children
To the ghost of george ives himself,
Have been reported here.
Paranormal researchers theorize
That tragic events may be at the root of paranormal activity.
If that's true, nevada city demands investigation.
So did they ever find out where george ives is buried?
No, grave is still lost,
And believers swear that his spirit
Is at the center of this paranormal activity.
Now there is currently a search underway
By archaeologists in nevada city to locate his grave.
And I'm sure they're gonna have their work cut out for them,
Because it was brutal living back then.
There's going to be a lot of graves.
But ghosts and curses, I just can't get there.
Why wouldn't you come back to haunt the place
That gave you such a hard time?
I can totally believe that something's going on over there.
Well, this is what I want to get to the bottom of.
So I want the two of you to do something...
Unprecedented.
I don't just want you to go to nevada city to investigate.
I want you to move in.
Okay.
I want you to go set up shop in this town,
Live like the miners lived,
And see if you can experience
What the eyewitnesses are experiencing,
From the apparitions in town, the stories about george ives,
These screams in the hills.
Is nevada city haunted by the ghosts of its past?
Or is it all just a legend?
Alright. I mean, I'm willing to give it a shot.
Moving in to a ghost town...
Great.
You'll love it.
Gates: The team travels nearly 2,200 miles,
From new york city
To the southwestern corner of montana.
♪♪
From there, they drive another 86 miles on back roads
Toward nevada city.
This lonely dirt road is still treacherous,
But it was once even more deadly.
It's said that george ives and his gang
Would lie in wait here
To ambush miners and merchants
As they headed back to town.
This is the shortcut.
You could go all the way around the mountain,
Or we could go through the mountains.
I don't know. I kinda like my spine being all one spot,
But... Make no promises here.
After traveling the same route
As some of the most infamous outlaws in the area...
And here we are.
The team makes its way to nevada city,
Rumored to be one of the most haunted places in the west.
-Check this out. -This is gorgeous.
Torres: Yeah.
It may look scenic at this vantage point...
♪♪
...But this abandoned ghost town
Is a place locals claim
Is a portal between the living and the dead.
♪♪
Chobot: Welcome to nevada city.
Population: 2.
Well, or more,
Depending on how many ghosts are here,
But yes. Fair enough.
♪♪
Torres: Can you imagine back in the 1860s?
This place would just be bustling
With gold miners and pioneers. Oh, yeah.
This is as authentic as it gets.
Yeah. Well, I think that also contributes to the haunting.
Like, this boardwalk right here
Is where they say you can see his ghost.
And a lot of people think it's george ives.
♪♪
And speaking of george ives, over here...
Wow. This is where they hung him.
♪♪
Sightings of george ives' ghost
Have been reported all over town,
But primarily in the old saloon
And around the nevada city cemetery.
And after his haunted curse
Was allegedly placed on this town,
It's believed other apparitions also took up residence here.
This house -- supposedly,
There's a female ghost by the name of clara,
A young girl that people say they can see in the windows.
♪♪
Chobot: The 8-year-old girl said to haunt the sedman house,
More commonly referred to as the yellow house,
Suddenly and tragically died in 1881 of diphtheria,
A serious infection of the nose and throat.
♪♪
Her name was clara sedman,
Daughter of oscar sedman,
A legislator who also died tragically
Of rocky mountain spotted fever a few years later.
♪♪
Chobot: So many sightings have occurred here
That I feel like
If we're ever gonna have a ghost experience,
This is the place to have it.
♪♪
Gates: To make this experience as authentic as the town itself,
I've equipped my team with the bare necessities.
They'll be roughing it
Just as the prospectors did 160 years ago.
They're only modern amenities will be their equipment.
They're blanketing the entire town
With 40 night-vision security cameras,
Equipped with motion detectors.
If there's any anomalous activity,
Whether it's a strange shadow
Or irregular movement,
The team will capture evidence of it.
Check this out.
Torres: In addition to our cameras,
I brought along my own ghost-hunting equipment,
So to speak.
This is a seismometer...
Okay. ...To detect little earthquakes,
Because montana is actually one of the top 10
Most seismically active states in the u.S.
Uh-huh.
So, when they're really small,
Like micro tremors,
You may feel like something's off,
Which I think could explain
Ghost experiences here.
♪♪
Torres: After hours of rigging the town,
Night rolls in.
We check the massive bank of infrared cameras
At the makeshift tech station that we've set up
Just outside the old blacksmith's building,
Right in the center of town.
[ sighs ] alright.
If anything happens in this town...
Yeah. ...We're gonna get on tape.
♪♪
You ready?
I'm ready. Alright.
♪♪
Chobot: To cover the most ground tonight,
We're splitting up.
Phil will investigate the historic buildings
On the north side of town,
While I focus my attention
On the south.
I start with the yellow house,
Where the spirit of an 8-year-old girl named clara
Is believed to haunt.
♪♪
[ clicking ]
[ floorboards creak ]
♪♪
Hello.
Is anyone there?
♪♪
[ whispering ] unreal.
♪♪
Look at this place.
So, this big barn
Was home to the first
And only three-person hanging
In montana's history.
When they talk about frontier justice,
It's not a pretty thing.
♪♪
Oh [bleep].
[ rustling ]
There's movement in here.
For sure.
♪♪
What is that?
What the hell?
[bleep].
Ooh. Okay.
♪♪
So, this is a northern flicker.
It is a type of woodpecker,
And it looks like its fledgling.
I'll admit, it scared me a bit.
♪♪
[ floorboards creak ]
Is there anyone home?
[ indistinct talking ]
[bleep]. Did you [bleep] hear that?
♪♪
It was inside, upstairs.
It sounded like a female voice.
♪♪
Oh! [bleep].
God. It's a bat.
[ bat squeaks ] aah! Geez.
There's another one right here, right here.
So...
There's a lot of moving shadows
Any time you look in these buildings.
And my guess is that
You can blame these guys right here.
[ bat squeaks ]
Oof!
Wow!
♪♪
Phil?
Torres: Yeah, I'm here.
Chobot: Oh, my god.
I legit heard a voice
In the yellow house when we first walked in.
No way.
Can you get over here
And meet me in front of the house?
I want to play this file for you.
Copy that. See you soon.
♪♪
What did you hear?
Something was moving around upstairs,
And I heard a little girl's voice.
Geez.
Did you get a recording of it?
I hope so, but I hit stop,
And now it says "no data."
It was recording the whole time. It was flashing.
How does that go out?
Press stop.
Damn it!
Well, I think we should focus our efforts on that place.
Chobot: This audio recorder was working indoors
And requires a series of prompts to erase a file.
Some believe that paranormal activity
Can lead to electronic equipment malfunction.
So we decide to reenter the yellow house
To see if I can make contact again.
♪♪
Hello.
I'll let you go first.
♪♪
Hello.
♪♪
Is there anyone home?
That doors been open the whole time.
No!
No. No, it has not.
Are you [bleep] with me?
Jess, are you sure?
N-- I'm [bleep] serious.
That was shut.
Oh, my god.
That was shut.
I am positive.
Look at this one. Look at the bottom corner.
Oh, my god! It's moving!
Its opening right now.
What the [bleep]?
[ gasps ]
What the... [ sighs ]
Oh, my god. I feel sick.
[ breathing shakily ]
Holy [bleep].
[ crash ] [ screams ]
Oh, my...
♪♪
Gates: My team is investigating nevada city, montana,
Believed to be one of the most haunted towns in the old west.
They're searching the yellow house
For the spirit of an 8-year-old girl,
One of the youngest souls said to have fallen victim
To the town's paranormal curse.
Look at the bottom corner. Look at the bottom corner.
Oh, my god! It's moving!
Holy [bleep]. What the [bleep]?
Oh, my god. I feel sick.
[ breathing shakily ]
Holy [bleep].
[ crash ] [ screams ]
Oh, my...God.
What the hell just fell over?
Almost sounded like a door slamming.
Just want to see if something fell over.
Holy [bleep].
Did anything fall over?
I don't see anything out of place.
Nothing fell.
Yeah. Let's check this room.
♪♪
I don't see anything.
So what made that loud bang?
I don't know.
There's nothing here.
Okay. I want to see the video.
Heck yeah.
Chobot: With all the activity
That we've just experienced in the house,
I want to check our security cameras
To see if they captured any visual evidence.
This is camera 30
In the yellow house. Chobot: Mm-hmm.
I'll scroll up to see the footage.
I didn't see anything.
I don't see anything here that could've caused that loud bang.
We all saw the armoires open up on their own.
It definitely looked like it was a couple inches open.
And it continued to open as we were standing there.
I mean, it's a tough one for me.
I have no idea what that was.
Alright. Well, let's the other cameras.
Chobot: We can't identify the source of the loud bang
We heard in the yellow house,
So we turn to the other cameras we've placed throughout town
To see what else might have occurred.
After scrubbing the footage,
We find strange activity in the old saloon.
♪♪
Hang on. Hang on look at that.
Look at that.
That's open more. Okay.
Wow.
♪♪
That swung wide open. Yeah.
It's like they're inviting you into the saloon.
[bleep]. Look, look, look.
Oh, my god.
Hang on. What?
♪♪
Look at this.
All good.
Nothing around. Mnm-mnm.
That thing goes down.
So, we have the door opening,
We have the camera falling... In the saloon.
♪♪
They are on tripods.
There's sandbags keeping them up.
Oh, that's right. There's sandbags.
These things are solid.
Place is so haunted.
♪♪
I have to check the seismometer, just in case.
There was a minor tremor that we couldn't detect.
There is no explanation other than,
This place is haunted
With a capital "h."
♪♪
Alright. So...
Definitely got some data here.
Okay.
That's...
Not much.
So there was no earthquake?
There was no earthquake.
Which means...
It was a ghost.
Chobot: I'm anxious to explore the saloon
To investigate the strange activity
Caught by our cameras.
After all, this is one of the prime locations
Where visitors claim to see the ghost
Of the town's most notorious resident,
George ives.
♪♪
We go in and check that camera.
♪♪
Wow.
So did it get disconnected?
I'm just trying to figure out why it went black.
You'd have to purposely knock this over.
♪♪
See, yeah. It's on right now.
You can see the light. Okay.
So, then why were we getting black?
I actually don't know.
It's so weird.
Chobot: We checked the saloon for anything that might
Have knocked this camera over.
Just trying to see if there's any signs
Of any animals that could be living in here.
♪♪
Chobot: George, are you here?
I don't see anything.
♪♪
George, if you're here...
Now is your time to speak up.
♪♪
Chobot: After conducting a call-and-response
For george ives in the saloon,
We decide to let the cameras roll...
♪♪
...And head back outdoors
And into nevada city's original cemetery
To search for ives' famously lost grave.
♪♪
Place gives me the creeps.
I believe his final resting place
Could be the source of all the paranormal energy
That he's unleashed in town.
Can't even see the date on this one.
Looks like an unmarked grave.
Ives was so reviled
For the alleged murder of local merchant nicholas tbalt,
He was buried in an unmarked grave
That to this day has never been found.
According to the legend,
He still wanders the grounds at night,
Bitter over a wrongful hanging and an insulting burial,
And some say the haunted curse of nevada city will continue
Until his final resting place is rediscovered.
Check this out.
That's definitely somebody's grave.
1894.
I mean, these people were alive
When george ives was alive.
♪♪
It's wild to think that the entire community
Probably came out to watch him get executed.
Oh, yeah. They hated that man.
♪♪
Chobot: The legend is that ives
Was buried outside of the cemetery.
So we look for any signs of a burial
Beyond the edge of the graveyard.
So, what should we be looking for out here?
I kind of feel like he could be anywhere under this.
I think our best chance contacting him
Would be to use the recorder.
So, you want to try to find the grave
By speaking out to him? Well, yeah.
Or at least just getting him
To give us a response of some sort.
Okay.
Chobot: Using a sensitive audio recorder,
I'm attempting a call-and-response session.
If the ghost of george ives is haunting this town,
This may be the best place to contact him.
George, are you here outside the cemetery?
[ insects chirping ]
♪♪
George...
Are you angry with the town?
♪♪
[ screeching ]
♪♪
What was that?
♪♪
George, are you here outside the cemetery?
♪♪
George...
Are you angry with the town?
[ screeching ]
♪♪
What was that?
♪♪
I don't know. I'm not seeing any eyeshine.
That is a scream.
That was a scream.
To me, that sounded like an animal.
Now, there's grizzly bears here,
Wolves here, mountain lion.
It sounded like a human scream to me.
I just can't accept
That that is a human ghost screaming out there
When we are in on of the wildest places in america.
Don't you think it's a little odd
That it happened right when I was asking george
If he was angry.
I can admit...
It's weird timing.
Chobot: We continue investigating
Around the graveyard for several hours.
One thing is for certain.
Something out here made a terrifying noise,
And we captured it.
Whatever this is,
It lines up to historic accounts
Of distant screams that date back for over a century.
♪♪
With only a few hours before dawn,
We hit the hay and try to get some rest.
♪♪
After only one night of investigation,
Who knows what this town will throw at us tomorrow?
How were you able to fall asleep
After what happened last night?
I mean, a lot of the stuff we saw last night
Was plain weird.
What if you have to admit that I'm right?
I'd need something stronger than coffee to say that.
I would need something stronger than coffee
To celebrate with.
[ laughs ]
Chobot: Unfortunately, happy hour
Is gonna have to wait.
-Hi, jeff. -Hey, there.
Hello. How are you?
Chobot: I've arranged a call
With local firefighter jeff gerhardt,
Who has responded to emergency calls
All over the county.
Not only is he familiar with the area, local folklore,
And native wildlife,
He recently had his own encounter
With unexplained screams
Coming from the hills above nevada city.
Well, we know this area definitely has
Its own reputation and stories
Relating to ghosts and things like that.
We understand you heard a kind of ghostly noise.
Can you tell us about this?
Oh, it had to be about probably 9:00 or so at night.
Sun just setting
And just heard this really intense scream
Up the gulch here.
One of the most incredible sounds
I've ever heard.
Just unearthly.
When you heard it, did you try to go check
And see what made the noise?
No, I was a little concerned.
I didn't want to really get too close to it.
I have several friends that are loggers
That have heard the sound in the hills around here.
We also heard a crazy scream just last night.
In that area, what's up in those hills?
Are there abandoned mines or caves.
There a lot of different mine shafts
On the way up the gulch.
These are all old structures from the 1800s?
Yes. They're all over those hills.
Well, jeff, we're gonna do some investigating,
And if we find out what's making that noise,
We'll let you know. Please do.
And please be careful out there,
Because I don't want to have to come looking for you guys
If you get in trouble.
Torres: To maximize our efforts, jess and I are splitting up.
I'm following up on the mysterious sounds
Coming from these hills.
After researching the area
And the direction we heard the noise,
I discovered that there was once a gold and silver mine
Directly above town,
Called the u.S. Grant mine,
Named after our 18th president,
Which dates back to george ives' era.
Much faster than walking.
Mines in the area have a long history
Of tragic accidents and deaths.
With its close proximity to town,
Could the grant mine be the source
Of the blood curdling screams that jess and I
And so many locals have heard for over a century?
To get there, I'm riding to over 6,000 feet in elevation,
Where I've arranged to meet up with the mine's caretaker.
Take a look at that.
Old mining equipment from the the era
Of george ives.
♪♪
Chobot: Meanwhile, I'm focusing on george ives'
Lost grave site,
Which is at the center of nevada city's paranormal legend.
It said he cursed the town
After he was hanged
For the murder of nicholas tbalt
And dumped in a shallow grave.
If I can pinpoint its location.
It may increase my chances of making contact with him
And maybe help put his spirit to rest,
But without being able to exhume the graves here,
I'll need to find another way to see underground.
So I'm headed back to the cemetery
To meet with tom rust and crystal alegria,
To archaeologists who have been actively
Hunting for george ives
With technology that can see the unseen
So, you guys are on the hunt for george ives?
We are.
Well, we've been trying to find out
Where the unmarked graves are.
What is kind of the process to try and find george ives?
Our first step was to survey the entire cemetery.
So, we came up with this map here
Where we've used the magnetometer
To measure the earth's magnetic field,
As well as any ferris objects underneath.
That tells us where there's magnetic anomalies
That might indicate where there are graves.
We were searching kind of in the far end
Of the old section of the cemetery.
You know, so am I right? Am I wrong?
We've done a lot of oral history research
And we've heard george ives
Was buried on the east side of the cemetery,
Outside the fence.
Okay.
We do have documentation that says
He was buried next to nicholas tbalt
They buried him next to the victim.
I feel like that is a poor choice.
-[ laughs ] -yes, exactly.
Oh, my gosh. You're kidding me.
That's terrible.
Definitely a mark of disrespect.
Maybe it's so he could torment ives
In the afterlife.
He can dance on ives' grave.
They oftentimes would bury criminals and ne'er-do-wells
North-south instead of east-west.
So when jesus comes on the second coming,
You can have the sun shine on you,
And you can meet him. Ah.
And ives, they would have put them north-south.
So they don't get that same privilege.
I had no idea about that. That is twisted.
If ives was buried in a north-south orientation
Right next to tbalt, who was buried east-west,
Than that gives us a very distinct signature
To look for.
Would they have been in a "t" formation then?
We can only speculate.
We're hoping that that formation
Will give us some marker
That we can see using our equipment.
Ives and tbalt were buried
Next to each other in a "t" formation
Just outside the cemetery gates.
So to scan for that,
We're using ground penetrating radar,
Or g.P.R., to look below the earth.
G.P.R. Sends high-frequency radio waves
To detect the depth and location of objects buried underground.
So hopefully, we'll get lucky
And pinpoint where ives has been hiding
All these years.
Gates: As jess tries to track down
The final resting spot of nevada city's
Most notorious villain,
Phil still has a long way to go before reaching the mine,
And this backcountry is no easy going.
♪♪
Torres: Oh, I'm soaked to the bone.
♪♪
Torres: After a few hours on horseback
And that about 6,000 feet in elevation...
I finally reached my destination,
The u.S. Grant mine.
♪♪
Entrance is right up here.
♪♪
I'm meeting with philly mason, the mine's caretaker,
Who has worked underground in this area for decades.
Hey, there. Thank you.
And he's also heard his fair share of strange sounds
Coming from this mine.
How long has it been here?
1864, 1868.
So, is this still an active mine?
Not an active mine as of now.
Well, it is officially cold enough
That I can see my breath in here.
Is it always this cold?
Yes, it stays this temperature year-round.
Now we're gonna be getting to the water here
Pretty soon.
I guess that's why you gave me the helmet.
[ both laugh ]
♪♪
Torres: Before we go further,
Philly insists I gear up since this mine floods easily.
Torres: I've heard stories.
People report hearing screams
Coming from this area.
What's your take on that? Well, it's true.
♪♪
You'll hear things all the time.
I ignore them myself.
I don't know if it's mother earth
Making that noise,
Or people that were in here in the past.
Philly confirms that the strange noises
We heard in town often emanate
From within the old mine tunnels.
So the question is,
What or who could be lurking inside?
Take a look at this right here.
Do you recognize this scat?
Yeah, those are pack rats. Pack rats.
How big are they? They get pretty big.
They get up to probably 2 foot long
With the tail.
Wow.
♪♪
What I'm wondering here is,
If a cave like this is full of prey,
If there could be predators.
Yes. I've seen mountain lion tracks.
So there's a chance that I could go in there
And come face-to-face with something like a mountain lion.
Yes. That is a very strong possibility.
Fantastic. Alright.
Let's get started then.
My plan is to follow the tunnel
Deep into the mountain,
Looking for additional animal tracks
And any other evidence I can find.
And we're gonna give you this.
In case you have trouble, you call me.
We just had recent storms
Water will rise here underground.
Can happen pretty fast.
So mountain lions, floods, giant rats,
Perfect cave to explore.
Good luck.
♪♪
So, clearly, some of the supporting structures in here
Have collapsed over time.
♪♪
Always a good sign.
♪♪
It actually smells like dynamite powder right here.
♪♪
Check this out.
[ groans ]
That...
Is dynamite.
♪♪
As I get deeper in...
Look.
Look at this.
Dead pack rat.
Scat of bigger animal here.
There's evidence of animal activity.
Seen these rounded edges right here,
And it's not tapered and tight.
That to me says cat.
♪♪
Was that like that? Look at that.
Come on.
We got hairs.
Yes.
As a biologist, this is gold from me,
Not the kind most people were looking for in here,
But this is good.
The hair and scat samples will offer insight
Into what animals are living and hunting here.
After searching a series of side shafts.
I eventually turn around
And head back toward the mine's entrance.
But it soon becomes clear that I'm in a different tunnel.
I thought this is where we came from.
There's a lot of water there now.
Alright. Water's getting deep here.
♪♪
Philly, you copy?
Philly?
You copy?
Philly?
You copy?
[ sighs ]
Oh, boy.
♪♪
Alright. Water's getting deep here.
Philly, you copy?
[ sighs ]
Oh, boy.
[ sighs ] gonna have to find another way out.
♪♪
Philly, you copy?
Oh, thank god.
So we tried making our way back to where you are,
And it's completely flooded.
Okay, listen to me.
And hopefully, you can get out through that.
Alright. Let's get out of here.
Let's go.
I follow philly's instructions
In search of a passage
That branches left to another exit.
♪♪
Up here...
Stick to the tracks.
But this place is a labyrinth.
♪♪
Got a lot of water up here.
♪♪
I don't think this is it.
♪♪
Looks pretty rickety.
Oh!
[ groans ]
♪♪
Starting to see light up here.
Looks like we just got one more ladder,
And we're out.
Ooh, yeah.
♪♪
[ grunts ]
Oh!
Next time, I'm gonna make jess do the cave stuff.
Gates: While phil is thankful to see daylight
And makes his way back to town with samples for analysis,
Jess and local archaeologists crystal alegria and tom rust
Are scanning the nevada city cemetery
Using ground-penetrating radar
In an effort to pinpoint
The lost grave site of george ives.
Oh, come on. You gotta find george.
Chobot: If his grave can finally be found
After all these years,
It could help put this legend
And maybe even his spirit to rest.
♪♪
Hey, I think I found something!
♪♪
Chobot: Oh, yeah.
No, but it's a very distinct signature.
Whoa!
So this could be george ives.
It could be.
This looks like it's fitting the pattern.
So you got him going there. You got him doing this.
That's the "t" that we've been looking for right there.
The data discovered by ground-penetrating radar
Does in fact indicate
A t-shaped disturbance underground.
Well, it all matches up to what...
It does. ...Everybody was saying,
Where they would have buried outside of the cemetery gates
On the eastern side in that "t" formation
So that nicholas tbalt could get his revenge on george ives.
Right? And boom.
There you go right here. We haven't seen anything else
Like this.
Chobot: Crystal and tom won't be able to excavate here
Without the deceased's next of kin and court approval,
So it could be a while before we know
If their theory is right,
But for a nearly 200-year old missing-persons case,
It's one hell of a lead.
Wow.
♪♪
So, phil and I reconnect at base camp and call josh
To fill him in
On the new developments in the case.
Hey, guys! How are you?
Good. Hey. We're good.
How's the wild west treating you?
Phil's cowboy coffee has a lot to be desired.
You know, caffeine is caffeine.
I can see the relationship's really blossoming.
We could use a bigger tent.
So, let's talk about how it's been going so far.
Does nevada city live up to its reputation?
Oh, yeah! It is haunted!
So we went into this house
That is supposedly haunted by a little girl.
Not only was one of the room's wardrobe doors open,
But as we turned around and looked in the other room,
We actually watched one open in front of our faces
But I -- no, you were scared.
I -- I was scared.
Phil, this is usually where you jump in to tell me,
"no, this place is totally normal."
I'm not hearing that.
I can't explain that.
Now, phil, I know you went out to this mine today, right?
How did that go?
It was absolutely worth it.
Yeah, tell him about your poop.
Josh, I found the best poop.
I found scats, and I found hair...
What now? ...That may belong
To some sort of feline species.
So if there is a screaming mammal
In the hills,
I think that explains a lot
Of what people have been hearing
Around this area.
But we won't know until the lab analysis
Of the samples comes back.
And what about the story of george ives and his ghost?
He really is the center of this haunting story.
I met up with a group of archaeologists
And did a scan of the area,
And we're pretty sure we found the body of george ives.
That is a place that nobody's identified before, right?
These scans are the closest we're going to get
To confirming that that's george ives
Unless we actually exhume the body,
Which is not allowed to happen.
Look, if there's any truth to these paranormal reports,
I would say that the location of ives' body has got to be key,
You know, to understanding that.
I would really focus on that cemetery.
Go back there,
Use all the tools at your disposal.
See if you can collect compelling evidence.
Good luck with the investigation
And be careful out there, alright?
Alright. We will. You got it.
♪♪
Chobot: With the sun having set, we walk carefully over
The final resting place of the hundreds of people
Who once lived in this town
It's chilling to think that many of them back in their day
Could have witnessed the public hanging
Of george ives
And possibly even helped dig his grave.
I marked the grave's exact gps coordinates
In my phone earlier.
So there's no guesswork in the dark.
Yep. Here we go.
Right here.
This would be nicholas' grave right here,
Which means that george is...
Here we go. Here's george.
So this could be george ives' grave?
Yep.
To attempt to make contact,
We're upping our tech arsenal,
Which includes to rem pods to place over the graves
Of george and nicholas
Phil definitely approaches everything
With a skeptical eye,
But I'm hoping our equipment will provide
Substantial evidence that he can't deny.
[ whining ]
Okay, we're good. So, there's george.
These rem pods radiate their own electromagnetic field,
And they create an alert when anything moves
In or out of that field.
If a spirit is present here,
It may displace electromagnetic energy.
Just in case george is more analog,
I got...
This. [ bell jingles ]
What, you gonna call for room service?
What is that?
Back in the day,
They used to bury people with bells.
In case they were buried alive,
They could pull on the string in their coffin
And notify someone.
What? That's a terrifying thought.
That's where we get the whole
"saved by the bell" saying from.
No way. Mm-hmm.
So, in case more of the modern day tech
Throws him for a loop,
This is something that he could use.
Okay.
So, why don't we put it right by his grave?
♪♪
You're trying to give them as many options as possible.
Yep. Okay.
Chobot: With the rem pods in place
And the bell ready to be rung,
It's time to see if george ives
Is willing to make himself known.
Why don't we back away a little bit,
And we'll do some call and response.
I'm also using a device that scans radio frequencies
And background white noise.
It has been theorized that spirits may be able
To communicate through short bursts of static.
George, are you here?
[ static ]
George, are you mad that they buried you
Outside of the cemetery gates?
[ static intensifies ]
That was a noise. That was weird.
George, is this you buried here?
[ static ]
George, did you kill nicholas?
[ static ]
Will you actually innocent?
[ static stops ]
Like a clink?
[ clink in distance ]
Did you hear that?
That's our bell.
Right? That's our bell.
♪♪
Yeah, look. It's on the ground.
♪♪
George ives isn't the only old west figure
Whose final resting place is shrouded in mystery.
Take the famous outlaw billy the kid.
According to most historians,
Sheriff pat garrett gunned down
21-year-old billy in new mexico in 1881.
His body buried at the fort sumner cemetery.
But decades later, in 1950,
A man known as brushy bill roberts
Came forward claiming he was the real billy the kid.
So, will the real gunslinger please stand up?
To try to settle the debate,
A photo analysis was conducted at the university of texas,
Comparing authenticated photos of billy
To photos of brushy bill.
They turned out to be a 93% match.
So, who's really buried in billy the kid's grave?
Dead men tell no tales.
♪♪
[ bell chimes ]
Did you hear that? That's our bell.
Right? That's our bell.
I didn't hear it. Yeah, I heard it.
Over there.
Yeah, look. It's on the ground.
Holy [bleep].
♪♪
Looks like it got knocked off its stand.
♪♪
Chobot: Is it possible that the small bell
We placed over george's grave
Could be his final communication from beyond.
[ bell rings ]
George, did you knock over the bell?
George, is that you?
[ whining ]
The rem pod just detected a disturbance
In the electromagnetic field,
Which could mean a spirit is trying to reach out.
George, are you messing with us?
♪♪
After a flurry of strange activity,
It ends almost as quickly
As it began.
Yeah.
We branch out and explore more of the cemetery,
Looking and listening for anything out of the ordinary.
If george ives really was communicating with us...
I think he's out of energy.
...It seems he said all he's going to say for tonight.
Okay.
Bye, george.
♪♪
Okay.
Time to check out
If we had
Any little quakes.
So...
♪♪
And...
Whoa. Yes. Do you see that?
That's...A spike.
I mean, minor quake... Uh-huh.
...Geologically speaking,
But still significant.
The time code of it
Is right around the time
Were were up at the cemetery.
Torres: There can be hundreds of micro quakes
Beneath the surface in this region every day,
But without equipment like this,
They're nearly impossible to detect.
Now, I didn't feel anything.
Would that be strong enough to ring the bell?
Could be strong enough to do a lot of things.
Earthquakes can release electromagnetic energy.
So, maybe that could explain
Why the rem pods just kept going off.
That's the best explanation
I have for what happened tonight.
Mm-kay.
I still don't understand how a micro quake
Would have still been strong enough
To ring that bell without us feeling it.
So, where does that leave us?
♪♪
Gates: Ghost stories are built on the premise
Of unfinished business.
And the last words of george ives,
"tell my mother I died an innocent man,"
Certainly leave a haunting legacy in nevada city.
But can one tortured criminal truly bring a curse upon a town
And summon the spirits of others who died there.
The evidence my team gathered would suggest to believers
That the answer is yes --
The saloon door opening on its own
And the infrared camera falling to the ground
Right where george ives is rumored to haunt.
Then there's the seemingly unexplainable force
Opening and slamming doors in the yellow house.
[ screams ]
Make no mistake --
This once-mighty boomtown was
A place of vigilante justice
That put many men at the end of a rope.
That history has certainly given rise to ghostly folklore,
But these mountains are also home
To flesh-and-blood culprits
You wouldn't want to meet face-to-face.
The scat samples recovered by phil
Turned out to be that of a lynx.
Analyze the mating call of this wildcat...
[ screeching ]
...And it sounds, well, an awful lot
Like the human screams that have been reported here.
♪♪
In the end, whether george ives lives on in nevada city
Or just in local legend,
Both believers and skeptics will agree --
His story has not been forgotten,
And if that isn't communication from beyond the grave,
Then what is?
[ bell dings ]
For more information on "expedition x,"
Head to discovery.Com/ expeditionx.