Tonight's episode is the season finale, called "The Endless Shaft" and is described -
Using LIDAR, Chad and Josh found a deep vertical tunnel that leads deep into the meteorite-created fault line. There are a labyrinth of tunnels and evidence of Aztecs!
Eric ran the LIDAR drone over the fault zone to the energy zone and got a 4D imaging of the area. He was able to remove the vegetation and obstructions to see what is there, possibly an opening.
After removing the vegetation from the 4D imaging, Eric was able to look for potential ways to enter. He found cave openings.
The men converged at the hideout to see what Eric found. He showed 3 potential cave openings along the fault line. They decided to split up and go explore these areas.
Eric examined the south cave, Chad and Josh went north, and Charlie and James checked out the one to the west.
James and Charlie found a cow that had been attacked and eaten. They came across a cave opening that was covered by lots of plants and such. James went with a camera inside to check it out. It had been dug out with tons of copper inside. The miners had cut across the fault. The cavern opened up. There were bones inside. The mud and runoff had closed it off. Dead end.
Chad and Josh headed north, just south of the pit mine area. Josh saw signs of someone working the soil and moving it around. He found the opening. It appeared to be a caved in opening. They decided to dig rocks out of it. They found very very old timbers in the opening. It is 3/4 of a mile from the keyhole chamber and has a steep incline.
They went inside to investigate; Chad, Josh, and the cameraman. Josh evaluated the mining work, realizing it was very very old.
James and Eric looked for the final opening from the LIDAR scan, the closest to the keyhole chamber (1/3 of a mile). Eric found a huge cave/mine entrance. He went in to look around. It was a natural cave system but someone came in and mined it too. Eric came across a cave-in. Large boulders from overhead that crashed down.
AT 50 feet below the surface, Chad and Josh found a branch in the cave system. They could see it went far. It had a steep descent. The mine is extensive. They are not far from the keyhole chamber, at 75 feet deep. They keep trying to choose paths toward the keyhole chamber.
Chad heard someone in there, footsteps. Mines can echo a lot, create odd sounds. Some superstitious miners called them Tommyknockers and such. The incline went deep fast. They got to 145, 146, 147, 148 feet down. Josh found an unstable area there. A large boulder had collapsed. The had 4 possible directions to go in a major intersection.
Josh chose a main path to follow as he mapped every direction they took. They entered a narrower area. They suddenly ran into a pit. It looked identical to an Aztec vertical shaft mined there. They opted to tie a camera and lower it down the shaft. The rope is 200 feet and as they lowered the camera, it became clear that was an amazing feat for all that material to be moved from there. They ran out of rope and they haven't touched the bottom. Ironically, that's the depth they need to go to get to the keyhole chamber. They had to leave and get better materials to explore further, including more rope! They tried to retrace their steps and ended up at a dead end.
Josh looked at the map and figured out where they jogged to the wrong direction. They went back and found the way out.
The next day, they went back with supplies. Once again, they attached the camera and lowered it with a much longer rope. They got to the bottom and saw teeth and a skull of a human being. The blind shaft has no outlet, so not worth chasing. They will not mess with burial remains.
This is much like the shaft in Mexico the Aztecs threw a body down. Beside the body in Mexico they found offerings, figurines, and gold.
They went on to explore more of the tunnels. They found some kind of symbol. There were more writing like a "v v" and a 6 on its side facing the sky. Josh thought they were Mormon symbols. They called this alphabet "Deseret." Supposedly a descendent to Aztecs had given Thomas Rhodes a lead to where there was gold to help establish the church.
This was a great finale for the year. I would have liked an update on Duane's condition. I suspect, after years in the oil biz and using heavy equipment, the vibration aspects hurt nerves. I noticed his pain came after some heavy handling of the digging unit machinery. Here's hoping he's at their sides next season!
Great job, guys!!!!
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