As the new year starts with death and tragedy across our great nation, it's hard to start off with a positive attitude. One thing we can be thankful for is the drone discourse staying in 2024. After elected officials urged their constituents to shoot down drones, it seems like the nation was immediately vaccinated from the mental illness caused by "drones." But where does this leave 'D'isclosure?
Lue Elizondo has all but faded into the obscurity of cash-grab paid speaking events. James Fox has nearly eviscerated his credibility by boosting alien assassin Jason Sands. The Cybertruck bomber blames drone-aggedon on China. Government funding for AARO is still in limbo (I think). So where do we go from here? Those of us who beg for true 'D'isclosure are left waving our d*cks in the wind.
One thing that I recently watched that, while not answering any questions, provides a fun exploration into the idea of Ufology. Dean Alioto's The Alien Perspective offers a fascinating inquiry into many facets of the alien question. We'll go a bit deeper into a full review in another article, but keep your eyes peeled for that documentary. Instead of telling you whether aliens exist, or not, Alioto speaks with a handful of truly special individuals to ask questions. Whether you're a skeptic or a true believer, this documentary is a fascinating look at the true nature of what lies beyond the ozone layer.
That's enough of all that. Let's head over to one of our favorite ranches in Utah and see if the second to last episode of Season 4 brings us any closer to the Mystery...at Blind Frog Ranch.
We Bring The BOOM
We join Duane Ollinger, Josh Feldman, and Charlie Boy at the top of the Bead Site: Vent Holes with Denzel Roberts and his sonic drill (post-geyser). Denzel tells the team that the pipe of his drill dropped roughly 10 feet and punched through a void, thus causing the water geyser. Moments after this, a large boom startles the team. We cut to Chad Ollinger and James Keenan who also experience the boom and hit the dirt.
Charlie Boy gets an alert on his phone. The alert reveals a disturbance at the Water Pit (wow, we haven't seen the Water Pit in a few seasons!). Video from the Water Pit shows a huge spurt of water shooting up from the middle of the pond. James says groundwater wouldn't act like that for no reason.
Everyone heads back to The Hideout to discuss what just happened and what steps they should take going forward. James seems to think this geyser/boom was caused by water with extreme head pressure. Head pressure is caused when water flows downhill from higher elevations, the force from the downhill flow is classified as head pressure. This head pressure is prime evidence of multiple connected caves. We've seen another example of extreme head pressure on the ranch a handful of times before this. Back in Season 3, the team attempted a controlled explosion at the Energy Zone and was immediately shocked to see the outcome caused extreme flooding in the area.
James wonders if there is an underground water diversion system of a series of manmade aqueducts. If so, this could provide concrete evidence that Chicomoztoc (which we learned of in Season 4 Episode 1) could be right below their feet. The Aztecs mastered the control of water by the 14th century. Their capital, Tenochtitlan, was built in the middle of a lake and used intricate systems of underground aqueducts to contain and manage water.
Because of this, James thinks he and Duane should head back to Mexico City to get first-hand visual knowledge of how the Aztecs did all of that. Duane agrees.
Back Over The Border
Duane and James arrive in Mexico City and meet back up with Mesoamerican expert Julio Escalante. Julio takes them to Tlatelolco. Tlatelolco is the location of the remains of water systems and aqueducts and is one of the most important archeological sites in Mexico City. It's a ceremonial area with evidence of 60 Aztec temples, ceremonial altars, and [a recently discovered] burial site that held the remains of 200 sacrifices. The aqueduct system in this area also brought water from four miles away into the city.
After looking at this beautiful and historical site, Julio decides to take the men to Teotihuacán, Mexico. Northeast of New Mexico, Teotihuacán is the site of the first cosmopolitan city of the Americas. In its time, it held a population of 200,000 residents. Because of the dense population, they had a vast network of water collection stations, reservoirs, and sewer systems. Duane and James see some of the concrete used to create these water systems and realize that it looks incredibly similar to the concrete chunks found at the Bead Site: Vent Holes.
They head below the location in Teotihuacán and find themselves navigating through dark and quiet tunnels. Julio walks them to a location where they see a basketball-sized hole that goes roughly 75 feet deep. To this day, no one knows how this dug-by-hand hole was created. What's even weirder is that the skeleton of a pregnant female was found at the bottom of it. This hole is eerily similar to the 90-foot hole James found in Season 3 when he was mapping the Energy Zone with his magnetometer.
Once back in Utah, James and Duane fill Josh in with this new information. Duane says they need a new plan of attack to find a way into the Keyhol Cavern. He asks if GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) would work, but Josh thinks the data they're trying to collect is too deep for GPR. Josh thinks the best course of action is to drop a beacon into the hole at the top of the Bead Site: Vent Hole and track where it goes.
It All Comes Together
Chad and Charlie Boy are at the Bead Site: Borehole and are eventually joined by Duane and Josh. Chad pulls out something called an acoustic beacon which is used to track wrecked airplanes over oceans. Once the beacon touches water, it starts to ping. The beacon, tracked by two hydrophones, will hopefully tell the team in which direction the water flows and may possibly reveal an entrance to the Keyhole Cavern.
This finally brings us full circle to the opening scene of Season 4 Episode 1. If you remember, Chad, Ryan, and a few men were on a boat in a lake/river and were searching for a beacon. Chad and another man dive into the water through tight caverns and come out into an open-air cave. While this episode doesn't take us to the cave, it sets everything up for Chad to get there.
Duane, Charlie Boy, and Josh head to the Water Pit and set up the hydrophone. Once it's all setup, Chad drops the acoustic beacon into the borehole. Josh doesn't immediately get a ping on the hydrophone, but a few seconds later reveals the acoustic beacon 800 feet from the Water Pit. Just a few seconds later the beacon is now 300 feet away! Oh no, wait, now it has passed the Water Pit. Realizing that the beacon is continuing, Duane, Charlie Boy, and Josh jump in a Side-by-Side and head over to Mosby Creek.
Once at the creek, Josh sets up the hydrophone in the most still spot in the water. He immediately gets a strong signal, but it soon fades. The rushing underground water continues to take the beacon further west of the ranch. In a matter of minutes, the beacon is completely off of Blind Frog Ranch property.
Welcome Back Ryan
Ryan Skinner meets up with the team (minus Eric Drummond) at The Hideout. Skinner is an expert in all things Uinta Basin so his expertise can hopefully guide the team on the right path. He tells the team that Mosby Creek lets out into either Lake Anaconda (a great name for a lake) or Pole Creek Sink. Both of these bodies of water are known to flow underground.
Ryan and Josh will check out the Sink while Chad and James will head over to the lake. If Chad and James don't have any luck with their body of water, they will head over to Ghost Creek (another great name for a body of water). With their plan set, the men head out.
On the way to the Sink, Josh and Ryan notice many sinkholes above the path of the underground water. This is a good sign. A Sink is called such when a body of surface water enters into an underground river. Interestingly, Pole Creek Sink is a former cave that has collapsed in on itself-the ground the men are standing on is once the roof of this cave. Nature really is beautiful.
Chad and James arrive at Lake Anaconda but have no luck with the hydrophone. So they decide to head over to Ghost Creek. Josh and Ryan put their hydrophone into the water and get a faint signal! They realize they need to get closer to the source of the ping and head deeper into the Sink/forest. Eventually, the two men arrive at a larger body of water attached to the Sink...this is where we see Chad dive in Season 4 Episode 1. Once they put the hydrophones in the water, they get a strong signal. But the signal is too strong...almost as if the beacon has stopped moving.
They grab Ryan's boat and rev up a ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle). They use the ROV to visually scan the ground of the Sink and see if they can see any openings into caves. That, my friends, is when we see the cave opening that Chad will find himself squeezing into in just a few hours.
Final Thoughts
Hands down, the most fascinating aspect of this episode is when Duane and James see the 75-foot hole that was somehow dug by hand. Seriously, how the hell could this hole have been dug?! I can't think of a single way that could explain it. It's times like this that I understand why smooth-brained people think aliens built the pyramids.
Since we've already seen Chad get inside this cave, my hope for the Season 4 finale is that we get to see some exploration in the open-air cave system. Will that happen? Probably not. But something that makes me nervous for the future of this series is one of the talking heads Duane does while they're in Mexico. Could this show go on if he had to step back? The talking head that he does makes him sound truly awful. (I'm not saying that in a negative way, I truly hope Duane is okay.)
This show has become a comfort show for me in ways that The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch has ceased. I love the history lessons that come with the exploration and I think they do a better job than Brandon Fugal of showing appreciation for those who [rightfully] existed on the land long before they purchased it. With just one episode in this season left it makes me wonder, are we really any closer to finding the Mystery...at Blind Frog Ranch?