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00:00this is the area where this legendary robbery happened no we're in the exact spot where the
00:06stagecoach robbery occurred he confesses that he buried it here this is not just a legend he said
00:13I put some of it in the ground here so any way you cut it a lot of money there's a lot of gold
00:21out here I called in a little reinforcement I figure if we're looking for historic gold who
00:26better to call than Parker Schnabel careful what you wish for oh boy hang on we got something here
00:34what is that yes you got something that's an old coin look at that wait a minute this is a smoking
00:41gun oh this could crack the whole case wide open we're going to literally pan for gold wait a minute
00:45is that gold shut up is that a hit oh is that it look at that come on
00:53if you've ever dreamed of moving to California that dream started in 1848 at Sutter's Mill where
01:11the discovery of gold led to a westward stampede that hasn't stopped since in just five years after
01:18that first strike over 370 tons of gold are pulled out of the mountains that's about 40 billion dollars
01:25worth today mining towns quickly spring up which attract both prospectors looking to get rich quick
01:31and bandits looking to get rich even quicker enter the brothers John and Charles Ruggles on May 14th 1892
01:41they rob a Wells Fargo stagecoach traveling between Weaverville and Redding California
01:47its cargo up to 200 pounds of the shiny stuff but the heist turns into a gunfight that kills one man and
01:56leaves three others wounded after a statewide manhunt both John and Charles are apprehended but before
02:03they can give up the location of the gold a local mob delivers frontier justice at the end of a rope the
02:11loot now worth up to ten million dollars remains buried somewhere in the mountains of Northern
02:18California now an avid treasure hunter is searching in a location that has been off-limits for years and a
02:26historian has uncovered a long-lost jailhouse confession that could uncover the stolen loot plus for a
02:33treasure this rich I'm doing some recruiting of my own and calling in a friend who knows a thing or two
02:39about finding the mother load gold rushes Parker Schnabel so hitch up the wagons because we're going out
02:47west for a historic gold rush in search of missing millions the past is all around us oh my god it goes
03:00on forever a world of mystery come on look at that danger
03:08and adventure it's just straight down I gotta get a new job I travel to the far corners of the earth to uncover
03:22where legends end and history begins here we go I'm Josh Gates and this is Expedition Unknown
03:38this is California but not the one the Beach Boys sang about the sunshine and surf maybe 600 miles to the
03:46south but this area has its own appeal if you were strolling in these parts in around 1840 you'd be
03:53surrounded by nothing but untouched wilderness and yet just a decade later this had become the heart of the
04:00California gold rush welcome to the town of Weaverville by 1890 the miners here are pulling
04:08about 35 million dollars a year out of the rivers and hills that boomtown money attracted a pair of
04:14bandits known as the Ruggles brothers and at the Jake Jackson Museum their story comes to life with
04:21artifacts such as the alleged shotgun used to fend off the brothers as they attempted to rob this little
04:27beauty this remarkably preserved relic is one of the six original stages that ran the route between
04:34Weaverville and Redding in fact it may be the one robbed by the Ruggles brothers although there is no
04:40gold inside I checked finding the Ruggles gold means following their story so I hit the road and trace the
04:50path of their last target the Redding stage this narrow trail is known as Middle Creek Road and it may not
04:57seem like much of a road at all but over a century ago this was the main thoroughfare for stagecoaches loaded
05:03with rich shipments of gold including the one knocked over by the Ruggles brothers I'm headed to the scene of
05:10their crime to meet up with an old friend who's gearing up for a new search and there he is
05:18how are you man hey there what's going on beautiful weather oh it's something else hi Josh great to see
05:27you buddy seeing you all right now last time I saw you we were waist deep in water in a cave yes we were
05:32Troy McCormick and I last investigated together in Indiana hunting another stolen fortune that of the
05:39train robbing Reno gang I think the water level's coming up in this game okay we gotta get the hell out
05:43of here come on and now we're getting soaked again just something about these outdoor adventures
05:48I think you're cursed that might be it too okay so the Ruggles brothers yes an all-new mystery here
05:54this is the area where this legendary robbery happened no we're in the exact spot where the
06:00stagecoach robbery occurred it was right here right here that's so cool okay so this is one of those
06:06great Wild West stories that a lot of people have never heard of true so all of this goes down in
06:121892 there was a lot of gold moving through Northern California at this time hundreds of
06:18millions of dollars and this kind of wealth was irresistible to people who were willing to take
06:23a big risk for big reward and and that brings us to the Ruggles so these guys are just a couple of
06:30brothers who are bad news no surprisingly they were they start out they were okay in fact Charles the
06:35younger one he was what you would call just a really nice guy uh-huh not much is known about the
06:41Ruggles background we do know they came from a comfortable family and couldn't be more different
06:46from one another younger brother Charles lives his life on the straight and narrow while his older
06:51brother John was bad to the bone robbing stagecoaches doing time and eventually roping in Charles for what he
06:59hopes is the score of a lifetime the robbery of a Wells Fargo stage loaded with hundreds of pounds of gold
07:06and so that brings us to this stretch of road here so why here the idea is they picked the spot because
07:15if you look out over the valley you can see the twisting winding stagecoach rope and if you look
07:21from this exact spot back you'll see this hairpin turn he had no idea there were robbers and bandits
07:29waiting for him until he came around that corner the stage driver rounds the corner to find Charles
07:37Ruggles standing in the road his face masked with a red bandana and a shotgun in his hand after the
07:45driver stops Charles demands that the stage's passenger throw down two Wells Fargo strong boxes
07:52containing up to 200 pounds of gold the men comply and soon Charles has a fortune at his feet worth in
08:01today's value 10 million dollars it would seem that everything was going to plan except for one fatal
08:08wild card a third man hiding in the coach with a shotgun of his own when there was a lot of gold to be
08:16transported the Wells Fargo company and other companies would send along an armed guard called
08:22a shotgun messenger who was sort of riding shotgun that's where the phrase comes from
08:26the man riding shotgun is named Buck Montgomery known as a great guy and a great shot a quality which he
08:35is about to demonstrate he shoots Charles in the face and upper torso Charles understandably drops to
08:43his knees and blindly fires back hitting both the driver and passenger so this is going terribly
08:50sideways now it's a total total mess at this point the other Ruggles brother John steps out with a 44
08:58revolver and hits Buck Montgomery fatally wounding him Wow so in a matter of 60 seconds you've got this
09:08bloodbath four people have all just been shot and what becomes the stagecoach oh the horses are just
09:15going crazy now with all the guns and they bolt and tear off down the stagecoach road leaving John
09:21and Charles Ruggles with the two strong boxes so what do these guys do they must know they've got limited
09:28time before the posse shows up Charles's face is bleeding from all these holes from the buckshot
09:33John drags Charles out of sight then hauls him to his feet they scramble down a nearby ravine to
09:41Middle Creek John then goes back to grab the two strong boxes before returning to his brother down
09:47that way down that way to Middle Creek we're about to head down the same path as the Ruggles to the
09:53creek where Troy believes their gold may be hiding but before we do another four by four appears on the
10:00gold trail who's this coming down I called in a little reinforcement we can definitely use the
10:04help you're gonna get it Parker Schnabel a legendary miner who in his career has taken more than a
10:13hundred million dollars worth of gold out of the Canadian Klondike and Alaskan wilderness this is
10:19the perfect case for him to join the words gold rush practically belong to him now what's up brother
10:26good to see you hi I'm Troy Troy you probably know who this guy is I recognize him I figure if we're
10:32looking for historic gold who better to call than a gold miner careful what you wish for with Parker
10:38is archaeologist Eric Ritter from the Bureau of Land Management they run this property and Eric is here
10:44to protect it and let's talk a little bit about rules and regulations here right we're doing this
10:49project with proper permitting and we're doing it to make sure that we're not damaging the land or
10:55damaging other historic resources in this search for part of the history that's out here absolutely
11:01and if something does get found down here then it gets turned over to your team and to the archaeologists
11:06yes we want to do this archaeologically properly that's right sounds like it's going to be a little
11:11wet and wild down there Parker are you ready for this this is like an average day in Alaska isn't it
11:15it's pretty normal yeah okay good like it but but you can handle it yeah all right good so at our point
11:21in the story here John and a wounded Charles take these lock boxes and they head where head down
11:28toward Middle Creek should we follow I think we need to get down there to see what we can find okay
11:32you ready yeah let's do it come on everybody watch your footing it is slick in here
11:44there's Middle Creek there's Middle Creek which is raging today okay so this is this is the spot
11:58somewhere right along here is where the Ruggles brothers and all that gold ended up and they were
12:04pretty shot up weren't they at that point they both think that Charles is a goner so John takes and turns
12:09his brother's head so that he can see the strong boxes John picks up an axe that he had with him
12:15busts open the strong boxes so that Charles can see the gold one last moment for the two brothers to
12:22be together they thought touching moment for two villains there you go and what was inside the strong
12:28boxes it was kind of a combination of things we had gold coins we had gold dust and we had quicksilver
12:34Quicksilver that's for killing werewolves is that correct exactly okay perfect I just big issue back
12:40in the gold rush days werewolves this is clearly werewolves country obviously what is Quicksilver
12:45again so Quicksilver is mercury mixed with gold okay and basically mercury is a magnet for gold and so
12:52it's used in the cleanup process for for kind of collecting a lot of gold dust together and then it
12:57can be separated out afterwards okay but there's a lot of it yeah there's a lot of it one of the strong
13:02boxes supposedly weighed up to 100 pounds right and that's just one box yeah so any way you cut
13:08it a lot of money there's a lot of gold out here so why does he bust the boxes open here the boxes
13:13are too heavy to carry away he can't take all he can't take it all Charles is not gonna die though
13:18right no they actually three boys find him the next day stumbling around down here right around in
13:24this ravine area the boys who find him take Charles to be patched up before throwing him in jail in
13:30the Redding as for John he's captured almost six weeks later authorities throw him in the clink too
13:37eager to discover what became of the stolen loot in an interrogation by Wells Fargo agent John tells
13:44him he buried some of the gold near the creek but they'll never find it so he he confesses that he
13:51buried it here this is not just a legend he said I put some of it in the ground here this is part of
13:56documented story okay so some of that gold may still be down here that's correct let's do it come
14:02on fire them up boys we pull out our metal detectors and begin to hunt and it turns out we don't have to
14:10hunt long a pretty good hit here I'm digging down to what I hope is a fortune when something else grabs my
14:26attention what'd you find pickaxe come on look at that legit old-school pickaxe no need to check
14:48your program guide that really is gold rushes Parker Schnabel who's prospecting in my world this week he's
14:55joined treasure hunter Troy McCormick and me in the pouring northern California rain to find what else gold
15:02buried by the bandits Charles and John Ruggles after an 1892 stagecoach robbery I mean this is
15:09legitimately an old mining accident right this was like calling you from the earth yeah exactly I just need
15:14to hone in on gold now totally I'm on the right industry I mean really you are but you know look this is
15:21gold rush country right this was probably from old mining that was happening here that's like a really
15:26cool find that's amazing get some new wood for that you can bring that back up to Alaska well you said you
15:31were coming to work on the mine site right I'll bring that along yeah yeah exactly how much are you
15:37regretting answering the phone by the way for this trip I need to look at a weather report before I say yes
15:41next time Parker's gotten us started at this soggy dig but I still have a hit of my own to unearth and
15:49I'm hoping it's part of the Ruggles lost loot really tough tough conditions in here whatever it is it's deep
15:58down Josh how's your quest for the center of the earth it's here Parker is this the gold this is
16:08the gold I'm telling you I appreciate you coming over to roast me right in the middle of it I was
16:13actually coming to help if you wanted did you bring your passport for this trip down there
16:19when's your flight back to Alaska oh here we go oh there it is oh please be a gold nugget please be a
16:36gold nugget what is that a buckle it's got something written on it looks like it says Armstrong brace
16:48it's like an old suspender clip quick question is mining for gold easier than this uh usually we
16:56don't spend an hour digging up a suspender clip no well we do know one thing somebody's pants fell
17:06down around here between the rain and the rushing water it's getting difficult to hear our metal
17:14detectors go off but we manage hey Josh I've got evidence of an old boot over here you found a boot
17:24he found something
17:27what'd you say a boot a boot heel boot heel someone's having a bad day when they lost that look at that
17:37that's old oh that's got nails in it that's what my detector picked up those little hobnails
17:42so somebody's wandering around here with one boot and no pants that's right sounds like me in college
17:49well somebody was definitely down here let's see what else is in this area right here good idea come on
17:56we spread out across the banks of what is now a raging river to find any evidence of the ruggles
18:03if john ruggles did bury some of that gold down in this creek he would have needed to bury it
18:08somewhere that he could find again he needed a landmark totally we move along the creek searching
18:15the woods for any other distinguishing features look at this we got walls all in here and look at this
18:22flooded out up here look at these old stone walls check this out this looks like it could be period
18:29it does it's hand laid there's no mortar to it great place to search yes let's look in here
18:44I gotta head in a waterfall
18:46let's do it right here right there yeah
18:51oh no it's here
19:00finally here we go it's gonna be some little piece
19:07oh
19:09troy
19:11oh that's round that that's a coin or a button that's a coin it sure looks like it could be
19:19that is a coin come on that's an old penny oh that's an old coin look at that that's an indian
19:27head penny that is an old indian head penny look at that come on the so-called indian head penny
19:33features a portrait of lady liberty wearing a native american headdress the coins were minted from 1859
19:41to 1909 so we may be as they say in the money come on baby what do you got
19:491890s come on yeah come on give me something early 1883 get out of here no it isn't yeah
19:56dude that's ruggles period right there nine years before the robber
20:01i mean we like we're in the period they could have easily had that in their pocket that's a
20:06little wild west treasure right there it is i'll take it man that is so cool where there's one coin
20:13there's probably more there's probably more it's getting rich one penny at a time let's do it
20:20we slog it out in the rain until the light starts to fail it's been an intriguing start with remnants of
20:27the gold rush and even a historic coin from that era but our detectors have covered every inch of
20:33the creek below the robbery and there's no gold to be had here
20:45after putting a hair dryer in my boots all night we're back on the trail troy wants to follow up a
20:51new lead on the ruggles case meanwhile much of what the ruggles stole was raw gold that had been
20:57mined in this very area leaving parker and me to wonder if there's more where that came from
21:03parker we are like in the heart of the gold rush here so i feel like there's gotta still be gold in
21:09them their hills yeah there's still a lot of mining in northern california okay that's like
21:13active mining happening every year they produce 70 to 80 000 ounces a year still so you know over
21:20200 million dollars that's not too shabby no all right so how are we going to get ourselves some
21:24of that like how do they mine this stuff um so there's three main types of gold mining up here
21:29still one is hard rock mining where they're going into the mountainside chasing gold and quartz veins
21:34you know like like mine shafts mine shafts i take it we are not going to be digging a mine shaft
21:39no no okay i'm a surface dweller not really the gophering type okay good i like that and then there's
21:46hydraulic mining which is where you have water pressure and you've probably seen it spraying the
21:51mountainside down washing everything into like a sluice box or something similar to that so are we
21:57getting some fire hoses here no okay um so then the third way is to not worry about all that technology
22:04and just keep it super simple back to the basics invest in bitcoin even simpler than that and when
22:11you say simple do you mean easy no no great
22:15well so much for my dry boots parker this wasn't exactly what i had in mind well this is where you
22:24plaster mine plaster mine okay walk me through it what is plaster mining again um plaster mining is
22:30when gold's already eroded from a hard rock source and ended up in a creek bed and the gold's really heavy
22:35so it stays in those creek beds usually freezing creek bed yeah it's the kind of mining that like every
22:41gold rush in like california alaska the yukon was all plaster mining so you're guaranteeing me that
22:47we're going to hit the mother load today a hundred percent that's good i like that absolute guarantee
22:53all right let's pan for gold come on
22:57okay folks here's how to get rich step one get parker schnabel step two go to the shallows of the creek
23:03to fill your pan with sediment step three listen to parker schnabel so the basic idea here
23:09is that gold's heavy and wants to sink to the bottom of the pan check if you give it like good
23:14motion and fluidity is that a word yep okay okay here we go so we're we're kneeling down in the river
23:20now perfect hi okay and so you just want to get everything moving yeah and all those like plants and
23:28whatnot will come out this stuff yeah check it perfect you're a natural everybody get that i'm a natural
23:38and just like that we're panning dirty water out clean water in like you want all that stuff to
23:45move okay i see there's a gold down hopefully at the bottom of the pan you promised it's down to the
23:50bottom well if you did it right it is you said a hundred percent i'll play the tape back if i have
23:55to you said a hundred percent okay so so then the final step to see if there's anything in the pan yeah
24:01go in a circle and it'll wash the light stuff into the bottom side of the pan yeah and usually leave the
24:07heavy stuff in the top no is that gold no is that gold don't don't do this is this gold what about
24:18this um so i don't see anything in there you did everything right slowly but you did it right
24:25which is good no gold no okay parker you're up let's see how the pros do it
24:34what do you got going on oh so we got one right there wait a minute is that gold
24:50shut up that's gold yeah why are you so excited what do you mean why am i so excited we just pulled
24:57gold out of a river i'm hunting down the loot from the ruggles brothers 1892 stagecoach robbery near
25:04redding california since much of the stolen gold was mined near this very creek i'm leaning on the
25:11expertise of miner and gold rush star parker schnabel to see if there's even more here to recover i cannot
25:18believe though that in the first pan in the river there's gold this is unsurprising to you i can
25:25see but i am like shocked by this i mean it's not very much like on our mindsight we would consider
25:32that waste we would throw that away you're throwing gold away yeah look i don't know how it works up on
25:40gold rush your partner we're all backwards but where i come from if you find gold you keep it
25:44no just like one flake in a pan oh two actually there's another one what two flakes two that's
25:51it we're retired see you later discovery channel yeah what are these worth if you can retire on like
25:56a penny they're worth a penny probably something like that i'm one of the discovery channel's most
26:00loyal employees back during the california gold rush or the klondike gold rush people found ounces of
26:06gold per pan in really rich ground wow but surely this is an indicator that there's gold in this creek
26:12a hundred percent yeah okay so we could get lucky yeah do you want to try another one another one we
26:18live here now i get back to work hoping to strike it rich or at least snag one of those lucrative gold
26:26rush spin-offs i'll admit it's not looking too good until oh what is oh my god no way wait a minute
26:38that's such is it there's beginners a lot is it yeah that is like actually like a pretty decent
26:44out of here that is like a piece of gold dude is it yeah oh look the student has become the teacher
26:54oh my word are you kidding me oh man and that's a good chunk that's a piece of yeah yeah you hate this
27:03don't you you're boiling right now inside aren't you is there another one oh no no there's two of
27:13them those are both pretty good pieces of gold too yeah i wouldn't quite like yeah parker i wouldn't
27:18quite call them nuggets personally mini nuggets yeah fun size yeah now parker let me walk you through
27:28my technique here okay teach you a thing or two i have some tiny ones you got something there you did
27:35just like the gold rush era miners and indeed the ruggles themselves i'm definitely experiencing
27:41the intoxicating allure of gold dust dreams this is amazing now what well you said 50 50.
27:50that was literally never discussed okay we're not telling troy though right of course not okay good
27:59speaking of troy the third member of our treasure hunting dream team calls us up for an urgent
28:04meeting just up the road in shasta california we convene at the former shasta county courthouse
28:12today it serves as a museum inside we meet historian ryan mccloskey with a new lead on a location where john
28:20ruggles may have hidden his gold first of all this is an amazing museum yeah it actually dates back to 1855
28:27and we're fortunate enough to have some amazing artifacts from the robbery those artifacts include
28:32the ruggles axe believed to have opened the strong boxes of gold also we're being given white glove
28:38access to actually examine john ruggles revolver that is incredible which he used to end buck montgomery's
28:48life this is like a colt 44 or something good at it is the man knows his guns well alaska alaska i know
28:56i know exactly comes with the territory yeah do we know how many times john shot buck with this
29:01we don't know for sure we just know that he had several holes in him when they got him to the
29:06doctor so there were multiple shots fired gotcha you hear these stories about robberies like the
29:11ruggles and it all has this air of legend but once you put something like this in your hand
29:15this is real this is this is real history this is a murder weapon oh absolutely you're holding a piece
29:21of the ruggles story right there and as we know it's a story that doesn't end well both brothers are
29:29arrested and reunited in jail there they become local folk heroes drawing attention from women who
29:35offer gifts food even marriage proposals but no vows would ever be exchanged the ruggles published their
29:43planned defense in the newspapers and in it they claimed that buck montgomery was not only not their
29:49victim but that he was their partner in crime and this is that moment that turns the town against
29:54them the fulcrum point to their inevitable end yeah so the town rallies behind buck and now they are
30:01enemies to avenge buck montgomery's sterling reputation dozens of masked vigilantes carrying weapons and
30:10torches descend upon the jail in the dead of night for a little frontier justice yeah and at this point the
30:16brothers are doomed the mob drags the boys out by force and hauls them to reddings railroad tracks
30:25where a pair of nooses await in a nearby tree john pleads for his younger brother's life bargaining with
30:32the only thing he has left the purportedly true location where he buried the rest of the stolen gold
30:38after he left the creek troy thinks the intel was likely the real deal after all both brothers lives were on
30:45the line this is a huge deal it really is and for us it legitimizes the fact that he buried gold because
30:53he's offering up the location right he says you spare my brother's life i will take you to where this
30:58gold is buried so we now know he actually did bury some of that gold right and do the townspeople take
31:04him up on this offer no at this moment they were more interested in justice than they were in gold and the
31:10the brothers are hanged they are and the problem is we now lose the actual location where the gold was
31:19buried or did we to dig deeper into the legend we head down to the courthouse's old jail cells
31:29where ryan has uncovered clues that have been buried in the archives for years okay so why have you dragged
31:36us down here so what we've got is the research that ryan and i've been finding in the old records but
31:41i've got one here that i want you to pay attention to okay what is this this is some material evidence
31:46to a location that has never properly been searched i like that this is an old news article of some kind
31:52it is 1899 these two guys claimed to have overheard john while he was in jail talking to his brother
31:58charles about where he buried the gold so this says john ruggles indicates the spot described as the
32:04scene of the buried treasure and says that it's buried near a large rock at the foot of a bluff
32:10a short distance beyond the old spanish mine wait a minute this is a smoking gun oh this could crack
32:18the whole case wide open this is huge
32:27he is listing a specific location here yeah in the archives of shasta county california a lost
32:3419th century newspaper article might point to the location of the stolen treasure of the infamous
32:40ruggles brothers ryan pulls out a plat map from the ruggles era and lucky for us we have world-class
32:46mining expert parker schnabel on hand to examine it so this is an old u.s mineral survey map with
32:53mining properties at the time you know different mining companies were here white oak construction
32:58gold leaf construction arizona construction group and then look over here in the lower left oh yeah the
33:03old spanish mining company boom there it is in black and white so these would have been like
33:10uh hard rock mines then uh hard rock gold mines underground underground vertical shaft horizontal
33:15drifts they've all been back filled in for safety purposes when they cruise pulled out gotcha but we
33:21know where this location is we know where that mine was we know the general location we've got to put
33:25some boots on the ground to find the actual shaft what about access because where i'm from wandering
33:31around mining property is a good way to get shot it is on private property but uh i have connections
33:37okay connections are good i don't want to get shot me neither okay well we're agreed on that
33:43and easy to get to absolutely not perfect
33:47now parker i assume you know how to drive one of these yeah every alaskan gets one when they turn 10.
34:01hey you guys go to prom in these things right
34:03oh boy hang on
34:28good lord
34:33okay josh this is it we're on foot from here okay let's grab the detectors and get into it let's
34:42do it it's gonna dump here we go our brief patch of sunshine is quickly replaced by ominous skies
34:49as we search for the old spanish mine reportedly a landmark for john ruggles when he buried the stolen gold
34:56okay so in basic terms we are looking for a hole in the ground that's been filled in a hole in the
35:04ground okay and how big is this mine apt to be i mean if it's an old hand shaft it should be i don't
35:10know 10 15 feet in diameter should have a big pile of rocks around it like should be a pretty big area of
35:15disturbance around it all right well let's fan out a bit and start working this ridge and see if we
35:19can find it that'll work all right come on guys let's do it we split up and scour the hillside
35:26hopeful that parker's expertise can lead us to the former mine shaft and it doesn't take long for him to
35:32spot a possible clue well we might be getting close here's some quartz yeah there's some here
35:40too so that that's a good indicator that we might be close to the mine yeah like most of these hard
35:44rock mines would be following quartz veins that have gold in them got it so where there's quartz
35:48maybe there's gold normally where there's gold there's quartz not always the other way around got
35:53it okay well a good clue let's keep moving the presence of quartz on the surface indicates that
36:00somebody may have been mining for gold nearby parker and i try to follow its trail to see where it leads
36:10here's an old hole looking thing look at this that is definitely a big depression in the ground
36:17what do you think could that be our mind i don't think so yeah i would have expected it to be bigger
36:22and have like some you know like supports around it and a bit more infrastructure so maybe we're on
36:27the trail here hey hey ryan troy yes guys come on over first thing we've seen that really seems like
36:37man-made i mean there's definitely big depression here we're not sure this is the main mine shaft but
36:41it looks like it might be mining related yeah it could have been a secondary people coming in after
36:45the main mine was closed down totally let's see what's above this like back in here okay yeah sure
36:51ryan you want to lead the way for us we slowly trudge up the steep rocky slope to higher ground
36:59somewhere beneath our feet is a literal gold mine oh we got something here what is that you see that
37:08oh look at all the white rock up there we got quartz everywhere up here guys look at this oh my word
37:15that is a mine that's the hole in the ground we've been looking for look at the size of these quartz
37:23blocks this site is exactly the kind of place that parker described okay so old spanish mine looks like
37:31it to me this is almost certainly the entrance to the old spanish mine that was mentioned in the 1899
37:38article about john ruggles jailhouse confession and since no one has searched this area before
37:44we may be closer than anyone has ever been to finding the treasure ryan according to the story
37:50john ruggles says the gold is where beyond the old spanish mine at the bottom of a bluff near a big boulder
37:57well that's a bluff it is and i'm sure there's boulders let's find it old spanish mine let's do it come on
38:06as the weather turns ever more miserable we hurry to run our metal detectors around the entrance for any
38:12sign of the ruggles gold
38:18so far nothing it is quiet
38:25spoke too soon solid hit here you got something yeah i got a hit over here
38:31it's gotta be right in here somewhere that was a solid signal oh here we go
38:47there it is what is that is that lead that's a bullet that's a bullet look at that that's a bullet i think
38:56that's old too i think that's hand cast look at that you see that seam yeah that's old i don't
39:04think they make bullets like that now no no they're machined out now totally differently hey troy what'd
39:10you guys find over here what do you think oh
39:13definitely a bullet with all that seeming on there you think what somewhere turn of the century more
39:21than likely yeah so i don't know if it's from the ruggles but we're not far off time wise it's close
39:27it's real close that's super cool you know if you're looking for gold from a couple of bandits
39:34finding period bullets is a great start good start all right we got lead now we need gold that's your
39:39specialty parker we're working on it we're working on it here we go come on we are wet but undeterred
39:46as we press on trying to scan the entire bluff above the old spanish mine
39:55oh josh i got a nice strong signal over here okay here we go now we're talking
40:03oh here we go right there what is that
40:13panning for gold with parker schnabel is like going one-on-one with lebron james
40:17and i did well about as well as i do against lebron yeah you're not washing any of the stuff out i don't
40:22want to lose the gold playing with it a little bit no no no no no you don't don't look through it
40:29yeah sorry heaven forbid yeah i got gold fever so the number one mistake that beginners make
40:36is doing this in the first place tilt tilt tilt tilt tilt and wash you're like fighting me stop
40:43i'm trying have you thought about a cooking show
40:49this is so frustrating trying to teach somebody how to pan why it's like i used to do this
40:54it's like at my grandpa's mine site when i was like 10. all right i have the skills of a 10 year
40:59old is that what you're saying no no not even worse than that come on
41:08is that iron it is iron digging near a gold rush era mine in search of the ruggles brothers lost
41:14treasure we've just gotten a big hit on the metal detector that might be for like for a key slot or
41:20something look at that what it does look like that maybe for a strong box this appears to be the
41:26escutcheon plate off a chest it would likely have framed some kind of locking mechanism yeah like two
41:33bolts in the top and bottom totally right and you can imagine a key fitting right in there into a wells
41:38fargo strong box into a wells fargo strong box how about that if there was a box attached to this what
41:45was in it we're just gonna keep looking to find out this this is intriguing the confession that led
41:52us here mentioned a boulder beneath a bluff at the old spanish mine as a landmark mine check bluff check
42:02now we just need to find the boulder
42:08the only signs i've seen of any larger rocks are kind of up this ravine which yeah it's kind of at the
42:14base of the the short bluff here it really is i mean there's there's a couple big rocks there i don't
42:19know about boulders but let's let's look up that way yeah you know that one up there looks more like
42:27a boulder where oh that's the biggest one we've seen today i think that qualifies as a boulder okay
42:33let's check there we furiously metal detect the area but in the end the guy who gets the strongest hit
42:43is exactly who you'd expect is exactly who you'd expect is that a hit it sounds like maybe that's
42:51the treasure that's like under the boulder you're gonna hit right there the boulder wait what is that
42:58it's a 500 ounces of gold come on parker be right i mean we are at the base of a boulder at the bluff
43:07at the old spanish mine come on oh is that it what is that is it heavy not a bar of gold is it i don't
43:16think so no it doesn't look shiny enough head of a hammer oh i think that's exactly what it is look at
43:22that old mining hammer well it's like a ball peen hammer but that would have been for driving a chisel
43:28into rock wow old mining hammer look at that you can even see wood still broken off in the handle rotted
43:35out in there i love stuff like this because somebody held this yeah you know somebody worked with this
43:41probably down underground yeah chiseling out the white quartz looking for gold this is another
43:47reminder that i mean you know look gold mining's plenty hard today but this was like oh imagine those
43:55guys swinging that hammer for 12 hours a day for probably not even a dollar or nothing at all if
44:01they're mining and not finding any gold right a tough life for sure but these guys were literally
44:07the pioneers these guys literally broke the earth wide open and started this whole industry
44:12yeah that's something so we got a lost mine we got evidence of those early miners no ruggles gold yet
44:19though not yet but uh i don't know we got a few hours till the sun goes down that's true and it's not
44:24like i'm gonna get any wetter no we're soaked through yeah should we keep at it we might as well
44:28yeah yeah you know there's still gold out there that's what they say let's find it come on
44:40we search and we search but the ruggles gold stays hidden at least for today
44:51the california gold rush was an explosion of unbridled ambition at its most pure
44:57and sometimes it's most predatory for every gritty prospector and stalwart stagecoach driver
45:04there were schemers and bandits seeking to prey on their success
45:09the story of the ruggles is undoubtedly a classic tale of greed and the inevitable cost of material
45:16obsession but if i'm being honest i too felt bit by the bug in the hills of northern california
45:22and experienced firsthand a case of gold fever why are you so excited what do you mean why am i so
45:29excited we just pulled gold out of a river over one unceasingly rainy week i spent every waking soggy
45:38minute dreaming of striking it rich i hardly cared that i was soaked to the bone in frigid temperatures
45:45because i felt the warmth of that starry-eyed affliction of that what if feeling with every
45:52hit on the metal detector i was also basking in the determination and good-humored camaraderie
45:58of some of the best company a treasure hunter could hope for that's a little wild west treasure right
46:03there as our fellowship parts ways i'm heartened by the fact that while the california gold rush is behind
46:09us its legacy lives on in modern day pioneers and prospectors and in the knowledge that somewhere
46:17just beneath our feet a 10 million dollar payday is patiently waiting for someone to dig down and cry
46:25eureka
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