NARRATOR: Rick, Marty, and Matty arrive at the site
where they're going to assist treasure hunter Hoppy
Eubanks and his team in a drilling operation
to locate millions in lost silver
and gold from the historic San Saba mine.
Based on previous electrical resistivity scans,
it is geologist Curt Champlin's suspicion
that there is a void or possible mine
entrance somewhere between 35 and 75 feet underground.
Hey, guys.
I lost a mine somewhere around here.
Has anybody found it?
I have no idea.
[laughs]
Hoppy has brought us out to where he believes
is the actual location of the lost San Saba
mine, where the Spanish pulled a lot of gold and silver
out of the ground.
If he's right, we'll expect to hit a void at the spot
we're going to drill.
If they hit that void, that means that could
be the lost San Saba mine.
Hey, Hoppy, today's the day.
Perfect.
NARRATOR: The Laginas have arranged
for a direct rotary rig for today's investigation.
As the 6-inch wide sections of drill pipe
are driven into the ground, the rig
will also force air downward, bringing
sediment or spoils to the surface
through an exhaust nozzle.
Geologist Curt Champlin and the team
will then sift through them, looking for any evidence
of a possible mine shaft.
So Curt, well, we're hoping the drill works its way
through that limestone cap rock, and then we're
going to hopefully see a drop.
Yeah.
All right.
The drill's going.
It's exciting.
And we're analyzing the dirt and the soil
as it's going through its depths.
Because if there's any significant changes
or anything, it could indicate that they're on this void
they've been looking for.
Limestone?
Not limestone, no.
[music playing]
So we're down to 40 feet.
[music playing]
Very dense clay.
Is that glass?
Oh, it's a leaf.
We saw something green and shiny,
thought maybe it was an emerald.
Yeah.
[music playing]
How deep are you?
55.
We went from 15 to 55 real fast.
[music playing]
[machines whirring]
Whoa.
It's blowing.
It's definitely blowing.
It was blowing nothing.
Could that be a void?
I wonder if that hole is taking air.
Is it moving air or is it just pressuring up?
So we've loss circulation, meaning
the air is no longer coming up.
It's no longer bringing the cuttings up.
Lots of possible reasons for that.
One that's hopeful, though, is that if we're starting
to get into a cavity, and it really is a cavity,
the air could leak off instead of coming back to the surface.
[music playing]
[machines whirring]
There she goes.
She goes.
It looks like something is coming out.
[music playing]
What do we got, Eric?
So we're going down--
this will be 60 feet right here.
There is water coming in either above or below a hard zone.
It's not making a lot of cuttings,
but it's definitely blowing some mud out.
The moisture down there sort of is a good sign.
Why is that a good sign to you, Curt?
What do you like about that?
If it was sand down below, water
would have kept trickling down.
Right.
- That sort of tells me-- - OK.
That there may be an impermeable [inaudible]
OK.
So it's hitting something hard and sitting there.
Something hard sitting there.
And that could be the-- that could be the cap to--
[inaudible]
Above the void that we're looking for?
Yeah.
All right.
NARRATOR: Now that the drill has reached a depth of nearly
65 feet, the presence of moisture in the spoils
may indicate a layer of rock that is causing water to pool.
Could it be a limestone cap or possible ceiling
for the Lost San Saba mine?
So right now, ideally in the next couple of drills,
you'd want to see that thing working hard, cutting
through whatever it it might.
I'd like to start seeing limestone powder--
Got it.
Ooh.
Coming out.
Something just came out.
Ooh, that was powdery.
Still getting a good air flow.
Yeah, it's blowing.
It's definitely blowing.
Oh, now it's starting to spit up some material.
We're going down to 65 right now.
So we're 10 foot off the target.
All right.
[music playing]
So we're at 70 feet right now, 5 more feet.
5 more feet, we'd like to see some white smoke maybe, right?
We want that thing hitting something hard?
Or some glitter.
[laughs] Or that.
[music playing]
All right.
This is the last one.
Oof.
This is it?
This is it.
[music playing]
I see a little--
it's that a little smoky?
[inaudible] something hard there, or is that just--
Yeah, probably set down on something.
At this point, we have drilled 75 feet,
and we've hit mostly sands all the way down.
We were hoping we would hit cap rock or some hard sediment.
And at this point in time, we may be on top
of where the mine shaft is.
[music playing]
The bucket we've all been waiting for.
Here it is.
Come on, baby.
This could be good.
Here it comes.
Moment of truth, buddy.
Oh, there you go.
There's limestone right there.
Is that limestone?
Isn't it?
No?
It's soft.
It's soft clay again--
clayish.
Well, we know where the mine isn't.
It's not right there.
That's right.
[thunder]