[music playing]
NARRATOR: Matty Blake and treasure hunter Gypsy Jewels
are heading some 50 miles east of Salt Lake City, Utah,
into the rugged terrain of the Uinta Mountains
to meet Terry Carter and his team
at the believed location of the lost Josephine Mine.
MATTY BLAKE: There they are.
Gypsy, how you doing?
GYPSY JEWELS: It's great to see you.
It's good to see you.
Matty, it's good to finally see you.
Good to see you in person, my friend.
- Yeah. - How are you?
All right.
Hey, I want you to meet some of these people.
All right.
NARRATOR: In order to aid the team and their effort
to safely navigate the mine.
We got Jon, the tech guy.
NARRATOR: Rick and Marty Lagina have arranged
for subsurface imaging expert Jon Madsen
to join today's search.
TERRY CARTER: This is Quinn Pack,
he's the mine coordinator.
This is Tom Beardall, he's the guy who's seen the door.
- Good to meet you. - Oh.
I knew it.
I said to Gypsy, [inaudible] go that's got to be Tom.
Yeah.
How are you, sir?
NARRATOR: Now retired, Tom Beardall earned his living
as a professional miner for more than 30 years,
unearthing gold, silver, and other precious metals
throughout Utah.
In the early 1970s, he and his brothers, Timothy and Robert,
worked on a crew at this very location.
And on one fateful and suspenseful day,
while navigating through the mines treacherous tunnel
system, they made a stunning discovery.
Talk to me about how you got here.
I know a little bit about the background,
but how did you end up here?
TOM BEARDALL: Me and my two brothers
went down through a little wormhole.
And the only reason we kept going is we had a breeze.
Sure.
We could feel a breeze going through there,
so we continued on through the wormhole
and got into the first room.
And we went down these steep 45 drop, got into the second room
and we thought it was the end, but we could see a crack that
dropped into the third room, and it was pretty steep going down.
And with our flashlights, we could see the door.
Ha.
TOM BEARDALL: And so we kept going, we went right
down in front of the door.
And I'd never seen such work in that wood.
It was sealed.
You mean-- you mean ornate work
or the fact that it was sealed?
TOM BEARDALL: It was solid.
There was no leak or cracks or nothing in there.
TERRY CARTER: I remember you telling me
it looked like though that the-- the calcite had been dripping
down the walls, dripping down the doors,
and that was kind of hiding it too,
kind of camouflaging with the calcite over the years
of covering that door up.
Whatever it was, they didn't want air getting in there.
They wanted it sealed.
So I want to understand this-- the airflow.
You're following the airflow, then you find the door.
Did you think that was the source of the airflow?
The airflow led us past the door.
So it was basically drifting right--
TOM BEARDALL: Right in front of it.
Really?
TOM BEARDALL: And we just kept following that draft.
TERRY CARTER: And Tom was a miner at the time,
so he knew the dangers of bad gases.
He knew for sure if he followed the good air, he would be OK.
Sure.
NARRATOR: When traveling underground,
experienced miners often use the direction of fresh air flowing
in from the ground above to help guide
them through unfamiliar tunnels and caverns.
It is those airflows that help to dispel dangerous gases
such as methane and carbon monoxide
that naturally accumulate in mines
and also help to identify safe pathways for the miners
as they navigate narrow passages and treacherous terrain.
So you make this unbelievable find of this door.
What happens after that?
TOM BEARDALL: We had flashlights,
and we was in there the whole day.
But the lights were getting so dim, you couldn't see,
and then the air got stagnant in there.
We felt like you wasn't getting enough air or something.
But I think it was panic and for--
because our light was gone.
And so I prayed to God, if I could get out of there,
I'd never come back.
And once we got out alive, we was happy.
We'll go on with life now, and we'll--
we'll stay away from there.
But that's the reason I've never been back.
Well, that's an incredible story.
So, Jon, is there a more modern approach we can take to try
to follow in his footsteps?
Yeah.
I think thermal imaging down in that cave,
so we can see where those airflows are coming from,
so we can see the different temperatures,
so we can trace where that air is coming from.
So I think that'd be great to do in this.
MATTY BLAKE: So we could just still follow
that airflow potentially.
Yes.
MATTY BLAKE: God willing find the door,
follow the airflow at least though,
and maybe find its source.
Yeah.
Because if that airflow went past the door,
we should find it.
And the other nice thing too is wood
will be a different temperature than the surrounding rock.
So if we're using the thermal imaging,
that door should show up really well.
Oh, wow.
OK.
Great.
NARRATOR: The Forward-Looking Infrared Device, or FLIR,
can detect fluctuations in temperature
as small as 0.0070 of a degree.
Its ability to display these differences
as a visible readout will allow the team
to follow the invisible airflow more precisely.
Technology that didn't exist when Tom and his brothers
conducted their search more than 40 years ago.
Do you think that door is still
down there waiting for us?
TERRY CARTER: I haven't heard of anybody that's found that door.
And Tom says the same thing.
That's what we're here to find out.
I don't know what's behind the door, you know.
That's another story, but to me, the way he describes that door,
that's a historical find.
Whatever-- just finding that door, man, that's a treasure.
That's a mission that I really can get behind
is wanting to validate his story.
And I know that Rick and Marty would love that too.
Tom, thank you so much.
Your story is incredible.
And I know that I'm really motivated,
and you are, to prove your story correct.
I'm going to bow out and wish you guys the best of luck.
GYPSY JEWELS: Well, thank you for sharing.
TOM BEARDALL: You're welcome.
I say let's get underground now.
Let's do it.