Brendan Jesus
Howdy friends! Welcome back to our coverage of Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch. I don’t have any fun or exciting UAP/UFO news for you this week. Twitter has been too frustrating the past few days so I have decided to stay off of it for a bit. That means you don’t have to deal with my rambling and we can get right into this week’s jam-packed episode!
After completing this coverage of “Aztec or Not?” I happened to read something very sad. It’s been reported and verified that Jean Dietz has passed away. Jean Dietz, along with her husband Richard Dietz who passed in 2022, was the ranch manager at Skinwalker Ranch from the Bigelow/NIDS era through the beginning of Brandon Fugal’s ownership. Jean was a presence loved by everyone she interacted with. This is heartbreaking news and we send our love to everyone hurt and affected by this.
What’s The Plan?
We join Duane Ollinger, Chad Ollinger, Eric Drummond, Charlie Boy, and Jamie Dube at the Miner’s Shack. Chad tells the team they should be receiving the results of last week’s core sample any day now. In a talking head, Duane puts things in perspective. He states if the results come back to reveal this wood as Aztec in origin then that’s what they will focus on for the next three months. And if it is, Duane plans on spending every cent to risk their asses to pull the box out of the ground. If the wood isn’t Aztec authentic, then they’ll cross that bridge when they come to it.
Duane asks for a follow-up from Jamie regarding the recent suicide on the property and the mystery surrounding it. Jamie says he looked into all the ambulance companies around and there was only one company that covered the area Blind Frog Ranch is on. So, Jamie spoke with them and that night there were four people on shift, no one on that shift responded to a call on Blind Frog Ranch. That’s when Jamie met with a local reporter. The reporter told him there had been multiple instances, like what happened on the ranch, throughout the Uinta Valley. She wrote some articles covering this mystery but the articles were squashed by someone. The reporter was able to give Jamie another person to follow up with, and that man is Dave Miller.
Could someone be actively hindering disclosure in the Valley? Is someone pulling strings like a marionette? This is all too weird. With all this new information, the teams break off to go do their own things.
A Kick In The NASA
Four miles from Blind Frog Ranch, Jamie meets up with Dave Miller. Dave walks Jamie out to a secluded desert location. See, Dave has been examining strange cases like these in the Uinta Valley for over a decade. In fact, he’s heard of cases very similar to this one. The two men arrive at the location Dave was leading them to. In the ground is a metal plaque designating the area as Gravity Base Fresno, which is related to NASA.
Dave tells Jamie what used to go on in this previously fenced-off location. Supposedly, this base was used to track satellites and measure the curvature of the Earth. Unofficially, Dave has heard reports that this location was used to study gravitational anomalies as well as studying UAP phenomena. While this is all interesting, Jamie and I share the same thought…this information doesn’t really help move the case forward one bit.
Eagle Eye
Duane, Eric, Chad, and Charlie Boy pack up their Side-by-Sides to head out to the Energy Zone. Suddenly, Charlie Boy notices something. Up on the ridge above them is a singular tree and on that tree is an odd-shaped lump. They go check it out and what they find is SHOCKING.
The four men approach the tree and notice a 360-degree camera. Attached to the camera are solar panels, batteries, and a Wi-Fi router. Eric gets incredibly upset at this and flat-out says, “This is bullshit,” and he says this is definitely a spying setup. He, and the rest of the team, are legitimately pissed off at this and all agree this is an insane break of privacy.
They take down the camera setup and unscrew the solar panels, which have been screwed into the rockface. After taking down the camera setup, Eric says they should expect visitors. Charlie Boy agrees and decides to set up two trail cams in the immediate area to catch whoever put these cameras up. Duane doesn’t say much through this, but the scene ends with him saying someone with a lot of resources is spying on them.
Later that day, Duane gets together with Jamie. He tells Jamie to set aside the suicide investigation for the time being and to look into this camera situation. Duane would like Jamie to hack into the cameras if possible. Jamie says he’s on it, but that the cameras look sophisticated and could very possibly be military cameras.
Aztec or Not?
All five men sit around the table at the Miner’s Shack. They have the results of the core sample! First, we learn about the identification of the species of the log. The wood is Chihuahua Pine/Yellow Pine and grows primarily in Mexico and the American Southwest. This is interesting, but not too helpful. Then it’s onto the radiocarbon dating results and that’s when things get fun. The logs turn out to be from sometime within the 16th Century, somewhere between 1510 and 1545! That’s over 500 years old and well within the timeframe of the Aztec’s northbound travels! This is amazing news!
Duane, in a talking head, reveals what he’s been ruminating on throughout the winter season. He’s gone over multiple ways to get the box out of the cave and has a plan that’s, “So crazy it just might work.”
The four men meet at the water pit. Duane lays it all out. The box needs to be carried out of the cavern with heavy chains. The easiest way to get the heavy chains to the box is from above. To do this, they need to get a rathole rig directly above the box. From there they will have to dig a 36-inch hole directly down and drop the chains through that way. Chad will get attached to a tether and will dive into the cave to manually attach the chains to the box. Then Chad will exit the cave with one end of the tether and the box will be pulled out with machinery. Easy peasy!
To get the rathole rig above the box will be a problem. The ground above is rocky and the terrain is uneven. Duane plans to use controlled explosions to flatten the ground so the rathole rig can drill. Eric will need to help with calculations and measurements to make sure they don’t fracture the rocks, or worse, cause a cave-in. In a talking head, Eric voices his concerns regarding the controlled explosions. He thinks this is incredibly ambitious and dangerous, and that there are too many moving parts. But also, Eric says if anyone can pull it off…it’s Duane.
Driller Killer
All four men head to the coordinates directly above the box. Eric is going to take some measurements and rock readings to gauge the amount of explosives needed. Duane, Chad, and Charlie Boy leave him to his work. Eric starts taking his measurements. He makes it clear they need to cause an explosion that goes up and out to clear the dirt, rather than an explosion that goes downward. An explosion that goes down will cause too much irreparable damage. After some testing, Eric realizes the rocks on this part of the land are already highly fractured. There is no way they can do a controlled explosion.
Eric reluctantly goes to Duane to give him the bad news and plainly tells him they cannot do the explosion. Duane asks if they can drop and pop, drop and pop, etc., but Eric says it’s still too dangerous. Duane reiterates that he’s here to take chances, and Eric is steadfast with his findings and says he’s weighed the risks and made his recommendation. Understandably, Duane isn’t too happy hearing this but he thanks Eric and tells him he’s thankful for his help and expertise.
That’s when Duane has a better idea. Remember the new CAT excavator he bought for Season 2? Well, he’s just going to drive that up to the site and create the flat land himself. All four men start to head to the new drill spot with supplies and the new CAT. They go up and down some treacherous terrain and eventually get to the spot. Duane digs and digs, eventually creating the flat land for the rathole rig.
The next day is a big day. The rathole rig arrives and fits snuggly in the spot Duane made. The rig gets set up and the drilling starts. But it wouldn’t be the Uinta Basin if something didn’t go wrong! Within seconds of the drilling, the drill shuts off. The rig’s computer craps out which completely halts the drilling for the day. The rig’s operator says they can overnight the part and start fresh on the next day.
One day later, the new computer arrives and gets installed. Drilling starts back up. We cut back to the rig when it’s 20 feet into the ground. Eric has been running samples of the debris from the rig and chronicling his findings in a Boring Log.
At 3:47 P.M. they’re 27.60 feet deep. That’s when Eric finds flecks of calcite in the dirt. Eric goes over to Duane and tells him all major cave systems are made out of calcium carbonate (limestone) and this could indicate intermediate layers above the cave system. 6:11 P.M. arrives and the drilling continues. Charlie Boy is running his metal detector over the dirt piles.
10:43 P.M. comes and they still haven’t reached the cave. They decide to call it a night.
The next day they arrive back at the spot and get right back to drilling. At this point, they’re about 50 feet down. They should have hit the cave by now, but continue drilling. Inch by inch the drill keeps going and everyone watches with bated breath. Finally…the drill head drops into the cavern! They finally did it!
To make sure it’s the correct spot, they put a winch over the hole and lower a GoPro down. Slowly the GoPro goes down the hole. It finally reaches the water and then, after some sediment settles we see it: the wooden box!
Final Thoughts
I still don’t care about this Jamie/investigation subplot going on. Yes, it’s intriguing and thrilling, but it takes away from what I really want to see. The camera stuff is fascinating and I do want to know more though I don’t want to listen to Jamie babble on about hacking into military cameras.
We’re finally getting closer to being able to hopefully get the box out of the cavern and that’s fascinating! At one point I was expecting them to realize they were off the mark of where they thought the box was supposed to be. When they finally broke through the ground I cheered!
Will they be able to get this box out of the tiny hole? Probably not. So I’m sure that will be a series of events that cause issues later on. Though, I’ll take this victory and call it a day!
