Brendan Jesus
Let’s rejoice, I have some juicy UFOTwitter gossip for you! If you’ve been following any of my coverage from The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch through my Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch coverage then you’ll know I’m not a huge fan of Lue Elizondo. In the past, I’ve called him Lie Elizondo and have jokingly referred to his type of ‘D’isclosure as ‘D’iscLuesure. Questions about Lue’s credibility have resurfaced. During the coverage of Season 2 Episode 1 “No Dyin’ Tryin’ Today,” I mentioned how Lue Elizondo was hosting private dinner events as well as ticketed speaking engagements. Well, some interesting information came out about that.
Someone in attendance at one of these events shared some images that Lue was using to prove his point about UAPs…and it’s beyond easily debunkable photos. One of the photos that is beyond laughable is a photo that shows this large object in the sky with a half-crescent curve along the bottom of it. Spoiler alert: it’s a chandelier being reflected off a window and the half-crescent bottom of the light is caused by the head of the photographer blocking the light from the chandelier.
There are a few more examples, like how he’s using photos from the ‘70s and ‘80s that have been proven false by the photographers who took them as his media kit for his ticketed events. But you get the point. Is Lue Elizondo a disinformation agent? If you know me then you know I’m a believer. I believe in aliens, UFOs/UAPs, non-human biologics, Bigfoot, you name it. My opinion, which I share with Jeremy McGowan, is that Lue Elizondo is a grifter.
Last month, a clip about Lue went fairly viral. He was on a podcast discussing these mysterious green orbs floating around his house. When asked if he set up cameras to take photos or videos of the events, his response was (paraphrasing) that he didn’t find that necessary. ARE YOU KIDDING ME, DUDE? Your whole schtick is that of aliens being real and a threat to humanity. Why would you not take photos or videos of *literal* green orbs floating around your house?
Well, that’s all I have for you on that front. It felt good to talk about that stuff again! Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way it’s time to get to what we all came here for…the second to last episode of Season 2 of Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch. Strap in folks, this episode is a doozy!
Driller Killer
We join the whole team over at the spot where Brett’s seismic survey pinpointed a possible void roughly 80 feet below near the smelting sites. Duane Ollinger arrives in his CAT excavator and creates a flat surface for the rathole rig to set up on. They get right to the point and the drilling begins. As usual, Eric Drummond continues taking soil samples each time the drill head of the rathole rig comes up.
At 8:25 A.M. they’re roughly five feet deep. Nothing too interesting happens as time passes. From 11:52 A.M. to 3:21 P.M., Duane sits back and watches. He starts to get antsy, and possibly bored, so he makes a request. The drill head on the rathole rig is slow but efficient. Duane requests the drilling team to switch the drill head out with an auger bit. While this will create a smaller hole, it has sharper rock teeth and is significantly faster. After a quick switch of the drill heads, the drilling starts back up.
The rathole rig is now at 23 feet and Eric notices something promising: the dirt color is changing. Plus, he mentions that the dirt feels cool to the touch. (Shouldn’t dirt always feel cool to the touch?) By 5:15 P.M. Eric notices possible calcite sediment in the rathole’s debris. He grabs a handful and runs to his table to test it. The result comes back astoundingly positive for a highly calcareous material. Duane has a good feeling about all of this and says this drill operation feels different from the rest of them.
I have two questions. Firstly, does it really matter if they find gold at this point? Knowing what I know regarding how the episode ends, would cementing your name in history be just as valuable? Duane and his team have found irrefutable treasures of times long before modern society and this is historically valuable information. Secondly, when caves like the ones near the Water Pit and 500-year-old boxes are found under mountain ranges it makes you wonder at what point does the government need to step in?
Look, I hate government overreach as much as the next person. AND, when it comes to high strangeness, the government has not proven itself to be in the interest of ‘the people’. But if what the teams have found are actual Aztec treasures, caves, and boxes, when does the government step in and say, “We’re taking over to document this for historical purposes,”? Does the government have the power to do so? In one of the latest Defense Bills, there was a clause that would *essentially* give the government Eminent Domain over privatized crash retrieval programs—so can they do the same for things like this? Granted, this show has questioned whether or not the government is stepping in and trying to intimidate the teams with their Apache Attack Helicopter flyovers (as well as something that happens at the end of this episode). So does our government use goon-like tactics to force people away from their searches so they can go in and pick up the pieces? Who knows.
Eric is still testing the dirt at 7:37 P.M.. By 9:09 P.M., Eric has some disheartening news. The dirt has gone from calcite-like sediment back to its usual pale yellow color. Even though this isn’t the news they were hoping for, Eric is still confident they are drilling on the correct spot. By the time the drill hits 65 feet, Duane decides to call it a night. It’s pitch black out and everyone could use a good sleep at this point. The team still has 15 feet to go, but Duane has some reservations. Money is running tight and there are only so many $20,000 drills they can do.
Driller Killer Day 2
The next day, everyone arrives back at the drill site with high hopes. Duane tells them to get the drill started, but the rathole rig won’t start up. They get the idea to hook the rathole rig up to the CAT excavator with jumper cables. Thankfully, the jumpstart works and the rathole rig starts right up. After a few hours of drilling, they get to the 75-foot mark. Eric takes a sample of the dirt and notices a change in the sample. As he takes the dirt over to his table to test it, the drill breaks through the void!
Everyone is ecstatic! What’s even better news is that when the auger bit comes up from the hole, it’s completely dry. That means it has broken through a dry void! Duane takes a look down the hole and it’s scarily deep. He says he’ll need to reinforce the top of the hole so that it doesn’t cave in on itself. Later that night, the five men share a beer and take a breath. Duane gets very real with everyone and says this whole experience has been a unique challenge but it’s also been incredibly fun. They call it a night and decide they’ll make a plan in the morning.
A Man With A Plan
The five men meet at the hole the next day. Duane uses the CAT excavator to flatten out the ground around the hole. They bring the cage out, which was used once before to get soil samples from deep in another hole they made. After setting planks around the hole, they set the cage on top of it. While morale is high, Eric reminds everyone that they can’t jump right in. Tests must be done.
Chad Ollinger says they should send a camera down. He affixes it to the rig and uses the winch to lower it down. When it reaches the bottom we see something truly astounding…a manmade cave tunnel! Eric reminds everyone that they found this spot due to a radiation spike and tells them they need to send a Geiger counter down. He plans to send it down there for an hour because he says radiation can come in waves so the longer it’s down there, the more accurate the reading is.
After an hour, they pull the Geiger counter back up. “Oh, boy,” sighs Eric. The Geiger counter reveals levels that are beyond safe. Anything between 0.5 and 2 sieverts is beyond dangerous. They will need hazmat suits if they plan to enter this cave.
Later that night, all five men head to the cabin to figure out their next moves. They discuss the risks and start by talking about the opening itself. Eric says the boring could come in, to which Duane responds that he will put a casing around the mouth of the opening. Eric then discusses what type of suit they’ll need.
Whoever goes down the hole will need to wear Level A hazmat suits. These are fully encapsulated plastic suits with supplemental air. A Level A suit protects the wearer from radiation, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) which can kill someone in minutes. Eric tells the team these suits will be very difficult to work in—they’re hot and can easily lead to heat exhaustion.
Chad discusses air hoses. With the bottom of the hole being 80 feet below the surface, they will need roughly 200 feet worth of air hoses. This length adds immense risk as they could easily get tangled and kink, which would mark extreme danger. Charlie Boy reminds them that he can only pull someone out as fast as the winch goes. Eric responds by saying that fortune favors the brave.
Now comes the question of who will be going down. Obviously, Chad volunteers! That’s when Duane surprises everyone and says he will also be going down. Eric seconds Duane and says he will go down as well. Charlie Boy and Jamie Dube say they will man the winch and monitor the air compressors. Duane tells them that his, Chad’s, and Eric’s lives are in their hands. Charlie Boy says he doesn’t panic.
Hole-y Moley Who Is That?!
Chad and Eric test the harnesses they will be wearing for any signs of wear and tear. Duane arrives and meets up with them. Duane, who’s wearing a dope cardigan, has the Level A hazmat suits. But he also arrives with bad news. Charlie Boy has gotten incredibly sick and Duane has taken him to the doctor. This means Charlie Boy will not be helping them. So now that means Duane, Chad, and Eric’s lives are in the hands of someone they’ve known for about a month or two.
Later that night, Duane tests the harnesses and hazmat suit. He really shows a vulnerable side here. This is something he’s done before but is cognizant that things can go wrong in the blink of an eye. He’s no spring chicken anymore, but he refuses to send Chad down there without him.
During a talking head, Duane, and the camera crew, are interrupted. One of the cameramen runs over and says they need to get down to the front gate. He was down at the gate shooting B-roll when suddenly three blacked-out (government-looking) vehicles showed up. Everyone jumps in their vehicles and speeds down toward the gate.
Once down near the gate, we see the three cars on Duane’s property. Chad, Duane, Jamie, and Eric form a line between the road to the ranch and the three cars. This is all very ominous. One of the vehicles turns its flood lights on and tries to blind the team. Eric says they’re trying to intimidate them. Chad shines his flashlight back at the cars, but it’s no match to the vehicle’s insanely bright lights.
Throughout this whole interaction, Jamie is crouched over like he’s about to quick draw his gun. Duane has a bad feeling about this and says it’s about to turn into a modern O.K. Corral. That’s when, for whatever reason, the three vehicles turn on and leave the property. Chad tries to grab the plates of the vehicles, but they do not have license plates on them.
We join Chad the next morning. He’s hauling ass in his Side-by-Side while holding a cup of coffee. (Not like a coffee mug, like a ceramic coffee shop cup of coffee.) He is obviously pissed about what happened the night before. He arrives at the Miner’s Shack to find something truly disheartening…the shack has been broken into and trashed!
Final Thoughts
Wow, what a crazy episode! It’s cathartic, as a viewer, to finally have them break into a void that seems possible to enter. Plus, the depth of the hole creates an amazing dramatic effect. We get to watch the camera slowly lower into the hole and picturing a human in that camera’s spot is frightening. I’m not afraid of heights, but I know for damn sure I would not go down there. Thank god Eric was insistent on testing the whole before they decided to go down because the radiation levels are highly frightening.
I know I wrote those two paragraphs earlier about the government while knowing how the episode ends, but I am really curious as to what the actual legal boundaries are. Can the government step in at any point and tell Duane they’re taking the property? Could they make up some fake excuse that he’s undermining the ground beneath the property and that he’s creating a safety hazard? I know they want to find gold and treasures, but what they’ve found could be incredibly helpful historically.
With just one episode left in Season 2, will the team make it to the bottom of the hole? Will everyone be safe if they do? And, really, what is the Mystery…at Blind Frog Ranch?
