Brendan Jesus
Welcome back, fellow treasure hunters! We’ve finally reached the end of Season 3 of Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch. This season has ebbed and flowed with quality, which is clearly brought on by Eric Drummond’s absence. Ryan Skinner added another level of exaggeration that, combined with James Keenan, makes the show fall into Oak Island territory rather than the more grounded feeling they had throughout the first two seasons. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy Season 3, but it quickly devolved from the fantastical Season 2 finale.
I don’t have any fun or interesting news from the world of Ufology. But before we move on, I want to put the ball in your court for a moment. Season 6 of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch is on the horizon, which we will obviously cover. Besides Skinwalker Ranch, are there Blind Frog-like shows you would want to see us cover? For obvious reasons, we will not be covering The Curse of Oak Island because that would be a Herculean task that is beyond my energy. So, without further ado, until Season 5 of Blind Frog Ranch comes out, this will be our very last trip with Duane Ollinger and his intrepid crew.
Friends, let’s see if the Season 3 finale brings us any closer to uncovering the Mystery…at Blind Frog Ranch.
By The Power Of Eric
Duane, Charlie Boy, Chad Ollinger, and James Keenan are in the Miner’s Shack as they discuss the proposed meteor that sits dead center of the Keyhole Cavern. Who else has knowledge of meteors? None other than the lovable Eric Drummond! Duane video calls Eric, who makes his first Season 3 appearance.
After some pleasantries, Chad fills Eric in on the (possible) meteor that rests in the Energy Zone. Chad also tells Eric about the difficulties surrounding the drilling of the meteor. Eric says Of course it’s hard, meteors are dense. He suggests the team dig around the meteor to expose it on all sides. So, where has Eric been?
As we learn in Season 4 Episode 6 “Disaster at the Bead Site”, Eric has been doing work on the Serpent Mound Disturbance. If a meteor did strike Blind Frog Ranch, it could easily create cave systems. How can the team find these cave systems? Guano! Bat guano is an indicator of cave systems. The way to use bat guano is to find soil with high nitrate readings. Bat guano creates nitrate, so the underground bat droppings will affect the ground soil. Basically, if you map the areas with high nitrate, you map the underground caverns.
“It’s a bat sh*t crazy idea,” says Eric.
Eric sends the team on a quest. He tells them to take soil samples from around the Energy Zone and take tons of samples. From there, they will freeze and send the samples to Eric, and Eric will run the samples in a lab.
Soiled Samples
Duane, Chad, Charlie Boy, and James head to the Energy Zone. Charlie Boy, James, and Duane will take samples from the northern side of the Energy Zone, while Chad will take samples from the southern side. The sample collections went off without any issues, and they send all 20 geotagged samples to Eric.
Eric has the results for the team within four days. The samples from the east and west side of the Energy Zone are a bust. But the samples from the southern side…well, they have elevated nitrate!
Quicksand, Dead Ahead!
They decide to go check out the southern side of the Energy Zone. Duane grabs an excavator and plans to use it to clear brush or widen any cave entrances they find. The trip is long, so Duane decides to clear some brush through a dried-up creek. Only, it’s not dried up.
Crap hits the fan when Duane realizes the creek bed wasn’t dried up. He hits a patch of silt and, within seconds, finds his excavator a foot below the quicksand. Ryan Skinner shows up and is a huge bummer about the whole situation. Thankfully, they don’t spend too much time covering his pessimism. Duane continues trying to get the excavator unstuck but isn’t successful. Chad steps in and calls a tow truck. The big issue is that it’s going to take the truck a while.
Tragedy strikes harder when Charlie Boy realizes the vibrations of the excavator are making it sink one inch every 10 minutes. He says they’ll be out half a million dollars in 30 minutes if it continues at this rate. James shows up and asks why the excavator is still on. Chad tells him that if they shut the engine off, it’ll get flooded.
Chad calls the tow truck company back, and they inform him it wouldn’t be there for at least 45 minutes. Things are getting tense. Suddenly, the quicksand starts to get into Duane’s cab. There’s a time cut, and the tow truck shows up. It gets set up and attaches the winch to the bucket.
Due to how the excavator is sitting, the winch starts to pull the nose down. They must reassess. Chad has Duane scoop some of the quicksand from in front of the tracks so he can get some more traction. This works for a moment until another issue arises. Chad has to unbury the tracks to get chains attached so they can pull it the rest of the way up the hill.
That’s when we learn the tracks are perpendicular and pulling them is akin to shaving against the grain. They eventually get both tracks hooked up and safely pull the excavator out!
The next day comes, and a team is cleaning off the excavator. It’s completely caked in mud. Chad wonders out loud where Duane is. The rhythmic pumping sound of something emits from over the hill…Duane has a new excavator! This time, he takes the long way around the creek.
Cave O’Clock
They head to the area where the nitrate levels were the highest. Duane starts clearing some brush, and Chad makes a quick discovery. There’s a cavity in the rockface. Chad and Ryan clear the rocks from the area and realize how deep the cavity goes. They can hear water inside and feel a cold flow of air. It looks promising!
Chad, Ryan, and James gear up. Along with cameraman Joel Schwartzberg, they go in. Something about this seems all too familiar for those who have seen Season 4. This tight cave is difficult to traverse, but they keep going deeper. They make it to the fork about 25 yards in, and Joel has a claustrophobic attack. To calm him down, Chad tells him (checks notes), “We’re together, we’ll die together, bro.” WHAT?!
Joel heads out of the cave, catches his breath, and decides to head back in.
The team heads deeper into the cave and finds a large opening. There are pieces of pressed wood and a hollow spot in the corner, and it’s absolutely stunning. This…is the Great Cavern!
Final Thoughts
I completely forgot about the excavator getting stuck in the quicksand. The scene is dragged on a little too long, but it’s incredibly effective. Seeing Duane struggle and worry that he’s about to lose half a million dollars is frightening.
This is a great season finale for a rather lackluster season. Ryan is way too exaggerated with his responses and always jumps to conclusions that feel emotion-based rather than fact-based. Eric’s absence is truly felt in this season, and having him back for Season 4 was the right move by producers.
I cannot wait for Season 5 and see where they take their explorations. Will they explore the cave opening found at the end of Season 4? Will Eric continue to be the ethical backbone of the show? Who knows. All we do know is each episode brings us closer to learning something about the Mystery…at Blind Frog Ranch.
