All language subtitles for Abandoned.Engineering.S04E10.Bannack.USA.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

A hidden facility built in
the service of an evil regime.

No matter how healthy you were
when you went into those tunnels,

after only a few weeks, your
body is starting to fall apart.

A ghostly town, which is
home to hidden treasure.

People have to be pretty desperate
to come out here. Well, there must

be something that makes it
worth all that trouble and danger.

A peaceful village that was
shattered by the terrors of war.

The level of destruction
here is on such a scale

that some major
event has happened.

And a mysterious
facility with a toxic past.

It has been fenced off
because of concerns about

contamination and public access,
but you can see the multi-walled

nature of the labyrinth here.

Some are engineering
marvels, now abandoned.

Others are ruins shrouded
in mystery. But within each of

these crumbling structures
are the echoes of history.

While some are associated with

dark times, they are all reminders
of human ingenuity and endeavour.

Each haunted shell is now ready
to be unmasked, to tell its own

powerful story.

In the remote wilderness of
southern Montana in the usa,

there's a deserted valley,
which is haunted by a dark past.

This is a hard land to live in.

There's not a lot of water, it
gets incredibly cold in the winter.

This is one of the most
sparsely populated regions

in the whole country.

At first glance, the landscape
appears stark and desolate,

but there is eerie
evidence of life here,

in the shape of a derelict town.

Coming over the hill
and seeing this town,

you'd think there were
people still living in it.

The outside, the inside,
it's like time was frozen there

and the people were just
vanished away somehow.

This was a well-established
and large town

that had the infrastructure

to cater to a large population
that had a reason to be there.

But just why they
were there is not

abundantly clear from the sort
of ghost town that's there now.

The first clue to the settlement's
history lies in its location.

All of the buildings follow very
closely the route of the river.

It makes you wonder whether
there was something more

than just the supply of water
that was valuable about this river.

Something has drawn people
there for hundreds of years.

There's value in the
ground and in the rivers.

There's something there
that's worth killing for.

You wouldn't know it to look at
it now, but this was once one of

the most violent
places in america.

Killings, robberies,
shootouts, hangings.

What could have
caused all this violence?

But the valley is haunted by a
rumour that just won't go away.

In the surrounding
area, somewhere nearby,

buried, is a great,
great treasure.

The story surrounding those hidden
riches is just one of the mysteries

that still torment this town.

The graphic tales of robberies,

murders and betrayals
that swirl around this place

come from a time when it was one
of the last frontiers of the wild west.

The story begins in the 1860s, as
park ranger John Phillips explains.

In July 1862, John white and a
party of men were on their way to

the salmon river, to the
community of Florence and en route,

they came upon this stream.

Like thousands of others in
the middle of the 19th century,

these pioneers
were travelling across

america in search of a new life
and hoping to make their fortunes.

They were going to put their
pans down into this stream,

go through these gravels,
looking for black sands

and, lo and behold, after
a little test, they found out

that they had found what
they were looking for - gold.

John white and
his fellow travellers

had hit the jackpot, and
this wasn't just ordinary gold.

It was 99% pure.

That find started the gold rush
to what we now call Montana.

Within weeks, there were hundreds,
within months there were thousands

of people in this community,
all trying to get rich

by out there panning for
gold in this little stream.

The gold mining town of bannack
was born and it was soon booming.

You would have seen

houses and tents and wagons
as far as the eye could see.

There were people, there were
saloons, there were brothels,

there was everything. This
was a very active and wild place.

But inevitably, the new
wealth also attracted criminals.

Once people realised there's
gold in the river, greed overruns

everything else.

The idea that you
need law and order, well,

that's a secondary
consideration.

Morals, they were
out the window.

Outlaws, they came
like a magnet, and that

created nothing but trouble.

The hills around town
were practically filled with

bandits and outlaws
and guess what?

That led to murder.

Even in a town as
wild as bannack,

the crime-wave needed
to be brought under control.

The lack of law enforcement
couldn't last forever.

A sheriff finally arrives
with a couple of deputies.

He's here to promote
law and order.

But, is that all
he's here to do?

The sheriff's name
was Henry plummer.

Plummer was a man with a colourful,
some might say chequered, past.

He had been a successful prospector
who became quite rich early in life

but he was known to
have killed several men,

although he had somehow
managed to avoid gaol or the gallows.

In 1863, he managed to get
himself elected sheriff of bannack,

pledging, perhaps improbably,
to establish law and order there.

At first, he seemed to be
living up to the promise.

Troublemakers were identified,

rounded up and put inside
the newly built gaol house.

The first gaol in Montana.

You can just imagine
what it would have been

like here in the wintertime.

Henry plummer was a
man that had multiple sides.

He put on this great front
and he showed, you know,

by building the gaol and things,
that he was an honest, hardworking

law enforcement official.

But on the other side,
nothing is ever as crystal-clear

as we like to believe it is.

And of course, plummer
wasn't all that he seemed.

And despite the apparent efforts
of the new sheriff, bannack soon

became more violent, not less.

So, what happened
to Henry plummer

and what does he have to do with

the stories of buried treasure
that still haunt these streets?

With crime getting worse, before
long, some townsfolk decided to

take matters into
their own hands.

So, a sheriff and his deputies

are just not enough to bring
law and order to this place,

so a new group sets itself
up, the Montana vigilantes.

The locals band together to do
something about all the crime.

The masked men of the Montana
vigilantes began hunting down

suspected criminals
and simply executing

those who they deemed guilty.

The entire town was riddled

with corruption, but what's really
interesting is that it comes to our

attention that the centre of that
corruption was the sheriff himself.

A rumour spread that
plummer was actually

the secret head of a terrifying gang
of bandits, known as the innocents.

So, at the beginning of 1864,
the Montana vigilantes decided

to take action.

On a freezing cold night, Henry
plummer and his men, taken from

their homes and from the saloons
or captured by vigilantes, and brought

into this area out here where
they would meet their final demise.

All three men were
hanged on the gallows.

So, was that rumour
about Henry plummer true?

There's a tale about his final
moments that has some convinced.

One legend has it that on his
way to the gallows, sheriff plummer

pleaded for his life.

And in exchange for his
life, he offered the location

where a secret stash of gold worth
$100,000, back then, was buried.

But despite the sheriff's death,

the violence continued, making
many think it was the Montana

vigilantes themselves who had
been behind the crimes all along.

Whatever the truth,
bannack remained

as lawless as ever until 1870,
when the gold began to run out.

With towns like these out in
the wild, when the incentive for

people to stay is
gone, people just left.

Only a few stayed.

But there was the little matter
of the sheriff's hidden treasure.

What about this

buried gold that plummer had
tried to buy his way out of death with?

Did it really exist?

It was never found.

A small number of Hardy
people continued to eke out

a living in bannack, but by
the 1950s, they'd all but gone

and what remained of the infamous
mining town became a state park.

But the mystery at the heart of
its wild, lawless past still endures.

Was sheriff plummer bannack's
real criminal mastermind?

And will they ever find
his missing treasure?

Did they get rid of him
because he was bad?

Or did they get rid of him
because he was good?

No-one knows for certain.

Deep in the woods
of the owl mountains

in south-west Poland lies a secret
entrance into a dark underworld.

From the outside, it doesn't really
look like much at all, but when you

get underground, it's vast

and it's all in solid rock.

Inside, murky tunnels lead to
eerie halls and flooded caves.

Is this perhaps a
natural phenomenon?

Or is it proof of
something more sinister?

It's in rock that wouldn't
normally form caverns like this.

There's something that's been
built here to create those hollows.

Somebody has
gone to great lengths

to build this secret
underground facility.

The only reason you carve
your way into rock is either

to get something valuable out of
it or put something valuable into it.

Above ground, the
puzzle continues.

What are these strange
concrete structures?

And who built this vast complex?

To make those holes in that rock,
anyone working on that is going to

be in horrendous conditions.

This is a creation born of

terrible suffering, in the name
of an evil and ruthless regime.

It's a place that demonstrates

the willingness of people to
do the most difficult things.

To carve their
way into mountains

in order to keep the
machinery of death operating.

Polish author Igor Witkowski knows
these underground tunnels and their

secrets better than anyone.

The largest holes existing
are about 100m long,

12m high and around 10m wide.

That gives some idea as
to the scale of the project.

These enormous halls were
about the length of a football pitch.

So, what was the dark purpose
behind this vast complex?

How did it come to be built
and why is it situated in such

a remote location?

Here is a place that is isolated
from other population centres.

It's hard to get to.

Hidden by forest, the building
is almost invisible from the air.

Its construction was deemed
high priority when building began at

the height of the
second world war.

The Nazis and the axis powers
had dominated Europe, including

this part of present-day Poland,
but by 1943, their empire of evil

elsewhere was
beginning to crumble.

In north Africa, the German
army had finally been defeated.

The allies had invaded
sicily, and Italy and Mussolini's

government, once a staunch
ally of Hitler, had fallen.

At the beginning of 1943,
the Germans suffered a heavy

defeat on the eastern front,
when the last of its soldiers

surrendered at stalingrad after
one of the most brutal and bloody

battles of the entire war.

Germany was losing the
war on the seas and in the air.

The allies were
stepping up their attacks

and were now raining down bombs
on cities across German territory.

It's a shock to the Germans.

All of a sudden, the reality

of the allied bombing campaign
becomes very, very real.

As Germany loses control of
the skies over the third reich,

Germany has got to harden
the protection of its industry.

And they start a program to
put as many things as possible

deep underground, for
fear of the allied bombers.

In a desperate attempt
to turn the tide of the war,

the Germans invested in this
colossal piece of engineering.

It was part of a top-secret Nazi
project codenamed 'der riese' -

'the giant'.

If we were building a tunnel
complex like this in peacetime,

tunnelling through hard rock, we'd
use machinery, we would use fuel.

But of course, the Nazis were

fighting the second world war,
they couldn't spare resources.

This lack of
machinery may appear

to explain why the tunnels had to be
abandoned before they were finished.

But in fact, the Nazis had found
another way to get them built.

We're looking at a facility
that has been built with

thousands of slave labourers
and, by 1943-'44, the German

war economy is operating under
a massive slave labour system.

Der riese was situated near
to several of the most sickening

apparatus in the third reich,
the concentration camps.

Now the Nazis had found a new,
twisted use for the men and women

they had forced into them.

This is like a
concentration camp

that has been deployed
into a mountain.

Everyone there is
being worked to death.

The fact that
there's this almost

inexhaustible supply of slave
labour makes it even more eerie

when you look at how much of a
hollows and how much of a network

was built by the blood, sweat
and tears of slave labourers.

It was a horrendous work.

I would say that it was the
closest analogy to 'Dante's inferno'.

There were 3,000, maybe more,
prisoners killed in the process.

The Germans were desperate to
complete this secret construction

at any cost, but why

even after the war, its true
purpose was never clear.

Some Nazi leaders claimed it was

intended to be a secret
headquarters for Hitler.

The theories still swirl around
these tunnels and caverns.

Igor has his own chilling ideas.

Der riese was part of a larger

undertaking of the ss,
which purpose was research

and manufacture of
weapons of mass destruction.

Large halls of this kind might have
been used, and usually were used

for assembly of large weapons,
such as aircraft, missiles and so on.

With the allies advancing
into German territory, the Nazis

were searching for a miracle
weapon with which to hit back.

Was this where they
planned to produce it?

These tunnels are intended to be
the place where German knowhow,

German racial superiority
is going to create the wonder

weapons, the wunderwaffen that
will enable Germany to win the war.

It may have been
that an experimental

super-weapon was
being developed here,

but the mystery only deepens
when you explore further.

Just vast in itself, but
actually, there's another five

underground constructions along
this particular mountain range.

In fact, the whole region is
littered with facilities like this,

which were all heavily
armed and hidden from view.

They were abandoned at
various stages of completion

and it's believed
that the intention

was for them all to eventually link
up, thus forming a vast underground

city that would help
win the war for Germany.

The Germans hoped to build
probably the largest underground

facility in the entire third
reich, but at least der riese itself

has never been finished.

The red army, the
Soviet army, is relentlessly

invading westward,
taking back big chunks

of Europe from the Nazis.

As the red army comes
closer, like the rest of the ss's

concentration camp system,
everything is death-marched back

into Germany in order to ensure
that there will be no evidence left

for the war crimes tribunal.

By the end of 1944, the Soviets had
reached the Polish capital, Warsaw.

Early the following year,
the Nazis fled der riese,

abandoning for good their
mysterious underground project.

Today, questions are still

asked about der riese's true
role in the Nazi war machine,

but what's certain

is the terrible price paid by
those who were forced to build it.

This is an underground
concentration camp, where

thousands and thousands of people
were forced to breathe their last,

in the service
of an evil regime.

This is a monument to
the deaths of millions.

At the south-western tip of england
in the tranquil cornish countryside

is a valley scattered
with overgrown remains.

There's all sorts of curious things
going on here. There's the chimney,

there's obviously foundations
from different buildings.

It's a confused site, with a
variety of abandoned buildings,

some partly buried masonry,
some collapsed structures.

From beneath the grass,
bizarre circular mounds

appear alongside the ruins.

Looking deeper here, there's
clearly been a lot of activity

over a considerable
period of time.

It's got the makings of
some big buildings but in part,

it looks like they've been pulled
down or they've fallen down or

something's even broken them.

Almost nothing remains of the
many structures that once stood here.

Clearly, nature has taken
its toll on the landscape here

but there's also, could there have
been something more explosive

in the past? What has
destroyed this environment?

But look closely

and you can begin to uncover
the landscape's deadly history.

In this particular

part of cornwall, it's not what's
above the surface that's the clue.

It's what's below.

Beneath nature is a toxic past.

So, how was this place
contaminated and poisoned?

And does that explain
why it's now abandoned?

When I first came to this
landscape about 30 years ago,

I felt a real sense of mystery
and definitely an urge to explore.

Ainsley cocks, research
and information officer

at cornwall council, has made
extensive studies of the site.

Here at the head of the poldice
valley in mid-west cornwall,

we're in a very much rural setting
and you'll see around me crumbling

walls, crumbling features,
which allude to an industrial past.

This valley was once home to
the region's biggest business,

mining.

Cornwall is famed
for its tin mines.

This is where it started
and the expertise that people

built up here, they
exported round the world.

Cornish tin drove the
industrial revolution.

Cornwall has been described,
as being in the mid-19th century,

as probably the most important
mining district in the world

and the production of
copper and tin specifically

was the principal
reason for that.

But these aren't just the
remains of a tin or copper mine.

There's evidence of
something more lethal.

What was produced here
had the capacity to kill millions.

This site was at the heart
of an international trade

in top-grade poison that
spread around the world.

So, what deadly chemical
was produced here and for

what evil purpose was it used?

Originally in cornwall,
tin was the goal. That's

the product that had the market
and commanded the profit,

and anything that got in the
way of that profit was a nuisance.

One of the biggest ones

was arsenic, a completely
poisonous, toxic nuisance.

Odourless and tasteless but
highly toxic, arsenic was known

as the perfect poison.

But in these mines, it was
impossible to escape it.

What's interesting with tin
mining is that the very nature

of those types of tin-rich
veins is, they often contain

quite high concentrations of
arsenic and sulphur, as well.

And for the most part, early
on, you'd try and discard these,

particular things like arsenic,
which are highly poisonous.

This is poldice valley,
where arsenic was produced

for more than 100 years.

In the 19th century, the mine
here stopped making copper and tin

and turned out poison.

But why would anyone need
industrial amounts of arsenic?

It has been fenced
off because of

concerns about contamination
and public access. But you can

see the multi-walled nature
of the arsenic labyrinth here.

The labyrinths were where the
purified arsenic was collected.

First, the metal
ore extracted by

the miners was heated to
a fiery 540 degrees celsius.

During this process,
the arsenic separated

from the metal
and turned into gas.

That gas was fed through flues
that led to labyrinth chambers,

where it cooled down
and solidified as crystals.

The doorways would
have been unplugged,

opened up and then
workers would go in

with shovels and brooms
and, basically, remove all

the arsenic soot, as it was called,
from the interior of the labyrinth.

In the 19th century, the
arsenic industry was booming

and mines producing it
opened throughout this valley.

By the 1870s, a handful
of facilities in cornwall

were providing over
half of the world's arsenic.

This lethal commodity was in
demand for a variety of reasons.

By about 1800,

the world is starting to meld a
wider range of raw materials.

One of those was arsenic,

a toxic poison. It's hard to
think of a use for it, isn't it?

But, people needed it for
all sorts of different reasons,

all around the world.

As the industrial revolution gained
momentum, investors realised arsenic

could be used to make
new manufactured products.

Arsenic was suddenly everywhere.

It was a key requirement
for wallpaper colouring,

glass manufacturer,
lead shot, pharmaceutical

processes, sheep dip.

Arsenic was suddenly the wonder
compound over the early 1800s.

Women even used it as
makeup to whiten their faces.

It found its way into almost
every aspect of 19th-century life,

but those worst affected
were the people who worked

in the plants that produced it.

This is not a
mechanised process,

so it's all done by hand,
with shovels and scraping

of the crystallised
arsenic off of the walls.

There were no organised safety
measures or protective clothing

for the workers.
They individually

covered their skin in Clay and
used wet rags to cover their faces.

And as you can imagine,
neither of these were effective.

Prolonged exposure to arsenic
could have devastating consequences.

People start to get
fatigue and become quite -

you get stomach
cramps and so on.

And ultimately, in very
extreme exposures,

this can lead to body
shock and death.

It was truly a deadly job.

Just one teaspoon of
the arsenic they produced

was a lethal dose
for six people.

Before long,

arsenic was killing more than
just the workers who made it.

During the first world war,
chemical weapons containing

arsenic made in england
were used for the first time.

Poison gas including

chlorine, phosgene and mustard gas
was a terrifying new weapon intended

to break the stalemate
on the western front.

It was first deployed in 1915.

Its effects on victims were dreadful
and, not surprisingly, gas attacks

struck fear into the hearts
of soldiers of all armies.

But they were dependent
on the weather for success.

Unfavourable winds could disperse
the gas, making it less potent

or, at worst, blow it back
towards those who had launched it.

And it never produced the decisive
breakthrough that it once promised.

Back in england, it became

clear that prolonged exposure to
the chemical was causing serious

health issues for people employed
in pharmaceuticals and agriculture.

Eventually, the dangers could
no longer be ignored or denied.

Despite arsenic's use in a range
of pharmaceutical and medical

products, increased knowledge
about its intense toxicity and its

links to cancer soon spelled
the end for the arsenic trade.

One of the sites in cornwall
did continue to produce arsenic

until the outbreak of
the second world war.

Works continued until 1939.

At that time, other
materials had come along for

use in insecticides and so forth,
so arsenic was no longer needed in

the huge quantities it was,
particularly in the 19th century.

For decades after these sites
closed, the valley's toxic past

was all but forgotten.

But in 1994, a ground survey
revealed that the countryside still

contained high levels of the
poison and the area had to be

decontaminated before it
could be opened to the public.

These days, the site
is a nature reserve.

Most visitors to the site
are blithely unaware of

the deadly past, which
lies just beneath their feet.

In the province of mugla in Turkey
is a ruined town with centuries of

extraordinary history.

As you come
inland from the coast

of anatolia through the pine
forests, a vista suddenly opens.

But as you approach closer,
you realise there's something

a little wrong with it.

This is a devastated village.

It's clearly been abandoned
for a long, long time.

It just keeps on going.
It is absolutely huge.

Carved into the
side of the valley

are hundreds upon
hundreds of deserted buildings.

You've got trees growing out
of where there once was roofs.

You've got just
undergrowth everywhere.

This place is clearly just a
shadow of its former glory.

The level of destruction
here is on such a scale

that some major
event has happened.

This is not a one-off,
small occurrence.

Was it some kind
of natural disaster?

Was it war?

People fled en mass, but why?

Spread far and wide
across the hillside,

the ruins here are testaments
to a long and rich history.

This town goes back
almost 1,000 years.

It's clearly moderately
prosperous.

This town was clearly
important at some time.

These aren't temporary
shacks that are built.

It's very well-located, for local
and even international trade.

You feel here that this was a
place that had strong, deep roots.

The inhabitants nurtured a close
relationship with the farmers in

the valley below but there was a key
difference between the two peoples.

The architecture reveals
a lot about the people

but it's not only houses
that are part of this village.

There's one key building that
still survives and gives the clue to

who this community were.

For centuries, this area had
been part of the ottoman empire,

a predominantly
Turkish Muslim society,

but one that embraced different

nationalities and cultures,
including those who lived here.

These are the remains
of the town of kayakoy,

the home of a Greek
Christian community,

which has long
since disappeared.

In many parts of
the world, identity,

ethnicity and culture

often form no
part of daily life.

Communities cohere

and undertake the project
of building their lives.

But we also know that
those very same factors

can be the basis for some of
the bloodiest conflicts in history.

For more than 500
years, the two communities

lived and worked side-by-side,

often coming together
in the maze of streets.

Here, you had these
two communities

working together and
forming friendships.

This vibrant town had
flourished for hundreds of years,

but when the ottoman empire

began to falter at the
beginning of the 20th century,

the first problems
started to appear.

So, what destructive
force hit the town?

And what happened to the
people that once called it home?

For answers,

we need to look to
the unsettled years

following the first world war
when the ottoman empire collapsed,

beginning a heated battle between
two opposing nationalist movements.

In Greece, you have a movement
towards a greater Greece.

From the Turkish side,
they want to create a republic

for all the Turkish
ethnic people.

These two powerful
national forces collide.

As the conflict enveloped
modern-day Turkey,

many small, peaceful rural
communities were drawn in.

Despite the centuries of
Harmony within these communities,

the arrival of war meant that all
the horrors of war came with it.

Torture, atrocities, intense
cruelty on both sides.

We know about the abuses
that the Greeks carried out on

the Turks. We're talking murders,
we're talking destructing homes.

Now we have reports about the
Turks carrying out revenge attacks,

burning Greek
properties, killing Greeks.

By 1922, hundreds of thousands
of Turks and Greeks had been killed.

Both sides agreed upon a so-called
compulsory exchange of populations,

which meant that even communities
that had remained on good terms

were forced to leave.

Half a million ethnic
Turks who were living

within Greek territory are
simply deprived of their property.

They are shipped out to Turkey.

About 1.5 million

ethnic Greeks who had lived,

in some cases, in majority
Greek villages are expelled.

You've got this
once beautiful town

with these communities thriving
side-by-side and a joyful town,

and then it's abandoned,
its soul is ripped out of it.

In 1957, the abandoned
remains suffered a final blow

when an earthquake struck,
tearing down fragile walls.

But the true damage
had already been done.

It's hard to overestimate

the seriousness of the effect
of these kinds of actions.

Effacing the culture of a
people, which is what this is doing,

is seen as on a par with
effacing actual people because,

if you take away culture in
history, you leave nothing.

Ultimately, that's all
communities have.

Now they're abandoned, but once,
many were beacons of hope and progress.

Each one is steeped in history.

Some remind us of difficult times
but also of human imagination,

enterprise and spirit.

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