All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.Hidden.America.S02E04.1080p.WEB.h264-CBFM_track3_[eng]

[narrator] Abandoned
structures hold the secrets
of America's past.

A two-mile high ghost town
which fostered generations
of heroes.

[Nina Gabianelli]
When I first discovered
this beautiful area,

I was inspired
by the fortitude of the people
that had to live out here.

[narrator] A place
of entertainment

which saw a deadly massacre.

It's a secret that they keep
locked up in the box,

and they don't expose it.

[narrator] And
a network of tunnels

which served the schemes
of Los Angeles.

[Hadley Meares]
LA has always been
a sunny place for shady people

because people here
were very resourceful,
they were very clever,

they liked to have
a good time.

[narrator] Scattered
across the United States
are abandoned structures.

Forgotten ruins of the past.

Monuments to a bygone era.

Each shines a light
on the story of this land
and its people.

These are the secrets
of hidden America.

In a town 70 miles
north of Charleston,

lies a building
which saw a defining moment

in the fight
for racial equality.

[Cleveland Sellers]
It's very hard
to do anything

when you're feeling
like a second-class citizen.

Or you're feeling
like you're not wanted
after 70-some-odd years.

I have been through
all of that.

[Dr. Sascha Auerbach]
We're in a small town
in South Carolina.

This is
a pretty deprived area,

and it remains
among the 10% of poorest areas
in the whole country.

[Dr. Michele Mitchell] This is
a Deep South, majority
African-American town.

But racial tension
has long simmered
under the surface.

[narrator] Inside
one store front,

there's reminders
of a troubled past.

[Sascha] Inside,
it's devastated.

Part of the roof
has come down,

and it makes you wonder,
"For how many decades
has this place been derelict?"

[Michele] There are
still personal items
in the lockers.

Why didn't their owners
collect them?

[Sascha] Look at
all those bowling shoes,

look at those long,
wooden lanes.

This was obviously
a bowling alley,

but what happened here
that was so terrible

that it was
left in this state?

[narrator] What occurred here
over half a century ago

would foreshadow
terrible events
across the nation.

[Prof. Sarah Churchwell]
America's terrible history
of racial violence

left us with far too many
familiar stories,

but there are still a handful
of really important ones

that have been
lost to sight altogether.

[narrator] This bowling alley,

a place of leisure,
became a place of pain.

A pain that Cleveland Sellers
knows only too well.

[Cleveland] It
occurred because

it was Black students,

and Black students'
lives don't matter.

And you see that slogan,

but that's real
for a lot of people.

[Sascha] South Carolina,

along with Deep South states
like Mississippi,

were really centers
of racial tension
in the 1960s.

These were very,
very segregated communities.

[Sarah] At the beginning
of 1968,

America hadn't
really settled down

after the
"long, hot summer" of 1967.

There had been
great racial unrest

and riots across cities

including Atlanta, Newark,
Detroit, really across
the country.

[narrator] What
transpired here

would shock this small town,
yet would barely register
on a national scale.

This is
the All Star Bowling Lanes
in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

[Cleveland] Orangeburg was
very special to Black students

who were interested
in higher education.

If you ever got an opportunity
to go, that's where
you would go.

[narrator] Orangeburg
was home to two historically
Black universities,

but power in this town
was still exclusively
in white hands.

The Civil Rights Act
of 1964 had said

that every American space
needed to be desegregated,

but of course not every
American public space
followed that law.

[Sascha] By 1968,
almost all the public
buildings in Orangeburg

were officially desegregated

with the exception
of hospitals,

doctor's offices,
and Harry Floyd's
bowling alley.

[narrator] The segregation
of this place was significant

because during the 1960s,
bowling was at the height
of its popularity.

[Michele] Bowling
was popular no matter
what color you were.

In fact, during the 1960s,
there was an African-American
women's national champion,

the trailblazing
Louise Fulton.

[narrator] One invention
would usher in bowling's
golden age.

[Sascha] And what made
the difference here
was the automatic pin setter.

Back in the old days,

you had to have a person
run out between every bowl
and reset the pins.

[Michele] This led
to the number of bowling
alleys in the United States

peaking at 12,000
during the 1960s, which is
really a staggering number.

[Sascha] This
was America's game
for a while,

and the sport was so popular

that President Nixon even
had a bowling alley installed
in the White House.

[narrator] But in 1968,
Orangeburg's African-American
population

was still not allowed
to go bowling.

[Cleveland] Harry Floyd
did something.

The Civil Rights Act
said all public facilities
had to be desegregated.

So what he was able to do
was he was able to put a sign

in the glass doorway
saying "members only."

[narrator] Students
from South Carolina
State University

led a protest against
the segregation
of this bowling alley

in February 1968,
changing this small town
forever.

[Sascha] The events
at Orangeburg took place
over several nights,

but the first couple
of nights,

the bowling alley
was really the focus.

[Michele] On
the first night,

around 40 students
enter the bowling alley,

but they leave peacefully.

[narrator] A group
of African-American students
return the next night,

but this time the authorities
knew they were coming.

[Cleveland] But there were
a whole host of highway patrol
in there,

and they pushed back
against the door,

and the pushing back and forth
caused the glass in the door
just to fall out.

What happened next was
that the police went outside,

and they opened up
the trunks of the cars,

and they got
this little baton,
and they just waded in.

[Sascha] The police
responded immediately
with violence.

This bowling alley,

which is supposed to be
a place of enjoyment
and have fun,

had become
a site of violent conflict.

[narrator] Around
a dozen students
were hospitalized,

but the beatings
at the bowling alley

would not be the end
of the violence.

It was only the beginning.

[Michele] After
the beatings, the students
submit a list of demands.

They call for integration

and the ending
of discrimination
within the community.

The governor
of South Carolina at the time,

Robert McNair, responded
by calling the National Guard.

[Cleveland] There
was a tank parked
in front of my house,

and the muzzle
was just pointed
in that general direction.

[narrator] With
the National Guard in town,

and hundreds
of protesting students,

the city of Orangeburg
was a tinderbox.

[narrator] On
February 6, 1968,

many students
were brutally beaten by police

for protesting
the racial segregation
of this bowling alley.

Two nights later,

on the campus
of South Carolina State,

another group of students
found themselves facing off

against armed
highway patrolmen.

A wooden bannister
was thrown towards the police,

and there were rumors
of a sniper.

Some officer
from the highway patrolmen

got hit by a piece of wood,

and some of the police
said that he was shot.

They decided
to use lethal force
against these students.

Unarmed students,
they were in a open field.

It was almost like
shooting fish in a barrel.

[Sascha] It was
a massacre.

Almost 30 people were wounded
in the shooting.

Most of them
were shot in the back

as they were running away
from gunfire.

[narrator] Three
African-American
teenagers were killed.

High school student,
Delano Middleton,

and South Carolina State
undergraduates

Samuel Hammond Jr.,
and Henry Smith.

[Cleveland]
The gunfire went off,

and it was timed
at about eight to ten seconds,

but it sounded
like it was forever.

I got hit on the left side
as I was going down.

I just did a spread eagle,
and just hit the ground.

[narrator] After a trial,

all of the highway patrolmen
who opened fire
were acquitted.

The only person
convicted of any crime
was Cleveland Sellers,

who spent
seven months in prison
for incitement to riot.

He has since
been granted a pardon.

[Cleveland] The
Orangeburg Massacre
is, in fact, the litmus test

for race relations
in the state
of South Carolina.

Everything else
is related to that
in some way.

That police were allowed
to just go in and kill people,
and nothing has been done.

[narrator] Orangeburg
was the nation's first
campus massacre,

but it would not be the last.

Two years later,
students were gunned down

by law enforcement
and National Guardsmen

at both Kent State
and Jackson State
universities.

[Cleveland] We
didn't learn our lesson.

We could have
avoided all of that.

You don't put police
with loaded guns on a campus.

You just don't do that.

[Michele] It's incredible
to think that this happened

two years before the shootings
at Kent State.

And you have to ask yourself,

"Why is that one famous,
and this one is not?"

And if you think deeply
and carefully,

you can't help but wonder
whether or not race plays
a factor.

[narrator] Two weeks
after the massacre,

a local court decided
the 1964 Civil Rights Act
applied to the bowling alley.

Harry Floyd complied,
opened his doors to all,

and ten years later,
one-third of his customers
were African American.

The bowling alley
kept much of its 1960s decor,

but closed soon after
the turn of the century.

Today, one organization
led by Ellen Zisholtz

has stepped in
to preserve the memory
of what happened here.

[Ellen Zisholtz] This building
of remembrance,
we're going to restore it.

It'll be preserved
for history,

it will be preserved
in commemoration

of the students
that were killed and wounded,

but it will also be

something positive
for the future.

If you don't
preserve your history,
you lose your civilization.

[Cleveland] Bringing
communities together

is what we have
to be concerned about.

But we have to tell the truth
about our past.

[narrator] In
the Mountain States,

a town that sparked
a sporting revolution

became a crucial cog
in America's war machine.

[Dr. Kenya Davis-Hayes]
We're in the Colorado Rockies,

a place that is known
for its adventure,
and its wildlife.

[narrator] Among
the snow drifts
and pine trees,

the remains
of abandoned structures
stand out.

It looks like
an old Wild West film set,

but this site
is almost 10,000 feet up.
It's freezing, it's isolated.

Why anyone would
build anything here
is a mystery to me.

[Sascha]
Most of the buildings we see
are simple wooden shacks.

A door, a few windows, a roof.

[narrator] These buildings

are the remnants
of an American hero's dream.

[Nina] This iconic,
young gentleman,

he planted the seed here
that really revolutionized
the Rocky Mountains.

[narrator]
Despite facing tragedy
when the world fell into war,

this town stepped up.

Soldiers learned skills here
that were instrumental
in defeating Hitler.

Skills that could
only be learned
in places like this.

[narrator] This town
sits almost two miles high
in the Rockies.

Nina Gabianelli
first discovered
these buildings

over four decades ago,

and has been hooked
ever since.

When I first came out
to this valley

and found these
cluster of cabins,

I was overwhelmed by the idea
that people lived out here

in the middle of what, to me,
looks like wilderness.

[narrator] With temperatures
dropping to below -30 degrees
Fahrenheit,

these peaks and valleys

were once part
of the untrodden Wild West.

But in 1877,
this changed dramatically.

[Trevor Washko]
In search of silver,

the US Geological Survey
mapped out the region,

and proclaimed
that it could be

the treasure vault of America.

[Nina] There was silver,
proven in these mountains,

and land was available, free,
for the taking.

So hundreds of men
began to come into this area
to prospect.

[narrator] A settlement
was formed across the valley.

By 1883, its population
had swelled to 2,000.

This is Ashcroft.

[Nina] Ashcroft
was complete with courthouse,
dance hall, 20 saloons.

They did kind of
forget the churches,

but living out here
was not as conducive
to family life.

Let's put it that way.

[narrator] Yet, as quickly
as Ashcroft boomed,
it went bust.

The silver deposits
were found to be
rather shallow,

and Ashcroft went into decline
rather quickly.

[narrator] By the turn
of the 20th century,

it appeared
Ashcroft was destined
for the history books.

But in 1936,

everything changed
when a sporting icon
came to town.

[Kenya]
Billy Fiske was a driver
for the US bobsled team.

He won two gold medals
in the Winter Olympics.

The first in 1928,
the second in 1932.

[Sascha] Billy Fiske
was a huge celebrity,

and he probably would have won
a third Olympic gold,

but he refused to go
to the '36 Olympics

'cause they were held
in Nazi Germany.

[narrator] While missing out
on the '36 Olympics,

Fiske turned his attention

to bringing
the latest sporting trend
to America.

In the 1930s, downhill skiing
started in the Alps
of Central Europe,

and was this new
and exciting sport.

It was associated
with European royalty.
The glitz, the glamor.

But then you add to it,
this thrill-seeking,
the adrenaline,

the speed of downhill skiing.

It was a true luxury sport.

[narrator] On the hunt
for a spot to build a resort
for downhill skiing,

Fiske visited
the dwindling town
of Ashcroft.

When he came to this area,

he fell in love
with this beautiful valley.

And his team purchases
an immense amount of land,

and they concoct a ski plan
with a lift system devised
all along this mountain range.

[narrator] But the full resort
would never be completed.

In 1939, World War II
broke out in Europe,

over two years
before America entered
the conflict.

[Sascha] This
is an important moment
for Billy Fiske

'cause he has deep connections
to Britain.

He has married
an English countess,

and he feels morally obliged
to go and fight on the side
of the Allies.

[narrator] With
America neutral,

Fiske had to find a novel way
to fight the Nazis.

Billy Fiske actually
joined the Royal Air Force

by lying and saying
that he was
a Canadian citizen.

[narrator] On July 12, 1940,

Fiske gets called
into action...

in the Battle of Britain.

-[guns firing]
-[aircraft exploding]

The Battle of Britain
is one of the epic battles
of the Second World War.

And Billy Fiske fought
in one of the most famous
planes at the time,

the Hurricane.

It's just going
to be nonstop.

You can imagine the dogfights
that you would see

in World War II movies.

These would have
been fierce battles.

[distant explosion]

[narrator] Three months
and three weeks
after the battle began,

the Royal Air Force
and its allies

defeated the Luftwaffe.

Hitler had to rip up his plan
to invade Britain.

But Billy Fiske had paid
the ultimate price.

In August of 1940,
Fiske's plane was shot down.

He succumbed to his injuries
the next day.

[narrator] Billy Fiske
was one of the first
American casualties

of World War II.

And as the rest
of America's military might
followed Fiske into war,

his dream of bringing
downhill skiing to the Rockies
died with him.

[Trevor] With America's entry
into World War II,

the steel that was meant
to build ski lifts up here
at Ashcroft, and tramways,

went to build tanks instead.

[narrator] In
an ironic twist of fate,

the very war that had taken
Ashcroft's champion,

offered the town a lifeline.

[narrator] After the death
of its advocate
in World War II,

the dream
of Ashcroft becoming
a downhill ski destination...

was over.

[Trevor] One
of the main stakeholders

for the Ashcroft
ski operation

gave his land
to the US government

for the duration of the war
for $1 a year.

[narrator] With the land
now federal,

in 1942, the Army
came to Ashcroft

to begin training
a new regiment

to fight the Axis Powers
in Europe's most difficult
battlefield.

They became known
as the 10th Mountain Division.

The 10th Mountain Division

had to have
a very special type
of training

to fight in the mountains.

They actually wore white
to blend in with the snow.

The idea was these soldiers

were going to be able
to move through the mountains

without tanks, without trucks,

so they had to learn
how to use mule teams,

how to ski,
how to use dogsleds.

[narrator] These skills
proved decisive
in the Italian Alps

as the 10th Mountain Division
broke through the entrenched
German defensive line,

a crucial act in the Allies
defeating the Nazis in Europe.

But once the war ended,
many soldiers didn't want
to stop skiing.

The 10th Mountain veterans

wanted a taste
of this new activity
back in America.

[narrator]
The veterans succeed
where Billy Fiske had failed,

and set up ski schools
in the Rocky Mountains.

Yet they turned their backs
on Ashcroft.

The prospect
of actually creating
a downhill ski at Ashcroft

was gonna require building
everything from the ground up.

Whereas Aspen,
just down the way,

had the infrastructure
of a townsite.

[narrator] Fast forward
nearly 80 years,

and Aspen is America's home
of skiing,

welcoming well over
a million visitors a year.

While just ten miles away,

Ashcroft has become
a ghost town.

Today, Ashcroft's story
is kept alive

by a nonprofit organization.

[Nina] We at
the Aspen Historical Society

feel a great responsibility
for stewarding this valley,

and we're so lucky
not to have the development

so that you can take a moment
and be within just nature.

[narrator] It's thanks
to this unspoiled wildlife

that the ghost town
has become famous

for the revival of an activity

that's ingrained
in the history
of these buildings.

Ashcroft has really become

one of the premier
cross-country ski touring
areas in this valley.

So, although the town side
is a ghost town,

it does still have
lots of life here.

[narrator] In the center
of Los Angeles,

clues to the city's
sordid secret history
are waiting to be found,

if you only know
where to look.

[Hadley] What's so amazing

is that so many people
walking the streets
of Los Angeles above

have no idea
of all the history
going on down below.

When I'm down here,
I kind of hear the jazz music
and the clinking of glasses,

and all the ghosts
of these mobsters,
and gangsters, moles,

but I also feel a eerie,
creepy feeling down here.

[Sarah] We are
just a few blocks
from the heart of Downtown LA

in an area still known
as Skid Row.

[Kenya] On the corner,
is this really
strange storefront.

There are no windows,

and everything
is painted black.

[Linda Rodriguez-McRobbie]
This looks like
your average LA dive bar,

but it also looks
pretty abandoned.

I mean, there's still liquor
in some of these bottles,

and there might even be cash
in the register.

[narrator] Downstairs,
a basement holds
a number of secrets.

[Rob Bell] If this basement
was just used for storage,

then why would you bother
decorating it

with these pictures
on the walls?

[narrator] Connected
to this basement

is a sprawling network
of tunnels

which give a glimpse
into the dark history
of the LA underworld.

Beneath this abandoned bar
in LA's Skid Row,

lies something
from the distant past.

Hadley Meares
is a journalist

who relishes
uncovering the stories
of this city's underbelly.

[Hadley] This
was a mecca for folks
looking for an illegal drink,

and it's
one of my favorite places
in Los Angeles.

You can see
there's this beautiful,
giant icebox right here

with another little, maybe,
serving door.

And then if you
come back here,

you're gonna see
something really cool.

And that is
this bricked up tunnel.

And some people claim
that this tunnel led

to different spots
n Downtown Los Angeles.

[narrator] This basement

was once
a secret drinking hole
known as the King Eddy Saloon.

And the network
of smuggling tunnels
that fed it

could be almost as old
as Los Angeles itself.

[Rob] At the beginning
of the 20th century,

Los Angeles
was actually
quite a small city

with only around
100,000 people living here.

But the city was growing fast.

[Hadley] Downtown Lost Angeles
was where it was all happening
in the early 20th century.

There were bars,
there were elaborate hotels,

and it was a vibrant place
filled with a lot of people

who had made money
really fast, and wanted
to have a good time.

[narrator] But
this vibrant place
was about to change forever.

[Rob] Since the early 1800s,

some evangelical groups
had been calling
for a ban on alcohol,

believing that booze eroded
the sanctity of the family.

By the early 20th century,
this temperance movement
was building steam nationally.

[narrator] On
January 17, 1920,

the Volstead Act
came into effect,

enacting the Eighteenth
Amendment,

and completely banning alcohol
across the US.

Prohibition had begun.

[Linda] After Prohibition hit,

it wasn't like people
were suddenly gonna
stop drinking.

They just had to get
a lot more creative

about how they did it.

[narrator] To
get around the law,

bar owners
started to operate
clandestine bars,

giving birth to the speakeasy.

[Hadley] So,
during Prohibition,

the King Eddy
supposedly turned
their original bar

into a fake furniture shop,
but that was just a front.

There were lots
of these fronts
during Prohibition.

[narrator] Speakeasies,
such as the King Eddy,

needed to come up with a way

to keep
the illegal booze flowing.

Booze would
come into LA by land
from Mexico,

or on boats from Canada.

It would then be smuggled
through the tunnels,
and into the bars.

[Hadley] There were
probably almost 11 miles
of service tunnels

downtown in Los Angeles,
you know,

in between hotels,

in between
different buildings,

so you could use those
if you could get access.

[narrator] Four blocks
north of the King Eddy,

lies a network of tunnels
beneath City Hall.

So there's a lot of things
that are wildly believed
about these tunnels.

One is
that maybe during Prohibition,

alcohol was ferried
through here.

Legend has it
that the King Eddy's tunnels
ran all the way to City Hall.

[narrator] All
of this bootlegging

was controlled
by organized crime syndicates.

Some of which were based
in these very buildings.

The man who really
controlled bootlegging

and all
of the criminal activities
in Los Angeles

was a gangster
named Charlie Crawford.

And Charlie was really tight
with a lot of folks
at City Hall.

Before 1920,
Crawford ran a whole bunch
of saloons across LA,

but Prohibition
pushed his business
underground.

[narrator] Crawford
City Hall Gang

would run booze rackets
across town

with the assistance
of the LAPD.

[Sarah] Part
of the reason why

the police were
so unsympathetic
to Prohibition

was because
they were mostly Irish.

And they knew

that it was targeted
at the Irish community,

and they liked drinking.

[Linda] It was said
that King Eddy's

was the favorite drinking spot
of the LAPD

when they weren't pretending
to bust bootleggers.

[narrator] But the age
of speakeasies and rumrunners
was about to end.

Prohibition was repealed
on December 5, 1933.

[Kenya] When Prohibition
came to an end,

the rackets fell apart.

Charles Crawford,
one of the top mob bosses
in Los Angeles,

had been assassinated
in 1931 by rivals.

[Hadley] So, in the aftermath
of Prohibition,

King Eddy opens up top where
the music shop was,

and it becomes
this beloved shady,
gritty Skid Row bar

that everybody in LA
had a real soft spot for.

[narrator] As the bars
of Downtown Los Angeles
went back above ground,

the tunnels
that supplied them

fell into disuse
and were forgotten.

Today, almost a century
after Prohibition
was repealed,

the same tunnels
that were used
to shuttle booze around LA,

have been repurposed.

Most of the tunnels
are now either bricked up
or owned by private companies

where they're rented out
as event spaces
or even take-out kitchens.

[narrator] Yet the King Eddy

has reached
the end of the line.

[Linda] The King Eddy Saloon
was open until 2021,

but after more than
100 years of serving booze,

both legally and illegally,
it finally closed.

[narrator] But the miles
upon miles of tunnels

are still there
underneath the city,

waiting to be rediscovered.

[Hadley] Nobody seems to know

where the tunnels go
throughout LA,

we don't seem to even have
a map of where the tunnels go
in Downtown Los Angeles.

[narrator] In the middle
of the desert,

lie the ruins of a place
that has both entertained
and terrorized travelers

for centuries.

[Adam Thew] I love history,
and there's so much
history here.

It wasn't too far in the past
that this was a lively place.

It's just always captured
my imagination.

[narrator] An off-ramp
leads travelers down a road
to a different time.

[Kenya] It looks like,
at some point,

this was a service station.

And you can just imagine
people hopping off to stop
and fill up their cars.

[narrator] But
there is more to this site
than first meets the eye.

[Katherine Alcock]
As you head deeper
into the compound,

you start to see
these strange,
crumbling structures.

[Jim Meigs] Something odd
was going on here,

it's a little hard
to say just what.

[Katherine] It suddenly
becomes apparent

that there's
a gaping chasm below you,
and an entrance to a cave.

These buildings
give a hint of something
much more interesting

than your usual rest stop.

[Adam] Undoubtedly,
if the story is true,

this was a horrible tragedy
that happened here.

However, it would
not be the last.

[narrator] On the edge
of this Arizona canyon,

lies a strange collection
of buildings.

Local resident, Adam Thew,

has a deep love
for the Copper State
and its hidden history.

So, many people would argue

that this is where
the story began.

Here, at this cave.

If you look above,
you can see that building
right there,

that is the ticket office
where they would sell permits
to enter the cave.

[narrator] This cave
is well known to locals,

and in 1878,
something terrible happened
that would make it infamous.

[Kenya] This area
has been populated
by indigenous Americans

for over 1,000 years.

A battle had broken out

between the Navajo
and the Apache tribes.

And the Apache
hid in the caves
at the Two Guns site.

[narrator]
The Navajo tribe discovered
the Apaches' location.

To trap their enemy,

the Navajo lit a fire
at the cave's entrance,
suffocating them.

[Adam] After
the crying stopped,
and the smoke died,

the Navajo went into the cave,

retrieved all their
stolen valuables,
looted the bodies,

and left behind
42 suffocated Apache bodies.

[narrator]
This place became known
as the Apache Death Cave.

And legend has it
that ever since,

this cave has been cursed.

But that didn't stop
the flow of newcomers.

[Adam] In the early 1880s,

as settlers
were making their way
through the area,

they ran into
the daunting gorge
known as Canyon Diablo.

[Katherine] Canyon Diablo
runs like a scar
across North Arizona,

connecting
with the Grand Canyon.

It runs for over 80 miles
to the north,

and a further 20 miles
to the south.

[narrator] For generations,
this treacherous canyon
could only be crossed here,

by the Apache Death Cave.

Even today,
there are only a few roads
and one train track

that cross
the 100-mile stretch.

[train horn blows]

[Jim] In 1907,

the National Old Trails
Highway was built
through this area.

And a few years later,

an improved auto bridge
was built across the canyon.

[Katherine] Soon,
local entrepreneurs
saw the opportunities

that the area would provide,

and established a restaurant
and a gas station.

[narrator] But
a simple filling station
wouldn't be enough

to attract
the average American traveler.
They wanted entertainment.

The roadside attraction
is an American institution.

Who doesn't
want to see Carhenge

or the world's biggest
ball of twine?

[narrator] And
one local character

would turn
this place of ambush
into a tourist trap.

[Adam] Harry Miller
was an eccentric man,

known locally
to be pretty hostile.

He claimed to be
of full-blooded
Apache heritage,

and he went by the name
"Chief Crazy Thunder."

He tried to sell this image
with long, braided hair
for tourism.

[narrator] Harry Miller's
favorite actor

was the Wild West star,
William Hart.

He named this town
after his hero's nickname,
Two Guns.

[Adam] The prized jewel
of that attraction
was the roadside zoo

which was replete
with mountain lions,

Gila monsters, bobcats,
and other desert creatures.

[narrator] But Miller
built this whole site
around its star attraction.

[Adam] So Miller,
never wasting the opportunity
to make a buck,

he installed lighting
and vending machines

throughout this cave,
and indulged the massacre.

He would take tourists
down through the cave,

and he'd allegedly
sell the skeletal remains

of the 42 Apache
that died here.

[narrator] Rumor has it
that soon after
taking tourists

into the Apache Death Cave,
things started to go wrong
for Miller.

His landlord,
a man named Earl Cundiff,

took matters
into his own hands.

[Katherine] Eventually,
Earl got fed up

with his
very eccentric tenant,

and he decided to head over
to Miller's house with is gun,
and lie in wait for him.

Unfortunately for him,
Miller saw him lying in wait,

quickly drew his own gun,
and shot and killed Earl
on the spot.

[narrator] Miller
was acquitted

on the grounds
of self-defense,

and returned to the town,
living as a hermit.

But that would not be the end
of his misfortunes.

[Katherine] His own animals
at the zoo turned on him,

and he was attacked
by his lynx
and his mountain lions.

Eventually, in 1930,
he disappeared
without a trace.

[narrator] Two Guns
would be transformed
a decade later,

with the arrival
of an American icon.

[Kenya] A new road
running from Chicago
to Los Angeles,

dubbed Route 66,
was commissioned in 1926.

In 1938, the road
had made its way to Two Guns.

Two Guns
was perfectly situated
by one of the highway exits.

New buildings were built,
a new gas station.

[narrator] But it was as if
the town was still cursed.

[Adam] In 1971,

the new
Texaco service station,
there was a giant explosion.

It took
the entire town with it
in an incredible inferno,

the smoke of which
could be seen
nearly 60 miles away.

It would be
this monumental explosion

that created the ghost town
that we see today.

[narrator] The future
of Two Guns
is currently unknown,

but there is a hope
that the strange history
of this town

could be kept alive.

[Adam] There are rumors
circulating about turning this
into some kind of resort.

It has been vacant since '71,

and, you know, honestly,
I like it that way.

There's some allure of mystery
to some abandoned things.

Honestly, I prefer
that it never was repopulated.