Original subtitles

[narrator] A forsaken facility, once a hub for worldwide communications,

taken over by a divisive group.

This place played host to one of the great geniuses of

the 20th century, but it's also a place where a deranged cult

leader abused his members.

[narrator] A secret arsenal containing enough power to

destroy the world.

[James] This is a use of deadly force authorized area,

meaning all games are off, the Constitution doesn't apply here.

[narrator] And a forgotten inn at the crossroads of history.

This building was part of the making of America.

[narrator] Near the Pacific Ocean lies a site where pioneers forged

global connections, while others used it

to sow division.

For the local community, this area has been kind of like

a castle on the hill, and not much is known about it.

[Prof. Zarsadiaz] We are in a beautiful, picturesque part of Northern

California, one of the most scenic parts of the state.

Up the hillside stretches a strange complex.

[Meares] So it's this opposing two-story building with this wide

veranda, and there's a lot of other buildings dotted around

the property as well.

[Prof. Zarsadiaz] The site is glorious, but also a little eerie.

Some of the buildings are a little spooky.

There must be a story there.

[Dr. Mitchell] Inside the main building, there's old radio equipment

plus decor from many different eras.

[narrator] This was a pioneering facility of scientific achievement,

but that would all be undone when new residents moved in.

New worldwide connections were made here, but others were

determined to sow division and hatred.

California State Parks employee, Kaylie Williams,

has been investigating the story of this place,

and is still unraveling its secrets.

[Kaylie] This whole area would have been kind of off limits.

It would have been high electromagnetic frequency

and literally a buzz.

[narrator] The company that initially developed this site was owned

by one of the most celebrated scientists of all time,

Guglielmo Marconi.

[Dr. Mitchell] When it came to science and technology,

Guglielmo Marconi was a visionary.

In 1901, he succeeded in transmitting radio waves across

the Atlantic and within a few years, Europe and North America

were in regular commercial contact.

[narrator] Marconi's radio technology was revolutionary, but still

in its infancy.

It would take one of the world's greatest maritime

disasters to make it indispensable.

By 1912, most transatlantic voyages had a Marconi

transmission system on board.

[Kaylie] Marconi had a contract with the White Star Line,

so the Titanic and its sister ship, the Olympic, both had

Marconi equipment on board.

On April 14th, the Titanic hit an iceberg and the two radio

operators began transmitting distress signals.

[narrator] These SOS transmissions were received by another liner

70 miles away, the Carpathia.

She raced to the disaster site and rescued over 700 survivors.

[Prof. Zarsadiaz] Without Marconi's equipment,

everyone on the ship would have died.

[narrator] The success of Marconi's wireless system further

enhanced his reputation and that of his technology.

[Meares] Marconi's next dream was to have a radio system that

spanned the globe.

And to do that, he needed to cross the Pacific.

[Dr. Mitchell] To achieve his goal, he built this place on

Tomales Bay.

These facilities enabled wireless communication across

the Pacific between United States, Hawaii, and Asia for

the first time.

[narrator] Built in 1914, this is the Tomales Bay Marconi

Wireless Receiving Station.

A 35-room hotel was also constructed to

house the workers.

[Kaylie] So essentially this was a space for Marconi's staff and their

families to stay.

The hotel offered a library, a dining hall, a billiard room.

I would equate it kind of like how lighthouse operators lived.

[narrator] Both commercial and government communications were received

and forwarded by Marconi's staff here for three years.

But a global conflict would derail their work.

During World War I, the United States government

appropriated control of Marconi's technology

and this site.

[narrator] Yet after the war, the long-wave communication

equipment here would be superseded by new shortwave

technology, and the Marconi Company would not return to

Tomales Bay.

But that was not the end of the road for this hotel.

In 1964, a new group of owners buys the hotel for $175,000.

And this group is known as the Synanon Foundation.

[Kaylie] This is the third floor of the hotel.

So these modifications to the architecture were put in

when Synanon was here on the property.

[Dr. Mitchell] Synanon was initially a drug rehabilitation program headed

by a charismatic man named Charles E. Dederich.

He developed a following among self-proclaimed "dope fiends"

who were rejected by alcohol recovery programs.

[Dederich, archive] Very close to putting a shovel in the ground for

the establishment of a small city

called Synanon, California, about 45 miles

north of San Francisco.

[narrator] Addicts were encouraged to bring their families to the old

Marconi site, and began building a self-sufficient community.

But Dederich viewed the people in his care as childlike,

and thought they needed harsh discipline to stop them from

falling back into addiction.

One way he controlled his flock here was by making them

play The Game.

[Meares] The Game was what psychologists call "attack therapy."

And so this was a really brutal way of breaking folks down.

[Dr. Mitchell] In the game, about a dozen or so members would humiliate

and pick on one another, and sometimes for days on end,

with the goal being self-revelation.

Why don't you be honest with him?

You boil, and you can't even talk calmly.

You explode every time you talk.

Are you afraid of him?

[Dr. Mitchell] Some members found this cathartic, but it really was

just pretty much a form of psychological abuse,

especially when you consider the vulnerable children

and adults who were at Synanon.

[narrator] Dederich also began to decide who his followers would marry,

holding mass weddings on the Marconi property.

Under his command, Synanon would change this place

beyond all recognition.

[Kaylie] They added lots of different structures to the property,

including more residences.

They also added a fire station, a dump.

[Dr. Mitchell] Much of the new construction did not have the necessary

permits, but Dederich had a way around this.

Although Synanon wasn't even religious, he had it declared

a tax-exempt religious organization,

the Church of Synanon.

[Meares] Synanon changed from a positive drug rehabilitation program to

something entirely else.

[narrator] Chuck Dederich would turn this place of scientific advancement

into a hive of strange games and paranoia.

His organization became known as the most dangerous cult

in America.

[narrator] On the California coast lies a collection of buildings that

was taken over by the Synanon Foundation in the 1960s,

which is set out to build a utopia for recovering

drug addicts.

But its founder, reformed alcoholic

Chuck Dederich, would use some unorthodox methods to keep

his followers in line.

[Prof. Zarsadiaz] According to some testimonials, some of the people who lived on

the compound were forced to shave their heads, to swap

partners, and to have forced vasectomies.

[narrator] Soon dissent would spring up and Dederich would lash out.

In the beginning, the local community actually

tried to help Synanon get established.

But then over time, those interactions started to

become more and more violent.

[Meares] People were beat if they tried to leave and children tried to

escape repeatedly from the facility.

[narrator] To combat increasing criticism, Dederich chose a path from

which there would be no return.

[Meares] Dederich became increasingly belligerent and started suing

everyone who dared say anything about him, as well as sending

out thugs to beat up folks that he felt were trying to

destroy his empire.

On October 10th, 1978, two members de-rattled a four

and a half foot long rattlesnake and placed it in

the mailbox of an opposing attorney.

He was bitten but survived.

Soon after, authorities began investigating the cult.

[narrator] Following raids on Synanon properties, including the old

Marconi site in 1980, authorities charged Dederich

and two accomplices with conspiracy to commit murder.

Dederich avoided jail, but was forced to give up

control of the group, which began to fragment.

[Kaylie] So this building remains standing, but most of

the buildings that they had added were dismantled when

the Synanon Foundation left the property.

[narrator] By 1991, the group had dissolved entirely and left

these buildings to nature.

Today, the Marconi site has a second chance, as it's now

a California State Park and conference center.

It's unlikely the old hotel building will remain in this

dilapidated state for long.

The hope for the building behind me is to turn it into

a visitor center or a museum.

You can find a lot of natural beauty here.

I think that this site here is an oasis for history.

[narrator] In the Buckeye State, a building that offered shelter

to those in need, also hosted one of America's first

global celebrities.

[Doug] Well this building opened up a storybook that I haven't been

able to shut to this day.

[Bell] We're in Palmyra, Ohio.

It's about an hour's drive from the city of Cleveland.

[narrator] At the crossroads in the center of town, hundreds pass by each

day, not realizing history hides in this

derelict structure.

[Dr. Thomas] This is a three-story building.

The red bricks and sash windows indicate that it's from

the 19th century.

Maybe it's some kind of factory building.

This is the Rust Belt, after all.

[Bell] Inside this place is a portrait of dereliction.

The plaster's chipping and cracking, but you can tell

it was once beautiful.

[Rodriguez-McRobbie] On the top floor, there's this big open room.

What's its purpose?

It looks like it could be some kind of auditorium.

[narrator] This place has been a crucial stop on multiple journeys,

many of which have shaped the nation.

This building has seen a lot of people, some people famous,

some people actually hiding or running away,

and there's been people that changed American history.

The first time I came to this building, I never really cared

for history. I don't know what happened.

This building talks to me.

It's almost like a love affair, you know what I mean,

where I am literally in love with the building.

[narrator] Doug Rice has dedicated the last three decades of

his life to uncovering the secrets

hidden within these walls.

This building was first built in 1832 because it was on two

major stagecoach lines.

[Dr. Thomas] Stagecoaches were early forms of interstate transit.

Travelers would pay to ride on a horse-drawn carriage that

would make several stops along the journey.

[Rodriguez-McRobbie] They're called stagecoaches

because they were accomplished in stages.

People could pick them up and go as far as they needed to go.

These journeys could take weeks at a time.

So passengers and crews relied on networks of inns for

repairs, rest, recuperation.

[narrator] This place was one of these crucial stops.

This is the Old Stagecoach Inn.

But Doug has discovered a clue that suggests it also had

a surreptitious purpose.

This door right here was a secret door inside of

a closet that took you into a secret hidden room.

And it wasn't for hiding objects,

it was for hiding people.

[narrator] Today, this secret room has collapsed.

Yet in the mid-19th century, it was part of a clandestine

movement known as the Underground Railroad.

[Dr. Thomas] The Underground Railroad was a network of safe houses that

allowed for escaped enslaved individuals to leave the South,

and head to the free territories in the North in

the years before the Civil War.

The Underground Railroad got its name because railway

terminology was used to describe everything.

The escaped enslaved people were called "freight,"

and the various stops, like the Old Stagecoach Inn,

were known as "stations."

Stops like this would have been a lifeline and would have saved

the lives of hundreds, if not thousands.

[narrator] Despite slavery being abolished in Ohio in 1802, just under

50 years later, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed.

This meant that stations on the Underground Railroad,

like the Old Stagecoach Inn, were breaking the law by

helping people escape.

[Doug] You could get in a lot of trouble harboring people in

this state of Ohio here.

There were bounty hunters They were constantly searching

the roads and buildings. You could get jail time.

You could lose your property.

[narrator] Up to 50,000 people escaped to freedom through Ohio.

How many of them traveled through the Old Stagecoach Inn

is unknown.

But the Underground Railroad wasn't the only railroad to

bring people to this building's door, because 29 years after

the inn opened, a man arrived in his private train on

a journey to the heart of the country.

[narrator] In Palmyra, Ohio, the Old Stagecoach Inn was

a life-saving stop for enslaved people escaping the South.

But in the mid-19th century, it had another visitor on

his way to change America.

In 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln

was traveling via train from Springfield, Illinois to

Washington, D.C. for his inauguration.

[Dr. Thomas] The train was fitted with all the comforts one could imagine.

In many ways, it was like a 1800s Air Force One.

[narrator] Lincoln's 13-day-long train journey took him through

the town of Palmyra and passed the Old Stagecoach Inn.

[Dr. Thomas] In the era before recording technology, few people had

the chance to see and hear their political leaders

in person.

So throngs of people would have showed up just to catch

a glimpse of him.

[Doug] People would block the train.

People were cheering and shouting.

[Bell] Never missing an opportunity,

when Lincoln saw this, he'd stop and do a speech.

[narrator] Despite keeping his speeches short,

the president-elect whipped up support for the union.

But the journey ended on March 4th, 1861, and the real work

began when he became the nation's 16th president.

Just over two decades later, in the early 1880s,

while America was reaping the benefits of Lincoln's time

in office, another icon visited the Old Stagecoach Inn.

[Doug] So this was the tavern.

I can almost put my hand on that bar.

This is where Buffalo Bill sat, ate, and drank.

William "Buffalo Bill" Cody was one of the world's first global

celebrities and entertainers.

Buffalo Bill's story began in the Wild West where he worked

for the railroads, initially hunting buffalo,

and then later as a scout for the U.S. Army.

It's debatable how good Cody was at either of those

activities, but one thing he was good at was spinning

a tale, and making a buck.

[narrator] At the age of 26, Bill decided to focus on what

he was good at.

He created "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Tour,"

an extravaganza that really captured the spirit of

the American frontier.

[Rodriguez-McRobbie] The Wild West Tour was made up of scenes purportedly from

Bill's time in the West.

And of course, in each one, he portrayed himself

as the hero.

[Bell] Buffalo Bill became the mythical embodiment of

the bygone frontier times of the West.

And people all over America and the world loved him for it.

[narrator] Due to its position between four major cities where Bill

performed, Palmyra's Old Stagecoach Inn was the perfect

place for him to stay while he was in Ohio.

[Dr. Thomas] When Buffalo Bill stayed here, he was given free food,

free drink, and a free room to stay in because the proprietors

of the Old Stagecoach Inn knew that word would spread that

he was there.

[narrator] In the evenings, people came from all over to raise a glass

with this major celebrity.

[Doug] The guy was the most popular person in America at that time.

It would have been packed.

Buffalo Bill probably drank until he couldn't walk.

[narrator] But the days where the Old Stagecoach Inn was

open for all were numbered.

In 1888, a secret organization turned this building into one

of its lodges.

The Knights of Pythias are a secretive fraternal

organization with chapters all over the world.

They're a little bit like the Freemasons,

but they don't drink.

[narrator] The Knights of Pythias added a third floor to this building

to house an auditorium for their secret meetings.

[Doug] We really don't know everything that had gone on or everything

they had done here in this building.

We do know some things.

They took care of kids, they took care of widows.

[narrator] For over 70 years, the Knights of Pythias used

this building for their own secretive purposes.

But in the 1960s, that changed when the clandestine

organization had to abandon this space.

Membership numbers were dropping and they couldn't

afford it anymore.

After the Knights left, the building changed hands

a couple of times, becoming a private residence

and a store.

But eventually in the 1980s, it became vacant and abandoned.

[narrator] For 14 years, the Old Stagecoach Inn sat

slowly deteriorating, until it fell under Doug's loving gaze.

[Doug] I bought this building in 1994, and it was an unbelievable task

that I was taking on.

The first floor was laying in the basement.

The second floor was dangling, literally flapping in the air.

I was waiting for it to blow out and it to go down.

[narrator] Today, after 30 years, Doug has stabilized the building,

and he's hoping to return it to the job

it was constructed to do.

[Doug] My future plans are really simple.

I wanna make it something useful for the community to

enjoy its heritage.

[narrator] On the outskirts of Jacksonville lie the remains of

a military base that once concealed one of America's most

closely guarded Cold War secrets.

[Dr. Szulgit] This part of West Jacksonville is one big forest,

but dotted among the trees are these lonely

abandoned buildings.

[narrator] Some remaining structures hint at the high level of protection

this site once had.

[Alcock] One of the things that makes this forest quite unusual is

the miles and miles of barbed wire running through it.

At seemingly random locations, you have the remnants of these

large imposing floodlights.

[narrator] Hidden here was a collection of extraordinary items.

[Morgan] These represented some of the technically most

sophisticated things that the United States military

had ever built.

[narrator] They were stored deep within the base, in a special area

that, for most, was strictly off limits.

You weren't allowed to look at it, play with it, fly over it.

They controlled it to keep you out completely.

[Alcock] This place was as top secret as top secret gets.

You had to have the highest level of clearance to get

anywhere near it.

[narrator] James Jelsma has been the caretaker of this site for

over 20 years, and is one of the few people who doesn't get

lost in this maze of derelict roads cutting

through the forest.

Base is a total of 18,000 acres in total.

It represents roughly three percent of Duval County,

so it's a large footprint.

Currently we're traveling on Perimeter Road.

This is where the military would patrol right along

the fence line.

[narrator] The base opened in 1941 as a naval auxiliary air station

called Cecil Field.

[James] Cecil Field was a very important Navy training

facility during the second World War.

It fit within a broader network of naval air training

facilities that were sprinkled across the state of Florida.

[narrator] A naval air gunner's school was added to the base in 1942.

It was the largest of just three such schools

in the country.

[Dr. Szulgit] According to one source, nearly 30,000 men spent time

here learning all phases of aerial gunnery.

[James] They would bring a kind of a dummy across, and you would

have to shoot the dummy down to get your qualification in order

to be a gunner.

[narrator] Much of the activity at Cecil Field wound down after the end

of World War II.

But in 1952, the site was rejuvenated.

As the aviation jet age dawned, Cecil expanded massively

and became a master jet base.

[narrator] A master jet base was specifically used for

carrier-based jet aircraft, equipped to strike deep into

enemy territory.

The base's upgrade ushered in the creation of a special

division, a top secret base within a base.

[James] This was a Marine Corps facility.

it had a separate designation name of "Yellow Water" because

that's where the Marines played.

That's where the Marines controlled.

[narrator] This is the Yellow Water Weapons Department,

a clandestine weapons storage facility built to supply

US Navy aircraft carriers.

[James] During the Cold War, these would definitely have

military ordnance, air-to-air missiles,

ground attack munitions.

Over here is one of the Navy seals.

It says, "Net explosive weight

up to 375,000 pounds, 500,000 pounds."

So different types on how many it could have.

[Morgan] The positions are maintained at a specified interval from one

another so that if the munitions that are stored

in one facility, for whatever reason, detonated,

they will then not trigger the facility next to it.

You don't want to necessarily make it an underground facility

because, after all, this is Florida and you really can't go

underground, because everything's

a little bit swampy.

[narrator] But this wasn't the only place weapons were stored at

Yellow Water.

There was another, more secure area where the stakes were

even higher.

[Dr. Szulgit] The weapons stored here were the most

dangerous of all...

nuclear weapons.

[James] Nuclear weapons, biological weapons, any type of

upper layer weapons would be brought down this road,

stored in this area.

[narrator] Only two of these super-secure bunkers remain.

But decades ago, there were many more.

[Alcock] There were 89 ammunition bunkers, ranging from small

buildings for high explosives through to earth-covered

bunkers with reinforced concrete doors for

the nuclear weapons.

[Morgan] They were running tactical low-yield nuclear weapons,

and strategic thermonuclear weapons.

When all of the storage facilities were at capacity at

this location, there was enough explosive capacity there to

destroy the entire world.

[narrator] With the stakes so high, security at the entrance to

this area was extreme.

If you look up, this was a zone that was lit 24-7.

You'd have dogs patrolling the perimeter,

vehicles patrolling the perimeter,

Marines patrolling the perimeter.

[Dr. Szulgit] There were these almost James Bond-esque measures.

There was toxic gas that could be released.

It was high frequency noise that could be so intensely

projected at someone as to blow their eardrums.

[narrator] Working with such dangerous weapons meant the base also had

its own dedicated hospital.

They had special units to handle any type of biohazard.

[narrator] Anti-radiation showers show how real the risk of

contamination was.

[James] There were accidents that happened out here

or personnel that were hurt.

They were rushed here to give them immediate attention.

[narrator] But the nuclear warheads stationed here were not

launched from this site.

At times of high alert, the roads at Yellow Water would

have been busy moving weapons on and off the base.

This is building 617, which is the old Marine Corps storage

building, vehicle maintenance shop.

These are your paint booths where they would paint

their Humvee and maintain any other type of

trailers or equipment.

[narrator] When nuclear-laden semi-trucks left the base, most headed

straight to aircraft carriers docked at nearby naval

station Mayport.

It was all part of a carefully considered defense strategy.

[Morgan] You didn't want the storage facility

to be close to the coast.

You wanted it to be somewhere remote where it could be easily guarded.

And Yellow Water sort of ticked all the boxes on

that checklist.

[narrator] But how they transported these weapons would send shockwaves

across Jacksonville.

[narrator] On the outskirts of Jacksonville, a once extremely

secure base had a stockpile of nuclear weapons, which was

possibly big enough to destroy the world.

But how these weapons were moved to nearby aircraft

carriers became one of the most shocking facts to emerge from

this secretive era.

They had to be transported through the middle

of Jacksonville.

Can you imagine living in Jacksonville never knowing that

a payload was passing through your city that could completely

obliterate it off the map?

[Morgan] That's the way that the Cold War worked.

And that is, every now and then, nukes got moved through

your city in the middle of the night.

You didn't even know about it.

[narrator] At the start of the 1990s, the Cold War cooled down to

the point where the US

and the Soviet Union began significant

de-escalation talks.

We had these leaders who bravely and boldly embraced

the idea of denuclearization.

And during that process, Yellow Water was closed down.

[Alcock] And these secret weapons storage facilities were emptied

as quietly and secretly as they had first been filled.

[narrator] Since Yellow Water's official decommission in 1999,

limited details have emerged about the nuclear weapons

stored at this secretive base.

[James] You'll talk to some of the people that were stationed

here, and as rumor mills start, you know, you're at the pub

or the restaurant, and they say,

"Well, what do you do?"

"Oh, well, I do this," and then, you know,

loose lips sink ships.

[narrator] Official lips, however, have remained sealed.

[Alcock] The US Navy have never confirmed or denied this

nuclear storage area in Jacksonville, but the ruins

speak for themselves.

[narrator] And for some, the existence of nuclear weapons in this area is

not a closed chapter.

[James] I'm not privy to that information, but I would say if

you're operating a carrier group or military wings in this

area, there are nuclear weapons stored in this vicinity.

[narrator] In New England, a bizarre passion project that

won national accolades came crashing down after

a medieval catastrophe.

[Steven] This is my baby.

People say that I'm probably a little crazy to build

something of this scale, but it was a lot of fun.

[Meigs] We're in beautiful southern New Hampshire, rolling hills,

pine forests, mountains in the background.

[narrator] Three miles outside of the small town of Greenfield,

the remains of a once grand entrance stands out

against the foliage.

[Dr. Thomas] These are giant gates, and it's all

rusty and dilapidated.

As if these gates aren't bizarre enough, what's behind

them is even weirder.

[Dr. Thomas] You see a castle in the distance.

You see other little structures.

[Alcock] When you get up close, these structures have

a homemade feel.

They're made of bits of scrap metal.

[narrator] Once, this was the backdrop to a show, the kind America had

never seen before.

These machines would captivate an audience of thousands.

[Steven] At its peak, this place was a wonderful,

adrenaline-filled experience.

And at its low point, it was a near-death experience.

[narrator] In Greenfield, New Hampshire, an abandoned castle sticks out

among the fields.

[Steven] Am I the king of this castle?

I suppose so, but I'll tell you, the queen of the castle is

right here.

And that's my wife right there.

Hi, Kathy.

[narrator] Today, these ruins might resemble the forgotten set of

a B-rate fantasy movie, but once it was part of pumpkin

farmer Stephen Seigars' world-record winning passion project.

In our heyday, we would get at least 2,000 to 3,000 people

coming through here in a single day.

[narrator] This place's origins go back nearly three decades,

when Steven was inspired by something he saw on TV.

[Steven] So back in 1998,

our public television station did a story on

ancient siege weapons.

I just acted spontaneously after seeing this program.

And I said, "Well, maybe I'll build a trebuchet."

People did think I was a little bit crazy.

[Dr. Thomas] A trebuchet is a medieval weapon.

It has a long arm, and on one end, it's connected to a basket

of heavy counterweights so that when you release the potential

energy, it slings that arm forward and throws rocks at

something like a castle wall to take it down.

[narrator] Yet Stephen didn't build his trebuchet to throw rocks.

[Steven] I have a farm stand.

I wanted to find a way to increase my pumpkin sales.

So I said, well, if I built one of those machines, maybe

I could throw pumpkins and maybe that would attract people.

[narrator] Once his trebuchet was completed, this field

became its home.

This is Yankee Siege.

This is the biggest trebuchet probably in the world.

This machine weighs 72,000 pounds.

It has a 22,000 pound counterweight.

[Alcock] This was a serious pumpkin-throwing machine.

It could fling a pumpkin thousands of feet.

[narrator] But throwing pumpkins was only half of the DIY display

Steven put on here.

To attract visitors to his farmstead,

he needed a suitable target.

[Steven] This is Yankee Castle.

This is built out of old tanks.

We cut holes in them, cut some turrets.

[Meigs] Because the trebuchet was a medieval weapon,

he built this castle.

His idea was he would bombard the castle with pumpkins.

[narrator] Around the turn of the millennium, Yankee Siege

opened its doors, launching pumpkins for

the public's pleasure.

[Steven] We would do displays every Saturday and Sunday from

September all the way through to Halloween.

We do a four hour afternoon session where we're doing

an average of 10 shots per session.

[Alcock] Not only did people love the displays,

but Yankee Siege's business plan worked well.

People came in to see the show, but ended up spending money in

the farm stand.

[narrator] Despite the success, three years after opening,

everything changed for Yankee Siege.

After Steven decided to share his trebuchet with the nation,

he was forced to rethink his pumpkin-throwing pastime.

[narrator] In New Hampshire, Steven Seigars had built

a pumpkin-throwing trebuchet to promote his farm stand.

But a chance interaction at one of his displays would bring

this medieval siege weapon to a new stage, which stretched

across America.

[Steven] In 2003,

a man from the audience walks up to me and he says,

"You know, there's a competition in Delaware where they throw

"eight to ten pound pumpkins and you ought to go down

and see if you can enter it."

[narrator] Steven acted on his audience members' advice and entered

this trebuchet into the 2004 competition where

83 contestants tried to throw a pumpkin the furthest.

People would travel with their contraptions.

It might be a catapult, maybe an air cannon.

[narrator] This trebuchet did far more than just put on a show.

[Steven] We took our first shot and set a new world record.

The new world record was 1,394 feet.

[Alcock] The competition was a platform that brought Yankee Siege

to the nation.

[narrator] While continuing to do his shows here, Steven

and his trebuchet became a regular at

annual pumpkin-throwing competitions,

entering each year and winning.

[Steven] People ask me sometimes if

I was obsessed,

I would say emphatically yes, you don't get

to the top without being obsessed with it.

[narrator] Despite the good times, not every display here went

as planned.

There was one incident that I would like to forget because

it was a nightmare.

I had one of the workers lean over.

He leaned over the arm like this.

And for some reason, the trigger failed.

Came up under his chin, flipped him to the side four

or five feet, and he was out cold.

And I said, "My God, did he just die?"

[narrator] By the time the ambulance arrived at Steven's farm,

his employee was conscious and had no lasting injuries.

That kind of...

emphasized retirement for me.

I said, "Well, maybe it's time to retire.

I'm getting older and I have grandchildren."

[narrator] In 2018, Steven closed his farm stand,

and the Yankee Siege shows ended.

Today, nearly a decade later, like the castles in Europe,

Yankee Siege has fallen on hard times.

Yet unlike its stone forefathers, this fortress is

still achieving what it was built to do.

[Steven] People still come by to see the place.

They just love to just mosey around

and check out some of this hardware.

We only ask that people don't climb things.

[narrator] And if a crowd gathers, Steven occasionally puts on

a show, even if it's not pumpkin season.

Our alternative is to fire a plastic barrel, 55 gallons

of water. It's about 450 pounds.

Haven't fired this for a couple of years.

Hopefully, everything goes well.

Five...

[crowd]...four, three, two, one.

[clanking]

[crowd cheering]

I love it.

That never gets old.