All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.Hidden.America.S04E02.1080p.WEB.h264-FREQUENCY_track3_[eng]

[narrator] A rusting vessel
that once set sail

to find a shipwreck
full of gold.

It carried the greatest
lost treasure

in United States history.

[narrator] A house of correction
where the building itself

dealt out punishment.

If you get your hand in there,
when that 60,000 pounds come

around there, it's gone.

[distant scream]

[narrator]
And a huge forgotten complex

that taught America
how to laugh.

[woman] If it wasn't for them,
the American entertainment

scene might look
very different today.

[narrator] South of Jacksonville
on the St. Johns River

lies a collection
of rusting

and forgotten vessels.

[Dr. Mitchell]
Among this crowd of boats,
there's this lonely old ship

clinging to the side of
one of the docks.

You can imagine it in
its prime, smashing through

the waves in whatever
nature could throw at it.

[narrator] It once took
a daring crew on a mission

to find a hoard of
lost gold.

It was the storybook treasure,
no doubt about it.

[narrator] But this story
doesn't end at sea.

[Bell] What happened when
they made it back to shore is

scarcely believable.

It's the stuff of
a Hollywood script.

[narrator] The leader
of the voyage would
end up a fugitive,

the focus of
a nationwide manhunt.

[Szulgit]
The authorities actually
started posting billboards

boards with his face saying,
have you seen this man?

Come forward
and let us know.

[Bell] This has all the traits
of a modern-day pirate story.

You've got shipwrecks,
hidden gold,

and a man
languishing in jail.

[narrator] One of the crew
members on this ship's

speculative mission
in 1988 was Bob Evans.

His involvement in the project
began when his neighbor,

Tommy Thompson,
offered him a job to locate

a very special shipwreck.

What he really offered me was,
"Can you research these areas of

the ocean
where we might find it?"

Tommy told me if he ever got it
funded that I would get paid

for those hours, and that was,
in fact, the case.

[narrator]
The ship they all hoped to find
was the SS Central America.

After encountering a hurricane
at sea, it sank in 1857

with the loss of 425 lives.

It was an extremely famous
shipwreck at the time,

comparable to the way that
the Titanic became in

the 20th century.

[narrator]
But the SS Central America
carried more than just people.

The SS Central America
was carrying an estimated

30,000 pounds of gold,
all prospected during

the California Gold Rush.

[narrator] The ship
was bound for New York

with a cargo of gold,

worth approximately two million
dollars in its time,

roughly 300 million
in today's money.

Exactly where the ship sunk,
however, was a mystery.

Trying to find a ship lost
during the mid-19th century in

a part of the Atlantic Ocean
over a mile deep was

a long shot,
to say the least.

[narrator]
This is the Arctic Discoverer,

the ship that took on
this impossible task.

The team located this ship
frozen in the ice of

Newfoundland, retired after
years working as a Canadian

fisheries research vessel
called the Arctic Ranger.

This boat was perfect.

It had five scientific
laboratories built into it,

and these could be used in
the mission that lay ahead.

[narrator]
Thompson managed to convince

161 private investors to
fund the expedition.

And in June 1988,
the renamed Arctic Discoverer

set sail in an attempt to find
the SS Central America

and its golden cargo.

It was also equipped
with an ROV,

a remotely-operated vehicle.

And this was critical,
because the treasure would be

far too deep
for divers to go down.

[narrator] The crew
affectionately named

their remotely-operated
submersible Nemo.

[Evans]
Nemo was a remarkable vehicle.

I liken it a bit to like one of
NASA's Gemini program,

where it was an amazing
achievement at the time.

[narrator]
Bob had honed in on two areas
off the coast of the Carolinas,

where it was thought
the hurricane-hit ship

had fatefully drifted.

In the summer of 1988,
Nemo began relaying footage

from the depths to
the eagerly watching crew above.

This is the control room
where it all happened.

I sat at a small table here.

Over here, we had the co-pilot,
his station, and his monitor.

Here was where the pilot
sat with his monitor.

[narrator] For months,
they were staring at
blank, lifeless scenes.

But they refused to give up.

[Bell]
As they sent down

their underwater robot
for yet another search,

something magical appeared
on their computer screens.

[Evans] Nemo swam over the SS
Central America's paddle wheels

and this room erupted in joy
and laughter upon seeing that.

[man] You know that is?
Whoo! Ah! Ha ha!

[Rodriguez McRobbie]
But the presence of
the gold was still unconfirmed.

They had to wait to develop
the photos to be sure.

[Evans] One of our photographic
technicians, he told me,

"Go in the photo lab and have
a look at what's on the table."

It was magnificent.

What they saw was beyond
their wildest dreams, piles of

gold bars and gold coins.

[Bell] Finding the gold
was one thing.

Getting it back to
the surface was a completely

different problem.

[narrator]
Retrieving the gold from
over 7,000 feet below was also

a task for
the multi-talented Nemo.

It had a mechanical arm that
would scoop treasure into

a small storage drawer.

But the first attempt to pull
Nemo back onto the ship

didn't go as planned.

[Evans] The crane with
a swing mechanism on it broke.

And Nemo was wildly
swinging from side to side,

suspended above
the deck here.

[narrator] They eventually
secured Nemo to the deck.

The sub's
hydraulics had broken,

but crucially,
the precious cargo it contained

was safe.

[Evans] Four of us pried open
the drawer that was on Nemo

and removed the gold,
and secured it downstairs

inside my laboratory.

[narrator] The damage to Nemo
forced the crew to come ashore

early, but crucially,
they weren't

returning empty-handed.

[Evans] This we knew
that we could use to
secretly announce to

our investment group that in
fact we had found the treasure

and that we were ready to go
out and recover this treasure.

[narrator] The following year,
they returned to the shipwreck

and retrieved
over a ton of gold.

[Rodriguez McRobbie]
They return to shore to
great acclaim, media attention,

news trucks, and armed guards.

But almost immediately,
everything went south.

[narrator]
In 1989, the Arctic Discoverer
returned from sea carrying over

a ton of gold recovered from
the 1857 wreck of

the SS Central America.

But after the initial fanfare,
came controversy.

39 insurance companies came
forward to claim that they were

actually the owners of the gold,
because they had insured it

back in the mid-19th century.

[narrator] But as the salvagers,
Tommy Thompson and his crew

expected they had a rightful
claim to most of the gold.

It was down
to a court to decide.

[Evans]
1992, the appellate decision
came back saying that we,

as the people who worked
on recovering it,

are entitled to a salvage award.

This ultimately sorted its way
out through years of litigation

and lawsuits to the point where
our group got essentially

92 and a half percent.

[narrator] In the year 2000,
Tommy Thompson sold

the treasure to a marketing
group for a reported

$50 million who then
oversaw its sale

through various auctions.

But allegedly, none of
his investors in the expedition

saw any proceeds.

Two companies who had invested
large amounts of money

filed a lawsuit.

[Dr. Mitchell]
A media circus built up.

Some newspapers were calling
Tommy a pirate who had gotten

away with stolen booty.

[narrator]
After long legal delays,
in 2012, Thompson was finally

summoned to appear in court.

For reasons unknown,
still to this day,

he made a drastic decision

that would shape
the rest of his life.

He fled.

He ran away from
a federal district judge.

[Rodriguez McRobbie]
The police used huge
electronic billboards to enlist

the public's help to try to
find Thompson.

This was a proper manhunt.

[narrator] Tommy Thompson
evaded capture for two years.

[Szulgit]
One of the U.S. Marshals

who was tasked with
finding him said that he was

one of the most intelligent
fugitives ever sought.

[Evans]
He was apprehended in early

2015 in Boca Raton,
Florida, and has been

essentially incarcerated
ever since.

Initially only given a two-year
prison sentence for

criminal contempt,
the judge later ordered

that Thompson
remain locked up

until he revealed
the location of hundreds of

gold coins believed to
still be in his possession.

[Dr. Mitchell] As long as
he talked about where
the coins were,

he could potentially be
set free.

But instead, he denies any
knowledge of the coins,

stating, "I feel like I don't
have the keys to my freedom."

[Szulgit] It's hard to know what
the truth is here, but one fact

still remains, and that is
he's still in prison.

[Evans] I usually describe
my feelings about my old friend

Tommy Thompson as
extreme ambivalence.

I am thrilled that
he got me involved.

On the other hand, I hate like
hell what has happened to him

and the taint it has brought
to what was otherwise

a really magnificent story.

[narrator] Bob returned
to the SS Central America
site in 2014

and helped a new crew find
over 3,000 more gold coins.

The Arctic Discoverer, caught up
in all the legal issues of

the first expedition,
would never set sail again.

Today, the Arctic Discoverer
is beyond repair,

but it still has a future.

[Bell]
The Arctic Discoverer may soon
join the SS Central America at

the bottom of the ocean,
as there are talks for

the storied ship to be sunk
and turned into

an artificial reef.

[narrator] Whatever its fate, it
will always be remembered for

its pioneering voyage
of discovery.

[Evans] It was a cool idea to go
to sea and hunt for treasure.

I mean, how often does a human
get an opportunity to actually

do that?
It was a great adventure.

[narrator] In the Midwest,
there's a forgotten facility

with a twist,
where residents' lives took

a turn for the worse.

[Roach]
You drive down the street,
and you think this is a great,

big house --
you have no idea what it is.

And the people that were here,
they really didn't know what

they were getting into.

[Dr. Thomas]
We're in Crawfordsville,
about 50 miles west of

Indianapolis, the capital city
of the state of Indiana.

[narrator] Downtown, a red
brick building doesn't fit in.

[Alcock]
This is weird.

With its high windows and roof
trims, this structure looks

like nothing else around.

It feels grand,
yet when you get up close,

you can see some of
the walls are in a bad way.

[Kwami] Entering through
the front door,

nothing can
prepare you for this.

It's a world of
metal cogs and bars.

[narrator] This place once
represented a groundbreaking

American design, but it broke
far more than just

architectural standards.

[Turpin] The most incredible
thing about this building is

this big, amazing machine.

We had amputated feet,
amputated arms.

It's said that the terror
of an event here

inspired one of
Hollywood's greatest hits.

[narrator] In Crawfordsville,
hundreds pass this building

each day, not knowing
the horrors hidden within.

But for Phillip Roach,
it's a place

close to his heart.

[Roach] I feel peace when
I come into this building.

I feel like I'm at home.

[narrator]
When Philip first came here,

this structure housed
around 20 people.

[Roach]
I knew just about everybody
that was in here at the time

because most of them were
from the neighborhood.

I could come back here
and learn how to play checkers,

cheat at poker,
and the good things in life.

While Phillip
entered voluntarily,

everyone else came
here against their will.

This is
the Montgomery County Jail.

The Montgomery County Jail
mainly housed prisoners for one

or two nights for minor
misdemeanors,

but it also housed
the sheriff and his family.

My uncle, Roy Hardaker,
was the sheriff in 1949 to 1951,

and that's when I first
entered this building.

[narrator] Constructed in 1882,

the Montgomery County Jail was

a guinea pig for
the American penal system.

It was the first of only
a handful of rotary jails

built across the nation.

[Alcock] Rotary jails were built
with spinning cell blocks.

It was meant to be
a cost-saving idea because each

floor had only
one exit and entrance,

meaning fewer guards
were needed.

[narrator] Brittney Turpin
has spent the last 10 years

learning this building's
treacherous secrets.

[Turpin] Right now, we're
standing underneath the jail.

This is the railroad turntable
that the cell block sits on.

[Dr. Thomas]
The jail itself is made up of
16 wedge-shaped cells that are

put together in a cylindrical
block with two levels,

eight cells on each level.

This is a place that was
a carousel for convicts.

So this is the hand crank,
and it turns both the first

and second floor
at the same time.

When it was first built,
it only took about

14 pounds of pressure
for it to move.

[narrator] Yet this custodial
contraption had one major flaw,

one that broke not just
the will of the prisoners,

but also their bones.

[narrator] Holding prisoners
in a spinning cell block,

the rotary jail in
Crawfordsville, Indiana,

was a revolutionary design.

But some of the people who were
held here lost more than

just their freedom.

[Kwami] When the guards
were rotating the cells,

sometimes those
prisoners weren't ready,

and their limbs would be
dangling outside the bars.

[Dr. Thomas] The jail would
rotate very, very quietly.

The prisoners didn't know
to remove their arms,

and bad things could happen.

If you get your arm in there,
when that 60,000 pounds come

around there, it's gone.

[distant agonized scream]

[narrator]
With prisoners arrested
for only minor misdemeanors like

drunk and disorderly conduct,
losing their limbs while in

prison wasn't acceptable.

So in 1933,
authorities stepped in

and stopped this slammer
from spinning.

When taking custody
of a person,

you are responsible
for their wellbeing.

And the rotary jail just wasn't
the kind of place that

you could keep people safe
for very long.

So the gears and mechanisms
that made it move were

eventually welded shut.

[narrator]
But amputated limbs were just
the beginning of the horrors at

the Montgomery County Jail.

In 1885, an inmate
named John Coffee

was sentenced
to death by hanging.

He was accused of killing
the farmers here.

[Dr. Thomas]
It was well known that
John suffered from intellectual

disabilities and was
considered very vulnerable.

He was easily persuaded.

[narrator]
Whether John was guilty or not
is still debated to this day.

Yet while he was held here
awaiting his execution,

he formed
an unlikely camaraderie.

[Kwami] The guards were aware of
his vulnerabilities and that

he was a good-natured man.

They liked having him around,
and they even warmed to him.

An example of that is that
they knew John was afraid

of the dark.

[Turpin]
The first night that he stayed
in the jail, he was distraught,

he was scared, and we know that
one of the guards stayed with

him that night so that
he wouldn't have to be alone.

[narrator] Regardless of these
friendships, on October 15th,

1885, John took center stage
in Crawfordsville's first

public execution, which took
place in the courtyard here.

[Turpin] The county did sell
tickets so the public could come

and view the execution.

There was approximately
250 people here.

[narrator]
Despite a sense of excitement
in the crowd, no one was

prepared for what
would happen next.

The first two attempts to
execute John failed.

Each time,
the rope broke.

The accounts from
the newspapers state that

people were actually vomiting
in the crowd, watching Coffee

fall to the ground,
get picked back up with blood

coming out of his ears.

[narrator] Yet this was
only the start of the event
that still haunts

Crawfordsville to this day.

On the third attempt,
the rope didn't break,

but it also didn't tighten
very hard around his neck.

It meant that he had
a very drawn out execution.

[Roach]
It was a gruesome way to go.

It didn't break his neck,
it just choked him to death.

[Alcock] It took nine minutes
for John's heart to stop.

It's impossible to imagine
the horrors of watching

this prolonged death rattle.

But many claim it inspired one
of America's greatest books

and films, Stephen King's
"The Green Mile."

While Stephen King has never
said that this story influenced

"The Green Mile,"
the similarities are striking.

[Alcock] The main character in
"The Green Mile" was also called

John Coffee,
although spelt differently.

They were both convicted
of similar crimes.

They both had learning
difficulties, were afraid of

the dark, and struck up
relationships

with their guards.

Surely this is all more than
just a coincidence.

[narrator] Fortunately,
throughout the 20th century,

the horrors John Coffee faced
here were never repeated.

But in the 1970s,
a peculiar pattern of arrests

began to appear.

Prisoner numbers would shoot
up, and they were way higher on

the weekends than they were
for neighboring towns.

Bizarrely, it turned out
that some townsfolk were

intentionally getting arrested.

[narrator] This boost in
the inmate population

was all thanks
to one woman,

the jail's matron, Liz Shull.

[Turpin] When Liz was serving as
the matron in this facility,

she did get the reputation of
being an exceptionally

good cook.

[Alcock] Married to the sheriff,
Liz lived in the prison

and treated the inmates like
they were her extended family,

often feeding them
what her family

were having for dinner.

[Dr. Thomas] Word spread
around town that on Sunday,

Liz would make fried chicken,

and on Monday morning, she
would have biscuits and gravy.

Strangely, arrests
shot up on Sundays.

[narrator] Yet these culinary
highs couldn't save the jail.

Even while Liz worked here,
authorities forced it to shut.

The jail closed in 1973 because
the need for the inmates

really outgrew the size
of the facility.

[Roach]
It was antiquated.

They just didn't
have enough facilities to

handle the prisoners.

[narrator] Today, over half
a century since it's shut,

the Montgomery County Jail
has reopened as a museum.

[Turpin] I'm the executive
director of the foundation that

oversees the facility.

We have approximately 4,000
visitors a year that come

into the jail.

[narrator]
While being the only functional
rotary jail in America helps to

draw in visitors,
the highlight of many a visit

is hearing the stories
firsthand from Philip.

[Roach] I still have
a great time in here.

I love giving the tours.

This here is a step in
the American penal system.

There's 150 years of history,
and that's unusual.

[narrator] In New York's
Hudson Valley sit the remains of

an iconic destination that
helped shape American culture.

I was part of
the fourth generation

of my family
to be here.

There's probably nothing in my
life that makes me more proud.

[Alcock] We're near
the Catskill Mountains.

It's about 80 miles
north of New York City,

an area of natural beauty.

We're talking forests,
mountains, and waterfalls.

[narrator]
Just south of the small town
of Ellenville, a number of

abandoned structures
stand out among the wilderness.

[Meigs] The buildings are kind
of a mishmash, as if they were

built at different times
without much of a master plan.

[Meares] What I first noticed is
this huge tower must be

10 stories tall.

This is something you'd expect
to see in the big city,

not in the middle of nowhere.

[Szulgit] Dotted around are
various sports facilities,

tennis court, playing fields,
even an old ski slope.

Whoever built this place
really had some money.

[narrator] Vestiges of the high
life lie in the very spot

they were left.

[Alcock] You can see shelves
with ice skates still on them

and even tickets
strewn on the floor.

It feels like
it's frozen in time.

[narrator] But before being
reclaimed by nature,

this place was
a hotbed of talent.

[Rubenstein]
It was like you've gone to
this Shangri-La for comedians

and professional athletes,
but people make places.

And without the people,
it didn't have

the wherewithal survive.

[narrator]
These crumbling structures
in the Catskill Mountains were

once a go-to destination for
New York's movers and shakers.

Keith Rubenstein's family
were one of many

who flocked here
to escape the city.

We came here twice a year for
probably 15 years of my life.

And it was just something
that we looked forward to.

And it was ingrained as part of
our fabric as a family.

This is the Nevele --
at its peak,

this was one of the grandest
resorts in the region,

but it came from
very humble beginnings.

It all started when

David Slutsky's
great-grandparents

moved to New York from Russia.

[Slutsky]
They tried to do some farming.

It probably
proved to be not too productive.

They realized
that they could rent out space

in their own home to people
that wanted to come here

for the summer.

[narrator]
But the Slutsky family home was
getting crowded, and a regular

patron asked to build his own
bungalow on the property.

My grandfather said to this man,
"I have a better idea.

"I'll build a bungalow,
and it won't cost you anything,

"and then when you come up
in the summer with your family,

you'll pay the rent."

[narrator]
Mr. Slutsky had tapped into
a growing market that would

bring guests to his door
for years to come,

thanks to New York's booming
immigrant Jewish population.

They needed
someplace to go on vacation.

They needed
to get out of the city.

These were the days
before air conditioning.

[narrator] But in America,
anti-Semitism was rife,

and discrimination was
protected by the law.

[Meares] And many hotels
had signs up that said,

"No Jews allowed"
or "Gentiles only."

It was a really dark period of
American history.

[Szulgit] This gave birth
to something called

the Jewish Vacation Guide,

which actually
highlighted areas that would

welcome Jews,
many of these in the Catskills.

[narrator]
Across the region, places like
the Nevele provided a getaway

for those turned
away elsewhere.

As Jewish vacationers
flocked to the area,

it soon became
known as the Borscht Belt.

The nickname came from the beet
soup, Borscht, which is popular

across Eastern Europe,
an area where many of

these Jewish immigrants
came from.

[narrator]
As New York's Jewish population
became more prosperous,

places like the Nevele
evolved to cater

to their needs.

And their demand for
entertainment would lead to

a cultural revolution sparked
in the resort's theaters.

[Meares] Borscht Belt was really
the incubator of some of

the biggest comedy stars
of the last century.

Their style became known
as Borscht Belt humor.

[Meigs] They also
mainstreamed a certain type of

Jewish-American culture.

The 1950s, Yiddish was
this strange language

that some immigrants spoke.

By the 1980s,
everybody knew words like klutz

and schmuck and chutzpah.

[narrator] Almost every major
Jewish comedian of the era

performed in the Borscht Belt.

[Alcock] Lenny Bruce,
Joan Rivers, Sid Caesar,

the list is almost endless.

[Meigs] Eventually, this kind of
Borscht Belt Jewish humor

became American humor.

As a kid, I remember seeing
comedians that were probably

too inappropriate for me to
have seen, like a gentleman

like Buddy Hackett, who was
known for his irreverent humor.

[narrator] The groundbreaking
entertainment led to a surge in

popularity, which would
make the Nevele

a cultural institution.

[Alcock]
If you want to get an idea
of what the Nevele was like in

its heyday, you can watch
the movie, "Dirty Dancing."

The resort in the movie was
actually based on hotels in

the Borscht Belt.

[narrator]
Guests at the Nevele could
even expect to rub shoulders

with some of the biggest
sports stars of the day.

John McEnroe, Billie Jean King,
and the like used to come here

and play against each other.

[narrator]
But in the summer of 1966,

the Nevele would welcome
the biggest A-lister of all.

We got a call that President
Johnson needed a place to stay

because he wanted to come to
the area to dedicate the new

Ellenville Hospital.

[Alcock]
The president needed a place to
stay with his entourage of over

100 people, and the Nevele
was the only place big enough

to accommodate them all.

[narrator]
The Nevele was already
fully booked for the summer,

but the Slutskys
weren't about to miss

this once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity.

[Slutsky]
We had to call everybody
who was supposed to come for

that night and ask them to
please delay their stay for

their arrival one day.

While most guests were willing
to change their plans, one man

named Mr. Sugarman would put
the entire presidential visit

in jeopardy.

[Slutsky]
As a surprise to us, that man
had called the White House.

The White House called us
and indicated that if

we couldn't provide
Mr. Sugarman with his room,

then the president was
not coming.

Unbeknown to the Slutskys,
the disgruntled guest was

a member of the Democratic
Party who was coming to stay at

the hotel for his honeymoon.

[narrator]
So the reservation was honored,
and President Johnson stayed at

the Nevele as planned.

[Slutsky] And on the front page
of the New York Times,

heading read, "Johnson Saves
a Catskill Honeymoon."

[narrator] But despite
this feather in their cap,

difficult times lay ahead.

[narrator] The Nevele was at
the heart of the Borscht Belt,

upstate New York's
Jewish vacation hotspot.

But a travel revolution was
about to bring

the entire region to its knees.

In the second half of
the 20th century,

airfare really
decreases in price.

And so, it becomes trendy to go
explore the world and not just

spend all your time
on one resort's property.

[narrator] Over the years,
guest numbers dwindled,

and as it entered
the 21st century,

the Nevele started
to fall into disrepair.

[Rubenstein] I used to bring
my kids, when they were little,

just for a night,
so they could see it.

And it was in a really bad
state of deterioration.

All of the things that were
great about it were memories.

[narrator] On July 4th, 2009,
the Nevele shut

its doors permanently.

And for over a decade since,
the site has sat abandoned.

Today, developer Keith
Rubenstein is bringing the site

back to life by turning it into
a destination wellness resort.

I think the wilderness,
the landscape, and the nature is

the star of the show.

You have the ability to hike,
enjoy the fresh air.

I think we have the makings of
a world-class project.

[narrator] In northern Colorado,
a cluster of oddly-shaped

structures marks the point
where a global conflict reached

the heart of the nation.

It landed in April of 1945,

and it was right on the corner
right over there.

It's kind of a sobering thought
when you think about it.

[Dr. Auerbach] We are in
Timnath, Colorado, a small town

at the base of
the Rocky Mountains,

about an hour's
drive north of Denver.

[narrator]
An unusual sight sits tucked
away beneath a busy highway.

[Dr. Auerbach] At first glance,
this looks like a scrapyard.

There's rusting metal and old
machinery everywhere you look.

[narrator] But a collection of
strange metal beasts

stands out among the clutter.

[Kwami] What's striking here is
that there are just so many of

these structures in this place,

and it must have taken
years to make.

[narrator]
These sculptures stem from
the wild imagination of a man

who would go down
as a Colorado legend.

[Morgan]
To look at this site today,
you would never imagine that

a foreign power would attack
the location, but that is

exactly what happened here.

[narrator] Among the big box
stores and fast food chains,

this rusting metal menagerie

seems at odds
with its surroundings.

Ken Swets knows firsthand how
much this place has changed

throughout the years.

My grandparents
moved here in 1942.

This was all farm ground
as far as you could look.

[narrator] But in 1945,
this peaceful farm,
almost 1,000 miles from

any ocean, would become
the unlikely site of one of

World War II's most
bizarre offensives.

[Swets] My uncle was in
this general area sometime

during middle of the day,
I believe.

-He heard a loud boom
and a flash of light.
-[boom]

Not knowing what was going on,
he ran back to my grandfather's

house, and my dad said that
he was white as a sheet.

[narrator]
Eight-year-old Jack Swets
had just witnessed

a last-ditch attempt to turn
the tide of the war

by one of America's
desperate foes.

Japan came up with a plan to
weaponize the jet stream,

and that plan would involve
balloons that could be released

in Japan and would be carried
all the way across the breadth

of the Pacific Ocean,
and that they would come down

then in the Pacific Northwest.

[narrator] Over 9,000 of these
hydrogen-filled paper balloons

were released between
November 1944

and April 1945.

Each contained several
incendiary bombs,

as well as one larger
high explosive.

Upon release, a timing device
would carefully calculate

the way that
the balloon progressed.

It would manage its maximum
height and its minimum height.

[narrator] The balloons
would reach the U.S.

after three or four days,
and having lost most of

their hydrogen, begin to sink.

It would come down somewhere
from Oregon all the way over to

maybe Michigan,
and that somewhere in there,

it will find a forest
and set it on fire.

The Japanese hoped if we could
start thousands of fires,

maybe it would so cripple
the United States that it would

greatly complicate
the war effort for them.

[Dr. Auerbach] The ultimate goal
was to spread fear and anxiety

amongst the American population.

They were essentially
weapons of terror.

[narrator] Adding to the fear
and confusion, as soon as

they dropped the bombs,
the balloons were designed to

disappear without a trace.

The Timnath incident seems to
be an excellent case of

a balloon bomb that did
everything it was supposed to.

What Jack Swets
saw that day

was a balloon bomb
that came down.

It dropped its high-explosive
bomb, which was

the first explosion,
and then the self-destruct

sequence began as the balloon
began its rapid ascent,

and the flash of light in
the sky that he saw was

11 pounds of thermite
consuming what was left of

the balloon envelope.

[Swets] My dad had mentioned
that immediately, of course,

the government was here.

They wanted to shut down
any public knowledge

about what had happened.

[Dr. Auerbach]
Since the government
was suppressing any news

of the explosions,
the balloon bombs didn't spread

anxiety and terror as intended.

The ban on reporting also led
the Japanese to believe that

the balloons hadn't really had
any effect, and the project

was deemed a failure.

[narrator] Once the war was
over, the Swets family looked

forward to a bright future

and would go on to turn this
place into something

no one could have imagined.

[narrator]
The Swets' family farm in
rural Colorado was the site of

a rare Japanese balloon bomb
attack during World War II,

but it would
soon gain notoriety

for an entirely
different reason.

[Swets] My grandfather
had started to advance in age

and had some
health-related issues.

So my father
took the farm over in 1975.

[narrator] Ken's father, Bill
Swets, would run the farm with

his wife, Sandy, and they would
have three boys of their own.

But soon, tense times
would lead him down

an unexpected path.

My dad was a volunteer fireman.

He always kind of had
trouble winding down,

especially if he'd get
a call late at night.

So he kind of started just
tinkering around in his shop,

just kind of started
building stuff.

As time went by, he was
making larger and larger pieces.

And that turned into
this sculpture garden.

[Swets]
My dad and my mom were talking,
and my dad looked around,

and he says, this kind of looks
like a zoo around here.

[narrator]
This is Swetsville Zoo.

Here, at the site of
the balloon bomb attack,

Bill Swets would
introduce the world to

his unique creations.

These all started as just
pieces laying in a big pile.

Like, for instance, this is
off the front end of a car.

This is off a farm implement.

If you look up there,
that's actually an oil pan.

[Kwami] Swetsville Zoo
became a destination for local

residents, and it also attracted
folks on road trips from

around the globe.

[narrator]
As the zoo's popularity grew,

Bill always insisted
on one thing.

It was important to my dad,
and it meant a lot to him to be

able to share it with people.

You know, he always wanted to
keep it free.

Bill's zoo was
hugely popular with locals

and people passing through town.

But an unexpected event
would mean

his farm's days would
be numbered.

[Swets] 1995, my mother was
diagnosed with hepatitis that

she contracted from a blood
transfusion back in the '70s.

The doctors gave her
less than a year to live.

[narrator] Ken's father, Bill,
made the decision to retire

from farming so he could spend
more time with his wife, Sandy.

They traveled the country
together, and Sandy would beat

all expectations and live
for another 14 years.

She passed away in 2010.

[Dr. Auerbach] Since 2010,
Timnath's population

has grown more than tenfold.

Timnath is essentially becoming
a suburb of Fort Collins,

and it's no longer
the sleepy farming community

that Bill Swets grew up in.

[narrator] This urban sprawl
would soon put the zoo at risk.

The development that's
encroaching is one of

the reasons that my dad
has decided to leave.

[narrator] In 2022,
Bill Swets sold the farm,

and the zoo closed
its doors for good.

Bill Swets' land has been
purchased by a development

group that plans to turn it
into a new community.

Development principal
Liz Newman is making sure

the zoo's sculptures
have a home here.

[Newman]
Swetsville Zoo has been so
important to this community for

decades and we don't want it to
go away just because

we're developing it --
we wanna preserve the heritage.

There's fascinating links to
history that you wouldn't

expect in this place.

I think it's so great that
this sculpture garden

is going to be preserved.