All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.Hidden.America.S04E08.1080p.WEB.h264-FREQUENCY_track3_[eng]

[narrator]
A fortified facility

that sustained
America's heroes,

[Karen Johnson] The product
that came out
of these buildings

was used for so many
celebrations and victories.

[narrator] And a small town

where a murder
sparked a revolution.

[Gloria Dickenson]
What started here
was one of the most

horrible things
that happened in the nation,

but it also brought about
much needed change.

In Washington State,

one building has left
its mark on American culture,

and fueled one of the nation's
greatest treasure hunts.

[Paul Knight] This place has
a storied history

unlike any other place
that I know of.

I can almost hear the voices

of the people who are working
in these areas.

[Greg Szulgit]
We're in Tumwater,

about an hour's drive
south of Seattle.

It's a beautiful town
that's built
on the Deschutes River.

[narrator] On the river's
open plains,

a tower looms over
an abandoned
industrial complex.

[Greg] This giant, tall tower
is the weird part

where you have a lot
of space to build out,

to fit lots of workers
and lots of machines.

Why you'd build up,

that begs some questions.

[Jim Meigs] It's got these
architectural hints

that seem like they aim
at something grander

than just a factory.

[narrator] Inside,
there are more questions
than answers.

[Hadley Meares]
There's white tiles
on the tower wall,

so maybe this was a place
that was meant to get dirty.

It looks like something
you'd expect in a hospital
or laboratory.

This place was the heartbeat
of the community.

It produced a product
that was iconic.

[narrator] These buildings
brought joy

to millions of Americans.

But when the nation
faced dark days,

its innovation helped keep
the war machine rolling.

[Jim] In World War II,

this was considered important
to the morale of the country.

[narrator] For 36 years,

Paul Knight's job gave him
a special connection
to this place.

[Paul] This building
is pretty much
like an old friend of mine.

First entered it in 1964.

[narrator] Paul is one
of a few who knows
its secrets,

including why this tower
had to be built so tall.

It was very unique
in America for its time.

This building utilized gravity

to move the materials
from place to place.

[Greg] Ingredients would be
taken up by elevator,

and then by gravity
would simply process down
through various vats

and would be treated
in different ways,

and at the bottom,
bingo, beer.

[narrator] This is
the Olympia Brewery.

At its peak, it produced
100,000 barrels of beer
a year.

As the brewmaster,

Paul developed
a taste for the product.

[Paul] I've drunk a lot
of Olympia beer in my life,

maybe more Olympia Beer
than anybody else.

I've probably drank
about 90,000 bottles of beer.

[Jim] When I reached
the legal drinking age,

Olympia Beer was known as a
really affordable light lager.

My friends and I always
had a case of Olympia.

[Greg] The beer was named
after Washington
state capital, Olympia,

which is only a few miles
from Tumwater.

[narrator] But this beer
was popular beyond

Washington State's
dimly lit bars.

Karen Johnson has seen it
on America's silver screen.

Clint Eastwood was really
in favor of Olympia Beer.

So whenever Clint Eastwood
was in a Hollywood movie,

and had a chance
to drink a beer,

he always made sure
it was Olympia Beer.

[narrator] Despite making it
to Hollywood,

the beer's origins
come from a time
when the West was still wild.

It was the brainchild,
of a German immigrant.

[Paul] Leopold Schmidt
is very much a hero of mine.

He was the founder of
the Olympia Brewing Company.

The reason Leopold Schmidt
wanted to build a brewery here

was because of the water.

[Hadley] So legend has it

that Leopold was looking
for a place to set up
a brewery,

and he told his barber,

and his barber said, "Hey,
you should go use the waters
of Tumwater"

because the indigenous people
here have used it
for brewing forever.

[narrator] Leopold made
a discovery that changed
the course of beer history.

[Paul] The springs
that Leopold found

were some of the purest
brewing water
to be discovered anywhere.

[Greg] Having been filtered
by the rocks,

the water here has
a very low mineral content,

perfect for brewing lager.

In 1896,

he built this
beautiful building,

Leopold really wanted to push
the importance of the water,

so he came up with the slogan,
"It's the water."

[TV announcer]
Didn't we remind you
on every bottle

and every can?

It's the water that gives
light Olympia Beer

its exceptional quality
and unchanging good taste.

[narrator] Although the purity
of the water

created local demand
for the beer,

with limited advertising,

Leopold struggled to sell it
outside of the state,

until one of America's
greatest treasure hunts

gave him a unique opportunity.

In 1896, there was a discovery

that sent shockwaves
around the world.

They'd found gold
in the Klondike.

This meant a massive
flood of prospectors
to Alaska.

Of course, what do all those
thirsty miners
and workers need?

Lots of beer.

[Karen] But at that time,
Alaska was officially dry,

meaning people
couldn't sell beer there.

[narrator] Alaskan prohibition
was deterring minors
from moving there.

So to attract
a willing workforce
to this desolate frontier,

the federal government
stepped in.

In 1899 the US Congress
changed that rule,

and Alaska
suddenly became wet.

[narrator] But with Alaska
having been dry,

it didn't have any
in state breweries.

[Karen] So Leopold
saw that opportunity,

and started shipping
his beer to Alaska in 1899.

Olympia Beer became
the dominant beer brand

in what would become
these boom towns of Alaska.

[narrator]
In just three years,

100,000 men
traveled to the last frontier,

many toasting
their new fortunes
with Olympia Beer.

It transformed this brewery
into an industrial juggernaut.

But when the company
seemed to be at its peak,

something unexpected
shook its foundation.

[Paul] In 1914,
Leopold Schmidt
unfortunately passed away

at a very young age of 68.

He died of a heart attack,
very tragic.

[narrator] Yet the death
of its champion
was just the beginning

of a time of change
for the brewery.

Its future would be sticky,

but sweet.

[narrator] In 1914,

the Olympia Brewery
was reeling from the death
of its founder,

but things were about to be
turned upside down.

[Karen] In 1914,
Washington State voted
to go dry,

and voted in Prohibition,

which was going to ban
the making and selling
of beer.

[narrator]
Just five years later,

the entire United States
followed suit,

and the era
of national Prohibition began.

Yet thanks to a bizarre twist,

this brewery
managed to survive.

[Jim] The company pivoted.

They had this
hygienic workspace.

They had all this equipment.

So they went
into business processing

various kinds of products.

[Karen] Here at this plant,

they imported railroad cars
full of apples
and made fruit juice.

[narrator] For over 15 years,

the smells of hops
were replaced
with crushed apples,

but when Prohibition
came to an end,

ironically, this brewery
stayed dry.

[Jim] The beer business
was getting more mechanized.

Factories were
now electrified,

so the company built
a whole new facility

a few hundred yards away.

[narrator] At the same time,

a technological revolution
was reforming
the beer industry.

The beer can is invented
in Virginia in 1935.

[narrator] Olympia Beer
took a stance
against this innovation.

[Jim] Some people complain
that the beer from a can

had a bit of a metallic taste.

For Olympia Beer,

they were very devoted
to the purity of their water.

So the idea
of a metallic aftertaste was
not going to work for them.

[Hadley] So instead,
they developed a glass bottle

with a metal cap
that they called the "stubby."

[Karen] The stubby
was a shorter, stockier bottle

that traveled well,
fit in the refrigerator.

And after
it was invented here,

it became the common bottle
for the whole industry.

[narrator] Today, this design
has been adopted

by other breweries
across the world.

In an interesting twist,

these bottles played a part
in winning a global conflict,

when in 1941,

America entered World War II.

[Jim] In World War II,

so many industries
were taken over
by the government

to work on
military production.

But beer was considered
a product that was important
for the morale of the country.

So Olympia continued
to make their beer,

but they did have to supply
15% of their output
to the US military.

[Greg] Can you imagine
being a GI

far overseas
in a completely foreign place,

and when it comes time
to relax,

having that little bit of home
in your hand?

[narrator] But just months
after entering the war,

the beer industry found itself
in direct conflict
with the military.

[Karen] There was a national
metal shortage.

Metal was saved
for military purposes.

[narrator] This temporarily
spelled the end
of the beer can,

which was outlawed in 1942,

leaving Olympia's stubbies

as an accidentally
patriotic alternative.

[Paul] The stubby bottle
was the ideal package
for the product,

because it was glass,

and it used only a very small
amount of metal for the cap.

[narrator] By keeping metal
flowing into
the war factories,

in just four years,

America produced 86,000 tanks,

and 2,000,000 trucks.

Although the stubby
played its part,

just five years later,
with the war won,

and the metallic taste gone,

Olympia finally adopted
the beer can.

Their business
just skyrocketed.

[Paul] The brewery,
at one time

was the seventh largest
in the nation.

It produced over
4,000,000 barrels per year.

[narrator] But the good times

didn't last.

In the 1980s,

rival brands
grew exponentially,

and began monopolizing
the beer market.

[Jim] We had the rise
of the big national brands

that could advertise
on the Super Bowl,

that could ship their beer
all around the country.

[Hadley] Olympia Beer
just can't keep up.

They don't have
the name recognition.

[Paul] In 2003,

the brewery ceased production.

The community was in shock.

But I just hated
the loss of...

...what I considered
the greatest place to work
in the world.

[narrator] Twenty years
after Olympia Beer stopped
production in Tumwater,

the original brewery
is making a comeback...

...as the city is looking
to breathe new life
into the tower.

[Karen] There's been talk
about the whole site
becoming commercial space.

Maybe a museum,
which would be great.

[narrator] Perhaps one day,
beer might even
be brewed here once again.

I'm hoping to come back here
in some time
in the not too distant future

to enjoy the the ambience
of the place

and have a nice cold beer.

[narrator] In the Deep South,

one deserted building
was the site of a tragedy

that had a huge impact
on the nation.

[Wheeler Parker]
What transpired here,

you can never forget that

because it was a moment
that changed history.

This is Money, Mississippi,

a tiny town right
on the edge
of the Mississippi Delta.

[Kenya Davis-Hayes]
It's got a population
of under 100 people,

and all of the buildings
are centered along
one long road.

[narrator]
Compared to the rest,

one structure
seems dilapidated.

[Philip J. Merrill]
The building is overgrown
with vegetation.

You really wonder,

"How has it been left dormant
for so long?"

One reason this site has been
left empty

is because it's connected to a
crime that sparked a movement

transforming the lives
of millions of Americans.

When my cousin
lost his life here,

I am the last eyewitness
that was alive.

It denotes a time in history

where black lives
did not matter.

[narrator] In rural
Money, Mississippi,

Wheeler Parker
is visiting a place

he came to 68 years ago
that changed his life.

[Wheeler] You wish it had
never happened.

You can't go back
and change lives.

I'm an old man now at 84.

I was 16 at the time.

[narrator]
Before the vegetation
took over,

this was a bustling
country store,

one that Wheeler Parker
visited as a boy

with his cousin
and close friend,
Emmett Till.

[Wheeler] He loved
to make people laugh.

He... He was a prankster,

and he's a jokester.

He was always
the center of attraction.

[narrator] In the summer
of 1955,

Wheeler's 14-year-old cousin

visited Mississippi
on a train from Chicago.

The time the treatment of
African Americans

would have been
very different.

[Sascha Auerback]
The South was in many ways
still stuck.

You still had
extrajudicial murder,

attacks, and lynchings.

[narrator] Wheeler's cousin
had been warned by his mother
about these Southern ways.

On August 24th, 1955,

he came here
to Bryant's Grocery
and Meat Market.

My cousin, Emmett Till,
came to the stores
to purchase some things.

I left him in there
by himself.

Emmett was briefly
in the store alone

with the white shop keeper
Carolyn Bryant

before another relative
joined him.

I went out in front
of the store

my uncle Simeon came in
to be with him

so nothing happened,
they came out
from the store together.

[narrator] What happened next
is engrained in the minds
of many who grew up here,

like local Mayor,
Johnny B. Thomas.

[Johnny B. Thomas]
She came out the store angry.

Carolyn Bryant headed
toward her vehicle,

and that is when the infamous

[wolf whistles] took place.

Emmett Till wolf-whistled her.

[Wheeler] When I heard
the whistle,

it was like a death notice

'cause we knew
that he had violated
the Southern law.

So we all made a beeline
for the cop.

Now Emmett is upset.

He's scared, and asking us
not to tell my grandfather
what happened.

The boys quickly returned
to the house of
Wheeler Parker's

grandfather, Mose Wright.

For three days, they quietly
went about their normal lives
and nothing happened.

But that was about to change

when two white men
knocked on the door
of the Wright home.

[Wheeler] About 2:30
in the morning
I heard these people talking.

I heard them at the door
asking about the boys you have
here from Chicago.

[narrator] The men
were Roy Bryant,

the shopkeeper,
Carolyn's husband,

and his half-brother,
J.W. Milam.

They were armed,
and demanding retribution.

[Wheeler] They came
to the house, to get him.

I could see them eventually.

I see a flashlight in one hand

and a pistol
in the other hand.

And I just started shaking
like a leaf on the tree,

and started praying to God,

and asking God
to just let me live.

[narrator]
Once they found Emmett,

Bryant and Milam forced him
into a truck

and drove to a nearby farm.

What happened next would send
shockwaves across the country.

After 14-year-old Emmett Till
wolf-whistled

a white shopkeeper at
this store in
rural Mississippi,

things had taken
a dark twist.

Gloria Dickinson grew up
in this area where

the story of these events
has not been forgotten.

[Gloria]
This is where Emmett Till
was taken on the night

that he was kidnapped.

While he was here,
they beat him and beat him

and beat him to the point
where he just screamed
and screamed and screamed.

He was hanged from
those beams up there.

The walls here,
it's sad to say,

was the last walls that
Emmett Till saw in his life.

[narrator]
After their heinous acts,
his killers, Roy Bryant

and J.W. Milam, needed
to dispose of Emmett's body.

A 75-pound cotton gin fan
was tied around Emmett's neck

with barbed wire,
hiding his body

in the Tallahatchie River
for three days.

On August the 31st, 1955,
a fisherman found the body

of Emmett Till
in the Tallahatchie River.

[narrator] Shortly after
the body was found,

an undertaker began to dig
a grave for Emmett at
a nearby church.

But his mother had
other ideas.

Mrs. Till insisted that
they bring her child home

to Chicago.

The casket arrived in
the Windy City nailed shut

with a seal from the state
of Mississippi ordering it
to stay that way.

Yet in an act of defiance,
Emmett's mother insisted on

seeing her son once more.

His face was completely
disfigured and his entire body

was swollen.

[Sacha] When Mamie Till,
Emmett's mother,

sees her son's body
and sees what happened here

as a result of those events at
the grocery and meat market,

she makes
a remarkable decision,

one that will change
the course
of American history.

She said, let the world see
what I see.

[narrator]
Mamie Till stuck to her word
and allowed a nationwide

African-American magazine
access to Emmett's body.

So a photographer was allowed
to take this picture

that haunts everybody
decades later.

[Kenya]
And they described the scene
of Mamie crying out.

You have not died in vain.

Your life has been sacrificed
for something.

Pictures of Emmett Till's body
created incredible outrage

across the nation,
specifically in

the African-American
community.

[narrator]
But the magazine coverage
wasn't Mamie's only

courageous decision.

Mamie Till made
the unexpected,

brave decision to have
an open casket funeral.

Where all of the world
would see the disfigured body

of her son.

[narrator]
On September 3rd, 1955,

Emmett's funeral began.

[Wheeler]
I saw Emmett's body
at the funeral.

And I said,
"This is not Emmett."

[narrator]
But there is no doubt
it was Emmett in the casket

for all to see.

Over 50,000 people turned out
to view the body

of young Emmett Till.

[narrator]
Emmett's body was left
on display for five days.

While there was outrage
in Chicago, in Mississippi,

the laws of the South
were on the verge of being
turned upside down.

On September 19th, 1955,
Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam

went on trial for the murder
of Emmett Till.

[Sacha]
It's one of the first times
in American history

that white men had been
arrested and charged for

the killing of
an African American.

[narrator]
Their trial took place nearly
30 miles from Bryant's Grocery

and Meat Market
in Sumner, Mississippi.

On the witness stand,
Carolyn Bryant would give her
version of events.

[Gloria] Now, she said that
he touched her hand.

But now she said some
other things that he did that
I'm not sure is true.

She said he put his hand,
his arms around her waist

and asked her on a date.

[Wheeler] Nothing happened.
Nothing was said.

When I was there,
nothing was said.
Out of line.

[narrator] For the men
to be found guilty,

they had to be placed
at the crime.

And the prosecution had
a witness on their side.

At the trial, there was
an African-American eyewitness

who testified that he saw
the truck that

they brought Emmett Till
over to the barn.

This evidence,
combined with the testimony
of Emmett Till's uncle,

who identified correctly
the two men

that had abducted Emmett,
in a court of law today,

this would be
pretty strong evidence
leading to a guilty verdict.

[narrator]
But in 1950s Mississippi,
the result was very different.

It took the all-white jury
just 67 minutes

to give a not guilty verdict.

That demonstrates
the depth of racism

and prejudice across
the South.

[narrator]
Despite the trial being over,
no one could have predicted

the audacity that
the murderers would show

just months later.

After the trial,
Look Magazine published
an article

in which it talked about
J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant

confessing to the murder.

And they didn't mind
confessing because

they weren't ashamed
of doing it. They were proud
that they did it.

[narrator]
Tragically, the men were never
punished for their crimes.

Yet their actions
would energize a movement

which would irreversibly
change the law of the nation.

In Mississippi,
the killers of Emmett Till

may have gotten away
with murder,

but their action had sparked
something that couldn't be
stopped.

[Philip]
The story that happened here
in this building is such

a seminal moment
in the civil rights movement.

[Sacha]
The murder of Emmett Till
convinced so many

in the African-American
population that they just
couldn't take it any longer.

[narrator]
African Americans across
the country came together

to call for direct action.

As the movement was
gaining momentum,

one woman's brave actions
would prove pivotal.

[Kenya]
Exactly 100 days after
the death of Emmett Till,

Rosa Parks refused to give up
her seat

on a Montgomery public bus.

[Johnny] She thought about
what they did to Emmett

in Mississippi, and she froze.

[Kenya]
Her defiance spurred
a boycott

of the Montgomery
busing system.

And ultimately, that boycott
was led by

a young 26-year-old minister

by the name
of Martin Luther King Jr.

[narrator]
The difficult years after
the murder of Emmett Till

galvanized the hearts
of Americans across

the country and led
to Congress passing

the Civil Rights Act,
ending the age of segregation.

[Gloria] It's part sad
and it's part good.

And I think the good outweighs
the sad.

He made a sacrifice
that he didn't even know

that he was making at
the time.

And the country was changed
through the Civil Rights
Movement

because of what happened.

Today, nearly 70 years later,

the story of Emmett Till

has been firmly written into
the history books of America.

A number of locations have
been designated as

the Emmett Till
and Mamie Till-Mobley
National Monument,

including the place
where Emmett's body
was discovered,

the church where his funeral
took place,

and the historic courthouse.

But the building where
this tragic tale began

has nearly disappeared.

[Wheeler]
I would love to see
this building restored.

I was looking at some bricks
around and they still seem
to be very solid.

There's a lot of history here
and we need to fix it

so that we remember history
because if you don't,

it is subject to repeat it.

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