Hunting for Treasure in a Ghost Town: Gold Rush Days in South Pass City – Howdy Neighbor S1 E4
There’s gold in these hills! Travel back in time as we explore the ghost town of South Pass City during Gold Rush Days and search for gold in the river and mines. Get a look into this once bustling mining town that has all the original buildings in their original locations, plus the festival of Gold Rush Days to celebrate all things South Pass. Our hosts explore more of Wind River Country at Sinks Canyon and search for the disappearing river.
okay now this is my vibe this place right is pretty exciting what are we walking into here we’re walking into a little slice of paradise it’s gonna be real nice all right let’s do it
all right
thank you thank you cheers to a good weekend cheers here we go Jimmy Big Weekend ahead of us big weekend we’re going to South pass City yeah man we’re gonna strike it rich I hope so these are paying for gold yep but before we find riches beyond our wildest dreams there’s a few things we need to do where are we right now we got a fuel up first yep we’re at Molino Italian Bistro thank you delicious food on the way delicious drinks on the way the heart of Lander Wyoming yes we knew the sustenance to dive into the history you gotta fuel up before you go deep into history exactly let’s do it I think we’re ready Sean I’m pretty pumped about my dish what about yours yeah absolutely every little bit and bite in Lander that we’ve had so far has been incredible right I think this is the perfect starting point we’re already striking it rich let’s go dig up some nuggets
here we are sinks Canyon sings Canyon this is exciting we’re at the sink then we got to go to the rise okay let’s do some explosion first down a little up yeah this looks pretty awesome wow incredible look at this holy cow is that the sink I think so that’s where it disappears disappears pops out what a quarter mile down quarter mileage yeah can you go in there like Can you sink too how long does it take to hold your breath for a quarter mile I don’t want to find out
this is incredible yeah
dang so the river just does this turn straight into a mountain yeah and then disappears nobody knows where where it goes I think somebody probably knows somebody might but not because they know where it ends up they have like the rise but the water itself yeah they’ve done tests it’s not like the same wire that pops up so it’s kind of a mystery yeah can we find it like is there mortar Explorer oh yeah there’s a there’s a walking trail very easy to find all right
you have a gigantic bug on you yes I do overflow loop we’re going past that we’re going to the rise yeah this is it right this is it at the rise see popping up pop them in oh wow holy cow look at those the size of those trout they’re huge this is where the river returns to the surface very cool so I think you see this whole thing and you’re just kind of like amazed that a river can disappear and then reappear it’s a bit of an anomaly it’s pretty nuts I hear a waterfall yeah I definitely see one oh wow dang man bats look at that insane
okay that’s a lot bigger than I thought it was gonna be
okay this is incredible holy cow the size of this waterfall yeah it’s massive massive I uh really wondering right now how you plan to get in there when there’s a will there’s a way okay I don’t think I have the will yeah there’s no way no but I do want to get a little closer yeah
what do we put in 20 miles close more like two two miles felt like 20 was a little warm out there but I mean epic epic hike epic bike from the whole state Great Falls the scenery is incredible but now yeah man you reward yourself with a visit to Cowfish Lander I mean I’m stoked you can get pan-fried local rainbow truck that’s cool do you think they’re the trout from uh the rice I don’t think a lot of fish for those I don’t think so there were a lot of signs that said specifically don’t do well let’s do that this is after Adventure did you just coin that term I just made that up I like it thank you yeah incredible absolutely incredible
what’s that taste like the cowboy state
howdy Joe hi guys well tell us a little bit about South pass City take us back to the good old days it’s gold mining town is what it is um started in 1868 I came here in droves at the town where that time was about 2 000 people so the streets were full of people they were looking for gold they were really excited found gold up on the cariso load it was a mining claim that was claimed in 1867 we’re right at 8 000 feet and we’re right in between the southern end of the Wind River range and the northern side of the red desert the town site itself is 29 historic structures they’re all of the original buildings in their original locations everything from hotels to saloons restaurants mercantiles what we have right now is we’ve got Gold Rush days um what it is it’s just a celebration of all things South pass okay you’re just about to hear something okay yeah here’s some fire in the hole behind us fire in the hole always a good sign it was a historic thing that they did as a celebration we’ll load two anvils with gunpowder in their bases ignite the gunpowder and it throws the top Anvil up into the air
now it’s a party
okay South pass city is awesome yeah this is a cool event I’m very excited so first thing is first we’re gonna find some big nugs we’re gonna find some gold I mean I’m not greedy I just want something that I struggle to carry something modest definitely need to play some baseball old timey dingers that’s gonna be fun definitely getting on a horse getting on a horse I’m gonna do it all yeah anything they’ve got we’re doing it yeah we just got to explore there’s nothing to see today let’s get to it laughs
that looks like a tunnel up there that does English tunnel it’s pretty exciting oh here’s a there’s a gentleman we can inquire at our neighbor not too bad yourself good thanks I’m Sean Tim nice to meet you Tim Jim my pleasure Tim we are in search of a man named Glenn that would be my uncle he’s inside waiting for you in the tunnel we can go in yep go ahead let’s find him good luck thank you why do you say good luck tunnel breaks off into four directions four directions split up okay that’s a great idea all right let’s go that way see you later wait I can’t see anything oh yeah we need to find this gold we also need to find more candles and we really need is the function desperately need to find Clinton
all right I wonder where those guys are is that Glenn oh Glenn thank you for finding us this is called the English tunnel we estimate looking at their records that they hand drill about a foot a day they didn’t find any gold so it was totally abandoned it actually dropped off the records like geologists would come in and they’d document all the mines and everything and then never mentioned this like it never existed
okay here we go today we’re gonna find gold today we’re going to find that’s the key absolutely where are we going to start in the river I’d say bake sale oh oh bake sale first yeah I mean okay you’re gonna do this on an empty stomach Fair all right this looks like a good spot
you know what we’ve got a pan of mud okay so I can like kind of pour this out yep take some of that muck with me you got to use this sunlight look for the Glimpse to get the flicker yeah get the flicker in the glints yeah Jim this is a lot harder than I thought it was good it is I thought we were just gonna strike it rich immediately I thought we’d pour some water in here and stuff would just start sparkling yeah
come and check this out look at this bring your wallet yeah how much uh how much would you give me for that Sugar Bowl for that just like Pebble any day now this doesn’t seem to be panning out thanks for that little nugget oh that was gold not in here though I’m not finding any gold no no no no Jim is this close no man
is this gold no oh Jim is this cold let’s let’s take a break who knew that gold mining gold panning really anything to do with gold was such hard work very hard work I think a lot of people know that I did not okay but now I know but back in the day they used to work hard and they used to play hard yes I’m ready to play hard I’m ready to play Let’s Do It
all right look good play kid let’s play ball
Jim’s first diamond horse yep Sean this is how you come out for a first pitch
boom you’re right
