I Found a WW2 German Spy Cave, Hidden in the American Desert?
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
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I learned of a local legend, that told of a hidden cave with a shadowy past. The story claims this was a hideout used by German spies during World War II, to prey upon top secret military bases. But is it true? In this episode, I venture into this remote desert region, to find this site for myself, and examine the mysteries behind it. #history #exploration #historyadventure #hiking #worldwar2 #archaeology #cave #adventuretravel
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Desert Drifter, You forgot one important fact. As a Electronics Technician Communications in the US Navy and later engineer and college instructor, I knew that during WW2 communication was very much " not " as it is today using satellites, cell phones, etc. In order to pass messages over long distances then you need repeaters. The location you describe sounds like an ideal location for a repeater where the person receives messages and passes them both directions. We still use some repeater systems today that are automatic. Back then they usually needed people.
I thought it was odd this person needed a generator and figured the wires might be for a communications device. But maybe it was to power a radio or repeater. I know next to nothing about the subject. I am still wondering how the heavy objects were transported to the site. Not by one person on foot, I think.
Or they were also monitoring US military radio transmissions in the region on top of being a repeater station.
Dang, you beat me to it! I was 36K (field communications) in the Army. You made some good points there, Jerry! Given the length of the hike out to the nearest road, and transportation of the era, it doesn't make sense for this guy to have been involved in direction-action type of spying. So, signals intelligence makes more sense to me.
Hey Jerry, that’s a great insight. I’m pretty clueless about how communications would’ve worked back then, so that is a really interesting possibility to ponder
A repeater station makes a lot of sense. Plus, someone acting as a passive observer could transmit data related to the scores of military aircraft moving around and through the area. Unit numbers from the aircraft as well as inventory of their discrete tail numbers give a lot of information. Just seeing the same aircraft over and over, then one day having a whole new set of aircraft numbers, says that the old ones have moved towards the war front.
My mom grew up in Santa Rita, NM. She told me a story of when she was a little girl in 1942-43 of a drifter passing through town. She said he was a magician and he had a German Shepard with him and would put on shows. One of his tricks was the dog could untie ropes tied around your hands without getting dog slobber on you. A months later he was arrested as a German spy. He was spying on the copper production from the Kennicot mine which eventually swallowed mom’s home town of Santa Rita. Mom said it was common for drifters to pass through looking for work in the mines.
So. Cool.
My guess is he wasn’t a spy, it was all made up but the US government.
Very interesting. Thanks a bunch.
In San Antonio, Tx there is a story about a German sympathesier who used a stone tower in NE of the city to spy on Randolph AFB to monitor planes and such
My grandfather tried to join the U.S. Army during the war, he figured he could land a job as an interpreter being he was Germanic and learned German at an early age. Since he was born on a Kansas homestead in 1929, he didn't get a birth certificate at birth. So he got a doctor to write one up, he lied about his age, saying he was born in 1926, so it would show he was 18 in 1944 so he could enlist. They told him to report to a camp for basic training. When he got there, MP's arrested him and beat him for being a German spy. They eventually released him as lying about his age wouldn't hold up in court as proof of being a spy.
There's a book called Windswept Lies of War, and it talks from censored history and hidden secrets to lost files and classified documents about World War II, it's the real deal.
Thank you for that 🤗
Exactly, not the b.s. taught all over the world by the Talmudic, Zionist who administrate the propaganda at the indoctrination facilities called schools, colleges, and universities. The word Nazi is propaganda by these Talmudic, Zionist, the German military never had anything called or insignias that said Nazi, but funny enough the Talmudic, Zionist actually claim to be Ashkenazi Jews.
Talmud verse Sanhedrin 57a " "Murdering Goyim (non-Jews) is like killing a wild animal." Know who rules over you and calls anyone who questions their lies antisemitic.
What are some examples of the lies and censorship?
My father was a B24 pilot. He flew out of a joint OSS/ ArmyAirCorp base in England and had "Q" clearance because they dropped personnel,supplies,and cash in Euorpean countries for the resistance not bombs. Sometimes at night and sometines day.Originally they were tasked with picking up downed and rescued allied pilots.
I was a classmate to the daughter of one of the ranchers who found the site and know the persons who made the discovery, one of whom is still living, . I remember her reporting the discovery in our elementary school class and have been to the “ mystery house” twice. It truly remains a mystery.
How interesting. Did you ever hear if the ranchers who made the discovery really found some sort of military uniform?
Ralph Chynoweth was a boy when he found that cache and recounts the find on the Dec. 1 2020 episode of the Cowboy Stories podcast around the 46:21 min mark.
That’s interesting love to hear more on this.
Thanks for providing this local’s insight! Love to know the story is alive and well
@@theandrewarellano I listened to that podcast earlier today. What an interesting guy! He mentions that the boxes and the cave door were padlocked shut and they had to force them open. He said the camp had been vacant long enough that the sun and heat had deteriorated the blanket and that it fell apart when touched. He also said he believed the uniform was German. And even though the law enforcement had promised him the single shot shotgun when they were done investigating, he never got it back from them.
I was a soldier in the US Army and my Military Operational Speciality was 31C (single channel radio operator) and then I was retrained as a 31F (multichannel radio operator) when an upgraded communication system came out and stationed in Germany with the 32nd Signal Battalion, which is located just outside Frankfurt Germany in the mid 1990s. We were charged with going to remote locations to set up a communication stations and large mobile mast antennas and then sit in a shelter and operate the communication equipment using encrypted communication. This is what this remote location is all about, a communication/radio station to spy on the US. I even tried to get a job operating MARS equipment (that the communication equipment that will be around if there's an electromagnetic pulse that fries everything on earth and only the MAST communication stations will be left) but wasn't chosen for that.
Some observations. As a college student in the 70s, I worked as the night clerk for the FBI field office in Albuquerque. During WWII, NM was covered by the El Paso Office, and when AQ was established, all the files were transferred to New Mexico. Having lots of time at night, I went over all the interesting WWII-era files (and yes, there were strange things reported in the sky after the a bomb test). I never saw anything like what was reported in your video. I went on to have a long career in counter intelligence with the Bureau, and it wouldn't make sense for the Germans to set up an operation that would fit this narrative. Lack of priority targets, com issues (as described in the post below), and simply logistics keeping it supplied just wouldn't make it worthwhile. The Bureau pretty much had the German intel service wrapped up, too. My bet is that it was some mid-20th century off-gridder - but that's just speculation. Having backpacked throughout the area in my younger days, I totally love your work - it brings back great memories of a place that I most likely won't see again. Keep it up!
I also think was for an off gridder
Thanks for sharing your perspective Mark!
Hello sir, would one be willing to offer a story of the skies above the testing site, whether true or fabricated?
@@elementneon Sure. Military photographers were sent out to various sites in NM. One took a pic of a strange light over Datil, NM, as I recall. Nothing terribly "sexy", like the hype around Roswell. I generally dismiss conspiracy or "outrageous events" theories, but one thing I saw that to this day baffles me - cattle mutilations. Something strange in THAT neighborhood....
7761, You are forgetting about the cell security system that goes back to pre revolutionary times and some evidence used in ancient times where people and systems were set up to pass messages without compromising the system. Only a small group back home knew the total system. The middle people usually did not know the source of the information or the person receiving the information. Dual lines were also used so that if the information did not match, the information was suspect. If one of the middle repeater personal or system was detected, the rest of the system still operated. Also, remember this was during WW2 and they did not have modern systems. Even so, this types of system works and can still work in some cases.
As. Sniper in the 90's, I can tell you that I had a hold up with supplies that was sometimes over 3;days from where I was working. That's how you stay safe. Sometimes I was gone for up to 3 weeks. My supply drops were a day hike out. This was NOT a spy's shelter. This was at some point, someone's home.
The electrical cords are telling, as you would either need a battery or a generator to have any use of it and that's a serious task to hold up. Whoever was there had a pressing need for some sort of an electrical system, and a radio station suits the bill.
And who would be making these drops and from where? Add to this who would have been able to transport, unnoticed, that much material, build the site, and make it operational? I believe you with what you are saying, if it'd just been a hideout in a location that might already exist then sure, but it would have taken a lot of effort to build this place, so for me it's a US military site of some kind, for training or testing new equipment that you don't want your enemy being aware of.
Thanks soldier 😊
@@robertbanks5762 To me those crates look like something you would drop from the hatch of a bomber plane. Full of equipment and supplies. They're impractical to drag in from land, for that you would bring in a tent and then build that improved cave.
A radio operator would also live there and run the station, meet the other spies who were around and wait for the periodical time slots where they were to listen for messages. If the others went missing he would probably have to go out himself over time to find out, and that's when he disappears. Either taken as a spy himself or mixed in as an immigrant.
@@mattpotter8725 could hot air balloons be flown in those days?
In our community there was a story of a German "Spy". One neighbor had a Luger pistol that he claimed was once owned buy the "Spy". My father and others that had memory of the character told a different story. A German ship had been loading lumber at one of the of the local saw mills, with war raging in Europe, and the US still being neutral the German thought it better to "jump ship" than go back to Germany and be sent to the trenches. When the US entered the war he became an undocumented alien from a country that the US was now at war with. Until the war was over he laid low living in a tent on a slough bank, and worked clearing brush for a farmer. This sounds to me what could be a likely situation for your desert "Spy".
same
its also a wonderful cover for spies
The nearest identified military base you mentioned was "Camp Navajo". In reality this was the Navajo Ordinance Depot for storing military ordinance such as bombs and artillery shells. The Depot was next to old Route 66 about twenty miles west of Flagstaff. In 1943-1944 my dad worked as a civilian contractor for a concrete hauling company who helped build the ordinance depot. The civilian workers like us lived in "temporary" housing similar to army barracks made of plywood in Flagstaff near the city fair ground. I believe the housing is still in use. I doubt that any German spy team would have much interest in the Navajo Ordinance Depot during WWII since it primarily contained many large storage bunkers covered with dirt. There were also large buildings which stored critical war items such as feathers for pillows and bails of cotton for filling mattress. My dad also worked on building the military air fields south of Phoenix used to train pilots. He became friends with the head Army repairman whose job was to certify the B-25 bombers were suitable for use after repair service. My dad reported he once flew with the repairman up to the Grand Canyon at tree top level and when the bomber was suddenly dropped into the canyon it was the most awesome experience of his life. The bomber had a 100 foot communication antenna wire with a ball at the end but the ball was missing after the flight was over. Guess it got hung up in a Ponderosa pine tree. After the war my dad became a pilot and owned a Piper Cub which he flew all over southern Arizona.
You can see that easily with Google Earth. It's huge.
Your cinematography and narration soothe my soul. Great work!
I’ve learned every base has its own secrets there’s still bases we don’t know about
Great story, thanks for sharing
@BillKempton-I live in Southern Arizona& Before my dad Got Orders to Move here we lived in Southern Germany !!! I love It Here in Arizona !!!
The biggest count against that story of the "German" spy is the local story about the man with the heavy German accent. No German spy would be sent out who could not blend in locally. He would have spoken an accent-free English that the locals would not have noticed as special and especially as foreign.
If a story is told over and over, usually things are added to it that were not in the original story.
I would also think that no german spy would have military uniforms with him, unless they were American uniforms. If they were American uniforms, it simply could have been a veteran after the war seeking isolation.
And spies don't wear military uniform. US soldiers did.
Many of the German spies and saboteurs were found to be poorly trained and not fluent in English. But they did not bring uniforms. There were Nazi organizations in the US started by Germany prior to the war, the best known was the German American Bund which did have uniforms.
@@duudsuufd yea like the fact he was a spy, no he was just a migrant
The piece of metal in the walled up cave is a shell of a range vent hood. Thanks for the great story and adventure.
My uncle was a counter spy against Germany during WWII. He took the place of a German spy who was captured in NYC. He spent the entire war feeding the Germans false information. My mother used to visit him, as she lived in NYC during a portion of the war. She said they could never meet in the same place twice, and always had to take circuitous routes to their meetings, never the same way home as the way she went. His expoits are public and can be found in numerous books about the FBI during WWII. I never met him.
Pretty intense
The greatest generation fought and won against the nazis
@Sheaksa altho this should have been plural as so many great places bann together! But I admit once the greatest one entered the arena all of them got scared and pretty much knew it was only as they said 6 months until the tides turned ! So guess you had it right the first time !
thats nothing, my uncle was the basis of the character Rambo. he had over 80 confirmed kills, thats excluding the sniper victims often shot at night over 500yards and the ones he just used his bare hands..he was also the army heavy weight boxing champion for 3 years running with fists as hard as stone. hence his nickname Rocky. he was so Alpha he used to have sex with men, not because he was gay but no women had the stamina to endure a session with him.
@@helpyousleep7386 that just means he was gay bro. Lol
I'm a Kiwi and my Grandfather flew Corsairs for the RNZAF in the Pacific theater during WW2. Based out of the Solomons he took off one day on a routine patrol with other members of his squadron on the lookout forJapanese activity of which there was plenty during that period of the war. After flying for a short while he noticed that his Corsairs engine was rapidly over-heating and quickly turned for home. Within 5 kms of his air strip and after gaining altitude things had become so bad the aircrafts engine had seized completely and through shèer luck and the proper training he then managed to land his Corsair intact and without damage. On inspection of the engine by the Kiwi ground crew to all of their surprise including his commanding officers and shortly thereafter American intelligence personnel it was ascertained that the American built Corsair engine had been sabotaged during its build back in North America by a sabotuer or enemy agent. My Grandfather heard nothing more anout it but the story was told to my brothers and i by my Grandfather many times during my childhood. I have also read his flight log during that period and sure enough there it was. Recorded clear as day in black and white. Cheers from NZ.
Glad he made it back so you could tell us this story!
There was a radio found in El Centro after the war(40s) inside a house that was communication for Japanese spys,not many people knew as it was quickly hushed up!
Cheers to the Kiwis there, great fighters.
The crates look like military drop crates. Something like this would have been flown into a secluded area during the night to avoid detection. If you ask me, being 250 miles from a base sounds more like a contingency plan to avoid detection, and have a rendezvous point for extraction as well. From a surveillance perspective the location isn't ideal, but from a point of operation perspective, the location is very ideal. Just as in this video you grew skeptical due to the distance, it seems as if this location is very ideal. Pretty cool video, thanks for sharing.
Thank you, gentlemen, for sharing this amazing site! I'm disabled and could never dream to hike where you have gone, but I'm grateful to see it. Thank you for sharing these peeks into ancient living sites and being respectful to what is there.
Very interesting! I think the inhabitant was a resourceful oddball rather than a nefarious spy.
More then likely this was the hiding spot of Georg Gärtner, a German Wehrmacht soldier of the Afrika Korp who escaped from Camp Deming New Mexico and was never recaptured
@@Princess_Celestia_ Georg Gärtner led quite a life, and hid himself well, but he did not spend any time out in this rocky desert. Maybe some one like him, even an American deserter of German descent.
@@kriley9386 Yes, as in most cases it is more than likely someone of no real repute or name we have ever heard of, just a person making plans to hide away from the world.
@@Princess_Celestia_ more than likely, not more then likely
If the Germans were to place a spy any where in America they would recruit individuals who spoke perfect English ( there were some Americans who were recruited by the Nazis who work behind Allied lines disrupting traffic, changing route signs for example) and there would be no need for a military uniform (German). They might have some sort of injury which would explain why they weren't in the military but not one which would not prevent them from moving around in local towns. But it does seem to be a long way from anything of any interest to a spy. Probably a hermit.
My son and I are truly inspired by your videos. We love your journeys. We also love that you talk about hiking safety and meals on the trails. My son is 8, and I'm 44. We both have never hiked until watching your videos!!! Thank you ❤❤❤
Aw I love that. So glad that my videos inspired you to get out there and make memories with your son ❤
@@Desert.Drifter yeah except you stole your name from the real Desert Drifter from the 90s. Great job thief.
I like the idea of repeater, however I have another Hypothesis. Could have been someone gone AWOL. I’m a disabled Veteran, and removal of serial numbers, identifying marks on equipment is not unheard of from veterans who stole supplies. He could have had radio to see if he was discovered. It’s just a hypothesis. II, Korean and Vietnamese war, men have shipped home vehicles piece by piece for example. So he could have been a spy, a relay point, or a runaway. A military uniform is not specific enough to say Nazi and either is a German accent either. My biological grandfather came from Sweden to escape famine and he enlisted for his new country in 1916. Who’s to say if the accent was German, it could have been many accents misinterpreted. Either way thank you Andrew for sharing with us. Very interesting part of history we would have never known without you.
why would a spy bring a uniform from his own country... part doesnt make any sense at all
@ some are attached to their uniform. It’s a part of them, their identity and it’s hard to let go of and remove. Some toss them as fast as they can and never look back.
@@dolphinschild62 Yeah that makes sense.. But if your a german spy visiting inside the USA, wouldn't that be the last piece of clothing you would want near you to avoid detection?
@@dolphinschild62 Really bad response, bro.
@@peakAV first off I’m not a bro. Secondly I’m a veteran. Third I have a bachelors degree in psychology. It’s a fact.
First off, that was quality mortar, and a craftsman's job most likely done with the right tools. That mortar was in surprisingly good shape for eighty plus years age. And mixing batches of mortar requires a ready supply of water. That mortar was a quality mix. And on the age point, the door frame is a post-war manufacture. The winding handle gave it away.
The metal 'shroud' found inside the cave was a fume hood. That lends itself to a number of possibilities.
Say if he was just a guy trying to avoid the camps, he likely returned to normal life as soon as the camps were shut down. People kept 'discovering' the place after 1945 and left their mark there as well.
" That mortar was in surprisingly good shape for eighty plus years age." ..................... that's what i thought - the mortar looks like it was done two weeks ago
The quality of the mortar was the very thing that caught my eye...........
@@raymondo162 Yep. That mortar is so new the burrs haven't weathered off yet.
That similar to what I noted in my comment. Very good craftsmanship, and yet poorly engineered. Using that window frame as a door makes no sense because it can only be opened/closed from the inside. They even noted that in the article desert drifter showed, how it had been mortared in place, closed, and then the windows sealed in from the outside, so once sealed he had not gone back in.
what I really appreciate is that you put the items back in position that you found them, this means others with knowledge might be able to gain information also , either to back you up or to give another hypothesis of what it was. Which is great for the viewer to make up their own mind on something they will not see in real life. Thank you for this and thank you for your channel as a history buff and a um Aussie, nosy beaks lol.
I have to weigh in on this. I was a career intelligence officer in the Army and have studied history and military history extensively. No intelligence operative would have had an accent. Many Germans spoke english better than we did. They also had access to something like a thousand Americans who went to Germany to fight communism. Several of them came back as spies. More important, where's the target? There's nothing there. Spies live and work as close to their target as possible. The destruction of serial numbers sounds more like criminals than spies. Remember, a spy expects to blend in, he's trained for it. Everything he has must appear as normal and typical as possible. My opinion, this was someone who wanted to be left alone. Perhaps someone avoiding the draft, perhaps someone in trouble with the law and on the run. The spy story was a result of overly cautious wartime concern. Nothing here looks like espionage.
@coldwarrior78 I appreciate your perspective, and after several differing iterations of the story, your input seems far more logical and realistic. Furthermore, the contemporary use of the word "spy" is typically reserved for occasions when the person in question is a confirmed spy. It seems as though back then, everyone who wasn't American by birth was considered a potential spy. The internment of thousands of Japanese is a great example of the paranoia that permeated American society during that era, and it carried forward well into the late 70s, early 80s. I'm guessing things started to shift with the destruction of the Berlin wall. I also credit Chevy Chase, Dan Akroyd, and Donna Dixon for dispelling all the unfounded myths associated with international espionage by setting the record straight in their Nobel prize worthy documentary; Spies, Like Us.
@@billsilcott9692the Japanese "paranoia" only came after Japanese Americans helped a Japanese pilot kill some Americans or at least Hawaiians. You can't find any examples of German or Italian Americans rising up for their old country at the very beginning of the war.....
the germans were already there long before ww2 as archaeologists.tracing their aryan ancestors who were in the north americas for millennia.look into the origins of the swastika symbol.which has nothing to do with nazism.but has everything to do with the ancient white humans we all descend from as its the original most sacred ancient symbol in aryan history.all caucasian people are indigenous white peoplecalle the Celts or aryans.they were there in the southwest tracing the hopewell and Fremont tribes as theses tribes are ancient caucasian indigenous North American tribes who all used the swastika symbol .and were invaded bred into and bred out and killed off by red skinned south American tribes who migrated up into North America.thats who the germans were , archaeologists.they were working WITH the American governments permission.
I remember an old movie that featured the lack of accent, and at one point a certain 'spy' claiming to be from the US, pronounced Tucson as "Tuckson" and was caught via that error. Can't remember the movie's name tho sorry.
I thought at first the hermit might have been a deserter but how did he manage to get those large metal crates delivered there? And the concrete for the mortar? And heavy batteries and a generator? Surely that would have been beyond the ability of any one person? I don't really have a good counter theory though.
"Striking distance" to a military base may not be the best question to ask. A better question would be how many miles from the nearest 5 to 12 MHz shortwave radio receiver does a ww2 spy with a portable 30 watt radio transmitter ( such as a WW2 AN PRC 1 suitcase transmitter-receiver) need be to not draw attention to authorities? In this case, being 100 to 200 miles away from a military base or town would be pretty much ideal to minimize the risk of a transmitted shortwave radio signal being blatently loud and obvious. After about 50 miles the groundwave signal is going to be pretty weak, but the skywave signal will travel considerable distances. Also, the spy may send relatively short radio transmissions to signal something like "mission accomplished" or other brief replies to information gathering assignments. Much more radio time would likely be devoted to listening for incoming instructions from the motherland or listening to US radio signals of interest for information gathering from sources that were several hundred miles away (first skywave bounce). A superhetrodyne receiver of that era would have an internal oscillator with little or no unintended signal suppression and it would be very desireable to minimize that oscillator signal detection by authorities---especially since it could leak out on the same antenna used for transmitting. So being in the middle of nowhere would be ideal to use a radio receiver for hours at a time with a minimal chances of detection by US authorities. Keep in mind that US amateur radio operators were not even legally allowed to listen to the shortwave radio bands with their equipment during WW2 for security purposes as well as making it easier for authorities to track down illegal short wave radio receivers in operation.
Other online information on this site suggested there was a windmill generator, light and hot plate found at the site. If the windmill was 50 - 100 feet away from the transmitter-receiver, the common wire from the windmill generator could be used as an effective counterpoise wire to function as "ground" for a separate random wire transmitting and receiving antenna in the 50 -100 foot range. You do not need a sophisticated antenna for effective shortwave radio communication. Basic wire antennas 25 or 30 feet above ground is enough and they could be easily taken down and stored when not in use. A desolate location could also be ideal to use very long "beverage" wire antennas that were low to the ground for improved reception in the shortwave bands. Under favorable radio conditions, a 30 watt morse code signal could be heard several thousand of miles away. Or other spy stations in South or Central America several hundred miles away could be easy and routine communication paths.
Maybe there is a broken radio tube or three lying in the ground out there---glass or ceramic wire antenna insulators----pieces of bakelite insulators---seems like a place to thoroughly search with a good metal detector..... Thanks for the video that was very intriguing !
I think I just graduated from electronics college.😅😅
Do I qualify for an upgraded radio license now?!! 😅
Seriously - thank you for this infodump! Fantastic read.
I lived in the Az desert for 20 years. Luke airforce base and Yuma's army proving grounds are both 2 hrs from where I lived. BUT both entities flew over my town regularly on training, testing and practice maneuvers. You don't have to be near the bases, just where they fly or train for specific terrain
I know what you mean. My extended family's land in the backwoods has its own air show.
My take on this. Containers with supplies and equipment was sky dropped with parachutes.
The wires for trying to intercept communication to decipher/learn the Navajo language used to communicate in ww2
That cracked dry earth indicates clay. The natives gathered clay to make pots, etc from sites like that. Love your channel. This was a unique one.
I’ve always found that type of “clay” too silty. But mixed with a good bentonite base it could work. Bentonite is found close to volcanic activity. There are thousands of inactive volcanoes all over the southwest.
@@Somewhere-In-AZ As far as I know most clay, if not all, will have that cracked texture when dry so really it only indicates that there is a reasonable amount of clay in the sediment. That texture is a good indicator of clay in dry areas, after that you can test the clay from each spot to see how it is and if its worth gathering more.
Just a thought. Scraping the numbers off the thermometer would make sense if it were German, since it would read in metric degrees Centigrade rather than the more arcane, but ubiquitous Fahrenheit favoured by the USA, having said all that, I think the lack of serial numbers is more likely because a lot of the stuff "fell of the back of a lorry" (google it if you don't get that reference).
As to the metal boxes. They have the look of being parts of old caravans, repurposed for static living. The whole things looks to me more like a miners camp, rather than a something from a spy movie. As to the uniform, surplus uniforms were cheap and plentiful in the wartime and post war. If you want cheap durable clothing, head off to the army surplus store.
I was wondering about the odd shaped windows. An old box truck box seems to be the best fit.
Also too, a dial type of thermometer can be used as a rudimentary barometer. If the guy was broadcasting short wave, this was useful info. for range.
I agree.
Hmm, that didn’t even cross my mind about the thermometer, but that’s a great theory. Who knows?
You bring up some good points. I get the free items that "fell off a lorry" (truck). By that you mean they were lifted by someone when no one was looking. Many people after war times took advantage of low prices on durable goods that were surplus. Military clothing made good work clothes. No serial numbers means no proof this is your stolen generator.
In 1978 my friend, his family and I were at the Jersey shore. Island beach to be exact. Playing in the dunes which we weren't supposed to do, we stumbled on an old rubber raft. It was dry rotted and obviously really old. We dug it out and on it were words written in my first language, German. It was the swastikas we saw that blew our minds. We called the Park rangers and they had a guy out there in minutes. Followed by a lot of guys , law enforcement and historians etc etc. They said that a few U-boats were sunk not too far offshore. They assumed it was from that. A few Germans were picked up and put in POW camps.
I haven’t heard of that location for 60plus years . My Grandfather who was and American of German descent told of an uncle who defected as the war started and made it Utah . And live in the middle of nowhere because he knew the German POW’s would kill him if the war ever caught. And placed among them. I don’t know much more. Thanks for listening.
Possibly an AWOL situation?
What about the military uniform that was found? I don't recall him saying whether it was German or not.
@@ichthus1890 If it was German, it would have been mentioned. Why would Nazi Germany send a guy with a German military uniform and a thick German accent to spy on America? What is the problem with you people
@@ichthus1890Army surplus clothing.Cheep and hardwearing and good for out door living.
@@ichthus1890 For all we know it was a mall cop or postman's uniform, or not one at all but people just made a mistake because there was a gun, which many would carry for hunting or in case of dangerous animals.
Why did nobody specify what kind of uniform it was and from what country? Could this be like Roswell where people started "remembering" they totally saw little green men only after they heard the flying saucer theory?
Still, whether the mystery guy was a spy, AWOL US soldier, or just someone who wanted solitude, it is weird they apparently disappeared without trace leaving their stuff behind.
Great video! I always love old war stories. Now I’ve got stories for you! 😂 My father-in-law was stationed in Deming, NM for a while and here at Ft. Huachuca. Every time I see that big, ol’ blimp go up, I think of him. His father was a territorial ranger here in AZ, liked Teddy Roosevelt a whole lot, and is buried in Arlington. I’m thinking we might want to sift through the photos and memorabilia and see what we can find!
Now here’s the real fun! We bought our home from a Jewish family a few years ago and if walls could talk… well, I think these walls will tell their story. This house was designed and built by a German couple and their son. The husband and wife met during WWII. Both happened to be spies. She was spying for the French resistance and he was a spy for the allies. Sometime after the war they came to the US and got married. Eventually they ended up here in AZ and built this house. How we came to buy it is a story in itself! It was built in the 1970’s and everything in here was very good quality. When we bought it, pretty much everything was original to the house. The stove is the same model used in the old TV show Bewitched. Yes, it’s still working. There was an insane security system that apparently had been installed by the husband’s “spook friends”. I think we’re still finding remnants of it here and there. We did replace the white shag carpet, that was still white, with wood floors. We’ve done some minor upgrades. But we love our eccentric, retro house, that used to belong to spies.
*@**9:09** Geologists everywhere are going to see that red peak and grab their gold mining tools.*
You should do a video about your house and the stories
In 1977 they discovered a world war two German weather station in Newfoundland they named Weather station Kurt. It occurs to me, radio transmission could be triangulated in the 40s. A station in the middle of nowhere communicating in short bursts would be next to impossible to triangulate.
There were a lot of German immigrants immediately preceding (and some after) WWII--a lot of people saw what was going down with the little Mustache Man and wanted no part of it. Part of my own family fled Germany between WWI and WWII, and some just before he came to power. My grandmother told stories of running into problems with locals, due simply to her Germanic surname. There was one incident where the family was pretty much saved due to their neighbors' intervention. So, while it does seem like this might have been someone up to no good, it could also have been simply someone who'd had really bad experiences after immigrating here, or even possibly some mental illness involved, considering the lack of friendliness towards the local ranchers. Anyway, fascinating investigation, Andrew!
My thoughts also. I had a coworker whose family changed their surname from Remboldt to Rembold when WWII started.
Exactly, saw what they did japanese Americans and thought nope I'm hiding.
@@ronharrison8978 Yep, our family changed the spelling of our name as well, to "Americanize" it a bit.
The city I currently live in was known as Berlin, nearby is London, Paris, etc. But with WW2 the name Berlin was changed to Kitchener and the population was heavily post WW 1 Germans and Mennonites. Giant distilleries and Beer manufacturing. So yes non nazzzi Germans lived in Canada and USA before WW2 and the mustache man.
@@joywebster2678 I was thinking of Berlin/Kitchener and a lot of families around there. My partner told many stories of Ontario.
> Please no AI.<
Really enjoy your videos, but not the addition of creepy AI graphics. Your style in general is very down to earth and minimalist, anything AI generated is unnecessary and detracts from the overall "natural" ambience one gets taking a hike with you. Just your verbal description over film of the area you are exploring or actual cuts of archived film/written material to substantiate what you are explaining is enough (the newspaper article was an interesting read..why so many pajamas?). Cheers to AG1 for sponsoring you...hope you get more sponsorship in future, for hiking gear, dehydrated meals, etc.
I agree.
Thanks for the feedback!
Couldn't agree more. Was about to post something when I saw your reaction. The addition of genAI is not an improvement. It literally makes me question every static image that is shown here. I'm assuming at least some photos are real. But none of them can be trusted to be real since they could just as well be genAI.
Thank you to www4! I came here to mention that too. I love all of these videos - except for the AI bits. Not only do they call into question the validity of any other photos shown, but in many cases they are also very distracting. I'd rather focus on the beauty of your landscapes, the evidence you do find when presenting a mystery, and your otherwise high quality content.
This. Very weird. Your content is amazing and does not need AI. It’s a distraction and not in a good way.
It's amazing that you found all this out.Thank you for the indepth research very well presented !
No spy would place a large metal crate right out in the open like a billboard. So the crates were either camouflaged somehow or they weren’t too concerned about being caught. In addition, no spy would walk around in the open and let the locals see them and they sure wouldn’t speak with their motherland accent.
An explanation for the serial numbers being removed is this was an AWOL soldier who stole military equipment and supplies and didn’t want it easily traced back to its origin.
@youtubesean: Spys don't usually walk around and stand out looking like spies. They look just like everyone else, AKA blend into their surroundings. It gives them the ability to "spy"! SMH
yeah his behavior sounds more like a soldier with severe ptsd
Right and why would a Spy be sent to a country with a uniform that would identify them? That made me think he was a deserter too.
@@smithdog4770 because if you don't have a nation of origin uniform they shoot or hang you outright and considering all the effort put into that place there was probably more than one person. remember nobody found that place until 1953 and then by accident.
And no spy would present themselves as a reclusive eccentric to remain in an inconspicuous location for reasons you can't guess? The camo claim's rather absurd, as that would make the place stand out as abnormal if anyone got close. No spy would talk with a thick German accent when their mission doesn't include infiltration, you say? Duh, that's obvious, but that's why it might work in the right circumstances. The Purloined Letter.
As for the deserter hypothesis, firstly, deserted from where? All we know about the uniform is that it was a uniform of some sort, so we can't assume it was military, since many professions featured uniforms at the time. I could go on, but you get the point. I'm not hear to say whoever actually was a spy, I'm just here to tell you the flaws in your reasoning, hopefully in an educational, non-hostile way.
Possibly just some harmless person who didn't want to be dragged into a mad war that meant nothing to him.
@@seanmccann8368 I thought there were photos with some uniforms in the living quarters. I don't want to re watch it tho...
Dude, thanks for making such videos. Listen:
1) your feeds pop up (ur content is not what I usually stream) and I appreciate you sharing ur exploits. And ur world of discovering things old and ancient even
2) I love how u combine trekking, discovery of sites and human existence and try to make sense of it all. U have made this unique sharing and a dose of interesting anecdotes. Quite something living in a world where imagination is channeled into hyped endeavours
3) love the shots u have in ur videos. Fantastic. Some of those drone shots! Wow it is a monumental effort but worthwhile. Love also the way u capture the vistas in ur adventures.
Keep doing what ur doing man. Take care and be safe, always. ❤
The metal piece in the cave looks like a range hood for over a stove. Very interesting. I won't discount the possibility that it was a US citizen who due to the phobia against those of Japanese and German background, he, suffering from his own phobias hid out. In Boone NC there was an old hermit that lived in the woods of the mountains for years but would come into town for supplies. This was in the early 2000's when my daughter went to college there. I even saw him from time to time. Who knows.
But thanks for taking us along, be safe and God bless.
That is my hunch, too.
Exactly what I saw too on the range hood cover, and I don’t think that was from the 40’s. Cool cave though!
17:43 Yes, it's definitely a hood fan housing, without the motor, light socket and electrical connections. Top vented, in this case. Looks like it rarely gets windy around those parts.
@@E.lectricityNorth I just wanted to say, your videos are entertaining, your photography is really good, and good for you for the physical challenges of getting to these places. Imagine a time when someone huddled down in that cave for whatever reason. There is something oddly romantic and mysterious about it. Keep up the good work.
The wires don't look like Coax cable for an antenna. They were Cloth Covered which would indicate old power wires. Two wires would be for "Feed" and Return" from a power source - like a generator.
positive and negative DC to batteries.
100% I was thinking the same thing. Radio feedlines are ALMOST never two separate copper strands like this. The stuff that does exist is called "twin lead" or "balanced feeder", which is going to be two parallel wires running alongside each other, separated by an insulator, and is used in low power transmission....if used to transmit at all. Think old school tv antenna wire (the flat stuff) with the two wires. The wiring in this setup was for high current.
If a spy was involved with this, I would suspect it to be a way station. A place where a local operator would keep it stocked, and the actual spies would pass through to restock and sleep before going on.
My family settled that region in mid to late 1800s. NOTE: In the 50s my Grandfather drove me to a flat Mesa about a mile long near Your pin point where the government tested rockets on a flat tracks. You can see it off of 15 near Hurricane turn off For another explanation is that the area sit between NEVADA AND UTAH used for ranchers and known where polygamist families farmed and lived occasionally harassed by the law in this time period. A different point of view I love all your presentations. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing your local, insiders info. Nothing can beat that!
Desert Drifter, thank you for going out to explore this place. It's a bit different than most of your videos, and that's okay. The regions you go out exploring into, to share its history with all of us have so many layers of life times of history. There is more to be found yet still today, in my opinion.
I thank you for covering this time throughly, not just this one place. The internment camps the American Japanese were put into were so wrong. My mother had friends from her high school days taken away. Many of these people when released, had no homes anymore.
I truly look forward to your videos each week. It'll be fun to see where you take us in the next one.
P.S. My aging mother loves your videos. Some days, it's tough to find anything she wants to watch. Yet when I put your newest video on to watch, she lights right up!
Make sure your mom is getting plenty of AG1 so she can keep watching these videos for a long time 😉
Hey Jerry, you need to review the history of ww2 communication. You do not need repeaters to pass messages in the AM frequency band. Durning ww2, we use to pass messages by using the specific AM frequency band that follows the curvature of the earth and bounces off the ionicsphere. When I was growing up in Washington State 1960s 70s and80s my family would listen to my uncles and cousin, who operated an AM radio station near Edinburgh Scottland. This is still used in ham-radio communication. Repeaters are primarily used in higher frequency transmission due to line of site requirements.
Espionage isn't always about destroying enemy installations, it can also be about gathering intelligence about enemy activities.
If that location had a transmitter that would put it between the entire desert training area established by General Patton to the south and the newly founded Dugway proving grounds weapons testing area to the north plus at least two newly established ammunition plants near Salt Lake City. Disguised as common ham traffic information could be sent to submarines or retransmitted to virtually anywhere. I had a German friend in Jr. High school who emigrated to the U.S. in the sixties and his father had told him that several German agents had operated in the south west during the war.
Congrats on your inevitable 350,000 subscribers!
Thanks!
the AI generated cowboy images are creepy and depressing.
Looks like Japanese cowboys at 15:36 lol
yeah please stop using ai
The "I hate AI generated pictures" is getting old quick.
@@Flaggyt Why? Stop feeding AI
AI is creepy and depressing
The us military put that container there as an observation or radiation measurement point for nuclear weapons testing
This sounds very plausible.
Here in Canada it is known the German military established at least one weather station in Labrador during WWII. As the War of the North Atlantic waged on, they collected & radioed weather data to help German u-boats avoid storms & be better at anticipating the convoy movements of the thousands of cargo ships supplying Britain. At the time Labrador was even more sparsely populated than today.
Great presentation. Has anyone suggested that this "Hermit" was a former German soldier who just wanted to be as far away from the horrible memories of War?
or former spy?
It's definitely possible especially back then. A German soldier that found a way to desert without capture.. I still lean towards either someone post war that had the fear of nuclear winter pounded into their head and was preparing, but even more likely I believe it's more of something like around area 51 now but technology has made it all remote, where back then it was a radar installation and was manned by one possibly two people.. No telling but it's definitely fascinating. Don't recall if he ever says what type of military uniform it was.. May have to watch it again. I love this stuff though..
@@robertbraun7155 In Utah?
Anyone else click because of the thumbnail and disappointed that it wasn't what was shown? Still cool but very misleading.
Bait and switch
I lived in NM for 15 years. I love the Land of Enchantment. I am now in Utah. Was born and raised in San Diego. My soul feels at home in the desert and mountains.
I'm waiting for the one where he hikes through the desert near Roswell, New Mexico.
@@scottbreseke716 I vote for the Sandia Mts NM!
We'll never see that video, or him again.
@Alloneword-cp2xw I heard there's Friendly Beings out there, are you saying I heard right?
I saw that one...he died, of course.
I live in Roswell, not much close to Roswell, good hiking 15 minutes out
As an audio engineer, as soon as I saw that chicken wire outside the door I knew it was used for blocking RF interference or projecting RF signal. They definitely had some kind of radio in there. Also, quick internet search and found that 7up label could have been produced in the 40s.
I could kind of get behind that idea....but it seems like it could also very easily just be the way the occupant kept critters out of the structure. In your opinion, do you think the person ran the radio feed line out of the door and connected the other end to a portable antenna? I'm a HAM, so I love to talk about how some supposed spy or hermit might have kept in contact using radio techniques.
@@joeschmo5171 yea exactly the other small shack could be for antenna and maybe power generation. You could very well be correct though just about critters. I was thinking there could of also been a highly sensitive listening device instead of an antenna, and the equipment required to analyze/listen would be in the cave with chicken wire to block RF as to not mess with the sensitive "listening" equipment inside.. All speculation of course, but fun to imagine!
I vote for reclusive oddball rather than a spy. Maybe he was of German ancestry and was afraid of getting put in jail like the Americans with Japanese ancestry so off to the wilderness he went.
Exactly what I was thinking.
It could be . .
me too thats my thoughts
I was thinking the same thing
They were Americans of Japanese descent. Do people call you British?
My dad took me there as a kid back in the 70s..He knew about it because he went there while in the Army so there is an Army report aswell The Army did think it was a spy hideout and they had much help "they" that was his words why it was there , speculation was to blow hoover dam which provided much irrigation water and most of the west coast electricity. I remember the place being in better shape and there was a fourth stucture over the hill..thanks for the memories...keep up the good hunting...try the Egypian cave in the GC (my birth place) heard two first hand accounts about that............ cfc
My aunt was born at G.C. in 1941.
Very interesting. So are you saying that your father told you that the army believed a spy was stationed there to be involved with sabotaging the hoover dam? That's insane if true.
@butter.demon1 Insane yes. In WWII the concept of strategic bombing was par for the course. Collateral damage was hardly given a second thought. The RAF Destroyed Westkapelle during the Battle of Walcheren Island. I think if Germany had the means they would have bombed US cities and blown dams. But it's just pure speculation.
My hometown was surrounded by Redwood Forests (outskirts of Eureka CA) and I grew up at first in an old logging tract. There were many people who set up houses made from scraps of what was cut off the redwood logs. One of these people I had met was quite different . Very Old, and He barely spoke English. He called himself Mr Erman. On his mail box it clearly said just the word German. He really liked electrical and mechanical things and gathered and repaired these things and sold them. I was very young and curious about electrical things and would find out what I could about them even though I did think, even as very young man, that the whole Mr Erman thing was a little strange. This was about 1960 to almost 1970. I've always wondered what the rest of the story might have been about ?
I guess Hitler went to Argentina and engineers went to the emerald triangle 😅
Not really sure what to think, but glad you went there and checked it out for us.👍🚗
I remember hearing stories about a POW camp for German soldiers in central AZ. One German POW worked on the family ranch every day near Cottonwood.
Yes, could have been a POW escapee hid out there.
It was at Papago Park in Phoenix. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Papago_Park it is a nice place to visit
That would be a lot of equipment for one loan hermit to drag up there. It is possible that there were spies throughout the country whose only duty was to identify and count airplanes that flew over. It may be that the numbers on the thermometer were scratched off because they were in Celsius, not Fahrenheit, which might identify it as foreign.
love the little touch of asparagus!
Right?! 😂
I very much disbelieve the spy story. Spies don't carry uniforms with them, and a .22 rifle is good only for hunting vermin. And he (whoever he was) must have had tons of local help to cart all that metal, the cement for the mortar and other essentials like food and fuel (fuel for what?) up there, miles and miles from nowhere. Also, burning a wood fire in your cave would mean smoke escaping through the chimney, and that's not conducive to hiding out. On top of that any German spy would have been selected for his excellent command of American English. As others have pointed out, those tin and steel crates would have been as hot as ovens in the summer sun. Nah, another case of people's imaginations and paranoia running away with them. But fascinating video, all the same!
Doubts here too. But the .22 subsonic is one of the best rounds for close work silencers.
Depends. A spy not in uniform can be executed. A spy in uniform is magically a soldier that must be treated as a prisoner of war.
"doubts" is a weak word for "absolute baseless theory and clickbait", but agree
@@ronsimpson143 true
Darn, guess the 8 pt buck i killed with a .22 was a figment of my imagination....whatever.
i think that thing at 25:11 is a stove hood
Thank You D&D !!!! I am a disable gulf war veteran.... 5 Hernated discs and 2 total hip replacement with one complete revision after the left implant severely failed... They are the Metal on Metal type that had the failures so often causing severe issues.... That being said, I have absolutely depended on the very types of concentrated super-food powders all are much like your AG1, but I reviewed AG1 and it will be my go to source now... I am still alive today because of the very things you are showing like AG1... Recovering from severe surgeries requires the same nutrition that Meta-Hikers like you require.... Frankly if you were not using sups like AG1 you would very defiantly be grounded by now with every sort of joint injury and physical issue... D&D you sir are in fact living proof of the effectiveness of the sups you use... Honestly sir, Replace the food you now use now with processed garbage, and within the year you would require total replacements of both hips and both knees, and possibly ankles etc... With the Triathlete-Esque Mega-Hikes you do over Class 3+++ Trails, there can be no faking or substituting of garbage for the True Blue Real Deal.
Thank you so much for your service: I honor you
You’re a hero and we thank you for your sacrifices.
We honor all Veterans and those in active service.
🥳🇺🇸💯
That steel box sitting on the rocks would be like an oven in the sun geez
Also, the boxes must have been camouflaged in some way if the site was secretive. So many unknowns.
I love how every one of Desert Drifter’s videos pay off! No click bait, just wholesome content, and I am content 😂❤
About 20 years ago in the Kingston Mt. Range near Death Valley, we saw an Asian man In a hi tech service van. Multiple antenna etc.
From that Becks Spring view at about 6000' , you could see, hear & smell China Lake bombing range .
Your story of a German spy felt Very feasible.
Good work , love your excursions especially when I see Creosote bushes.
Carry on
. Phillip
The metal piece you found inside the cave is a range hood. It even has the two holes for the squirrel fans.
Definitely.
I love your videos when I was younger. I was quite the adventure myself I used to live in Colorado on grand Mesa. It was awesome to explore that as a kid keep up the good work.
I watch every video you post, but never comment. I guess it's only right to at least say hi.. So, hi from Finland!
And I'm glad you got a sponsorship deal for this video. I'm very familiar with AG1 as I tend to take a deep look at companies advertised by the channels I follow. They pay good money, but I sadly have zero faith in the product itself. They're extremely overpriced, lack efficacious doses of nutrients and they use proprietary blends which is always a huge red flag. In fact, 49 out of the 72 total ingredients come with zero information regarding their dosage. That's outrageous for a "health product", because to achieve any desired effect, you need to know how much to take. In my eyes, AG1 is ultimately just an overhyped cash grab with good marketing behind it. Quite frankly, I did feel a little sad seeing you endorsing it so openly.
man's gotta eat
@@somechrisguy Was just going to post, "everybody gotta eat"...
If that is the case. He might need to listen to the finn.
yea stuff is green thats about the extent of benefit.
Hi Finland.
the steel containers are housings for a generator to generate electricity at the casemates in cornwerder sand (the netherlands), they were also there, there is still one in the museum
So he was trying to install light into his cave
There was a prisoner of war facility in Florence Arizona during the war. The US kept German prisoners there. My mother was a nurse, and she and her nurse friends knew some of the German prisoners. As she described them, she said most did not want to return to Germany after the war. Some married nurses and settled with their American wives in the area. That facility is now a Federal prison, at 1155 North Pinal Parkway, Florence, AZ 85132. Whenever my parents would disagree on something, my mother would say she should have married one of the prisoners. (haha)
I know a person who when the US started rounding up our Japanese citizens, her grandfather was sold his neighbors farm for a dollar with a promise to sell it back to the family in the future. It was a good move, as soon after the family, that was Japanese was taken into custody. If they had not sold their farm to their neighbor, they would have lost it. The US wasn't just putting its citizens into internment camps, it also confiscated all there properties, businesses, and life savings, and after didn't give them back. A family of five went into the camp, one child made it out. He got the family farm back, but it didn't make up for the loss of his family.
My uncle's family did the same near Santa Rosa, CA. There was a rose farm, owned by a Japanese family. They bought it and tended it during the war. When the war was over, they gave it back. There was tragedy that also befell that family while interred. I don't recall the story, but either one or both of the parents passed away in the camp.
As someone who hates commercials, I actually watch your commercials, for what that observation is worth. Another fantastic video!
That just looks like an old miner's camp. No spy would bring a uniform.
That's exactly what it is. That's a dynamite storage room that hikers use to now camp in from time to time. The mine just never really got off the ground when prices changed.
@@dogmaerased6939 I posted a question asking if there was a mine nearby.
Treasure of the Sierra Madre comes to mind.
They didnt say what the uniforms were did they? Could have been a german spy with an american uniform?
Yeah but nazis really loved to show off their shit. So who really knows
@@dogmaerased6939 NOW there is the correct answer; NO SPY is going to advertize his location with BIG HONKING BRIGHT METAL BOXES! The mortar work to the faux cave is VERY NEW
I love that he's always somewhere in the dessert driftin and cruisin
When does he work? Is he filthy rich? 🤔
Yep. Love it. All the useless, divisive, and censored content on youtube now, it's nice to watch something low key, still gets your brain thinking but it's not just manufactured content just to get you to click on it. Just one guy, rolling through places no one rarely goes just so we can all get to see it too.. I really enjoy it.
Those cables coming through the walls are called 'coaxial' one conductor, wrapped in insulation and then another shield of metal around. almost exclusively used for radio. have a look at your TV antenna cable. situated at a such a high elevation would make it an ideal listening post. wouldnt need to be super close, and could probably listen to a number of the bases around. The fact that they were installed at the very bottom of the wall would indicate to me that they were the primary purpose of the place, the radios were installed first, then the shelter was built around them. with 2 antennas, you could compare the signals and work out the direction the signal is coming from without the need for a large rotating antenna assembly. I would guess they would be monitoring the bases for troop and aircraft movement. even if its encoded, you can get alot of information from the strength, direction, regularity and frequency, its called SIGINT, signal intelligence. that would be my guess.
but a repeater site is also a good possibility. a small concealable radio with a small antenna in a city or base used by an undercover spy would probably not be able to reach Europe, but a long wire antenna on the top of a mountain most surely could. in a radio quiet area (with the very low signals, electrical noise from motors and other electrical devices can make hearing anything almost impossible), and an effective antenna design (which is just 2 or 3 bits of wire cut right and flung over a tree), Ive been able to reach Italy from Western Australia on a low powered battery operated radio.
This is very different than your usual treks, but I enjoyed it immensely! I found the cave and metal box fascinating, and your narrative was so informative. The drone shots of the surrounding area were spectacular. You certainly left us with something to ponder. Thanks for another great adventure, Andrew. Stay safe and drift on! 😊
Which way was the hillside facing? Depending which high frequency band a person was on, the hillside facing a certain direction is like a natural reflector on an antenna. Having been a Ham radio operator since the early 70’s, I know that a simple dipole on a hillside or ravine that faces Germany could reach them using the atmospheric bounce of the ionosphere. In addition, why were the boxes metal? Makes me think the boxes might have been part of the antenna system but that’s reaching for it. If a spy wanted to communicate directly to Germany, that’s a place that could have done it.
Bingo bingo bingo
The intern camp for the Japanese just north of Moab, Utah, was one of the worst internment camps because there was no place to escape. If anyone in the other camps expressed too much aggression and showed leadership and organizational skills, they were sent to Moab. I worked with a man of Japanese ancestry from Utah. He was a teenager when his family was placed in a camp. His father owned an excellent retail business; his mother was a school teacher, and they owned a lovely house in a good neighborhood. The family lost everything and couldn't find work after the war. Initially, they became migrant farm workers and cleaned toilets. Remarkably, both of his sons were drafted into the U.S. Army immediately after the war ended.
That’s a domesday preper military style building .. we hade lots of people who went to live in the desert because fear of a Atomic War in the USA
yes!!! thank you! it’s most likely cold war era!
Definitely more likely..
If they were worried about Atomic stuff. They would have gotten a lot farther away. All those deserts were testing grounds at one point.
@@shaynejenkins446 exactly.
@@shaynejenkins446 Probably more worried about an enemy attack on cities, not Govt. testing.
At 17:28 that sheetmetal looks like a stove hood.....homemade. nice stone work whoever did it.
nice welds.
That may be the best AG1 segue I've ever seen. 😊
I'm always suspecting that Road Runner and Wiley Coyote are going to run by really fast at any moment.
That's why he always packs his ACME full size slingshot and TNT... 😂
Had to comment here. You used my nickname😊
They are there.
Meep Meep!
ACME delivers any where!!
That metal thing in the cave looked like a smoke hood for a kitchen stove. I bet that's what those wires were for and I'd also bet that it didn't work very well. I'd guess that would be why whoever was staying there moved into the packing crate. Just a guess though.
17:45 Agreed! Definitely a hood for a ventilator. The two squares on the back (or top) are where two squirrel cage blowers would mount.
I’m voting for resourceful odd ball. Maybe he secluded himself because of his heritage and was afraid he’d be mistaken for a spy?
Great video and thanks for taking us along once again. 😊
There were WWII POW Camps in the SW...maybe an escaped soldier? Maybe a German defector or a German living in the US at the start of WWII and did not want to find himself in an internment camp. Many ideas...
The fundamental problem with an escaped soldier is how they would get all the equipment in the first place and secondly how to transport out there. If you find a hidden camp built with stuff you can find at the location, it could be a reasonable explanation. The rock wall looks to be held together with concrete, I would expect stacked stone that might have local mud in between if it is someone that escaped. Then and the problem of getting the large metal boxed out there.
If it has anything to do with WWII my guess would be it is a US installation likely for testing if a spy outpost like that would work or as a training location.
Definitely a very strange story!! No mention of radio receivers or antenna. Thanks for the adventure.
The metal object in the “cave room” looks like a a range hood. The two rectangle cutouts are where the ventilation duct would be and the round hole is for electrical going to the fan motor.
Thank you for taking the time to weave in important historical context. That kind of attention to detail (as well as zooming out to see the big picture) is what makes your channel great. 👍
He may not have been spying on bases, but providing aid to escaped P.O.W.’s. There were 700-800 P.O.W. Camps in the four corners states.
That metal crate looks like a German generator & radio shack. Many were captured on the soviet front in WW2. As an Ex M.A.R.S operator I speak from experience when I say… Solar propagation requires strange hours in order to get through with distance through the ionosphere.
Came here to mention German POWs held in the southwest/ west. Unlikely but possible gathering site for the few escapees?
You are right about that metal crate. I immediately associated it with the communications huts we had on the back of trucks in the Army. All the "windows" as he called them were ventalition points or for cable access. It's definitely of more interest than the cave which looks like it had more recent work done on it.
Amazing video! I loved the adventure and your dedication to exploring these hidden spots. Keep up the great work, man-looking forward to more of your hikes! 💪
Not sure if you already figured it out, but the green artifact(s) after rendering are possibly an indication your graphics card is beginning to fail.
noticed this as well
Saw it, too.
Thanks. I was wondering what’s going on. 2 videos in a row… That is good to know. I was planning on getting a new computer, guess I’ll need to hurry on that
@@Desert.Drifter I suggest a Macbook Pro. It will make your editing job a bit easier and somewhat less time-consuming. Keep up the good work. Love your videos!
@@chrisackerley1842 Depends on the software he uses, an AMD powered PC might be better with more cores, and possibly an Nvidia GPU.
The sheet metal inside the stone structure is hood that goes above a stove.
I came here to say that too.
I see you beat me to it. Bravo!!
One of the photos shows it hanging over the door as an awning I think.
I do not see any evidence given that would make a person think it would need to be made by a German person specifically. If it's south of Henrieville, Utah it is about as far away as a person can get from civilization in the United States. The scratched out numbers on the thermometer very much indicate a person with fear based mental issues. It appears they went to great lengths to try to get away from it all and build a sufficient living space. The fact that they never seemed to end up living in it is telling as well, as though they were prepping for something they never ended up needing, or ended up never being able to use. Although drilling even just that tunnel for air would have been quite a bit of work, and they put in some thoughtful craftsmanship into the sleeping and food huts based on the pictures. The fact that they built the cave room, and then sealed it up from the outside with no apparent way in other than breaking the glass is interesting and quite strange as well. It was not well engineered but was well built. Seeing as no body was reportedly ever found perhaps whatever they were running from caught up to them in the end.
A lot of people don't know that the "Lost Dutchman" saga was named for a guy named Jacob Waltz who was German, and reportedly he was called "the Deutsche man", meaning "the German man". "Deutsche" is pronounced like "doych". You can see how it could easily be shortened to "dutchman". He died in 1891, so this couldn't have been him. But there were plenty of German immigrants in the southwest by then, and many of them were hunting for gold and other minerals. Has anybody bothered to look around that area for signs of mining activities?
Yes very true and another unrelated but interesting fact is that the plane hijacker D B cooper actually bought his ticket under the Dan cooper moniker it was a mistake by the news room that relayed d b cooper sounds unbelievable really. Where are you Dan cooper.
Well, I can personally tell you that my ex wife's German born grandfather was one of countless German / American Nazi collaborators. Factory workers, butcher, bakers and more communicated with the "old country" through the German American Clubs. I was shocked when shortly before his death he proudly displayed his German Medal for his efforts. 😢 As millions of Americans were united in the war effort these traitors lived in our midst.
Makes sense. There were many Americans who wanted no part of the war and who admired Hitler. America First was a byword then.
well, who really won that war? look at america....its israel's cash cow.
I love the asparagus stuck on your backpack..........easy and convenient !!!
I'm so happy I found your channel while scrolling... Love watching them
Thank you. Your videos are eagerly awaited and a high point of my week. I'm 70 and love adventuring through your lense.
Same for me.
At least you wore a sturdy hiking shoe.LMAO Thank God you brought something to change into.