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This-National-Park-has-a-DEATH-TRAP · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: Today's story is about an infamous cathing incident. The reason
0:04
Speaker 1: for its infamy is largely because of a photo that
0:07
Speaker 1: was taken during the event. Now, if you didn't know
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Speaker 1: anything about this photo and you just looked at it,
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Speaker 1: it would be haunting and kind of unsettling. But when
0:16
Speaker 1: you have the full picture, the full context of what's
0:19
Speaker 1: going on in this photo, it will leave you highly disturbed.
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Speaker 1: That photo will be shown at the end of today's video.
0:26
Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
0:28
Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format,
0:32
Speaker 1: then you come to the right place, because that's all
0:34
Speaker 1: we do, and we upload once a week. So if
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Speaker 1: of our weekly uploads.
0:52
Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into today's story.
1:08
Speaker 1: On January thirtieth, nineteen twenty five, a thirty seven year
1:11
Speaker 1: old man named Floyd Collins walked through this huge forest
1:15
Speaker 1: in central Kentucky inside of a National Park. As he
1:18
Speaker 1: walked along, his boots splashed in the melting snow and
1:21
Speaker 1: mud on the ground, and above him, all he heard
1:24
Speaker 1: was the sound of water dripping down amongst the leaves.
1:27
Speaker 1: It was warmer than it had been in several days,
1:30
Speaker 1: and so that was why Floyd was out here. He
1:32
Speaker 1: was trying to take advantage of the nice weather. And
1:35
Speaker 1: so after walking for a while on this muddy, slushy trail,
1:38
Speaker 1: the trees around Floyd began to thin out, and then
1:41
Speaker 1: eventually he reached the edge of the tree line and
1:44
Speaker 1: in front of him was this huge clearing. Now in
1:47
Speaker 1: this clearing, the trail he was on continued straight ahead,
1:50
Speaker 1: but it came to a stop in front of this
1:53
Speaker 1: huge cavern like opening in the side of a hill.
1:56
Speaker 1: And so, without hesitation, Floyd stepped out of the trees
1:59
Speaker 1: into the sunlight, and he walked the rest of the
2:01
Speaker 1: trail right up to the opening of this cavern, and
2:04
Speaker 1: he stopped and just stared and smiled. This cavern like
2:08
Speaker 1: space on the side of this hill was the entrance
2:11
Speaker 1: to a cave known as Sand Cave, and Floyd had
2:15
Speaker 1: spent the last week coming out to Sand Cave and
2:17
Speaker 1: exploring the different tunnels, But today his plan was to
2:21
Speaker 1: go as deep and as far inside of this cave
2:24
Speaker 1: as he possibly could. Caves were a huge tourist attraction
2:27
Speaker 1: in this region, and Floyd was a very experienced caver
2:31
Speaker 1: who had been caving since he was six years old,
2:34
Speaker 1: and he knew that most of Sand Cave had not
2:38
Speaker 1: been explored, and so if he could go in there
2:40
Speaker 1: and explore all the different parts of the cave and
2:42
Speaker 1: map it all out and make sure it was safe,
2:45
Speaker 1: it was sure to be a huge money maker. He
2:47
Speaker 1: could bring people here and lead them unguided tours. So
2:50
Speaker 1: Floyd left the muddy path he had been walking on
2:53
Speaker 1: and stepped foot inside of this grand entrance to Sand Cave.
2:57
Speaker 1: It's basically this two hundred and fifty foot wide cathedral
3:01
Speaker 1: like space inside of this hill, with ceilings high enough
3:04
Speaker 1: you could stand, but it's totally dark in there. And
3:07
Speaker 1: despite being this big open space, it very quickly funnels
3:11
Speaker 1: to this one kind of tunnel that goes straight down
3:14
Speaker 1: and connects to all these offshoot underground passageways, many of
3:18
Speaker 1: which have never been explored before. And so as Floyd
3:22
Speaker 1: walked across this big open entryway, he lit his oil
3:25
Speaker 1: lamp and then began mentally preparing himself for what he
3:29
Speaker 1: was about to do, which was going to be very
3:31
Speaker 1: claustrophobia inducing, even for a very experienced caver. And so
3:36
Speaker 1: Floyd reached the back of this huge entryway and he
3:39
Speaker 1: reached this tunnel that would connect to the rest of
3:41
Speaker 1: the cave, and he began walking down it. And this
3:44
Speaker 1: tunnel was not very restricting. You could stand in it,
3:46
Speaker 1: you could move around in it, but it was very short.
3:49
Speaker 1: It was fifteen feet straight down at an angle where
3:51
Speaker 1: at the bottom of those fifteen feet was a square
3:55
Speaker 1: hole in the ground. And Floyd, having been here the
3:57
Speaker 1: previous week, knew that once you go through the hole,
4:00
Speaker 1: the real caving begins. Now you're going to be down
4:03
Speaker 1: on your hands and knees, wriggling your way through these
4:06
Speaker 1: very tight and restricting areas where you don't really know
4:09
Speaker 1: where you're going, because again a lot of this stuff
4:12
Speaker 1: has never been explored before. But this is why Floyd
4:15
Speaker 1: loved caving. He loved the adventure and the risk of
4:19
Speaker 1: doing things like this. And so Floyd got to this hole,
4:21
Speaker 1: he put his oil lamp down on the ground, he
4:24
Speaker 1: casually lowered himself feet first, into this hole, which dropped
4:27
Speaker 1: down several feet, and then once he was on firm ground,
4:30
Speaker 1: he reached up, grabbed his oil lamp and pulled it
4:32
Speaker 1: into the hole with him. Once he was inside of
4:35
Speaker 1: this lower level space, he crouched down and looked around,
4:39
Speaker 1: and off to his right was a tunnel that he
4:41
Speaker 1: could crawl through that seemed to lead to a series
4:44
Speaker 1: of other tunnels, and so he puts his lamp in
4:46
Speaker 1: front of him, he gets down, and he begins crawling
4:48
Speaker 1: through this tunnel, and after a little while he reaches
4:51
Speaker 1: this kind of fork in the road where he had
4:53
Speaker 1: several options of very narrow tunnels to choose from. Now.
4:57
Speaker 1: The previous week, Floyd had gone down on several of
5:00
Speaker 1: these tunnels and mapped out where they went, But there
5:03
Speaker 1: was one tunnel in particular at this fork that was
5:07
Speaker 1: very narrow. It was likely the most narrow of all
5:10
Speaker 1: the tunnels, but from where he had seen the last week,
5:13
Speaker 1: it looked like it went pretty far without obstruction, and
5:17
Speaker 1: so he immediately began going headfirst into this tunnel where
5:21
Speaker 1: he had no idea where it was going to go.
5:24
Speaker 1: Think about that, if you go headfirst into a tunnel
5:27
Speaker 1: and you get stuck. What are you gonna do? You
5:29
Speaker 1: can't really go anywhere. So this guy is like totally fearless,
5:33
Speaker 1: just going headfirst into what most people would consider a
5:36
Speaker 1: nightmare scenario. And so the way Floyd would approach these
5:40
Speaker 1: very tight tunnels is he would put his oil lamp
5:43
Speaker 1: out in front of him, and then he'd keep his
5:45
Speaker 1: hands over his head and he'd kind of wriggle his
5:47
Speaker 1: way headfirst and push his lamp along the way. And
5:51
Speaker 1: so that's what he did. He began going into this
5:53
Speaker 1: really restrictive tunnel. You know, it's hard to breathe because
5:56
Speaker 1: the walls are so tight on his chest cavity. But
5:58
Speaker 1: as he's going, event actually the ceiling begins to slope
6:02
Speaker 1: upward just enough that he can pull himself up onto
6:04
Speaker 1: his hands and knees and kind of catch his breath.
6:07
Speaker 1: By this point, Floyd was approximately fifty five feet underground.
6:11
Speaker 1: That's where this little pocket was where he could get
6:13
Speaker 1: up on his hands and knees and breathe. And so
6:15
Speaker 1: from this position, he still could see with his lamp
6:18
Speaker 1: that this tunnel continued to snake further and further down,
6:21
Speaker 1: and his hope was that eventually it would lead to
6:24
Speaker 1: a big underground chamber that was not just big enough
6:27
Speaker 1: to go to your hands and knees on, but was
6:29
Speaker 1: big enough you could stand and walk around in, because
6:32
Speaker 1: those were the big tourist attractions, not only because it
6:36
Speaker 1: seems like another world underground that you can fully explore
6:39
Speaker 1: and walk around in, but also, as Floyd knew from
6:42
Speaker 1: his past experience of going into other caves a lot
6:45
Speaker 1: of times, those big underground chambers are full of Native
6:49
Speaker 1: American artifacts, and again that was a huge potential money
6:53
Speaker 1: maker for people like Floyd because it allowed him to
6:56
Speaker 1: advertise that this cave where Torres could go explore, was
6:59
Speaker 1: full of this rich history. And so Floyd, eventually, after
7:02
Speaker 1: catching his breath in this little spot, got back down
7:05
Speaker 1: onto his stomach with his hands out in front of him,
7:07
Speaker 1: with the lamp out ahead of his fingers, and he
7:10
Speaker 1: began going deeper and deeper into this unexplored section of
7:13
Speaker 1: sand cave. And as he inched along, even though the
7:16
Speaker 1: ceiling remained very tight on top of him, he's totally
7:20
Speaker 1: compressed to the ground, the walls on either side of
7:23
Speaker 1: him began to expand, which meant Floyd, if he wanted to,
7:26
Speaker 1: could actually turn himself around, although he couldn't stand up,
7:30
Speaker 1: and so Floyd is making his way down this very
7:32
Speaker 1: low ceiling area when he notices his oil lamp is
7:36
Speaker 1: beginning to flicker, which means it's going to go out soon. Now,
7:39
Speaker 1: Floyd wasn't concerned about suddenly being in the darkness inside
7:43
Speaker 1: of a cave. Now, to most people that would be terrifying,
7:46
Speaker 1: but Floyd, again was so experienced he was very confident
7:50
Speaker 1: that he could easily make his way out again just
7:53
Speaker 1: by touch. He didn't need the light, but he did
7:55
Speaker 1: know that trying to move around inside of a cave
7:57
Speaker 1: in the darkness was dangerous and so should not do
8:00
Speaker 1: that if he could avoid it. And so, as much
8:02
Speaker 1: as Floyd wanted to continue and hopefully find something incredible
8:06
Speaker 1: inside of this cave, he decided he really needed to
8:08
Speaker 1: just turn around and go back to the surface and
8:10
Speaker 1: come back the next day to continue exploring. And so,
8:13
Speaker 1: because this part of the tunnel he was in was
8:16
Speaker 1: really wide, he was able to turn himself around and
8:20
Speaker 1: drag his lamp until he was facing back uphill and
8:23
Speaker 1: then he rolled onto his back, so his head is
8:26
Speaker 1: pointing back up where he came from and his feet
8:30
Speaker 1: are pointing in the direction that he had previously been traveling.
8:33
Speaker 1: And he's on his back and so his oil lamp
8:35
Speaker 1: is above his head. He can move his arms side
8:37
Speaker 1: to side because again it's pretty wide in the area
8:40
Speaker 1: he's in, but his head is pretty restricted by the ceiling.
8:43
Speaker 1: And he began inching with his heels and pushing with
8:46
Speaker 1: his arms, moving up the tunnel on his back, and
8:49
Speaker 1: as he would move, he'd use his head and his
8:51
Speaker 1: hands to push the oil lamp back up the direction
8:54
Speaker 1: he was going. And for a little while this system
8:57
Speaker 1: worked great. But at some point, right as he was
8:59
Speaker 1: getting close to that area where he was able to
9:02
Speaker 1: previously get on his hands and knees and catch his breath,
9:05
Speaker 1: Floyd accidentally kind of rushed and pushed his lamp too
9:09
Speaker 1: hard and knocked it over, which extinguished the light, and
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Speaker 1: so suddenly Floyd was cast into total darkness. Have you
9:21
Speaker 1: ever thought to yourself, Wow, mister Balin is so cool.
9:25
Speaker 1: I just wish there was some way he and I
9:28
Speaker 1: could come together and lay the SmackDown on the ultra successful,
9:33
Speaker 1: highly popular social platform Discord. Well, if that's you, today's
9:37
Speaker 1: your lucky day, because our partners over at Discord just
9:41
Speaker 1: told me that if I wanted to host a live
9:44
Speaker 1: storytelling event on Discord, they would uncap the number of
9:49
Speaker 1: people who could watch it live. For reference, Discord has
9:52
Speaker 1: never done this before, because if you allow an unlimited
9:57
Speaker 1: number of people to join a live stream at one time,
10:00
Speaker 1: it could easily destroy the server temporarily. But you know
10:04
Speaker 1: what they told me. When I asked them how they
10:06
Speaker 1: felt about having that be a potential outcome, they said,
10:09
Speaker 1: don't worry, John, that would only happen if you had
10:12
Speaker 1: at least ten thousand people on the show at once.
10:16
Speaker 1: Then that's not going to happen. Those fools. In two weeks,
10:23
Speaker 1: on May nineteenth, at seven pm Central, I'm going to
10:27
Speaker 1: host that live storytelling event on Discord. It's totally free,
10:31
Speaker 1: and I need all of you fans of the Strange,
10:34
Speaker 1: Dark and Mysterious to do me a favor and log
10:37
Speaker 1: in right at the start, just so we can surpass
10:41
Speaker 1: the ten thousand viewer mark and destroy Discord server temporarily.
10:45
Speaker 1: And then after they fix it, which will be quick,
10:47
Speaker 1: I will spend the rest of the live stream telling
10:49
Speaker 1: you stories. Joining our official mister Ball and Discord server.
10:53
Speaker 1: Where I'll do this live stream is quick and easy.
10:56
Speaker 1: All you gotta do is click the link in the
10:58
Speaker 1: description choose your adventure, agreed to follow our community rules,
11:02
Speaker 1: and then on May nineteenth, at seven pm Central, click
11:06
Speaker 1: on the live storytelling event Mean Old singa Lung will
11:10
Speaker 1: see you there now again. Floyd was not concerned or
11:18
Speaker 1: really even scared about being in darkness inside of this cave.
11:22
Speaker 1: But this was not a good scenario and he knew it,
11:25
Speaker 1: But he told himself stay calm. He knew where he
11:28
Speaker 1: was in the cave. He just needed to get to
11:30
Speaker 1: that little pocket. He'd catch his breath and then he'd
11:32
Speaker 1: continue his way back up. Eventually reached that hole in
11:35
Speaker 1: the ceiling, that square hole, he'd climb out, make his
11:38
Speaker 1: way out of the cave, and boom, he'd be done.
11:40
Speaker 1: And so Floyd just continued to push the now extinguished
11:44
Speaker 1: oil lamp above his head, and he continued to inch
11:46
Speaker 1: with his heels and moved his arms around to keep
11:49
Speaker 1: going backwards up this tunnel. But then, right before Floyd
11:52
Speaker 1: reached that pocket inside of the tunnel where he could
11:55
Speaker 1: get onto his hands and knees, he heard the sound
11:57
Speaker 1: of falling rocks somewhere below him, kind of near his legs. Now,
12:01
Speaker 1: it's pitch black. He can't see anything, and so Floyd
12:04
Speaker 1: just kind of held his breath and hoped that whatever
12:06
Speaker 1: was happening wouldn't affect him. But then he felt a
12:10
Speaker 1: shooting pain in his left leg. A twenty seven pound
12:14
Speaker 1: rock had broken loose from the low ceiling and landed
12:17
Speaker 1: on his left ankle. Now, at first, Floyd was actually
12:20
Speaker 1: relieved that the rock had landed only on his left leg,
12:24
Speaker 1: and in fact, his leg was actually kind of positioned
12:27
Speaker 1: in a depression on the floor of the cave, and
12:29
Speaker 1: so the rock didn't really hit his left ankle directly.
12:32
Speaker 1: It kind of like hit the ground and then leaned
12:34
Speaker 1: onto his left ankle, and his left ankle was kind
12:37
Speaker 1: of protected in the depression in the cave floor, and
12:40
Speaker 1: so Floyd's thinking, thank goodness, it only landed on my
12:43
Speaker 1: ankle and not on my head or my chest, because
12:46
Speaker 1: then I'd be dead. And so, after catching his breath
12:49
Speaker 1: and kind of calming down, Floyd tensed his body and
12:52
Speaker 1: pulled his left leg as hard as he could to
12:55
Speaker 1: clear this twenty seven pound rock, but his foot wouldn't budge,
12:59
Speaker 1: and so Floyd thought he would just reach down and
13:01
Speaker 1: kind of dig his foot out. He just moved the
13:04
Speaker 1: rock out of the way. But even though this cave
13:06
Speaker 1: had widened out on either side of Floyd when he
13:09
Speaker 1: had gone deeper and deeper into it, because he had
13:12
Speaker 1: retraced his steps, he was farther up the tunnel where
13:15
Speaker 1: those sides had really come in, much closer to him,
13:18
Speaker 1: and so he wasn't able to actually reach down and
13:20
Speaker 1: touch the rock. The walls made it impossible, and so
13:23
Speaker 1: he wasn't able to use his hands to clear this rock.
13:26
Speaker 1: And so Floyd is pinned underground, unable to move in
13:30
Speaker 1: absolute pitch darkness, inside of a cave that's practically crushing
13:35
Speaker 1: his chest because the ceiling is so low, and he
13:38
Speaker 1: knows it's unstable. The ceiling has now fallen off, so
13:42
Speaker 1: there's a chance more rocks could come in at any time.
13:45
Speaker 1: I mean, this is like a worst case scenario for
13:48
Speaker 1: anybody who goes caving. But Floyd told himself to just
13:51
Speaker 1: stay calm. He knew this was a very bad situation.
13:55
Speaker 1: But people were certain to find out he was missing,
13:58
Speaker 1: and they knew he had gone to Sand Cave, and
14:00
Speaker 1: they would come here if they would find him, and
14:02
Speaker 1: they would rescue him and so Floyd just decided he
14:05
Speaker 1: would wait and for an agonizing thirty hours, Remember thirty
14:10
Speaker 1: hours of pitch blackness, trapped in a totally claustrophobic environment.
14:15
Speaker 1: Thirty hours of this no food, no water, can't go
14:18
Speaker 1: to the bathroom. He's laying there for thirty hours. And
14:21
Speaker 1: then finally he hears a voice coming from somewhere near
14:25
Speaker 1: the entrance of this cave. And when he heard that voice,
14:28
Speaker 1: it was like the sweetest sound he had ever heard,
14:30
Speaker 1: because not only did they represent help, but the voice
14:34
Speaker 1: was coming from Floyd's brother, Homer, who was also a
14:37
Speaker 1: very experienced caver. And so Floyd's thinking, thank goodness, I'm saved.
14:42
Speaker 1: And so Homer was able to navigate from the entrance
14:45
Speaker 1: down all the way to the tunnel that Floyd was in.
14:48
Speaker 1: And Homer got to that spot in the tunnel where
14:50
Speaker 1: Floyd had gone to his hands and knees that pocket there.
14:53
Speaker 1: So Homer's in that pocket and he can see Floyd
14:56
Speaker 1: is only a few feet away from him. He can
14:58
Speaker 1: see Floyd's head right there. And so Homer, who had
15:01
Speaker 1: a lamp, you know, he shines the light on Floyd,
15:03
Speaker 1: and the two brothers don't waste any time with small talk.
15:06
Speaker 1: Instead Homer, who had his oil lamp that set it
15:08
Speaker 1: up right next to them, and he began feeding Floyd's
15:11
Speaker 1: sausage sandwiches and giving him SIPs of water. And then
15:15
Speaker 1: Homer would tell Floyd that he just did not have
15:17
Speaker 1: the equipment to help Floyd get out right now, but
15:21
Speaker 1: Homer was going to go back to the surface, get men,
15:24
Speaker 1: get supplies, and then come back and save Floyd. And
15:27
Speaker 1: so Floyd is very thankful, he's very relieved. He says
15:30
Speaker 1: goodbye to Homer, and Homer turns and makes his way
15:32
Speaker 1: back up to the surface. Fifteen hours later, Homer would
15:36
Speaker 1: return by himself, and so at this point Floyd has
15:39
Speaker 1: been trapped for forty five hours. And so Floyd he's
15:42
Speaker 1: laying there kind of in and out of consciousness, and
15:45
Speaker 1: he hears the sound of Homer calling out to him,
15:48
Speaker 1: and then he hears the sound of Homer chiseling away
15:51
Speaker 1: at some rocks. It would turn out Homer's plan to
15:54
Speaker 1: save Floyd was basically to chisel away the side of
15:58
Speaker 1: this section of tunnel that fled was stuck in in
16:01
Speaker 1: order to be able to reach down and somehow some
16:04
Speaker 1: way clear the rock off of Floyd's leg and then
16:07
Speaker 1: pull Floyd up. Now, Floyd understood, of course, that this
16:11
Speaker 1: plan of chiseling away the side of this tunnel to
16:14
Speaker 1: make it wider was going to take some time. But
16:17
Speaker 1: luckily Homer had shown up with more food and water,
16:20
Speaker 1: and they chatted the whole time as Homer worked, and
16:22
Speaker 1: so Floyd was in good spirits and Homer was very optimistic.
16:26
Speaker 1: But after eight hours of Homer slowly chiseling his way
16:32
Speaker 1: widening this tunnel, he hadn't made much progress, and he
16:35
Speaker 1: was totally exhausted. I mean, you've got to remember that
16:38
Speaker 1: the angle he was working at was horrible. He was
16:41
Speaker 1: basically crouched down on his hands and knees chipping away
16:45
Speaker 1: at this rock. And so after those eight hours, Homer
16:47
Speaker 1: would leave Floyd and go back home and sleep and
16:51
Speaker 1: eat and drink and kind of recover. But he told Floyd,
16:53
Speaker 1: don't worry. Tomorrow more men will be here to help
16:56
Speaker 1: chisel away this tunnel and get Floyd out of there.
16:59
Speaker 1: But over the course of the next fifty hours, Floyd
17:04
Speaker 1: remained trapped inside of this tunnel with the rock pinning
17:07
Speaker 1: his leg, and despite Homer and several other men getting
17:11
Speaker 1: down there, and very diligently chipping away at this tunnel.
17:14
Speaker 1: It just was not happening very quickly, and so over
17:18
Speaker 1: the course of those fifty hours, Floyd began going in
17:21
Speaker 1: and out of consciousness, and he began not being able
17:24
Speaker 1: to differentiate between what was real and what was not.
17:28
Speaker 1: At one point he would say that he believed the
17:30
Speaker 1: cave had kind of opened up and these angels riding
17:33
Speaker 1: golden chariots with flaming wheels had come in to save him.
17:37
Speaker 1: And as they were lifting him out of the cave,
17:39
Speaker 1: he smelled food and coffee, and then suddenly his hallucination
17:43
Speaker 1: cleared and he realized he was trapped in the darkness,
17:46
Speaker 1: all alone, still in this cave, and it was like
17:48
Speaker 1: it destroyed his morale. And so Floyd is really starting
17:52
Speaker 1: to go downhill, and the rescuers are realizing they need
17:56
Speaker 1: to do something, and they need to do something now.
17:58
Speaker 1: But at the one hundred and thirty the hour mark,
18:01
Speaker 1: things got even worse for Floyd. As he was laying
18:04
Speaker 1: there in the tunnel. This was sometime in the middle
18:06
Speaker 1: of the night, and so no rescuers were actively down
18:08
Speaker 1: there trying to chisel their way down to him. He
18:11
Speaker 1: was laying there, and he was listening to the sound
18:13
Speaker 1: of the running water somewhere outside the cave, and that
18:17
Speaker 1: sound was kind of amplified down to him. And then
18:20
Speaker 1: all of a sudden he heard the sound of falling
18:22
Speaker 1: rocks somewhere up above. And then when those rocks stopped
18:26
Speaker 1: and it went silent again, he could not hear the
18:29
Speaker 1: sound of the running water. It was very muffled. And
18:32
Speaker 1: that was when he realized that there must have been
18:34
Speaker 1: a cave in somewhere higher up in the cave, which
18:37
Speaker 1: meant potentially there could be a significant block just to
18:41
Speaker 1: get down to him. Forget about widening this tunnel. I mean,
18:45
Speaker 1: he could be actually entombed inside of sand cave. And
18:48
Speaker 1: so Floyd did the only thing he could do, which
18:51
Speaker 1: was to pray it would turn out that cave in
18:54
Speaker 1: had indeed blocked the way for rescuers to get down
18:58
Speaker 1: to Floyd. And because of how extended said this cave
19:00
Speaker 1: in was, the rescuers actually decided to start carving a
19:04
Speaker 1: brand new tunnel that would join up with the side
19:08
Speaker 1: of Floyd's tunnel. I mean, this is an even bigger
19:11
Speaker 1: undertaking than just chiseling the side of the tunnel that
19:15
Speaker 1: Floyd was in, which was their original plan and had
19:17
Speaker 1: taken several days, and so now they have to build
19:20
Speaker 1: this brand new tunnel to Floyd. And so finally, on
19:24
Speaker 1: February sixteenth, nineteen twenty five, so a staggering seventeen days
19:30
Speaker 1: from the time Floyd got first stuck in this cave,
19:33
Speaker 1: the rescue team finally punched through and reached Floyd. And
19:37
Speaker 1: as soon as they did, the lead rescuer looked over
19:40
Speaker 1: at Floyd and then he paused. He turned up, and
19:43
Speaker 1: he just said dead. It would turn out shortly after
19:47
Speaker 1: that cave in which sealed Floyd in completely inside of
19:51
Speaker 1: sand cave, at some point over the next couple of days,
19:55
Speaker 1: those rocks began to break free and tumble down the
19:58
Speaker 1: cave and began stro viking Floyd, until finally one or
20:02
Speaker 1: several of those rocks hit him in the head or
20:05
Speaker 1: chest and killed him. So just imagine you are trapped,
20:08
Speaker 1: You've been there for several days, You're in total darkness,
20:12
Speaker 1: you're entombed inside of this cave, and periodically rocks just
20:16
Speaker 1: come tumbling down and smash into you. Who knows how
20:20
Speaker 1: long it took to kill him, but that has to
20:22
Speaker 1: be one of the most agonizing ways to go. Ever,
20:25
Speaker 1: shortly before that cave in first happened, a photographer took
20:29
Speaker 1: a picture of Floyd, who at the time believed he
20:32
Speaker 1: was going to get out, and all the rescuers believed
20:34
Speaker 1: they were going to get him out. But shortly after
20:37
Speaker 1: this photo was taken, the cave in would happen, and
20:40
Speaker 1: at that point Floyd didn't know it, but he was doomed.
20:43
Speaker 1: Here is that photo. Floyd's body was eventually removed from
20:51
Speaker 1: sand cave. However, instead of being buried, because of the
20:55
Speaker 1: interest around this cave rescue that ultimately failed, there was
20:59
Speaker 1: a decision made to actually put Floyd's body on display
21:03
Speaker 1: inside of another cave. Basically, Floyd's body became a tourist
21:08
Speaker 1: attraction and it would remain a tourist attraction for decades
21:12
Speaker 1: until finally he was removed from that cave and given
21:16
Speaker 1: a proper burial. So that's going to do it. If
21:22
Speaker 1: you enjoyed today's story, be sure to check out our
21:25
Speaker 1: podcast called The Misterballen Podcast, where we have literally hundreds
21:29
Speaker 1: of stories just like this one, many of which are
21:31
Speaker 1: exclusive to the podcast, which means you cannot hear them
21:34
Speaker 1: on YouTube again. It's called The Mister Ballin Podcast, and
21:37
Speaker 1: it's available exclusively on Amazon Music.