Lost Weapons Found at Little Bighorn | Custer: The Final Mystery (S1, E3) | Full Episode | History

in the shadow of montana's  little bighorn battlefield one family is closing in on the most  enduring mystery of the american west it's money and momentos and artifacts the  custer cash potentially priceless artifacts   taken from the bodies of george armstrong  custer and the soldiers of the seventh   cavalry and reportedly hidden somewhere in these  sandstone cliffs but lost for more than 140 years   there is a cave in that cave there are rifles  and pistols following in the footsteps of amateur   historian and family patriarch henry weiber  every move i made with my metal detector and   found something i always tried to figure out  what the reason for it was cousins craig and   penny have uncovered new evidence that could  reveal the final secret of custer's last stand   what direction did they go in as they left the  battle southwest right into the sand cliffs with the clock ticking on their unprecedented  access to sacred crow nation land   and new leads unearthed they're closer than ever   to the truth whoa i found the cave there's  no doubt this cache of weapons is here the weibert family has spent decades searching for  answers to the final mystery of the little bighorn   and now only one week remains on their permit  to search an untouched area just seven miles   southeast of the battlefield there was a battle  outside the boundaries of the custer battlefield   where their patriarch henry believed was  hidden the fabled cache uniforms weapons   and personal artifacts stripped from the  bodies after the battle by the cheyenne   and today potentially worth millions if they can  be found the discovery of a bullet believed to be   linked to custer and his famed seventh cavalry may  be the clue they need to finally crack the mystery   craig fellowes and professor shane doyle are  meeting with historical firearms expert jay lyons   to authenticate their fine meeting up with jay  lyons this afternoon good to see you hi guys he is   real knowledgeable about montana history western  history i'm anxious to show him what we've got   i have something i want to show you that i think  you're going to find interesting i think it's got   some real history on it take a look at that this  is what we turned up we found a slug yesterday what the can you believe that oh my gosh pretty sure it's period i looked it up one side  and down the other there's just no question in my   mind that it is from the right era when we found  it didn't understand what it was doing up on this   ridge where could that have come from i mean it  certainly is one thing and that is it's military   and it also is period this bullet it's a 45-70  4570 specifies a 45-caliber bullet using 70   grains of gunpowder the ammunition was developed  for the 1873 springfield rifle the standard issue   firearm for the us army at the time including  custer's seventh cavalry this bullet would would   not fit any any cartridge the indians might have  at the time interesting wow we know the battle of   little bighorn was a bloodbath bullets were flying  everywhere bodies laying everywhere it was mayhem   so when you consider everything that was going  on on the battlefield it wouldn't be unusual   to find a casing a slug and yet six and a half  miles from the battlefield we find a 45-70 slug   now that is unusual what's it doing up here good  question one of the most remarkable things about   sitting there and talking with him it just showed  me that we were on the right track as far as what   we what we were looking for and where we were  looking for it the trail will lead you somewhere   and that's all you got to do is keep following the  trail thank you jake you better thank you so much   this could possibly be the breadcrumb  that's going to lead us to the cash   in a barracks at old fort custer built in 1877  to honor the fallen leader of the seventh cavalry   the wybert family convenes  their team to share the results   the reason i wanted to meet with you guys today is  you know we have some incredible information we've   looked and looked and looked for evidence and  vast amount of area we've covered huge area and   look what we uncovered oh my goodness craig found  a 4570 slug and the amazing part of that is they   find it in an area that very well could have came  from the trapoid track this is a route the indians   used for years unbelievable that's unbelievable  this could be a game changer i think it is yeah following henry weibert's research and the  eagle map's mysterious hand-drawn red x's   the team began its hunt for the cash  in a remote stretch of sandstone cliffs   but hit a dead end until a new clue  unearthed from generations old indian   lore refocused their search further east to  an old migration path reportedly used by the   cheyenne to secret the seventh cavalry weapons  and uniforms away from the bighorn battlefield   the bullet may be the first concrete evidence that  they've discovered the location of the trail when   you see where that slug hit the ground and then  look off in the distance and see the battlefield   you know it really makes me feel like  we're on the right track with that theory   at the same time nothing's a hundred percent if  we can find more evidence and establish a trail   i think we have a good shot at finding the final  resting place of the whole cache let's get it done while craig and the team head back into the  field to pick up the evidence trail former fbi   agent bob whitman puts his skills to use to track  down another crucial clue the lost two moons map cheyenne chief two moons was present at the  battle of little bighorn and according to   histories uncovered by shane doyle was witness to  the cheyenne stripping the bodies of their loop   it's unclear what secrets the two moons map may  have contained when it was sealed inside a stone   monument in 1936 but bob is determined to find out  the problem is the map was stolen decades ago when   the monument was ransacked by an unknown thief  now bob is meeting with a descendant of chief two   moons hi to reopen the cold case of the lost map  chief phillip chief phillip nice to meet you and   thanks for coming to talk to us today we really  appreciate it and you brought jenny and your wife   too this is uh jenny seminole parker she's also a  direct descendant of two moons too they're gonna   be able to tell us a lot of information about  the two moons monument and hopefully give us more   leads about where this cache of seventh cavalry  items might have been hidden you have no doubt   you know through all the history that you've  heard from your parents and from their parents   that there was a cache a group of material taken  off the battery launches money foreign coins   papers that they had them in their pockets yeah  and then they put them together in a safe place   to go put back and honor of that oh yeah they're  dead why do they take the material from the   battlefield when our cheyenne custom is when we uh  pass on go on to the spirit where there's no death   and you take your belongings and you give it back  to mother earth so the spirit of them people can   cross over to the other side and they'll have  nothing to hold them back here on this side   wow so this is the the famous monument yeah  this is this is the moon's monument here my   grandfather my father's father helped build this  monument oh is that right here lie the remains   of two moons chief of the cheyenne indians  who led his med against general custer in   the battle of little bighorn june 25th  1876 it says erected by w.p moncure w.p moncure lived on the cheyenne reservation and  ran a general store trading goods and supplies   with the cheyenne people he became a close friend  of two moons and built the obelisk style structure   for him 19 years after his death as a way to honor  the chief and save a part of native history for   future generations to learn from monker's design  included a secret chamber inside the stone facade   intended as a time capsule to hold artifacts  and documents relating to two moons and custer   the monument was later fenced in after it was  robbed do you know what year that was do you   remember this was like about 19 maybe uh 56 50.  wow seven something you're in there if moncure   built the monument and filled it with battlefield  artifacts is it possible he made a copy of the map we're gonna need to get to the bottom  of the questions about wp mongcure   about the theft of the envelope if he was someone  who actually did have that map all that's gonna   have to come together and be investigated chief  phillip miss jenny lynette nice to talk to you   while bob pursues the mon cure connection craig  returns to the site of the uncovered cavalry slug with time running out on their  permit they need to move quickly to   find the next breadcrumb  along the path to the cash you see anything on the ground i don't  see anything yet when you look back at   the battlefield it's almost in a direct line  from this ridge down to where that slug was   found but it's a pretty vast area it's not going  to be a slam dunk and it's not going to be easy i'm not really getting anything over here oh she got there craig whoa this is  interesting you got something you got a hit that sounds like something  there's something here yeah and that's loud you're not joking  right there right in the center whoa oh hold it what do you got there   that's in the iron realm we're getting some  serious hits down this gulch it seems to be   somewhat of a debris trail we got a whole  string that hits right along here holy cow   are you kidding me yeah give me a flag joey  there's something here the team flags each hit   it's kind of to be a little bit of a wash here so  i think so it's all just kind of rolling downhill wow look at the debris field man all at once it started to paint a picture  the flags we kept putting in the ground were   in one row that's beautiful i'll tell  you that that uh that speaks loudly to me   what i'm seeing right here i mean this territory  here you could walk all day and not get a hit   and here we've got a half a dozen  hits in a small concentrated area   the debris field points straight to a sandstone  cliff that's pitted with caves and crevices   that would make ideal hiding places the physical  evidence is lining up with the native american   accounts that point to something secreted  away in the hills it tells me something's   going on here yeah it's distinctive for sure  it'll be interesting to see what we dig up as craig and the archaeologists prepare to  excavate the buried metal the hunt for a stolen   treasure map leads bob whitman down another trail  to meet a descendant of a legendary western trader hi ms abrams hi yes how are you i'm buddy good  glad to know you nice to meet you too thank   you so we're here today in missoula to speak with  victoria abrams the granddaughter of w.p bond cure   with the idea that maybe she has some information  that'll give us the clues to find that map   so here's a photo of uh my grandfather  yes the handsome gentleman there   in the middle with his family wp moncure built  the monument to his friend cheyenne chief two   moons inserting a map and a written record  of the chief's oral history into a hidden   compartment within to date there is no existing  account of what is charted on this long lost map   they spent many many hours talking  about the old ways of the cheyenne   and two moons would tell him stories and wp  grandfather would write these stories down and they had talked about keeping the lore the  customs the heritage intact uh for his children's   children so there is a cash yes and it was  put away yes definitely that we know that we   know but there's more what more material was in  the cache that they told you about uh besides   uh firearms there were um watches medals from  the officers the cavalry had apparently been paid   less than a week before they went  out so they estimated about 25 000   in cash right and it was just  a few years later it was robbed   no one living may know who stole the original map  but did mon cure realizing that these items would   become priceless to history make a copy or write  down the location of where the cash was hidden my   understanding it was some of the cheyenne that did  bury it and whether or not grandpa knew the exact   spot or the approximate okay and you may even  believe that wp might have had something to do   with where it was hidden i think so is there  any other places where information might be   i think uh that some of it might be at the helena  museum in the archives i think our next stop's   gonna have to be the montana state archives  as an investigator what all this does is it   validates our theory that map existed that the  information given us was correct but now we're   looking for additional information that might be  able to help us piece together where that map is back in the hills of reno creek got anything that quick i think this  one's a bus there's something in here oh there it is what you got there greg it's a horseshoe nail oh yeah does it look like  it's been broke off to you what do you think   yeah it looks like um busted off where it's hooked  onto the hoof yeah yeah where they pounded it off   yep horseshoe nails were widely used in the  19th century when travel on horseback was the   only way to get around the vast plains of the  upper midwest the native american tribes of the   plains were master horsemen but they famously  rode wild horses that were rarely if ever   outfitted with forged metal shoes a signature of  an organized and military outfitted horseback unit definitely calvary horses around here the seventh  calvary would have had horseshoe nails with them   and spare horseshoes you have to wonder if it was  something that was brought in off the battlefield here we go another nail  this is getting interesting okay well we got something here  holy cow another horseshoe nail somebody spilled some horseshoe nails we know  the plains indians did not shoe their horses   and yet here we are on this hillside  surrounded by horseshoe nails   now tell me where'd they come from no matter how  you want to look at it the clues are starting   to add up and i believe they're pointing us in a  direction and i think that direction is right here   oh another nail all right how  many is this total a dozen what do you got there craig i don't know it's deep this is a little different this might be something  bigger ah here it is whoa this is interesting   wow looks like a buckle or a  definitely something ah this   would have gone into a board as well  it's a clasp what do you think courtney they're definitely part of  the calvary seriously yep holy are you kidding me this is all virgin  territory we really should not be   finding any metal objects out here unless the  cheyenne brought the cache of weapons here   i really think we're getting close i can feel it wow this is potentially big hey guys what you got look at that is that from a bullet take a look at that yeah that looks like a bullet hole to  me yeah 7th calvary related i agree   question is why would a bullet hole have been in  this little piece of metal could it have been a   soldier that was shot 140 years ago we're seven  miles seven and a half miles from the battlefield   there's no written record or anything that  talks about anything happening out here the bullet-torn metal plate is the first piece of  evidence that may be related to the battle itself was it taken off one of the dead soldiers at last  stand hill and transported here along with the   rest of the custer cache you look at this line  right here look at the debris as it trickles up   this hill we had no other hits over here no other  hits over there i'm telling you something brian   this lets me uh believe that somebody hauled  something up here it fell off a travel or whatever   this was an important access point  right here they are coming up here   with a purpose look at that line they know  where the spot is that's this area has   has to have something to do with a cowboy  that's everything we've been talking about   ah man to see this is exciting to see this like  this this is this is incredible yeah it blew me   away to see this here is this trail of probably 40  or 50 blue flags that go up to this cliff i mean   it told me right there there was  a travoy or two or three travels   full of stuff from the battlefield and things  were trickling off as they went up this hill digging up the last of the buried  metal the team traces the debris flow   to the nearby cliffs you want to walk up here  yeah yeah let's do it we'll see what's up there cross our fingers we're hopeful  we're gonna find something up there   but i think we're closing in on it oh boy   this is interesting wow that's quite a fracture  off where the rock separated or something eroded you know this could be whoa oh what do you got  oh i i found the cave are you kidding me holy   we are here we're here in the sandstone bluffs of the bighorn  valley craig and his team are on the   hunt for an elusive treasure custer's cavalry cash   tracing a line of artifacts that may have  fallen from the cache as it was transported   from the battlefield to its final resting place  his team has come across a curious cave whoa   what do you got oh i found the cave a potential  hiding place for the long lost treasure   wow that is a big opening this looks  like maybe this is the ceiling of it   look how deep it is that's got to be what  20 25 feet here joey can i give this to you   this cave i'm looking at is exactly what we might  expect to see this could be their hiding place all right this is what i'm looking at guys all right i'm looking at one i'm looking at  a oh single chamber all the way back i'm not   gonna lie that's kind of odorous back here as  well there might be something dead back there do you see anything moving nothing moving okay okay all right this is what i'm looking at greg   we got a main chamber that goes  back probably six feet deep   is that a crevice way back there i see a small  tunnel off to the right but that's probably a uh   oh wait a minute what do you see wow  it's like a deeper chamber back here i just can't tell how far down it goes and  it's maybe you know maybe this is a deeper cave this cave really is holding out a lot  of promise it seems to have multiple   chambers in it years of erosion have  blanketed the cave with layers of sediment   but in 1876 the cave opening would have likely  been a much larger gateway to a network of tunnels   an ideal spot for the cheyenne to hide the  custer cash we might need to get a little   more illumination bring a bigger flashlight i  think so i don't know craig i think this is a   good candidate for it's worth looking into it so  yeah it's incredible what we might find in there   this cave could represent what  i've been looking for for 50 years 300 miles away in the state capitol bob  whitman's hunt for a stolen treasure map   takes him to the montana state archives this  reminds me of the archives at the fbi office   oh really the map was taken from the chief two  moons monument during a robbery in the late 1950s   bob hopes to find a copy or some  other evidence pertinent to the cache   these are the moncure papers and there's five  different folders of them here and these are his   research notes so it's a research collection  on a number of different topics of montana   history so let's see what mr moncure  has to say wow the very first document   and he was a he was a hunter a custer  hunter he says it is regrettable but true   that so much material concerning the custard  battle has never been uncovered as of this date   i guess it's up to us amateurs to stir around  and see what we can kick up in our spare time   it was really interesting while looking at the  papers the interest that these individuals had   really does mirror the interest that we have  today and maybe we can find some answers finally   in this investigation custer battlefield  national cemetery crow agency montana   ah this is interesting wow there we  go a brochure of six maps prepared   for the purpose of historical research  regarding the custer battle 3 14 1969.   could a copy of the two moons map  be included among this collection wow this could be the map okay here's custer's lookout   map's amazing it's the last sightings of custer's  command by reno's command from the valley that's as good as it gets wait a minute no these unpublished maps relate to the details  of how little bighorn unfolded but make no   mention of the battle's aftermath and chief two  moon's map to the treasure is not among them   at this point well we've  run into a lot of dead ends   i think the two moon map where that map is has  been lost from history since we don't have any   evidence that would point to an absolute fact  it doesn't lead to any kind of chain of custody   unfortunately we're going to close the  book on wp mom cure and the two moon map   as bob suspends his search for the two moons map  just two days remain on the team's 30-day permit   the cave is their last best  chance of finding the custer cash i'd like to burn a little bit of sage just to  purify ourselves keep us safe spiritually the crow   nation monitor courtney stewart enforces tribal  rules and will audit any fines that the team makes   anything found on crow land is rightfully theirs  oh if you're going in there and you find anything   just let me know and uh we'll identify it okay  you're okay with us going in there though yeah   we can go in there and check it out and  find a beat or something as long as you're   okay and we'll have to stop i understand  no that's cool okay here we go thank you the team proceeds with extreme caution wait a okay what do you see we see a small tunnel off to  the left off to the left correct it looks like it even gets deeper and   it might go down but it continues  on as near as you can tell right oh yeah chamber looks to be  about 25 feet deep really yeah this cave continues craig i'm not kidding i'm at the crest inside your real chance here is over here to the  left to the left yeah to the left it goes down over to the left it's the main chamber has a  deeper darker deeper tunnel oh yeah it goes out   goes further back oh does it continue on chamber  looks to be about 25 feet deep really yeah   it's a little too tight for me to get there  though it's probably maybe a foot of clearance it's the soil that i'm on is more like a  hill inside of here i wonder if the roof   had collapsed at one point i don't see that  but yeah this is exactly the kind of place   i thought we'd find the cache there's a  system of caves with tunnels leading off   there is no telling what we could find here in the back of the main chamber seems rounded oh yeah against the back wall there's  these markings maybe it's like   carvings or something like that  seriously yeah i don't know what it is do you see any artifacts of any kind no i'm not seeing any artifacts wait a minute wait a minute what do you see i don't  know craig you got something down there   hey hey hey hey wait a minute wait a minute what do you see i got a piece of metal  five or six inches i've been after this   for 50 years now and i think the loot is here  i think this is it this is the spot right here   we've got a line of stuff here really and  there's it's it's intermixed with sticks oh   this is it craig can you get to him  it's a little too tight for me to get there what's back there no no what are you seeing oh there's  maybe some kind of bones back there you think you see bones yeah road and bones  are bigger than that no bigger than round now   that's not good right now they look  uh they're white they're kind of i think there's a femur right there maybe  those are ribs i don't know they're long bones   you said ribs in there there might be a  vertebra looks like it's kind of spiky oh why   this is very small crevice down  there it's probably a foot and a half okay that tells me that's  a cultural fine it's more   likely a burial site so i think we're  gonna have to call the authorities okay crow tribal law dictates that sacred sites  and particularly burial grounds are not   to be disturbed if the elders determine they  found one the site must be vacated immediately   and the hunt ended this is not what we wanted i  think he's in a burial site this isn't good you   know he's right in the middle of it this is the  kind of thing that could shut us down completely i'll have to relay this to the cultural  committee and they will want to look at   the footage and stuff that you got and then  from there all right let's pick it up guys even if the cave contains the custer cash if it's  also a burial ground the search cannot proceed while courtney calls the tribal authorities  to inform them of this potentially sacred find   penny christian and blake make  their way to the cave site everyone is eager to hear the  fate of their investigation i was instructed to shut the site down and  we're gonna have our cultural people come in and   probably flag it off it'll be off limits  now since it's a cultural historical site   especially a burial ground maybe we got a little bit overzealous in  our exploration here i mean there's got to   be another another possibility or something we  can do with little more than one day left in   their search and possibly so close to their goal  the wybertz family hunt for the cash is for now   at an end my heart just broke for craig i could  see it in his eyes he was very disappointed i want to thank you folks for  helping us preserve this spot   i'm pretty sad about it maybe someday we can move  towards it but i don't see a closure to this story back at their headquarters at old fort custer as  their 30-day permit expires craig penny and their   search team gather to take stock of their aborted  mission after 50 years of uh thinking about this   and being so close and now we've been moved out of  there which basically uh precludes us from moving   any further on once the cave was discovered  to have culturally significant artifacts that   are related to a burial that entire area gets  shut down and that's what courtney in fact did   i understand the reverence they have for their  ancestors and this being a burial ground but a   real disappointment for me i think ultimately what  everybody's kind of approach is it's such a sign   of respect and i think that that's what it's it's  all you know kind of coming into accordance with   and reverence yeah yeah there's a certain type  of reverence there that's exactly right i know   it kind of dampens your search craig but it really  and truly is significant and it means a lot too   to an entire nation of people you know and i think  that's one of the things that's really amazing   about bringing all of you in we have actually  gone further and you i think you'd agree with me   the crows have allowed us to go further than  anybody else ever has there again i wish   my dad would have been here he'd have been  going crazy and now we're never gonna know   where do we go from here you know a lot of good  came out of this and again uh respecting uh   that area now i'd like to think that maybe someday  we could get back in there i really believe in   what we're searching for i think it's too valuable  to history to turn my back on and walk away and   there's got to be something we can do to bring  this quest to fruition this has been a fabulous   investigation a lot of mysteries we haven't  solved everything we've got some answers exactly somewhere in the high weather  sculpted cliffs of crow country   a legendary cache of artifacts still lies hidden   hundreds of weapons untold valuables all from  the hallowed battlefield of the little bighorn   spurred by generations of family stories  and the life's work of henry weiberg   his nephew craig fellowes and daughter penny  weibert have come closer than anyone yet to the   greatest unrecovered treasure of the american west  the long and short of it is there's an excess of   200 rifles that have never surfaced where are they  you know i'm still not ready to give up on this   cache of weapons and loot i'd like to think that  maybe someday we can get back in there these items   the things i believe exist out there i'm confident  they're there there's no doubt in my mind you

Channel: HISTORY

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Keywords: history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, custer the final mystery, history custer the final mystery, custer the final mystery show, acuster the final mystery full episodes, custer the final mystery clips, Custer The Final Mystery season 1 episode 3, Custer The Final Mystery s1 e3, Custer The Final Mystery s01 e3, Custer The Final Mystery se1 e3, watch history full episodes, Custer The Final Mystery season 1 clips, Lost Weapons Found at Little Bighorn

Id: iVJQ260TMhA

Length: 41min 5sec (2465 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 20 2021