Mysteries at the Monument | |
---|---|
Also known as | Monumental Mysteries |
Genre |
Reality Documentary |
Presented by | Don Wildman |
Narrated by | Don Wildman |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 39 |
Production | |
Executive producers | Dominic Stobart Nicola Moody |
Producers | Edward Hambleton Eve Rodrick |
Cinematography | Justin Lee Stanley |
Editors | Ed Kaz Michael Wei Margaret Noble Mario Gonzalez Michelle Kim Rose Margolis Athena Lemakis |
Camera setup | Multiple-camera |
Running time | 43 minutes |
Production company | Optomen Productions |
Original release | |
Network | Travel Channel |
Release | May 9, 2013 February 11, 2016 | –
Related | |
Mysteries at the Museum Mysteries at the Castle Mysteries at the Hotel Mysteries at the National Parks |
Mysteries at the Monument (formerly Monumental Mysteries) is an American reality television series hosted by Don Wildman and airing on the Travel Channel. The show uncovers stories of history and unsolved mysteries behind America's national monuments. The series premiered on May 9, 2013, at 9:00 p.m. EST. The second season aired on June 13, 2014, at 9:00 p.m. EST. For Season 3, which premiered July 3, 2015, the series was renamed.
Host Don Wildman travels the country for America's most amazing and unusual national monuments, uncovering the histories and mysteries hidden within. Each episode features a monument, historical marker, landmark, sculpture, or statue that has a special story or unique secret about them.
Opening Introduction: (narrated by Don Wildman):
Season 1-2:
Sometimes the greatest secrets lie in plain sight. These are "Monumental Mysteries".
Season 3:
Sometimes the greatest secrets lie in plain sight. These are "Mysteries at the Monument".
Note: Monumental Mysteries: A Mystery at the Museum Special aired on July 17, 2012, as a special episode as part of the related Travel Channel Mysteries at the Museum series. The special also served as a spin-off episode for the first-season premiere of Monumental Mysteries in 2013. It's also called Mysteries at the Museum: Monumental Mysteries Special.
Sp. # | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | "Monumental Mysteries: A Mystery at the Museum Special" | July 17, 2012 | |
Don investigates the tragic history of the
Hollywood Sign when aspiring actress
Peg Entwistle jumped off this world-famous landmark after her hopes and dreams were dashed by a failed film in 1932; visits the
Statue of Liberty, where in 1916, this iconic American symbol was nearly obliterated by a seismic explosion from 2 million pounds of ammunition in a munitions plant on nearby
Black Tom Island; examines the
Georgia Guidestones in
Elbert County, Georgia, a controversial monument of six
granite stones etched with cryptic messages; learns the story behind a macabre memorial called "
Black Aggie", a statue of a mournful veiled woman in a
Washington, D.C. courtyard that was once believed to be possessed by an evil spirit that caused pregnant women to miscarry; discovers that when construction began in 1848, some viewed the Egyptian
obelisk design of the
Washington Monument as an emblem of evil of the
New World Order; uncovers the mystery of a secret "Hall of Records" vault carved inside
Mount Rushmore in South Dakota's
Black Hills. |
Season | Episodes | Originally aired | DVD and Blu-ray release date | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Season premiere | Season finale | Region 1 | Region 2 | |||
1 | 13 | May 9, 2013 | August 8, 2013 | — | — | |
2 | 13 | June 13, 2014 | September 5, 2014 | — | — | |
3 | 13 | July 3, 2015 | September 25, 2015 | — | — |
Ep. # | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|
1.1 | "Teen Vampire; King of Cons; First Escape From Alcatraz" | May 9, 2013 | |
In the series premiere, host Don Wildman examines a tombstone linked to the
Mercy Brown Vampire Incident at
Chestnut Hill Baptist Church Cemetery in
Exeter, Rhode Island; learns how con artist
George C. Parker schemes off of
New York City's landmarks—including selling
Grant's Tomb; uncovers the first escape from
Alcatraz, the infamous prison in
San Francisco Bay by convicts
Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe; discovers that the gold-leafed
Statue of the Republic at
Jackson Park in
Chicago, Illinois is connected to the
1893 World's Fair murders by America's first serial killer,
H.H. Holmes; investigates a
UFO sighting by pilot
Kenneth Arnold in
Washington's
Mount Rainier; and explores the theory that
John Wilkes Booth escaped
Ford's Theatre in
Washington, D.C. after assassinating President
Abraham Lincoln. | |||
1.2 | "Sickness of the Brooklyn Bridge; Day the Sky Fell Down; Gram Parsons Coffin Heist" | May 16, 2013 | |
Don discovers the illness "
caisson disease" workers suffered in underwater
cassions during the construction of the
Brooklyn Bridge; examines a marble sculpture in
Sylacauga, Alabama called "Falling Star" that commemorates a
meteorite that fell from the sky, striking housewife
Ann Hodges in 1954; uncovers the plot to steal singer-songwriter
Gram Parsons' body, who died near
Joshua Tree National Park in California’s
Mojave Desert; learns the legend of the
Boll Weevil Monument in
Enterprise, Alabama that pays tribute to an insect, the
boll weevil that threatened the cotton industry; visits the
James A. Garfield Memorial at
Lake View Cemetery in
Cleveland, Ohio, dedicated to
President Garfield, who was
assassinated in 1881; learns the story of the
Loretto Chapel's
spiral staircase, the "Miraculous Stair" in
Santa Fe, New Mexico that was built by a mysterious carpenter. | |||
1.3 | "Smoky the Yorkie; Golden Gate Bridge; Oakville Blobs" | May 23, 2013 | |
Don examines the mysterious substance of "clear blobs" raining from the skies at
Capitol State Forest in
Oakville, Washington; visits a
war dog memorial in
Cleveland Ohio's Metroparks dedicated to
Smoky, a
Yorkshire terrier who became a hero in the
Pacific War; learns how
Harlem's
Collyer Brothers Park got its name after
compulsive hoarders who were killed by their own junk; investigates the tragic origins of constructing
San Francisco's
Golden Gate Bridge; explores
Half Dome in
California's
Yosemite National Park, which was deemed inaccessible by foot until in 1875 when blacksmith
George Anderson scaled to the summit by drilling spikes in its face; and uncovers the true story of the
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in
Tombstone, Arizona when "
The Cowboys" leader
Johnny Ringo wasn't killed by
Wyatt Earp after he was found dead outside town after fleeing the shootout. | |||
1.4 | "Grand Central Occult; Superhero Surfer; Charleston Jail" | May 30, 2013 | |
Don uncovers sinister symbolism in the
astronomical ceiling that may depict the
Age of Aquarius of the
Illuminati in
New York City's
Grand Central Terminal; examines the life of Hawaiian hero
Duke Kahanamoku, known as the father of modern
surfing through his bronze statue his hometown of
Honolulu, Hawaii; investigates the haunted
Old Charleston Jail in
Charleston, South Carolina, where America's first female serial killer
Lavinia Fisher was hanged; visits
Showmen's Rest marked by a granite elephant at
Woodlawn Cemetery in
Forest Park, Illinois that's dedicated to the
Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus showmen who lost their lives in the
a train wreck in 1918; learns that
London Bridge is really located in
Lake Havasu City, Arizona; and explores
Scotty's Castle in California's
Death Valley National Park, once a token of an unusual friendship between a con man and a businessman. | |||
1.5 | "Chrysler Building; Stanford Mausoleum; Hedy Lamarr" | June 6, 2013 | |
Don uncovers the
Chrysler Building where a rivalry between architects
William Van Alen and
H. Craig Severance competed against each other to build the world's tallest building; investigates the
Stanford Mausoleum at
Stanford University in
Stanford, California, which holds the remains of co-founder
Jane Stanford, whose unnatural death is shrouded in mystery; examines a 2-foot statue in
Sunol, California, a tribute to best-loved local—
Bosco, a dog who was elected town mayor; explores the 60-foot
Hindenburg disaster memorial at
Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station in
Lakehurst, New Jersey; learns how actress
Hedy Lamarr earned her star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame when she came up with a
secret commutation system for torpedoes to hit their mark during the
Cold War; and visits the
Grand Staircase in
Escalante, Utah, where artist
Everett Ruess disappeared. | |||
1.6 | "Ellis Island; Sailing Stones; Alamo Treasure" | June 13, 2013 | |
Don examines the role that
New York's
Ellis Island played in the lives of the
Trapp Family Singers who inspired
the Sound of Music; learns how scientist
Thomas Jaggar helped the residents of
Hilo when the
Mauna Loa in
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on
The Big Island lava flow threatened the town; uncovers the strange story behind the labyrinth of rooms inside the
Winchester Mystery House in
San Jose, California; explores
Arizona's
Grand Canyon National Park that became the setting for an unsolved mystery when newlyweds
Glen and Bessie Hyde disappeared while traveling down the dangerous
Colorado River; discovers treasure hidden within the walls of
The Alamo in
San Antonio, Texas is possibly the reason why
Jim Bowie and his militia defended the fortress; and investigates moving rocks called "
sailing stones" on the
Racetrack Playa in
Death Valley National Park. | |||
1.7 | "The Real Rocky; Dr. Burdell; Kissing Sailor" | June 20, 2013 | |
Don visits the
Rocky Balboa statue at the
Philadelphia Museum of Art, uncovering the real story behind the character through boxer
Chuck Wepner, who inspired
Sylvester Stallone to write
Rocky; examines the tombstones of a murdered dentist and his mistress,
Emma Cunningham, who are eternally linked in
Brooklyn's
Green-Wood Cemetery; investigates
San Diego's "
Unconditional Surrender" sculpture of the
Alfred Eisenstaedt photo of a
World War II sailor kissing a nurse; explores
L.A.'s
Elizabeth Lake ("Devils Lake") in
Angeles National Forest, home of the
Thunderbird, a 90-foot winged creature; discovers
Hilo, Hawaii's town clock's hands are permanently frozen at 1:04 a.m. when a
tsunami hit on May 22, 1960; and learns of the
Nez Perce woman
Watkuese, who saved
Lewis and Clark's
expedition, making it possible for the "Captain's Return" statue at
St. Louis Arch's base. | |||
1.8 | "Sleeping Prophet; Mysterious Death of Mozart; the Real Poltergeist" | June 27, 2013 | |
Don visits the grave site of
mysticist
Edgar Cayce, the "Sleeping Prophet" in the
Riverside Cemetery in
Hopkinsville, Kentucky, who had the gift of
healing through
hypnosis; looks into the mysterious death of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when viewing his bronze bust in
Brooklyn's
Prospect Park; explores
Cheesman Park in
Denver, Colorado, a city park centered around a pavilion that was built on top of a cemetery, making its hauntings the inspiration behind horror movie,
Poltergeist; examines a stainless-steel monument on the
Space Walk of Fame in
Titusville, Florida that pays tribute to
Gemini 8's emergency landing after a thruster malfunction; uncovers the role
Niagara Falls played as a gateway to freedom for escaping slaves on the
Underground Railroad; and learns about how woodsman
Galen Clark saved California's
Yosemite National Park from mining developers. | |||
1.9 | "American Venus; Alien Abduction; Buffalo Wings" | July 11, 2013 | |
Don unveils the story of "American Venus"
Audrey Munson through the connection of three statues in
Manhattan's
New York Public Library,
Columbus Circle and the
Municipal Building; visits
Arizona's
Sitgreaves National Forest where logger
Travis Walton was allegedly
abducted by a
UFO; looks into the history of
buffalo wings at the
Anchor Bar in
Buffalo, New York where a carved statue of its inventor, Teressa Bellissimo is located; explores
South Dakota's
Shadehill State Recreation Area, where a plague tells the tale of fur trapper
Hugh Glass' survival from a
grizzly bear attack; investigates the ghostly "face in the courthouse window" of a freed slave who was lynched at
Pickens County Courthouse in
Carrollton, Alabama; and uncovers the hoax of the
Lake George Monster first discovered by Colonel
William d'Alton Mann at
Lake George in
New York's
Adirondack Park. | |||
1.10 | "Devil's Music; Fisherman's Wharf; Alaska Triangle Hale Boggs" | July 18, 2013 | |
Don looks into the story behind
Charles Dickens's statue at
Clark Park in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, dedicated to his "spirit pen" completing
The Mystery of Edwin Drood; examines warrant fraud case by entrepreneur
Henry Meiggs' loss on
Meiggs Wharf of
San Francisco's
Fisherman's Wharf; learns about
bluesman
Robert Johnson's alleged
deal with the devil through the "Crossroads Monument" at
Highway 61 &
49 intersection in
Clarksdale, Mississippi; investigates the unsolved disappearances of congressmen
Hale Boggs and
Nick Begich in
Alaska's
Chugach National Forest; visits "
Taliesin" in
Spring Green, Wisconsin, former home of
Frank Lloyd Wright, which became the scene of a killing spree; explores
Delta National Forest in
Rolling Fork, Mississippi, the setting of how
Theodore Roosevelt got his nickname "
Teddy Bear" during a hunting trip with
Holt Collier. | |||
1.11 | "First Circus Elephant; Greenbrier Ghost; Death of Captain Cook" | July 25, 2013 | |
Don visits a memorial in
Somers, New York to "
Old Bet", the first circus elephant, which
Hachaliah Bailey brought to the U.S. for the public to see; uncovers the legend of a woman's ghost that solved her murder, naming her "
Greenbrier Ghost" on her headstone in a cemetery in
Lewisburg, West Virginia; examines the
James Cook statue in
Waimea, Kauai that commemorates his discovery of the
Hawaiian Islands; looks into the story behind the "
Champ" monument, dedicated to the
lake monster/
sea serpent that inhabits
Lake Champlain in
Burlington, Vermont; explores
Calvary Cemetery in
Queens, New York where the elaborate tombstone of daredevil
Steve Brodie, the first person to jump off the
Brooklyn Bridge and survive; and investigates the survival story of
Air Force
Lt. David Steeves after his
T-33 Trainer Jet exploded over California's
Kings Canyon National Park. | |||
1.12 | "Eureka Springs Cancer Hotel; Female Paul Revere; Frozen Grandpa" | August 1, 2013 | |
Don visits the
Crescent Hotel in
Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where swindler
Norman Baker proposed a cure for cancer; examines a statue in
Carmel, New York of
Sybil Ludington, Colonel
Henry Ludington's teenage daughter who became a
Revolutionary War hero with her horsemanship, riding 40 miles to deliver a message; learns about a
cryogenically
frozen man whose body is stored in a shed in
Nederland, Colorado; discovers a statue at the
Edwards Air Force Base in
Edwards, California that pays tribute to
Chuck Yeager, who flew at the
speed of sound; investigates the
Pontalba Buildings in
New Orleans, Louisiana, the oldest apartments in the U.S. and its designer
Baroness Micaela Almonester Pontalba's life; and explores the
Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum in
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, home of a memorial dedicated to the
USS Scorpion disappearance. | |||
1.13 | "Ames Pyramid; Straus Titanic; Cracking the Zodiac" | August 9, 2013 | |
Don learns the story behind the
Ames Pyramid in
Laramie, Wyoming, a symbol of a
financial scandal involving the
Ames Brothers during the
First transcontinental railroad; visits
Manhattan's
Straus Park, where the "Memory" monument commemorates the love of
Macy's co-owner
Isidor Straus for his wife
Ida Straus, who both died in the
Titanic sinking; investigates
California's
Lake Berryessa island's link to the
Zodiac Killer; examines
Washington, D.C.'s
Lincoln Memorial, where after banned at
Constitution Hall, African-American vocalist
Marian Anderson broke the racial barrier by performing in front of an integrated crowd in 1939; explores
Castillo de San Marcos in
St. Augustine, Florida, where lovers met their death after having an affair behind the fort commander's back; and visits
Marfa, Texas, where a terra cotta viewing platform showcases the mysterious
Marfa lights. |
Ep. # | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|
2.1 | "Lucy the Elephant; Capitol Bomber; Hitler in Hollywood" | June 13, 2014 | |
Don Wildman visits
Lucy the Elephant, an elephant-shaped building in
Margate, New Jersey that once faced extinction from a wrecking ball; uncovers the story of German Nationalist
Frank Holt, who bombed the
United States Capitol in
Washington, D.C. in 1915; learns of
Jacque St. Germain, believed to be a vampire who lived in a house at the corner of Royal and Ursuline Streets in
New Orleans, Louisiana; investigates the
Oriental Saloon in
Tombstone, Arizona where
Casimir Zeglen, a young priest used Dr.
George E. Goodfellow's journals to invent the
bulletproof vest; explores
Murphy Ranch in
Rustic Canyon, Los Angeles,
California, an abandoned bunker built for
Silver Legion of America, a
Nazi sympathizer cult; and discovers Dr.
Charles Norris of the
Manhattan Municipal Building in
New York City is linked to
Standard Oil's scandal involving
Tetraethyllead poisoning. | |||
2.2 | "St. Urho; Mystery Castle; Bat Bombs" | June 20, 2014 | |
Don learns about the truth behind a 14-foot statue of the fictitious patron saint of Finland,
Saint Urho in
Menahga, Minnesota; investigates the 1974
alien abduction of a hunter in
Medicine Bow National Forest of
Wyoming/
Colorado; examines a double-sided plaque in
Flint, Michigan that honors
Sarah Emma Edmonds who served as a nurse in the
Union Army as her secret persona,
Franklin Thompson during the
Civil War; checks out a bronze statue in
Fort Smith, Arkansas of "The Invincible Marshall",
Bass Reeves, a slave-turned
U.S. Deputy Marshal; visits the
Mystery Castle in
Phoenix, Arizona, where a father suffering from
tuberculosis made a promise to his daughter to build her a fairy tale castle; and shares the story of how bats residing in
Carlsbad Caverns National Park in
Carlsbad, New Mexico inspired a top secret weapon to turn
bats into bombs during the
Pacific War. | |||
2.3 | "Mike the Headless Chicken; the Mystery of Boon Island; Sister Aimee's Scandal" | June 27, 2014 | |
Don examines a sculpture of a strange creature called "Mike the Headless Chicken" in
Fruita, Colorado; explores
Boon Island off the coast of
Maine where a shipwreck occurred in 1710; learns about the
Foshay Tower in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, a building that was once linked to a nationwide financial scheme; visits a cave in
Casper, Wyoming where, in 1932, prospectors found a
pygmy known as the
San Pedro Mountains mummy; uncovers a scandal involving celebrity evangelist
Aimee Semple McPherson when she claimed she was kidnapped near
Balboa Park in
San Diego, California; and learns about the very first president of the United States,
John Hanson at the county courthouse in
Frederick, Maryland. | |||
2.4 | "Kidnapping the Sacred Cod; Baseball's Forgotten Hero; the Artichoke War" | July 4, 2014 | |
Don investigates the
Massachusetts State House in
Boston, Massachusetts, where the 1933 fishy theft of the 1798 "Sacred Cod", a 5-foot long wood-carved
cod; examines a historical marker in
Toledo, Ohio of
Moses Fleetwood Walker, the real first African-American baseball player—a catcher for the
Toledo Blue Stockings in 1883; discovers the statue of
New York City Mayor
Fiorello La Guardia in
Manhattan, New York, who took on the mob in the "artichoke wars"; discovers a possession of a girl known as the "
Watseka Wonder" in the Roff Home in
Watseka, Illinois; learns about a sculpture in
New Orleans, Louisiana of
jazz musician
Buddy Bolden, a
cornet player who descended into madness; and explores the
Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes in
Southern California, where the lost Egyptian set from
Cecil B. DeMille's
The Ten Commandments is buried under sand. | |||
2.5 | "The Mystery of Captain Thunderbolt; Newsboy's Versus the World; the Rocket Man" | July 11, 2014 | |
Don investigates the mysterious past of a
highwayman-turned teacher who founded the
Round Schoolhouse in
Brookline, Vermont; discovers a commemorative plaque in
New York City that honors the
Newsboys Strike of 1899; explores
Lake Crescent in
Washington's
Olympic National Park, which played a key role in bringing a murderer to justice; examines the statue of
Frederick Douglass in
Harlem, New York that uncovers his origins with a
hoodoo root called "
John the Conqueror" to ward off his master's beatings when he was a slave seeking freedom; learns about the life-sized bronze statue of famed
physicist
Robert H. Goddard in
Roswell, New Mexico, who built the world's first
liquid-propellant rocket; and visits the
Great Sand Dunes National Park in
San Luis Valley,
Colorado, where a
UFO sighting was connected to a horse mutilation. | |||
2.6 | "Kecksburg Space Acorn; Skyscraper Swindle; Emperor of the U.S." | July 18, 2014 | |
Don examines an acorn-shaped sculpture that commemorates the
UFO incident in
Kecksburg, Pennsylvania on December 9, 1965; discovers a signpost in
Martinsburg, West Virginia that marks the spot of the
Belle Boyd Home, belonging to the famous Confederate spy who shot and killed a Union soldier; uncovers the story behind the
world's littlest skyscraper in
Wichita Falls, Texas that was once at the center of a
fraudulent investment scheme during the
oil boom; investigates the haunted
Mission San Miguel Arcángel in
Paso Robles, California which holds the horrors of a ghastly massacre that occurred during the
gold rush; explores the
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, an engineering wonder inspired by eccentric emperor of the U.S.
Joshua Norton; and uncovers the story behind a statue of Japanese diplomat
Chiune Sugihara in
Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, California. | |||
2.7 | "The King and the Spanish Dancer; a Communist Comes to America; Filth Party" | July 25, 2014 | |
Don investigates the cottage of
Lola Montez, a Spanish dancer who lived in
Grass Valley, California and had an affair with
Ludwig I of Bavaria, which cost him his throne; examines a plague at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in
Madison, Wisconsin dedicated to Dr.
Joseph Goldberger, who used himself as a
lab rat to study a
Pellagra epidemic in 1914; visits a 16-foot
controversial statue of
Vladimir Lenin, in the
Fremont neighborhood of
Seattle, Washington; uncovers the truth behind the
UFO incident at Hart Canyon in
Aztec, New Mexico; learns about a bronze statue of
Nikola Tesla that is a tribute to his part in the
invention of radio in
Shoreham, New York on
Long Island; and explores
Lake Tahoe in the
Sierra Nevada, where sightings of a 17-foot serpentine creature called "
Tahoe Tessie" have been reported since the 1950s. | |||
2.8 | "Superman vs. the KKK; Who Killed Huey Long?; Marches to Montgomery" | August 1, 2014 | |
Don learns how author
Stetson Kennedy infiltrated the
Ku Klux Klan on
Georgia's
Stone Mountain by going undercover and exposing them through the
Superman radio show; visits the statue of U.S. Senator
Huey Long, who was mysteriously assassinated in front of the
State Capitol in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana; investigates a UFO sighting witnessed by the
Ground Observer Corps over
South Dakota's
Black Hills National Forest, spearheading
Project Blue Book; examines the
Edmund Pettus Bridge in
Selma, Alabama, the site of "Bloody Sunday", the 1965 attack on civil rights activists while marching from
Selma to Montgomery; uncovers the
Murder in Coweta County trial at
Coweta County Courthouse in
Newnan, Georgia involving famed fortune-teller
Mayhayley Lancaster; and discovers a monument in
Dallas, Texas dedicated to
Longhorns having the cure of
Texas cattle fever. | |||
2.9 | "The Reanimator; Florida Three Toes; the Man Who Invented Martians" | August 9, 2014 | |
Don discovers the story of real-life
Dr. Frankenstein,
Robert E. Cornish trying to resurrect the dead at the
University of California at Berkeley; investigates the
giant penguin hoax when witnesses spotted three-toed footprints on the beaches at
Florida's
Honeymoon Island State Park; explores
Sybil's Cave in
Hoboken, New Jersey that was tied an unsolved celebrity murder of
Mary Rogers, a beautiful cigar girl, who was killed nearby; uncovers the criminal case of the "Barefoot Bandit", teenage outlaw
Colton Harris-Moore who hid out in
Turtleback Mountain Preserve on
Washington states's
San Juan Island; examines the work of Dr.
Oliver Sacks at
Manhattan's
New York Academy of Medicine that was the focal point of "
sleepy sickness"; and visits the
Lowell Observatory in
Flagstaff, Arizona, named after astronomer
Percival Lowell who claimed there are
Martian canals on
Mars. | |||
2.10 | "Blind Tom; Invention of the Tommy Gun; Granddaddy of Snowboarding" | August 15, 2014 | |
Don visits slave-turned-pianist
Blind Tom Wiggins's grave at
Evergreens Cemetery in
Brooklyn, New York, whose musical prowess led to a custody battle; visits army officer
John T. Thompson's birthplace, the inventor of the
Tommy gun; examines the statue of aviation pioneer
Jackie Cochran in
Neillsville, Wisconsin, who served in the
Women Airforce Service Pilots (W.A.S.P.'s) during
World War II; investigates the
Lining House in
Charleston, South Carolina, where Dr.
William Trott opened up an
apothecary, luring customers in with seeing a live "mermaid" gimmick; discovers
snowboarding's origins with "The Turning Point" monument in
Muskegon, Michigan when engineer
Sherm Poppen invents the "
snurfer", giving way for
Jake Burton Carpenter's redesign—the
snowboard; and learns the legend of teenage lawman
Elfego Baca through his sculpture in
Reserve, New Mexico. | |||
2.11 | "Escape From Slavery; A Witch on Hatteras Island; The Horn That Made a Big Bang" | August 22, 2014 | |
Don visits the
Lewis and Harriet Hayden House in
Boston, Massachusetts that's connected to the most daring escape from slavery by
Ellen and William Craft; examines the "Cora Tree", a majestic oak tree's connection to
witchcraft while on
Hatteras Island, North Carolina; discovers how the
Holmdel Horn Antenna in
Holmdel, New Jersey changed people's understanding of life's origins with the
Big Bang theory; discovers a gravestone linked to the murders of nursing home owner,
Amy Archer-Gilligan at
Hillside Cemetery in
Cheshire, Connecticut; investigates the mystery of "Old Rip", a
horned toad that survived 31 years sealed in
Eastland County Courthouse's cornerstone in
Eastland, Texas; and explores
Mount Lemmon in
Tucson, Arizona, where
Wilhelm Reich claims the site has
cosmic forces he calls "
orgone energy" and experiments with his rain-inducing device, "
Cloudbuster". | |||
2.12 | "The House That Sugar Built; Kill Dozer; Rocking Chair Riots" | August 29, 2014 | |
Don learns about local welder
Marvin Heemeyer, who went on a bulldozer rampage after losing a zoning dispute, damaging the
Granby Town Hall in
Granby, Colorado; uncovers the story of the 1901 "rocking chair" riot that took place in
New York City's
Central Park; investigates the "
Philadelphia Experiment", an alleged
cloaking device that was put aboard the
U.S.S. Eldridge at
Philadelphia's
Navy Yard; visits the
Hack House in
Milan, Michigan, once at the center of a sugar swindle when owner Henry Friend claimed to refine sugar with his
electric refining machine; examines a monument in
Cherry, Illinois that pays tribute to the
1909 Cherry Mine disaster, a
coal mining fire where 259 men perished from "
black damp"; and explores the
moonlight towers in
Austin, Texas are linked to a crime spree of the
Servant Girl Annihilator, a Malay cook/serial killer who only
murdered women. | |||
2.13 | "Roosevelt's Moroccan Mission; The Last Bare Knuckle Boxer; America's First Spy Ring" | September 5, 2014 | |
Don explores the link between Philadelphia's
U.S.S. Olympia and the
Morocco political scandal involving
Theodore Roosevelt, the
Perdicaris incident; uncovers the story how one cop exposed a con-artist
fortuneteller as he worked the case in
New York City's
former Police Headquarters Building; examines a historic marker in
Hattiesburg, Mississippi that marks the spot of the last
bare-knuckle boxing
prize fight between
John L. Sullivan and
Jake Kilrain in 1889; discovers the mystery of a salvaged
submarine found by a diver underneath Chicago's
Lyric Opera/
Madison Street Bridge; visits the house of
Major
Benjamin Tallmadge in
Litchfield, Connecticut, the master of
America's first spy ring that changed the course of the
Revolutionary War; and investigates a
UFO hoax from a memorial plaque that replaced a stolen "
alien" tombstone in
Aurora Cemetery in
Aurora, Texas. |
Ep. # | Title | Original air date | Original U.S. viewers | |
---|---|---|---|---|
3.1 | "Destiny Stone; Niagara Falls; Madness of Mary Todd" | July 3, 2015 | 534,000 [1] | |
Don visits the famous
London church,
Westminster Abbey that set the stage for an audacious heist when
Scottish Nationalist
Ian Hamilton stole the
Stone of Destiny; examines the story behind the
Thomas Edison bust in
West Orange, New Jersey and who invented motion pictures, Edison or French inventor
Louis Le Prince; learns the
Washington Monument in
Washington, D.C. became a site to a standoff on December 8, 1982 when nine tourists were held hostage by
nuclear bomb activist,
Norman Mayer, who parked a dynamite-packed truck nearby; discovers the natural wonder of
Niagara Falls, Mother Nature threatened to shut down in 1965; investigates
Bellevue Place in
Batavia, Illinois, an insane asylum that once housed first lady
Mary Todd Lincoln, who was wrongfully incarcerated, but was freed by lawyer
Myra Bradwell; and uncovers the history of
potato chipss when chef
George Crum cooked up the first batch for
Cornelius Vanderbilt at
Moon's Lake House in
Saratoga Springs, New York in 1853. | ||||
3.2 | "Freedom Balloon; First Film Star; Freud's Therapy Dog" | July 10, 2015 | 520,000 [2] | |
Don visits the
East Side Gallery in
Berlin, Germany, a reminder of the daring escape of two families from
Poessneck,
East Germany who risked a flight to freedom in a homemade
hot air balloon in 1979; uncovers the story behind
IMP founder
Carl Laemmle's star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame when he started the 1910 publicity stunt of actress
Florence Lawrence's "death" to lure her away from
Biograph Studios; investigates
Hancock Point near
Bar Harbor, Maine, once the gateway to
Nazi spy
Erich Gimpel and defector
William Colepaugh's plan to destroy America’s
atomic bomb on
Manhattan Project sites during
World War II; examines the statue of Austrian
neurologist
Sigmund Freud at
Clark University in
Worcester, Massachusetts, whose
Chow Chow
Jofi, helped him hypothesize the psychological benefits of K-9 companions; returns to
The Alamo in
San Antonio, Texas where in 1908, after ranch heiress
Clara Driscoll plan to demolish the Long Barracks, school teacher
Adina De Zavala holds her own standoff to preserve the fort’s history; and explores
Wall Street in
Manhattan's
Financial District, once the scene of a
political bombing by
Italian
Anarchist
Mario Buda in 1920. | ||||
3.3 | "Harlem Hellfighters; Resurrected Jockey; Invention of Braille" | July 17, 2015 | 596,000 [3] | |
Don visits the
Excelsior Brigade Monument at
Gettysburg National Military Park in
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a tribute to the
71st Infantry's general,
Daniel Sickles who was the first to plead
temporary insanity when he shot his friend
Philip Barton Key after he had an affair with his wife Teresa; uncovers the story behind jockey
Ralph Neves' resurrection after being thrown off his horse and declared dead at
Santa Anita Park in
Arcadia, California in 1936; learns about
Louis Braille, the inventor of
Braille whose tomb is inside the
Panthéon in the
Latin Quarter of
Paris, France; explores
Wyoming's
Devils Tower, where
Close Encounters of the Third Kind was filmed inspired by
J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer who debunked
UFO cases in
Project Blue Book for the
Air Force stated that scientists should research sightings instead of dismiss them, classifying the term "
close encounters"; discovers a memorial of the
369th Infantry Regiment in
Harlem, New York dedicated to
African-American
World War I heroes who battled in the
Meuse-Argonne Offensive with the French Army; and investigates the Thread City Crossing (a.k.a. "The Frog Bridge") in
Windham, Connecticut adorned with 8-foot bronze frogs atop concrete thread spools, dedicated to the battling bullfrogs' nocturnal noise fight for the only water source in a mill pond during a drought in 1754. | ||||
3.4 | "Savior of the Squalus; Man Who Saved Pisa; Candy Bomber" | July 24, 2015 | 610,000 [4] | |
Don uncovers the history of the
William Shakespeare
statue in
New York City's
Central Park when in 1890, to honor his hero, naturalist
Eugene Schieffelin brings birds from his writings, including 60
starlings his releases, but they soon blanket the continent causing the crash of
Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 in 1960; examines the ingenuity behind
Italy's
Leaning Tower of Pisa, which was on the brink of collapse if it wasn't for British professor
John Burland's engineering in 1999; explores the
USS Squalus Memorial at
Portsmouth Navy Yard in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where in 1939, a crew of 59 sailors are in danger when a "crash dive" flooded the submarine, but 33 are rescued by Lt. Commander
Charles Momsen's
diving bell, the "
Momsen lung"; visits the
Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign in
Las Vegas, Nevada, home of the longest running scheme in Sin City history when TV repairman Tommy Carmichael creates the "monkey paw" device to cheat
slot machines; investigates
Tempelhofer Freiheit Park in
Berlin, Germany, a former airport that
U.S. Army Air Forces pilot
Gail Halvorsen launched a "sweet" mission that won the hearts of West Berliners during the
blockade in 1948; and examines the Atlantic
Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway that were once at the center of a string of heists by
cat burglar
Bill Mason. | ||||
3.5 | "Pretender Prince; The Lunch That Changed America; The Lie Factory" | July 31, 2015 | 474,000 [5] | |
Don tours the
Tower of London in
Tower Hamlets,
London that imprisoned
Margaret of York's princely nephews,
Edward and
Richard, inspiring imposter
Perkin Warbeck to claim the English throne; examines the
desegregation sculpture honoring a scene from the 1958
Dockum Drug Store sit-in lunch counter in
Wichita, Kansas; visits
Owls Head Light in
Rockland, Maine, once the scene of bizarre tale of a frozen couple who defrosted after a shipwreck in 1850; examines the statue of frontierswoman
Angelina Eberly in
Austin, Texas, who changed the course of the state's history with one heroic fire of her cannon when
Sam Houston ordered his rangers to remove
national archives in 1842; uncovers the story behind the
Upton Sinclair
House in
Monrovia, California, where the novelist was the target of a
smear campaign when he ran for
governor in 1934; investigates a tombstone enclosed in a glass viewing box at
Third Creek Presbyterian Church and Cemetery in
Cleveland, North Carolina that is believed to be of French commander,
Marshal Michel Ney who served in
Napoleon's army and was living under the false name Peter Stuart Ney as the town's schoolteacher. | ||||
3.6 | "The Real Q; Alibi Clock; Sasquatch in a Shell" | August 7, 2015 | 490,000 [6] | |
Don uncovers
MI6 spy stories of device maker
Charles Fraser-Smith at the
SIS Building in
London's
South Bank, inspiring
Q from the
James Bond films; examines an ornate street clock in
Vallejo, California that played a part in the
Preparedness Movement when
a bomb exploded during a parade in 1916; learns the legend of a turtle statue that pays tribute to the "
Beast of Busco", a giant
alligator snapping turtle that mystified the residents of
Churubusco, Indiana in 1949; visits the
Royal Hawaiian Hotel in
Waikiki Beach
Oahu, Hawaii, that was at the center of a 1962 hoax when local con-man Sammy Amalu tricked the owners into closing a property deal; investigates the supernatural story behind the
Union General
George B. McClellan statue in
Washington, D.C. that turned the tide of the
Civil War when
George Washington's ghost showed him the enemy's battle plan; and explores
Greenwich Village's
Stonewall Inn where in 1969
gay rights activist
Craig Rodwell instigated
riots, starting the
gay liberation movement. | ||||
3.7 | "Piggy Bank; All the Kings Horses; Funeral to Freedom" | August 14, 2015 | N/A | |
Don examines a plaque that pays tribute to a boy named Wilbur Chapman who raised enough money for
leprosy by selling his pig Pete, starting the
piggy bank movement in
White Cloud, Kansas; learns the story behind a
Sharon, Massachusetts statue of
Deborah Sampson, who in 1782, disguised herself as a man to fight in the
Revolutionary War; uncovers the history of
Wesleyan Cemetery in
Cincinnati, Ohio when it played a pivotal role in "The Escape of the 28" fugitive slaves' journey to freedom; investigates
California's
Edwards Air Force Base in the
Mohave Desert, which gave rise to
CIA agent
Richard Bissell's top-secret operation of the
Corona spy satellite that changed the face of the
Cold War; visits the
MacMillan Building in
Greenwich Village,
New York City, home of
Forbes Magazine and where company journalist
Adam Penenberg uncovered a scandal that brought down the industry's rising star
Stephen Glass and his fictional stories; and explores
St. Mary-at-the-Walls, built around a medieval tower in
Colchester, England, the scene of a siege during the
Second English Civil War, allegedly inspiring a beloved children's verse from the
nursery rhyme,
Humpty Dumpty. | ||||
3.8 | "Pickles Saves the World Cup; Strowder Switch; Rebel Hope" | August 21, 2015 | N/A | |
Don learns the story behind the Champions statue in
West Ham,
London, England that memorializes
West Ham United players in the
1966 World Cup and how the
Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen then found by a dog named
Pickles; tours the
Greenwood Cemetery in
St. Petersburg, Florida, where the memory marker of
Almon Strowger, an
undertaker who changed the face of communications technology with the
automatic telephone exchange system; examines General
George S. Patton statue in
Chiriaco Summit, California and his role in taking the biblical weapon,
The Spear of Destiny; visits
Manassas National Battlefield Park in
Manassas, Virginia, where the Union army suffered defeat at the
Battle of Bull Run, due to the Southern spy
Rose Greenhow, who forever changed the length of the
Civil War; investigates the roadside mural in
Socorro, New Mexico that remembers the
1964 UFO incident, when police officer Lonnie Zamora saw a
flying saucer in the night sky and two small beings; and explores the
Presidents House in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a memorial built on the city's first Executive Mansion that pays tribute to
George Washington's enslaved servant,
Oney Judge, who escaped the president for freedom. | ||||
3.9 | "Black Magic Rocket Scientist; Broadway Baby and the Tobacco Heir; Disaster on Everest" | August 28, 2015 | N/A | |
Don explores
Devil's Gate Dam in
Pasadena, California, where rocket scientist
Jack Parsons performed black magic rituals leading up to his mysterious death; tours the
Rockingham County Courthouse in
Rockingham County, North Carolina, which once witnessed the shocking 1932 murder of young
R.J. Tobacco heir
Smith Reynolds and his celebrity wife
Libby Holman; visits
Crissy Field in
San Francisco, California, a former
Air Service base where Navy Commander
John Rodgers flew the first sea plane (
PN-9) in 1925 during his death-defying quest to change aviation history; discovers the grave of graphic designer
Harvey Ball at the
Notre Dame Cemetery in
Worcester, Massachusetts, famous for launching a campaign to boost morale with his
smiley face icon; learns the true story of one of the most devastating disasters in mountaineering history on
Mount Everest, the
1996 summit attempt that left two climbers at odds; and examines a statue in
Seneca Falls, New York honoring feminist
Amelia Bloomer's 1851 invention of
bloomers. | ||||
3.10 | "Stockholm Syndrome; Soviet Who Saved the World; Barbara Rose" | September 4, 2015 | N/A | |
Don discovers
Norrmalmstorg plaza in
Stockholm, Sweden was at the center of a
1973 bank robbery by criminals
Jan-Erik Olsson and
Clark Olofsson that coined the psychological term "
Stockholm Syndrome"; examines a "A World on the Edge" monument in
Boynton Beach, Florida, honoring Russian naval commander
Vasili Arkhipov, who saved the world from nuclear war during the
Cuban Missile Crisis; explores
Iolani Palace in
Honolulu, Oahu, where in 1961, clothing vendor Bill Foster lobbied for
state reps to wear his "
Aloha shirts" to dress casual on Fridays; learns the story of
Farmville
civil rights activist
Barbara Rose Johns monument in
Richmond, Virginia, who fought for desegregation in all public schools; visits the Old Avon Railroad Station in
Avon, New York, linked to architect
Bradford Lee Gilbert's
Tower Building, the first
skyscraper; looks at a plaque in
Nevada City, Montana, recalling the
George Ives trial/hanging and how
Montana Vigilantes stopped the 1863 stagecoach robberies of sheriff-turned-outlaw
Henry Plummer and his bandit gang. | ||||
3.11 | "Gunpowder Plot; Lost in Yellowstone; Cops Are Robbers" | September 11, 2015 | N/A | |
Don tours the
Houses of Parliament in
London, England, where
Guy Fawkes planned to blow it up during the
Gunpowder Plot of 1605; visits U.S. senator
Key Pittman's memorial at
Mountain View Cemetery in
Reno, Nevada, whose body was kept on ice in a hotel bathtub until he was reelected in the
1940 elections; discovers an old Depositors Trust night deposit box in
Medford, Massachusetts, once connected to the
1980 bank robbery by corrupt cops; visits
Omaha Beach in
Normandy, France, where
Allies fooled the
Nazis in
Operation Fortitude when
double agent
Juan Pujol García misinformed them about invading
Pas de Calais during
World War II; learns the story of the
Declaration of Independence through the Captain James Jack statue in
Charlotte, North Carolina, when he witnessed a
Mecklenburg statesman pen the document one year before, known as the
Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence; explores
Mount Everts, where
Truman Everts' 1870 survival story during the
Washburn Expedition inspired
Yellowstone National Park in
Wyoming. | ||||
3.12 | "The Disaster That Saved London; The Man in the Green Hat; The Viking Mailman" | September 18, 2015 | N/A | |
Don visits the
neoclassical
Monument in
London, England that commemorates the
Great Fire of London in 1666 when it saved the city from the
bubonic plague; tours the
U.S. Capitol Building in
Washington, D.C., where
bootlegger
George Cassiday exposed hypocrisy by selling hooch to Congressmen during
Prohibition; examines pioneer
John "Snowshoe" Thompson's statue in
Genoa, Nevada, who introduced
skiing to the
American West after using his skis to rescue trader
James Sisson in 1856; explores the
Old Spanish Fort ruins in
New Orleans, Louisiana, once the setting for swindler
James C. Wingard's "Nameless Force" weapon demonstration/hoax in 1876; learns the story behind the
George Washington Equestrian Statue in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, when prisoner
Isaac Ketcham saved the future president by overhearing
Commander-in-Chief's Guard
Thomas Hickey's assassination plot in England; and discovers
Magic Island on
Oahu once witnessed
anthropologist
Ben Finney's 1976 epic 34 day voyage in a
Polynesian canoe,
Hokulea. | ||||
3.13 | "Lady Godiva & the Peeping Tom; Bishop's Brain; Birds of a Feather" | September 25, 2015 | N/A | |
Don discovers the truth behind
mentalist
Washington Irving Bishop's gravestone in
Brooklyn's
Green-Wood Cemetery, whose rare gift and his
catalepsy led to his demise while performing at the
Lambs Club in 1889; examines the
Lady Godiva statue in
Coventry, England that pays tribute to her naked ride to oppose
taxation in 1040; explores the
Florida's
Everglades National Park, where socialite/
birder
Harriet Hemenway saves
fledglings from extinction with a
plume trade ban for fashion; visits the
Kennebec County Courthouse in
Augusta, Maine that hosted a case of the "
North Pond Hermit", whose 1,000 burglaries of campers starting in 1986 was caught 27 years later; learns the story of
blackjack player
Keith Taft and son Marty through the
Reno Arch in
Reno, Nevada, who invented a
card-counting eyeglass device to aid advantage play; investigates the
Warsaw Ghetto
boundary wall in
Warsaw, Poland, once a part of the largest Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe and a freedom portal when social worker
Irena Sendler aided them in their escape. |
Mysteries at the Monument | |
---|---|
Also known as | Monumental Mysteries |
Genre |
Reality Documentary |
Presented by | Don Wildman |
Narrated by | Don Wildman |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 39 |
Production | |
Executive producers | Dominic Stobart Nicola Moody |
Producers | Edward Hambleton Eve Rodrick |
Cinematography | Justin Lee Stanley |
Editors | Ed Kaz Michael Wei Margaret Noble Mario Gonzalez Michelle Kim Rose Margolis Athena Lemakis |
Camera setup | Multiple-camera |
Running time | 43 minutes |
Production company | Optomen Productions |
Original release | |
Network | Travel Channel |
Release | May 9, 2013 February 11, 2016 | –
Related | |
Mysteries at the Museum Mysteries at the Castle Mysteries at the Hotel Mysteries at the National Parks |
Mysteries at the Monument (formerly Monumental Mysteries) is an American reality television series hosted by Don Wildman and airing on the Travel Channel. The show uncovers stories of history and unsolved mysteries behind America's national monuments. The series premiered on May 9, 2013, at 9:00 p.m. EST. The second season aired on June 13, 2014, at 9:00 p.m. EST. For Season 3, which premiered July 3, 2015, the series was renamed.
Host Don Wildman travels the country for America's most amazing and unusual national monuments, uncovering the histories and mysteries hidden within. Each episode features a monument, historical marker, landmark, sculpture, or statue that has a special story or unique secret about them.
Opening Introduction: (narrated by Don Wildman):
Season 1-2:
Sometimes the greatest secrets lie in plain sight. These are "Monumental Mysteries".
Season 3:
Sometimes the greatest secrets lie in plain sight. These are "Mysteries at the Monument".
Note: Monumental Mysteries: A Mystery at the Museum Special aired on July 17, 2012, as a special episode as part of the related Travel Channel Mysteries at the Museum series. The special also served as a spin-off episode for the first-season premiere of Monumental Mysteries in 2013. It's also called Mysteries at the Museum: Monumental Mysteries Special.
Sp. # | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | "Monumental Mysteries: A Mystery at the Museum Special" | July 17, 2012 | |
Don investigates the tragic history of the
Hollywood Sign when aspiring actress
Peg Entwistle jumped off this world-famous landmark after her hopes and dreams were dashed by a failed film in 1932; visits the
Statue of Liberty, where in 1916, this iconic American symbol was nearly obliterated by a seismic explosion from 2 million pounds of ammunition in a munitions plant on nearby
Black Tom Island; examines the
Georgia Guidestones in
Elbert County, Georgia, a controversial monument of six
granite stones etched with cryptic messages; learns the story behind a macabre memorial called "
Black Aggie", a statue of a mournful veiled woman in a
Washington, D.C. courtyard that was once believed to be possessed by an evil spirit that caused pregnant women to miscarry; discovers that when construction began in 1848, some viewed the Egyptian
obelisk design of the
Washington Monument as an emblem of evil of the
New World Order; uncovers the mystery of a secret "Hall of Records" vault carved inside
Mount Rushmore in South Dakota's
Black Hills. |
Season | Episodes | Originally aired | DVD and Blu-ray release date | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Season premiere | Season finale | Region 1 | Region 2 | |||
1 | 13 | May 9, 2013 | August 8, 2013 | — | — | |
2 | 13 | June 13, 2014 | September 5, 2014 | — | — | |
3 | 13 | July 3, 2015 | September 25, 2015 | — | — |
Ep. # | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|
1.1 | "Teen Vampire; King of Cons; First Escape From Alcatraz" | May 9, 2013 | |
In the series premiere, host Don Wildman examines a tombstone linked to the
Mercy Brown Vampire Incident at
Chestnut Hill Baptist Church Cemetery in
Exeter, Rhode Island; learns how con artist
George C. Parker schemes off of
New York City's landmarks—including selling
Grant's Tomb; uncovers the first escape from
Alcatraz, the infamous prison in
San Francisco Bay by convicts
Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe; discovers that the gold-leafed
Statue of the Republic at
Jackson Park in
Chicago, Illinois is connected to the
1893 World's Fair murders by America's first serial killer,
H.H. Holmes; investigates a
UFO sighting by pilot
Kenneth Arnold in
Washington's
Mount Rainier; and explores the theory that
John Wilkes Booth escaped
Ford's Theatre in
Washington, D.C. after assassinating President
Abraham Lincoln. | |||
1.2 | "Sickness of the Brooklyn Bridge; Day the Sky Fell Down; Gram Parsons Coffin Heist" | May 16, 2013 | |
Don discovers the illness "
caisson disease" workers suffered in underwater
cassions during the construction of the
Brooklyn Bridge; examines a marble sculpture in
Sylacauga, Alabama called "Falling Star" that commemorates a
meteorite that fell from the sky, striking housewife
Ann Hodges in 1954; uncovers the plot to steal singer-songwriter
Gram Parsons' body, who died near
Joshua Tree National Park in California’s
Mojave Desert; learns the legend of the
Boll Weevil Monument in
Enterprise, Alabama that pays tribute to an insect, the
boll weevil that threatened the cotton industry; visits the
James A. Garfield Memorial at
Lake View Cemetery in
Cleveland, Ohio, dedicated to
President Garfield, who was
assassinated in 1881; learns the story of the
Loretto Chapel's
spiral staircase, the "Miraculous Stair" in
Santa Fe, New Mexico that was built by a mysterious carpenter. | |||
1.3 | "Smoky the Yorkie; Golden Gate Bridge; Oakville Blobs" | May 23, 2013 | |
Don examines the mysterious substance of "clear blobs" raining from the skies at
Capitol State Forest in
Oakville, Washington; visits a
war dog memorial in
Cleveland Ohio's Metroparks dedicated to
Smoky, a
Yorkshire terrier who became a hero in the
Pacific War; learns how
Harlem's
Collyer Brothers Park got its name after
compulsive hoarders who were killed by their own junk; investigates the tragic origins of constructing
San Francisco's
Golden Gate Bridge; explores
Half Dome in
California's
Yosemite National Park, which was deemed inaccessible by foot until in 1875 when blacksmith
George Anderson scaled to the summit by drilling spikes in its face; and uncovers the true story of the
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in
Tombstone, Arizona when "
The Cowboys" leader
Johnny Ringo wasn't killed by
Wyatt Earp after he was found dead outside town after fleeing the shootout. | |||
1.4 | "Grand Central Occult; Superhero Surfer; Charleston Jail" | May 30, 2013 | |
Don uncovers sinister symbolism in the
astronomical ceiling that may depict the
Age of Aquarius of the
Illuminati in
New York City's
Grand Central Terminal; examines the life of Hawaiian hero
Duke Kahanamoku, known as the father of modern
surfing through his bronze statue his hometown of
Honolulu, Hawaii; investigates the haunted
Old Charleston Jail in
Charleston, South Carolina, where America's first female serial killer
Lavinia Fisher was hanged; visits
Showmen's Rest marked by a granite elephant at
Woodlawn Cemetery in
Forest Park, Illinois that's dedicated to the
Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus showmen who lost their lives in the
a train wreck in 1918; learns that
London Bridge is really located in
Lake Havasu City, Arizona; and explores
Scotty's Castle in California's
Death Valley National Park, once a token of an unusual friendship between a con man and a businessman. | |||
1.5 | "Chrysler Building; Stanford Mausoleum; Hedy Lamarr" | June 6, 2013 | |
Don uncovers the
Chrysler Building where a rivalry between architects
William Van Alen and
H. Craig Severance competed against each other to build the world's tallest building; investigates the
Stanford Mausoleum at
Stanford University in
Stanford, California, which holds the remains of co-founder
Jane Stanford, whose unnatural death is shrouded in mystery; examines a 2-foot statue in
Sunol, California, a tribute to best-loved local—
Bosco, a dog who was elected town mayor; explores the 60-foot
Hindenburg disaster memorial at
Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station in
Lakehurst, New Jersey; learns how actress
Hedy Lamarr earned her star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame when she came up with a
secret commutation system for torpedoes to hit their mark during the
Cold War; and visits the
Grand Staircase in
Escalante, Utah, where artist
Everett Ruess disappeared. | |||
1.6 | "Ellis Island; Sailing Stones; Alamo Treasure" | June 13, 2013 | |
Don examines the role that
New York's
Ellis Island played in the lives of the
Trapp Family Singers who inspired
the Sound of Music; learns how scientist
Thomas Jaggar helped the residents of
Hilo when the
Mauna Loa in
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on
The Big Island lava flow threatened the town; uncovers the strange story behind the labyrinth of rooms inside the
Winchester Mystery House in
San Jose, California; explores
Arizona's
Grand Canyon National Park that became the setting for an unsolved mystery when newlyweds
Glen and Bessie Hyde disappeared while traveling down the dangerous
Colorado River; discovers treasure hidden within the walls of
The Alamo in
San Antonio, Texas is possibly the reason why
Jim Bowie and his militia defended the fortress; and investigates moving rocks called "
sailing stones" on the
Racetrack Playa in
Death Valley National Park. | |||
1.7 | "The Real Rocky; Dr. Burdell; Kissing Sailor" | June 20, 2013 | |
Don visits the
Rocky Balboa statue at the
Philadelphia Museum of Art, uncovering the real story behind the character through boxer
Chuck Wepner, who inspired
Sylvester Stallone to write
Rocky; examines the tombstones of a murdered dentist and his mistress,
Emma Cunningham, who are eternally linked in
Brooklyn's
Green-Wood Cemetery; investigates
San Diego's "
Unconditional Surrender" sculpture of the
Alfred Eisenstaedt photo of a
World War II sailor kissing a nurse; explores
L.A.'s
Elizabeth Lake ("Devils Lake") in
Angeles National Forest, home of the
Thunderbird, a 90-foot winged creature; discovers
Hilo, Hawaii's town clock's hands are permanently frozen at 1:04 a.m. when a
tsunami hit on May 22, 1960; and learns of the
Nez Perce woman
Watkuese, who saved
Lewis and Clark's
expedition, making it possible for the "Captain's Return" statue at
St. Louis Arch's base. | |||
1.8 | "Sleeping Prophet; Mysterious Death of Mozart; the Real Poltergeist" | June 27, 2013 | |
Don visits the grave site of
mysticist
Edgar Cayce, the "Sleeping Prophet" in the
Riverside Cemetery in
Hopkinsville, Kentucky, who had the gift of
healing through
hypnosis; looks into the mysterious death of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when viewing his bronze bust in
Brooklyn's
Prospect Park; explores
Cheesman Park in
Denver, Colorado, a city park centered around a pavilion that was built on top of a cemetery, making its hauntings the inspiration behind horror movie,
Poltergeist; examines a stainless-steel monument on the
Space Walk of Fame in
Titusville, Florida that pays tribute to
Gemini 8's emergency landing after a thruster malfunction; uncovers the role
Niagara Falls played as a gateway to freedom for escaping slaves on the
Underground Railroad; and learns about how woodsman
Galen Clark saved California's
Yosemite National Park from mining developers. | |||
1.9 | "American Venus; Alien Abduction; Buffalo Wings" | July 11, 2013 | |
Don unveils the story of "American Venus"
Audrey Munson through the connection of three statues in
Manhattan's
New York Public Library,
Columbus Circle and the
Municipal Building; visits
Arizona's
Sitgreaves National Forest where logger
Travis Walton was allegedly
abducted by a
UFO; looks into the history of
buffalo wings at the
Anchor Bar in
Buffalo, New York where a carved statue of its inventor, Teressa Bellissimo is located; explores
South Dakota's
Shadehill State Recreation Area, where a plague tells the tale of fur trapper
Hugh Glass' survival from a
grizzly bear attack; investigates the ghostly "face in the courthouse window" of a freed slave who was lynched at
Pickens County Courthouse in
Carrollton, Alabama; and uncovers the hoax of the
Lake George Monster first discovered by Colonel
William d'Alton Mann at
Lake George in
New York's
Adirondack Park. | |||
1.10 | "Devil's Music; Fisherman's Wharf; Alaska Triangle Hale Boggs" | July 18, 2013 | |
Don looks into the story behind
Charles Dickens's statue at
Clark Park in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, dedicated to his "spirit pen" completing
The Mystery of Edwin Drood; examines warrant fraud case by entrepreneur
Henry Meiggs' loss on
Meiggs Wharf of
San Francisco's
Fisherman's Wharf; learns about
bluesman
Robert Johnson's alleged
deal with the devil through the "Crossroads Monument" at
Highway 61 &
49 intersection in
Clarksdale, Mississippi; investigates the unsolved disappearances of congressmen
Hale Boggs and
Nick Begich in
Alaska's
Chugach National Forest; visits "
Taliesin" in
Spring Green, Wisconsin, former home of
Frank Lloyd Wright, which became the scene of a killing spree; explores
Delta National Forest in
Rolling Fork, Mississippi, the setting of how
Theodore Roosevelt got his nickname "
Teddy Bear" during a hunting trip with
Holt Collier. | |||
1.11 | "First Circus Elephant; Greenbrier Ghost; Death of Captain Cook" | July 25, 2013 | |
Don visits a memorial in
Somers, New York to "
Old Bet", the first circus elephant, which
Hachaliah Bailey brought to the U.S. for the public to see; uncovers the legend of a woman's ghost that solved her murder, naming her "
Greenbrier Ghost" on her headstone in a cemetery in
Lewisburg, West Virginia; examines the
James Cook statue in
Waimea, Kauai that commemorates his discovery of the
Hawaiian Islands; looks into the story behind the "
Champ" monument, dedicated to the
lake monster/
sea serpent that inhabits
Lake Champlain in
Burlington, Vermont; explores
Calvary Cemetery in
Queens, New York where the elaborate tombstone of daredevil
Steve Brodie, the first person to jump off the
Brooklyn Bridge and survive; and investigates the survival story of
Air Force
Lt. David Steeves after his
T-33 Trainer Jet exploded over California's
Kings Canyon National Park. | |||
1.12 | "Eureka Springs Cancer Hotel; Female Paul Revere; Frozen Grandpa" | August 1, 2013 | |
Don visits the
Crescent Hotel in
Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where swindler
Norman Baker proposed a cure for cancer; examines a statue in
Carmel, New York of
Sybil Ludington, Colonel
Henry Ludington's teenage daughter who became a
Revolutionary War hero with her horsemanship, riding 40 miles to deliver a message; learns about a
cryogenically
frozen man whose body is stored in a shed in
Nederland, Colorado; discovers a statue at the
Edwards Air Force Base in
Edwards, California that pays tribute to
Chuck Yeager, who flew at the
speed of sound; investigates the
Pontalba Buildings in
New Orleans, Louisiana, the oldest apartments in the U.S. and its designer
Baroness Micaela Almonester Pontalba's life; and explores the
Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum in
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, home of a memorial dedicated to the
USS Scorpion disappearance. | |||
1.13 | "Ames Pyramid; Straus Titanic; Cracking the Zodiac" | August 9, 2013 | |
Don learns the story behind the
Ames Pyramid in
Laramie, Wyoming, a symbol of a
financial scandal involving the
Ames Brothers during the
First transcontinental railroad; visits
Manhattan's
Straus Park, where the "Memory" monument commemorates the love of
Macy's co-owner
Isidor Straus for his wife
Ida Straus, who both died in the
Titanic sinking; investigates
California's
Lake Berryessa island's link to the
Zodiac Killer; examines
Washington, D.C.'s
Lincoln Memorial, where after banned at
Constitution Hall, African-American vocalist
Marian Anderson broke the racial barrier by performing in front of an integrated crowd in 1939; explores
Castillo de San Marcos in
St. Augustine, Florida, where lovers met their death after having an affair behind the fort commander's back; and visits
Marfa, Texas, where a terra cotta viewing platform showcases the mysterious
Marfa lights. |
Ep. # | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|
2.1 | "Lucy the Elephant; Capitol Bomber; Hitler in Hollywood" | June 13, 2014 | |
Don Wildman visits
Lucy the Elephant, an elephant-shaped building in
Margate, New Jersey that once faced extinction from a wrecking ball; uncovers the story of German Nationalist
Frank Holt, who bombed the
United States Capitol in
Washington, D.C. in 1915; learns of
Jacque St. Germain, believed to be a vampire who lived in a house at the corner of Royal and Ursuline Streets in
New Orleans, Louisiana; investigates the
Oriental Saloon in
Tombstone, Arizona where
Casimir Zeglen, a young priest used Dr.
George E. Goodfellow's journals to invent the
bulletproof vest; explores
Murphy Ranch in
Rustic Canyon, Los Angeles,
California, an abandoned bunker built for
Silver Legion of America, a
Nazi sympathizer cult; and discovers Dr.
Charles Norris of the
Manhattan Municipal Building in
New York City is linked to
Standard Oil's scandal involving
Tetraethyllead poisoning. | |||
2.2 | "St. Urho; Mystery Castle; Bat Bombs" | June 20, 2014 | |
Don learns about the truth behind a 14-foot statue of the fictitious patron saint of Finland,
Saint Urho in
Menahga, Minnesota; investigates the 1974
alien abduction of a hunter in
Medicine Bow National Forest of
Wyoming/
Colorado; examines a double-sided plaque in
Flint, Michigan that honors
Sarah Emma Edmonds who served as a nurse in the
Union Army as her secret persona,
Franklin Thompson during the
Civil War; checks out a bronze statue in
Fort Smith, Arkansas of "The Invincible Marshall",
Bass Reeves, a slave-turned
U.S. Deputy Marshal; visits the
Mystery Castle in
Phoenix, Arizona, where a father suffering from
tuberculosis made a promise to his daughter to build her a fairy tale castle; and shares the story of how bats residing in
Carlsbad Caverns National Park in
Carlsbad, New Mexico inspired a top secret weapon to turn
bats into bombs during the
Pacific War. | |||
2.3 | "Mike the Headless Chicken; the Mystery of Boon Island; Sister Aimee's Scandal" | June 27, 2014 | |
Don examines a sculpture of a strange creature called "Mike the Headless Chicken" in
Fruita, Colorado; explores
Boon Island off the coast of
Maine where a shipwreck occurred in 1710; learns about the
Foshay Tower in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, a building that was once linked to a nationwide financial scheme; visits a cave in
Casper, Wyoming where, in 1932, prospectors found a
pygmy known as the
San Pedro Mountains mummy; uncovers a scandal involving celebrity evangelist
Aimee Semple McPherson when she claimed she was kidnapped near
Balboa Park in
San Diego, California; and learns about the very first president of the United States,
John Hanson at the county courthouse in
Frederick, Maryland. | |||
2.4 | "Kidnapping the Sacred Cod; Baseball's Forgotten Hero; the Artichoke War" | July 4, 2014 | |
Don investigates the
Massachusetts State House in
Boston, Massachusetts, where the 1933 fishy theft of the 1798 "Sacred Cod", a 5-foot long wood-carved
cod; examines a historical marker in
Toledo, Ohio of
Moses Fleetwood Walker, the real first African-American baseball player—a catcher for the
Toledo Blue Stockings in 1883; discovers the statue of
New York City Mayor
Fiorello La Guardia in
Manhattan, New York, who took on the mob in the "artichoke wars"; discovers a possession of a girl known as the "
Watseka Wonder" in the Roff Home in
Watseka, Illinois; learns about a sculpture in
New Orleans, Louisiana of
jazz musician
Buddy Bolden, a
cornet player who descended into madness; and explores the
Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes in
Southern California, where the lost Egyptian set from
Cecil B. DeMille's
The Ten Commandments is buried under sand. | |||
2.5 | "The Mystery of Captain Thunderbolt; Newsboy's Versus the World; the Rocket Man" | July 11, 2014 | |
Don investigates the mysterious past of a
highwayman-turned teacher who founded the
Round Schoolhouse in
Brookline, Vermont; discovers a commemorative plaque in
New York City that honors the
Newsboys Strike of 1899; explores
Lake Crescent in
Washington's
Olympic National Park, which played a key role in bringing a murderer to justice; examines the statue of
Frederick Douglass in
Harlem, New York that uncovers his origins with a
hoodoo root called "
John the Conqueror" to ward off his master's beatings when he was a slave seeking freedom; learns about the life-sized bronze statue of famed
physicist
Robert H. Goddard in
Roswell, New Mexico, who built the world's first
liquid-propellant rocket; and visits the
Great Sand Dunes National Park in
San Luis Valley,
Colorado, where a
UFO sighting was connected to a horse mutilation. | |||
2.6 | "Kecksburg Space Acorn; Skyscraper Swindle; Emperor of the U.S." | July 18, 2014 | |
Don examines an acorn-shaped sculpture that commemorates the
UFO incident in
Kecksburg, Pennsylvania on December 9, 1965; discovers a signpost in
Martinsburg, West Virginia that marks the spot of the
Belle Boyd Home, belonging to the famous Confederate spy who shot and killed a Union soldier; uncovers the story behind the
world's littlest skyscraper in
Wichita Falls, Texas that was once at the center of a
fraudulent investment scheme during the
oil boom; investigates the haunted
Mission San Miguel Arcángel in
Paso Robles, California which holds the horrors of a ghastly massacre that occurred during the
gold rush; explores the
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, an engineering wonder inspired by eccentric emperor of the U.S.
Joshua Norton; and uncovers the story behind a statue of Japanese diplomat
Chiune Sugihara in
Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, California. | |||
2.7 | "The King and the Spanish Dancer; a Communist Comes to America; Filth Party" | July 25, 2014 | |
Don investigates the cottage of
Lola Montez, a Spanish dancer who lived in
Grass Valley, California and had an affair with
Ludwig I of Bavaria, which cost him his throne; examines a plague at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in
Madison, Wisconsin dedicated to Dr.
Joseph Goldberger, who used himself as a
lab rat to study a
Pellagra epidemic in 1914; visits a 16-foot
controversial statue of
Vladimir Lenin, in the
Fremont neighborhood of
Seattle, Washington; uncovers the truth behind the
UFO incident at Hart Canyon in
Aztec, New Mexico; learns about a bronze statue of
Nikola Tesla that is a tribute to his part in the
invention of radio in
Shoreham, New York on
Long Island; and explores
Lake Tahoe in the
Sierra Nevada, where sightings of a 17-foot serpentine creature called "
Tahoe Tessie" have been reported since the 1950s. | |||
2.8 | "Superman vs. the KKK; Who Killed Huey Long?; Marches to Montgomery" | August 1, 2014 | |
Don learns how author
Stetson Kennedy infiltrated the
Ku Klux Klan on
Georgia's
Stone Mountain by going undercover and exposing them through the
Superman radio show; visits the statue of U.S. Senator
Huey Long, who was mysteriously assassinated in front of the
State Capitol in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana; investigates a UFO sighting witnessed by the
Ground Observer Corps over
South Dakota's
Black Hills National Forest, spearheading
Project Blue Book; examines the
Edmund Pettus Bridge in
Selma, Alabama, the site of "Bloody Sunday", the 1965 attack on civil rights activists while marching from
Selma to Montgomery; uncovers the
Murder in Coweta County trial at
Coweta County Courthouse in
Newnan, Georgia involving famed fortune-teller
Mayhayley Lancaster; and discovers a monument in
Dallas, Texas dedicated to
Longhorns having the cure of
Texas cattle fever. | |||
2.9 | "The Reanimator; Florida Three Toes; the Man Who Invented Martians" | August 9, 2014 | |
Don discovers the story of real-life
Dr. Frankenstein,
Robert E. Cornish trying to resurrect the dead at the
University of California at Berkeley; investigates the
giant penguin hoax when witnesses spotted three-toed footprints on the beaches at
Florida's
Honeymoon Island State Park; explores
Sybil's Cave in
Hoboken, New Jersey that was tied an unsolved celebrity murder of
Mary Rogers, a beautiful cigar girl, who was killed nearby; uncovers the criminal case of the "Barefoot Bandit", teenage outlaw
Colton Harris-Moore who hid out in
Turtleback Mountain Preserve on
Washington states's
San Juan Island; examines the work of Dr.
Oliver Sacks at
Manhattan's
New York Academy of Medicine that was the focal point of "
sleepy sickness"; and visits the
Lowell Observatory in
Flagstaff, Arizona, named after astronomer
Percival Lowell who claimed there are
Martian canals on
Mars. | |||
2.10 | "Blind Tom; Invention of the Tommy Gun; Granddaddy of Snowboarding" | August 15, 2014 | |
Don visits slave-turned-pianist
Blind Tom Wiggins's grave at
Evergreens Cemetery in
Brooklyn, New York, whose musical prowess led to a custody battle; visits army officer
John T. Thompson's birthplace, the inventor of the
Tommy gun; examines the statue of aviation pioneer
Jackie Cochran in
Neillsville, Wisconsin, who served in the
Women Airforce Service Pilots (W.A.S.P.'s) during
World War II; investigates the
Lining House in
Charleston, South Carolina, where Dr.
William Trott opened up an
apothecary, luring customers in with seeing a live "mermaid" gimmick; discovers
snowboarding's origins with "The Turning Point" monument in
Muskegon, Michigan when engineer
Sherm Poppen invents the "
snurfer", giving way for
Jake Burton Carpenter's redesign—the
snowboard; and learns the legend of teenage lawman
Elfego Baca through his sculpture in
Reserve, New Mexico. | |||
2.11 | "Escape From Slavery; A Witch on Hatteras Island; The Horn That Made a Big Bang" | August 22, 2014 | |
Don visits the
Lewis and Harriet Hayden House in
Boston, Massachusetts that's connected to the most daring escape from slavery by
Ellen and William Craft; examines the "Cora Tree", a majestic oak tree's connection to
witchcraft while on
Hatteras Island, North Carolina; discovers how the
Holmdel Horn Antenna in
Holmdel, New Jersey changed people's understanding of life's origins with the
Big Bang theory; discovers a gravestone linked to the murders of nursing home owner,
Amy Archer-Gilligan at
Hillside Cemetery in
Cheshire, Connecticut; investigates the mystery of "Old Rip", a
horned toad that survived 31 years sealed in
Eastland County Courthouse's cornerstone in
Eastland, Texas; and explores
Mount Lemmon in
Tucson, Arizona, where
Wilhelm Reich claims the site has
cosmic forces he calls "
orgone energy" and experiments with his rain-inducing device, "
Cloudbuster". | |||
2.12 | "The House That Sugar Built; Kill Dozer; Rocking Chair Riots" | August 29, 2014 | |
Don learns about local welder
Marvin Heemeyer, who went on a bulldozer rampage after losing a zoning dispute, damaging the
Granby Town Hall in
Granby, Colorado; uncovers the story of the 1901 "rocking chair" riot that took place in
New York City's
Central Park; investigates the "
Philadelphia Experiment", an alleged
cloaking device that was put aboard the
U.S.S. Eldridge at
Philadelphia's
Navy Yard; visits the
Hack House in
Milan, Michigan, once at the center of a sugar swindle when owner Henry Friend claimed to refine sugar with his
electric refining machine; examines a monument in
Cherry, Illinois that pays tribute to the
1909 Cherry Mine disaster, a
coal mining fire where 259 men perished from "
black damp"; and explores the
moonlight towers in
Austin, Texas are linked to a crime spree of the
Servant Girl Annihilator, a Malay cook/serial killer who only
murdered women. | |||
2.13 | "Roosevelt's Moroccan Mission; The Last Bare Knuckle Boxer; America's First Spy Ring" | September 5, 2014 | |
Don explores the link between Philadelphia's
U.S.S. Olympia and the
Morocco political scandal involving
Theodore Roosevelt, the
Perdicaris incident; uncovers the story how one cop exposed a con-artist
fortuneteller as he worked the case in
New York City's
former Police Headquarters Building; examines a historic marker in
Hattiesburg, Mississippi that marks the spot of the last
bare-knuckle boxing
prize fight between
John L. Sullivan and
Jake Kilrain in 1889; discovers the mystery of a salvaged
submarine found by a diver underneath Chicago's
Lyric Opera/
Madison Street Bridge; visits the house of
Major
Benjamin Tallmadge in
Litchfield, Connecticut, the master of
America's first spy ring that changed the course of the
Revolutionary War; and investigates a
UFO hoax from a memorial plaque that replaced a stolen "
alien" tombstone in
Aurora Cemetery in
Aurora, Texas. |
Ep. # | Title | Original air date | Original U.S. viewers | |
---|---|---|---|---|
3.1 | "Destiny Stone; Niagara Falls; Madness of Mary Todd" | July 3, 2015 | 534,000 [1] | |
Don visits the famous
London church,
Westminster Abbey that set the stage for an audacious heist when
Scottish Nationalist
Ian Hamilton stole the
Stone of Destiny; examines the story behind the
Thomas Edison bust in
West Orange, New Jersey and who invented motion pictures, Edison or French inventor
Louis Le Prince; learns the
Washington Monument in
Washington, D.C. became a site to a standoff on December 8, 1982 when nine tourists were held hostage by
nuclear bomb activist,
Norman Mayer, who parked a dynamite-packed truck nearby; discovers the natural wonder of
Niagara Falls, Mother Nature threatened to shut down in 1965; investigates
Bellevue Place in
Batavia, Illinois, an insane asylum that once housed first lady
Mary Todd Lincoln, who was wrongfully incarcerated, but was freed by lawyer
Myra Bradwell; and uncovers the history of
potato chipss when chef
George Crum cooked up the first batch for
Cornelius Vanderbilt at
Moon's Lake House in
Saratoga Springs, New York in 1853. | ||||
3.2 | "Freedom Balloon; First Film Star; Freud's Therapy Dog" | July 10, 2015 | 520,000 [2] | |
Don visits the
East Side Gallery in
Berlin, Germany, a reminder of the daring escape of two families from
Poessneck,
East Germany who risked a flight to freedom in a homemade
hot air balloon in 1979; uncovers the story behind
IMP founder
Carl Laemmle's star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame when he started the 1910 publicity stunt of actress
Florence Lawrence's "death" to lure her away from
Biograph Studios; investigates
Hancock Point near
Bar Harbor, Maine, once the gateway to
Nazi spy
Erich Gimpel and defector
William Colepaugh's plan to destroy America’s
atomic bomb on
Manhattan Project sites during
World War II; examines the statue of Austrian
neurologist
Sigmund Freud at
Clark University in
Worcester, Massachusetts, whose
Chow Chow
Jofi, helped him hypothesize the psychological benefits of K-9 companions; returns to
The Alamo in
San Antonio, Texas where in 1908, after ranch heiress
Clara Driscoll plan to demolish the Long Barracks, school teacher
Adina De Zavala holds her own standoff to preserve the fort’s history; and explores
Wall Street in
Manhattan's
Financial District, once the scene of a
political bombing by
Italian
Anarchist
Mario Buda in 1920. | ||||
3.3 | "Harlem Hellfighters; Resurrected Jockey; Invention of Braille" | July 17, 2015 | 596,000 [3] | |
Don visits the
Excelsior Brigade Monument at
Gettysburg National Military Park in
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a tribute to the
71st Infantry's general,
Daniel Sickles who was the first to plead
temporary insanity when he shot his friend
Philip Barton Key after he had an affair with his wife Teresa; uncovers the story behind jockey
Ralph Neves' resurrection after being thrown off his horse and declared dead at
Santa Anita Park in
Arcadia, California in 1936; learns about
Louis Braille, the inventor of
Braille whose tomb is inside the
Panthéon in the
Latin Quarter of
Paris, France; explores
Wyoming's
Devils Tower, where
Close Encounters of the Third Kind was filmed inspired by
J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer who debunked
UFO cases in
Project Blue Book for the
Air Force stated that scientists should research sightings instead of dismiss them, classifying the term "
close encounters"; discovers a memorial of the
369th Infantry Regiment in
Harlem, New York dedicated to
African-American
World War I heroes who battled in the
Meuse-Argonne Offensive with the French Army; and investigates the Thread City Crossing (a.k.a. "The Frog Bridge") in
Windham, Connecticut adorned with 8-foot bronze frogs atop concrete thread spools, dedicated to the battling bullfrogs' nocturnal noise fight for the only water source in a mill pond during a drought in 1754. | ||||
3.4 | "Savior of the Squalus; Man Who Saved Pisa; Candy Bomber" | July 24, 2015 | 610,000 [4] | |
Don uncovers the history of the
William Shakespeare
statue in
New York City's
Central Park when in 1890, to honor his hero, naturalist
Eugene Schieffelin brings birds from his writings, including 60
starlings his releases, but they soon blanket the continent causing the crash of
Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 in 1960; examines the ingenuity behind
Italy's
Leaning Tower of Pisa, which was on the brink of collapse if it wasn't for British professor
John Burland's engineering in 1999; explores the
USS Squalus Memorial at
Portsmouth Navy Yard in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where in 1939, a crew of 59 sailors are in danger when a "crash dive" flooded the submarine, but 33 are rescued by Lt. Commander
Charles Momsen's
diving bell, the "
Momsen lung"; visits the
Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign in
Las Vegas, Nevada, home of the longest running scheme in Sin City history when TV repairman Tommy Carmichael creates the "monkey paw" device to cheat
slot machines; investigates
Tempelhofer Freiheit Park in
Berlin, Germany, a former airport that
U.S. Army Air Forces pilot
Gail Halvorsen launched a "sweet" mission that won the hearts of West Berliners during the
blockade in 1948; and examines the Atlantic
Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway that were once at the center of a string of heists by
cat burglar
Bill Mason. | ||||
3.5 | "Pretender Prince; The Lunch That Changed America; The Lie Factory" | July 31, 2015 | 474,000 [5] | |
Don tours the
Tower of London in
Tower Hamlets,
London that imprisoned
Margaret of York's princely nephews,
Edward and
Richard, inspiring imposter
Perkin Warbeck to claim the English throne; examines the
desegregation sculpture honoring a scene from the 1958
Dockum Drug Store sit-in lunch counter in
Wichita, Kansas; visits
Owls Head Light in
Rockland, Maine, once the scene of bizarre tale of a frozen couple who defrosted after a shipwreck in 1850; examines the statue of frontierswoman
Angelina Eberly in
Austin, Texas, who changed the course of the state's history with one heroic fire of her cannon when
Sam Houston ordered his rangers to remove
national archives in 1842; uncovers the story behind the
Upton Sinclair
House in
Monrovia, California, where the novelist was the target of a
smear campaign when he ran for
governor in 1934; investigates a tombstone enclosed in a glass viewing box at
Third Creek Presbyterian Church and Cemetery in
Cleveland, North Carolina that is believed to be of French commander,
Marshal Michel Ney who served in
Napoleon's army and was living under the false name Peter Stuart Ney as the town's schoolteacher. | ||||
3.6 | "The Real Q; Alibi Clock; Sasquatch in a Shell" | August 7, 2015 | 490,000 [6] | |
Don uncovers
MI6 spy stories of device maker
Charles Fraser-Smith at the
SIS Building in
London's
South Bank, inspiring
Q from the
James Bond films; examines an ornate street clock in
Vallejo, California that played a part in the
Preparedness Movement when
a bomb exploded during a parade in 1916; learns the legend of a turtle statue that pays tribute to the "
Beast of Busco", a giant
alligator snapping turtle that mystified the residents of
Churubusco, Indiana in 1949; visits the
Royal Hawaiian Hotel in
Waikiki Beach
Oahu, Hawaii, that was at the center of a 1962 hoax when local con-man Sammy Amalu tricked the owners into closing a property deal; investigates the supernatural story behind the
Union General
George B. McClellan statue in
Washington, D.C. that turned the tide of the
Civil War when
George Washington's ghost showed him the enemy's battle plan; and explores
Greenwich Village's
Stonewall Inn where in 1969
gay rights activist
Craig Rodwell instigated
riots, starting the
gay liberation movement. | ||||
3.7 | "Piggy Bank; All the Kings Horses; Funeral to Freedom" | August 14, 2015 | N/A | |
Don examines a plaque that pays tribute to a boy named Wilbur Chapman who raised enough money for
leprosy by selling his pig Pete, starting the
piggy bank movement in
White Cloud, Kansas; learns the story behind a
Sharon, Massachusetts statue of
Deborah Sampson, who in 1782, disguised herself as a man to fight in the
Revolutionary War; uncovers the history of
Wesleyan Cemetery in
Cincinnati, Ohio when it played a pivotal role in "The Escape of the 28" fugitive slaves' journey to freedom; investigates
California's
Edwards Air Force Base in the
Mohave Desert, which gave rise to
CIA agent
Richard Bissell's top-secret operation of the
Corona spy satellite that changed the face of the
Cold War; visits the
MacMillan Building in
Greenwich Village,
New York City, home of
Forbes Magazine and where company journalist
Adam Penenberg uncovered a scandal that brought down the industry's rising star
Stephen Glass and his fictional stories; and explores
St. Mary-at-the-Walls, built around a medieval tower in
Colchester, England, the scene of a siege during the
Second English Civil War, allegedly inspiring a beloved children's verse from the
nursery rhyme,
Humpty Dumpty. | ||||
3.8 | "Pickles Saves the World Cup; Strowder Switch; Rebel Hope" | August 21, 2015 | N/A | |
Don learns the story behind the Champions statue in
West Ham,
London, England that memorializes
West Ham United players in the
1966 World Cup and how the
Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen then found by a dog named
Pickles; tours the
Greenwood Cemetery in
St. Petersburg, Florida, where the memory marker of
Almon Strowger, an
undertaker who changed the face of communications technology with the
automatic telephone exchange system; examines General
George S. Patton statue in
Chiriaco Summit, California and his role in taking the biblical weapon,
The Spear of Destiny; visits
Manassas National Battlefield Park in
Manassas, Virginia, where the Union army suffered defeat at the
Battle of Bull Run, due to the Southern spy
Rose Greenhow, who forever changed the length of the
Civil War; investigates the roadside mural in
Socorro, New Mexico that remembers the
1964 UFO incident, when police officer Lonnie Zamora saw a
flying saucer in the night sky and two small beings; and explores the
Presidents House in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a memorial built on the city's first Executive Mansion that pays tribute to
George Washington's enslaved servant,
Oney Judge, who escaped the president for freedom. | ||||
3.9 | "Black Magic Rocket Scientist; Broadway Baby and the Tobacco Heir; Disaster on Everest" | August 28, 2015 | N/A | |
Don explores
Devil's Gate Dam in
Pasadena, California, where rocket scientist
Jack Parsons performed black magic rituals leading up to his mysterious death; tours the
Rockingham County Courthouse in
Rockingham County, North Carolina, which once witnessed the shocking 1932 murder of young
R.J. Tobacco heir
Smith Reynolds and his celebrity wife
Libby Holman; visits
Crissy Field in
San Francisco, California, a former
Air Service base where Navy Commander
John Rodgers flew the first sea plane (
PN-9) in 1925 during his death-defying quest to change aviation history; discovers the grave of graphic designer
Harvey Ball at the
Notre Dame Cemetery in
Worcester, Massachusetts, famous for launching a campaign to boost morale with his
smiley face icon; learns the true story of one of the most devastating disasters in mountaineering history on
Mount Everest, the
1996 summit attempt that left two climbers at odds; and examines a statue in
Seneca Falls, New York honoring feminist
Amelia Bloomer's 1851 invention of
bloomers. | ||||
3.10 | "Stockholm Syndrome; Soviet Who Saved the World; Barbara Rose" | September 4, 2015 | N/A | |
Don discovers
Norrmalmstorg plaza in
Stockholm, Sweden was at the center of a
1973 bank robbery by criminals
Jan-Erik Olsson and
Clark Olofsson that coined the psychological term "
Stockholm Syndrome"; examines a "A World on the Edge" monument in
Boynton Beach, Florida, honoring Russian naval commander
Vasili Arkhipov, who saved the world from nuclear war during the
Cuban Missile Crisis; explores
Iolani Palace in
Honolulu, Oahu, where in 1961, clothing vendor Bill Foster lobbied for
state reps to wear his "
Aloha shirts" to dress casual on Fridays; learns the story of
Farmville
civil rights activist
Barbara Rose Johns monument in
Richmond, Virginia, who fought for desegregation in all public schools; visits the Old Avon Railroad Station in
Avon, New York, linked to architect
Bradford Lee Gilbert's
Tower Building, the first
skyscraper; looks at a plaque in
Nevada City, Montana, recalling the
George Ives trial/hanging and how
Montana Vigilantes stopped the 1863 stagecoach robberies of sheriff-turned-outlaw
Henry Plummer and his bandit gang. | ||||
3.11 | "Gunpowder Plot; Lost in Yellowstone; Cops Are Robbers" | September 11, 2015 | N/A | |
Don tours the
Houses of Parliament in
London, England, where
Guy Fawkes planned to blow it up during the
Gunpowder Plot of 1605; visits U.S. senator
Key Pittman's memorial at
Mountain View Cemetery in
Reno, Nevada, whose body was kept on ice in a hotel bathtub until he was reelected in the
1940 elections; discovers an old Depositors Trust night deposit box in
Medford, Massachusetts, once connected to the
1980 bank robbery by corrupt cops; visits
Omaha Beach in
Normandy, France, where
Allies fooled the
Nazis in
Operation Fortitude when
double agent
Juan Pujol García misinformed them about invading
Pas de Calais during
World War II; learns the story of the
Declaration of Independence through the Captain James Jack statue in
Charlotte, North Carolina, when he witnessed a
Mecklenburg statesman pen the document one year before, known as the
Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence; explores
Mount Everts, where
Truman Everts' 1870 survival story during the
Washburn Expedition inspired
Yellowstone National Park in
Wyoming. | ||||
3.12 | "The Disaster That Saved London; The Man in the Green Hat; The Viking Mailman" | September 18, 2015 | N/A | |
Don visits the
neoclassical
Monument in
London, England that commemorates the
Great Fire of London in 1666 when it saved the city from the
bubonic plague; tours the
U.S. Capitol Building in
Washington, D.C., where
bootlegger
George Cassiday exposed hypocrisy by selling hooch to Congressmen during
Prohibition; examines pioneer
John "Snowshoe" Thompson's statue in
Genoa, Nevada, who introduced
skiing to the
American West after using his skis to rescue trader
James Sisson in 1856; explores the
Old Spanish Fort ruins in
New Orleans, Louisiana, once the setting for swindler
James C. Wingard's "Nameless Force" weapon demonstration/hoax in 1876; learns the story behind the
George Washington Equestrian Statue in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, when prisoner
Isaac Ketcham saved the future president by overhearing
Commander-in-Chief's Guard
Thomas Hickey's assassination plot in England; and discovers
Magic Island on
Oahu once witnessed
anthropologist
Ben Finney's 1976 epic 34 day voyage in a
Polynesian canoe,
Hokulea. | ||||
3.13 | "Lady Godiva & the Peeping Tom; Bishop's Brain; Birds of a Feather" | September 25, 2015 | N/A | |
Don discovers the truth behind
mentalist
Washington Irving Bishop's gravestone in
Brooklyn's
Green-Wood Cemetery, whose rare gift and his
catalepsy led to his demise while performing at the
Lambs Club in 1889; examines the
Lady Godiva statue in
Coventry, England that pays tribute to her naked ride to oppose
taxation in 1040; explores the
Florida's
Everglades National Park, where socialite/
birder
Harriet Hemenway saves
fledglings from extinction with a
plume trade ban for fashion; visits the
Kennebec County Courthouse in
Augusta, Maine that hosted a case of the "
North Pond Hermit", whose 1,000 burglaries of campers starting in 1986 was caught 27 years later; learns the story of
blackjack player
Keith Taft and son Marty through the
Reno Arch in
Reno, Nevada, who invented a
card-counting eyeglass device to aid advantage play; investigates the
Warsaw Ghetto
boundary wall in
Warsaw, Poland, once a part of the largest Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe and a freedom portal when social worker
Irena Sendler aided them in their escape. |