VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH

expedition through stories of man's quest for the unknown through the steaming jungles across the burning desert to the depths of treacherous seas and to the highest mountains of the world expedition actual films of the great expeditions of our time recorded as they happen your host is the famous deep-sea diver author and Explorer Colonel John Dee Craig and here is Colonel train our story tonight is one of raw courage will see an expedition led by a Jesuit priest go straight into the heart of an active Alaskan volcano the biggest live crater in the world we call our film in the valley of the shadow of death in May 1931 a volcano in Alaska erupted with such terrible force that rocks the size of a house were thrown 20,000 feet in the air and a rain of ashes blanketed the area for hundreds of miles the glacier priest father bernard hubbard had predicted this eruption geologists as well as priest father Hubbard also felt that a still active volcano could answer many questions but a scientific party had to get in and out alive and that's exactly what he and his men tried to do with poisonous fumes swirling all around them and red-hot lava right beneath their feet they spent three solid weeks in the crater here now is father Hubbard to tell the story of this historic achievement early in the summer of nineteen thirty-one I just left the Aleutians for shirred banana Act check blew its top I decided to go there just as soon as a man could get in from Seward it was a 400 mile run to kallik Bay that's the closest landing point of the antioch check crater in those days Seward wasn't much of a place and transportation was scarce I put out a call but all my bush pilot friends were off somewhere so we did the next best thing we found an old fishing boat just about able to carry its own gear it was small and smell pretty strong but it was better than waiting around for a bush plane over 30 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday it was cold gray and the dog didn't like being tied down on deck at all they made a lot of noise that was no fun for them Little Wolf McGee and the rest they always hated going over water they like flying even less there at least it was faster I don't blame them a bush plane could have made the same run in four or five hours instead of four days publish ration dogs got dried caribou once a day we figured there wouldn't be much game around the volcano so we had to stretch our provisions the weather wasn't too bad the first 48 hours but then it closed in freezing rain turned into sleet and our dogs were miserable soaked to the skin shivering cold and seasick this lasted for a good 48 hours with the boat pitching and rolling and the dogs just plain uncomfortable they'd mush thousands of miles without a whimper but this was too much on the fourth day cleared up a bit and we rescheduling Bay I don't remember how much I paid the captain but it wasn't anything like what it would cost now those were depression days and the pickings were slim the dogs were offered glad the voyage was over so with tails wagging they went into the day we had no idea what lay ahead of us not the faintest the storm had left fresh snow here we brought a sled in hopes we could mush at least partly to the crater we set up camp and went looking for fresh meat the fisherman joined us I went ahead even hear everything was coated with a sticky black ash from the volcano's eruption the fisherman knew how to climb around the boat but they were out of their element here so we helped with Alpine methods to get them to the top no people lived here now but obviously long ago Eskimo or Aleutian hunters camped here we discovered ancient symbols they'd carved in the rock petroglyphs that called they probably date back a thousand years or more then I heard some more grunting and were scratching on ahead and climbed up to investigate and there were two Kodiak bear cubs scratching in the loose rubble and volcanic cinders it's kind of unusual to see bear cubs left all alone by themselves and I wondered where the mother was even armed I wouldn't want a meet her in the rocks who's little bears could give us lessons and climbing we saw no other game that day and so return to camp empty-handed but it didn't really matter we'd have fish for dinner here two days later as we were camped by a lonely Lake we had pleasant surprise my old friend Frank Dorland had gotten the word that we were on our way to Aniak check he insisted on flying us and our dogs right to the crater that would save at least three of us a long and painful track but durban had something else in mind he didn't want to fly just to the Antioch check Raider but right into if he could find a small lake inside the crater he'd try to land us there the others would have to pack him I waved a cheerful goodbye to the rest of the party but frankly I was scared so we were off for the first attempted landing in a volcano the world's largest active crater this region was rugged and at that time uncharted flying here was dangerous remember I filmed all this in 1931 a rolling sea of cloud hid the gaping canyons below the mountain peaks were sharp in the air bumpy if we had to make a forced landing in one of the canyons we'd be out of luck nobody would ever find us in this no-man's land the first sight of Antioch sex interior took my breath away it wasn't just a crater it looked like a whole world of live craters and lakes and black cones within a gigantic bowl the way Durbin flu was a severe test of faith but we didn't hit the crater walls we bank swept along a narrow band of muddy water turned again and leveled out over a small lake dotted with black cinder cones the snow-covered mountains are actually the outer rim of the volcano seen from the inside and so we made the first successful landing inside an active volcano Frank's remarkable flight didn't impress the dogs one bit they were just glad to be on land and so we set up camp in this world all our home waiting for the rest of the party to pack in there was a nap check and we were right in it it's almost impossible to get a real idea of the tremendous size of this crater sometime in the past-- this huge bowl was a volcanic mountain a hundred times the size of Vesuvius a terrific explosion centuries ago blew the entire thing into the air leaving a hole big enough to hold its own Hills rivers lakes and live craters there's fire and ice side by side surrounded by three thousand foot snow covered walls the latest eruption had come from just one area within this circle a week later the rest of the men finally arrived it was a great feeling to have everybody together again safe and sound that is if you can be safe and sound inside an active crater we celebrated with the deluxe banquet pancakes mush and caribou steaks all at the same time make always played for attention if he couldn't get it barking he try the other end and that didn't work he try both ends at once then began a week of reconnaissance and exploration the v-shaped opening in the distance is the gateway into the crater I couldn't imagine a scene of more desolation lava bombs thrown off by the eruption had made this vast plain inside the crater look like a war-torn battlefield volcanic shrapnel huge blocks of rock thrown thousands of feet into the air surely any act check was the biggest cannon in the world the black ash completely covered the snow that fell last winter walking on the loose cinders was like trying to climb a pile of sliding week we reached the far edge of our lake and discovered a clear spring the lava flow was a frightening spectacle with steam and poisonous gases rising into the air walking on the up thrust lava wasn't too bad although tremendous heat was imprisoned only a few feet below the surface the porous crust acted as insulation we were impressed with our own courage but how tame it seemed to us later when we reached our goal at the bottom of the pit of hades miles of exploring brought us something new and extraordinary every day one by one we measured and studied the gaping pits blown out of the crater floor all of them were immense chemical laboratories where the deadliest gases known to man were being formed fortunately by the time the poisonous fumes got to the top the wind had diffused them enough to make them more or less harmless but that same wind also blew the fine black ash around like powder it got into our eyes and mouths made breathing difficult it would try the patience of a saint we weren't fit to be associated with at the end of the day it was hard to pick the dirtiest take your choice 11 the prizefighter Peterson the hunter our Hubbard the priest it was stay dirty or jump in the ice cold lake we chose Clements so passed our first days in Antioch check dirty and exhausted but sometimes at night the moon brought a sort of magic and then you could almost forget that you were living within the walls of a blown-out Mountain the morning of our great venture into the pit of Hades Don bright and clear the distant smoke lava flows the snow-covered walls they reflected in the still beauty of the crater lake we began the day with the sacrifice of the mass in our volcanic sanctuary I particularly treasure this bit of thumb taken inside that live crater over 30 years ago it took a lot of courage just to go into that crater and they still have the most dangerous place to explore father hubbard call it the pit of Hades on the opposite side of the crater ominous clouds of steam and gas rose into the calm sky that was the pit of Hades the biggest and most dangerous live crater of them all the major objective of our expedition the first time we saw this terrible place we determined to descend to the very bottom down in that erupting cows precious scientific data could be obtained as we wanted as we stood on the brink our courage weakened steam and poisonous gases ceived in hist 600 people Oh cooked by the fires of hell we knew that at any moment and the ACT check could blow up into another of its terrific explosions even a small eruption would have wiped us from the face of the earth from the grim depths of the crater gases too heavy to rise rolled and tossed like waves and a ghostly see this was indeed an antechamber of hell we'd saved our biggest delicacy a nice juicy ham for this last great occasion McGee car blue-eyed dog was already licking his chops in anticipation water for cooking was no problem plenty of clean snow under the ashes and as for heat we didn't have to worry about that either the volcano would do our cooking for us locating a good spot to leave our ham to boil was no trouble at all if we got out of the pit alive and it'd be a great feast and if we didn't what of it to estimate the width and depth of the pit we hit on a novel method a shot from Peterson's gun and the echo across the pit were clocked by stopwatch some rapid calculations based on the speed of sound gave us three miles as the circumference of the pit this meant there was sufficient room for down drafts of pure air to defuse the gases at the bottom we now believe we had a fighting chance to get in and out alive if our calculations were correct down and down we went north to the size of ants by that immense bowl of visible steam and invisible poison gases we will reassure to the downdrafts but could they thin out the gases sufficiently that was the big question faithfull McGee can't wand Ike followed us down their instincts told them not to go into that awful place but their loyalty to us urged tomorrow ed levin was at the end of the rope yelling up that so far he smelled only hydrogen sulfide dangerous with carrying its own offensive warning it's the odorless colorless gases that are the quick finishers even though the visible ones look more terrifying we were just about halfway down now the gigantic vaporous ring was right in front of us but we were still in loose volcanic ash the lava got rougher and broken warped into caves cliffs and canyons were the terrific eruption filling our bags with volcanic samples collected right at the source the dogs acted as our gas detectors since they were so close to the ground where the lethal gas is concentrate they would be affected first by watching them carefully we could heed their warning and take them and us to safety it felt as though we were breathing tiny feathers our heads were beginning to swim with dizziness we kept praying for just one little spot of clear fresh air but instead it got worse the acrid smoke and dust burnt your mouth and nose and it was tortured just to keep your eyes open we moved as quickly as we could to get out of this bad spot but the steam and fumes were so thick we constantly lost sight of each other and the dogs we kept yelling to each other but it was pointless we could hardly hear ourselves shout much less than the others we were desperately worried that the dogs might become separated from us with all the chemical odors it would have been impossible for them to follow our scent I found myself repeating the words from the 23rd psalm yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff comfort me now we were at the level of the heaving crater floor the lid in securely fastened over the cauldrons of hell when EDD Chism tried to take the temperature the glass thermometer melded too hot but he collected important salts and minerals for analysis in a pocket where the gas had cleared away I found a dead bird we still wanted to know how hot it was glass thermometers were useless so we put copper disks on the end of our picks they had a melting point of 1080 degrees centigrade and melted quickly if by the way that was the highest temperature ever recorded inside an Alaskan volcano it was like walking on the lid of a gigantic boiling kettle with the steam roaring out around its edges it was a fearful thought that at any moment the kettle mites boil over and there was no one to turn to fire off more and more clearly we could hear and feel the dull thud of underground explosions which made the crust shudder beneath our feet and every time a fresh cloud of smoke and steam burst out around the edge we felt the whole thing was going to blow up right under us the final minutes of our work frantically testing digging and collecting samples we were taking an awful beating hair and eyebrows singed shoes cracked opened eyes burning and smarting lungs aching we staggered along the furnace walls grabbing mineral specimens where we could but even as we continued to work more and more the feeling of unreality came over us I don't know it was the prolonged exposure to the poison gases or the approach of total exhaustion but I had an overpowering desire to lie down and go to sleep and the others felt the same it was as though we were all living through the same nightmare lost souls from the pages of Dante's Inferno we knew we should stop and get out and yet we prolong the danger we couldn't help a feeling strange exaltation and I still feel it even today more than 30 years after I made these films we were young and foolish perhaps but we accomplished something of importance for the science of ulka knology by venturing 600 feet at the bottom of the pit of Hades we had collected precious information on the nature of active volcanoes and perhaps most important in that terrible crater we learned something which served us in all the years to come it was more than a victory over Antioch check it was a victory over ourselves yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil father Hubbard's exploration of Antioch Chuck volcano was one of his most daring exploits in over 30 years of exploring Alaska he did many other amazing things he explored the valley of ten thousand smokes he climbed Katmai sheesh Alden and many other live Alaskan volcanoes he must a dog team for 1,600 miles across the Arctic wilderness and on the last hundred miles he was delirious with a raging fever he made a 2,000 mile voyage in a walrus skin boat to Dottie the Eskimos and through all these incredible adventures and hardships he still managed to give us has a permanent record millions of feet of film and hundreds of thousands of photographs we owe a great deal to this dedicated explorer priest father Bernard Hubbard from the smoking volcanoes of Alaska we go on our next exciting expedition halfway around the world on an entirely different quest take my word for you begin our story after this brief but important message this too is a dramatic adventure until then this is John Craig saying thank you and good night you