TDW 1672 - Leg of Black Diamond The Killer Elephant

0:04 That little section of old dilapidated

0:04 stores looks like the old

0:07 west. The beginnings of a ghost town.

0:10 Starting off today in KS,

0:12 Texas. The water tower designates it K

0:16 city, but in reality it's just a

0:19 quaint small little town. The old motor

0:22 company building also has one of those

0:27 1970sesque loan signs. The police

0:30 station is directly downtown next to

0:32 another lone shop and between the

0:35 pharmacy and the market is the Chamber

0:37 of Commerce. Welcome everyone. Adam the

0:39 Woo here. There is no McDonald's, no

0:41 Starbucks, no Dunkin Donuts anywhere

0:44 around this area. I got to figure

0:46 something else out. I need coffee. The

0:48 snow cone place across the street looks

0:50 incredible. They're not open and they

0:52 don't have caffeine, but I think the

0:55 Merkantile just might.

1:04 Oh, that's good. It's my second channel,

1:04 Daily Vlog channel. It's the Daily Woo.

1:07 I can't help but think of the movie That

1:08 Thing You Do. When I look at Hans

1:10 Appliance Store and that Whirlpool sign,

1:14 that's vintage. Outside one of the

1:16 stores, they have this take a book, give

1:18 a book. Remember this one? Flat Stanley

1:21 and his Worldwide Adventures? It's not

1:23 open, but inside here, check out that

1:27 Longhorn. And then up on the wall are a

1:29 couple others. Jethro, Maverick, and

1:42 Ranger. You don't want to walk around

1:42 barefoot out here. Look at these thorns.

1:45 And check out this relic. An old gas

1:49 station at the crossroads. The sign on

1:51 the porch says, "Beware of dog." I'm

1:54 really hoping there is no dog. Odds are

1:57 pretty good the well has run dry on

2:00 these gas pumps, judging by this gas

2:02 container here that is sitting

2:17 empty. Bag of chips. A rat has gotten

2:17 into it.

2:19 chowed down on the side of it. They had

2:21 to reinforce this tree limb from falling

2:24 with this concrete pillar here holding

2:26 it up. I'm currently in Helena, which

2:29 was named after the wife of the man who

2:31 founded the little town. There are a few

2:34 remnants of the former structures as

2:36 well as some cactus. They have a little

2:38 museum here. It's not open currently cuz

2:41 they're doing some construction, but

2:42 there's something very interesting in

2:44 here that she's going to show me. But

2:46 since you're from out of state, we'll

2:47 accommodate you. You whatever we can.

2:52 Thank you. During a parade, right? Yeah.

2:54 He went out of control and he killed the

2:56 lady there. So, there was a big

2:59 commotion whether to let the elephant

3:01 live or or to put him to death. The

3:05 governor finally made a decision that

3:07 the elephant was going to be put to

3:09 death. Here's a front view if you want

3:11 to do that. Here's the side view. Well,

3:14 when they decided to put him to death,

3:16 they tried to give him a poison fruit.

3:19 He wouldn't eat him. So, they executed

3:21 him and took 170 shots to put him down.

3:25 Oh my goodness. This is incredible. I'm

3:27 holding the leg of the elephant black

3:30 diamond. Do they ever use it as like a

3:32 stool to sit on? Like, does someone sit

3:34 on this? Almost looks like they made it

3:35 into a seat or something. It looks like

3:38 they made it into like an end

3:40 table. A little table. Imagine having

3:43 that in your house and just putting your

3:45 sodas on it or eating off of it. It's a

3:48 little bit a little bit creepy. Yeah,

3:50 the old gel doesn't exist anymore, but

3:52 they have the gel cells. They pulled

3:55 them out of the old building and they're

3:57 just sitting here. Pretty interesting.

3:59 You go

4:00 inside one of these cells. Really can't

4:03 escape this. This is heavy

4:07 duty. This is the old courthouse. And

4:09 you can see they're doing quite a bit of

4:11 work.

4:12 inside

4:14 here fixing it up, bringing it back to

4:18 its former glory. This place has given

4:20 the nickname the toughest town on earth

4:23 cuz he used to get pretty rowdy here.

4:25 The story of the elephant is an

4:26 interesting one. He was being paraded

4:28 down a route and he ended up kind of

4:29 losing control and killed a woman. And

4:33 at first they thought he just went a

4:34 little bit out of his mind when later on

4:37 after they slaughtered him, they

4:39 realized that he had a problem with his

4:41 teeth and he was in a lot of pain. Just

4:44 another story of one of the many

4:46 elephants who have been put to death for

4:49 reasons like that. The sign says dead

4:51 end, but there's something down here I

4:53 want to show you. This is the Ruckman

4:54 house built in

4:56 1878. He was one of the co-founders of

5:00 Helena. And there's the house back

5:03 then. And there it is now. Also under

5:07 construction by the same people who own

5:09 the little museum. There a few donkeys

5:11 over there about to chow down on some

5:14 hay next to this dilapidated barn. The

5:17 interesting story about this town and

5:19 why there's not much left here has to do

5:21 with it being a former rowdy place.

5:24 There was a very prominent railroad

5:26 official whose son got killed here in

5:29 town. And when he showed back up and

5:30 asked the locals, "Who killed my son?"

5:33 No one would tell him. And he said, "If

5:35 you will not tell me, I am going to kill

5:38 this town." So when it came time for the

5:41 new railroad to come through this area,

5:43 it did not come through Helena, they

5:45 built it just outside, 7 miles outside

5:48 the limits, thus killing off the

5:51 businesses and destroying the town.

6:08 Some of the original town folk are

6:08 buried here in the cemetery. Some of the

6:11 dates on these are incredible.

6:14 1884. Look at this

6:16 one. Wow. November

6:19 1917. Maria

6:22 Garcia passed away in 1918. You don't

6:25 normally see gravestones like this in a

6:27 small cemetery of this type. Little door

6:31 there that opens on the side. These

6:34 bricks on the right are all that remain

6:36 of the original main street except for

6:40 that wall there was the saloon. And next

6:43 to the saloon was Ruckman's market and

6:47 post office. The original founder was

6:50 also the postmaster. And that marker

6:54 signifies the

7:03 spot. Seems to be a little ravine down

7:03 there. Pretty good opportunity to take

7:05 the drone up in the air. Kind of get a

7:07 bird's eyee view of the surrounding

7:09 area. What's neat about this little

7:11 riverway is there's like cliffs on

7:14 either side where erosion over time is

7:17 kind of like dissipated the sidewalls.

7:20 Looks pretty cool. through this

7:22 gateways. Just so happens to be another

7:25 cemetery here in town. Look, they have

7:28 the cow strips so cattle can't cross

7:30 this. That's what that's

7:33 for. I didn't think it was such a great

7:35 idea to bring the RV up in

7:38 here. All right, this looks

7:41 promising. There is a cemetery up here.

7:43 I am looking for the founder of the

7:45 town's final resting place somewhere in

7:49 here. This is kind of creepy out here.

7:51 It's like the graveyard that time

7:53 forgot. In fact, look at this

7:56 one. It's been

7:59 removed. Grave

8:01 robbery, perhaps. Here's another one.

8:04 Completely

8:06 dismantled. Where is the

8:09 casket? If I find a body out here, I'm

8:12 going to crap myself.

8:23 I've been to some unmaintained

8:24 cemeteries in my day, but nothing like

8:27 this. This entire plot

8:30 completely grown over. You can barely

8:33 even see the headstones through the

8:37 foliage.

8:53 Trying to think back if I've ever seen

8:53 Whoa, these thorns. Look, they're like

8:56 super super dangerous. I'm trying to

8:59 think back if I've ever

9:01 seen a cemetery like this. Just

9:04 completely grown over in every possible

9:08 aspect. I am having a very, very hard

9:12 time

9:13 locating what I'm looking

9:23 for. Thomas Ruckman, the founder and

9:23 postmaster, is supposedly buried out

9:26 here, but I can't find him.

9:35 The headstone dates are all around the

9:35 same time frame, but I just cannot hunt

9:40 down where he's laid to rest. His

9:43 headstone could have easily been stolen,

9:46 demolished, grown over. It's really hard

9:50 to say. In fact, some of them that have

9:51 fallen over almost completely covered in

9:54 debris and leaves. Do you see it from up

9:56 there,

9:57 bird? Do you see it? Keep an eye out.

10:02 Give me a shout if you notice anything.

10:05 Well, after a couple hours of searching,

10:07 I have formulated the idea in my mind

10:09 that his marker where his grave is no

10:13 longer exists. I guess that

10:16 railroad tycoon who said he was going to

10:18 kill the

10:19 town really got his

10:22 wish. Very little left. I felt something

10:26 biting my leg, so I took my pants off.

10:28 Look at this freaking thing. This is

10:32 like a killer

10:34 ant right there. All baldled

10:38 up. Look at that

10:46 guy. My

10:46 gosh. You painful little

10:50 bugger. You

10:52 suck.

10:54 Vlog over.

TDW 1672 - Leg of Black Diamond The Killer Elephant

Transcript