This is the Blue Hole of Santa Rosa. On the surface, it's just an unassuming pond in the middle of the desert in New Mexico. At the bottom though, there is a large metal grate over the entrance to a massive underwater cavern.
Importantly, this grate wasn't always there, and I think we all know that a metal grate is only installed for one reason. So in this video, we're going to look at the horrifying incidents that led to this grate being installed and what might happen if you were to deliberately bypass it. Before we get into it, I want to give a serious claustrophobia warning for this one, and as always, viewer discretion is advised.
[intro music] A hundred miles east of Albuquerque, New Mexico is the little city of Santa Rosa. On one side of the city is a swimming spot popular with locals and tourists that looks like little more than a pond at first glance. However, this couldn't be further from the truth.
There are some trees and rocks around the edges, but the first thing that's noticeable about it is the deep blue color of the water, giving away the fact that it isn't some shallow murky pond. It's obviously very deep, and the water is extremely clear. And because it's so unassuming from the surface, you might not expect that this is one of the most popular dive sites in the entire country.
The hole is also located right on the historic Route 66, which for those of you who don't know, is one of the original highways in the US, dating back to the 1920s. Since then, it's become a popular tour spot, but prior to establishing Route 66, there were dirt roads that went back much further. And during these time periods, the Blue Hole provided water to cattle and travelers going across the desert.
But even prior to that, native populations have used the hole for centuries, maybe even millennia, as a limitless source of water and a spot to cool down. We actually don't really know how far back the history goes because there aren't any written records. In any case, this is because the Blue Hole of Santa Rosa is something known as a natural artesian well.
This is a type of natural spring that's fed by water deep within the earth, and because of the pressure the water is under, it flows at unbelievable volumes. This particular one has a constant inflow of 3,000 gallons per minute. That's enough to fill an Olympic swimming pool in under three hours.
And the water in the hole itself completely refreshes every 6 hours or so, so that should give you an indication of how big it is. And it just does this, day in, day out, as it's done for as long as people have been using it. It's for this reason as well that the water is so clear; it's constantly being replaced by new clear water at a constant 62 Fahrenheit or 17 degrees Celsius.
But that's not even all though. At the surface of the water, the hole is about 80 feet in diameter. And as you descend from the surface, it begins to narrow, first like an hourglass.
Then at the midway point, it begins to widen again, and eventually, the hole widens to almost 130 feet (39. 6 m) across at the bottom of its 80-foot depth. At the bottom as well are some interesting objects.
There are some boulders and some rubble; typical things you'd expect, but there are also bones, a crucifix, and a little opening on the east side. This opening is covered by a metal grate which is the entrance to a massive underwater cavern. As with most natural springs where water is coming from somewhere deep within the earth, the path of the water is not direct.
Over a long period of time, the water erodes the softest and most soluble rock at random. This sometimes creates massive rooms and corridors, and other times, just the tiniest of squeezes. You can't really tell from the outside what a cave is going to look like until you enter.
Most people have absolutely no interest in finding out what a cave looks like inside, but not everyone though. And unfortunately, the grate blocking the entrance wasn't always there. Every year, thousands of students come from across the country to scuba dive the Blue Hole of Santa Rosa.
The water is clear, the temperature is stable, and there are no currents in it that divers need to worry about. It's like a big swimming pool with perfect conditions to learn in, which is part of the reason why it's so popular. In March of 1976, ten students and their instructor pulled into the parking lot of the visitor center, ready to take advantage of these conditions.
As students from the University of Oklahoma, they planned to do some underwater photography as part of one of their classes. At around 10:30 AM, everyone had their scuba gear on, and two students, Mike and David, slipped into the water with everyone else. Before beginning the dive, all the students were told not to stay at the bottom for too long and warned that under no circumstances should they enter the cave on the eastern side of the hole.
Then after the instructions, everyone started to descend and explore the water. For some of the students, that warning was more like an invitation. Soon enough, David and Mike made their way to the bottom to look around, and before they knew it, they were floating in front of the little four-foot opening.
Eventually, their curiosity got the better of them, and they motioned to one another that they should go in and check it out. From the entrance, the cave descends straight down about 15 feet, and right away, the environment is very different. The space is tighter, and the walls and floor are jagged and sandy; it's not quite the crystal-clear water like above.
Still, they kept going, and at the bottom of the 15-foot (4. 6 m) drop is a large corridor splitting off forward and backward at a 60-degree angle. Up behind them, the cave was a dead end, but in front of them, the cave descended further and split off into several rooms.
Now, although these tunnels are decently sized, without proper training, divers can accidentally disturb the water too much with how they're swimming. This then stirs up the sand and silt on the bottom. It's also easy to not realize that you're doing this because you're looking in front of you while you're exploring.
It's not until you turn around that you realize that you've completely obscured the path out. So as Dave and Mike continued on, unbeknownst to them, they were literally sealing their own fate. Finally, when they turned around, they had no clue where the way back was.
From their vantage point, it was just a big cloud of dust in front of them. And upon entering a cloud like that, you lose all sense of direction and have no clue which way is up and which way is down in the random winding tunnels. This is where panic usually sets in.
You start to get that pit in your stomach as you move blindly through the silt, knowing you made a huge mistake and that you only have so much air left. And before you know it, you're breathing so hard you're hyperventilating, and you're moving around way faster than you should be in a panic. This then only magnifies the visibility problem, and you're banging into walls and ceilings, and then all of a sudden, you take a breath, and it feels like you're breathing through a straw because you've run out of air in your tanks.
It wasn't long before the remaining students and instructor realized that something happened to David and Mike. Then, shortly after that, the body recovery began. In the afternoon of the same day David and Mike entered the cave, rescue divers descended to the cave's entrance and ran a 100-foot (30.
5 m) line to search for them. In contrast to the two students, this allowed them to find their way back, even if the way was silted out. During this search, they would find Mike's body near the entrance to one of the many rooms the cave has that branch off from the main hallway.
However, it would take much longer to find David. At the time, cave diving was sort of in its infancy, even the rescue teams were primarily composed of volunteers. Many of them wouldn't even enter because of how bad the conditions were.
The depth was one issue, but beyond just the depth, the cave is small enough that it really only made sense to send one person in at a time. Over the next several days, the team would get as far as 181 feet (55. 2 m) deep, so over twice the depth of where the cave begins.
During this, one rescue diver eventually got down to the end of a large hallway. Then, he shined a powerful flashlight to illuminate the room, but because of how large the chamber was, he couldn't even see the bottom. Maybe the scariest part of all during the search though, was that the bubbles the divers were expelling were dislodging rocks from the ceiling.
In one instance, a diver was hit in the back by a rock that was about a foot wide. In another instance, a diver was brushed by one that was two feet wide and probably hundreds of pounds as he waded through the dark tunnels. Finally, four days later, on the 14th, the search was called off when the water became too cloudy due to changes in the pressure on the surface.
Afterward, a 300-pound (136. 1 kg) metal grate was lowered over the entrance to prevent anyone else from going inside. And it wouldn't be until over a month later when the grate was temporarily removed and David's body was finally located.
Incredibly, it was at only 130 feet (39. 6 m) of depth, which is really not all that deep compared to how far the rescue had gone. They were just so many rooms and offshoots and crevices that had to be checked.
Finally, after that, the grate was reinstalled where it remained for almost 40 years. 37 years later, a diving organization known as the ADM Exploration Foundation contacted the city of Santa Rosa with the hope of being given permission to map and explore the cave which had been sealed for all those years. After some planning and permits, the ADM was given permission, and their first task was to remove the heavy grate over the entrance.
Unfortunately, when it was removed, they discovered a huge amount of rock and debris inside. Apparently, unbeknownst to the city, the army had dumped two dump trucks worth of rock over the entrance. So first, they had to dredge the bottom and remove the debris before they could even enter.
Eventually, there was just one large boulder in the way which blocked access and halted progress for another three years. In 2016, the way had finally been cleared enough for the mapping exploration to begin. For the mission, in addition to some of the other premier cave divers of the time, the man leading the exploration was legendary cave diver, Mike Young.
For a couple of days, he and another Navy diver named Shane Thompson were mapping the cave and running fixed lines to ensure they could always find their way out. By March 26th, they had gone about as far as they could, which was 195 feet (59. 4 m).
They might have been able to get a little bit deeper, but in the end, decided it would be too much work. The deepest point of the cave was filled with rocks that would need to be moved out of the way to get any further. So instead, they decided that would be the last day of their dive, and all Mike was going to go down to do was do one more check of the area in case he missed any passages, and to remove the line he had fixed to the bottom.
Now, it's not really clear if the cave had always been like this and it just wasn't described this way when the first rescue was done in 1976, but when Mike and Shane dived the cave, it was full of large rocks and boulders after around 140 feet of depth. So in addition to swimming through the tunnels, the tunnels were also filled with boulders that were sometimes the size of cars. This meant that they also had to find a route through the cracks and openings between these large unstable boulders.
Sometimes, they didn't even have enough space to turn around. Other times, they would be swimming and had to remove smaller rocks, which was also dangerous because you can risk dislodging the larger rocks. In fact, this was all so treacherous that up until the second last day of the exploration, when Shane made it through, only Mike could pass the restriction at 140 feet.
Then, since Shane did make it through, they planned for him to accompany Mike on the last dive to a pre-planned depth. After the two men squeezed through the first restriction, the tunnel they entered was filled with rocks and debris along the bottom, leaving them with just a few feet to the ceiling. It was also about six feet (1.
83 m) wide. For this deep in the cave though, that was pretty decent in terms of space and visibility, and not much silt was getting kicked up as they swam along. Eventually, they got to the next restriction, and Mike put his hand up in front of Shane to signal him to wait.
Prior to entering, this was the spot they planned Shane was supposed to wait while Mike went to retrieve the line. Mike was more experienced and the next section was so tight anyway, it just made sense for only one person to go through it. So after giving the signal, Mike turned and swam to the little crack in the boulders and squeezed through it until his fins were out of view.
From there on, if you can believe it, the cave is actually even more treacherous. It's basically all restrictions through large boulders where the spaces are so tight that Mike had to pull himself through with his arms. He would make it to the line without issue though, and he was about to remove the line, but then he thought to himself that this should be filmed.
They had also been shooting a documentary about the Blue Hole, and Shane had been wearing a camera to film everything. So instead of cutting and removing the line, he thought it would be a good idea to go back to get the camera to film it. After turning back as expected, the way was completely silted out.
The space is so tight that no matter how careful you are, you're brushing up against boulders and kicking up sand. This wasn't really a big deal since he was following a line, but then after a couple feet back into the restrictions, he ran directly into Shane. A few minutes earlier, right as Mike's fins had disappeared, Shane went right after him, completely against what they had planned.
He just decided in that moment that he wanted to see the rest of the cave and decided to follow after Mike. By the time the two ran into one another, Shane had already passed through five tight restrictions and was actually a bit stuck and starting to panic Mike was obviously confused as well because he knew that he had just come through some not so easy restrictions. But either way, after the shock wore off, he told Shane to turn back around.
Shane then replied back that he couldn't. Between being wedged and how small the space was, there was no way for him to maneuver himself back around. So instead, Mike backed out of the opening and then grabbed Shane, and pulled him as hard as he could.
He would get him through and turned around, but not before feeling like he was going to break Shane's legs in the process. Finally, the two of them managed to squeeze through the boulders toward the exit, and although Mike couldn't see Shane through the silt, he could feel the line moving in his hands, so he knew Shane was moving along as well. Then all of a sudden, the line was just ripped from Mike's hands like Shane had just yanked on it super hard.
And immediately, he started patting around the rocks, trying to find it again, because that was literally his only lifeline. Then as he patted around, he could start to feel his breathing start to increase too. Thankfully, he had the presence of mind to realize he had equipment that would last all day if he needed.
There was no rush, he had tons of time. He just had to sit and calm himself down for a second, so that's what he did. When he was calmed down a little bit, he began to look around again.
He kinda knew what direction he needed to go because he was heading in the right direction before, but still couldn't find the line anywhere. Eventually, he felt a little opening and went through it and kept padding around, and miraculously stumbled on the line again. So he took a big sigh of relief and then kept following it through the boulders.
Then out of nowhere, he felt Shane's arm reaching through this tiny gap in the boulders. And right away, he could tell by the way it was moving that Shane was absolutely freaking out in complete panic mode. Mike grabbed on to it to sort of reassure him that he was going to help out and started looking around for some way to get Shane out of where he was stuck.
He eventually found a larger opening close by and then guided Shane to it by pulling him towards it. At this point, Shane is still completely losing it but seemed to realize that Mike found a way out. Unfortunately, as soon as he got to the opening, he started crawling as hard and as fast as he could.
And because he did this so haphazardly in his panic, he actually managed to wedge himself underneath Mike in the narrow tunnel, to the point that Shane's head was by Mike's feet and Mike's head was by Shane's feet. At that point, they were completely stuck, but Shane was still panicking and kicking his fins like crazy, forcing Mike to have to shield his face from Shane's kicks. In the chaos, he even managed to kick a valve on Mike's suit and break it, causing Mike's suit to begin to fill with the cold water.
Meanwhile, Mike just knew that this was a terrible situation and he needed to get out of it as soon as possible He eventually managed to sort of wedge one of his legs up into a crack, which gave Shane just enough room to wiggle through and finally unwedge them. Even worse though, in the process, he ripped one of Mike's fins off. On top of that, the force of coming free pushed him forward through the same opening Shane had just come out of.
Afterward, he just sat there for a moment to calm down, which was even harder than before because of everything that was going on. Finally, again, when he was calm enough, first, he exited the little opening he had been forced through. Then again, he began to pat around, looking for an opening in the direction he thought was up and out.
As he was doing this, once again, miraculously, he felt his fin laying there on some rocks. Immediately, this was a huge relief, and it was almost symbolic that he still had hope of making it out. Afterward, he continued the direction he thought was up.
He would find a hole, go through it, pat around for another one, go through that, and so on. Then somehow, he managed to find an area where the silt wasn't so bad; he actually had a bit of visibility. As he swam toward it, he was even able to see the line.
Eventually, he grabbed it and he realized he could still feel it moving, meaning Shane was still active somewhere in the silted-out boulders. Then almost without hesitation, he just turned toward them and began to swim in that direction to go help Shane. Tragically, as he swam, the line suddenly went limp, and immediately, he knew Shane had passed away.
Shortly after that, he squeezed back through and found Shane's lifeless body. Then almost robotically, he began to take off Shane's gear to get him ready to be taken back to the surface. As he was doing this, he had a sudden moment of realization.
His suit was partially filled with cold water, and he had tons of decompression to do before he could even exit the water. This just wasn't the time to make a rescue; he'd have to come back later to do this. So instead, he left Shane where he was and then he followed the line all the way back through the winding corridors and restrictions until finally meeting the safety divers just above the cave entrance.
He managed to communicate to them that Shane wasn't coming back, and then he began his long two-hour decompression. Between the panic from earlier and the freezing water in his suit and knowing what happened to Shane, this was a brutal experience. After getting to the surface, he spent some more time warming up and calming down before explaining to the police what had down below.
It was during this that he realized that he was the only one capable of retrieving Shane's body, so sooner or later, he would have to go back down there. He even wanted to do it that night still, but the rest of team stopped him and told him to wait until morning. After Shane was recovered, the camera footage was examined to figure out what had happened.
This is when they saw that Shane had followed basically right after Mike was out of view at the second restriction. In addition to that, it was determined that because of how hard he was breathing, he eventually overloaded the rebreather system he was using. This then forced him to switch to his emergency gas.
He quickly burned through that as well, but because he was so panicked, he just never switched back to his other system. He was also found with his suit completely torn up. There were rips all over it because of how hard he was swimming through the boulders.
After everything was said and done, the team had mapped the cave, but obviously, it wasn't the way they'd planned it would happen. And beyond losing Shane, part of the hope for the expedition was to map the cave to eventually be turned into a spot for local cave divers to come and explore. However, as Mike put it, it was just one of the sketchiest caves he'd ever been in.
Even if it was dredged and lines were fixed, all the boulders and restrictions meant that it would still be limited to the most advanced technical divers. Mike would even later describe one of the restrictions which is apparently just a small opening underneath a huge multiple-ton boulder that's balanced on just a tiny lip of rock. So ultimately, it was decided that the cave was just too dangerous, and a new grate was installed over the entrance, sealing it forever.
The Blue Hole of Santa Rosa, however, remains a safe and popular dive site and swimming spot to this day. If you made it this far, thank you so much for watching. If you have a story suggestion, feel free to submit it to the form found in the description.
And thanks again for watching, and hopefully, I will see you in the next one.
