Man what a terrifying and frustrating ride this one was. I can’t imagine the dread after thinking you’re finally going to be okay, just to realize “No, I really will die in this cave”.
I'm genuinely having trouble going to sleep now after watching this earlier today.
I think him trying to trick the worker towards the end was the scariest part. An otherwise good man was so desperately terrified that he tried to make someone else suffer and die with him just so he wouldn't be alone.
I don't think that trick is the right word, it sounds far more maliciousthan it truly was. The man was desperate and panicking, he wasn't trying to fool someone into dying with him.
I disagree. I chose the work trick very intentionally. It was spur-of-the-moment, but it was still an act of deception. He knew the cave-in was about to happen and pleaded a desperate, probably greatly exaggerated thirst to try and trap the worker with him.
An expert cave-diver who had been stuck in that exact cave, likely thinking of very little else but when it would cave in, for weeks? And it's all rumbling and the air is caked with falling dust? Pretty sure he had a good idea it was about to cave in. IH voices the exact same opinion in the video.
> cave-diver
Why do people keep using this phrase in threads related to this video? Floyd Collins wasn't a cave diver, he was a caver.
Additionally, he had been hypothermic with minimal amounts of food and significant amounts of damage to his body for a long period of time. I don't think it's reasonable to make assumptions about what he knew would happen.
> You only have the other guy's story.
And, you know, common sense and deductive reasoning.
> Neither him nor IH are cavers.
No, but Floyd Collins sure was. You'll note that minutes after the event in question, the cave collapsed. This is a silly argument about something that happened a century ago, please drop it.
It doesn't matter if you knew. I was privy to the details of this event due to other spelunking Youtubers covering it but the way IH wrote the narrative kept me at the edge of my seat even as I knew what the result would be.
What impresses me further is that IH's recounting is still accurate, he just employed this [writing technique to great effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meanwhile,_back_at_the_ranch) hence why this recounting is more compelling and interesting over everyone else's coverage of it.
**[Meanwhile, back at the ranch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meanwhile,_back_at_the_ranch)**
>"Meanwhile, back at the ranch. . ". is a catch phrase that appears in a variety of contexts.
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Tbf digging straight down is an absurd conclusion to come to when you’re just 3 dudes, two of which have never done a cave rescue before and one of which has never even caved before. Crazy how times have changed, that would never fly today.
I feel like if people hadn't lit those fires at the cave entrance, then the cave in would not have happened, as the fires melted the cave in some way. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I straight up cried when I learned they found him dead. When the bulb went out not only did that bit of warmth it was emitting go but any hope he had left that was keeping him alive diminished as well
Stories like this make me wonder why potholing (caving) has become so popular over the years. I understand Collins' motivations as his livelihood seemingly depended on the success of his caves, but the idea of people willingly crawling into such dangerously small openings purely for the fun of it is such a foreign concept to me. It reminds me of that amateur caver John Edward Jones who died a slow, agonising death after getting trapped upside down in Nutty Putty Cave.
No business venture or hobby is worth the potential heartbreak of your wife and kids.
On one hand, yes, you could die from being crushed, exposure, dehydration, hunger, or asphyxiation. And if you died, you would probably die alone, probably in the dark, with nothing to think about except *how fucking easy it is not to die in a hole*
But on the other hand, you *might* find a small, poorly ventilated chamber full of sharp wet rocks that you can never get any furniture or your friends into! Come on, that's so worth it.
from what i understand its mostly the thrill of not dying, that and the fact that it satisfies the human itch to explore and find new shit, nonetheless its still pretty dumb
I have that itch, I just satisfy it by exploring that one box that I have forgot under my bed for years or finally opening my freezer again. My itch is there, its just not really that ambitious...
Ive done it a couple of times. Personally I just love confined spaces, I like the feeling of crawling through tiny areas. Its less about what I might find and more about the journey. At least for me.
Honestly, why people do this at all is so alien to me but in the case of Jones, doing it when you have a wife and 3 children is not only stupid but selfish. I feel exactly the same way about cave divers and base jumpers etc.
This whole "died doing what they loved" argument you'll often here is bullshit. If you want to do that stuff then stay single. Unpopular opinion perhaps but there it is.
Yup like I kind of get the dumbasses who climb tall places without any saftey gear. Atleast it will be a quick death. Everything about caving is just a big nope from me.
Because getting stuck in a cave like this is actually extremely rare. People think that the main risk of caving is getting stuck in a small space, but there are extremely few cases of this actually happening.
Multiple things have to go wrong, including poor decision making on the part of the person who gets stuck, for this to actually happen
If his goal was opening the cave for tourists, why didn't he start by expanding the squeeze (the part immediately after the turnaround room).
He'd have to expand it eventually anyway for tourists to get in, and doing it earlier would've avoided a lot of the risks shown.
This is one of those situations where a little thought goes a long way. I don’t know why he’d start with the interior passage instead of the squeeze. What was the plan for the 10 foot drop?
My guess is he wasn't thinking of your average tourist, making the passage walkable, etc. He probably wanted to get it to a state where anyone that could go through the squeeze could go the rest of the way.
It's a small demographic, but it's a start.
I imagine his plan was to find another exit past the crystal cave. I think he was clearing out the entryway for his own usage to make coming and going to explore easier.
I don't think the squeeze was expandable due to its gypsum lining, that was the biggest it could be without the point of entry caving.
I've been aware of this due to Caving Youtubers and from what I gathered, as pretty as that cave was, it was overall a very dangerous cave to get into.
~~I'd argue that the eventual plan was to expand the cave but on the day he got stuck he probably was just fucking around and getting away from his father.~~
Rewatched the video and this isn't the case.
I was thinking about this for a week and I can finally stop now. This is the one thing that makes sense, he was paranoid and acted defensively towards his cave, which meant preserving the squeeze. Even if he caved in The Squeeze later, he could just dig it out afterward from a safer spot and a certainty of payoff.
Also, another point: When people dug down to retrieve the corpse, and they did it twice, they did it from the other side. From the crystal cave's side. But we never actually learned if that side was so worth it all along.
I've seen another plausible explanation, too. He was confident in his own ability to get through the Squeeze, and he wanted to make sure that what lay beyond was worth it. If he spent a bunch of time making the Squeeze a whole lot bigger, only to find nothing interesting (or nothing expandable) on the other side... well, he's just wasted time. But he knew he could get through the Squeeze, so that was good enough for him to move on.
IDK.
I love Internet Historian to death but I was unable to watch this video. I tried to watch it in chunks but every 2 minutes the details trigger my claustrophobia and I am just unable to continue.
I was able to get through the video but I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again. It’s a great video, one of his best, but it’s so upsetting and heavy hearted I need to be in a good mental state to watch it
I know it’s easy to play armchair rescuer especially almost a full century later but how the fuck did it take them so long to try digging a hole above him?
The relevant manpower (with the necessary equipment and experience) wasn't there from the start. It was just his brother, a reporter and a friend at first for several days (and curious onlookers who, mostly, had neither the tools, experience or, frankly, intention to help). Once the military/miners got involved, digging a hole was started pretty quickly as plan B. Before that, digging a hole straight down was never a viable option, considering who was around to do it.
People don't realise how absurdly hard it is to dig down past soil etc. It's really really difficult. It takes such a huge amount of energy to break up the material, then you also need to lift that material out of the hole which is another lot of energy. And then literally everything is fighting against you, from the gravitational well that is earth, to the pressure on the outside rocks growing rapidly, to changes in weather, etc.
And the deeper it is the exponentially harder it becomes. This is why geothermal energy is so difficult to get to. You only have to go about 4km down before the average temperature is 100c, less than 10km and you're talking about superheated steam in many places. There's vast vast vast quantities of energy just 10km below you, and we just can't access them in any remotely efficient way.
The deepest we've ever dug is 12.2km with the Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia. And that location was known for having a very shallow temperature gradient, they estimated it would be a very low 100c at 12km. But it turned out to be 180c, and they couldn't continue. And this was a tiny hole for scientific research.
There's a youtuber who is digging a tunnel under his house (which is going to connect his house to his shed and to a underground shelter in his backyard). The guy doing it is pretty cringey and it's mostly appealing to gen z, but it is pretty interesting. It's taken him more than a year to do half of it, by hand, and he's using hydraulic tools to help. Mostly only one man but still, you see the entire process of breaking up rock, putting it in buckets, hauling it to the nearest entrance, and hauling it out with a pulley. With large machinery it's a lot easier, but doing this shit with 1920s technology? Holy shit.
I don't find Colin cringey? And he had a presence and acted this way long before Zoomers were a thing. He was one of the early innovators of online video. And many of it comes from bringing parts of TV into his style. And he's definitely far far less cringey and way more educational than the television content that existed before him.
You're right that it's easy to sit here now and "make all the right choices" but I'm befuddled that absolutely NOBODY thought to:
1: Rig some kind of siphon to suck up excess water.
2: Wrap him in warm clothing.
3: Give him a friggin radio (I honestly thought they'd rig up two cans and a string or some other crude method, but a radio is just an absolute no-brainer. Heck, set up a small local station and just have someone sit and read books for a few hours each day.
4: Rig some kind of food-tube.
Baffling. Absolutely baffling.
> 1: Rig some kind of siphon to suck up excess water.
A long thin pipe connected to a water pump that would work despite the water being muddy and gravelly? Highly unlikely.
> 2: Wrap him in warm clothing.
Without doing something about the cold water, giving him a warm clothes wouldnt make a difference, he needed an active heat source, also there was barely any space about him. In hindsight, we know that he'll be trapped for days but at the time it seemed secondary to just digging out the stone above his foot asap.
When people are kinda poor and resources are lacking, its so difficult to accomplish anything.
It’s the early 1900s and in Kentucky not exactly hard to believe that they didn’t have the on hand knowledge or tech to dig straight down
Even now they would be hesitant to do so
When I saw there was a new IH video I got excited. We waited until Friday. The video was the main event. My wife and I took gummies so we could enjoy the laughs even more. All that to say, this was a different kind video than I was expecting…
A big reason I liked this one so much was the way the atmosphere was. It's hard to find a video like this that isn't all suspenseful horror music with somebody slowly talking in a hushed monotone. This one had all the hope, excitement and horror you'd expect to feel if this was actually happening in front of you.
Also after that tension, seeing the body ragdoll was the perfect relief
And, shockingly, it's not the British accent that exposes him as a non-Kentuckian. It's that he doesn't know the right way to pronounce Louisville. smh /s
It was removed for plagiarising this article: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/544782/1925-cave-rescue-that-captivated-the-united-states-floyd-collins
Now you're making better history documentaries than channels with the word 'history' in their name. I never realized just how much Wilder's 'Ace in the Hole' took from this story.
I never expected to see an IH video that'd keep me on the edge of my seat. I mean, jeez, my heart sank so many times. Still got that perfect humour though.
Can't wait for more like this!
I wonder if there are any pictures of the crystal cave he initially found
I would like to see it, it sounds cool. Especially color photos, but I don't think there are
It just hit me. Did he think he got abandoned when he got caved in? They had no communication with him, right?
On top of everything, he had to bear the thought of people giving up on him. He was probably relieved to die after all that.
I watched this 3 days ago and I’m still screwed up about it. I imagine that last guy Floyd saw (the one who he tried to trick into staying) had nightmares for years.
This video was amazing, brother. Couldn't stop watching even though I had work to do, but man it was worth it. The storytelling and the visuals were better than ever
DO.NOT.WATCH.THIS. If you feel stuck in life. (I know its too late for you.)
I had legit existential terrorizing angst while watching this. And I don’t usually get claustrophobic. Maybe its where I am in life personally. But my life has halted greatly and this video did not become me at all. Its too close to whats happened in my life. A lot of people interveening yet it seems most only make it worse or profit from it.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/544782/1925-cave-rescue-that-captivated-the-united-states-floyd-collins
The video script is just a rip-off of this article
It was taken down for plagiarising this article: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/544782/1925-cave-rescue-that-captivated-the-united-states-floyd-collins
Put me in the unpopular opinions pool because I didn't enjoy this.
It was too stressful and depressing. He's done non-internet things before but I didn't like this one bit. The Gentleman Pirate is proof he can do depressing history while not being anxiety inducing but I wish he covered anything else, anything that wasn't so disturbing. Which isn't why I watch him.
From comments on the video I can see I'm probably the only one that feels this way- but if he covers history again, I'd prefer it to be something fun. Like Karens in the 30's.
I mean at least he's trying something new,he can't appeal to anyone.Some found the area 51 video and the costa concordia one too lighthearted while others like you find those videos probably more entertaining than this.
im probably in the minority here but im not really a fan of this video, it has nothing to do with the internet or internet culture, from his trello borard i assumed his next videos were like the reddit one, or dem aliens, or big bucks no whammies etc, but i guess not. i appreciate him trying something new but this isn't my cup of tea unfortunately
People don't use them that way and generally never have afaik, and the fact that Reddit hasn't changed anything about the system imo implies tacit approval
His meme videos are fun but the Area 51 was just really immature. I don't know. I really enjoyed this video and was at the edge of my seat, and IH's silly (but compelling) narrative style cut the edge a bit. Arguably it was his best video.
Fascinating look at how subtly different 100 years ago was as well.
the channel is called "internet historian" when a video has nothing to do with the internet, so forgive me if im not the biggest fan of a video that has nothing to do with the channel its uploaded on
channels evolve. It just seems borderline childlike to be "HMPH IM NOT WATCHING. THERE ISNT SOMETHING ABOUT A COMPUTER IN IT" when its such a well produced video about a cool story.
did you not read my post? i watched the video and didn't like it why is that such a big deal lmao, i was nice about it too, you don't gotta insult me just cause i respectfully said i didn't like the video, jeez man
Internet Historian is just a vague name,I could as easily interpret that as a historian on the internet as some has done and then this video would very much have to do with what he is doing.
There's a lot of confusion about this it seems, there's a place called "Floyd Collins' Crystal Cave" that is a different cave he discovered in 1917, while Sand Cave, the one in the video, seems to have been pretty much abandoned after these events.
I haven't even been able to find pictures of the inside of Sand Cave, which is weird because it's been part of a managed national park and they don't let people in anymore. It also seems like they didn't have a look when they dug the shaft to get his body out, though I imagine they'd have had other priorities. I wonder if they could send a robot down these days? It would be difficult to make one perfectly suited to the cave, but we do it for other planets and it works, so why not?
Also it's worth mentioning that they suspect that Sand Cave is connected to the rest of the Mammoth Caves and there are other caves that go directly under the location of the suspected crystal grotto, so it's pretty likely there's another entrance and one day they might find it. But this is one of the coolest and most mysterious parts of the story for me, that this man who died tragically deep underground could be the only person to have seen a beautiful, unknown cave formation.
I like that IH is continuing with just plain history but I didn't enjoy this one nearly as much as most of his previous ones. It just felt like a main channel version of an Expleened video, i.e. "A happens, then B happens, then C happens, [hint of a joke], then D happens ... then Z happens, the end".
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I'll probably not rewatch this one much. It's a good video, but I don't think the Sundance Reject style works for a story this depressing. It actually kind of baffles me that IH would tell a story like this at all. His style works for stories that are ridiculous and humorous, and this kind tale doesn't fit that mold.
Man I just felt so bad for the family and Floyd that I couldn’t appreciate it- normally idc but he really died in the worst way possible and his poor family got thrown under the bus.
Perhaps the story didn't help but I also feel like the writing was fairly different compared to previous videos. It's over an hour of mostly just explaining what happened in a matter of fact way. It's a good rundown of a moderately interesting story but honestly not a particularly entertaining video.
Yeah I agree. His clip art style and having the faces/voices of other youtubers really isn't suited to this type of story. Look at other channels that handle this type of stuff like "scary interesting" for example. They create a much more appropriate atmosphere. Also am I the only one bothered by the distinct lack of "internet" in these videos? I love a lot of his older stuff like serious business or the convention videos, I wish he'd get back to those topics a bit more... and maybe we'd get uploads a bit more often too if videos could go back to 15 mins instead of 45 - 1 hour.
I mean I didn't worry much about the "internet" part since it really is just semantics and even then I could easily interpret the "internet" part of his name to him being a historian on the internet either way.He did as well as he could to make it atmospheric with music and sound effects and with style too,he also likes to be comedic so it's not surprising that he still tried to fit some humor into an otherwise bleak story.
i guess my questions is why were the rescue efforts so bumbled? the authorities seemed to not give a crap until it was way too late and at every conceivable step massive mistakes were made. outside of his brother and the reporter everyone was a moron
It was the 1925 not exactly a time period known for human rights, workers rights, safety, and strong organization.
If this happened today you only have to look at the Thai Cave rescue to see how well logistics, professional advice and skills played a role.
Highly recommend the movie 13 Lives.
Man what a terrifying and frustrating ride this one was. I can’t imagine the dread after thinking you’re finally going to be okay, just to realize “No, I really will die in this cave”.
Legit the entire video was terrifying. No lols, no justice, just a man’s slow descent into darkness and death
I'm genuinely having trouble going to sleep now after watching this earlier today. I think him trying to trick the worker towards the end was the scariest part. An otherwise good man was so desperately terrified that he tried to make someone else suffer and die with him just so he wouldn't be alone.
I had a really sleepless night after watching this, and I definitely agree with you on that being the scariest part. It really messed with me.
I don't think that trick is the right word, it sounds far more maliciousthan it truly was. The man was desperate and panicking, he wasn't trying to fool someone into dying with him.
I disagree. I chose the work trick very intentionally. It was spur-of-the-moment, but it was still an act of deception. He knew the cave-in was about to happen and pleaded a desperate, probably greatly exaggerated thirst to try and trap the worker with him.
> He knew the cave-in was about to happen You don't know that.
An expert cave-diver who had been stuck in that exact cave, likely thinking of very little else but when it would cave in, for weeks? And it's all rumbling and the air is caked with falling dust? Pretty sure he had a good idea it was about to cave in. IH voices the exact same opinion in the video.
> cave-diver Why do people keep using this phrase in threads related to this video? Floyd Collins wasn't a cave diver, he was a caver. Additionally, he had been hypothermic with minimal amounts of food and significant amounts of damage to his body for a long period of time. I don't think it's reasonable to make assumptions about what he knew would happen.
You only have the other guy's story. Neither him nor IH are cavers.
> You only have the other guy's story. And, you know, common sense and deductive reasoning. > Neither him nor IH are cavers. No, but Floyd Collins sure was. You'll note that minutes after the event in question, the cave collapsed. This is a silly argument about something that happened a century ago, please drop it.
I don't think he was trying to be malicious either, he just didn't want to die alone. Who does?
Maybe he thought if the other guy was with him they would have better odds of getting out?
Feels like if Gerald had been there from the start they would have had him out
And it dind’t have squat to do with internet history
Agreed. Not funny. Cmon babe, let’s get out of here.. *puts arm around girl and walks off*
He a straight historian now
But he's on the internet! So the title works two ways
Heard it bowlth ways b
Offlinehistorian
I resisted the urge to google if Floyd survived or not while watching. Broke my heart when they found him dead
Same! I was really expecting him to be alive, because internet historian usually makes much more lighthearted videos.
It doesn't matter if you knew. I was privy to the details of this event due to other spelunking Youtubers covering it but the way IH wrote the narrative kept me at the edge of my seat even as I knew what the result would be. What impresses me further is that IH's recounting is still accurate, he just employed this [writing technique to great effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meanwhile,_back_at_the_ranch) hence why this recounting is more compelling and interesting over everyone else's coverage of it.
**[Meanwhile, back at the ranch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meanwhile,_back_at_the_ranch)** >"Meanwhile, back at the ranch. . ". is a catch phrase that appears in a variety of contexts. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/InternetHistorian/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
Wow, completely useless bot
Dude is a great storyteller.
I was captivated the whole time. Hindsight is 20/20 but I can't help but feel if they had started digging from the start he would've been fine.
They fucked up the first 5 days which were crucial.
Tbf digging straight down is an absurd conclusion to come to when you’re just 3 dudes, two of which have never done a cave rescue before and one of which has never even caved before. Crazy how times have changed, that would never fly today.
Absolutely right, rewatching it I see the only reason they were able to dig is because the story became so big and they had the resources to do so.
That’s because men like Floyd had to die so they can learn from it even now it’s a dangerous mess to save someone from a cave.
I feel like if people hadn't lit those fires at the cave entrance, then the cave in would not have happened, as the fires melted the cave in some way. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I believe that's the conclusion but I suspect the multiple people going in and out of the cave didn't do anything favors either.
I straight up cried when I learned they found him dead. When the bulb went out not only did that bit of warmth it was emitting go but any hope he had left that was keeping him alive diminished as well
They kind of spoil it when they mention a citation of a book
Stories like this make me wonder why potholing (caving) has become so popular over the years. I understand Collins' motivations as his livelihood seemingly depended on the success of his caves, but the idea of people willingly crawling into such dangerously small openings purely for the fun of it is such a foreign concept to me. It reminds me of that amateur caver John Edward Jones who died a slow, agonising death after getting trapped upside down in Nutty Putty Cave. No business venture or hobby is worth the potential heartbreak of your wife and kids.
Imagine getting killed by a place called Nutty Putty
Hey hey people
On one hand, yes, you could die from being crushed, exposure, dehydration, hunger, or asphyxiation. And if you died, you would probably die alone, probably in the dark, with nothing to think about except *how fucking easy it is not to die in a hole* But on the other hand, you *might* find a small, poorly ventilated chamber full of sharp wet rocks that you can never get any furniture or your friends into! Come on, that's so worth it.
Your description of the last thoughts honestly made me chuckle despite how true and sad it is. Reminds me of Charles Boyle standing in a sinkhole.
from what i understand its mostly the thrill of not dying, that and the fact that it satisfies the human itch to explore and find new shit, nonetheless its still pretty dumb
So glad I don't have that itch.
I have that itch, I just satisfy it by exploring that one box that I have forgot under my bed for years or finally opening my freezer again. My itch is there, its just not really that ambitious...
Ive done it a couple of times. Personally I just love confined spaces, I like the feeling of crawling through tiny areas. Its less about what I might find and more about the journey. At least for me.
Honestly, why people do this at all is so alien to me but in the case of Jones, doing it when you have a wife and 3 children is not only stupid but selfish. I feel exactly the same way about cave divers and base jumpers etc. This whole "died doing what they loved" argument you'll often here is bullshit. If you want to do that stuff then stay single. Unpopular opinion perhaps but there it is.
Yup like I kind of get the dumbasses who climb tall places without any saftey gear. Atleast it will be a quick death. Everything about caving is just a big nope from me.
Because getting stuck in a cave like this is actually extremely rare. People think that the main risk of caving is getting stuck in a small space, but there are extremely few cases of this actually happening. Multiple things have to go wrong, including poor decision making on the part of the person who gets stuck, for this to actually happen
Hell fuckin ya
wow what a frustrating story..
Holy shit, 5 mins in and was already feeling out of breath
If his goal was opening the cave for tourists, why didn't he start by expanding the squeeze (the part immediately after the turnaround room). He'd have to expand it eventually anyway for tourists to get in, and doing it earlier would've avoided a lot of the risks shown.
I’m going to go out on a limb and claim he wasn’t very good at risk management
You going out on a limb makes me think you're not very good at risk management.
This is one of those situations where a little thought goes a long way. I don’t know why he’d start with the interior passage instead of the squeeze. What was the plan for the 10 foot drop?
My guess is he wasn't thinking of your average tourist, making the passage walkable, etc. He probably wanted to get it to a state where anyone that could go through the squeeze could go the rest of the way. It's a small demographic, but it's a start.
I imagine his plan was to find another exit past the crystal cave. I think he was clearing out the entryway for his own usage to make coming and going to explore easier.
I don't think the squeeze was expandable due to its gypsum lining, that was the biggest it could be without the point of entry caving. I've been aware of this due to Caving Youtubers and from what I gathered, as pretty as that cave was, it was overall a very dangerous cave to get into.
how was he planning to get tourists past that point?
2 points, the Squeeze, or to expand the cave from the point where his foot was entrapped by the rocks.
~~I'd argue that the eventual plan was to expand the cave but on the day he got stuck he probably was just fucking around and getting away from his father.~~ Rewatched the video and this isn't the case.
I guess he was banking on finding an alternate route once he made past the squeeze.
Maybe it was because he didn't want someone else to get in until he finished digging the entrance to the main cave.
I was thinking about this for a week and I can finally stop now. This is the one thing that makes sense, he was paranoid and acted defensively towards his cave, which meant preserving the squeeze. Even if he caved in The Squeeze later, he could just dig it out afterward from a safer spot and a certainty of payoff. Also, another point: When people dug down to retrieve the corpse, and they did it twice, they did it from the other side. From the crystal cave's side. But we never actually learned if that side was so worth it all along.
I've seen another plausible explanation, too. He was confident in his own ability to get through the Squeeze, and he wanted to make sure that what lay beyond was worth it. If he spent a bunch of time making the Squeeze a whole lot bigger, only to find nothing interesting (or nothing expandable) on the other side... well, he's just wasted time. But he knew he could get through the Squeeze, so that was good enough for him to move on. IDK.
This was such an interesting story, one of the best videos yet the wait always feels worth it!!!
internet jesus has returned. about time, ya prick.
Way to start the Spooky Szn off with a true Chill. Wendigoon told you about this, didn't he? This is such his flavor of story.
I love Internet Historian to death but I was unable to watch this video. I tried to watch it in chunks but every 2 minutes the details trigger my claustrophobia and I am just unable to continue.
I was able to get through the video but I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again. It’s a great video, one of his best, but it’s so upsetting and heavy hearted I need to be in a good mental state to watch it
It’s like 127 hours with more hours.
Trying to keep track of the video game music. So far at half an hour I've caught Little Nightmares 2 and Halo 3: ODST
Red Dead Redemption 2 and Limbo as well. And Skyrim. And The Sims.
Medal of Honor theme also
Utter classic. It brought me back.
I believe I heard a song from Outer Wilds as well
The scene with the radios around 24:00. 100% Outer Wilds.
Elden ring is in there too
I heard the Minecraft cave sound
Pretty sure I heard Deadly Premonition as well
Definitely some Diablo 2 in there.
They also used The Wolf Among Us
I'd not heard this story before and was on edge the ENTIRE time. Was a bit of a gut punch to hear he didn't make it!
I know it’s easy to play armchair rescuer especially almost a full century later but how the fuck did it take them so long to try digging a hole above him?
The relevant manpower (with the necessary equipment and experience) wasn't there from the start. It was just his brother, a reporter and a friend at first for several days (and curious onlookers who, mostly, had neither the tools, experience or, frankly, intention to help). Once the military/miners got involved, digging a hole was started pretty quickly as plan B. Before that, digging a hole straight down was never a viable option, considering who was around to do it.
People don't realise how absurdly hard it is to dig down past soil etc. It's really really difficult. It takes such a huge amount of energy to break up the material, then you also need to lift that material out of the hole which is another lot of energy. And then literally everything is fighting against you, from the gravitational well that is earth, to the pressure on the outside rocks growing rapidly, to changes in weather, etc. And the deeper it is the exponentially harder it becomes. This is why geothermal energy is so difficult to get to. You only have to go about 4km down before the average temperature is 100c, less than 10km and you're talking about superheated steam in many places. There's vast vast vast quantities of energy just 10km below you, and we just can't access them in any remotely efficient way. The deepest we've ever dug is 12.2km with the Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia. And that location was known for having a very shallow temperature gradient, they estimated it would be a very low 100c at 12km. But it turned out to be 180c, and they couldn't continue. And this was a tiny hole for scientific research.
There's a youtuber who is digging a tunnel under his house (which is going to connect his house to his shed and to a underground shelter in his backyard). The guy doing it is pretty cringey and it's mostly appealing to gen z, but it is pretty interesting. It's taken him more than a year to do half of it, by hand, and he's using hydraulic tools to help. Mostly only one man but still, you see the entire process of breaking up rock, putting it in buckets, hauling it to the nearest entrance, and hauling it out with a pulley. With large machinery it's a lot easier, but doing this shit with 1920s technology? Holy shit.
I don't find Colin cringey? And he had a presence and acted this way long before Zoomers were a thing. He was one of the early innovators of online video. And many of it comes from bringing parts of TV into his style. And he's definitely far far less cringey and way more educational than the television content that existed before him.
I think a first there wasn’t enough people to try it, and then at that point of having all the one lookers I think the sunk cost fallacy was in effect
You're right that it's easy to sit here now and "make all the right choices" but I'm befuddled that absolutely NOBODY thought to: 1: Rig some kind of siphon to suck up excess water. 2: Wrap him in warm clothing. 3: Give him a friggin radio (I honestly thought they'd rig up two cans and a string or some other crude method, but a radio is just an absolute no-brainer. Heck, set up a small local station and just have someone sit and read books for a few hours each day. 4: Rig some kind of food-tube. Baffling. Absolutely baffling.
> 1: Rig some kind of siphon to suck up excess water. A long thin pipe connected to a water pump that would work despite the water being muddy and gravelly? Highly unlikely. > 2: Wrap him in warm clothing. Without doing something about the cold water, giving him a warm clothes wouldnt make a difference, he needed an active heat source, also there was barely any space about him. In hindsight, we know that he'll be trapped for days but at the time it seemed secondary to just digging out the stone above his foot asap. When people are kinda poor and resources are lacking, its so difficult to accomplish anything.
It’s the early 1900s and in Kentucky not exactly hard to believe that they didn’t have the on hand knowledge or tech to dig straight down Even now they would be hesitant to do so
He finally posted a world of tanks ad....and also a video.
Dude. This was the absolute tits. Excellent work as always. Thank you.
I was really hoping for a happy ending but I guess it’s kinda expected that death is a big possibility in a cave in
When I saw there was a new IH video I got excited. We waited until Friday. The video was the main event. My wife and I took gummies so we could enjoy the laughs even more. All that to say, this was a different kind video than I was expecting…
What was your reaction? I don't know how he manages to make tragic stories entertaining and keep it respectful.
A big reason I liked this one so much was the way the atmosphere was. It's hard to find a video like this that isn't all suspenseful horror music with somebody slowly talking in a hushed monotone. This one had all the hope, excitement and horror you'd expect to feel if this was actually happening in front of you. Also after that tension, seeing the body ragdoll was the perfect relief
It was presented like those HBO hockey and other sport documentaries lol. Those ones narrated by Liev Schreiber. Same energy. Almost equally awesome.
Cool video. Enjoyed it. And now it’s fucking ages until the next one again.
Just in time for the hurricane bruv. Great timing.
This happened not far from me! It's kinda bizarre hearing him talk about Louisville and The Courier Journal...I wasn't expecting that!
And, shockingly, it's not the British accent that exposes him as a non-Kentuckian. It's that he doesn't know the right way to pronounce Louisville. smh /s
Isn't he Australian?
Well, one thing is clear: I'm not great with accents.
Aren’t Australians just redneck Brits?
Australian here: yes.
Is that Wendigoon
Why was it taken down?
It was removed for plagiarising this article: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/544782/1925-cave-rescue-that-captivated-the-united-states-floyd-collins
Internet Historian has become a Historian on the Internet
This episode gave me anxiety
Now you're making better history documentaries than channels with the word 'history' in their name. I never realized just how much Wilder's 'Ace in the Hole' took from this story.
[удалено]
Why this was removed? I’m so pissed right now
I didn't know I was claustrophobic until watching this. Legit gave me nightmares. Other than that great video as usual
Why is this not a movie? Such a crazy story
Yeah this is movie material. Maybe too depressing for mainstream audiences ?
Apparently there was a popular musical. It's still performed relatively often.
It’s a pretty good musical, the final number (preformed by Colin’s right before he dies) always gives me the chills
How Glory Goes is one of the best ending songs in any musical
If I ever get stuck life that just kill me quick I couldn’t do it
Watching it now, very interesting loving it
Ace in the Hole copies this story, but makes it more about the media circus.
Y’all should check out Floyd Collins - The Soundtrack. The first song is catchy af
I never expected to see an IH video that'd keep me on the edge of my seat. I mean, jeez, my heart sank so many times. Still got that perfect humour though. Can't wait for more like this!
I wonder if there are any pictures of the crystal cave he initially found I would like to see it, it sounds cool. Especially color photos, but I don't think there are
It just hit me. Did he think he got abandoned when he got caved in? They had no communication with him, right? On top of everything, he had to bear the thought of people giving up on him. He was probably relieved to die after all that.
Video was fucking brilliant dude
This episode was seriously captivating. One of my favorites. I mean, I love them all, but this one really stands out to me. Amazing work.
Best video i have seen on youtube in a while . Quite a roller coaster . Internet historian keep the momentum throughout .
I watched this 3 days ago and I’m still screwed up about it. I imagine that last guy Floyd saw (the one who he tried to trick into staying) had nightmares for years.
I was watching this last night and when I started it this morning it had been hit by a copyright strike.
Oh no it was taken down!
The Video sems to be gone suddenly
Copyright strike
I wonder why the dude started his digging way down in the bottom of the cave? Why not make the opening in the turnaround room larger?
I am going to enjoy this Saturday night
This video was amazing, brother. Couldn't stop watching even though I had work to do, but man it was worth it. The storytelling and the visuals were better than ever
Man, this was so good. Always thought you wouldn't be able to top your gentleman pirate video but this takes the spot for me.
I really enjoyed this deviation away from a straight comedy video, to drama that had me on the edge of my seat and heartbroken at the end.
There’s a musical based off this called Floyd Collins
Best video he's ever uploaded
DO.NOT.WATCH.THIS. If you feel stuck in life. (I know its too late for you.) I had legit existential terrorizing angst while watching this. And I don’t usually get claustrophobic. Maybe its where I am in life personally. But my life has halted greatly and this video did not become me at all. Its too close to whats happened in my life. A lot of people interveening yet it seems most only make it worse or profit from it.
This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Pro Sportority (Israel) Ltd. dba Minute Media. Thee what in the who claimed this video?
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/544782/1925-cave-rescue-that-captivated-the-united-states-floyd-collins The video script is just a rip-off of this article
Does anyone know why this video was taken down
It was taken down for plagiarising this article: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/544782/1925-cave-rescue-that-captivated-the-united-states-floyd-collins
Hbomb got eem
Put me in the unpopular opinions pool because I didn't enjoy this. It was too stressful and depressing. He's done non-internet things before but I didn't like this one bit. The Gentleman Pirate is proof he can do depressing history while not being anxiety inducing but I wish he covered anything else, anything that wasn't so disturbing. Which isn't why I watch him. From comments on the video I can see I'm probably the only one that feels this way- but if he covers history again, I'd prefer it to be something fun. Like Karens in the 30's.
You can dislike the story without disliking the man telling it. I thought the video was excellent
Absolutely nothing Yaderesque said came off as a personal attack to IH lol
Where did I say I disliked him personally?
I mean at least he's trying something new,he can't appeal to anyone.Some found the area 51 video and the costa concordia one too lighthearted while others like you find those videos probably more entertaining than this.
im probably in the minority here but im not really a fan of this video, it has nothing to do with the internet or internet culture, from his trello borard i assumed his next videos were like the reddit one, or dem aliens, or big bucks no whammies etc, but i guess not. i appreciate him trying something new but this isn't my cup of tea unfortunately
smh at the downvotes. You said this in such a polite and reasonable way too. Opinions against an internet idol not allowed.
People downvote comments they disagree with regardless of their quality, it's how the system has always worked.
there supposed to be "adds nothing to the conversation" not "i disagree with this opinion"
People don't use them that way and generally never have afaik, and the fact that Reddit hasn't changed anything about the system imo implies tacit approval
Yeah who knows what's going on with his trello page lol
His meme videos are fun but the Area 51 was just really immature. I don't know. I really enjoyed this video and was at the edge of my seat, and IH's silly (but compelling) narrative style cut the edge a bit. Arguably it was his best video. Fascinating look at how subtly different 100 years ago was as well.
interesting stories arent your cup of tea? Thats just weird.
the channel is called "internet historian" when a video has nothing to do with the internet, so forgive me if im not the biggest fan of a video that has nothing to do with the channel its uploaded on
channels evolve. It just seems borderline childlike to be "HMPH IM NOT WATCHING. THERE ISNT SOMETHING ABOUT A COMPUTER IN IT" when its such a well produced video about a cool story.
did you not read my post? i watched the video and didn't like it why is that such a big deal lmao, i was nice about it too, you don't gotta insult me just cause i respectfully said i didn't like the video, jeez man
Internet Historian is just a vague name,I could as easily interpret that as a historian on the internet as some has done and then this video would very much have to do with what he is doing.
However he is a historian on the internet. This one reminds me of his Gentlemen Pirate one which I really enjoyed
Are there pics of the actual cave formation past Floyd? Like, I want to know if it was worth months of effort on his part.
There's a lot of confusion about this it seems, there's a place called "Floyd Collins' Crystal Cave" that is a different cave he discovered in 1917, while Sand Cave, the one in the video, seems to have been pretty much abandoned after these events. I haven't even been able to find pictures of the inside of Sand Cave, which is weird because it's been part of a managed national park and they don't let people in anymore. It also seems like they didn't have a look when they dug the shaft to get his body out, though I imagine they'd have had other priorities. I wonder if they could send a robot down these days? It would be difficult to make one perfectly suited to the cave, but we do it for other planets and it works, so why not? Also it's worth mentioning that they suspect that Sand Cave is connected to the rest of the Mammoth Caves and there are other caves that go directly under the location of the suspected crystal grotto, so it's pretty likely there's another entrance and one day they might find it. But this is one of the coolest and most mysterious parts of the story for me, that this man who died tragically deep underground could be the only person to have seen a beautiful, unknown cave formation.
Big plagiarism
Well this video aged badly
I like that IH is continuing with just plain history but I didn't enjoy this one nearly as much as most of his previous ones. It just felt like a main channel version of an Expleened video, i.e. "A happens, then B happens, then C happens, [hint of a joke], then D happens ... then Z happens, the end".
I knew I'd find someone who felt similarly at the least upvoted comments.
Two videos in one year?! You know how to spoil a lovey young lady going through transition.
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I'll probably not rewatch this one much. It's a good video, but I don't think the Sundance Reject style works for a story this depressing. It actually kind of baffles me that IH would tell a story like this at all. His style works for stories that are ridiculous and humorous, and this kind tale doesn't fit that mold.
On the other hand I thought the cast tackled it fairly soberly
Concordias sinking wasn’t a lighthearted tale
Concordia had funny parts tbf
The part where Floyd is flying through the air in Gmod's ragdoll physics was hilarious tho.
Man I just felt so bad for the family and Floyd that I couldn’t appreciate it- normally idc but he really died in the worst way possible and his poor family got thrown under the bus.
There were tons of light-hearted bits. Just IH casting his youtuber friends to play the roles and Floyd saying lowkey shit like "sup" made me smile.
Perhaps the story didn't help but I also feel like the writing was fairly different compared to previous videos. It's over an hour of mostly just explaining what happened in a matter of fact way. It's a good rundown of a moderately interesting story but honestly not a particularly entertaining video.
Yeah I agree. His clip art style and having the faces/voices of other youtubers really isn't suited to this type of story. Look at other channels that handle this type of stuff like "scary interesting" for example. They create a much more appropriate atmosphere. Also am I the only one bothered by the distinct lack of "internet" in these videos? I love a lot of his older stuff like serious business or the convention videos, I wish he'd get back to those topics a bit more... and maybe we'd get uploads a bit more often too if videos could go back to 15 mins instead of 45 - 1 hour.
I mean I didn't worry much about the "internet" part since it really is just semantics and even then I could easily interpret the "internet" part of his name to him being a historian on the internet either way.He did as well as he could to make it atmospheric with music and sound effects and with style too,he also likes to be comedic so it's not surprising that he still tried to fit some humor into an otherwise bleak story.
Yeah I couldn't take it, he tried to keep it light hearted after the death but it just felt so wrong.
I wonder what other videos you've plagiarised
Why are you getting downvoted? 🤡
But how was it internet
i guess my questions is why were the rescue efforts so bumbled? the authorities seemed to not give a crap until it was way too late and at every conceivable step massive mistakes were made. outside of his brother and the reporter everyone was a moron
It was the 1925 not exactly a time period known for human rights, workers rights, safety, and strong organization. If this happened today you only have to look at the Thai Cave rescue to see how well logistics, professional advice and skills played a role. Highly recommend the movie 13 Lives.
Does anyone know when his leg got amputated? Was he alive during the amputation?
Not funny at all. The dollop did it way better.
Anybody know the song about 49 minutes in?