might be may deter the crime in the first place. david: that's it for us tonight. guess who's back monday. that's right. mr. lou dobbs will be here. >> indian drawings 1,000 years old. >> we never even took time to look at them. >> what they discover rocks their world. >> there's one there, one there, one there. and look at that panel over there. >> we were blown away. >> they said, "we don't think you have a clue what you have here." >> they're betting the ranch on their strange inheritance. >> we've actually hung from a thread for a long time. >> the rock art's very, very valuable. >> but does it pay to own a national treasure? >> what does it feel like to have this wall in your family? ♪ ♪

>> i'm jamie colby, and, today, i am in big sky country, 100 miles north of billings, montana. i'm here to meet a family who have lived here for nearly a century but only recently learned that an archeological wonder was staring them right in the face. >> my name is macie ahlgren. in 2000, my father died and left me this ranch. he also left me with the steep challenge of figuring out how to keep the family on the land. >> hi, macie. i'm jamie. >> hi. welcome to bear gulch. >> thanks for writing. and you said you had something extraordinary to show me. does it include bears? >> i have something much better. >> let's go. i'd love to see. bear gulch ranch, named after the creek that winds through the property, is the kind of place you envision when singing "america the beautiful." purple mountain majesty and all that. how many years has it been in

your family? >> since 1919. my grandfather came from minnesota. he and my grandmother and their two daughters moved here and decided to purchase this ranch. >> in the 1950s, macie's parents, james and ida, take over the 2,000-acre homestead. they raise cattle and pigs, farm wheat and hay. doesn't pay much, but it's enough to put food on the table for their three kids. when you're growing up on the ranch, what were your chores? >> you milk the cows. you feed the pigs. you learn to drive a tractor at an early age. >> but it's not all hard work. there are plenty of wide-open spaces for young macie to explore. she and her siblings especially like playing here -- a half-mile-long limestone cliff soaring 100 feet into the air. what did it look like to you as a kid? >> it was just a large canyon wall, but it had specific painted designs on it. as my dad so aptly put it,

"indian signs on it." >> indian signs like these. the rock walls are covered with them. but that doesn't strike macie or her family as all that remarkable. in this area, how unusual is it to find relics on your land? >> everybody has some sort of a unique thing on their ranch. people just didn't pay attention to it. we never even took time to hardly look at them. >> and macie doesn't think she'll look back when, after high school, she leaves the ranch for greener pastures. >> i ran away. [ laughs ] and i ended up marrying a guy from california, and we moved to california. >> california isn't exactly the promised land. after three kids and two marriages, macie finds herself as a working single mom. but by her late 30s, she's built up a good life for herself and her children. things aren't going as well for macie's father. >> my dad was an avid smoker all

his life, as most cowboys are, and he ended up with emphysema really bad. >> his illness makes it near impossible to work the ranch. making matters worse, cattle prices plummet in the late 1980s. >> the local loan agency called on the cattle loan, and they had to sell the cattle off. so it caused them to not have an income. >> after months of overdue loan payments, the bank seizes 1,800 of the ranch's 2,000 acres. the family's down to 10% of what they started with. it's not hard to see the writing on the wall. >> they were brokenhearted, but they didn't really know any other life, and it was home. >> and, at that point, it occurs to macie that it's still her home, too. she decides she must return to the ranch to help her parents out. in 1989, she gives up her high-paying job and moves her family to bear gulch.

>> so, we all gave up the finer things that we had. there was a lot of vacations cancelled. i mean, you just stayed at home and made life happen. >> easy adjustment for a kid? >> no. especially my ray. >> when i first moved here from the big city, i hated it. i absolutely despised it. >> why not just sell it all and get out? >> besides being home, it's beautiful. it's memories. you can't find it anywhere else. >> macie tells her parents she'll run the ranch and resolves to do whatever it takes to keep her family from losing the rest of their land. were the 200 hundred acres still a lot of work? >> oh, yes. it was a challenge, and i took it on. >> you must have really loved your parents. >> absolutely. >> there were times where mom worked three, four jobs just to make sure that we had a roof over our head and food to eat. >> did you ever say to yourself, "this stress is too much?" >> many times, but i just made

things work. >> while macie struggles to "make things work," the ranch gets a visit from an out-of-town couple, john and mavis greer. the greers introduce themselves as archaeologists. their speciality -- indian rock art. they've heard tales about the ranch's limestone cliffs and ask if they can take a look. the year is 1999. as an archaeologist, how many different sites had you been to in your career before you came here? >> oh, i've probably been to 1,000 before arriving here. >> so this wasn't on your, necessarily, like top-five places in the world you wanted to see? >> it was not. >> macie shrugs, then walks the greers the half-mile from the house to the wall. what was their reaction? >> they look at me in bewilderment and they said, "we don't think you have a clue what you have here." >> so, what do they have here? that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz

question. montana is america's fourth-largest state, behind alaska, texas, and california. so, what's the fifth-largest? the answer when we return. it's easy to think that all money managers are pretty much the same. but while some push high commission investment products, fisher investments avoids them. some advisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does. and while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management. sucthey read more.have one thing in common. how do they find the time? ... with audible. audible has the world's largest selection of audiobooks. for just $14.95 a month... you get a credit good for any audiobook ...

and you can roll your credits to the next month if you don't use them. audible members get free no hassle exchanges ... and use the mobile app to listen anytime, anywhere. start a 30-day trial and your first audiobook is free. listening, is the new reading. text audio22 to five hundred five hundred to start listening today. copdso to breathe better,athe. i go with anoro. ♪go your own way copd tries to say, "go this way." i say, "i'll go my own way" with anoro. ♪go your own way once-daily anoro contains two medicines called bronchodilators, that work together to significantly improve lung function all day and all night. anoro is not for asthma . it contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. the risk is unknown in copd. anoro won't replace rescue inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, glaucoma, prostate, bladder,

or urinary problems. these may worsen with anoro. call your doctor if you have worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain while taking anoro. ask your doctor about anoro. ♪go your own way get your first prescription free at anoro.com. [fbi agent] you're a brave man, your testimony will save lives. mr. stevens? this is your new name. this is your new house. and a perfectly inconspicuous suv. you must become invisible. [hero] i'll take my chances. >> it's "b," new mexico.

it's also one of the driest, averaging less than 14 inches of precipitation per year. ♪ >> macie ahlgren is a third-generation rancher here at bear gulch, a montana homestead that includes a half-mile-long, 100-foot-high limestone cliff, covered in unusual native american paintings and etchings. did you ever have it studied? >> not at all. >> just a regular part of life. >> it was, yes. >> that is, until a visit from archaeologist mavis greer, along with her husband, john, in 1999. so, you came here to this spot the first time? >> we did, bushwhacking up through the weeds and up to here. >> how far up here did you have to come before you had an initial reaction? >> this is as far as we needed to go. we were blown away already by the variety of figures.

>> while many sites require hours of searching to find even a few scattered traces of rock art, the wall at bear gulch is covered in it. there's one there, one there, one there. and look at that panel over there. they're one after another. >> and more as we go down the wall. >> the greers have never seen so many different types of native american rock art all in one place. they tell macie the site deserves an extensive evaluation. did you know, at that point, "i maybe have something very, very special"? >> the thought went through my mind that, "wow. maybe it is more than just a few drawings." >> but it's just a passing thought. the struggle to keep the ranch operating doesn't allow her much more than that. she also watches her kids flee, just as she did, right after high school. ray, for one, doesn't fare so

well. >> i wanted nothing more than to get out of here. and i bounced around from state to state. i was headed down a pretty, pretty dark road for a while. >> and then, in march 2000, just a few months after the greers' visit, macie's father, james, passes away at age 77, leaving macie bear gulch ranch. her inheritance includes that cliff and its strange markings. >> he asked me to please take care of mom and to take care of the place and not just sell it off. it had ended up in my hands and it was my responsibility to take care of it. >> meantime, the greers spend a half-decade trying to raise cash and assemble the right team to do their study. in 2005, they finally return to bear gulch. >> they organized a group to come and record every drawing at the site. it was a two-week venture.

>> the drawings and engravings, referred to as pictographs and petroglyphs, range from the size of a pen cap to a scene 23 feet long. take a look. there are handprints... animals... hoof prints... and even a rare childbirth scene. >> it's the only one on the northern plains. there are other scenes that show pregnancy, but this is the most explicit birthing scene. >> that looks explicit. she's giving birth. and this? >> over here, we have her spouse, who is simulating the birth in order to draw the evil spirits toward him and away from the baby. >> is that in lieu of an epidural? >> i think that it wouldn't probably help the wife all that much. [ laughs ] >> the greers are most amazed by the vast number of works that depict warriors carrying giant shields. there are so many that all of the other rock-art sites in the northern plains together don't have as many shield-bearing

warriors as bear gulch. and why warriors? >> this place appears to have been a location that people came to prior to going to war. and they drew their shields with the design that they hoped was going to bring them power and was going to bring them victory. >> the shields show a variety of battle designs, including bears, bison, and deer. other shields depict the extended hand of a supernatural hero, reaching out from the heavens to protect the warrior. they sound sacred then. >> they are. and they're definitely sacred today. >> in total, the greers and their team identify 3,000 individual pieces of rock art, making bear gulch one of america's largest indian rock-art sites and also one of its best-preserved. >> the painted parts of the rock art here are made from red ochre. and it will bind to the rock and actually become part of it, so

that's why it lasts so long. >> how long? macie is thunderstruck when she learns the age of the relics. like hundreds of years old? >> way more than that. thousands of years old. >> it's an unparalleled glimpse into the past, a national treasure, and macie owns it. so, can she cash in on her strange inheritance and save her home on the range? were people banging down your door? that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you. the answer when we return. last years' ad campaign was a success for choicehotels.com badda book. badda boom. this year, we're taking it up a notch.

so in this commercial we see two travelers at a comfort inn with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, "wow, maybe i'll glow too if i book direct at choicehotels.com". who glows? just say, badda book. badda boom. nobody glows. he gets it. always the lowest price, guaranteed. book now at choicehotels.com no, please, please, oh! ♪ (shrieks in terror) (heavy breathing and snorting) no, no. the running of the bulldogs? surprising. what's not surprising? how much money aleia saved by switching to geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. today, the new new york is sparking innovation. you see it in the southern tier with companies

that are developing powerful batteries that make everything from cell phones to rail cars more efficient. which helps improve every aspect of advanced rail technology. all with support from a highly-educated workforce and vocational job training. across new york state, we're building the new new york. to grow your business with us in new york state, visit esd.ny.gov.

>> it's "d," new york. the largest city in the country also has the largest indigenous population, with more than 100,000 native americans. >> macie ahlgren is desperately trying to save her family's montana ranch, but the debts are mounting. she hopes to capitalize on her strange inheritance -- this giant cliff, which, she's just learned, is one of the country's leading sites for native american rock art. so macie starts a home business, figuring people will pay to see the pictographs. were people banging down your door? >> no. i had like three people the first year. >> the first year? >> the first year, the first summer. >> the site's remote location, far from any major city or interstate, doesn't help. macie creates a website and does some advertising. word starts to spread...slowly.

by 2012, she's getting 100 tourists a year -- not exactly a thriving enterprise. >> it took a lot of patience and hard work. it took a lot of being there every day at 10:00. >> one thing macie knows would really put bear gulch on the tourist map -- if the greers would hurry up and publish their findings. then macie's mother, ida, falls seriously ill and is put in a nursing home. bills pile up. ida knows full well she's added to her daughter's crushing debt burden. how'd she react? >> she was heartbroken, but at the same time, i convinced her that it was okay. >> at long last, in spring 2012, the greers finally release their study. why did it take seven years to publish that book? >> the book is this thick with 3,000 individual figures, and each one's described in there. just is very time-consuming. >> news of bear gulch and its staggering number of artworks

spreads like a prairie fire. folks from around the world are suddenly booking tours. >> and once people started coming, pretty soon, the newspapers started coming along. >> how many people do you estimate come there every summer? >> every year, it seems to be more and more. last year was roughly 1,500. >> is it generating any revenue? >> oh, yes. absolutely. >> about $10,000 a year. hardly a windfall, but the supplemental income, along with grazing fees and a limestone quarry, are enough to stabilize the ranch's finances and keep the land in the family. but macie can still use more money. if you could come up with a dollar amount that it would take to make all your dreams come true for this property and to pay off the loans, what is that number? >> it would have to be somewhere around $200,000. >> she definitely needs more help, too. while you still have the vim and vigor to do this, there will come a day where someone else

will have to take this over. that "someone" rides to the rescue, while macie finds out what the ancient drawings might really be worth. >> the rock art's very, very valuable. this should be preserved and protected and made available for more people to view. >> that's next. what's your strange inheritance story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website -- strangeinheritance.com. (female vo) breaking news from washington as lawmakers; (male vo) raging wildfires continue to scorch parts; (male vo) allegations of misconduct; ♪ oh, why you look so sad, ♪ the tears are in your eyes, mvo: how hard is it just to take some time out of your day to give him a ride to school and show him you support him. ♪ and don't be ashamed to cry, ♪ let me see you through, ♪ 'cause i've seen the dark side too. ♪ ♪ when the night falls on you,

♪ you don't know what to do, mvo: when disaster strikes to one, we all get together and support each other. that's the nature of humanity. ♪ i'll stand by you, ♪ won't let nobody hurt you. ♪ i'll stand by you, ♪ so if you're mad, get mad, ♪ don't hold it all inside, ♪ come on and talk to me now. ♪ hey, what you got to hide? ♪ mvo: it's a calling to the nation of how great we are and how great we can be. ♪ i'm alive like you. ♪ when you're standing at the cross roads, ♪ ♪ and don't know which path to choose, ♪ ♪ let me come along,

♪ 'cause even if you're wrong ♪ i'll stand by you. ♪ i'll stand by you. ♪ won't let nobody hurt you. ♪ i'll stand by you. ♪ even in your darkest hour, ♪ and i will never desert you. ♪ i'll stand by you.

>> now back to "strange inheritance." ♪ >> bear gulch pictographs, run by macie ahlgren, is the newest tourist attraction in central montana. >> it feels really great, and i hope that we can find a way to share it with anybody that wants to come. >> one of those eager to come is brad hamlett, a collector of native american relics.

>> this is something that was done probably thousands of years ago, and it speaks to us today. it's truly american history. >> hamlett's also a montana state senator. >> this site needs to be part of a public park system, preserved and protected, researched, and made available for more people to view. >> if so, you'd think senator hamlett would lead the effort to find public money to help macie, but that's a hard sell, he says. >> the problem the state has is -- they don't have a lot of money to do things with. everybody's got the things that they think are the most important, and the sad thing is -- you can't fund them all. >> he wonders, however, if macie might be able to find a philanthropist who would pay her to put a conservation easement on the property, preserving the site for posterity. hamlett thinks such a deal could net the family at least $1 million, giving them the

funds to build out a first-class tourist destination. >> the trails need to be widened out. we need to have a visitors center. there's just a lot of things that we absolutely can't afford to do it. >> wait. did he say, "we"? yep. turns out macie's son ray, who, like his mom, left the ranch as soon as he finished high school, is drawn back to the place. >> i remember, the last words my grandfather ever spoke to me -- he told me to take care of my mom. and i feel that that's what i've been doing. right here is the nose of the bear. >> and he's found a new calling as the lead tour guide. >> giving these tours has definitely changed my life for the better. i have never been doing as well as i am now. >> he's even come up with his own theories about some of the ancient native american figures and symbols. >> go ahead and turn around and put your back right here. >> okay.

>> now spread your arms out. perfect. directly above your head is a headdress drawn in the wall. just to the right of that is a bison. now, on december 21st, when the sun rises, it will actually rise in a direct straight line in front of you. i believe that is when they would actually pray for hunting or good crops. so, having all of these little bits and pieces all come together like a puzzle -- it just made sense. >> talk about coming together like a puzzle. a sacred wall native americans used to record their tales of war, family, nature, and the supernatural. a millennia of moons later, it's entrusted to a montana family who come to appreciate anew that there's something magical about

bear gulch. is it fair to say that rock art saved your ranch? >> yes. >> it's done something else that's made macie ever-grateful. it's drawn together her family's generations, too. >> i think grandma and grandpa look down on us every day with smiles on their face. >> what does it feel like to have this wall in your family? >> lately, a dream come true. >> native americans are not the only ones who wanted to tell their stories on these walls. in the late 1800s, a wagon trail ran right by these cliffs, a good place to stop and water the horses and mark your arrival on the western frontier. as you can see, the graffiti date all the way back and include dozens of names. so thousands of years from now, it may be some other archaeologist's turn to look at these scratchy letters and wonder, "who the heck wrote this stuff? and what on earth were they thinking?" i'm jamie colby.

thanks so much for watching "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. ♪ [ cow moos ] >> a montana cowboy inherits a barren patch of prairie. >> this place isn't big enough to starve to death on. >> but beneath the parched soil, he finds prehistoric treasure. >> this is one of the most important discoveries in this century. >> i've got a year to try to see if i can survive with our ranch and selling dinosaur fossils. this is a jaw bone to a tyrannosaurus rex that i found. >> will this cowpoke's strange inheritance lead him to boom... >> whoo! >> [ laughs ] >> ...or bust? >> lightning doesn't strike the same place very often. [ chuckles ] maybe never. ♪

>> i'm jamie colby. and today, i'm driving in the badlands of eastern montana. it's rugged, big-sky, cattle-ranching country. i'm on my way to meet a lifelong resident whose father left him a chunk of this land. >> nice to have you here. >> thanks for having us. >> my name's clayton phipps. and in 1997, my father passed away, and i inherited from him a small portion of the family ranch. and along with that came a few pretty exciting surprises. >> 41-year-old clayton phipps is like a character out of "red river" or "lonesome dove." [ horse neighs ] >> most of the time, i'm on my own. i'm happy that way. this ranch had been in our family since my great-grandfather homesteaded here. and it's a part of me that i just didn't feel like i wanted to ever part with.

>> clayton grew up and learned to cowboy here on the ranch his father shared with three brothers. he describes the operation as cash-poor but reasonably successful. >> my dad worked us hard, but that was a good thing, too. >> after clayton's father dies in 1997, the ranch is split up. at age 24, clayton inherits 1,100 acres and 30 cows. that may sound like a lot. but to make a decent living these days, clayton would need 10 times that much land and about 500 head of cattle -- at least 40 acres for each cow. >> [ whistles ] i always tell people this place isn't big enough to starve to death on. but it's every cowboy's dream to have their own place. >> okay, we're saddling up. >> just step on my knee with your right leg. >> okay. >> there you go. >> clayton insists i wear a helmet. >> yeah, that's pretty smooth. >> good girl!

somebody must have told him i'm a lawyer. ♪ i can see why clayton loves being out here. i also learn why he calls ranching a big gamble. >> there is a big gamble in ranching. wintertime can be hard. you can have some big storms. there can be death loss. you can buy a bull for $10,000, and he can go wreck himself or break his leg or something, and you may not get any return out of him. >> for years, clayton works a second job, hoping to make enough money to build up his own herd. getting the ranch to pay off becomes more urgent when he falls in love with lisa landwehr, who teaches at the local one-room schoolhouse. >> love at first sight. [ laughs ] my mom said she could see why i fell for him. my dad said, "are you sure you shouldn't wait?" [ laughs ] he's always been very good to me. we've had a lot of fun together. >> my wife's from minnesota. the whole thing's been a culture

shock for her. [ chuckles ] you know, it's 120 miles to the nearest movie theatre. the old timers would say, you know, "this country's hard on horses and women." >> in 1998, the couple's first child, julie, is born. she'll grow up to be a cowgirl, through and through. >> julie came along, and, yeah, there's another mouth to feed, and a little more responsibility. and you have to start, you know -- "what am i gonna do?" >> it all ratchets up the pressure on clayton to make the ranch financially viable... now. >> got to figure out a way to try to buy more land, enough land to raise enough cows to provide a living. >> then one day, clayton runs into a stranger who'd been prospecting in the badlands near clayton's ranch. >> he started pulling these things out of his car. he started saying, you know, "this piece here might sell for $500," you know, and it was a fragment of bone. and i'm like, "what?" >> they were fossils, remnants of giant beasts who lived here eons ago. clayton figures if there are

that many valuable fossils on the neighbor's land, there must be as many on his. could they help him keep his home on the range? >> as i was out fixing fence, or riding, or gathering cattle, i started watching, and, you know, started picking up fragments here and there, and then trying to learn more about it. it got me excited that, you know, this stuff's everywhere. >> it's everywhere because phipps' ranch sits right on one of the most important scientific areas on earth -- the hell creek formation. 65 million years ago, this was a warm, palm-studded forest. giants ruled the earth. peter larson runs the black hills institute, which prepares fossils for museums and collectors. >> the hell creek formation shows us the very end of the age of dinosaurs going up to the time that this giant asteroid 6 miles across crashed into the earth and actually caused the extinction of about 70% of life

forms here on this planet. ♪ >> between chores, clayton scours the gulches and ridges on his land, searching for fossils. he finds plenty of fragments -- buckets full of them, in fact -- but nothing he could sell. these bones would not put meat on the table. then one day, something in the rocky soil catches clayton's eye. >> i looked, and there was a t. rex pre-max tooth laying there in almost perfect, museum-quality condition. >> so, this tooth, for example, is a result of your inheritance? >> it is. >> clayton shows me a casting of the tooth -- his first real find -- in the back room where he prepares specimens for sale. it's a combination man cave, research library, and trophy room. >> and i went home and sold that tooth that night to a collector for $2,500, and i was back in business. [ cow moos ] >> back in the ranching business, that is. >> i used that money to buy my first cattle to help supplement

my other disease, ranching and cowboying. >> right. well, that's what kind of actually was exciting about it. we were pretty proud of being able to start our herd with something that he found, you know? that was pretty cool. >> "pretty cool" -- sure. but could such prehistoric artifacts be the cash crop they need to help them build up their herd and make the ranch a success? it's another gamble. clayton's all in. lisa, not so much. >> paychecks kind of need to be steady when you're raising a family. and it was a gamble, you know? [ chuckles ] my wife was really skeptical. >> you ever sit there and dream of another life? >> [ laughs ] >> he's not listening right now. >> i have to confess, yeah, it's crossed my mind. i wouldn't give him up for anything, but, you know, i was nervous. >> as months go by with no significant finds, even clayton begins to have doubts. >> i got to one of my sites, and my tractor tire was flat, and that was gonna be a $500, $600 bill, you know? i was thinking, "i don't even know if this is what god wants

me to do," you know? i was broke. ♪ >> and then, as if by divine intervention, his luck changes. >> it was just the coolest little skull ever. >> that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. the answer when we return. leo, i know i'm late. oh! my wallet! card lock from capital one. instantly lock your credit card. in case it goes... arrivederci. mona! that smile. technology this convenient... could make history. what's in your wallet? the things we do rising before dawn. sweating it out. tough to do it all. but we can always find time to listen to great thinkers and explorers whose stories take us places our hamstrings can't.

all we have to do is listen. download audible to start listening.

>> now the answer to our "strange inheritance" quiz question. the answer is "c," tiggeraptor. >> in 2003, cowboy clayton phipps starts to feel that fossil hunting on his montana ranch is a bust. it's been almost a year since he's found a marketable bone. then he hits pay dirt, in the form of a skull from a 65-million-year-old stygimoloch. >> i found that stygimoloch on my wife's birthday, and i named the skull "lisa's dragon." this is the most complete skull discovered to date of this particular dinosaur. >> unearthing this horned relic of the cretaceous period instantly changes clayton's outlook. >> it's the thrill of discovery, you're the first person to see it. it's a special feeling.

it's hard to describe until you actually are in that position. >> that's amazing. amazing. wow. the real thrill comes when a collector buys the skull, netting clayton more than $40,000. his strange inheritance is finally starting to pay off. >> it was about a year's wages for what i was making on the ranch. >> it buys him, among other things, more time to make his grand plan work. >> i told lisa, i said, "i've got a year to try to see if i can survive with our ranch and selling dinosaur fossils." >> meanwhile, the phipps family is expanding. a son, daniel, arrives in 2004, and his brother luke, 3 years later -- two acorns that don't fall far from the tree. by now, dad has acquired a reputation and a new nickname, "dino cowboy." professionals begin to respect his knowledge of dinosaur bones, and his ability to find them.

>> the only way you can find fossils is with your eyes. and the only way you can do that is get out there on foot and and walk the outcrops. a guy like clayton can invent. he can solve problems. ♪ >> clayton offers to show a new york gal how it's done. he starts with a safety lecture. >> any snakes? >> there's rattlesnakes. there's mountain lions. walking along the crest of a hill, there could be a cavity, and you could step on one of those and fall 30 feet down. looks great. if you move the dirt, you might find one. >> now, what is that? >> this is a little end of a limb bone to a little plant-eater. it's pretty cool. you can see the whole end of the bone. >> oh, this is definitely bone. >> yep. that's most like a rib. i can tell by the -- >> oh, the shape. i can see why they call him the dino cowboy. >> another piece of bone washed down there. >> and i can see how you could get hooked on fossil hunting.

it's the feeling you get picking something out of the dirt and realizing it was part of a living, breathing behemoth 65 million years ago. >> there's spikes on this. look. >> we're gonna have a project here. >> i'm starting to think the whole phipps family has some kind of dino radar. >> looks like a rib. >> like the top of one? >> in just the first few minutes, clayton's youngest, 7-year-old luke, finds a rib. >> okay, i'm having a blast. can i get down here and keep looking? now, is this just wood or petrified wood? >> no, that's a bone. >> i found part of a leg bone. amazing! slowly but surely, this is a whole dinosaur. >> it came off this hill somewhere. you know, one of these layers is gonna produce, you know, hopefully, some more of this skeleton. >> so, we found a spot worth looking into. >> maybe. oh, for sure. >> clayton knows there is dino gold somewhere in these hills, and he aims to find it. >> the highest selling fossil that i know about sold for a little over $8 million. that was one single dinosaur. >> that $8-million find, a

42-foot long t. rex nicknamed "sue," now stands in the main hall of chicago's field museum. >> it could buy a lot of cattle. >> it would help. [ chuckles ] >> fortunately, his reputation as a man who can find old bones leads an experienced fossil hunter named mark eatman to knock on clayton's door. >> clayton is a total modern-day mountain man or macgyver. i went to his ranch, where we started to look for fossils together. >> another chapter in this "strange inheritance" story is about to begin. >> you're always thinking, "right over the next ridge or over the next patch of badlands, it's gonna be there. i'm gonna find that big one." >> as it turns out, mark's words are prophetic. >> whoo! >> that's next, on "strange inheritance." >> here's another quiz question for you. the answer in a moment.

mom's got this cold #stuffynose #nosleep #mouthbreather just put on a breathe right strip it instantly opens your nose... up to 38% more than cold medicine alone go to breatheright.com today to request a free sample.

ein the 2018 lexus es,y system plus, standard... and the es hybrid. take advantage of special president's day offers now through the 28th, on the 2018 es 350. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.

>> now the answer to our quiz question. which came first? the answer is "b." the oldest shark fossil is more than 400 million years old. the oldest cockroach fossil is 350 million years old. the oldest dinosaur arrived 100 million years later. >> as i listen to clayton phipps tell the story of the ranch left to him by his father, i can't help but think that his strange inheritance is not just about this 2 square miles of montana badlands filled with dinosaur bones. it's also the unexpected journey that came next -- from struggling rancher to hopeful husband to dad worried about

being a good provider, and then to renowned dino cowboy who's still hoping to find a way to make it all work financially. he gets a boost when professional fossil hunter mark eatman knocks on his door. using clayton's ranch as a base of operations, they set out to scour not only the phipps ranch, but parts of the surrounding hell creek formation on which it sits. in june 2006, mark scans a rock outcropping and spots fossil fragments from a triceratops, a 7-foot tall plant eater. this beast died right here more than 65 million years ago. [ roaring ] it's only about 60 miles from the phipps' ranch. but the remarkable journey launched by clayton's strange inheritance will transport him to a time and place he could hardly imagine.

after cutting a deal with the landowner, who will get a share of any profits, clayton starts picking away, first with a shovel, then a jackhammer, and finally a backhoe. >> i realized that there was this arm claw in there, a giant meat hook -- killer, nasty-looking creature. >> clayton has uncovered another set of bones intertwined with the triceratops. >> "what the heck did we just find?" and, you know, i knew i had a claw, but that's all i really knew. so, i run down, and i start brushing away the dirt and the sand from where i was digging with the machine. and i start to see an arm, and i start to see a leg below the arm. and, "whoo!" [ both laugh ] you know? "son of a gun. there's another dinosaur in here, and it wasn't friends with the one we just found." >> that's when i went ballistic with excitement, actually. >> it's a monster discovery. clayton's son daniel and daughter julie pose to give a sense of the enormous size of these two creatures -- predator and prey, apparently locked in a

battle to the death -- one the plant-eating triceratops, the other what looks like a young t. rex. phipps calls them the dueling dinos. >> i was talking to to a fossil dealer, and he said, "clayton, you're the luckiest guy i know." he said, "who could go out in the middle of nowhere with a backhoe and dig up the best meat-eater from the hell creek formation ever?" [ laughs ] i guess god was watching out for us that day. [ laughs ] >> it's one of the most fantastic dinosaur specimens that's been found ever. it's one of the few instances where we can actually find the culprit. "well, how did this animal die, and what killed it?" >> we believe they killed each other. >> wait, in battle? how can you tell that? >> clayton explains, using this model of the dueling dinos. >> we have teeth from the predator embedded in the prey. some of them are embedded still in the pelvis area, and they're also in the throat area. i'd give anything in the world to go back that day in time and see what happened, you know, to watch that fight and see how it

unfolded. >> for a cowboy and his family who have been just scraping by, the dueling dinos could be a life-changer. >> my initial thought was these things are somewhere around the value of maybe $10 million. ♪ >> that's even more than chicago's field museum paid for sue, the giant t. rex unearthed in 1990. clayton and his partners shop the fossils to a number of museums, seeking a multimillion-dollar deal that would permit access by both scientists and the public. >> i would like to be able to take my grandkids someday to a museum that it's in, say, "your old grandpappy found that dinosaur." >> seven years pass, but no public institution bites. so in november 2013, clayton moves on to plan "b." >> bonhams auction company contacted us, and they said, "would you guys be interested in putting it up for auction?" >> that's next on "strange inheritance." liberty mutual stood with me

when i was too busy with the kids to get a repair estimate. i just snapped a photo and got an estimate in 24 hours. my insurance company definitely doesn't have that... you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance.

>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> november 2013, 16 years since clayton phipps inherited this montana ranch from his father, 10 years since he dug up the $40,000 stygimoloch skull that sealed his reputation as the dino cowboy, and it's 7 years since he made one of the most fantastic discoveries in history -- two prehistoric beasts locked in combat. now they're up for sale in new york. the bidding starts at $3 million, hits $5.5 million... then stops. that may be a fortune to a struggling rancher, but it's far below the $7 million reserve price set by clayton and his partners. the result -- no sale.

unlike the folks who cashed in on the world-famous t. rex sue, clayton walks away empty handed. >> i hope i'm not out of line expecting to get paid for, you know, what we've got into it. >> clayton believes he'll eventually get that, and more. >> we all feel the fall of the economy really, really hampered things for us, for sure. ♪ >> so, back on the range, he continues to raise cattle, search for fossils, and tinker in his lab, still waiting for his big find to pay off. if one day, however, those dueling dinos -- or perhaps other spectacular fossils yet to be unearthed on his strange inheritance -- do make him rich, i'm betting the path of clayton phipps' life still circles back to this piece of montana. >> i'm living the dream. and because i can stay outside and have the thrill of

discovery, the dinosaur hunting fits into that just perfectly. it's my hope that i can do this for as long as i'm able to do it. >> those dueling dinosaurs are now part of a pretty fierce fight among modern-day paleontologists. there are some who think the small but vicious predator is simply a young tyrannosaurus. but there are others, including clayton, who think he unearthed a specimen of a newly discovered species, a nanotyrannus. well, either way, keep that word "small" in perspective. we're talking about a dinosaur that was 8 feet tall and 35 feet long. certainly, there's no dino that would have wanted to meet the likes of that in the ring. [ chuckles ] i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for joining us on "strange inheritance." and remember, you can't take it with you. do you have a strange inheritance story you'd like to

share with us? we'd love to hear it! send me an e-mail, or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. >> she's a jet-setter in the golden age of travel... >> pan am flight attendants were iconic. >> did she fit the bill? >> i think shecreatedthe bill. >> ...bringing back these from around the globe. >> indonesian, african, chinese -- they came from everywhere. i thought she was a smuggler, which made it even more exciting. >> what?! >> are they just silly trinkets... >> is there a big market for beads? >> there's a big market for beads. >> this is the real deal? >> this is the real deal. >> ...or historical treasures worth a mint? >>thedalai lama? >> yes. [ gavel bangs ] >> bidder 561 is for $11,000. [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ]