>> from dusty boxes forgotten in the attic... emerge military artifacts handed down across five generations... >> the writing is unbelievable. i can't believe it's in such good shape. >> ...an heirloom that may be a long-lost piece of history. >> i think this is a once-in-a-lifetime find. i'd never seen one before, and i don't expect to see one again. >> value is just rising with literally every fold. >> a war, a map, a mystery. >> i had a little momentary roller coast there. >> will it lead to one family's hidden treasure? [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ]

>> i'm jamie colby, and today i'm in birmingham, alabama, which is in the rolling foothills of the appalachians. they say that wars are fought to change maps, and this episode of "strange inheritance" is actually about a map, a very old map, and one that survives in a family whose history spans from texas to virginia and then back here to alabama. >> my name is patrick martin. my parents died in 1999, and my sister and i inherited the house and contents. we were surprised when we figured out what it contained. >> the house that patrick and his sister, peggy, inherited here in birmingham is now their home. patrick, thank you so much for having me over. >> it's our pleasure. >> patrick's parents moved to alabama from maryland and bought the house in the 1960s. patrick, an architect, returns to take care of his ill parents in 1994 but then has his own health

scare. >> i had a quintuple bypass surgery here. >> patrick's heart trouble leads him to an early retirement at age 47. with lots of time on his hands, he starts rummaging through the house, including the attic. it's here that he comes across a box he remembers from his childhood. this looks very, very old, just right from the start. the box contains family letters and legal documents, some going back to the 18th century. >> this packet is letters from the 1780s. >> patrick also discovers an old u.s. army muster book, an official ledger listing soldiers and keeping track of their pay. the writing is unbelievable. i can't believe it's in such good shape. >> this book is put into two sections -- the war of 1812 and then the mexican war. >> patrick's family has a long history of military service. in 1846, his great-great-grandfather, nicholas martin, leads a virginia battalion

in the mexican-american war, one of the most controversial in u.s. history. >> although the war is very little known among americans, it's actually the most important war fought between two neighbors in the western hemisphere. in 1845, texas is annexed by the united states, but the texas boundary claim now becomes an american problem. >> and, it turns out, an opportunity for president james k. polk, a slaveholding tennessee democrat who believes god has ordained the united states to expand across the continent. many opponents of war with mexico condemn this idea of manifest destiny as simply the conquest of territory for new slave states -- including a fresh-faced freshman congressman from illinois. >> abraham lincoln is an opponent of this war. he gives a series of speeches blasting the polk administration. >> the war -- the first in history documented with photographs -- breaks out in april 1846.

mexico surrenders in 1848, losing half its national domain. >> the united states acquires not just the american southwest, but also california. >> left unresolved -- where slavery will be allowed in those territories. >> the debate over whether those territories are going to be slave or free is going to be so contentious and so divisive that it's ultimately going to lead to the civil war in 1861. >> patrick's box contains a number of civil war items, too -- cool stuff like some certificates from the confederate postal service. he can't be sure how all those items came to his family. some most likely are from that great-great-grandfather who fought in mexico. >> the other possibility is his son hudson, who was a lawyer, and he represented soldiers. >> the artifacts are passed down through the generations,

ultimately making their way to the family estate in virginia. when patrick's grandfather dies in 1956 and the family is clearing out the house, his father winds up with the historical items by chance. >> on a whim, he just said, "we'll take those six boxes." >> the boxes end up in the basement of patrick's childhood home outside washington, d.c. they become a way to kill boredom for a curious 12-year-old boy. patrick, did you really play with all this stuff as a kid? >> i did. i did. i loved the boxes. you'd find letters from the civil war talking about troop movements or political discussions just before lincoln's election. and you felt a connection to family and a fun connection to history, so -- >> your imagination could run wild. >> absolutely. >> one of his favorite items -- an old map of texas. >> it was a fun toy. i just enjoyed the fact that texas was so different.

it had indian villages, it had forts -- it had all kinds of interesting things for a 10- or a 12-year-old. >> somehow, the map avoids being used to make a fort or a halloween mask. >> i showed it to my parents, and they knew i was playing with it, and that was fine because it was just the old texas map. >> as patrick grows up, the map and the other items in the boxes become distant childhood memories. in 1967, his parents move to birmingham, where the boxes are stored and forgotten once again -- that is until patrick moves here to take care of his folks and rediscovers them. his parents pass away in 1999 within 10 days of each other. the family home and those timeworn boxes are now patrick and his sister, peggy's, inheritance. proud of his family heritage, he shows off the heirlooms

during dinner parties. >> i'm crazy about history, and this was a resource that i wanted to share with people. >> he even brings them out to the thanksgiving table. >> so, this thanksgiving dinner, literally between the gravy bowl and the turkey, you bring the map out and put it on the table, this table? >> that's true. it was the end of dinner, so it was mostly messy plates, and that probably made it worse, you know, as far as danger to the map. at the time, its value was the joy it would give you looking at the thing. >> but by 2013, patrick wonders if he might reap another kind of joy from his strange inheritance. to be blunt, he could use the money. since retiring early at age 47, patrick has accumulated substantial credit-card debt -- not to mention a home-equity loan that he and his sister, peggy, took out. >> the credit-card debt is monumental. we have a small home-equity loan

that this potentially could pay off. >> patrick notices than an auction house is holding an appraisal fair in birmingham. >> i thought, "i'll throw a box of stuff together and see if anything's worth anything." >> at the fair, patrick cautiously breaks out the old family war stuff. >> did you feel like one would be worth more than the others? >> i actually thought the muster book was gonna be of more significant monetary value. as it turned out, he says he thinks the muster book probably would be a couple of thousand dollars. and i thought, "well, that's nice, you know, but it's not life-changing." >> patrick shows a few more heirlooms and gets the same tepid response. down to his final item, he unfolds his childhood plaything, that old texas map. what happened when you pulled the map out? >> you could tell his demeanor changed. i mean, his face lit up. he was very excited.

>> what's your heart doing at that point? >> it's beating very well. [ laughs ] >> what had been sitting in the attic all this time? >> i'd never seen one before, and i don't expect to see one again. >> that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. which war saw the most combat veterans go on to become u.s. president? is it the revolutionary war, the mexican-american war, the civil war, or world war ii? the answer when we return. who is usaa made for? it's made for him a veteran who honorably served and it's made for her she's serving now we also made usaa for military spouses and their kids become a member. get an insurance quote today.

now you can trade stocks and etfs for any amount you choose instead of buying by the share. all with no commissions. stocks by the slice from fidelity. get your slice today.

>> so, which war saw the most combat veterans go on to become u.s. president? it's "c," the civil war. five future presidents -- grant, hayes, garfield, harrison, and mckinley saw combat during the civil war. >> in birmingham, alabama, in may 2013, patrick martin visits a traveling appraisal fair, hoping some of his family's old military artifacts can pay off his growing debts. it's not going well -- that is until he pulls out an old map of texas for heritage auctions' appraiser joe fay. >> i had seen this map before, but i had only seen reprints of it. >> joe instantly recognizes the print as apparently the work of jacob de cordova, who commissioned the first maps in 1849, right after the u.s. won the mexican-american war.

de cordova used the map as a promotional tool to lure adventurous immigrants to the state. >> he was a land agent who helped settle people in texas, and he wanted a document that showed them the vastness of the land that was available for them to settle. >> de cordova obtained official signature endorsements from famous texans, including sam houston, to further his cause. >> sam houston, on the floor of the u.s. senate, referred to this as the most accurate depiction of texas that anyone had ever compiled. >> with patrick's copy, joe is excited but skeptical. he knows such a famous map has countless reprints and forgeries. >> i noticed that the paper was right, consistent with the period, but still it could be a reprint. >> fortunately for joe, de cordova himself left a vital clue. >> there's a printed notice that basically says, "without my signature, this map is fraudulently obtained."

>> patrick's map includes a signature that appears to match de cordova's, but is it hand-signed or printed? another clue. >> i could see the ink bleeding through to the back of the map, which only happens if it's authentically signed with ink. once i saw this, really, nothing else mattered that weekend. >> the map is no doubt the find of the appraisal fair. >> he said, "we had this auction last year, and the second edition sold for $44,000." >> a first edition from 1849 would be worth even more. only a few are known to still exist. joe suspects that patrick's map could be a first edition. geography will tell the tale. >> there are several features of this map that wouldn't be recognizable to somebody looking at the state of texas today. >> you see, the republic of texas once stretched as far north as wyoming and as far west as santa fe. over the years, those boundaries

are chipped away. the biggest land transfer comes in 1850, when texas gives up vast tracts of western land to the federal government in exchange for debt relief. come to think of it, that's the same outcome patrick's aiming for. the end result -- the texas shape we know today. so, what version of texas did patrick's map show? >> just north of the state line of texas is an area that's referred to on the map as "indian territory," which we know today as oklahoma. there's a strip on the left side of the map that's santa fe territory. so at that point, that was that eureka moment of, "this is actually an 1849 de cordova map." >> joe ups his initial appraisal. >> he said, "yours is a first edition. therefore, we think it would be $60,000 to $80,000." so i called my sister and decided to sell the map.

>> joe tells patrick the value could go up or down depending on the map's condition and previous sales. he wants to hold on to the heirloom for more research. joe gets on a plane to dallas to show the map to sandra palomino, who specializes in texana artifacts. all she needs is one look. what kind of condition was the map in when you got it? that's next on "strange inheritance." >> here's another quiz question. what role did future army general and u.s. president ulysses s. grant play in the mexican-american war? was it quartermaster, sniper, or medic? the answer when we return. we love our new home. there's so much space. we have a guestroom now. but, we have aunts. you're slouching again, ted.

expired, expired... expired. thanks, aunt bonnie. it's a lot of house. i hope you can keep it clean. at least geico makes bundling our home and car insurance easy. which helps us save a lot of money oh, teddy. did you get my friend request? uh, i'll have to check. (doorbell ringing) aunt joni's here! for bundling made easy, go to geico.com. hello?

♪ if i could, baby i'd ♪ how can i, when youy, won't take it from me ♪ ♪ you can go your own way ♪ ♪ go your own way your wireless. your rules. only with xfinity mobile. >> so, what role did future

army general and u.s. president ulysses s. grant play in the mexican-american war? the answer is "a," quartermaster. grant was in charge of distributing supplies and provisions to the 4th infantry regiment. >> in birmingham, alabama, patrick martin is eagerly awaiting the latest appraisal of his strange inheritance -- an 1849 first-edition map of the new state of texas. joe fay has pegged its value at $80,000. if he's right, that would go a long way to wiping out the debt patrick has run up since retiring after quintuple bypass surgery. >> although the map meant a lot to me, when you put a dollar value on it that can change your financial base, you're thinking, "i can get rid of this debt," but you don't want to buy into it yet. >> after all, patrick knows his map hasn't exactly been treated like a museum exhibit, and it's condition can have a major impact

on its sale price. that's why joe fay brings the map to dallas to get a second opinion from sandra palomino. it's why dallas is my next stop, as well. what kind of condition was the map in when you got it? >> it was in wonderful condition. it was just amazing to us that there were no separations along any of the folds. condition is everything, and value is just rising with literally every fold that we're opening. >> did you know, as an expert in maps and documents and other historical artifacts, that it existed? >> this particular map is newly discovered because it was on nobody's radar. >> now big is the market for maps? >> for collectors in general, they love that period from 1834, 1835, up through the late 1850s. >> that's because so many families trace their texan roots back to the immigration boom of that period. >> texans are very,

very prideful of their roots, and they see it almost as a responsibility to preserve the history and pass it on. >> and many of those early texans were influenced by de cordova and his map. >> it's a treasured piece of history, and that's what this map is to texana collectors. >> a few days after the original appraisal, patrick receives a call from heritage auctions. >> joe fay calls, and joe says, "i missed the estimate on the map." >> oh. >> so, i think he's overpriced it. >> instead, fay says it could be more than $80,000 -- a lot more, six figures easy. >> so, you know, right away, i'm ecstatic. >> on march 15, 2014, patrick martin's first-edition map of texas goes up on the auction block in dallas. patrick monitors the auction by computer from his home in birmingham.

things are not off to a smooth start. >> the auction actually was going slow generally. things weren't reaching their auction estimate, so as my map came up, i was trepidatious. >> the map opens at $75,000, and it appears only two bidders will be competing for it. the amount slowly creeps higher from 75 to 85 grand, then to $97,000. patrick knows he should be ecstatic, but you know how it goes. when you're told six figures, it's six figures you want. >> this time, it stopped long enough that the auctioneer said, "fair warning," and so i thought, "it's gonna go at $97,000." >> is he right? that's next on "strange inheritance." our retirement plan with voya gives us confidence. yeah, they help us with achievable steps along the way... ...so we can spend a bit now, knowing we're prepared for the future. surprise!

we renovated the guest room, so you can live with us. oooh, well... i'm good at my condo. oh. i love her condo. nana throws the best parties. well planned, well invested, well protected. voya. be confident to and through retirement.

>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> after being passed down through five generations of patrick martin's family,

a rare first-edition map from the early days of texas statehood goes on the auction block in dallas in march 2014. the bidders push the price up from $75,000 to $85,000. it's a lot of money, but patrick has been led to believe this strange inheritance would fetch a lot more than that. the bidding jumps to $97,000, then stalls again. >> i had a little momentary roller coaster there of letdown, euphoric, letdown. >> then, after what seems to be ages, the bidding picks up again. soon, it passes the $100,000 mark and keeps on climbing. the final sale price, including a premium the buyer pays to the auctioneer -- a whopping $149,000. after paying seller fees, patrick and his sister take home $96,000 -- 48 grand each. they can finally get rid of all their debt -- every penny of it.

>> immediately, within a day, we had paid off the home-equity loan and the credit-card loans, so it was great. >> it's admirable that you paid off debt with the money you got from the map, much more money than you expected, but come on, patrick. you must've bought a little splurge here or there for you or your sister, peggy. >> well, actually, we both still have a chunk that's waiting to splurge. we're trying to figure out what the splurge will be. >> a map somehow ends up in the hands of a distant ancestor, makes it way from basement to attic to moving van and back, escapes the ravages of a kid's imagination and dinner-party show-and-tell. the martin family treasure survived an improbable course no cartographer could map out. any regret? >> none. i have no problem with selling the map, even though i did enjoy it

and i loved sharing it. but in a way, you're sharing it again. >> and what about all those other precious family heirlooms? could there be more treasure from the attic? >> well, hopefully. i could only dream that it would be as good as the map. >> the man who commissioned the texas map that patrick inherited, jacob de cordova, was one of the most enthusiastic and colorful promoters of texas, and he put his money where his mouth was. he himself bought up a million acres of land to sell to settlers. during the civil war, in fact, many texans lost everything and were unable to pay off their liens. although de cordova stood to lose a fortune, he refused to foreclose, saying, after all, he was the one who encouraged them to move to texas in the first place. i'm jamie colby for "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 [ 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. this is decision tech. find a stock based on your interests or what's trending. get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions. fidelity.

♪ ♪ even though fans can't attend this year's us open,... garlic. they're closer than ever to the action... at home. ♪ ♪ ibm watson is serving up game insights from millions of data points. and ibm cloud is helping deliver flexibility and security to reimagine the tournament on and off the court. now tennis fans have the advantage. ♪ ♪

>> 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. look here, it's your very own all-in-one

entertainment experience: xfinity x1. it's the easiest way to watch live tv and all your favorite streaming apps. plus, x1 also includes peacock premium at no extra cost. this baby is the total package. it streams exclusive originals, the full peacock movie library, complete collections of iconic tv shows, and more. yup, the best really did get better. magnificent. xfinity x1 just got even better, with peacock premium included at no additional cost. no strings attached.

more voluminous hair instantly. all it takes is just one session at hairclub. introducing xtrands. xtrands adds hundreds or even thousands of hair strands to your existing hair at the root.

they're personalized to match your own natural hair color and texture, so they'll blend right in for a natural, effortless look. call in the next five minutes and when you buy 500 strands, you get 500 strands free. call right now. (upbeat music) >> 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."

>> 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 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. maria:good morning i'm dagen mcdowell in for maria bartiromo it is monday august 31st your top stories at 6 a.m. eastern. the 2020 race tightening up joe biden back on the campaign trail heading to pennsylvania. president trump heading to wisconsin. with a message on crime and justice. coming up at 7:30 a.m. time scott walker on controversy surrounding president upcoming visit to kenosha. and at 8:30 a.m. eastern ?angt to the president for trade and manufacturing peter on tensions with china and a