In the midst of the American Revolutionary War, as George Washington and his men sought refuge from the British in the wilds of the Allegeny Mountains, they began to hear stories of an ancient underground city. Built by the ancestors of the Susquehannock, Shawnee, and Iroquois, this network of chambers was once populated by tens of thousands of native people until they were run out by “the sickness of the land.”

Desperate for supplies and any advantage, Washington detached a contingent of men, along with their Indian guides, to find an entrance to this underground network. Only one man returned, reporting “the depths of those dark chambers were filled with nothing but witchery, and the monsters and demons of ancient evil.” In 1790, Washington, now the first president of the United States, was once again desperate for resources, this time to run his fledgling American government. In a letter to Ben Franklin, Washington wrote “I do not know what riches we may find in those primeval depths, but we cannot build this nation until we have cleared these lands of danger. The foundation must hold.” Washington assembled an eclectic group of soldiers and mystics to once again locate and explore this underground network, rid it of any dangers to the Republic, retrieve valuable items, and seal the place up forever.

What they found was both surprising and more deadly than anyone had imagined.