There is a little body of water in the city of Santa Rosa.

On the surface, it's just an unassuming pond in the middle of the desert, New Mexico.

At the bottom, though, there is a large metal grate over the entrance to a massive underwater cavern.

Importantly, this grate wasn't always there, and I think we all know that a metal grate is only installed

for one reason. So in this video we're gonna look at the horrifying incidents that

led to this grate being installed and what might happen if you were to

deliberately bypass it. Before we get into it I want to give a serious

claustrophobia warning for this one and always, viewer discretion is advised. A hundred miles east of Albuquerque, New Mexico is the little city of Santa Rosa.

On one side of the city is a swimming spot popular with locals and tourists that looks like

little more than a pond at first glance. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. There are some

trees and rocks around the edges, but the first thing that's noticeable about it is the deep blue

color of the water, giving away the fact that it isn't some shallow murky pond. It's obviously

very deep and the water is extremely clear. And because it's so unassuming from the surface, you might not expect that this is one of the most popular dive sites in the entire country.

The hole is also located right on the historic Route 66, which for those of you who don't know is one of the original highways in the US, dating back to the 1920s.

Since then, it's become a popular tourist spot, but prior to establishing Route 66, there were

dirt roads that went back much further.

During these time periods, the Blue Hole provided water to cattle and travelers going across

the desert.

But even prior to that, native populations have used the hole for centuries, maybe even millennia,

as a limitless source of water in a spot to cool down.

We actually don't really know how far back the history goes because there aren't any written

records.

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