San Pedro is a major commercial port city on the southwestern coast of Côte d'Ivoire, situated approximately 200 miles west of Abidjan along the Gulf of Guinea. The city functions as one of West Africa's busier export hubs, handling significant volumes of cacao and timber shipped from the surrounding rainforest interior. Its natural deep-water harbor made it a logical staging point for the Project Recover team, who used San Pedro's commercial port facilities as their base of operations for an underwater search mission off the Ivorian coast. Gates arrived here after what he described as a six-hour coastal drive from Abidjan — a journey that passed through roadside villages before giving way to dense, humid jungle. The city is modern by regional standards, with an active waterfront that today serves international cargo traffic as much as local fishing fleets. For the purposes of Expedition Unknown, San Pedro served not as an archaeological site in itself, but as the gateway to an offshore search for a World War II aircraft carrying American servicewomen listed as Missing In Action.
San Pedro established as a planned port city by the Ivorian government to decentralize trade away from Abidjan and serve the timber-rich southwest.
The port of San Pedro officially opened, anchoring the city's growth as a major cacao and timber export terminal.
Gates meets Project Recover co-founder Mark Moline, historian Colin Colburn, and underwater archaeologist Drew Pietruszka at San Pedro's commercial port during filming of Expedition Unknown S13E06, 'America's MIA Heroines.'
Project Recover is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to locating and identifying American service members who remain Missing In Action from World War II. Co-founder Mark Moline, who appears on camera in this episode, has been involved in multiple underwater search expeditions combining archival research with modern sonar and diving technology. The organization works closely with the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and relies heavily on declassified military accident reports to narrow search areas — exactly the kind of document Colburn retrieved from the Air Force archives and presented to Gates at the San Pedro port.
The mission framed at San Pedro centers on a World War II-era aircraft that went missing off the coast of West Africa, apparently carrying American servicewomen. During the war, West Africa served as a critical transit corridor: the so-called South Atlantic Route moved aircraft and personnel from the Americas through West Africa and onward to theaters in Europe and Asia. Accidents along these overwater legs were not uncommon, and many wrecks in the Gulf of Guinea have never been systematically surveyed.
The use of San Pedro as a logistical base reflects the practical realities of deep-water search work in this part of the world. The city's port infrastructure — built specifically to handle heavy commercial traffic since the early 1970s — provides the dock space and resupply access that a marine archaeology team requires. Underwater archaeologist Drew Pietruszka's involvement signals that any recovery effort would be conducted within professional archaeological standards, not simply as a salvage operation.
The episode does not confirm whether the aircraft was located, and the transcript evidence available centers on the planning and briefing stage conducted at the San Pedro port. What the episode genuinely contributes is a rare on-camera focus on the overlooked African theater of World War II logistics, and on the ongoing effort to account for servicewomen — a demographic whose MIA cases have historically received less public attention than those of male combat pilots.
San Pedro's port was developed as part of a deliberate postcolonial strategy to create a second major export hub in Côte d'Ivoire, reducing economic dependence on a single port at Abidjan.
Côte d'Ivoire is among the world's largest producers of cacao, and a significant portion of that harvest moves through the port of San Pedro bound for international chocolate manufacturers.
The South Atlantic ferry route used during World War II ran from Brazil across to West Africa, making the Gulf of Guinea coast a corridor for thousands of Allied aircraft transiting to European and Mediterranean theaters.
Gates quipped on arrival that he had 'dreamt of San Pedro last night' — then immediately credited the line to Madonna's 1989 song 'Like a Prayer,' which references San Pedro in its lyrics.
San Pedro is generally accessible by road from Abidjan, though the roughly 200-mile journey takes approximately six hours under normal conditions and road quality can vary. The commercial port is an active working facility and not typically open to casual visitors, though the city itself has hotels and services catering to business travelers. Travelers should check current advisories from their home country's foreign affairs office before visiting Côte d'Ivoire's southwestern region.
San Pedro is itself the nearest major city; Abidjan, the country's largest city and commercial capital, lies approximately 200 miles (c. 320 km) to the east.
The driest and most comfortable months in southwestern Côte d'Ivoire are generally November through March, when humidity and rainfall are reduced. Traveling outside of the major rainy seasons — typically April through July and September through October — is advisable for overland journeys along the coast.
Normandy Beaches, France
Normandy Beaches is another World War II site investigated by Gates where the fates of American military personnel — and the recovery of their stories — forms the heart of the episode, directly paralleling the MIA mission staged out of San Pedro.
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan has been the subject of underwater search expeditions on Expedition Unknown, sharing the deep-water search methodology that Project Recover deployed off the Ivorian coast.
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean episode similarly involves Gates joining a maritime search operation in remote open waters far from established archaeological infrastructure, echoing the logistical challenges of the West Africa mission.
Historical data sourced from Wikipedia