The Curse of Oak Island

[YellowBird]

I agree this is a fascinating story that I am so excited to see if they find hidden treasures and if they do it will undoubtedly prove a lot of inaccurate facts we know in history.
Last night an unbelievable find of a broach and what appears as a Ruby or gemstone. Who did it belong to? Royalty.?
Not forgetting the find of a lead Cross.
It has been suggested what appears as "Lead" is a cover for gold. I ask why haven't they tried to see what is underneath the lead? Who else would like to know?

[GordonH]

Producer of the show is milking it for every penny, 5 seasons & counting.

[Poindexter]

Try not to be too critical when watching this show, enjoy it too much to ruin it that way. Think it's pretty cool that two brothers with some cash are self funding this treasure hunt on Canadian soil. Cheering for them to strike it rich in the money pit, but hoping they don't have to pay with one more person to fulfill the curse. Muahaha.

[generalposter]

There is a popular podcast called "Stuff You Should Know" or "SYSK". They recently aired an episode detailing this mystery. A strange story it is for sure.

[OldIslander]

The 95 year old gentleman who appears on the show from time to time -- Dan Blankenship -- just passed away. He dug the site extensively years ago.

I recall reading the 'Reader's Digest' story back in the 60's and have followed the story of the site ever since. But I'm afraid I just don't buy it. The idea of the flood tunnels is pure fantasy. The task of digging them without drowning in the process and setting up the trigger-mechanism is ludicrous. And for what purpose? If they were ever triggered, that meant that whoever buried the treasure would never be able to dig it up again either. And why bury it so deep? Ten feet or so would be plenty, and the site could have been disguised so no one could ever have found it.

I believe a guy named Joe Nickell has figured it out.

Wide-ranging speculation exists about how the pit was formed and what it might contain. According to Joe Nickell, there is no treasure; the pit is a natural phenomenon, probably a sinkhole connected to limestone passages or caverns. Suggestions that the pit is a natural phenomenon (accumulated debris in a sinkhole or geological fault) date to at least 1911. A number of sinkholes and caves, to which the "booby traps" are attributed, exist on the mainland near the island.

Its resemblance to a human-made pit has been suggested as partly due to the texture of natural, accumulated debris in sinkholes: "This filling would be softer than the surrounding ground, and give the impression that it had been dug up before". The "platforms" of rotten logs have been attributed to trees, damaged by "blowdowns" (derechos) or wildfires, periodically falling (or washing into) the hollow.

Another pit, similar to the early description of the "money pit", was discovered in the area in 1949 when workmen were digging a well on the shore of Mahone Bay. At a point where the earth was soft, "At about two feet down a layer of fieldstone was struck. Then logs of spruce and oak were unearthed at irregular intervals, and some of the wood was charred. The immediate suspicion was that another money pit had been found."

[Urban Cowboy]

That explanation doesn't support some of the stuff that's now known, such as how did human bones from the other side of the world end up about 160' underground?

I also don't think trees are going to blow down, in layers a precise distance apart, as has been documented.

It also seems very likely, that some of the things buried on that island have been found, as evidenced by surviving family members who had talked about treasure chests, and as I recall one lady even presented a gold cross that's been in her family for a long time.

It also seems that a slave, no matter how good of a farmer he may have been, earned enough growing cabbage, to become a land baron.

In the latest episode the hammer grab is bringing up huge chunks of oak, which haven't been tested yet, but the one fellow said they looked exactly like ships timbers that he's come across before.

Also what about the 90' stone that had weird characters on it, did that happen to just land in the middle of a layer of blown down trees?

I've been watching that show for ages, and there's just too much stuff they've encountered that can't be explained away as coincidence, such as the location of stones that match formations in the stars.

I do believe that so much time has elapsed, that there could easily be more than one explanation for some of the clues found, such as Templars present at one point in time, pirates at another, and British Soldiers at yet another, to think of just some.

It makes it difficult to figure out some of the stuff, simply due to all the excavation that has been carried out over time.

BTW the two brothers also have another mystery program that's treasure hunt oriented, it has to do with missing Confederate gold that is thought to be at the bottom of Lake Michigan.

[Loki2u]

I got hooked on this show as well and started watching this past season. I was skeptical at first....but there is definitely enough evidence to support that something happened there.

My biggest gripe is the announcer! My God it's annoying! Every 5 minutes he has to recap the most obvious observations that we literally just watched! "A piece of wood? Chopped by hand? Burried 90 feet underground? Could this be a sign that............"

[Urban Cowboy]

I got hooked on this show as well and started watching this past season. I was skeptical at first....but there is definitely enough evidence to support that something happened there.

My biggest gripe is the announcer! My God it's annoying! Every 5 minutes he has to recap the most obvious observations that we literally just watched! "A piece of wood? Chopped by hand? Burried 90 feet underground? Could this be a sign that............"

I agree. That announcer and his incessant recapping is irritating as all heck. If he'd shut up, they'd have to double the actual content of the show though.

[typhoon44]

Drinking game.
Every time the announcer says Rick and Marty Lagina, DRINK
Every time Jack makes a dumb face or says something stupid, DRINK twice.

[OldIslander]

It makes it difficult to figure out some of the stuff, simply due to all the excavation that has been carried out over time.

There it is... that's the issue.

They've been digging this site for 219 years. There have been many dozens of shafts sunk -- many long forgotten -- by hundreds of different individuals and groups, using many different methods, with many thousands of board feet of various sized and species of timbers hauled below for shoring. Tons of different kinds equipment and personal items belonging to the miners would have been hauled into those shafts and tunnels. There was almost certainly contamination of the site by the thousands of people who have worked there, and who visited the site during the many, many years that it was unsecured. Material laying at the surface around the shafts, would have fallen down into the shafts during operations. That would account for bone fragments and many small items hauled up from the depths. As the centuries have passed, the area under the long forgotten site of the original pit has been mixed into a homogeneous porridge of soils, organic matter, rocks, rubbish, personal effects, and building/mining materials.

It is now pretty much impossible to claim that anything brought up in the clam bucket, wasn't introduced into the deep underground by previous mining operations.

Finally, the legends of what was found in the first digs must be discounted. You can't believe anything you read in the paper these days, about things that happened last week. It is a 'given' that stories from the turn of the 17th to 18th century, would have been embellished and even invented over the years, by generations of treasure hunters and hucksters, trying to raise money, or wishing sell the pit to the next poor sucker.

[Urban Cowboy]

OldIslander you've already made your mind up, so there's little point in trying to change it. You can believe whatever you wish, but I do note that you display a tendency to conveniently discount certain things, such as old records because as you put it, media can't be trusted.

Perhaps they can't, but Rick and Marty are going to extreme lengths to have things analyzed, dated, and even point of origin determined, as was done with the lead used to make the lead cross that was found.

They also found the 90' stone mentioned in early accounts.

To hear you tell it people just tossed stuff down shafts and I'm not buying that at all. I'm also not buying that a lot of the tunnels are natural formations, because such things don't manifest themselves in the forms being uncovered.

The sheer volume of data that the brothers have amassed is alone mind boggling, and it has proven useful in corroborating legends about the treasure.

I definitely have to give Rick and Marty credit for their attention to detail.

Even if they never find a significant pile of treasure, they already have enough artifacts in the museum, to prove that what we were taught in history class, about Columbus finding America, is a load of hooey, given that some of the stuff predates his time by a few hundred years.

[Catsumi]

Probably Icelanders deposited their goodies at Oak Island. They visited Canada for awhile long before Columbus hopped a ship. My family heritage is traced back to original Icelandic landing so I claim all treasures as mine. Mine alone.

[GordonH]

Let me get this straight, this group is trying to dig a shaft on a small island surrounded by ocean.

I say good luck, better have the largest water pumps available.

BTW I've never watched the show or know the history.

[OldIslander]

This story is a bit like religion and UFO's -- people are willing to believe it on faith alone... without any real evidence of any kind. After 219 years of digging, not a single verified piece of what might be described as valuable treasure has been discovered by anyone. Not a single solitary one.

Here is a concise substantiated list of what has been found to date:
https://www.reddit.com/r/OakIsland/comments/5lpi45/comprehensive_list_of_artifacts_found_to_date/

Further down is a list of things that have be 'reported' to have been found over the years, but there is no evidence other than legend to prove that they actually existed.

A bit further are a list of 'Tales' or legends, none of which are substantiated.

It's the flood tunnel theories that are so preposterous to me. Smith Cove is reported to be approx. 170 yards from original pit. In the diagrams used on the program, the tunnels are shown sloping downwards from the ocean at 30 to 40 degrees to the bottom of the pit. They would have been dug by hand, being as how there was no machinery back in the 17th century. For men to work in the tunnel, it would have to be at least 5’ X 5’ for there to be room for shoring and to work and to pack out the rocks and soil as the tunnels progressed. You can check my math, but a tunnel 170 yards long, 5’ X 5’ will produce almost 500 cu. yds of gravel and rocks, weighing over 700 tons, that would fill at approx. 60 dump trucks.

According to the diagram, the tunnel slopes downward from Smith Cove at 30 to 40 degrees. The water table for some distance inland will be the same as the sea surface. How did they keep it from instantly flooding? How did they haul all the excavated gravel and rocks back uphill through the tunnel, to the beach? Or did they dig the flood tunnel from the bottom of the pit uphill to Smith Cove? And move the 700 tons of material downhill to the bottom of the pit and lift it out from there? There was no machinery back then -- it all would have been done by hand. And again, how did they keep it from flooding when the bottom of the pit is well below sea level?

It just defies logic and physics. When the original diggers got deep enough, the various pits flooded just like any well that’s ever been dug – that’s exactly what’s supposed to happen. The only way it could NOT flood, is if it was being bored down through solid rock.

But I could be wrong – I usually am...

[GordonH]

Let me get this straight, this group is trying to dig a shaft on a small island surrounded by ocean.

I say good luck, better have the largest water pumps available.

BTW I've never watched the show or know the history.

I happened to see an ad for another treasure hunting reality tv shows. https://www.history.ca/shows/lost-gold-of-wwii/

Whatever turns your crank I guess