The Curse of Oak Island

[oldtrucker]

I think this is a awesome Canadian story that has worldwide connections.
And... it's not a conspiracy or anything like that as the artifacts these guys are finding proves. Human bone, old school metalwork and the structures underground to list a few discoveries.
I think that if an access point is found...we wont have to wait until the next episode as it would make international news first.
I'm addicted to the story.

[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.

[oldtrucker]

I also wonder if the 'metal detection expert' has placed things there in the past to stay employed if you get what I mean. Just a hunch...I have no proof and I hope that hunch is wrong.

[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.

[oldtrucker]

I'm kinda hoping that the original works are Roman as suggested. It would make sense as the engineering to build what is there would be almost out of anyone else's ability.
On the negative side...Am I the only one thinking that they may be pulverizing historical treasures into pieces the way they are going about it? 3 ton hammer grab etc.. I'm wondering if it may be better for the Canadian and Nova Scotia government to acknowledge that something of great historical importance has been found, and protect the site/ artifacts. The treasure hunters would still be entitled to their 90% (?) or whatever , take after its been properly excavated. Even if it did suffered a huge underground collapse in 1860 as some believe...more reason to be as careful as possible with what may be left.

[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.

[oldtrucker]

Ya... it is annoying. They can make a 1 hour show from finding 1 rusty nail and some coconut fibre.
In order to excavate it properly, they would have to build a giant dam around the whole island. Then they would have to sink hundreds of meters of piping to carry liquid nitrogen to freeze the surrounding ground to slow the ground water from coming in.
It's doable...but very expensive. And what if after all the money is thrown at the money pit...the treasure is nothing more than a few rotted books and a few graves.
There is no doubt...something of great importance is there. I have no doubt about that. Just like urbane cowboy mentioned, the artifacts found so far pretty much proves that.
I think they are looking in the right place, but the wrong access point. Betcha the 'proper' entrance is on the other side of the island, or on the mainland.

[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.

[oldtrucker]

They have uncovered a ramp, heavy timber dock and a concrete structure in Smiths Cove. Maybe from previous search efforts, or maybe not. Those structures may be original works from at least 300 years ago. The dates on the bones were mid 1600's. Lead cross was 1100's. Concrete, crossbow bolts and spear tips may be Roman.