The Curse of Oak Island (2014) s04e13 Episode Script
One of Seven
1
This is packed with stones.
Isn't it the flood tunnels?
It's the box drains.
This was what was done
to protect the treasure
in the Money Pit.
That's beginning
to look interesting.
There's a chamber or tunnel
system going from Oak Island
to Little Mash island.
And in that chamber
there are several
hundred tons of gold bullion.
That is a big piece of wood.
That's hand chopped.
This is part of the original
Money Pit.
There is an island
in the North Atlantic
where people have been looking
for an incredible treasure
for more than 200 years.
So far they have found bits
of gold chain,
a stone slab with strange
symbols carved into it,
even a 17th century
Spanish coin.
To date, six men have died
trying to solve the mystery.
And, according to legend,
one more will have to die,
before the treasure
can be found.
It is the start
of another day on Oak Island.
A day that,
like the one before it,
offers renewed optimism,
and the possibility
that an exciting new discovery
could happen at any moment.
Looks like they've got
the can about 80-feet to me.
It'll be interesting to see
what their rate of advance is.
Yeah.
In an effort
to pinpoint the exact location
of the Oak Island Money Pit,
the fabled treasure shaft
first discovered by Daniel
McGinnis and two friends
back in 1795,
brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,
along with their partners,
agreed to dig two large,
40-inch wide holes at the two
most promising locations.
The first of these was
at the site known as V-3
or "Valley Three,"
where Rick
and Craig Tester discovered
what they thought was evidence
of a seven foot tall
wooden vault first discovered
by treasure hunters
Frederick Blair
and William Chappell
back in 1897.
Concrete and then wood.
That's what they found
in the top of the vault.
The second location,
known as C-1
Here we go.
Was the site where one year ago,
Rick and Oak Island historian
Charles Barkhouse
discovered what appeared to be
a mysterious metallic object
What's that?
Embedded in
the walls of a cavern
some 170 feet deep beneath
the surface of the island.
Look how yellow that is.
It's your gold color, David.
Yeah, there it is, David.
But after investing
hundreds of hours
and millions of dollars
exploring the two sites,
the results, though somewhat
disappointing
We seeing saw marks on there?
Convinced the team that
the location of
the original Money Pit lay
within yards of where
they had been digging.
The question is
in which direction?
There is no proper reference
material that can say
here is X, dig here.
We have areas unexplored
in the Money Pit where
that vault might have ended up.
We only have one shot left.
So it's gonna have to be
partially data and
partially intuition.
Working from old
maps and charts,
recently discovered in
Dan Blankenship's basement,
Craig Tester was invited to
pick the location for what
is now the team's third
major excavation.
Where do you want to dig?
Well I don't know.
I guess I'm pushing them
towards this corner in here.
Nevertheless, the
decision to continue operations
at the Money Pit site
was not an easy one.
In addition to this year's
planned efforts in the swamp,
at Smith's Cove,
and at borehole 10-X,
the Oak Island team began this
year with only enough money to
dig two holes at the Money Pit.
Only through careful management
of their resources was
the digging of this third
hole even possible.
The stakes, both personally
and financially,
could not be higher.
- Hey, guys.
- Hey.
- How's it going?
- How are you?
- So, what's the word?
- Right now the word is,
we're 82 feet in the
ground with the casing and
- 75 feet with the excavation.
- Okay.
Going a little slower
right now than you thought or
No, overall I think
we're a little bit
ahead of the game, but right
now we had to add water 'cause
we had a significant water drop.
The water went down
to 65 feet below
- Wow.
- This, this grade.
- Wow.
- So there's no water coming in.
You're four feet away from V-3.
- Yeah.
- And there was tons
- of water there.
- Yeah.
That's significant, but what it
means, I don't know.
The absence of water in
the T-1 shaft is indeed unusual.
Excavations at the Money Pit
site usually strike water
at a depth of 40-feet and are
thought to the be consequence
of hitting one of the
booby-trapped flood tunnels
that have plagued Oak
Island treasure hunters
for more than two centuries.
Is it possible that Rick,
Craig and the team have
been successful
at avoiding the flood tunnels?
And, if so, how long might
their luck hold out?
We're going to start
carting the spoils offsite,
that's still the plan?
- Yep.
- Okay.
So by the end of today,
you're hoping to get to
the hundred-foot level?
By end of day today
I absolutely want to get
to the 100-foot mark.
Stuff like this is so hard
to predict
'cause you don't
know what's in the ground.
Sure, sure.
I, I wish you could predict
what's in the ground.
I really wish you could.
'Cause if we're
at the 100-foot level then
it'd start being interesting
what's coming out.
I want to say
at the end of this season
that we either found
the treasure in the Money Pit
or we're done
with the Money Pit.
So I'm, I'm on board with going
for broke
and digging one more well.
We feel we're zeroed in,
if you will,
on this specific area,
so considering
the costs
associated of doing it at
a different moment in time
doesn't make sense.
- Right.
- Do it now.
Could all the years of research,
planning and hard work really
be on the verge of paying off?
- Well, thank you.
- Yes.
We're going to work
over here for a bit.
Okay.
Are Rick, Craig and
the team just a few
feet away from finding
the ultimate target:
The original Money Pit
treasure shaft?
I can't wait until you
get to that 100-foot level.
- Thank you.
- All right, take care.
See you guys.
Continues at
the Money Pit, Rick Lagina,
along with other members
of the Oak Island team,
have gathered in the War Room.
So, guys, I think today,
all of us will find this very
interesting.
Joining them is
researcher Doug Crowell,
who has offered to shed new
light on a piece of evidence
that further connects
the activities of
the Knights Templar to
the Oak Island mystery.
Craig has reached out to
a University of Southern
California professor
by the name of Kevin Knight,
and he and his grad
assistant Nada,
they've done some work
with the La Formule page.
Yep.
Well, let's dial 'em up
and see what they have to say.
Hey Kevin, it's Craig.
How you doing?
Hey Craig, how's it going?
Dr. Kevin Knight is a Fellow
at the Information Sciences
Institute
and professor of
computer sciences at
the University of
Southern California.
You sent us, basically
this drawing here,
the Formule cipher.
He, along with his
graduate student,
Nada Aldarrab, have been
working to decode
the mysterious La Formule
cipher,
the same one that New York-
based writer and historian,
Zena Halpern believes is proof
that members of
the Knights Templar visited.
Oak Island
as early as the 12th century.
You know, we've been very
curious on this La Formule,
you know, I've got some
information
that you've already sent me.
- Yeah.
- Can you give the people here
a review of what you do?
We do research in historical
cryptography and we have some
computer programs that
we can apply to ciphers.
So, we've been working together
on this kind of stuff.
Well then, we're talking to the
right people, that's for sure.
The so-called La Formule cipher
is composed
of a number of symbols
which curiously
match those reported
to have been on the so-called,
"90 foot stone" which was found
in the Money Pit in 1804.
When the stone was first
translated in 1862,
"Forty feet below,
two million pounds are buried."
But the translation was based
on the assumption
that the cypher was meant
to be translated into English,
and has opened the door
to speculation
that the actual
code was more complex,
and the translation
even more profound.
Okay you want to go over
how you deciphered this
and what you came up with?
Yeah, sure.
What we have to do is type
into a computer readable format
these cipher letters.
So, we did this and then Nada
ran it through her computer
algorithm.
And the computer said,
"I searched through lots"
and lots of potential languages
that this might be a code for
"and French came out at the top."
And so French is the language
behind the cipher,
at least that's the computer's
initial opinion.
French?
Could this be an important
clue, indicating the identity
of the persons responsible for
creating the Oak Island mystery?
And, if so, does it mean
that the 90 foot stone
was incorrectly translated
more than a century ago?
And so then, what happens next?
Then we proceed to do full
decipherment of the text
against French.
And it looks like there's a lot
of words in there like "five,"
or "forty feet,"
there's some kind of angle.
Those seem like the right kind
of words that you want to see,
so that's a good sign.
Okay.
I did take what you had done
and to me it looks like we're
missing quite a few words.
I've got, "Halt,
do not hold up, dig at,"
then "40 feet with an angle 40
'N-R' degree."
The shaft is 500, 22 feet
to enter the."
Then after that,
there's gaps in the sentence.
There's a word "reid or a,"
and then a word that doesn't
make any sense.
I thought we had come
to the conclusion
that it was one thousand,
'Un Mil.'
Right.
Then, "five feet," and then at
the bottom, "reach the field."
So, it is a good interpretation,
but it sounds to me like
we're missing a lot of
words at the ends or
the beginnings of these
sentences.
Yeah, especially at the
end of the right part.
It says "Enter the"
something and so,
some word that starts with
a "C," so I don't know,
in French, what would you enter
that would start with a "C,"
like a cave or something
like that?
Professor, could that
also be "chamber?"
That's a good connection,
'cause in French,
it's "chambre?"
And then there was
some hint that
where you have
"reid" and "gold",
that may have been a
spelling mistake and
it actually says "corridor."
Yeah, I wanted it so
say "gold" so bad
Yeah, that part is
going to require guessing.
Your guess sounds reasonable.
You know, this is always
the case with these
historical ciphers,
they often include misspellings,
often included are
archaic usages.
Okay.
It does lead one to wonder
what was supposed to happen
when that 90 foot stone
was encountered,
you were supposed to not dig
deeper; It was a warning.
You were supposed to dig off
to the side somewhere.
The singular
reference of 522 feet,
it's 520 feet from Smith's
Cove to the Money Pit.
If the actual treasure was
buried much nearer the surface,
from a shaft going out
from the Money Pit,
that has always made
sense to me.
Could the La Formule cipher
actually contain a message
connecting Smith's Cove,
where an elaborate
flood tunnel system
is believed to originate,
and a golden treasure buried
some 520 feet away
in the Money Pit?
Zena, some of your
research suggested
that this is
part of a larger document?
When writer and
historian Zena Halpern
first shared
the La Formule cipher
with the team several weeks
ago, she indicated
that it was only one piece
of a much larger document.
Right.
It does fit like a puzzle,
it's ripped into
a puzzle piece, basically.
It seems to suggest seven
pieces of the document.
Seven pieces, exactly.
Seven pieces?
Could the number seven
be a critical clue
to understanding how to solve
the Oak Island mystery?
Throughout history and
mythology, the number seven
has played a significant role.
It not only corresponds to
the number of days of the week,
but also the number of days God
reportedly took
to create the universe.
Seven is the number
of candelabrum
in the Hebrew menorah.
And seven is the number of men
who must die while actively
looking for treasure
in the so-called
"Oak Island Curse."
As we push this agenda forward,
it's very necessary
that we marshal forces
to try to find the other
six pieces of this puzzle.
I think that once all the seven
puzzle pieces are put together,
then it will become a,
a true message, if you will.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
Of the Tester-One shaft
continues at the Money Pit,
Rick Lagina,
along with Jack Begley
and Dan Henskee,
have returned to Smith's Cove.
Well, it's much changed.
There's no question of that.
Yeah, a lot was done, yesterday.
They are hoping to
find the remains of
the five stone box drains
that were reportedly
discovered back in 1850.
If they can find evidence
of even
one of the finger-like drains,
they may be able to locate
the master flood tunnel
it is connected to and trace it
back to the original Money Pit.
- Hi, Laird.
- Hi, Rick.
- How are you doing?
- Great. How are you?
- Good.
- Good to see you.
Joining the team is area
archeologist Laird Niven.
He has been hired in order to
insure that any
ancient workings
that may be discovered
at Smith's Cove are excavated
in the most careful
way possible.
So, I think, Dan,
it's a very simple question
that I'll pose:
What do you want to do,
as far as a dig?
Okay, I'm thinking about the,
behind the machine
from this angle,
where the cofferdam takes
a turn.
How deep do you think?
I think it's gotta be
found by experimentation.
So, when you start,
you dig down several feet,
maybe even five feet.
Dan, why don't we walk down,
talk to Billy and get him up
to speed about the dig.
Yes, it'll be dark before too
many more hours.
Yup, yup, exactly.
If one of the original
box drains is uncovered,
it is imperative
that it be done without
causing it further damage.
So, part of what I'm
going to enjoy about this,
not only the hope that we
find something
but my brother thinks he's
a skilled operator,
but I suspect that you're
skilled and he's a novice,
so I want to see what a skilled
operator can do.
Well, let's see
what we can find, yup.
Yup, we're getting
out of your way.
Today in Smith's
Cove, it's going to be
another attempt
to find the box drains.
My hope is that we will find
something,
something legitimate,
something that pointedly says
there was an artificial creation
in Smith's Cove
and that that's how the seawater
was introduced into
the Money Pit.
Water coming up.
What do you mean,
the water's coming up?
That.
Like it's bubbling up
from the bottom?
Well, not bubbling but flowing.
What does that mean, Dan?
It just means we're not
getting seepage from the ocean.
Could the water that has begun
to pool inside the pit be coming
from the outside
of the cofferdam?
Or could it be coming from
somewhere inside the enclosure,
perhaps from some kind
of man-made drainage system?
You can see it. It is coming up.
In order to remove
the rising water
so that the team can continue
digging in search
of the box drains, Rick
and the team hurry to lay out
hoses connected
to a four-inch pump.
Heads up.
All I can say is it
looks like virgin ground.
That that's the right color,
and you know
Is that, is that a layer of
clay and then it goes to rocks?
That's beginning
to look interesting.
The team has suddenly
uncovered a mysterious pattern
of rocks beneath Smith's Cove.
But is it natural?
Or, could it be man-made?
Jack, do you see stones with
space between them down there?
Those are the ones
I'm looking at.
Yeah.
I'm wondering if there's
Yeah, that!
That Isn't that stones,
three, four stones touching?
Yeah.
Careful.
Don't be digging that away.
That's a big rock there,
isn't it?
Watch it, watch it, watch it!
Yeah
What do you make of it, Laird?
I don't know what to make of it.
No, neither do I.
How about if you dig
that out right there,
see if we can't get a cleaner
look at it.
Everybody clear?
Yep.
Based upon other
diggings around here,
this is an anomaly.
It is an anomaly, yeah.
Yeah, based on what we've
seen so far.
This is packed
with stones right here
and just next to it was,
you know, virgin soil.
Isn't this the description
of what happens right
before they find
the flood tunnels?
Isn't it, like, layer
of coconut fiber, layer of peat,
a bunch of gravel
and this stuff right above,
like, the actual flood tunnels,
right?
Exactly, you're right,
'cause that seems to be,
a layer.
It's unusual looking,
I'll say that.
You think you think you
could gently go deeper there,
like right here,
and just pull that away?
That big rock is there
and I think we'd undermine
the cofferdam if we go
any further.
Yup. Yeah, I'm afraid that's
gonna collapse.
The way she's bleeding through,
all it would take is that thing
to collapse.
I just feel like we
might've gone into, you know,
a "V" of these round stones.
Yeah, but at some point
we have to be safe, too.
'Cause what if the flood
tunnel drain is right here?
And what if, what if that comes
in on you and buries you?
You're right.
If we lose this,
then we lose the opportunity
to continue the search,
if we lose this
and we're dangerously close.
Although the team has made
what could be a major discovery,
it lies precariously
close to the cofferdam.
If the dam is compromised,
millions of gallons of water
could rush into the cove.
If you undermine that big rock,
we don't even
know how big it is, right?
And if you weaken that,
the water will breach through
underneath it and, you know
- Then we've lost it.
- We've lost it, yeah.
The team will
have to wait until the area
inside the cofferdam is dryer
and more stable
before they can return
and continue digging.
At Smith's Cove, Rick Lagina
and island historian Charles
Barkhouse have arranged
to meet with local
property owner
and fellow treasure hunter
Gary Clayton.
Well Gary, first of all,
I want to say
thank you for coming.
It's my honor to meet you.
No, no, my honor to meet you.
Having traveled from
his home in Arizona,
Gary is the owner of
Little Mash Island
a small, one-acre landmass
just a few hundred yards
from Oak Island,
and which Gary believes
is directly connected to
the Oak Island mystery.
So what have, what have
you brought us here today?
Well, friend,
I brought you the key
that unlocks the door
to your dreams.
Well, I'm not being
disrespectful here but many
people have said that and
truly believed that.
That's fine, but
mine's not based on belief.
Mine's based upon an assessment
of facts and a record.
After purchasing
the tiny island in 1988,
Gary spent the next ten years
conducting a series of surveys,
drilling operations
and excavations in an effort
to prove a connection
between Little Mash
and the Oak Island mystery.
Like fellow treasure hunter
Fred Nolan,
he became convinced
that answers could be found
not only below ground,
but also above it.
I thought we'd take the time
to look at some targets
under Little Mash.
- Now this is Little Mash?
- That's Little Mash.
It's basically a fish-shaped
island.
They did an assessment
or a test trench
across this area here.
At three feet, they ran
into a solid strip of clay,
12 inches high, running 15 feet
and squared off at the ends.
As they went down at four feet,
they discovered a secondary
topsoil
underneath the first topsoil.
So that suggests to me this
island was completely man-made.
A man-made island?
Some 400 yards from Oak Island?
But if so, who made it,
and for what purpose?
Oak Island, the whole thing,
is covered with a labyrinth.
Fred both Fred
and Dan believe that.
- Yes.
- That's true.
There's a seal, a chamber
or tunnel system,
going from Oak Island
to my island.
There are certain access points
on both sides of the island.
And, they can be found
by simple equipment
and simple excursion time.
Low cost.
The only difference is,
you have to understand what
the surface is saying to you.
I can read the surface,
and I can understand what's
below it.
This is a stone foot.
It was dug up about 1993
and it was dug up right here.
It's about nine inches long.
There's an obvious
arch underneath, as you'll see.
Now you're looking at the bottom
of the foot.
Here, you can compare
that to this.
You'll notice it's
the same as this.
So the information
on the surface
was telling us
exactly what was below.
What is above, is
- Down below
- is below.
So what are,
what are these targets?
This is a foot-shaped void.
That one is 63 feet across.
We drilled four holes,
very close together,
over in this area right here.
And we went down 231 feet.
A 63 foot-wide foot-shaped void?
Located some 231 feet
below ground?
But, if so, how does it connect
to the Oak Island mystery?
And what,
if anything, could it contain?
As far as the story,
the background, the history
of this place,
who might have done it?
I think Lord Anson was
involved in,
in the structure.
He's an English admiral.
Lord George Anson was
a decorated 18th century.
British naval commander.
He was reported to have
been entrusted with a vast,
priceless treasure by members
the English Royal Society,
a select group of Freemasons
with ties to the Rosicruscians,
as well
as to the Knights Templar.
It is believed that members
of the secret order revealed
a coded map to Lord Anson
that relied on constellations,
and which was based on
navigation calculations made
at the Royal Greenwich
Observatory,
under a commission
by King Charles II in 1675.
According to Gary
Clayton's theory,
Lord Anson used this map to
set sail from England in 1740
and with orders
to hide the treasure
somewhere in the New World.
- Ho ho!
- Is that a coin?
That's a King George!
Just a few weeks ago,
metal detection expert
Gary Drayton,
found a number of 18th
century British coins
on the eastern end
of the island.
We've got a button,
we've got coins.
Maybe this is some kind of camp.
1700's, that changes a lot.
They're not supposed to be here.
No.
Could the coins
Gary Drayton found
on Oak Island
offer important evidence
that Gary Clayton's
incredible theory is true?
I think the tunnel system
takes me to several different
chambers,
and some of these chambers
have things,
which are not even
on the archeological scope.
In one chamber, there's a table
and on it is a very shallow cup,
and beside it there's
a golden altar of incense.
That's in one.
In the other one
are two calendars,
the books of Mayans
and some relics which we
cannot identify yet.
On another one we have a tomb.
Then, on the bottom floor
of the same chamber,
we have a sealed door.
And that sealed door goes
to a second level.
And in that chamber
several hundred tons
of gold bouillon.
- You have any questions?
- I have a question. Wh
- Ask away.
- Why are you here?
I'm here to give you an offer
for-for a consultant contract.
15% of anything
we find using my information
for one year,
and you get to keep the rest.
Secondly, I know
how much is involved,
and by the information here,
I think that I have a pretty
good chance at being correct.
You sit across the table
from a person who,
who adamantly and fervently
believes in what
they're telling you,
that they've done all their
homework, they've,
they've created this database
of information and
- It's catchy.
- Yeah, it migrates across
the table, you wanna reach out,
you wanna grab
onto it and latch
onto it and say,
yes, yes, I do, I, too, believe.
You know, Gary, this is a lot
- It certainly is.
- This is a lot to take in.
I need to talk to my brother
and Craig and Dan and have a
- That's fine.
- And have a proper discussion
- about your generous offer.
- Good.
And I will relay
the information as best I can.
- All right.
- Appreciate it.
Appreciate it, and
I'm glad to meet you.
Okay.
Continues at the exploration
shaft known as T-1
- Hey, guys.
- Hey, Jack.
Brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,
along with members
of their team,
return to their search
for the man-made box
drains at Smith's Cove.
So, talk to us.
What do you got here?
That feature right there.
Those are big! I mean
that's a big rock right there.
But the rest aren't. It's more
like, you know, human sized
You know, I built many a rock
wall as you well know and that,
that looks somewhat fitted.
In the late 1980's I dug around,
and I exposed what
looked to me like a wall,
and-and something cut
at an angle,
which reminded me of the
diagram showing the flooding
That's what I see here.
That's the remnants of that?
Yes.
You ought to come down
and take a look. You can see
Yeah, I will. I'd like to.
Bring me the elevator, buddy.
What I'm looking at,
I think it's legit.
Going down!
You know, Marty and Craig
may look at it and go,
"bunch of rocks." I don't know.
But I do know this:
That Dan Henskee believes
this is something real
and I'm hoping that
Marty and Craig will, too.
It is interesting,
the gradation, right?
You know, you got the smallest
rocks at the bottom,
then bigger, then big
walloping great ones
that seem to be holding it
all in place.
Now, I don't know,
is that natural or is it not?
I mean, Rick, you think those
look set, inset?
I do.
I think that humans built that.
To what end, for what purpose,
I don't know, but this
face here in particular
Continues. It's this
wide at least.
- There's still stone there.
- Yep.
Some of these stones
are very much square.
You know, cut. Is that a wall?
What else could it be?
When I first saw the rock wall,
I immediately thought, well,
searchers wouldn't have
been out there
in the cove jumbling
piles of rocks around.
I mean, it would have been
pointless to do that.
I can't, I can't conger
up a reason for that.
So if it is in fact man-made,
it's probably the most likely
thing we've seen with our
own eyes that was original.
Well, let's dig it some more.
- Okay.
- I'm fine with that.
The Smith's
Cove work is actually
at least as exciting
as the Money Pit work.
It's the box drains.
You reveal the box drains
or a remnant of it,
there's a lot of information
that can come of that.
Yeah, Dan's here!
Hi, Marty.
- Hey, Daniel, how you doing?
- Don't fall in though.
No I won't. What do you
make of that, anything?
The fact that there appears
to be stone in there,
and if that has a wall there
and a wall here,
I think they call it
a French Drain.
Yup.
A French Drain is a
type of trench,
which has been filled
in with rocks for the purpose
of redirecting
and controlling water flow.
Although named after
Henry Flagg French,
a 19th century lawyer
and Assistant US Treasury
Secretary,
their design and use is believed
to date back many centuries.
Could the team have finally
found a part
of the original
flood tunnel system,
the one that featured the five
box drains that were first
discovered at Smith's
Cove in 1850?
I think it's continuing, Craig.
I mean, it keeps taking
scoops out
that are pretty much all rocks.
So it's headed back this way?
That would mean
that under the cofferdam
would be the other part of it.
Billy!
I would love to keep
digging this way,
but you can't dig
outside the bladder, right?
Can't. No.
The rock structure,
its close proximity
to the bladder is disturbing
because we cannot carry
that discovery process
in that area.
It's just not safe.
I mean, if we destabilize the
bladder system,
all is lost.
Although the team
must end their search
for the stone box drains,
at least for the time
being, they have made
what they believe
is an incredible discovery:
An ancient man-made
stone structure
beneath Smith's Cove.
Laird, I'm going
to put you on the spot now.
Man-made?
It's definitely
what we'd call "cultural", yeah.
Okay.
You mean you're saying based on
your expertise with certainty,
this is placed here?
It's a man-made, something?
I believe so, yeah.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
Um, because it's relatively
localized.
- Yeah
- Right, so that kind of rules
out anything geological,
and the sorting
of the rocks is unusual.
We've found something
that we need
to continue to look at.
It's truly a unique structure.
I believe it's original.
But I think we have to
terminate at this point.
There is a closure date
for the permit,
when that bladder system has
to be removed, and it's
very, very near,
so we have to arrange
to get that bladder system
out of Smith's Cove
and stored properly
for perhaps a dig next year.
- We're done here
- We're done here.
But we're not
done with the search.
Billy, you wanna
fill this in then?
- I will, for sure, yep.
- Okay, thank you.
Thanks, Billy.
Later
that afternoon, Rick Lagina
and Craig Tester arrive
at the T-1 excavation site
for a final update
on the day's progress.
Suddenly
There's a chunk of wood!
That's vertical!
That's hand chopped.
- Yep.
- Look at the ang
Do you want
that down here, guys?
- Yeah.
- Yeah
Michel?
Well, what the hell
else could it be?
Thank you.
- Definitely hand cut.
- That is a big piece of wood.
Yeah. So the,
the ends were sawed but the,
this is definitely
That's, that's an axe there.
That's hand-hewn.
When the vertical
timbers come up
we were all excited immediately.
Now the curious thing is
they're hand-hewn.
That is the first piece
of wood from underground
in the Money Pit
that has been
hand-hewn under our auspices,
First time ever!
A hand-cut wooden timber?
Retrieved from the T-1 shaft
in the Money Pit area?
Has the Oak Island team
finally located
their elusive target?
While the team
from Irving Equipment, Ltd.
Continues digging
a third massive hole
at the Money Pit site known
as T-1
That's hand chopped.
Rick Lagina and Craig Tester
have arrived just in time
to witness a potentially
momentous discovery.
I'm gonna look at
that bucket drop.
Different type of wood now.
That almost looks like
it was a vertical timber
by the way it came up.
What depth do you have us at?
102 Feet.
102, it could be a tunnel.
A lot of people when they
went down
next to the original Money Pit,
the Money Pit's here, they came
down next to it then
they tunneled over to it.
I see. Yep.
Maybe we're hitting
parts of that tunnel.
Nearly five decades before
the reported discovery of
the Chappell vault
in 1897, members
of the Truro Company drilled
through what they believed to
be two stacked wooden chests
at a depth of 96 feet.
According to reports,
each were full of what
was described as 22 inches
of "metal pieces,"
or possibly gold coins.
In an attempt to retrieve
the chests,
and avoid the booby-trapped
flood tunnels,
the searchers dug an adjacent
shaft ten feet from
the Money Pit,
and began constructing
a lateral tunnel toward it.
Their hopes of solving
the Oak Island mystery
were quickly dashed however,
as the tunnel collapsed from
flooding just before they
reached the mysterious chests.
We're hoping at this point
in time maybe we'll find
the shallow supposed
treasure from this,
this vault area.
Wow.
- There you go.
- Wow.
We just brought up a
whole bunch more wood.
I'm gonna go look.
What the hell is that?
I don't know what that is.
That is odd.
What if this is part of
the Money Pit,
the original Money Pit?
A round piece of wood?
Located at a depth of
approximately 105 feet
beneath the surface
of the Money Pit site?
When the Money Pit was first
excavated
more than two centuries ago,
searchers reported
finding nine wooden platforms
made of rounded oak timbers
located at ten foot intervals,
at which point
massive flooding halted
further exploration.
Could the Oak Island team
have just discovered evidence
not only of
the original Money Pit,
but of a previously
unknown tenth platform,
ten feet deeper than where
the 90 foot stone was
discovered in 1804?
If you read the records of
them originally finding
the Money Pit,
you know, every ten feet or
so they'd hit a platform.
They thought the vault was
sitting on a platform and this,
you know, three-inch
diameter piece of wood
to me could definitely have been
one of those pieces of
wood from the platform.
You know, can we date this?
I mean, it seems much
blacker to me than this.
This is a very dark gray
but this seems black
and if this comes back,
you know, in the 1500s
or something then
- It's heavy.
- Yeah, it is heavy.
You wanna just
take a section of it?
Yeah, we'll cut a little piece
off and it'll tell you what time
did this log get cut down.
All right, let's get this
off, see what it comes back.
I don't know what to hope for,
more wood,
less wood, no wood?
Wood that's in
the form of a chest?
Rick, Marty, Craig and the team
appear to be on the verge
of one of the most significant
breakthroughs in their quest to
solve the Oak Island mystery.
But as they continue to dig
deeper, what will they find?
Precious religious artifacts,
wooden chests filled
with gold coins,
the priceless treasures
of the ancient Maya,
or will they come face to
face with an ancient curse,
one that threatens a deadly
fate to those who dare try
and solve the mystery?
Perhaps the answer is now only
a few precious inches away.
Next time on
The Curse of Oak Island
The point of interest is
the stones on Oak Island.
I believe these stones
were transported.
My! I've never seen
anything quite like this.
Come on, baby!
Another round
piece of wood there.
This might be part
of the original dig.
This one tested
from 1655 to 1695.
Right there, original Money Pit.
That's what this
is implying, yes.
This is packed with stones.
Isn't it the flood tunnels?
It's the box drains.
This was what was done
to protect the treasure
in the Money Pit.
That's beginning
to look interesting.
There's a chamber or tunnel
system going from Oak Island
to Little Mash island.
And in that chamber
there are several
hundred tons of gold bullion.
That is a big piece of wood.
That's hand chopped.
This is part of the original
Money Pit.
There is an island
in the North Atlantic
where people have been looking
for an incredible treasure
for more than 200 years.
So far they have found bits
of gold chain,
a stone slab with strange
symbols carved into it,
even a 17th century
Spanish coin.
To date, six men have died
trying to solve the mystery.
And, according to legend,
one more will have to die,
before the treasure
can be found.
It is the start
of another day on Oak Island.
A day that,
like the one before it,
offers renewed optimism,
and the possibility
that an exciting new discovery
could happen at any moment.
Looks like they've got
the can about 80-feet to me.
It'll be interesting to see
what their rate of advance is.
Yeah.
In an effort
to pinpoint the exact location
of the Oak Island Money Pit,
the fabled treasure shaft
first discovered by Daniel
McGinnis and two friends
back in 1795,
brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,
along with their partners,
agreed to dig two large,
40-inch wide holes at the two
most promising locations.
The first of these was
at the site known as V-3
or "Valley Three,"
where Rick
and Craig Tester discovered
what they thought was evidence
of a seven foot tall
wooden vault first discovered
by treasure hunters
Frederick Blair
and William Chappell
back in 1897.
Concrete and then wood.
That's what they found
in the top of the vault.
The second location,
known as C-1
Here we go.
Was the site where one year ago,
Rick and Oak Island historian
Charles Barkhouse
discovered what appeared to be
a mysterious metallic object
What's that?
Embedded in
the walls of a cavern
some 170 feet deep beneath
the surface of the island.
Look how yellow that is.
It's your gold color, David.
Yeah, there it is, David.
But after investing
hundreds of hours
and millions of dollars
exploring the two sites,
the results, though somewhat
disappointing
We seeing saw marks on there?
Convinced the team that
the location of
the original Money Pit lay
within yards of where
they had been digging.
The question is
in which direction?
There is no proper reference
material that can say
here is X, dig here.
We have areas unexplored
in the Money Pit where
that vault might have ended up.
We only have one shot left.
So it's gonna have to be
partially data and
partially intuition.
Working from old
maps and charts,
recently discovered in
Dan Blankenship's basement,
Craig Tester was invited to
pick the location for what
is now the team's third
major excavation.
Where do you want to dig?
Well I don't know.
I guess I'm pushing them
towards this corner in here.
Nevertheless, the
decision to continue operations
at the Money Pit site
was not an easy one.
In addition to this year's
planned efforts in the swamp,
at Smith's Cove,
and at borehole 10-X,
the Oak Island team began this
year with only enough money to
dig two holes at the Money Pit.
Only through careful management
of their resources was
the digging of this third
hole even possible.
The stakes, both personally
and financially,
could not be higher.
- Hey, guys.
- Hey.
- How's it going?
- How are you?
- So, what's the word?
- Right now the word is,
we're 82 feet in the
ground with the casing and
- 75 feet with the excavation.
- Okay.
Going a little slower
right now than you thought or
No, overall I think
we're a little bit
ahead of the game, but right
now we had to add water 'cause
we had a significant water drop.
The water went down
to 65 feet below
- Wow.
- This, this grade.
- Wow.
- So there's no water coming in.
You're four feet away from V-3.
- Yeah.
- And there was tons
- of water there.
- Yeah.
That's significant, but what it
means, I don't know.
The absence of water in
the T-1 shaft is indeed unusual.
Excavations at the Money Pit
site usually strike water
at a depth of 40-feet and are
thought to the be consequence
of hitting one of the
booby-trapped flood tunnels
that have plagued Oak
Island treasure hunters
for more than two centuries.
Is it possible that Rick,
Craig and the team have
been successful
at avoiding the flood tunnels?
And, if so, how long might
their luck hold out?
We're going to start
carting the spoils offsite,
that's still the plan?
- Yep.
- Okay.
So by the end of today,
you're hoping to get to
the hundred-foot level?
By end of day today
I absolutely want to get
to the 100-foot mark.
Stuff like this is so hard
to predict
'cause you don't
know what's in the ground.
Sure, sure.
I, I wish you could predict
what's in the ground.
I really wish you could.
'Cause if we're
at the 100-foot level then
it'd start being interesting
what's coming out.
I want to say
at the end of this season
that we either found
the treasure in the Money Pit
or we're done
with the Money Pit.
So I'm, I'm on board with going
for broke
and digging one more well.
We feel we're zeroed in,
if you will,
on this specific area,
so considering
the costs
associated of doing it at
a different moment in time
doesn't make sense.
- Right.
- Do it now.
Could all the years of research,
planning and hard work really
be on the verge of paying off?
- Well, thank you.
- Yes.
We're going to work
over here for a bit.
Okay.
Are Rick, Craig and
the team just a few
feet away from finding
the ultimate target:
The original Money Pit
treasure shaft?
I can't wait until you
get to that 100-foot level.
- Thank you.
- All right, take care.
See you guys.
Continues at
the Money Pit, Rick Lagina,
along with other members
of the Oak Island team,
have gathered in the War Room.
So, guys, I think today,
all of us will find this very
interesting.
Joining them is
researcher Doug Crowell,
who has offered to shed new
light on a piece of evidence
that further connects
the activities of
the Knights Templar to
the Oak Island mystery.
Craig has reached out to
a University of Southern
California professor
by the name of Kevin Knight,
and he and his grad
assistant Nada,
they've done some work
with the La Formule page.
Yep.
Well, let's dial 'em up
and see what they have to say.
Hey Kevin, it's Craig.
How you doing?
Hey Craig, how's it going?
Dr. Kevin Knight is a Fellow
at the Information Sciences
Institute
and professor of
computer sciences at
the University of
Southern California.
You sent us, basically
this drawing here,
the Formule cipher.
He, along with his
graduate student,
Nada Aldarrab, have been
working to decode
the mysterious La Formule
cipher,
the same one that New York-
based writer and historian,
Zena Halpern believes is proof
that members of
the Knights Templar visited.
Oak Island
as early as the 12th century.
You know, we've been very
curious on this La Formule,
you know, I've got some
information
that you've already sent me.
- Yeah.
- Can you give the people here
a review of what you do?
We do research in historical
cryptography and we have some
computer programs that
we can apply to ciphers.
So, we've been working together
on this kind of stuff.
Well then, we're talking to the
right people, that's for sure.
The so-called La Formule cipher
is composed
of a number of symbols
which curiously
match those reported
to have been on the so-called,
"90 foot stone" which was found
in the Money Pit in 1804.
When the stone was first
translated in 1862,
"Forty feet below,
two million pounds are buried."
But the translation was based
on the assumption
that the cypher was meant
to be translated into English,
and has opened the door
to speculation
that the actual
code was more complex,
and the translation
even more profound.
Okay you want to go over
how you deciphered this
and what you came up with?
Yeah, sure.
What we have to do is type
into a computer readable format
these cipher letters.
So, we did this and then Nada
ran it through her computer
algorithm.
And the computer said,
"I searched through lots"
and lots of potential languages
that this might be a code for
"and French came out at the top."
And so French is the language
behind the cipher,
at least that's the computer's
initial opinion.
French?
Could this be an important
clue, indicating the identity
of the persons responsible for
creating the Oak Island mystery?
And, if so, does it mean
that the 90 foot stone
was incorrectly translated
more than a century ago?
And so then, what happens next?
Then we proceed to do full
decipherment of the text
against French.
And it looks like there's a lot
of words in there like "five,"
or "forty feet,"
there's some kind of angle.
Those seem like the right kind
of words that you want to see,
so that's a good sign.
Okay.
I did take what you had done
and to me it looks like we're
missing quite a few words.
I've got, "Halt,
do not hold up, dig at,"
then "40 feet with an angle 40
'N-R' degree."
The shaft is 500, 22 feet
to enter the."
Then after that,
there's gaps in the sentence.
There's a word "reid or a,"
and then a word that doesn't
make any sense.
I thought we had come
to the conclusion
that it was one thousand,
'Un Mil.'
Right.
Then, "five feet," and then at
the bottom, "reach the field."
So, it is a good interpretation,
but it sounds to me like
we're missing a lot of
words at the ends or
the beginnings of these
sentences.
Yeah, especially at the
end of the right part.
It says "Enter the"
something and so,
some word that starts with
a "C," so I don't know,
in French, what would you enter
that would start with a "C,"
like a cave or something
like that?
Professor, could that
also be "chamber?"
That's a good connection,
'cause in French,
it's "chambre?"
And then there was
some hint that
where you have
"reid" and "gold",
that may have been a
spelling mistake and
it actually says "corridor."
Yeah, I wanted it so
say "gold" so bad
Yeah, that part is
going to require guessing.
Your guess sounds reasonable.
You know, this is always
the case with these
historical ciphers,
they often include misspellings,
often included are
archaic usages.
Okay.
It does lead one to wonder
what was supposed to happen
when that 90 foot stone
was encountered,
you were supposed to not dig
deeper; It was a warning.
You were supposed to dig off
to the side somewhere.
The singular
reference of 522 feet,
it's 520 feet from Smith's
Cove to the Money Pit.
If the actual treasure was
buried much nearer the surface,
from a shaft going out
from the Money Pit,
that has always made
sense to me.
Could the La Formule cipher
actually contain a message
connecting Smith's Cove,
where an elaborate
flood tunnel system
is believed to originate,
and a golden treasure buried
some 520 feet away
in the Money Pit?
Zena, some of your
research suggested
that this is
part of a larger document?
When writer and
historian Zena Halpern
first shared
the La Formule cipher
with the team several weeks
ago, she indicated
that it was only one piece
of a much larger document.
Right.
It does fit like a puzzle,
it's ripped into
a puzzle piece, basically.
It seems to suggest seven
pieces of the document.
Seven pieces, exactly.
Seven pieces?
Could the number seven
be a critical clue
to understanding how to solve
the Oak Island mystery?
Throughout history and
mythology, the number seven
has played a significant role.
It not only corresponds to
the number of days of the week,
but also the number of days God
reportedly took
to create the universe.
Seven is the number
of candelabrum
in the Hebrew menorah.
And seven is the number of men
who must die while actively
looking for treasure
in the so-called
"Oak Island Curse."
As we push this agenda forward,
it's very necessary
that we marshal forces
to try to find the other
six pieces of this puzzle.
I think that once all the seven
puzzle pieces are put together,
then it will become a,
a true message, if you will.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
Of the Tester-One shaft
continues at the Money Pit,
Rick Lagina,
along with Jack Begley
and Dan Henskee,
have returned to Smith's Cove.
Well, it's much changed.
There's no question of that.
Yeah, a lot was done, yesterday.
They are hoping to
find the remains of
the five stone box drains
that were reportedly
discovered back in 1850.
If they can find evidence
of even
one of the finger-like drains,
they may be able to locate
the master flood tunnel
it is connected to and trace it
back to the original Money Pit.
- Hi, Laird.
- Hi, Rick.
- How are you doing?
- Great. How are you?
- Good.
- Good to see you.
Joining the team is area
archeologist Laird Niven.
He has been hired in order to
insure that any
ancient workings
that may be discovered
at Smith's Cove are excavated
in the most careful
way possible.
So, I think, Dan,
it's a very simple question
that I'll pose:
What do you want to do,
as far as a dig?
Okay, I'm thinking about the,
behind the machine
from this angle,
where the cofferdam takes
a turn.
How deep do you think?
I think it's gotta be
found by experimentation.
So, when you start,
you dig down several feet,
maybe even five feet.
Dan, why don't we walk down,
talk to Billy and get him up
to speed about the dig.
Yes, it'll be dark before too
many more hours.
Yup, yup, exactly.
If one of the original
box drains is uncovered,
it is imperative
that it be done without
causing it further damage.
So, part of what I'm
going to enjoy about this,
not only the hope that we
find something
but my brother thinks he's
a skilled operator,
but I suspect that you're
skilled and he's a novice,
so I want to see what a skilled
operator can do.
Well, let's see
what we can find, yup.
Yup, we're getting
out of your way.
Today in Smith's
Cove, it's going to be
another attempt
to find the box drains.
My hope is that we will find
something,
something legitimate,
something that pointedly says
there was an artificial creation
in Smith's Cove
and that that's how the seawater
was introduced into
the Money Pit.
Water coming up.
What do you mean,
the water's coming up?
That.
Like it's bubbling up
from the bottom?
Well, not bubbling but flowing.
What does that mean, Dan?
It just means we're not
getting seepage from the ocean.
Could the water that has begun
to pool inside the pit be coming
from the outside
of the cofferdam?
Or could it be coming from
somewhere inside the enclosure,
perhaps from some kind
of man-made drainage system?
You can see it. It is coming up.
In order to remove
the rising water
so that the team can continue
digging in search
of the box drains, Rick
and the team hurry to lay out
hoses connected
to a four-inch pump.
Heads up.
All I can say is it
looks like virgin ground.
That that's the right color,
and you know
Is that, is that a layer of
clay and then it goes to rocks?
That's beginning
to look interesting.
The team has suddenly
uncovered a mysterious pattern
of rocks beneath Smith's Cove.
But is it natural?
Or, could it be man-made?
Jack, do you see stones with
space between them down there?
Those are the ones
I'm looking at.
Yeah.
I'm wondering if there's
Yeah, that!
That Isn't that stones,
three, four stones touching?
Yeah.
Careful.
Don't be digging that away.
That's a big rock there,
isn't it?
Watch it, watch it, watch it!
Yeah
What do you make of it, Laird?
I don't know what to make of it.
No, neither do I.
How about if you dig
that out right there,
see if we can't get a cleaner
look at it.
Everybody clear?
Yep.
Based upon other
diggings around here,
this is an anomaly.
It is an anomaly, yeah.
Yeah, based on what we've
seen so far.
This is packed
with stones right here
and just next to it was,
you know, virgin soil.
Isn't this the description
of what happens right
before they find
the flood tunnels?
Isn't it, like, layer
of coconut fiber, layer of peat,
a bunch of gravel
and this stuff right above,
like, the actual flood tunnels,
right?
Exactly, you're right,
'cause that seems to be,
a layer.
It's unusual looking,
I'll say that.
You think you think you
could gently go deeper there,
like right here,
and just pull that away?
That big rock is there
and I think we'd undermine
the cofferdam if we go
any further.
Yup. Yeah, I'm afraid that's
gonna collapse.
The way she's bleeding through,
all it would take is that thing
to collapse.
I just feel like we
might've gone into, you know,
a "V" of these round stones.
Yeah, but at some point
we have to be safe, too.
'Cause what if the flood
tunnel drain is right here?
And what if, what if that comes
in on you and buries you?
You're right.
If we lose this,
then we lose the opportunity
to continue the search,
if we lose this
and we're dangerously close.
Although the team has made
what could be a major discovery,
it lies precariously
close to the cofferdam.
If the dam is compromised,
millions of gallons of water
could rush into the cove.
If you undermine that big rock,
we don't even
know how big it is, right?
And if you weaken that,
the water will breach through
underneath it and, you know
- Then we've lost it.
- We've lost it, yeah.
The team will
have to wait until the area
inside the cofferdam is dryer
and more stable
before they can return
and continue digging.
At Smith's Cove, Rick Lagina
and island historian Charles
Barkhouse have arranged
to meet with local
property owner
and fellow treasure hunter
Gary Clayton.
Well Gary, first of all,
I want to say
thank you for coming.
It's my honor to meet you.
No, no, my honor to meet you.
Having traveled from
his home in Arizona,
Gary is the owner of
Little Mash Island
a small, one-acre landmass
just a few hundred yards
from Oak Island,
and which Gary believes
is directly connected to
the Oak Island mystery.
So what have, what have
you brought us here today?
Well, friend,
I brought you the key
that unlocks the door
to your dreams.
Well, I'm not being
disrespectful here but many
people have said that and
truly believed that.
That's fine, but
mine's not based on belief.
Mine's based upon an assessment
of facts and a record.
After purchasing
the tiny island in 1988,
Gary spent the next ten years
conducting a series of surveys,
drilling operations
and excavations in an effort
to prove a connection
between Little Mash
and the Oak Island mystery.
Like fellow treasure hunter
Fred Nolan,
he became convinced
that answers could be found
not only below ground,
but also above it.
I thought we'd take the time
to look at some targets
under Little Mash.
- Now this is Little Mash?
- That's Little Mash.
It's basically a fish-shaped
island.
They did an assessment
or a test trench
across this area here.
At three feet, they ran
into a solid strip of clay,
12 inches high, running 15 feet
and squared off at the ends.
As they went down at four feet,
they discovered a secondary
topsoil
underneath the first topsoil.
So that suggests to me this
island was completely man-made.
A man-made island?
Some 400 yards from Oak Island?
But if so, who made it,
and for what purpose?
Oak Island, the whole thing,
is covered with a labyrinth.
Fred both Fred
and Dan believe that.
- Yes.
- That's true.
There's a seal, a chamber
or tunnel system,
going from Oak Island
to my island.
There are certain access points
on both sides of the island.
And, they can be found
by simple equipment
and simple excursion time.
Low cost.
The only difference is,
you have to understand what
the surface is saying to you.
I can read the surface,
and I can understand what's
below it.
This is a stone foot.
It was dug up about 1993
and it was dug up right here.
It's about nine inches long.
There's an obvious
arch underneath, as you'll see.
Now you're looking at the bottom
of the foot.
Here, you can compare
that to this.
You'll notice it's
the same as this.
So the information
on the surface
was telling us
exactly what was below.
What is above, is
- Down below
- is below.
So what are,
what are these targets?
This is a foot-shaped void.
That one is 63 feet across.
We drilled four holes,
very close together,
over in this area right here.
And we went down 231 feet.
A 63 foot-wide foot-shaped void?
Located some 231 feet
below ground?
But, if so, how does it connect
to the Oak Island mystery?
And what,
if anything, could it contain?
As far as the story,
the background, the history
of this place,
who might have done it?
I think Lord Anson was
involved in,
in the structure.
He's an English admiral.
Lord George Anson was
a decorated 18th century.
British naval commander.
He was reported to have
been entrusted with a vast,
priceless treasure by members
the English Royal Society,
a select group of Freemasons
with ties to the Rosicruscians,
as well
as to the Knights Templar.
It is believed that members
of the secret order revealed
a coded map to Lord Anson
that relied on constellations,
and which was based on
navigation calculations made
at the Royal Greenwich
Observatory,
under a commission
by King Charles II in 1675.
According to Gary
Clayton's theory,
Lord Anson used this map to
set sail from England in 1740
and with orders
to hide the treasure
somewhere in the New World.
- Ho ho!
- Is that a coin?
That's a King George!
Just a few weeks ago,
metal detection expert
Gary Drayton,
found a number of 18th
century British coins
on the eastern end
of the island.
We've got a button,
we've got coins.
Maybe this is some kind of camp.
1700's, that changes a lot.
They're not supposed to be here.
No.
Could the coins
Gary Drayton found
on Oak Island
offer important evidence
that Gary Clayton's
incredible theory is true?
I think the tunnel system
takes me to several different
chambers,
and some of these chambers
have things,
which are not even
on the archeological scope.
In one chamber, there's a table
and on it is a very shallow cup,
and beside it there's
a golden altar of incense.
That's in one.
In the other one
are two calendars,
the books of Mayans
and some relics which we
cannot identify yet.
On another one we have a tomb.
Then, on the bottom floor
of the same chamber,
we have a sealed door.
And that sealed door goes
to a second level.
And in that chamber
several hundred tons
of gold bouillon.
- You have any questions?
- I have a question. Wh
- Ask away.
- Why are you here?
I'm here to give you an offer
for-for a consultant contract.
15% of anything
we find using my information
for one year,
and you get to keep the rest.
Secondly, I know
how much is involved,
and by the information here,
I think that I have a pretty
good chance at being correct.
You sit across the table
from a person who,
who adamantly and fervently
believes in what
they're telling you,
that they've done all their
homework, they've,
they've created this database
of information and
- It's catchy.
- Yeah, it migrates across
the table, you wanna reach out,
you wanna grab
onto it and latch
onto it and say,
yes, yes, I do, I, too, believe.
You know, Gary, this is a lot
- It certainly is.
- This is a lot to take in.
I need to talk to my brother
and Craig and Dan and have a
- That's fine.
- And have a proper discussion
- about your generous offer.
- Good.
And I will relay
the information as best I can.
- All right.
- Appreciate it.
Appreciate it, and
I'm glad to meet you.
Okay.
Continues at the exploration
shaft known as T-1
- Hey, guys.
- Hey, Jack.
Brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,
along with members
of their team,
return to their search
for the man-made box
drains at Smith's Cove.
So, talk to us.
What do you got here?
That feature right there.
Those are big! I mean
that's a big rock right there.
But the rest aren't. It's more
like, you know, human sized
You know, I built many a rock
wall as you well know and that,
that looks somewhat fitted.
In the late 1980's I dug around,
and I exposed what
looked to me like a wall,
and-and something cut
at an angle,
which reminded me of the
diagram showing the flooding
That's what I see here.
That's the remnants of that?
Yes.
You ought to come down
and take a look. You can see
Yeah, I will. I'd like to.
Bring me the elevator, buddy.
What I'm looking at,
I think it's legit.
Going down!
You know, Marty and Craig
may look at it and go,
"bunch of rocks." I don't know.
But I do know this:
That Dan Henskee believes
this is something real
and I'm hoping that
Marty and Craig will, too.
It is interesting,
the gradation, right?
You know, you got the smallest
rocks at the bottom,
then bigger, then big
walloping great ones
that seem to be holding it
all in place.
Now, I don't know,
is that natural or is it not?
I mean, Rick, you think those
look set, inset?
I do.
I think that humans built that.
To what end, for what purpose,
I don't know, but this
face here in particular
Continues. It's this
wide at least.
- There's still stone there.
- Yep.
Some of these stones
are very much square.
You know, cut. Is that a wall?
What else could it be?
When I first saw the rock wall,
I immediately thought, well,
searchers wouldn't have
been out there
in the cove jumbling
piles of rocks around.
I mean, it would have been
pointless to do that.
I can't, I can't conger
up a reason for that.
So if it is in fact man-made,
it's probably the most likely
thing we've seen with our
own eyes that was original.
Well, let's dig it some more.
- Okay.
- I'm fine with that.
The Smith's
Cove work is actually
at least as exciting
as the Money Pit work.
It's the box drains.
You reveal the box drains
or a remnant of it,
there's a lot of information
that can come of that.
Yeah, Dan's here!
Hi, Marty.
- Hey, Daniel, how you doing?
- Don't fall in though.
No I won't. What do you
make of that, anything?
The fact that there appears
to be stone in there,
and if that has a wall there
and a wall here,
I think they call it
a French Drain.
Yup.
A French Drain is a
type of trench,
which has been filled
in with rocks for the purpose
of redirecting
and controlling water flow.
Although named after
Henry Flagg French,
a 19th century lawyer
and Assistant US Treasury
Secretary,
their design and use is believed
to date back many centuries.
Could the team have finally
found a part
of the original
flood tunnel system,
the one that featured the five
box drains that were first
discovered at Smith's
Cove in 1850?
I think it's continuing, Craig.
I mean, it keeps taking
scoops out
that are pretty much all rocks.
So it's headed back this way?
That would mean
that under the cofferdam
would be the other part of it.
Billy!
I would love to keep
digging this way,
but you can't dig
outside the bladder, right?
Can't. No.
The rock structure,
its close proximity
to the bladder is disturbing
because we cannot carry
that discovery process
in that area.
It's just not safe.
I mean, if we destabilize the
bladder system,
all is lost.
Although the team
must end their search
for the stone box drains,
at least for the time
being, they have made
what they believe
is an incredible discovery:
An ancient man-made
stone structure
beneath Smith's Cove.
Laird, I'm going
to put you on the spot now.
Man-made?
It's definitely
what we'd call "cultural", yeah.
Okay.
You mean you're saying based on
your expertise with certainty,
this is placed here?
It's a man-made, something?
I believe so, yeah.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
Um, because it's relatively
localized.
- Yeah
- Right, so that kind of rules
out anything geological,
and the sorting
of the rocks is unusual.
We've found something
that we need
to continue to look at.
It's truly a unique structure.
I believe it's original.
But I think we have to
terminate at this point.
There is a closure date
for the permit,
when that bladder system has
to be removed, and it's
very, very near,
so we have to arrange
to get that bladder system
out of Smith's Cove
and stored properly
for perhaps a dig next year.
- We're done here
- We're done here.
But we're not
done with the search.
Billy, you wanna
fill this in then?
- I will, for sure, yep.
- Okay, thank you.
Thanks, Billy.
Later
that afternoon, Rick Lagina
and Craig Tester arrive
at the T-1 excavation site
for a final update
on the day's progress.
Suddenly
There's a chunk of wood!
That's vertical!
That's hand chopped.
- Yep.
- Look at the ang
Do you want
that down here, guys?
- Yeah.
- Yeah
Michel?
Well, what the hell
else could it be?
Thank you.
- Definitely hand cut.
- That is a big piece of wood.
Yeah. So the,
the ends were sawed but the,
this is definitely
That's, that's an axe there.
That's hand-hewn.
When the vertical
timbers come up
we were all excited immediately.
Now the curious thing is
they're hand-hewn.
That is the first piece
of wood from underground
in the Money Pit
that has been
hand-hewn under our auspices,
First time ever!
A hand-cut wooden timber?
Retrieved from the T-1 shaft
in the Money Pit area?
Has the Oak Island team
finally located
their elusive target?
While the team
from Irving Equipment, Ltd.
Continues digging
a third massive hole
at the Money Pit site known
as T-1
That's hand chopped.
Rick Lagina and Craig Tester
have arrived just in time
to witness a potentially
momentous discovery.
I'm gonna look at
that bucket drop.
Different type of wood now.
That almost looks like
it was a vertical timber
by the way it came up.
What depth do you have us at?
102 Feet.
102, it could be a tunnel.
A lot of people when they
went down
next to the original Money Pit,
the Money Pit's here, they came
down next to it then
they tunneled over to it.
I see. Yep.
Maybe we're hitting
parts of that tunnel.
Nearly five decades before
the reported discovery of
the Chappell vault
in 1897, members
of the Truro Company drilled
through what they believed to
be two stacked wooden chests
at a depth of 96 feet.
According to reports,
each were full of what
was described as 22 inches
of "metal pieces,"
or possibly gold coins.
In an attempt to retrieve
the chests,
and avoid the booby-trapped
flood tunnels,
the searchers dug an adjacent
shaft ten feet from
the Money Pit,
and began constructing
a lateral tunnel toward it.
Their hopes of solving
the Oak Island mystery
were quickly dashed however,
as the tunnel collapsed from
flooding just before they
reached the mysterious chests.
We're hoping at this point
in time maybe we'll find
the shallow supposed
treasure from this,
this vault area.
Wow.
- There you go.
- Wow.
We just brought up a
whole bunch more wood.
I'm gonna go look.
What the hell is that?
I don't know what that is.
That is odd.
What if this is part of
the Money Pit,
the original Money Pit?
A round piece of wood?
Located at a depth of
approximately 105 feet
beneath the surface
of the Money Pit site?
When the Money Pit was first
excavated
more than two centuries ago,
searchers reported
finding nine wooden platforms
made of rounded oak timbers
located at ten foot intervals,
at which point
massive flooding halted
further exploration.
Could the Oak Island team
have just discovered evidence
not only of
the original Money Pit,
but of a previously
unknown tenth platform,
ten feet deeper than where
the 90 foot stone was
discovered in 1804?
If you read the records of
them originally finding
the Money Pit,
you know, every ten feet or
so they'd hit a platform.
They thought the vault was
sitting on a platform and this,
you know, three-inch
diameter piece of wood
to me could definitely have been
one of those pieces of
wood from the platform.
You know, can we date this?
I mean, it seems much
blacker to me than this.
This is a very dark gray
but this seems black
and if this comes back,
you know, in the 1500s
or something then
- It's heavy.
- Yeah, it is heavy.
You wanna just
take a section of it?
Yeah, we'll cut a little piece
off and it'll tell you what time
did this log get cut down.
All right, let's get this
off, see what it comes back.
I don't know what to hope for,
more wood,
less wood, no wood?
Wood that's in
the form of a chest?
Rick, Marty, Craig and the team
appear to be on the verge
of one of the most significant
breakthroughs in their quest to
solve the Oak Island mystery.
But as they continue to dig
deeper, what will they find?
Precious religious artifacts,
wooden chests filled
with gold coins,
the priceless treasures
of the ancient Maya,
or will they come face to
face with an ancient curse,
one that threatens a deadly
fate to those who dare try
and solve the mystery?
Perhaps the answer is now only
a few precious inches away.
Next time on
The Curse of Oak Island
The point of interest is
the stones on Oak Island.
I believe these stones
were transported.
My! I've never seen
anything quite like this.
Come on, baby!
Another round
piece of wood there.
This might be part
of the original dig.
This one tested
from 1655 to 1695.
Right there, original Money Pit.
That's what this
is implying, yes.