What Was Found On Oak Island / Money Pit

Stories of buried treasure on Oak Island, Nova Scotia, Canada

The Oak Island mystery is a series of stories of buried treasure and unexplained objects found on or near Oak Island in Nova Scotia. Since the 18th century, attempts have been made to find treasure and artifacts. Theories about artifacts present on the island range from pirate treasure to Shakespearean manuscripts to the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant, with the Grail and the Ark having been buried in that location by the Knights Templar. Various items have surfaced over the years that were found on the island, some of which have since been carbon-dated and found to be hundreds of years old.^{[ commendation needed ]} Although these items can be considered treasure in their own right, no meaning main treasure site has ever been institute. The site consists of digs past numerous people and groups of people. The original shaft, in an unknown location today, was dug by early on explorers and known as "the money pit". "The expletive" is said to accept originated more than a century ago and states that 7 men volition die in the search for the treasure before it is found. To date, six men have died in their efforts to notice the treasure.

History [edit]

Early accounts (1790s–1857) [edit]

Very fiddling verified information is known about early treasure-related activities on Oak Island; thus, the post-obit accounts are word of mouth stories going back to the belatedly eighteenth century.^[i] It wasn't until decades subsequently that publishers began to pay attention to such activity and investigated the stories involved. The primeval known story of a treasure found by a settler named Daniel McGinnis appeared in impress in 1857. It and then took some other five years earlier one of the declared original diggers gave a statement regarding the original story along with subsequent Onslow and Truro Company activities.

The original story by early settlers involves a dying crewman from the crew of Captain Kidd (d. 1701), in which he states that treasure worth £2 million had been buried on the island.^[2] Co-ordinate to the most widely held discovery story, Daniel McGinnis found a depression in the ground effectually 1799 while he was looking for a location for a subcontract.^[3] McGinnis, who believed that the depression was consistent with the Captain Kidd story, sought help with excavation. With the assistance of 2 men identified but equally John Smith and Anthony Vaughn, he excavated the depression and discovered a layer of flagstones two feet (60 cm) below.^[2] According to later accounts, oak platforms were discovered every 10 feet (3.0 m); however, the earliest accounts just mention "marks" of some type at these intervals.^[four] The accounts also mentioned "tool marks" or choice scrapes on the walls of the pit. The globe was noticeably loose, not every bit difficult-packed equally the surrounding soil.^[4] The three men reportedly abandoned the digging at thirty anxiety (9.one one thousand) due to "superstitious dread".^[five] Another twist on the story has all four people involved as teenagers. In this rendering McGinnis get-go finds the depression in 1795 while on a fishing expedition. The residue of the story is consistent with the outset involving the logs found, but ends with all four individuals giving up afterwards digging as much as they could.^{[i] [6] [vii]}

In almost 1802, a group known as the Onslow Company allegedly sailed from cardinal Nova Scotia to Oak Island to recover what they believed to be hidden treasure.^[a] They continued the excavation down to about 90 feet (27 m), with layers of logs (or "marks") constitute nigh every ten anxiety (3.0 m), and as well discovered layers of charcoal, putty and kokosnoot fibre along with a large stone inscribed with symbols.^{[5] [9]} The diggers then faced a dilemma when the pit flooded with 60 anxiety (xviii m) of h2o for unknown reasons. The alleged digging was eventually abased after workers attempted to recover the treasure from below by excavation a tunnel from a 2d shaft that also flooded.^[8] The last major visitor of the unpublished era was called The Truro Visitor, which was allegedly formed in 1849 past investors. The pit was re-excavated back down to the 86-foot (26 m) level, but ended up flooding again. Information technology was so decided to drill 5 bore holes using a pod-auger into the original shaft. The auger passed through a spruce platform at 98 feet (30 m), then striking layers of oak, something described equally "metal in pieces", some other spruce layer, and clay for vii feet (ii.1 m).^[v] This platform was hit twice each time metallic was brought to the surface forth with various other items such as wood and coconut fibre.^[10]

Another shaft was then dug 109 feet (33 g) deep northwest of the original shaft, and a tunnel was again branched off in an endeavor to intersect the treasure. Once again though, seawater flooded this new shaft; workers then assumed that the water was connected to the sea as the at present flooded new pit rose and cruel with each tide cycle. The Truro Company shifted its resources to excavating a nearby cove known as "Smith'south Cove" where they establish a flood tunnel organization.^[10] When efforts failed to shut off the alluvion arrangement, one final shaft was dug 118 feet (36 m) deep with the branched-off tunnel going under the original shaft. Old during the excavation of this new shaft, the lesser of the original shaft collapsed. It was later speculated that the treasure had fallen through the new shaft into a deep void causing the new shaft to flood besides.^[10] The Truro Company and so ran out of funds and was dissolved onetime in 1851.^[b]

The starting time published account took place in 1857, when the Liverpool Transcript mentioned a group excavation for Captain Kidd'southward treasure on Oak Isle.^[2] This would be followed by a more complete business relationship by a justice of the peace in Chester, Nova Scotia, in 1861, which was besides published in The Transcript.^{[2] [11]} Even so, the first published account of what had taken place on the Island did not appear until October sixteen, 1862, when Anthony Vaughan's memories were recorded by The Transcript for posterity. Activities regarding the Onslow and Truro Companies were also included that mention the mysterious stone and the Truro owned auger hitting wooden platforms forth with the "metal in pieces".^{[v] [12]} The accounts based on the Liverpool Transcript articles as well ran in the Novascotian, the British Colonist, and is mentioned in an 1895 book called A History Of Lunenburg Canton.^{[13] [14] [15]}

Early on excavations (1861–1898) [edit]

The side by side major excavation attempt was carried out in 1861 by a company called "The Oak Isle Clan". The original pit was re-excavated to a depth of 88 feet (27 m), and two more shafts were dug. The first ane missed its intended target of an declared flood tunnel, while the other intersected the original shaft via a branched-off tunnel at around 105 feet (32 k) deep. Both of these shafts were filled with water when an alleged overflowing tunnel was again breached. At one bespeak, i of the platforms placed in the original shaft at 98 feet (xxx yard) collapsed and dropped to a lower level. The effect acquired the next ii platforms to drop as well, with the treasure now resting some 119 feet (36 grand) below basis along with an estimated 10,000 board feet (24 m³) of lumber.^[16] The first of six accidental deaths during excavations occurred during the fall of 1861 when a pump engine banality flare-up. The explosion was commencement mentioned in an 1863 novel titled Rambles Among the Blue-noses, while mention of a death came five years after.^{[16] [17]} Some other shaft was dug in the spring of 1862, one which was 107 anxiety (33 m) deep. This new shaft was parallel to and connected with the original shaft as information technology was used to pump water out of the original shaft to a depth of 103 feet (31 m). Although the pumps could not go on upwardly with the floodwater, tools that had been used by the Onslow and Truro companies were recovered.^[16] The Oak Island Association also did some work at Smith's Cove by drilling a few shafts in an endeavour to shut off and seal the alleged flood tunnels. All of these attempts were failures in the end, due to the tide which somewhen broke through barriers that were put in place. I final attempt was fabricated in 1864 to intersect the money pit, resulting in alleged flood tunnels again being breached. By this time, saltwater was undermining the walls of the original shaft, which some workers refused to enter. The original shaft was inspected by mining engineers who alleged it unsafe, and the company abased their efforts when their money ran out.^{[16] [18] [nineteen]}

In 1866, a grouping known every bit The Oak Island Eldorado Visitor or more commonly The Halifax Company was formed to find the treasure. By this time, there were many shafts, bore holes, and tunnels under Oak Isle made by previous treasure hunters. When a plan to shut off the alleged alluvion tunnels from Smith's Cove didn't work, the company decided to shift focus to the original chief shaft.^[20] Exploratory holes that were drilled turned upwards $.25 of wood, more kokosnoot fiber, soft clay, and blue mud. Having found nothing of interest, the grouping gave up the search in 1867.^[21]

In 1896, an unknown group arrived on the island with steam pumps and tedious equipment. Although the pumps were unable to continue h2o out of the flooded side shaft, boring samples were taken. Information technology was claimed that one of the samples brought a tiny piece of sheepskin parchment to the surface. The parchment had two messages, "vi" or "wi", written in Republic of india ink.^[22] The 2d adventitious death occurred on March 26, 1897, when a worker named Maynard Kaiser fell to his death.^[18] In 1898, red paint was poured into the flooded pit by the grouping, reportedly revealing three leave holes around the isle.^[23]

Old Gold Salvage grouping (1909) [edit]

Captain Henry L. Bowdoin arrived on Oak Island in August 1909 representing the Old Gold Relieve Group, ane of whose members was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. By this fourth dimension the expanse now known equally the "money pit" was cleared out to 113 feet (34 k), and divers were sent down to investigate.^[22] Although multiple borings were taken in and around the pit, none of the cores revealed anything of interest.^[22]

Bowdoin also examined Smith'south Cove, where drain tunnels and a ring commodities in a stone had reportedly been seen. Although the grouping found the remains of an 1850 cofferdam, no evidence of anything else was plant.^[22] Bowdoin subsequently examined the "rock cipher" in Halifax and found it a basalt rock with no symbols. He was doubtful that symbols could have worn off the stone, given its hardness. The group left the isle in November 1909.

William Chappell and Gilbert Hedden (1928–1939) [edit]

August 1931 aerial photo of digs and buildings

In 1928, a New York newspaper published a characteristic story about Oak Island. William Chappell became interested and excavated the pit in 1931 by sinking a 12-by-14-pes (3.7 m × 4.3 yard) 163-pes (50 k) shaft southwest of what he believed was the site of the 1897 shaft (which was thought, without bear witness, to exist nearly the original pit). At 127 anxiety (39 m), a number of artifacts, including an axe, a fluke anchor and a option, were institute. The selection was identified as a Cornish miner'southward choice, but by this time the expanse around the pit was littered with debris from previous excavation attempts and finding the owner was impossible.

Gilbert Hedden, an operator of a steel fabricating company, saw the 1928 article and was fascinated by the engineering issues involved in recovering the reported treasure. Hedden made six trips to Oak Island and collected books and manufactures about the isle. He went to England to consult Harold T. Wilkins, writer of Captain Kidd and His Skeleton Island, about a link he found between Oak Isle and a map in Wilkins' book.^[24] After Chappell'south excavations, Hedden began digging in the summer of 1935, afterwards he purchased the southeastern end of the island. In 1939, he informed King George VI about developments on the island.^[25] Farther excavations were made in 1935 and 1936, none of which was successful.^[26]

Restall family and Robert Dunfield (1959–1966) [edit]

Robert Restall, his 18-year-old son, and piece of work partner Karle Graeser, came to Oak Island in 1959 subsequently signing a contract with one of the property owners. In 1965, they tried to seal what was thought to be a storm drain in Smith's Cove and dug a shaft down to 27 feet (viii.2 m). An account of an digging of the pit was published in the January 1965 upshot of Reader's Assimilate.^[27] On August 17, Restall was overcome by hydrogen sulfide fumes. His son then went down the shaft, and also lost consciousness. Graeser and two others, Cyril Hiltz and Andy DeMont, so attempted to relieve the ii men. A visitor to the site, Edward White, had himself lowered on a rope into the shaft but was able to bring out only DeMont. Restall, his son, Graeser and Hiltz all died.

That year, Robert Dunfield leased portions of the isle. Dunfield dug the pit expanse to a depth of 134 anxiety (41 chiliad) and a width of 100 feet (xxx m) by using a 70-ton earthworks crane with a clam bucket. Transportation of the crane to the island required the construction of a causeway (which nonetheless exists) from the western stop of the island to Crandall's Signal on the mainland, two hundred metres away.^[18] Dunfield's charter ended in August 1966.

Triton Alliance (1967–1990s) [edit]

In January 1967, Daniel C. Blankenship, David Tobias, Robert Dunfield, and Fred Nolan formed a syndicate for exploration on Oak Island. Ii years later, Blankenship and Tobias formed Triton Alliance after purchasing most of the island. Several erstwhile landowners, including Mel Chappell, became shareholders in Triton. Triton workers excavated a 235 anxiety (72 m) shaft, known equally Borehole 10-X and supported by a steel caisson to bedrock, in 1971.

Co-ordinate to Blankenship and Tobias, cameras lowered down the shaft into a cave recorded possible chests, human remains, wooden cribbing and tools; however, the images were unclear and none of the claims have been independently confirmed. The shaft later collapsed, and the excavation was once more abandoned. The shaft was later re-dug to 181 anxiety (55 thou), reaching bedrock, but work was halted due to lack of funds and the collapse of the partnership.^[28] Defined sent to the lesser of Borehole ten-X in 2016 constitute no artifacts.

The island was the subject of an episode of In Search of... which was first broadcast on January 18, 1979.

In 1983, Triton Alliance sued Frederick Nolan over the buying of seven lots on the island and its causeway admission. Two years subsequently, Nolan'south ownership of the lots was confirmed, but he was ordered to pay damages for interfering with Triton's tourist concern. On appeal, Triton lost again in 1989 and Nolan's damages were reduced.

Robert S. Young (1996-2020) [edit]

In June 1996, Robert S. Young of Upper Tantallon, NS, (originally from Toronto, Ontario), purchased four well treed acres of the island known as lot 5 from Fred Nolan. This belongings is currently the merely untouched land left on Oak Island. Robert S. Young passed away on October 28, 2020 and the land, which will probable be offered for sale soon, is currently owned by his Estate. His all-encompassing finds, including a solid silver 1781 Castilian ane/2 Real, have been advisedly documented on his site: https://oakislandlotfive.com/.

Robert S. Young and Rock he discovered on Lot five with mysterious markings

During the 1990s, farther exploration stalled because of legal battles between the Triton partners and a lack of financing. In 2005, a portion of the island was for sale for US$7 1000000.^{[ citation needed ]}. Although the Oak Island Tourism Gild had hoped that the authorities of Canada would buy the island, a group of US drillers did so instead.^[29]

Oak Isle Tours & The Michigan Grouping (2005–present) [edit]

Information technology was appear in April 2006 that brothers Rick and Marty Lagina of Michigan had purchased 50 pct of Oak Island Tours from David Tobias for an undisclosed sum. The remainder of the company is owned past Blankenship. Centre Road Developments, in conjunction with Allan Kostrzewa and Brian Urbach (members of the Michigan group), had purchased Lot 25 from David Tobias for a reported $230,000 one year earlier Tobias sold the rest of his share. The Michigan group, working with Blankenship, said that it would resume operations on Oak Island in the hope of discovering cached treasure and solving the island's mystery.

In July 2010, Blankenship and the other stakeholders in Oak Island Tours announced on their website that the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage had granted them a treasure-trove license which immune them to resume activities until December 31, 2010.^[30] After Dec 2010, the departments repealed the treasure-trove license and replaced it with an Oak Island Treasure Deed.^[31] The deed, which became effective on January 1, 2011, allows treasure hunting to continue on the island under the terms of a licence issued by the Minister of Natural Resources.^[32] Exploration past the Lagina brothers has been documented in a reality goggle box evidence airing on the History channel starting in 2014.

Water in the money pit [edit]

According to an account written in 1862, afterwards the Onslow Company had excavated to eighty–90 feet (24–27 metres), the pit flooded with seawater up to the 33-foot (ten yard) level; attempts to remove the water were unsuccessful. Explorers accept made claims about an elaborate drainage system extending from the ocean beaches to the pit.

Later treasure hunters claimed that kokosnoot fibres were discovered beneath the surface of a beach, Smith's Cove, in 1851. This led to the theory that the beach had been converted into a siphon, feeding seawater into the pit through a man-made tunnel. A sample of this material was reportedly sent to the Smithsonian Institution during the early on 20th century, where it was ended that the material was coconut fibre.^[33]

Although one expedition claimed to have establish a flood tunnel lined with apartment stones at 90 feet (27 m),^[4] geologist Robert Dunfield wrote that he carefully examined the walls of the re-excavated pit and was unable to locate whatsoever evidence of a tunnel.^[4]

At the invitation of Boston-area businessman David Mugar, a two-week survey was conducted by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Establishment in 1995 (the simply known scientific study conducted on the site). After running dye tests in the bore hole, the institution ended that the flooding was acquired past a natural interaction between the isle's freshwater lens and tidal pressures in the underlying geology (refuting the man-made tunnel theory). The Wood Hole scientists who viewed the 1971 videos reported that nada conclusive could be determined from the murky images.^[34] The reported v finger (or box) drains at Smith'southward Cove have recently been thought to be the remains of an early on common salt works, with no connection between the drains and whatever flooding of the pit.^[35]

Oak Island lies on a glacial tumulus organisation and is underlain by a series of water-filled anhydrite cavities which may exist responsible for the repeated flooding of the pit. This type of limestone easily dissolves when exposed to water, forming caves and natural voids. Bedrock lies at a depth of 38 to 45 metres (125 to 148 feet) in the pit area.

Stone with alleged markings [edit]

A stone found xc feet beneath the surface was said to have been inscribed with "mysterious markings". It was first reported in a July two, 1862, Halifax Sun and Advisor article, which mentioned a June two, 1862, letter past J. B. McCully which retold the story of the rock.^{[5] [36]} Offering a secondhand description of its discovery during the early on 1800s earthworks, McCully wrote: "Some [layers] were charcoal, some putty, and 1 at 80 feet was a rock cutting square, two feet long and virtually a foot thick, with several characters cut on it." In an 1863 paper article, the stone was said to take been built into the "chimney of an erstwhile house near the pit".^[iii] Another article, a twelvemonth later, claimed that the stone was held past the Smith family. On Jan 2, 1864, Historical Guild of Nova Scotia secretary John Hunter-Duvar contacted treasure hunter George Cooke. In a Jan 27 letter to Hunter-Duvar, Cooke claimed that Smith built the stone into his chimney in 1824 and said that he was shown the stone past Smith in the chimney around 1850, when "there were some crudely cut messages, figures or characters upon it. I cannot recollect which, but they appear as if they had been scraped out by a blunt instrument, rather than cutting with a sharp one". According to Cooke, when he fabricated inquiries in 1864, he discovered that the chimney had been enclosed in forest and surrounded by a staircase; the stone was no longer visible.^[37] An undated post-1893 alphabetic character by William Blair read, "Jefferson Due west. McDonald, who beginning mentioned Oak Isle to me in 1893, worked nether George Mitchell. Mr. McDonald, who was a carpenter by merchandise, also told of taking down a partition in Smith'due south house, in order that he with others might examine the characters cut on the stone used in the fireplace in the house. The characters were there all right, simply no person present could decipher them."^[38] Mitchell was the superintendent of works for the Oak Island Association, which was formed on Apr three, 1861, and ceased operation by March 29, 1865.^[15]

In his 1872 novel, The Treasure of the Seas,^[39] James DeMille describes being a summer resident of Chester Basin during the later 1860s. DeMille lived on Oak Island for a summer and had firsthand noesis of the area. The characters in the novel find that the stone had been removed from the chimney when they arrived on the island;^[40] until then, no one had been able to decode the mysterious symbols reportedly on the stone, which an inn landlord describes as 'rather faint, and irregular' – he as well says that 'men who don't believe in Kidd's treasure ... say that it isn't an inscription at all ... it's merely some accidental scratches'.^{[41] [42]} Reginald Vanderbilt Harris (1881–1986) wrote in his 1958 volume, The Oak Island Mystery,^[43] "About 1865–1866 the rock was removed and taken to Halifax. Among those who worked to remove the stone was Jefferson Due west. MacDonald." The Blair letter of the alphabet mentioned in a higher place states that MacDonald took down the partition in social club to examine the stone, not to remove it. Harris provides no source for the claim that the rock was removed in 1865 or 1866. The next mention of the stone is in an 1893 Oak Isle Treasure Visitor prospectus. According to the prospectus, the rock was taken out of the chimney and moved to Halifax; there, James Liechti^[44] was said to take deciphered the stone as reading: "Ten feet below are two 1000000 pounds cached".^[45]

On August 19, 1911, Collier's mag published a firsthand account past Captain H. L. Bowdoin of the stone (which was then in utilise at Creighton's bookbindery in Halifax). Bowdoin described the rock as "of a basalt type hard and fine-grained". The stone he saw had no symbols on it. Although Bowdoin was told that they had worn off, he was skeptical because of the stone's hardness.^[22] According to Charles B. Driscoll's 1929 book, The Oak Island Treasure (based on secondhand accounts),

The stone was shown to everyone who visited the Island in those days. Smith built this stone into his fireplace, with the strange characters outermost, so that visitors might run across and admire information technology. Many years after his death, the stone was removed from the fireplace and taken to Halifax, where the local savants were unable to translate the inscription. It was then taken to the abode of J.B. McCulley in Truro, where it was exhibited to hundreds of friends of the McCulleys who became interested in a afterwards treasure visitor. Somehow the stone brutal into the hands of a bookbinder, which used information technology as a base of operations upon which to crush leather for many years. A generation later, with the inscription virtually worn away, the stone found its way to a bookstore in Halifax, and what happened to information technology after that I was unable to larn. But there are plenty of people living who take seen the stone. Nobody, however, always seriously pretended to translate the inscription."^[46]

The rock was reportedly brought by A. O. Creighton (of the 1866 expedition) from the Smith dwelling house to Creighton's bookbindery in Halifax. Harry W. Marshall (born 1879), the son of an owner of the bookbindery, wrote in 1935 that:

1. He well remembered seeing the stone as a male child.
2. "While in Creighton's possession some lad had cut his initials 'J.M.' on one corner, simply apart from this there was no evidence of any inscription either cutting or painted on the stone."
3. Creighton used the rock for a beating rock and weight.
4. When the business was airtight in 1919, the stone was left behind.^[47]

One researcher claimed that the cipher translated every bit "Twoscore feet below, 2 million pounds lie buried". The symbols associated with the "Forty feet below" translation starting time appeared in 1949's True Tales of Buried Treasure by explorer and historian Edward Rowe Snow. In his book, Snowfall said that he received the set of symbols from Rev. A. T. Kempton of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but no data was provided as to how or where Kempton obtained them.^[48] Information technology was found that Kempton had stated in a letter dated April 1949 that he had obtained his information from "a school teacher long since dead".^[49]

Investors and explorers [edit]

Franklin D. Roosevelt, stirred by family stories originating from his sailing and trading grandfather (and Oak Island financier) Warren Delano Jr., began following the mystery in late 1909 and early 1910. Roosevelt connected to follow it until his expiry in 1945.^[50] Throughout his political career, he monitored the island's recovery attempts and development. Although the president secretly planned to visit Oak Island in 1939 while he was in Halifax, fog and the international state of affairs prevented him from doing then.^[51]

Australian-American actor Errol Flynn invested in an Oak Island treasure dig.^[52] Player John Wayne likewise invested in the drilling equipment used on the island and offered his equipment to be used to help solve the mystery.^[53] William Vincent Astor, heir to the Astor family fortune after his begetter died on the Titanic, was a passive investor in digging for treasure on the isle.^[53]

Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd Jr. was also a passive investor in Oak Isle exploration and treasure hunting, and monitored their condition.^[ane] Byrd advised Franklin D. Roosevelt about the isle;^[54] the men forged a relationship, forming the United States Antarctic Service (USAS, a federal-government program) with Byrd nominally in control.^[55]

Theories [edit]

Natural sinkholes [edit]

Wide-ranging speculation exists well-nigh 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.^[1] Suggestions that the pit is a natural phenomenon (accumulated droppings in a sinkhole or geological error) date to at least 1911.^{[56] [57] [58] [59]} A number of sinkholes and caves, to which the "booby traps" are attributed, be on the mainland near the island.

Its resemblance to a man-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 requite the impression that information technology had been dug up before".^[59] The "platforms" of rotten logs have been attributed to trees, damaged by "blowdowns" (derechos) or wildfires, periodically falling (or washing into) the hollow.^[sixty]

Some other pit, like to the early clarification 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 betoken where the globe was soft, "At about two anxiety downward a layer of fieldstone was struck. Then logs of bandbox and oak were unearthed at irregular intervals, and some of the wood was charred. The immediate suspicion was that another money pit had been establish."^[61]

Treasure trove [edit]

According to the earliest theory, the pit held a pirate treasure buried by Helm Kidd;^{[2] [62]} Kidd and Henry Avery reportedly took treasure together, and Oak Island was their customs banking company. Another pirate theory involved Edward Teach (Blackbeard), who said that he cached his treasure "where none merely Satan and myself can find it."^[63]

Templars, Masons, or Incas seeking to squirrel their treasure away from Spanish conquistadors may have created the money pit, according to William Southward. Crooker.^[64] Only Crooker stated it was more likely that British engineers and sailors dug the pit to store loot acquired in the British invasion of Republic of cuba, during the Seven Years' War, valued at about £1,000,000 pounds.^[65]

Other possible explanations include the pit being dug by Spanish sailors to agree treasure from a wrecked galleon or by British troops stationed there during the American Revolution.

John Godwin wrote that given the apparent size and complexity of the pit, it was probably dug past French Ground forces engineers hiding the treasury of the Fortress of Louisbourg later British forces captured the fortress during the Seven Years' War.^[66]

Artifacts [edit]

Many other legends have been invented to falsely link various historical persons with Oak Island, none of them proven.

Marie Antoinette's jewels [edit]

Some unproven stories allege that Marie Antoinette'southward jewels, missing except for specimens in museum collections, may have been hidden on the island. On Oct 5, 1789, revolutionaries incited an angry mob of Parisian working women to march on the Palace of Versailles. According to an undocumented story, Marie Antoinette instructed her maid (or a lady-in-waiting) to abscond with her jewels. The maid fled to London with the jewels, and maybe artwork, documents and other treasures, secreted on her person and/or in her luggage.^{[67] [68] [69]} The adult female and so fled from London to Nova Scotia.^[70]

[edit]

In his 1953 book, The Oak Island Enigma: A History and Inquiry into the Origin of the Coin Pit, Penn Leary wrote that the pit was used to hide manuscripts indicating that Francis Bacon was the author of William Shakespeare's works and a leader of the Rosicrucians.^[71] Leary's "The 2d Cryptographic Shakespeare", published in 1990, identified ciphers in Shakespeare's plays and poems which pointed to Bacon'south authorship.^[72] Author and researcher Mark Finnan^[73] elaborated on Leary's Oak Island theory, which was also used in the Norwegian book Organisten (The Seven Steps to Mercy) past Erlend Loe and Petter Amundsen and the Tv set series Sweetness Swan of Avon.^[74]

Masonic and other artifacts [edit]

In his book, Oak Isle Secrets,^[73] Mark Finnan noted that many Masonic markings were constitute on Oak Island, and the shaft (or pit) and its mysterious contents seemed to replicate aspects of a Masonic initiation rite involving a subconscious vault with a sacred treasure. Joe Nickell identifies parallels between Oak Island accounts, the "Secret Vault" allegory in York Rite Freemasonry and the Chase Vault on Barbados.^[1] Freemason Dennis Male monarch examines the Masonic aspects of the Oak Island legend in his article, "The Oak Island Legend: The Masonic Angle".^[75] Steven Sora speculated that the pit could take been dug by exiled Knights Templar and might exist the final resting place of the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant.^[76]

Another theory holds that the Rosicrucians and their reported leader, Francis Bacon, organized a cloak-and-dagger projection to make Oak Island the abode of its legendary vault with ingenious ways to conceal ancient manuscripts and artifacts. Researchers and cryptographers such as Petter Amundsen and Daniel Ronnstam merits to accept found codes hidden in Shakespeare, rock formations on the island, and clues subconscious in other 16th- and 17th-century art and historical documents. According to Daniel Ronnstam, the stone found at 90 feet (27 1000) contains a dual nothing created past Bacon.^{[77] [ self-published source ]}

Other theories [edit]

Author Joy Steele suggests that the coin pit is actually a tar kiln dating to the historical period when "Oak Island served as a tar-making location equally part of the British naval stores industry".^[78]

When marine biologist Barry Cruel attempted to have the symbols on the stone translated during the late 1970s, he said that the symbols resembled the Coptic alphabet and read: "To escape contagion of plague and winter hardships, he is to pray for an end or mitigation the Arif: The people will perish in misery if they forget the Lord, alas".^[79] Co-ordinate to Cruel's theory, Coptic migrants sailed from North Africa to Oak Island and synthetic the pit. Fell is not considered to be credible by most mainstream academics.^[lxxx]

Notes [edit]

1. ^ No original documents relating to the Onslow Company have ever been found. It is known that the visitor roughly had its activity sometime in the early 1800s.^[8]
2. ^ I of the "best" accounts of what happened with the Truro Visitor subsequently appeared in the "1893 Oak Isle Treasure Visitor Investment Prospectus".^[10]

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Nickell, Joe (March 2000). "The Secrets of Oak Island". Skeptical Inquirer. Archived from the original on November iii, 2016. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} Forks, J.P. (August xx, 1857). "Correspondence". Liverpool Transcript. Liverpool, Nova Scotia: S. J. Thou. Allen. p. 2. Archived from the original on February iii, 2014. Retrieved January 26, 2014. , referring to letter in previous edition – Forks, J.P. (August 13, 1857). "Correspondence". Liverpool Transcript. Liverpool, Nova Scotia: S. J. M. Allen. p. two. Retrieved Apr 15, 2018. – these ii letters give no details of the history of the diggings.
3. ^ ^{a b} Phy, Paul (Feb 19, 1863). "Oak Island – The Reasons for expecting there is Treasure there". Yarmouth Herald. cavalcade 4. p. 1. Retrieved April ten, 2018.
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Crooker, William S. Oak Island Gold (Nimbus Publishing, 1993) ISBN one-55109-049-X
5. ^ ^{a b c d east} McCully, J.B. "The Oak Island Blasting". Liverpool Transcript, October 1862 – printing letter dated June two, 1862 some other link – described past the newspaper equally "about the best account we have always seen of the "diggings" – mentions the finding of the inscribed rock, simply not what happened to it subsequently
6. ^ Shirley Raye Redmond (March 18, 2011). Oak Island Treasure Pit. Greenhaven Publishing LLC. pp. 6–8. ISBN9780737760057 . Retrieved Dec xiv, 2018.
7. ^ "The Legend". www.oakislandtreasure.co.u.k. . Retrieved December 14, 2018.
8. ^ ^{a b} "The Onslow Company". Oak Island Tours . Retrieved January 4, 2019.
9. ^ "Oak Island Treasure – the world's greatest treasure hunt". Archived from the original on May 27, 2014. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
10. ^ ^{a b c d} "The Truro Company". Oak Island Tours . Retrieved Jan 28, 2019.
11. ^ "The Oak Island Folly". Liverpool Transcript. column 5. Baronial 29, 1861. p. 2. Retrieved Apr x, 2018. – gives no details of the history of the diggings.
12. ^ Randall Sullivan (2018). The Curse of Oak Island: The Story of the Globe's Longest Treasure Chase. Atlantic Monthly Printing. p. unknown. ISBN9780802189059.
13. ^ Patrick. "Response to the Oak Island Folly". (11-13/130), September 30, 1861 – gives details of the Onslow and Truro companies – does not mention the inscribed stone.
14. ^ A Member. "A History of The Oak Island Enterprise". (14-22/130) British Colonist (in 3 chapters published on Jan two (Onslow Company), seven (Truro Company), and 14, 1864) – the inscribed stone "was preserved in the family unit of Mr. Smith it may exist seen by the curious at the present day"
15. ^ ^{a b} DesBrisay, Mather Byles (1895). History of the county of Lunenburg (2 ed.). Toronto: William Briggs. p. 300.
16. ^ ^{a b c d} "The Oak Island Association". Oak Island Tours . Retrieved January 29, 2019.
17. ^ Andrew Learmont Spedon (1863). Rambles among the blue-noses; or, Reminiscences of a bout through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, during the summer of 1862. John LovellZ. p. 156. Retrieved January 29, 2019.
18. ^ ^{a b c} The History Channel, Decoding the By: The Templar Code, video documentary, Nov seven, 2005, written past Marcy Marzuni
19. ^ McIntee, David (2016). Fortune and Glory: A Treasure Hunter'southward Handbook. p. 91. ISBN9781472807854.
20. ^ Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe (2012). The Oak Island Mystery: The Secret of the World'southward Greatest Treasure Hunt. Dundurn. pp. 73–74. ISBN9781459701069 . Retrieved Jan 31, 2019.
21. ^ "The Oak Island Eldorado Company". Oak Island Tours . Retrieved January 31, 2019.
22. ^ ^{a b c d e} Bowdoin, H. L. "Solving the Mystery of Oak Island" Colliers Mag, August 19, 1911 p. 19
23. ^ Lamb, Fifty. (2006). Oak Island Obsession: The Restall Story . Dundurn. p. 207. ISBN9781550026252.
24. ^ Doyle, Lynn C. "Nova Scotia's Treasure Island". MacLean's June ane, 1931
25. ^ Khatri, Vikas, World Famous Treasures Lost and Institute, 2012
26. ^ D'Arcy O'Connor, The Big Dig: the $10 Million Search for Oak Isle's Legendary Treasure, 1988
27. ^ "Scanned re-create of the original Reader's Digest article" (PDF). Oakislandtreasure.co.uk. Archived from the original (PDF) on October two, 2011. Retrieved October 15, 2010.
28. ^ Ellerd, Kerry. "Finding Buried Treasure: Information technology's an Expensive Business". Montreal Star Feb 6, 1971
29. ^ Whipps, Heather (November seven, 2005). "For Sale: Island with Mysterious Coin Pit". Live Science . Retrieved December v, 2005.
30. ^ "Treasure Trove License granted!". Oak Island Treasure. Archived from the original on August eight, 2011. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
31. ^ Medel, Brian (July xv, 2010). "Treasure hunter hopes new law clears path to golden" Province to replace former rules with Oak Island Act". Halifax Chronicle Herald.
32. ^ "Oak Isle Treasure Act". nslegislature.ca. November 27, 2017.
33. ^ French Carey. "Treasure Island Fabulous Booty Eludes the Fortune Hunters". The Globe and Mail November 19, 1983
34. ^ Joltes, Richard (August 2002). "Appendix: Woods Hole Explores Oak Isle". CriticalEnquiry.org. p. 1. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
35. ^ King, Dennis (February 2010). "A Solution To The Mystery Of The Oak Island V Finger Drains". CriticalEnquiry.org . Retrieved November xvi, 2014.
36. ^ "Canadian Newspapers on Microfilm – 2013 Catalog" (PDF). Common Wealth Imagining. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 10, 2015. Retrieved Feb 24, 2017.
37. ^ Oak Isle Compendium
38. ^ Early Oak Isle Documents (71/130)
39. ^ DeMille, James. The Treasure of the Seas. Boston: Lea and Shepard. Same book at www.archive.org
40. ^ p. 128
41. ^ pp. 85–86
42. ^ pp. 104–105
43. ^ Vanderbilt Harris, Reginald. The Oak Island Mystery. Toronto Public Library. McGraw-Loma Ryerson, 1967.
44. ^ "Visit Oak Isle".
45. ^ Oak Island Treasure Company ([microform) : capital, sixty thousand dollars, shares only v dollars each, total paid and non-assessable. p. 5
46. ^ Driscoll, Charles B. (1929). The Oak Island Treasure. p. 685.
47. ^ "Statement of Harry Westward. Marshall".
48. ^ Snow, Edward Rowe. Truthful Tales of Buried Treasure, (Dodd and Mead, 1951) ASIN B000OI2EFC^{[ ISBN missing ]}
49. ^ "History, Hoax, and Hype The Oak Island Legend". www.criticalenquiry.org . Retrieved December ten, 2018.
50. ^ "Treasure Hunters in Nova Scotia". United states of america National Athenaeum. October 30, 2015.
51. ^ Roosevelt, Franklin D. "White House Alphabetic character – August 24th, 1939". Heritage Auctions.
52. ^ "Oak Isle Money Pit". Atlas Obscura.
53. ^ ^{a b} Boren, Kerry Ross Boren & Lisa Lee (2000). Following the Ark of the Covenant : The Treasure of God. US: Bonneville Books. p. 199. ISBN1555174930.
54. ^ "Richard E. Byrd". Virginia Historical Lodge. Archived from the original on October v, 2017. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
55. ^ "Byrd Antarctic Expedition III". South Pole.
56. ^ This section follows Nickell, section "Man-made or Natural?".
57. ^ Bowdoin, H. 50. 1911. Solving the mystery of Oak Island. Collier'southward Magazine, August 18. Cited and discussed in Harris 1958, 110–120; O'Connor 1988, 63–66.
58. ^ Faribault, E. Rudolph. 1911. Summary Study of Geological Survey Co-operative of the Department of Mines. Quoted in Furneaux 1972, 110.
59. ^ ^{a b} Atlantic Advocate. 1965. Article in October issue, cited in Crooker 1978, 85–86.
60. ^ Preston, Douglas. 1988 Death Trap Defies Treasure Seekers for Two Centuries, published in the Smithsonian Magazine June 1988 53–56
61. ^ O'Connor (1988, 172–173)
62. ^ Howlett, A. "Mystery of Captain Kidd's Treasure". Globe Wide Mag October 1958
63. ^ "l Great Treasure Islands". Isle Magazine. 1994. p. 124.
64. ^ Crooker, Oak Isle Aureate, pp. 182–185
65. ^ Crooker, Oak Island Gold, pp. 199–210
66. ^ Godwin, John. This Baffling World. (Runted, 1971)
67. ^ Bonnier Corporation (May 1939). "Popular Science". The Popular Science Monthly. Bonnier Corporation: 234–235. ISSN 0161-7370.
68. ^ D'Arcy O'Connor (2004). The Surreptitious Treasure of Oak Isle: The Amazing True Story of a Centuries-Former Treasure Hunt. Globe Pequot Press. p. 140. ISBN978-one-59228-279-1.
69. ^ Science Assimilate. Science Digest, Incorporated. 1951. p. 46. Roosevelt and his companions believed the pit might comprise the crown jewels of Louis 16 and Marie Antoinette...
70. ^ Arnold Gingrich (1954). Coronet. Vol. 36. D. A. Smart. p. 38. When Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette fled Paris during the French Revolution, the jewels were entrusted to a lady-in-waiting who succeeded in escaping. History shows that she did accomplish Louisberg, a few miles north of Oak Island on the Nova Scotia mainland...
71. ^ Leary, Thomas P. The Oak Isle Enigma: A History and Inquiry Into the Origin of the Money Pit. (T. P. Leary, 1953)
72. ^ Leary, Penn (1991). "The Second Cryptographic Shakespeare". Westchester House Publishers. Archived from the original on October 31, 2014. Retrieved Nov 3, 2014.
73. ^ ^{a b} 'Oak Island Secrets'.(Formac Publishing 1995, 1997, 2002, 2009)
74. ^ Loe, Erlend, and Amundsen, Petter. Organisten (Cappelen, 2006 – English edition published on CreateSpace). Sweetness Swan of Avon: EP1: https://vimeo.com/94648237, EP2: https://vimeo.com/94648236, EP3: https://vimeo.com/94648239, EP4: https://vimeo.com/94648238
75. ^ King, Dennis (May 12, 2010). "The Oak Island Legend: The Masonic Angle". CrititalEnquiry.org. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
76. ^ Sora, Steven. The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar (Inner Traditions/Destiny, 1999). ISBN 0-89281-710-0
77. ^ Ronnstam, Daniel. "The Duel Cipher". The Oak Island Projection. Archived from the original on August iv, 2018. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
78. ^ "Oak Isle mystery: Its history is the real treasure". The Chronicle Herald . Retrieved December thirty, 2015.
79. ^ Barry Fell, Saga America, p. 172
80. ^ "Irrationality and Popular Archaeology" (PDF). American Antiquity. 49 (3): 525–541. 1984. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 31, 2013. Retrieved Dec 1, 2015.

External links [edit]

Wait up coin pit in Wiktionary, the free lexicon.

• [ane] Robert S. Young'southward site with photos of items establish past him on Lot 5
• [2] Robert S. Immature Obituary
• Boggling Story of a Hidden Treasure – Wellington Independent, Volume XXI, Result 2492, 14 March 1867 – From the New York Herald
• 'The Toilers of the Isle' – first one-half of the previous – 'From a correspondent of the Due north.Y. Times' – The Daily British Colonist and Victoria Relate – 5 November 1866
• 'The Toilers of the Isle' – second one-half of the previous – 'From a correspondent of the North.Y. Times' – The Daily British Colonist and Victoria Relate – six November 1866
• Oak Isle Treasure Company Prospectus – 1893
• Mysterious Treasures of Oak Isle A documentary film
• Oak Island Treasure A large photo gallery, growing historical document annal, latest dig news and forum
• Oak Island Money Pit Detailed resources covering the money pit'south history
• The Mystery Pit of Oak Island containing diagrams of the money pit
• The Oak Island Enigma A History and Research Into The Origin of The Money Pit – Penn Leary 1953
• "Mystery Island Baffles Treasure Hunters". Popular Scientific discipline, May 1939, pp. 72–75
• The Curse of Oak Island boob tube evidence on the History channel (2014–present)

News reports [edit]

• CBC Television set "Dan Blankenship, treasure seeker"
• CBC Television "The Oak Isle money pit: how it works"
• CBC Radio conversation "Nova Scotia'southward Oak Island mystery"
• CBC Radio conversation "Engineer proposes freezing method to extract Oak Island treasure"
• Ancient Aliens goggle box show, featured in Episode 4
• On Oak Island from the Direct Dope

Skepticism [edit]

• [3], Joe Nickell, Skeptical Inquirer, March/Apr 2000.
• History, Hoax, and Hype The Oak Isle Legend, Richard Joltes, August 2006
• Dunning, Brian (November 25, 2008). "Skeptoid #129: The Oak Island Money Pit". Skeptoid.

Coordinates: 44°31′Northward 64°17′W  /  44.51°N 64.29°Due west  / 44.51; -64.29

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Island_mystery

Posted by: buchananaboomed.blogspot.com

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