Oak Island

The Discovery

In the summer 1795, Daniel McGinnis, a teenager, was wandering about Oak Island, Nova Scotia when he noticed a curious circular depression in the ground. Standing over this depression was a tree, whose branches had been cut in such a way that it appeared to have been used as a pulley mounting. Aware of the legends of pirates in the locale, he determined he would return with friends to investigate further.

Over the next several days McGinnis, along with his friends, John Smith and Anthony Vaughan, explored the hole. Two feet below the surface they found of layer of flagstones covering the pit. At ten feet they encountered a layer of oak logs spanning the pit and again at twenty feet and thirty feet logs spanned the pit. Time and energy exhausted, the group took their leave resolving to return at a future time.

Eight years later, they returned with the Onslow Company, formed for the purpose of the search. They made progress down to ninety feet, finding a layer of oak logs every 10 feet. At forty feet a layer of charcoal was found, at fifty feet a layer of putty, and at sixty feet a layer of coconut fiber.

At ninety feet a stone inscribed with the following inscription was found:

After pulling up the layer of oak at ninety feet, water began to seep into the pit. By the next day the pit was filled with water up to the thirty-three foot level. Pumping didn't work, so the next year a new shaft was dug parallel to the original down to 100 feet. From there a tunnel was run over to "The Money Pit" but again the water flooded in. The Onslow Company had inadvertently unplugged a 500 foot waterway that had been dug from the pit to nearby Smith's Cove by the pit's designers. The further effort abandoned for forty-five years.

In 1849 the "Truro Company", was founded and the search began anew. The pit was quickly cleared to eighty-six feet only to be flooded again. Truro then switched to drilling core samples in an attempt to see if further effort would be worthwhile. Drilling produced some encouraging results.

At ninety-eight feet the drill went through a spruce platform. Then it encountered four inches of oak and then twenty-two inches of what was characterized as "metal in pieces"; next eight inches of oak, another twenty-two inches of metal, four inches of oak and another layer of spruce. The conclusion was that they had drilled through two casks or chests filled will coins. Upon pulling out the drill they found splinters of oak and strands of what looked like coconut husk. The earth encountered beneath the bottom spruce platform was loose indicating that the pit may have gone even deeper. A later group of searchers would find out how much deeper.

One account of the drilling also mentions that three small gold links, perhaps from a chain, were brought up. Presently, their whereabouts it is not known.

The Truro Company returned in 1850 with plans to dig another parallel hole and then tunnel over to the Money Pit. As before, when they tunneled over, water began to rush in. They brought in pumps but it was impossible to keep the water out. During the pumping someone noticed that at Smith's Cove during low tide there was water coming OUT of the beach.

It turns out that the architects of the pit had created a drain system, spread over a one hundred and forty five foot length of beach, which resembled the fingers of a hand. Each finger was a channel dug into the clay under the beach and lined by rocks. The channels were then filled with beach rocks, covered with several inches of eel grass, and then covered by several more inches of coconut fiber. The effect of this filtering system was that the channels remained clear of silt and sand while water was still allowed to flow along them. The fingers met at a point inland where they fed sea water into a sloping channel which eventually joined the Money Pit some five hundred feet away. Later investigations showed this underground channel to have be four feet wide, two and one-half feet high, lined with stone, and meeting the "Money Pit" between the depths of ninety-five to one-hundred and ten feet.

The Truro Company attempted to block the water flow from the beach by building a dam just off the beach at Smith's Cove. The remains of an older dam were found when building the new one. A storm destroyed the new dam before it could be completed.

The last attempt by the Truro Company was to dig another pit one hundred feet or so inland with the idea of intersecting and plugging the underground water channel. This too failed.

In 1861 the Oak Island Association cleared out the Money Pit down to 88 feet. They dug a new hole to the east of the pit down to the one hundred and twenty foot level again hoping to intercept the channel from the sea. They did not hit the channel.

Another shaft was run, this one to west, down to one hundred and eighteen feet. Again the pit was filled with water when they tried to tunnel across to the "Money Pit". As in earlier attempts, they began to bail the water, and for a time it appeared to be working, but then water suddenly rushed into the shafts and the bottom of the Money Pit dropped over 15 feet.

Over the next several years different companies tried to crack the mystery of the pit unsuccessfully. They dug more shafts, tried to fill in the drain on the beach, built a new dam (which was also destroyed by a storm), and drilled for more core samples. They met with little success.

In 1893 Fred Blair along with a group called The Oak Island Treasure Company began their search. Their first task was to investigate the "Cave-in Pit". Discovered in 1878 about three hundred and fifty feet east of the "Money Pit", the "Cave-in Pit" appears to have been a shaft dug out by the architects of the "Money Pit" perhaps as a ventilation shaft for the digging of the flood tunnel. It appeared to intersect or closely pass the flood tunnel. While it was being cleared   it started to flood at a depth of fifty five feet and was abandoned.

Over the next several years The Oak Island Treasure Company would dig more shafts, pump more water, with no success. In 1897 they managed to clear out the Money Pit down to one hundred and eleven feet where they actually saw the entrance of the flood tunnel temporarily stopped up with rocks. However, the water worked its way through again and filled the pit.

The Oak Island Treasure Company then decided that they would attempt to seal off the flow of water from Smith's Cove by dynamiting the flood tunnel. Five charges were set off in holes drilled near the flood tunnel to no effect. The water flowed into the "Money Pit" as rapidly as ever.

A new set of core samples were drilled at the pit itself. At one hundred and twenty six feet, wood was struck and then iron. It was speculated that material was probably part of the material that fell during the crash of the pit. On other drillings the wood was encountered at 122 feet and the iron was missed completely indicating that the material may be laying in a haphazard way due to the fall.

Between one hundred and thirty feet and one hundred and fifty-one feet and also between one hundred and sixty feet and one hundred and seventy one feet, a blue clay was found which consisted of clay, sand, and water. This clay can be used to form a watertight seal and is probably the same "putty"; that was found at the fifty foot level of the pit.

The major find was in the gap between the putty layers. A cement vault was discovered, seven feet high with seven inch thick walls. Inside the vault the drill first struck wood, then a void several inches high and an unknown substance. Next a layer of soft metal was reached, then almost 3 feet of metal pieces, and then more soft metal.

When the drill was brought back up attached to the auger was a small piece of sheepskin parchment with the letters "vi"; "ui"; or "wi". Nothing more is known about this parchment.

More convinced than ever that a great treasure was beneath the island, The Treasure Company began sinking more shafts in the attempt to reach the cement vault. All met with failure due to flooding.

In May of 1899, a second flood tunnel was discovered. This one was located in the South Shore Cove. The architects had been more ingenious than previously thought. Though this discovery certainly strengthened the speculation that something valuable was buried below, it didn't bring anyone closer to actually finding the treasure.

Blair and The Oak Island Treasure Company continued to sink new shafts and drill more core samples, but no progress was made and no more information was obtained.

Between 1900 and 1936 several attempts were made to obtain the treasure. All met with no success.

In 1936 Gilbert Hadden, in conjunction with Fred Blair, began a new investigation of the island. Hadden cleared some of the earlier shafts near the pit and made plans for exploratory drilling the next summer. However, he made two discoveries away from the pit.

Fragment of Inscribed StoneThe first was a fragment of a stone bearing inscriptions similar to those found on the inscribed stone discovered at the 90 foot level of the "Money Pit". The second discovery was of several old timbers in Smith's Cove. These timbers seem to have been from the original designers due to the fact that they were joined using wooden pins rather than metal. As will be seen later these timbers were only a small part of a much larger construction.

 

In 1938 Erwin Hamilton began his search by clearing out previous shafts and doing   exploratory drilling. In 1939 while drilling to the one hundred and ninety foot level, rocks and gravel were found which, according to Hamilton, were foreign and therefore placed there by someone. The second find came after clearing an earlier shaft down to one hundred and seventy six feet whereupon a layer of limestone was encountered and through which it was drilled. This drilling brought up oak splinters indicating there was wood below the natural limestone.

In 1959 Bob Restall and his family began their expedition to the island.

While attempting to stop the drain system, he found a rock on the Smith's Cove beach with "1704" inscribed on it. Though others believed it was prank left by a previous search team, Restall believed it was from the time of the original construction.

In 1965 while excavating a shaft Bob Restall passed out and fell into the water in the pit. His son, Bobbie, and two workers attempted to rescue him but were overcome by some sort of gas, perhaps carbon monoxide from a generator. They too passed out and were drowned.

Heavy Machines

Bob Dunfield was the next to take on the island. In 1965 he attempted to solve the problem with heavy machinery - bringing bulldozers and cranes with him. He attempted to block the inflow of water at Smith's Cove, and may have succeeded. Then on the south side of the island an trench was dug in the hope of intercepting the other water tunnel and blocking it off. The flood tunnel was not found, but an unknown and refilled shaft, possibly dug by the architects of the pit, was found. The shaft apparently went to forty five feet and stopped, its purpose is unknown.

Dunfield's other findings were based on drilling. It was determined that at 140 feet there was a 2 foot thick layer of limestone and then a forty foot void. At the bottom of the void was bedrock. This information matched with a drilling done back in 1955. There seemed to be a large, natural underground cavern, something common with limestone around the world.

Recent Discoveries

Daniel Blankenship, the current searcher, began his quest in 1965. In 1966 he dug out more of the original shaft found by Bob Dunfield in 1965. It turned out that the shaft did go beyond forty five feet. Blankenship found a hand-wrought nail and a washer at sixty feet. At ninety feet he met a layer of rocks in stagnant water. He assumed this was part of the south water tunnel but couldn't explore further because the shaft could not be stopped from caving in.

A pair of wrought-iron scissors were discovered in 1967 buried below the drains at Smith's Cove. It was determined that the scissors were Spanish-American, probably made in Mexico, and they were up to 300 years old. Also found was a heart shaped stone.

Smith's Cove revealed some more secrets in 1970 to Triton Alliance, a group formed by Blankenship to continue the search. While Triton was building a new cofferdam they discovered the remains of what appeared to be the original builders' cofferdam. The findings included several logs 2 feet thick and up to 65 feet long. They were marked every four feet with Roman numerals carved in them and some contained wooden pins or nails. The wood has been carbon dated to 250 years ago.

The western end of the island has also revealed several items. Two wooden structures, along with wrought-iron nails and metal straps were found at the western beach. Nine feet below the beach a pair of leather shoes were unearthed.

The next major discoveries came in 1976 when Triton dug what is known as Borehole 10-X, a 237 foot tube of steel sunk 180 feet northeast of the "Money Pit". During the digging several apparently artificial cavities were found down to 230 feet (see: drilling results below).

A camera lowered down to a bedrock cavity at 230 feet returned some amazing images. At first a severed hand could be seen floating in the water. Later three chests (of the treasure type I would presume) and various tools could be made out. Finally a human body was detected.

After seeing the images, the decision was made to send divers down for a look. Several attempts were made but strong current and poor visibility made it impossible to see anything.

Soon after the hole itself collapsed and has not been reopened.

Blankenship and Triton still continue the quest with future plans to excavate.

 

Triton Drilling Results

Triton - 1967-1969

Borehole X-10

Cypher Substitution Chart

 

Translation

Inscription (Back)

Source: Active Mind Directory

 

 

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