Oak Island is a 140-acre (57 ha) island in Lunenberg County on the south
shore of Nova
Scotia
, Canada
.
The
tree-covered island is one of about 360 small islands in Mahone Bay
and rises to a maximum of 35 feet (11 m) above
sea level.
Oak Island is noted as the location of the so-called Money Pit, a
site of numerous
excavations to recover
treasure believed by many to be buried there. The
island is privately owned, and advance permission is required for
any visitation. Several documented treasure recovery attempts ended
in collapsed excavations and flooding. Critics argue that there is
no treasure and that the pit is a natural phenomenon, likely a
sinkhole.
History of the Money Pit
Early accounts
There are many 19th-century accounts of Oak Island, but they are
conflicting, not contemporary, and not impartial.Further, physical
evidence from the initial excavations is absent or has been lost. A
basic summary of the claimed history of the pit is as
follows:
In 1795, 16-year-old Daniel McGinnis discovered a circular
depression in a clearing on the southeastern end of the island with
an adjacent tree which had a
tackle
block on one of its overhanging branches. McGinnis, with the
help of friends John Smith (in early accounts, Samuel Ball) and
Anthony Vaughan, excavated the depression and discovered a layer of
flagstones a few feet below. On the pit
walls there were visible markings from a pick. As they dug down
they discovered layers of logs at about every ten feet (3 m). They
abandoned the excavation at 30 feet (10 m).
This
initial discovery and excavation was first briefly mentioned in
print in the Liverpool
Transcript in October, 1856. A more
complete account followed in the
Liverpool Transcript, the
Novascotian,
British Colonist, and
A History
Of Lunenburg County (however, the latter account was based on
the earlier
Liverpool Transcript articles and does not
represent an independent source).
About eight years after the 1795 dig, according to the original
articles and the memories of Vaughan, another company examined what
was to become known as the Money Pit.
The Onslow Company
sailed from central Nova Scotia near Truro
to Oak Island with the goal of recovering what they
believed to be secret treasure. They continued the
excavation down to approximately 90 feet (27.43 m) and found layers
of logs or "marks" about every ten feet (3 m) and layers of
charcoal,
putty and
coconut fibre at 40, 50
and 60 feet (12, 15 and 18 m).
According to one of the earliest written accounts, at 80 or 90 feet
(27 m), they recovered a large stone bearing an inscription of
symbols. Several researchers are said to have attempted to decipher
the symbols. One translated them as saying: "forty feet below, two
million
pounds lie buried." No
photographs, drawings, or other images of the stone are known to
have been produced prior to its claimed disappearance circa 1912.
The symbols currently associated with the "forty feet down..."
translation and seen in many books first appeared in
True Tales
of Buried Treasure, written by explorer and historian
Edward Rowe Snow in 1951. In this book he
claims he was given this set of symbols by Reverend A.T.
Kempton of
Cambridge,
Massachusetts
. Nothing more is known about Kempton's
involvement in the Oak Island tale.
The pit subsequently flooded up to the 33-foot (10 m) level.
Bailing did not reduce the water level, and the excavation was
abandoned.
Investors formed The Truro Company in 1849, which re-excavated the
shaft back down to the 86-foot (26 m) level, where it flooded
again. They then drilled into the ground below the bottom of the
shaft. According to the nineteenth-century account, the drill or
"pod auger" passed through a
spruce platform
at 98 feet (30 m), a 12-inch head space, 22 inches
(560 mm) of what was described as "metal in pieces",
8 inches (200 mm) of oak, another 22 inches
(560 mm) of metal, 4 inches (100 mm) of
oak, another spruce layer, and finally into clay for 7
feet without striking anything else.
Oak Island Association and Old Gold Salvage group
The next excavation attempt was made in 1861 by a new company
called the Oak Island Association which resulted in the collapse of
the bottom of the shaft into either a natural cavern or
booby trap underneath. The first fatality during
excavations occurred when the boiler of a pumping engine burst. The
company gave up when their funds were exhausted in 1864.
Further excavations were made in 1866, 1893, 1909, 1931, 1935,
1936, and 1959, none of which were successful. Another fatality
occurred in 1887, when a worker fell to his death. (Six people have
been killed in accidents during various excavations.)
Franklin Roosevelt was part of the
Old Gold Salvage group of
1909 and kept up with news and developments for most of his
life.
Gilbert Hedden and William Chappell
In 1928, a
New
York
newspaper printed a feature story about the strange
history of the island. Gilbert
Hedden, operator of a steel fabricating concern, saw the
article and was fascinated by the engineering problems involved in
recovering the putative treasure. Hedden collected books and
articles on the island and made six trips there.
He even ventured to
England
to converse with Harold Tom Wilkins, the author of
Captain Kidd and His Skeleton
Island, believing he had found a link between Oak Island and a
map in Wilkins's book.
Hedden purchased the southeast end of the island. He began digging
in the summer of 1935, following excavations by William Chappell in
1931.
In
1939, he even informed King George VI
of the United
Kingdom
about developments on Oak Island.
The 1931 excavations by William Chappell sank a shaft 12x14 feet to
the southwest of what he believed was the site of the 1897 shaft,
close to the original pit. At , a number of
artifacts, including an axe, an
anchor fluke, and a pick were found. The pick has been identified
as a
Cornish miner's poll pick. By
this time, the entire area around the Money Pit was littered with
the debris and refuse of numerous prior excavation attempts, so
exactly to whom the pick belonged is unverifiable.
Restall family and Robert Dunfield
Excavation by the Restall family in the early 1960s ended
tragically when four men died after being overcome by fumes in a
shaft near the beach. In 1965, Robert Dunfield leased the island
and, using a 70-ton digging
crane
with a clam bucket, dug out the pit area to a depth of 134 feet (41
m) and width of 100 feet (30 m). The removed
soil was carefully inspected for artifacts.
Transportation of the crane to the island required the construction
of a
causeway (which still exists) from the
western end of the island to Crandall's Point on the mainland two
hundred metres away.
Triton Alliance
Around 1967, Daniel C. Blankenship and David Tobias formed Triton
Alliance, Ltd. and purchased most of the island. In 1971, Triton
workers excavated a 235-foot (72 m) shaft supported by a steel
caisson to bedrock. According
to Blankenship and Tobias, cameras lowered down the shaft into a
cave below recorded the presence of some chests, human remains,
wooden cribbing and tools; however, the images were unclear, and
none of these claims have been independently confirmed. The shaft
subsequently collapsed, and the excavation was again abandoned.
This shaft was later successfully re-dug to , reaching
bedrock; work was halted because of lack of funds
and the collapse of the partnership.
In the mid 1960s, an account of an excavation of the "Money Pit"
appeared in
Readers' Digest magazine. Over a decade later,
the Money Pit mystery was the subject of an episode of the
television series
In
Search of..., which first aired January 18, 1979, bringing
the legend of Oak Island to a wider audience.
During the 1990s, further exploration was stalled because of legal
battles between the Triton partners. As of 2005, a portion of the
island was for sale for an estimated US$7 million. A group called
the Oak Island Tourism Society had hoped the
Government of Canada would purchase the
island, but a group of American businessmen in the drilling
industry did so instead.
After Triton
It was
announced in April 2006 that partners from Michigan
had purchased a 50% stake in Oak Island Tours Inc.,
for an undisclosed amount of money. The shares sold to the
Michigan partners were previously owned by David Tobias; remaining
shares are owned by Blankenship. Center Road Developments, in
conjunction with Allan Kostrzewa, a member of the Michigan group,
had purchased Lot 25 from David Tobias for a reported $230,000 one
year previous to Tobias selling the rest of his share. The Michigan
group, working with Blankenship, has said it will resume operations
on Oak Island in the hope of discovering buried treasure and the
mystery of Oak Island.
Treasure theories
There has been wide-ranging speculation as to who originally dug
the pit and what it might contain. Later accounts claim that oak
platforms were discovered every 10 feet, but the earliest accounts
simply say that "marks" of some type were found at these places.
They also claim there were "tool marks" or pick scrapes on the
walls on the money pit and that the dirt was noticeably loose and
not as hard packed as the surrounding soil. One expedition claimed
to have found the flood tunnel at 90 feet, and that it was lined
with flat stones. However, Robert Dunfield (a trained geologist)
wrote that he carefully examined the walls of the re-excavated pit
and was unable to locate any evidence of this tunnel.
The cipher stone, which one researcher is said to have translated
to read "Forty feet below two million pounds are buried", was
allegedly last seen in the early 20th century (exact dates are a
topic of controversy). Some accounts state that Smith used it as a
fireback in his fireplace, while others claim it was last seen as a
doorstep in a Halifax bookbinder's shop. The accuracy of the
translation, whether the symbols as commonly depicted are accurate,
or if they meant anything at all, remains disputed.
Man-made structures under Oak Island do in fact exist as discussed
in many books, including a book written by Lee Lamb, daughter of
Robert Restall. Whether these structures are the remains of prior
excavation attempts or artifacts left behind by those who allegedly
built the Money Pit are unknown. It is known that several
documented post-1860 treasure recovery attempts, as described
above, ended in collapsed excavations and flooding.
Pirate treasure
Some believe the pit holds a pirate treasure hoard buried by
Captain Kidd or possibly Edward Teach
(
Blackbeard), who claimed he buried his
treasure "where none but
Satan and myself can
find it."Some also hold to the theory that Kidd conspired with
Henry Every and Oak Island was used as a
pseudo community bank between the two.
Naval treasure
Others
agree it was dug to hold treasure but believe this was done by
someone other than pirates, such as Spanish
sailors from a wrecked
galleon or British
troops during the American Revolution. John Godwin argued that, given the
apparent size and complexity of the pit, it was likely dug by
French army engineers hoping to hide the contents of the treasury
of the Fortress of
Louisbourg
after it fell to the British during the Seven Years' War.
Marie Antoinette's jewels
There is a story that, like most others regarding the island, lacks
adequate archival sources, or any quoted sources at all, which
places the priceless jewels of
Marie
Antoinette (which are historically missing, save for some
specimens in the collections of museums worldwide) on Oak Island .
During the
French Revolution, when
the Palace of
Versailles was stormed by
revolutionaries in 1789, Marie Antoinette instructed her maid or a
lady-in-waiting to take her prized possessions and flee.
Supposedly, this maid fled to London
with such
royal items as Antoinette's jewels and perhaps other treasures,
such as important artwork or documents, secreted away either on her
person (one variation suggests sewn into her underskirts in the
case of the jewels, though fails to mention artwork) or as her
luggage; it is even said she was perhaps assisted by the remaining
officers of the French navy during the uprising at the queen's
behest.
The story then goes on to say that this woman fled further afield
from London to Nova Scotia ; through the royal connections she
would have had during her service to the queen at
Versailles, she managed to contract the French
navy to help construct the famed 'pit' on the island. This theory,
as noted, lacks recognized documentation other than that which is
folkloric in nature, involves the French navy, which, during the
Revolution had an uncertain level of authority, and would place the
construction of the Oak Island structure very close to its initial
discovery by Daniel McGinnis in 1795. Whether such a complex
engineering effort could have been completed in that small space of
time is questionable, though no official date of its construction
exists. However, other theories do suggest the structure is French
and naval in style .
Exotic treasure
Still others have speculated that the Oak Island pit was dug to
hold treasure much more exotic than gold or silver.
In his 1953 book,
The Oak Island Enigma: A History and Inquiry Into the Origin of
the Money Pit, Penn Leary claimed that English philosopher Francis
Bacon used the pit to hide documents proving him to be the
author of William Shakespeare's
plays, a theory recently used in the Norwegian
book Organisten (The Organ
Player) by Erlend Loe and Petter
Amundsen. It has been asserted that the pit might have been
dug by exiled
Knights Templar and
that it is the last resting place of the
Holy
Grail.
Criticism of treasure theories
Critics argue that there is no treasure and that the apparent pit
is a natural phenomenon, likely a
sinkhole
and natural caverns.
Sinkhole
Suggestions that the pit is a natural phenomenon, specifically a
sinkhole or debris in a fault, date to at least 1911. There are
numerous sinkholes on the mainland near the island, together with
underground caves (to which the apparent booby traps are
attributed).
The appearance of a man-made pit has been attributed partly to the
texture of sinkholes: "this filling would be softer than the
surrounding ground, and give the impression that it had been dug up
before", and the appearance of "platforms" of rotten logs has been
incorrectly attributed to trees or "blowdowns" falling or washing
into the depression. An undetermined pit similar to the description
of the early Money Pit had been discovered in the area. In 1949,
workmen digging a well on the shore of Mahone Bay, at a point where
the earth was soft, found a pit of the following description: "At
about two feet down a layer of fieldstone was struck. Then logs of
spruce and oak were unearthed at irregular intervals, and some of
the wood was charred. The immediate suspicion was that another
Money Pit had been found."
Romanticized elements
Joe Nickell identifies parallels between
the accounts of Oak Island and the allegory of the "Secret Vault"
in
Freemasonry, similar to the
Chase Vault, identifies many prominent
excavators as Freemasons, and suggests that the accounts explicitly
include Masonic imagery.
Pit flooding issues
In 1850, treasure hunters discovered fibres beneath the surface of
one beach called Smith's Cove. This led to the theory that the
beach had been converted into a giant siphon, feeding water from
the ocean into the pit via a man made tunnel.
The
purpose of these fibres has been a source of heated debate among
Oak Island researchers; a sample of this material was sent to the
Smithsonian
Institution
in the early 20th century, where it was concluded
that the material was coconut fibre. Carbon dating was conducted on a sample in the
1960s and returned a date of 1200-1400 AD. However, this testing
method reveals only when the material was harvested, not when it
was deposited at the site.
Oak Island lies on a
glacial tumulus system and is underlain by a series of
water-filled
anhydrite cavities, which may
be 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
130-150 feet in the Money Pit area.
Upon the
invitation of Boston-area businessman David Mugar, a two-week
survey was conducted by the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution
in 1995. This is the only known scientific
study that has been conducted on the site. After running dye tests
in the bore hole, they concluded that the flooding was caused by a
natural interaction between the island's freshwater lens and tidal
pressures in the underlying geology, refuting the idea of
artificially constructed flood tunnels. The Woods Hole scientists
who viewed the videos taken in 1971 concluded that nothing
conclusive could be determined from the murky images.
References
- "The Secrets of Oak Island", Joe Nickell,
Skeptical Inquirer, March/April
2000.
- Microfiche of the original Liverpool Transcript
articles
- Unnamed author. "Correspondence." Liverpool
Transcript, 15 August 1857.
- Patrick. "Response to the Oak Island Folly." The
Novascotian, 30 September 1861
- Unnamed author. "The Oak Island Folly", The
Novascotian, 29 August 1861
- A Member. "A History of The Oak Island Enterprise." British
Colonist (in 3 chapters published on 2, 7, and 14 January,
1864)
- DesBrisay, Mather, A History Of
Lunenburg County (1895)
- McCully, J.B. "The Oak Island Diggings." Liverpool
Transcript, October 1862
- Snow, Edward Rowe. True Tales of Buried Treasure,
(Dodd and Mead, 1951) ASIN B000OI2EFC
- The History Channel, Decoding the
Past: The Templar Code, video documentary, November 7, 2005,
written by Marcy Marzuni
- Doyle, Lynn C. "Nova Scotia's Treasure Island."
MacLean's 1 June, 1931
- Ellerd, Kerry. "Finding Buried Treasure: It's an Expensive
Business." Montreal STAR February 6, 1971
- Crooker, William S. Oak Island Gold (Nimbus
Publishing, 1993) ISBN 1-55109-049-X
- Howlett, A. "Mystery of Captain Kidd's Treasure." World
Wide Magazine October, 1958
- Lamb, Lee. Oak Island Obsession: The Restall Story
(Dundurn Press, 2006) ISBN 978-1550026252
- Godwin, John. This Baffling World. (Bantam, 1971)
- Leary, Thomas P. The Oak Island Enigma: A History and
Inquiry Into the Origin of the Money Pit. (T.P. Leary,
1953)
- Loe, Erland, and Amundsen, Petter. Organisten
(Cappelen, 2006)
- Sora, Steven. The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar
(Inner Traditions/Destiny, 1999). ISBN 0-89-281-710-0
- This section follows Nickell, section "Man-made or
Natural?".
- Bowdoin, H. L. 1911. Solving the mystery of Oak Island.
Collier's Magazine, August 18. Cited and discussed in Harris 1958,
110-120; O'Connor 1988, 63-66.
- Faribault, E. Rudolph. 1911. Summary Report of Geological
Survey Branch of the Department of Mines. Quoted in Furneaux 1972,
110.
- Atlantic Advocate. 1965. Article in October issue, cited in
Crooker 1978, 85-86.
- Preston, Douglas. 1988(thoughts taken form a Novel fiction body
of work called "Riptide"). However this notion has been disregarded
as a consequence of reported pick marks along the sides of the
walls down to the 90 foot mark and the stone lined flood tunnel the
lead to Smiths Cove. Man made death trap defies treasure seekers
for two centuries. The Smithsonian. June. 53-56
- O'Connor (1988, 172-173)
- French, Carey. "Treasure Island? Fabled Booty Eludes the
Fortune Hunters." Globe & Mail 19 November, 1983
External links
General
News Reports
Sceptical
- "The Secrets of Oak Island", Joe Nickell, Skeptical Inquirer, March/April
2000.
- History, Hoax, and Hype The Oak Island Legend, Richard
Joltes, August 2006
- "The Oak Island Money Pit", Brian Dunning,
Skeptoid, November 25, 2008
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