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Oak Island
- The mysterious money pitOak Island
Oak Island ( 44°31′00″N, 64°17′57″W) is a 140 acre
(570,000 m²) 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.
Above: President Franklin D.
Roosevelt (aged 27) and friends on Oak Island searching
for the treasure in 1910. Image courtesy of the
National Archives and
Records Administration
The Money Pit
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.
Early history
Mid-19th century newspaper stories recount that in
1795, young Donald Daniel McInnis discovered a circular
depression on the south eastern end of the island with
an adjacent tree which had a tackle block on one of its
overhanging branches. McInnis, with the help of friends
John Smith 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).
About eight years later, according to the original
nineteenth century article, another company examined
what was to become known as the Money Pit. The Onslow
Company sailed 300 nautical miles 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, a
newspaper article called "The Oak Island Diggings" from
the Liverpool Transcript (Oct 1862) at 80 or 90
feet (27 m) they recovered a large stone bearing an
inscription of symbols. 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.
One account states they recovered three small gold
links of a chain from mud stuck to the drill. They
attempted to prevent the pit from flooding by damming
Smith's Cove, and later by excavating a shaft into what
was believed to be a flood tunnel from the sea to block
it and prevent the pit from filling with water.
The original 18th Century story of the pit's
discovery along with the mid-19th century newspaper
accounts are based on unverified folklore and may be
entirely false. The earliest published description of
the Money Pit is a news article in the Liverpool
Transcript newspaper in October 1862. This included
an oral account of the early years of excavation
attempts as told by at least one digger. No supporting
material or evidence has surfaced ever since and the
story has been impossible to verify. Several researchers
have noted that artifacts like the inscribed stone and
gold chain links could have been placed in the pit
during expensive excavation operations for the purpose
of attracting more investors.
Documented history
The Money Pit was first mentioned in print by the
Liverpool Transcript in October, 1856. More accounts
followed in the Liverpool Transcript, the Novascotian
newspaper and A History Of Lunenburg County *, but this last
account was based on the earlier Liverpool Transcript
articles and does not represent an independent source.
The next excavation attempt was made in 1861 by a new
company called the Oak Island Association and apparently led
to the collapse of the bottom of the shaft into a suspected
void or booby trap underneath. The first fatality during
excavations occurred when the boiler of a pumping engine
burst.[1] 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.[1] Franklin Roosevelt (later President of the United
States) was part of the Old Gold Salvage group of 1909 and
kept up with news and developments for most of his life.
About six people have been killed in accidents during
various excavations.
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 in recovering the
putative treasure. Hedden collected books and articles on
the island, and made six trips there. Wholly convinced that
there was buried treasure on Oak Island, Mr. Hedden even
ventured to England to converse with Harold Tom Wilkins, the
author of Captain Kidd and His Skeleton Island. Gilbert
believed he had found a link between Oak Island and a
mysterious map in Wilkins' book.
The very wealthy Hedden then bought the southeast end of
the island. He did not start digging until the summer of
1935, following excavations by William Chappell in 1931. In
1939, he even informed King George VI of England about
developments on Oak Island.
The 1931 excavations by William Chappell sank a 163 foot
shaft 12x14 feet to the southwest of what they believed was
the site of the 1897 shaft, close to the original pit. At
127 feet, a number of artifacts, including an axe, anchor
fluke, and 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 it is unlikely the
pick belonged to the original party (if any) that created
the hole, however, that is not known with certainty.
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.
As a result, the location of the original shaft is no longer
known by most, but not all researchers. 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
meters away. However, four workers died during this attempt,
when they were overcome by fumes in the tunnel.[1]
Around 1967, Daniel C. Blankenship and David Tobias
formed Triton Alliance, Ltd. and bought most of the island.
In 1971, Triton workers excavated a 235 foot (72 m) shaft
supported by a steel caisson to bedrock. Cameras lowered
down the shaft into a cave below were said to have recorded
the presence of some chests, human remains, wooden cribbing
and tools, but the images were unclear and none of these
claims have been confirmed. The shaft subsequently collapsed
and the excavation was again abandoned. This shaft was later
successfully re-dug to 181 feet, reaching bedrock; work was
halted due to lack of funds and the collapse of the
partnership.
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. Previously the story had only been known
among locals, treasure hunting groups, and readers of
sensational magazines and anthologies. The island has been
loosely associated with the Freemasons and Templars, but
none of this is proven.
During the 1990s, further exploration was stalled because
of legal battles.[1] As of 2005, a portion of the island was
for sale with an estimated price tag of $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.[2]
It was announced in April 2006 that partners from
Michigan purchased a 50% stake in Oak Island Tours Inc., for
an undisclosed amount of money. The shares were previously
owned by David Tobias, and the remaining shares are owned by
Dan Blankenship. Center Road Developments, in conjunction
with Allan Kostrzewa, a member of the 'Michigan Group',
purchased Lot 25 from David Tobias for a reported $230,000
one year previously. Working closely with Dan Blankenship,
the 'Michigan Group' has said they will resume operations on
Oak Island in the hope of discovering buried treasure and
the mystery of Oak Island.
Pit flooding
Treasure hunters discovered coconut fibres beneath the
surface of one beach called Smith's Cove (coconuts are not
indigenous to Nova Scotia). This was discovered in 1850 and
led to the theory that the beach had been converted into a
giant "sponge", feeding water from the ocean into the pit
via a man made tunnel.
Coconut fibres were also used as shipping dunnage and
some say that the fibres may have been discarded from cargo
ships stopping at the island or sailing nearby. The purpose,
of these fibers has been a source of heated debate among Oak
Island researchers. But scientific analysis has confirmed it
is indeed coconut fibre.
Oak Island lies on a glacial tumulus system and is
underlain by a series of water-filled limestone cavities
(Anhydrite) which could be responsible for the repeated
flooding of the pit. Bedrock lies at a depth of 160–180 feet
in the Money Pit area. However, bedrock does not come to the
surface at that end of the island.
Upon the invitation of Boston-area businessman David
Mugar, a two-week survey was conducted by the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution in 1995, one of many scientific
studies 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. Some
scientists who viewed the videos taken in 1971 concluded
that nothing of value could be determined from the murky
images. However,other scientists confirmed that there were
man made objects there.
Buried treasure?
There has been wide speculation about what the pit might
contain. Most suggestions include treasure buried by either
Captain Kidd, British troops during the American revolution,
Spanish sailors from a wrecked galleon, the Inca or even
exiled Knights Templar hiding the Holy Grail in the pit. A
theory published by Penn Leary in his The Oak Island enigma:
A history and inquiry into the origin of the money pit from
1953, claims 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 picked up on
in the book Organisten (The Organ Player) by Norwegian
Petter Amundsen and novelist Erlend Loe.
The notorious pirate Edward Teach (Blackbeard) claimed he
buried his treasure "where none but Satan and myself can
find it," leading to inevitable suggestions that he dug the
pit, but there is no evidence to support this. The pit may
contain nothing at all. Since the 1970s fewer people have
believed the pit has any connection to pirates, due to the
massive scale of the subterranean structure.
The cipher stone (which disappeared from the island in
1919) has been translated many times with multiple decoders
to read "Forty feet bellow lies two million pounds." Even
this has been argued to be a hoax despite its appearing in
nearly all early accounts of the island. The stone existed,
but whether or not the often noted decipher is correct
remains in dispute. A cipher key and a coded message have
been linked to Masonic vaults.
History or legend
The story of the Money Pit is largely unverified and the
gap of sixty years between the supposed discovery and the
first known reports is very long. There is no surviving
evidence that the nine platforms or "marks" existed other
than Vaughan's memories. Indeed, it is noteworthy that
almost all of the debris, lost tools and other items
mentioned in the early accounts have not been found. But a
Multibeam Bathymetry survey by Bedford Institute of
Oceanography of Dartmouth Nova Scotia in the mid nineties
indicates that there may be tailings off the eastern end of
Oak Island. This speculation includes the two links from the
gold chain, the inscribed stone, and even the tree itself.
The piece of parchment does exist and is in the possession
of Dan Blankenship along with a host of other objects.
Many elements contained in the Oak Island story, such as
the discovery of tantalising but inconclusive objects and a
message in indecipherable code, are common in fictional
works on treasure and piracy (such as the Edgar Allan Poe
story The Gold Bug). This has led many to conclude that the
early account of the Money Pit is a romanticised combination
of several works of nineteenth century fiction conflated
with a local story about a search for buried treasure. It is
interesting to note, all these popular stories came after
the discovery of the Money Pit.
Oak Island in popular culture
- Several works of fiction have been based upon the Money
Pit, including "The Money Pit Mystery", Riptide and The Hand
of Robin Squires.
- The television show Bones aired an episode called "The
Man With the Bone" on April 5, 2006, which featured a
fictionalized version of the Oak Island pit moved to
Assateague Island, Maryland.
- The television show In Search Of... hosted by Leonard Nimoy, aired an episode that investigated the Oak Island
Money Pit with interviews and recreated footage, as well as
footage of the actual location.
- The Soul series of video games features the character Voldo, who protects the treasures in an area called the
Money Pit. The location of his stage in the Money Pit varied
from game to game.
Nineteenth century sources
- "Correspondence," Liverpool Transcript,
15 August 1857. (The Transcript is available
on microfilm, in the Vaughn Memorial Library of
Acadia University.)
- "The Oak Island Folly", the Novascotian,
29 August 1861. (The Novascotian is also
available on microfilm, in the Vaughn Memorial
Library of Acadia University.)
- "Patrick," the Novascotian, 30 September
1861.
- McCully, J.B., "The Oak Island Diggings",
Liverpool Transcript, October 1862
- "A Member", "A History of The Oak Island
Enterprise," 2, 7, and 14 January 1864
- Brisay, Des, A History Of Lunenburg County
1895
External links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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