Oak Island
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Oak Island () 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.
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. However, the pit may have been a sinkhole or some other natural formation that was misinterpreted for centuries. The island is privately owned and advance permission is required for any visit.
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. The company gave up when they exhausted their funds in 1864.
Numerous further excavations were made in 1866, 1893, 1909, 1931,1935, 1936, and 1959, none of which were successful. 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 to be overcome in recovering the treasure. Hedden collected a library of books and articles on the island and made six trips there. Wholly believing that there was treasure buried 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 that he had found a link between Oak Island and a mysterious map in Wilkins' book.
Convinced that the story was no hoax, the very wealthy Hedden bought the southeast end of the island. He did not start digging until the summer of 1935, after 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 underlying the Money Pit was littered with the debris and refuse of numerous prior excavation attempts so it is unlikely this pick belonged to the original party (if any) that created the hole.
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 140 feet (43 m) and width of 100 feet (30 m). The removed soil was carefully examined for artifacts. As a result, the location of the original shaft is no longer known. 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.
Around 1969, 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 some chests, human remains, wooden cribbing and some tools, but the images were not clear 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 where work was halted due to lack of funds.
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 is loosely associated with the Freemasons and the Templars, but none of this is proven.
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 few Michigan men in the drilling industry did so instead.
It was announced on April 2006 that a group of partners from Michigan purchased a 50% stake of the Oak Island Tours Incorporated for an undisclosed amount of money. The share were previously owned by David Tobias, and the remaining shares are owned by Dan Blankenship. Allan Kostrzewa, a member of the 'Michigan Group', purchased Lot 25 from David Tobias for a reported $230,000 one year ago. Working closely with Dan Blankenship the 'Michigan Group' has said they will resume operations on Oak Island in the hope that they will discover treasure underground.
Pit flooding
Treasure hunters had discovered coconut fibres beneath the surface of one beach (coconuts are not indigenous to Nova Scotia). This led to one theory that the beach was converted into a giant "wick", feeding water from the ocean into the pit. Another theory is that the coconut fibers were used to make a form of putty and used to seal oak platforms set at various depths in the pit.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, and indeed the very existence, of these fibers and putty have been a source of heated debate between many Oak Island researchers.
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.
Upon the invitation of Boston area businessman David Mugar, a two week survey was conducted by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1995, the only scientific study ever 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 "box drains" or flood tunnels. Scientists also viewed some of the videos taken in 1971 and concluded that nothing of value could be determined from the murky images.
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.The notorious pirate 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. Perhaps the most far-fetched theory is that English philosopher Francis Bacon used the pit to hide documents proving him to be the author of William Shakespeare's plays.
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 and its similarity to other natural formations found in the area.
History or legend
Given the limited size of the original pit, it may be noteworthy that no debris, lost tools or other items mentioned in the early accounts have been found. There is no surviving evidence that any elements described in the original tale (such as oak platforms, an inscribed stone, or even the tree itself) ever existed, although few details have changed since the original version of the story was published.Some 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 to speculation that the early account of the Money Pit is a combination of several works of nineteenth century fiction conflated with a local story about a search for buried treasure.
Oak Island in popular culture
- Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child fictionalized the Oak Island mystery in the thriller novel Riptide (1999).
- The video game Soul Calibur 2 featured a level named the Money Pit which was supposedly the location of a vast fortune and is guarded with numerous water traps.
- 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 intervews and recreated footage, as well as footage of the actual location.
- A novel, "The Money Pit Mystery" was written by Eric Walters based on the legend of Oak Island.
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
- [OakIslandTreasure.co.uk]
- [Unmuseum.org], diagrams of the excavation locations
- [CBC Radio conversation about Oak Island]
- [Satellite image of Oak Island at Google Maps]
- ["The Secrets of Oak Island"], Joe Nickell, Skeptical Inquirer, March/April 2000.
- [The Oak Island Tourism Society]
Notes
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