The Season 7 finale of ‘The Curse of Oak Island’ begins at the Money Pit area, where
caisson RF1 had encountered a 180-foot-deep obstruction the previous episode. Mike Jardine
informs Craig Tester and Gary Drayton that Vanessa Lucido’s idea of leaving the hammergrab
atop the obstruction overnight appears to have moved the offending object five feet.
The treasure hunters then use the hammergrab to remove the obstruction, which appears to
be gravel they previously used to backfill Borehole H8. Below the gravel, they encounter
what oscillator operator Danny Smith declares “feels like a void” at a depth of 202
feet. Despite this tantalizing development, the hammergrab proceeds to bring up more gravel
backfill, prompting the treasure hunters to reluctantly terminate the shaft for safety
purposes. The next day, the Oak Island crew uses an
excavator to extract some of the stones from the Paved Area in the swamp. While they work,
the treasure hunters are approached by Doug Crowell and Dr. Ian Spooner. Dr. Spooner informs
the treasure hunters that the stick which he extracted from beneath the Paved Area the
previous episode was carbon dated to around 1200 A.D. – a date consistent with the Knights
Templar theory. The geoscientists declares this to be evidence that the Paved Wharf,
which multiple experts have opined was created by the hand of man, was formed around 1200
A.D. The treasure hunters decide to convene in the War Room in light of this startling
development. This is not the first theory that Dr. Spooner
has developed regarding Oak Island’s swamp. Back in Season 7, Episode 3, the geoscientist
extracted core samples from the swamp’s ‘Ship Anomaly’, from which he concluded
that the triangle-shaped bog was formed sometime in the 1600s, and supported trees and other
forms of terrestrial vegatation prior to its transformation into a wetland.
Back in Season 7, Episode 9, Dr. Spooner and his graduate students extracted sticks and
other organic matter from the ‘Eye of the Swamp’. The evidence gleaned from these
samples, coupled with his discovery of unnaturally-interlayered organic matter and till in the swamp, led
the geoscientist to conclude that the swamp- not just the Paved Area- first formed around
1220 A.D., and that the Eye of the Swamp was disturbed by man sometime between 1674 and
1700. He elaborated on this theory in Season 7, Episode 18, in which he suggested that
the Eye of the Swamp constitutes the remains of a 300-year-old clay mine, and that the
Paved Area constituted the roadway by which clay was transported from the mine onto ships.
Following Dr. Spoooner’s revelation, the Oak Island crew members file into the War
Room, where they find a visual timeline laid out on the table. This display, created by
Charles Barkhouse, stretches from 1100 A.D. to the present day. There is a thick line
of demarcation at 1795, the date in which the Money Pit was first discovered. Various
artifacts recovered on Oak Island over the years have been placed on the timeline in
the respective centuries during which they are believed to have been created or deposited.
A cluster of coins, nails, and buttons lie between 1650 and 1795, in the midst of which
are the labels ‘Golden Age of Piracy’ at 1700 and ‘Crown Jewels Theory’ at 1793.
The burnt iron bracket found in the swamp lies at around 1700, and the rhodolite garnet
brooch found on Lot 8 lies at around 1650. The Spanish maravedis unearthed at the Mercy
Point sits at 1652, and the conical pike pole point found in the swamp is located at 1600
(despite Carmen Legge’s dating the artifact from 1710 to 1790), overtop the labels ‘Rosicrucians’
and ‘Francis Bacon’. In the middle of the 1500s, we see two large rusted iron strips
presumably recovered from Smith’s Cove. At 1500 is the label ‘French Exploration’,
and at 1400 is the label ‘Portuguese Exploration’, below which lies the hand-point chisel found
at Isaac’s Point. Somewhere in the 1400s, we see the swage blocks discovered on Lot
21. At 1300 is the label ‘Order of Christ’, overtop of which sits a clump of coconut fibre.
The lead cross and the swamp stick extracted by Dr. Spooner have been placed in the late
1200s. The year 1200 bears the label ‘Norsemen Exploration’. At the beginning of the timeline,
at the year 1100, we see a blackened piece of wood- perhaps one of the pieces of burnt
wood found in the swamp. Below this item is the label ‘Templar Exploration’.
The treasure hunters proceed to discuss the implications of the finds displayed on the
timeline. Jack Begley points out that the data seems to point to multiple operations
that took place at different times. “We know, during specific dates,” he says, “that
large amounts of work went on on Oak Island in at least two different clumps of time.
You’ve got the 1600s,” he says, pointing to artifacts which date to that time period,
“which fits with the Rosicrucians and the Francis Bacon theories. You’ve got the 11-1400s,
which fits right in with the Templar theories. And we have dendro information from the slipway
that someone was there doing a lot of work before searchers.” Doug Crowell echoes that
notion, saying, “All of this changes the mystery as we know it… because it was supposed
to be an uninhabited island in 1795 when the treasure hunt began as we know it, but this
has shown us that there was a story, and there was activity going on here much earlier, and
on possibly a very continual basis, whether it’s the same group or not.”
During the discussion, Jack Begley and Gary Drayton express their belief that some of
the artifacts bolster the Knights Templar theory. Craig Tester, on the other hand, remarks
that much of the evidence points to an event that took place in the late 1600s. Gary Drayton
suggests that, based on the swage blocks found on Lot 21 and the pick head found at the Eye
of the Swamp, tunnels may run beneath Oak Island in places other than the Money Pit
area. Surveyor Steve Guptill then discloses that data collected during “strategic digs”
indicates that the Paved Area measures 170’x 80’, and that, according to Dr. Ian Spooner,
it may have lain at the edge of open water in the 1200s.
Once each of the treasure hunters have said their piece, Marty Lagina withdraws a modern
toonie, or $2 Canadian coin, from his pocket and places it at the right end of the timeline.
“That’s my toonie,” he says. “That’s the one I put down H8”. The narrator then
reminds us that, back in Season 5, Episode 8, Marty threw a coin down H8 for good luck,
saying “Go find your brother.” In the War Room, Marty observes that the PVC casing
he tossed the toonie down was located about ten feet from the centre of RF1, indicating
that the toonie drifted about ten feet underground. In light of this new evidence, the treasure
hunters discuss the possibility that the Money Pit treasure similarly drifted underground
from its original position, perhaps both vertically and horizontally.
Marty Lagina then asks the Fellowship whether they believe treasure still lies hidden somewhere
on Oak Island. Every crew member but Alex Lagina, Laird Niven, and Dan Henskee express
their belief that there is probably still treasure to be found on the Island. Marty
himself states that he believes there to be a 40% possibility that Oak Island was ever
the depository of treasure, and a 20% possibility that treasure remains to be found. “But
that’s way farther than I ever was before,” he continues. “My leading theory, when I
first came on this island, was that it was just collective madness.”
Next, the treasure hunters bring up the subject of the “Big Dig”- a long-discussed comprehensive
excavation of the Money Pit area, which Marty Lagina estimates would cost tens of millions
of dollars and take as long as three years to complete. The narrator then explains that
the Big Dig would either involve the “construction of a massive concrete shaft around the entire
Money Pit area so that access to the vault would be unhampered by flooding,” or the
drilling of a 100-foot-wide ring of boreholes which would be pumped full of some freezing
agent, allowing the treasure hunters to excavate the Money Pit area without having to contend
with floodwater. “The Big Dig has been kind of hanging out
there for a long time,” Marty Lagina summarizes in a later interview. “It’s almost like
a child’s dream. The science is relatively simple. It’s just basically trying to make
a solid ring around the Money Pit, and then plug the bottom of it, and then excavate that.”
Rick Lagina then adds, “It’s enormously expensive from a financial [perspective, and]
commitment of time and resources, but at the end of the day, you dig an 80 foot, 100-foot-in-diameter
circle, we all know within that resides the original Money Pit. I think it’s ultimately
the only way to really get to the bottom of what happened here on Oak Island.”
The Fellowship of the Dig concludes the War Room meeting and heads to Borehole 10-X, where
a commemorative plaque honouring Dan Blankenship has been erected. The plaque reads:
“Daniel Christian Blankenship, 1923-2019 “A Titan of Oak Island
“This dedication stands as a memorial to his abounding drive for answers and unwavering
faith in God. “Dedicated Husband & Father
“Fearless Soldier “Preserver of History
“Tenacious Treasure Hunter “Dan was an inspiration to all who called
him a faithful friend” The Lagina brothers explain that the monument
on which the plaque is affixed is composed of rock from Oak Island and old drill pipes
that Dan Blankenship used during his Oak Island treasure hunt. Rick and Marty honour the veteran
treasure hunter in a eulogy, keeping their speeches intentionally brief, since Dan, in
the words of his son, Dave, was a man of few words.
Thank you for watching, and for sticking with this channel throughout Season 7. Although
the season may be over, I’m planning to publish a few more Oak Island videos over
the next few months on some of the theories regarding the nature of Oak Island’s subterranean
contents and the identity or identities of its depositors. Some of you may be pleased
to learn that I’m hoping to have that series hosted by a certain well-beloved actress who
has appeared on my channel in the past. If you’d like to be notified when those videos
come out, please subscribe to this channel and click the notification bell.