In this video, we’re going to take a look at the developments that took place in Season 8,
Episode 5 of ‘The Curse of Oak Island’. I’m also going to do my best to flesh out the
often-complex backstories associated with the staggering quantity of casual references made
in this episode. If you’re uninterested in those backstories and only want to follow the plot of
the episode, please feel to skip around using the timestamps in the description as a guide.
Before we begin, I’d like to remind you that my book, ‘The Oak Island Encyclopedia: Volume II’,
is still available on Amazon. If you’d like to get a copy of this book for yourself
or as a Christmas present for someone else, please check out the link in the description.
Season 8, Episode 5 of ‘The Curse of Oak Island’ begins at the Money Pit area, where Rick Lagina,
Charles Barkhouse, and Terry Matheson stand by as members of Choice Drilling drive across the
causeway and set up their drilling rig. Nearby, Steve Guptill and Doug Crowell,
equipped with a GPS device and a survey map, locate the site of F6, the first of
many drillholes Choice Drilling has been tasked with punching in the Money Pit area this season.
The drilling operation which Choice Drilling intends to carry out is but
the latest in a long line of similar procedures performed in the Money Pit area over the years.
In order to determine the crew’s motive for repeating this recurrent exercise,
a brief history of the drilling operations in the Money Pit area may be required.
Unfortunately, such a history would be too long to include in this video, and so I’ve included
it in a separate video which you can find by clicking the link in the top right-hand corner.
In this episode of The Curse of Oak Island, Choice Drilling sinks a hole at the F6 location.
Their drill drops into a void which extends from 206-213.5 feet below the surface.
The treasure hunters examine a core sample taken from this depth
and find that it contains loose wet earth, an indication that the medium through which
the drill dropped was probably this soft material rather than open air. The crew decides to abandon
F6 and begin on their next borehole. Work on the West Hill Feature
Later that day, members of the Oak Island team meet at the West Hill feature on Lot 11, the
water-filled depression identified as a potential area of interest by theorists Corjan Mol and Chris
Morford the previous episode. Dr. Ian Spooner, who appears to be in charge of the feature’s
excavation, tasks Drayton with examining the area surrounding the pond for any metal artifacts.
Drayton fails to find anything of interest. Other members of the team
then use chainsaws to clear the area surround the feature of small trees and vegetation.
That accomplished, Billy Gerhardt uses a backhoe to excavate a dirt mound beside the pond,
which some of the treasure hunters suspect might be spoils from a previous excavation.
The mound proves to be entirely devoid of rocks. Beneath it, the treasure hunters find
rocks arranged in a pattern which Dr. Spooner contends evokes the Paved Area in the swamp.
Work on the East Hill Feature Later in the episode, Rick Lagina
and Gary Drayton do some metal detecting on Lot 13 near the East Hill feature,
the second point of interest identified by Mol and Morford in the previous episode.
After passing over what appears to be modern iron, Drayton finds an old iron lock, which he
suggests was once part of a Victorian-era cabinet or bureau. Rick observes that this artifact lies
near the old home of Anthony Graves, a Nova Scotian native and former Oak Island landowner.
Anthony Graves Anthony Thickpenn
Graves was Oak Island’s largest landowner in the mid-1800s, ever since his purchase of Lots
15-20 and nearby Frog Island from Henry Stevens in 1857. Interestingly, Stevens had purchased
those same lots from the children of Money Pit co-discoverer John Smith just two months prior,
and sold them to Graves for the same price at which he had bought them.
Anthony Graves professed to be a farmer, not a treasure hunter. From 1857 until his death
in 1888, he quietly tended his Oak Island land with his wife Eliza Elizabeth and his children,
occasionally leaving his farmhouse on the shores of Joudrey’s Cove to check on the progress of
his treasure-hunting neighbours. Graves’ son, William, died of tuberculosis while in his 20s,
and most of Graves’ daughters eventually moved onto the mainland to start families of their own.
His daughter, Sophia, however, remained at the farmhouse along with her husband, Henry Sellers.
When the Halifax Company came to Oak Island in 1866, Graves leased them the eastern end
of the island. Some Oak Island researchers have observed that Graves neglected to
demand from the Halifax Company, or from any treasure hunting company who rented his land,
a percentage of any treasure found, as was his right. Some believe this is simply an
indication that Graves was skeptical of the Oak Island treasure hunt, believing that the Oak
Island treasure was impossible to retrieve, or that it never even existed in the first place.
Others, however, contend that Graves never demanded a portion of the Oak Island treasure
because he believed he had already found it. According to an old legend, Anthony Graves would
row to the town of Chester from time to time and pay for goods using gold and silver Spanish coins.
Some take this as evidence that Graves had discovered his own Oak Island treasure
and kept quiet about it. Others, however, like researcher Kel Hancock, who co-runs the website
OakIslandCompendium.com with Doug Crowell, point out that English, French, Spanish, Portuguese,
and Latin American coins were common forms of currency in Nova Scotia about a century before
Graves bought land on Oak Island. Erin Helton’s Theory
In the middle of this episode, the Fellowship of the Dig congregates in the War Room to Skype with
two theorists: Judi Rudebusch and Erin Helton. Judi Rudebusch and Gretchen Cornwall
Judi Rudebusch first appeared on The Curse of Oak Island in a War Room meeting back in Season 6,
Episode 6. She was introduced as a friend and research partner of the late Zena Halpern,
a New York-based researcher who made several previous appearances on the show,
whose work prompted several major expeditions and operations throughout Seasons 4,
5, and 6. Indeed, Rudebusch’s name appears several times in Halpern’s 2017 book
‘The Templar Mission to Oak Island and Beyond: Search for Ancient Secrets:
The Shocking Revelations of a 12th Century Manuscript’.
During her Oak Island debut in Season 6, Rudebusch introduced the crew to Gretchen Cornwall,
the author of a 2015 book entitled ‘The Secret Dossier of a Knight Templar of the Sangreal’,
and to Cornwall’s own research partner, John Temple, an alleged descendant of a Templar knight.
The narrator informed us that Cornwall’s book tells of a “secret record which was passed through
generations of John Temple’s family, and which purports to document the survival of the Templar
Order following their persecution and disbandment in France during the early 14th Century.”
In that episode, Cornwall put forth the theory that the Jolly Roger- the black flag bearing a
white skull and crossbones flown by certain 18th Century pirates- was originally used by
the Knights Templar, for whom it represented the bones of their patron saint, John the Baptist.
She elaborated on this theory in a YouTube video entitled ‘The Secret Behind the Jolly Roger’,
in which she claimed that a flag depicting a white death’s head on a black field was
first flown by King Roger II of Sicily, an early patron of the Knights Templar.
Cornwall appears to have borrowed this idea from American writer David Hatcher,
who put forth a similar proposal in his 2003 book ‘Pirates and the Lost Templar Fleet:
The Secret Naval War Between the Knights Templar and the Vatican’.
In Season 6, Episode 6, Cornwall went on to suggest that the head stone found by Fred Nolan
at the centre of Nolan’s Cross transformed the feature into a giant skull and crossbones, which
she took as evidence that the Knights Templar buried their fabled treasures in the Money Pit.
Cornwall and Temple went on to outline their theory that Nolan’s Cross “is literally the
key” to the Money Pit. In order to unlock the Money Pit, they claimed that one must first
imagine shrinking Nolan’s Cross to a tenth of its size. This step is allegedly related to the
medieval practice of tithing, in which 10% of every citizen’s income was given to the Church.
That accomplished, one must then visualize picking up this smaller Nolan’s Cross and inserting it,
top first, into the Money Pit. At the end of one of the arms is a treasure chamber,
which would lie at a depth of about 72 feet, and at a 36-foot distance from the Money Pit.
Cornwall fully outlined her theory in her 2015 book The Secret Dossier of a Knight Templar of
the Sangreal. In that book, she claimed that John Temple bears the noble title “Compte de Mattinata
de Medici”, and is a descendant of “Henry Mattinson”, the alleged secret twin brother
of King Louis XIII of France. About halfway into her book,
Cornwall introduced the reader to the “Matrix Map”- a map of the world dotted
with stars and crisscrossed with “magnetic lines”, which John Temple had given her,
and which Cornwall attempted to connect with the legendary lost island of Atlantis.
This author is under the impression that the Matrix Map is the titular “Secret Dossier”
alluded to in the title of Cornwall’s book, and in Season 6, Episode 6 of ‘The Curse of Oak Island’.
Erin Helton Erin Helton,
the other theorist with whom the Fellowship of the Dig meets in this episode,
is a senior programmer for a company called Resource Data Inc.
Helton initiates her presentation by stating that she began her career in Geographic Information
Systems (GIS), a field of study revolving around a type of computer system used for collecting,
mapping, and comparing geographic data. Following her introduction, Helton informs
the treasure hunters that she believes she has determined the geographic coordinates
of the “Anchors” alluded to on Zena Halpern’s mysterious map of Oak Island.
Recall that Zena Halpern first introduced her map of Oak Island in the Season 4 premiere, along with
the cryptic document dubbed ‘La Formule’ and a map of Nova Scotia bearing the date 1179. Considering
the prominence of Halpern’s work in this episode and other episodes of ‘The Curse of Oak Island’,
an in-depth look at her theory and the nature of her mysterious documents is required.
Unfortunately, such an exposition would be too lengthy to include in this video, and so I’ve
included it in a second video which you can find by clicking the link in the right-hand corner.
Halpern’s Oak Island map bears the date 1347, and is labelled with French words denoting
various landmarks on the island. Although many of these labels clearly reference well-known Oak
Island features like the swamp, the Money Pit, and the stone triangle which once stood on the
South Shore Cove, some of the others are more enigmatic. The three most mysterious labels,
when translated into English, read “the valve”, “the hatch”, and “the anchors.”
In Season 4, Episode 2, the Oak Island crew searched for the hatch indicated on Halpern’s map
and found a rocky angular cavity on the surface of Lot 22. Archaeologist Laird Niven opined
that the depression might constitute a man-made structure, prompting Rick and
Marty Lagina to apply for a permit which would allow them to excavate the anomaly.
In Season 4, Episode 5, the Oak Island crew, having since acquired the aforementioned permit,
began to excavate the depression with hand tools. They quickly discovered
that the formation does not open into an underground tunnel as they had initially hoped,
and agreed that further excavation was unwarranted.
In Season 5, Episode 8, we were introduced to a note scribbled in the margins of Zena
Halpern’s map of Oak Island in what appears to be some antiquated form of French.
Halpern elaborated on this message in her 2017 book ‘The Templar Mission to Oak Island
and Beyond’, translating it as “This drawing for M. Francois Rochefoucauld, a little drink
learned from Neustria.” Neustria was the western territory of the Dark Age Merovingian/Carolingian
Kingdom of the Franks, located in what is now Northern France, and Rochefoucauld is
the name of an old French noble house around which several Oak Island theories revolve.
In this episode, Erin Helton demonstrates the steps she took in her attempt to locate the
“anchors” on Halpern’s map. First, she plots the coordinates of the boulders which comprise Nolan’s
Cross. Then, using Steve Guptill’s survey data, she plots a boulder found during the
crew’s Season 6 excavations at Smith’s Cove, which she labels ‘20A’. Later in the episode,
this boulder is revealed to be the drilled stone discovered by Gilbert Hedden in the 1930s.
Next, Helton plots 21A, a boulder which lies on Oak Island’s westernmost end.
Helton points out that 20A is located perfectly due east of 21A. Next, the GIS expert notes
the position of a third boulder, which she calls ‘6A’, located on Oak Island’s northwestern beach.
She then draws a circle around 6A with a radius measuring the distance between that
boulder and 21A, and points out a fourth boulder which lies at the intersection of
its circumference and a line drawn along the crossbeam of Nolan’s Cross. She calls
this fourth boulder ‘15A’, and identifies it as the western anchor on Zena Halpern’s map.
Finally, Helton locates a fifth point of interest on Oak Island’s northeastern beach,
situated 30 degrees east of north of 15A, which she identifies as the eastern anchor
on Halpern’s map. “I have numerous alignments and very faint LIDAR suggesting that there will be a
boulder located [at that point]”, she concludes. Recall that LIDAR scans, which were conducted on
the suspected 90-foot stone in Season 6, Episode 7; on the Tory Martin stone in Season 6, Episode
10; and on the South Shore Cove in Season 6, Episode 14, involve shooting pulses of laser light
at the object to which the scan is applied and recording the speed and wavelengths of the light
that is reflected, and are intended to locate and enhance anomalies invisible to the naked eye.
Erin Helton’s use of the term LIDAR in this context indicates that she worked off some
sort of map depicting the results of an aerial LIDAR scan of Oak Island.
Next, Erin Helton shows the treasure hunters a map of the eastern half of Oak Island, which was
included in an article entitled ‘New Clews Aid Search for Oak Island’s Gold’, published in the
June 1939 issue of the magazine ‘Popular Science’. This map features the original Money Pit, the two
famous drilled stones, and other landmarks which dot the island’s eastern half. Although it is not
mentioned in this episode, this map is intended to illustrate Gilbert Hedden’s observation that
the features and instructions which appear on the mysterious Wilkins Map correspond with chilling
accuracy with landmarks on Oak Island. To learn more about this most intriguing Oak Island story,
please check out my video ‘New Oak Island Discovery: Another Wrinkle in the Wilkins Map’.
Helton compares the data from this map to her own map of Oak Island and plots what she believes to
be the location of the original Money Pit. This location, Helton informs the treasure hunters,
lies three feet away from Borehole RF-1 (sunk from Season 7, Episodes 21-23),
which Steve Guptill believes to be the caisson which lies closest to the original Money Pit.
Later in the episode, Steve Guptill leads Marty and Alex Lagina, Jack Begley, and Gary Drayton to
the westerly anchor point identified by Helton, at which they find the top of a small white boulder,
the bulk of which is buried in the ground. Jack Begley manually unearths the boulder with a
shovel, whereupon Guptill finds a tiny depression on its surface. The treasure hunters speculate as
to whether the stone might have served as some sort of anchor to which boats were moored years
ago, as suggested by Helton’s theory. An obviously skeptical Marty says, “I’m hoping
there’s something underneath. That would make sense. You could send a guy out and, say, give him
a general area… Go the harbour, pull your boat in, look to your right, you’ll see a bunch of stones,
turn them over until you find the one with a mark on it, that’s the anchor stone. I could buy that.”
The treasure hunters then use a crowbar to expose the rock’s bottom face but fail to
find any obviously manmade markings thereon. That accomplished, Steve Guptill leads his
fellow treasure hunters to the site of Helton’s northeasterly anchor point.
We learn later on in the episode that this site lies at the edge of the Boulderless Beach,
a stretch of beach on Oak Island’s northeastern shore curiously devoid of large rocks. The
crew members indeed find a boulder at the site, which sits at the base of a beachside tree, and
which bears great resemblance to the stone at the westerly anchor point in both size and appearance.
It must be mentioned that the surrounding beach is littered with similar-looking stones.
Guptill examines the top of the rock and finds a t-shaped marking.
Alex Lagina opines that this marking is probably natural, but suggests, perhaps imaginatively,
that another adjacent marking evokes one of the carvings on the Boat Stone. The Boat Stone, the
narrator informs us, is a controversial rock from Westford, Massachusetts, inscribed with a picture
of what some have identified as a 14th Century sailing ship, an arrow, and the number 184,
which some theorists have taken as evidence of a 14th Century voyage to the New World.
The narrator goes on to remind us that the Boat Stone features in Robert Markus’ theory, which
was presented back in Season 3, Episode 3. Markus’ theory is another tangent which deserves a video
all to itself, which you can find by clicking the link in the top right-hand corner of this video.
Following their excursion to Oak Island’s northeastern shore,
the treasure hunters meet with the rest of the Fellowship outside the Oak Island Interpretive
Centre and describe the results of their search for the anchor stones.
Marty Lagina expresses his skepticism, saying that he would expect the anchor stones to be massive
if they were indeed considered landmarks as suggested by Halpern’s map. Jack Begley, on the
other hand, says that he found the western stone intriguing due to the pockmark on its surface
and its location in relation to the swamp. In a later interview, Rick Lagina, who has made
no secret of his admiration for Zena Halpern and her work in the past, voices his appreciation for
Erin Helton’s efforts to investigate the anchor points on Halpern’s mysterious map of Oak Island.
Thanks for watching! If you enjoyed this video and would like to help support this channel,
please check out my book ‘The Oak Island Encyclopedia: Volume II’,
which you can find by clicking the link in the description.