In this video, we’re going to take a look at the developments that took place in Season
8, Episode 3 of The Curse of Oak Island. But first, I’d like to let you know that, due
to repeated requests, I’ve finally decided to sell a batch of signed copies of some of
my books. More accurately, I’ve convinced my friend, Jordan, from Sunlit Cave Rare Books,
to sell signed copies of my books for me on his online store. Every book that Jordan sells,
mine included, is shipped for free, and so, all things considered, you’ll actually pay
less for a signed copy of one of my books on Jordan’s online store then you would
for an unsigned copy of that same book on Amazon. This is the first time I’ve done
something like this, and I think it may be my last, so if you’d like to acquire a signed
copy of one of my books, either for yourself or as a Christmas present for someone else,
you may want to get it while it’s still available. To see the signed books that we
have for sale, please click the link in the description.
Upcoming Cofferdam Operation in the Swamp Season 8, Episode 3 of The Curse of Oak Island
begins in the War Room, where the Fellowship of the Dig has congregated to discuss future
operations in light of the Lagina brothers’ return to Oak Island. Doug Crowell informs
us that the ‘wall’ which Dr. Ian Spooner discovered in the southeastern corner of the
swamp the previous episode via sonar scan is actually the top of a 9’x9’ shaft.
Rick Lagina then describes Fred Nolan’s initial discovery of this feature years ago,
saying, “Fred surreptitiously drew the swamp down. Dan confronts him, makes him fill it
back in. And then Fred says to Dan, ‘Hey, did you see that shaft over there in the corner
of the swamp?’” The treasure hunters all agree that they ought to excavate this mysterious
feature. Rick suggests that, during this excavation, they ought to process the spoils at the wash
plant so that they don’t miss any artifacts hidden therein.
After the War Room meeting, Rick Lagina, Marty Lagina, and Doug Crowell meet with Scott Barlow,
Billy Gerhardt, and Dr. Ian Spooner at the Oak Island swamp. We learn that the Fellowship
plans to excavate the anomaly which Spooner identified through the use of a cofferdam,
which will isolate the swamp’s southeastern corner from the rest of the wetland. The treasure
hunters agree that the project may be even more difficult than the operation conducted
at Smith’s Cove the previous season, prompting Marty to facetiously hand Gerhardt his wallet,
saying, “Here you go, Billy. Might as well just have it right now.”
Later in the episode, members of the Oak Island crew congregate in the War Room to Skype with
representatives of Irving Equipment Ltd. – namely general manager David Irving, pile-driving
manager Mathew Kingson, and research and development executive Patrick Craig. The men discuss the
logistics of the upcoming cofferdam operation in the swamp, which Irving has been tasked
with overseeing. We learn that Irving will have to build a 1,600 square foot crane pad
on the road which skirts the swamp’s southern edge in order to place the 89 steel sheets
of which the cofferdam will comprise. David Irving informs the treasure hunters that his
crew should be able to start working on the project in a month.
New Layer of Rocks on Lot 15 Structure During the War Room meeting at the beginning
of the episode, Marty Lagina informed us that Laird Niven, Aaron Taylor, and David MacInnes
recently uncovered a layer of rocks beneath the tar kiln on Lot 15 which seem to indicate
that the feature may be more than just a tar kiln, as previously suspected. Later in the
episode, David MacInnes and a new archaeologist named Liz Michels show these new rocks to
Rick and Marty Lagina. MacInnes declares that these stones “look like they’ve been thrown
in by a person to fill in a well,” apparently suggesting that the feature, in light of this
new discovery, might not be the remains of a tar kiln as previously believed, but rather
a backfilled well. Marty Lagina then offers his own suggestion that the feature might
be the backfilled entrance of an underground tunnel, as Fred Nolan’s survey map indicates.
With the help of the Lagina brothers, the archaeologists proceed to remove the nether
stones from the trench. Later in the episode, the archaeologists and
the Lagina brothers remove a huge boulder from the mysterious structure on Lot 15 with
a backhoe, revealing an adjacent jumble of rocks. The archaeologists state that these
new rocks appear to have been placed by man, and declare that they would like to excavate
them in a slow archaeological manner. At the transitory beginning of the next scene, we
hear David MacInnes, while working in his trench, mention, “This whole place is covered
with fire-cracked rock,” fire-cracked rock being an archaeological term for rock deliberately
split through the application of heat. The Chinese Coin
While the Lagina brothers and the archaeologists labour on Lot 15, Alex Lagina meets with artifact
conservator Kelly Bourassa at the Oak Island Research Centre. Alex shows Kelly the coin
with a square hole which Gary Drayton and Jack Begley found on Oak Island’s Lot 15
back in the Season 8 premiere. The conservator immediately suggests that the artifact might
be of Chinese origin. He examines the object under a microscope but fails to see any clear
markings on its surfaces. He then takes high-quality photographs of both sides of the artifact
beside an L-shaped ruler, which shows the coin to have a diameter of about 2.4 cm, and
then cleans its faces with a toothbrush. Although Bourassa manages to remove some green copper
tarnish from the artifact’s faces, he fails to reveal evidence of any characters which
one might expect to find on a Chinese coin, although he does uncover what appears to be
a coin-like edge. The Ox Shoes
Meanwhile, Gary Drayton and Jack Begley do some metal detecting on Lot 15, the same lot
on which they discovered the possible Chinese coin and the rigging axe head in Season 8,
Episode 1. As they work their way towards the swamp, the pair uncovers what Drayton
identifies as a “large broken ox shoe” from a draft ox. In a later interview, Drayton
implies that this artifact may be evidence of a hauling operation in which heavy objects
were transported between the Money Pit area and the swamp.
The treasure hunters resume their scanning operation and find another smaller ox shoe
nearby. Jack Begley observes that a line drawn through the two ox shoes would intersect both
the Paved Area in the swamp and the stone structure on Lot 15, suggesting that those
two landmarks may have once been connected to each other by a wagon trail. Shortly thereafter,
Gary and Jack find a third iron object, which Drayton identifies as a component of an ox
cart. Later in the episode, we learn that another of Gary’s theories is that this
item constitutes a piece of a harness. The treasure hunters agree that they must have
stumbled upon some old ox trail along which heavy objects were hauled.
Later in the episode, Jack Begley and Alex Lagina pay a visit to Carmen Legge at his
new shop in Centreville, Nova Scotia, and show him the ox shoes from Lot 15. The blacksmithing
expert declares that one of the artifacts is a British winter shoe intended to cover
the outside half of an ox’s left front hoof. He dates the artifact from 1650-1750. When
prompted by Alex, Legge states that the shoe could have been used by the British military.
When prompted by Jack, the blacksmithing expert affirms that the shoe is distinctly British,
differing in style from other German and French ox shoes which the treasure hunters have brought
to him in the past, apparently in scenes which never made it into the final cut of the show.
Indeed, these artifacts are not the first animal shoes to be discovered on Oak Island.
Back in Season 5, Episode 8, the Lagina brothers, Dave Blankenship, and Gary Drayton discovered
a horseshoe on Lot 16, which Drayton dismissed as a relic of Oak Island’s agricultural
past. In Season 7, Episode 2, the treasure hunters discovered a number of ox shoes off
camera, two of which Legge, in a War Room meeting, declared to be of 18th Century English
manufacture. Following Legge’s interpretation of the
first ox shoe, Jack Begley and Alex Lagina show the blacksmithing expert another of the
ox shoes from Lot 15. Legge states that this object is also a winter shoe, but made for
a larger animal, probably by the same smith who crafted the first shoe. Legge then examines
the third ox shoe, which he states is a summer shoe intended for a posterior hoof. He opines
that this third shoe was probably made by the same smith who crafted the other two shoes.
When informed that the three ox shoes were found on the same hypothetic trail connecting
the Lot 15 structure with the Paved Wharf in the swamp, Carmen Legge expresses his opinion
that some major industrial operation took place in the area. “In order to find these
many shoes along that route,” he says, “means that there was a major activity. Transportation
of something going back and forth there. It’s very unusual. It sounds like industry going
on there. It wasn’t a couple of days, it was several months over a winter and summer
period.” Finally, Legge examines the heavy iron pin
found on Lot 15, which Gary Drayton identified as a piece of a harness or a component of
an ox cart. Legge similarly declares the object to be “a finial on the top of an ox cart”,
finials being ornaments affixed to the ends of furniture and horse-drawn vehicles. He
further suggests that, if the object is indeed a finial, it would have been part of a military
ox cart as opposed to that of a civilian, “because [military men are] the only ones
that would use any scroll work or knob work on their ox cart.”
Later that afternoon, the Fellowship of the Dig meets outside the Oak Island Interpretive
Centre, apparently as a safety precaution in light of the pandemic. Alex Lagina and
Jack Begley inform their fellow treasure hunters of Carmen Legge’s interpretation of the
ox shoes found on Lot 15. Alex explains that, in a scene which failed to make it into the
final cut of this episode, Legge informed him and Jack that oxen would typically wear
out a pair of shoes in three months. “And we’re finding all kinds of them,” Alex
says, “so his thought was, ‘that’s indicative of a lot of activity’.” Alex goes on to
inform the Fellowship of Legge’s assessment that the ox shoes are evidence of military
or large-scale industrial activity rather than agricultural activity. Gary Drayton agrees
with Legge’s interpretation, noting that Lot 15 is too rocky to make for productive
farmland. Alex Lagina then produces the artifact which
Gary Drayton thought might be a piece of a harness, and which Legge identified as a finial
from a military ox cart. The treasure hunters agree that they ought to remove some of the
rust which coats the object’s head in order to more conclusively determine its nature.
It is perhaps worth mentioning, on account of the ox shoes discovered this episode, that
the most famous incident involving oxen on Oak Island is the discovery of the Cave-In
Pit. One day in 1875, Sophia Sellers- the daughter of Oak Island farmer and landowner
Anthony Graves, whom local folklore says owned a mysterious collection of old gold and silver
coins- was out ploughing her father’s field east of the Money Pit with a team of oxen.
The ground on which the oxen and plough stood suddenly gave way, as if the earth beneath
had sunk into some sort of subterranean void. The ox team disappeared into a 10-foot-deep
pit which, when measured, turned out to be 7 feet in diameter- roughly the same size
as the Money Pit. Subsequent investigation showed the sinkhole to be located 350 feet
east of the Money Pit, precisely along the line of the supposed Smith’s Cove flood
tunnel. Ever since its discovery, this mysterious feature, which some believe to be an airshaft
created by the flood tunnel builders, has been called the “Cave-In Pit”. z
Thanks for watching! If you enjoyed this video and would like to help support this channel,
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