Did a Sawpit start the Legend?

[Armchair detective]

Another
Page 3, "Borehole C", #4
"Machinery sent from New York, and from Halifax..." 1909

So the bottom line is no one has any sources that will "testify" to events between 1795 and say 1840 other than newspapers of about 1850? relating recollections from a suspect source.

Gloom. Had my hopes up there for a bit.

Got four stories about the ownership of the MP lot (John Smith bought it 1795, John Smith's father John Smith bought it 1795,
John Smith leased it for Onslow co, John Smith bought it 1809. Which story is true can be determined through the research.

The existence of the Onslow co can maybe be proven through government records.

Genealogy records show the existence of the players in this story.

Can you think of any other resources to try?

Think a teardown of the legend and a rebuilding of the history.

 

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[SSR]

Another
Page 3, "Borehole C", #4
"Machinery sent from New York, and from Halifax..." 1909

So the bottom line is no one has any sources that will "testify" to events between 1795 and say 1840 other than newspapers of about 1850? relating recollections from a suspect source.

Gloom. Had my hopes up there for a bit.

Got four stories about the ownership of the MP lot (John Smith bought it 1795, John Smith's father John Smith bought it 1795,
John Smith leased it for Onslow co, John Smith bought it 1809. Which story is true can be determined through the research.

The existence of the Onslow co can maybe be proven through government records.

Genealogy records show the existence of the players in this story.

Can you think of any other resources to try?

Think a teardown of the legend and a rebuilding of the history.

John Smith's father was named Duncan Smith. He died ca. 1784. John's mother married another man, Neil McMullen, and they lived on lot 11. They subsequently purchased lots 9,10 and 17. John Smith (the man in question) was born in 1775. He acquired lot 18 in 1795 (age 20) from Casper Wollenhaupt, a Lunenburg textile merchant who owned the business end of that island (Smith's cove area). This land was immediately adjacent to the family lots. There's no magical jaunt to an island with 2 other boys where they discovered some depression under a tree. That's a detail from another story.

There aren't any records of the alleged early company. None have ever surfaced or been produced.

 

[Armchair detective]

Nah, you see the answer lies not in what you are being told now or the version of the story as it is given now ; it is in what is NOT being said now to steer you away from learning of the existence of the 'mystery ending' secret, which was never actually a secret in the first place.

In the late 18th century there was copies of a Spanish origin 'treasure map' in circulation amongst the maritime types. Some thought it showed Oak Island some thought it showed some other island (many islands have similar geography and features).

Those who did went to search Oak Island. Those who didn't went and searched whatever other island they thought the map was showing. There were other islands searched in the region of Oak Island using copies of the same treasure map but you are steered away from learning about these also.

Smith, Mcginnis and Vaughn were given a copy of the 'treasure map' that others had been trying on Oak Island already and went to have a go themselves. They just went back to the previous excavation site that map seemed to mark: you didn't work out that the block and rope they saw in the cleared depression was them just at the site of the prior attempt? That's why this detail appears to be anomalous in the story now as it meant that what happened there was recent. This anomaly doesn't stop though the rather silly speculation the treasure was put there by the Vikings or the Romans or the Templars (or Bacon) sometime long ago,

All you need to do is ask Doug Crowell from the show, not that they are allowed to talk about it at the moment or raise the subject now when outside ears are around. Next time you visit the Museum/Interpretation Centre there ask why there is no mention of all the searchers using a treasure map: you will be told no such records exist.

If you haven't worked it out those appearing on the show with some theory are selected to appear not because of what they know, they are vetted and then allowed to appear due to what they don't know so they don't say things the team there doesn't want you to find out about.

There is an expedition that will be heading to Cocos Island March 2025 to search for the treasure there which I have been talking to. The bad news they had to find out about was the details and interpretative use of the copies of the 'treasure maps' there where found to have been used on Oak Island first. An early chart of Oak Island is drawn the same way older charts of Cocos Island are depicted: after finding no treasure on Oak someone had decided that their copy of the map might then be showing Cocos Island so off they went to search there: it's a right mess at the moment.

Your point that the oldest story is probably closest to the real story (i.e. map was the original reason for digging there) is well taken.
Some questions:
1. What are the dates and names of
newspapers you displayed?
Reason I ask is as time goes on, no one will be able to look at your sources without some identifying information.
2. Where did the idea of multiple maps.
come from?

Thank you for letting me see this information.

 

[Armchair detective]

John Smith's father was named Duncan Smith. He died ca. 1784. John's mother married another man, Neil McMullen, and they lived on lot 11. They subsequently purchased lots 9,10 and 17. John Smith (the man in question) was born in 1775. He acquired lot 18 in 1795 (age 20) from Casper Wollenhaupt, a Lunenburg textile merchant who owned the business end of that island (Smith's cove area). This land was immediately adjacent to the family lots. There's no magical jaunt to an island with 2 other boys where they discovered some depression under a tree. That's a detail from another story.

There aren't any records of the alleged early company. None have ever surfaced or been produced.

Thank you for your information.
Now to ponder what it all means.

 

[SSR]

Thank you for your information.
Now to ponder what it all means.

Can I suggest something based on what Haliburton wrote in and around 1847? He obviously knew something about the popular currents of this day from living in this period. At this time North America had just gone through a wild frenzy relating to a popular prognostication that was alleged to inform of the Second Coming of Christ in 1843. This had come out of the study of interpreted Biblically numerology and "clues" in the book of Daniel, among other places. An arithmetic had been produced and hotly debated. That, of course never occurred. The entire episode was called the Great Millerite Disappointment.

There exists the possibility that the OI story is just trying to exploit the same sort of Biblically inspired delusion using recognizable numerology. 1843, being what it was alleged to be, is 80 years after the settling there which started in 1763 with the arrival of the Planter settlers from Rhode Island. Smack dab in the middle of this period, 1803, is the alleged discovery of a stone. This divides the first 80 years of British colonial settlement there in two forty year periods (a parallel with the Israelites' story). The stone, if one bothers to read Reginal Harris' description of it, is rectangular and roughly 5:8 in dimension. On it there are 40 illegible characters in 8 groupings. It was later said to have been translated to read words to the effect that something (a great treasure) was 40 feet below. The discovery of a polished stone with illegible characters (associated with a shaft and a vault) happens to be a detail from a pre Christian era legend which treats such a stone as an omen for the end times. This makes this legend neatly fit into the popular End Times lore of the 1840s. The shaft associated with it is said to contain a vault that is unattainable (an allegorical suggestion). The shaft flooded when approached, and later would sink into the abyss when re-approached after being drained. This, surprisingly is also part of the unsubstantiated OI legend. To me that looks borrowed.

Additionally we eventually are given Nolan's cross which repeats the 5 by 8 proportion. On its stem there is a stone location that forms an angle of exactly 40 degrees with the "arm" end stones. This feature appears to relate very well to the surveying of 1762 that was produced by an individual who was associated with the first Masonic lodge in Nova Scotia present in the 40th regiment of foot. The 1762 survey date is 33 years prior the non-historical origin story of the "money pit". 33 in this context is a number which has a historically significant tradition of being a symbol of the ultimate mystery. For us, and in this case, we need to think of it as 3x3, three threes or 3^3=27. This, we get from the numeric mystery traditions (Chaldean and Pythagorean numerology which hold 9 as a symbol of the culmination of cycle). Nolan's Cross also gets presented to us in some aspect of the story telling as a pointer which is retelling the early 17th century folklore about the Northern Cross in Cygnus being the great celestial pointer that aligns with the Milky way (galactic plane). Cygnus' has traditionally been assigned the overall declination value of 40 degree N (an average value for the declination of its stars). As a pointer Nolan's Cross points via great circle to Jerusalem (if only approximately). That's an interesting sympathetic detail

As far as the pit dimensions are concerned those are also indicative of something that appears to be inspired. We are dealing with something that is given to us in "levels of 10". This, again, is the basis for a numerological treatment of decads (something that the Chaldeans exploited in their numbering which employed 10 digits ). At the 9h level we were given a stone which has the attribute of being an omen for the end of the cycle (of time). That is consistent with the numerological meaning of 9. Events are said to unfold when 111 feet in depth is reached in the pit which is 33 feet above sea level. Then, in what can only be seen as more of the same retelling of allegories, we are told that a vault is ultimately reached at 153 feet. Aside from being a most significant number symbolizing "plentifulness" in Biblical parlance, it is the number of occasions of 40 in early versions of the Bible. For the record, it is the most prolific number symbol used in the Bible. It is said represents a period of great change, tribulation or probation. Example of that are seen in Moses' life story (40 years in Egypt, 40 years leading the Israelites to the promised land, 40 years wandering), a great flood lasting 40 days, reappearance of God to his disciples 40 days after he died on the cross...It's always a period of time leading to period of "reward".

Haliburton noticed all this when it was developing. I suspect he smelled a Masonic rat. In his work that lampoons the Oak Island mystery the second chapter is titled: "How many fins has a cod? or Forty years ago". That's quite clever, because the cod has 8 fins and a "fin" is a popular expression for the number 5. Two (2) 40 year periods? Not to leave too much doubt as to his thinking about the relevance of the numbers used , the chapter he uses to focus on the OI story in this work is Chapter 9. It's called "the Hecke Thaler". HT, IMHO, is a slick allusion to Hiram of Tyre, the subject of much of the Masonic allegory). A thaler is of course a German silver coin. "Hecke" is a German word too, for bush, hedge or row of trees. This may strike us a pun about there being a treasure under a tree pointed to by alignments.

Anyway, not to repeat myself too much. Someone who was very interested in the shenanigans at OI bothered to write about it is a clever way to belittle it in the period it was happening. Halliburton also happened to know the men in question. As a NS judge he would have been quite aware of the suggestions of impropriety there surrounding the sale of shares to unsuspecting marks.

One has to be realistic about this story. It' s been embellished in so many recognizable ways. I would put much less emphasis on the modern speculations which try and evolve the story away from its decayed roots and concentrate on everything that doesn't compute historically and what matches known fictions.

 

[Armchair detective]

Yo Crow!
Hate to ask but there's one more thing to find.
Proof of Onslow co existence.

Many people have tried, many have failed.

Seems like the way to find the records is go back to the beginning, i.e. the towns of Onslow and Truro in Colchester co NS.
They are not very big towns so something that involves that many citizens should be remarked.

 

[freeman]

Your point that the oldest story is probably closest to the real story (i.e. map was the original reason for digging there) is well taken.
Some questions:
1. What are the dates and names of
newspapers you displayed?
Reason I ask is as time goes on, no one will be able to look at your sources without some identifying information.
2. Where did the idea of multiple maps.
come from?

Thank you for letting me see this information.

You are the 'Armchair Detective', you need to start looking around a bit. All the contemporaneous reports all just say they were using a treasure map. Look hard enough and you'll see it being sait by Rober Creelman of one of the early syndicates.

Dan Blankenship wasn't telling everyone it was a Spanish treasure on Oak Island he was after for no reason: he got his copy from Robert Restall.

There are plenty of searches. I'll name you 3, one where even the reporter knew what was going on that had it's own tale version of the '90 foot' stone. Another pretty well spells out again what was going on.

The third one, well, Oak Island had a little brother that was searched. It is Blunts Island. Look familiar?

Of course there were many, many more. You just were never told about it all happening with the 'Blah blah blah, nobody knew what went on there'.

I got some more bad news for you; when do you think the detail about a treasure map being used to locate a treasure there stopped being mentioned or published in accounts? The late 19th century? Early 20th century?

Try around the early 1970s when the story was suppressed by those running the Triton Alliance to keep the money coming in.

 

[freeman]

Sounds pretty dumb now doesn't it, to make the claim repeatedly on The Curse of Oak Island that 'know one knows what went on on here'?

Or spend multiple millions searching for something but then say they don't know what they are looking for, when it was put there or by whom?

Almost as dumb as the continued exclamations that 'Gosh, no one knows where the original Money Pit is anymore' despite 200 plus years of surveys marking it and everything else's exact position.

Sort of obvious now that the 'visiting theorists' are only paid lip service and their information about where to look is discarded as soon as they walk out the door becasue the only place to possibly find the treasure is the location their copy of the treasure map indicates?

And the minute they mention this, the whole Oak Island mystery evaporates before your eyes and the mighty payola machine comes to a screeching halt...........

 

[Armchair detective]

To SSR
Don't know what to do with this info.
It's a pile of trivia mixed in with a haliburton book report, noting there might be a religious influence on the construction of the MP and Nolan's Cross with some historical perspectives.

I'll put it on the shelf to try and extract the nuggets later.

I do like the lead about checking Haliburton out- it's on the list.

 

[Armchair detective]

Sounds pretty dumb now doesn't it, to make the claim repeatedly on The Curse of Oak Island that 'know one knows what went on on here'?

Or spend multiple millions searching for something but then say they don't know what they are looking for, when it was put there or by whom?

Almost as dumb as the continued exclamations that 'Gosh, no one knows where the original Money Pit is anymore' despite 200 plus years of surveys marking it and everything else's exact position.

Sort of obvious now that the 'visiting theorists' are only paid lip service and their information about where to look is discarded as soon as they walk out the door becasue the only place to possibly find the treasure is the location their copy of the treasure map indicates?

And the minute they mention this, the whole Oak Island mystery evaporates before your eyes and the mighty payola machine comes to a screeching halt...........

Jeepers take a deep breath - you're going to blow a gasket.

Feel better?

Thanks for the map(s) info, I see the problem now. I've been focusing on what happened between 1790 and 1840, multiple maps happened "downstream", didn't see them.
My bad.

 

[Armchair detective]

Another
page 1, "Absurd Oak Island Math", #103

Nova Scotia Archives

The Nova Scotia Archives

archives.novascotia.ca

Search$Samuel+Ball (example)
$ is actually an equal sign.
Another resource

 

[pepperj]

Who would leave their block/tackle hanging above a cache?

And I've not heard any where else of an oak tree nail.
Oh , I've seen nails in oak trees.
Not going to inquire for one at the hardware store.( They regard me with enough suspicion already.)

Tree nails were used in old mortise & tenon joints.
(You probably knew this already, but it's just clarification for those who never have heard the term or handled them.)

 

[releventchair]

Tree nails were used in old mortise & tenon joints.
(You probably knew this already, but it's just clarification for those who never have heard the term or handled them.)

View attachment 2180705View attachment 2180706

No i didn't know. Thank You.

I/we called them pegs.
I recall a particular dilapidated homestead and barn someone was contemplating buying..
Tenons on beam ends were ready for another hundred years . Most pegs seemed to be too.

Square peg in round hole can be a term for doing something less than perfect or fighting it hard. Perhaps the childs toy bench with varied shapes to pound through accompanying holes led to that.
However square pegs in round holes hold tight.
A compromise can be knocking the corners/shoulders of the peg a ways on the starting end.
(Locust wood a good one for pegs.)

Wooden pin /tree nail through a fork in a branch. Slick.
(Carvings in bark probably didn't indicate weight rating of pin.)

 

[SSR]

To SSR
Don't know what to do with this info.
It's a pile of trivia mixed in with a haliburton book report, noting there might be a religious influence on the construction of the MP and Nolan's Cross with some historical perspectives.

I'll put it on the shelf to try and extract the nuggets later.

I do like the lead about checking Haliburton out- it's on the list.

The influence is Feemasonic. The Christian Holy Royal Arch narratives of pre 1723 Freemasonry are providing the "backdrop" for the stories. The HRA Masonry "tool kit" came to NS with Erasmus James Philipps who founded the first lodge in the newly formed 40th regiment in 1742. A cohort of Philipps was the young cartographer Charles Morris who later became Surveyor General of NS. He was the one who planned and surveyed OI in 1762 for inclusion in the larger Shoreham grant. IF there is anything contemporary to the arrival of the colonials with Nolan's Cross (debatable) it enters at the time of the surveying, imo. That's when one could approximately align it to Jerusalem on a great circle alignment by using methods that are just getting to be good enough to do this reasonably well. It need not have been done then, though. It could just as likely be a detail introduced by others later who are adding more Masonic "cues" to a growing suggestion. This may simply have been part of an effort to do a symbolic planning. That sort of thing is a theme in the layout of many other places that will come later where Freemasons are planners. They have a specific geometry in mind that exploits 3 proportions (2:1., 3:1 and 3:2). It is possible the Archibalds of Truro recognized Morris' attempt at a generic Masonic planning, but it is also possible they are the ones who have it in their mind that there ought to be a plan associated to this pit suggestion they are first associated with. The fact we have a story centered on lot 18 on an island with 32 divisions should be suspect. Of the 32 degrees of the Scottish Rite Freemasonry, the 18th is the Rose Cross. The stories attached to that are part of the HRA narratives. So are the romantic legends of the Knight of the Swan that trace all the way back to Von Eschenbach's Parzival (the grail legends). With Freemasonry you get the allegorical stories that Rick would love to think are true. The way they figure, though, is only as inspiration for modern Freemasons who see themselves as part of a very long tradition of Christian influencers and builders (modern Christian Knights). In 1762 they had all of British NA to symbolically plan with. How they went about preparing their grants for the importation of British colonials to NS is described with a romantic language at the time. NS was very much dominated by Freemasons early on, so the language and effort is not surprising.

 

[SSR]

Tree nails were used in old mortise & tenon joints.
(You probably knew this already, but it's just clarification for those who never have heard the term or handled them.)

View attachment 2180705View attachment 2180706

There's no chance that any such thing was ever found on OI at a time (1795) when people had been working that end of the island for years already. It may already have been opened up by clearing. However, it does resemble the details that were given in another account from 1830 that mention a depression next to a tree where there is a branch showing signs of having had something lowered or raised from it. The transplanting or misattribution of a story is probably what we are dealing with. The account from Hobson's Nose (in Mahone Bay) seems to be the first that influences the OI story details. Word of mouth may have cross contaminated the accounts from the early 1860s when there is more of effort to reinvigorate a story that has already fizzled out.

 

[pepperj]

There's no chance that any such thing was ever found on OI at a time (1795) when people had been working that end of the island for years already. It may already have been opened up by clearing. However, it does resemble the details that were given in another account from 1830 that mention a depression next to a tree where there is a branch showing signs of having had something lowered or raised from it. The transplanting or misattribution of a story is probably what we are dealing with. The account from Hobson's Nose (in Mahone Bay) seems to be the first that influences the OI story details. Word of mouth may have cross contaminated the accounts from the early 1860s when there is more of effort to reinvigorate a story that has already fizzled out.

I fully agree-nor did I imply that such was found/used/quoted.

I replied to Releventchair regarding the term "Tree Nail"

No more-no less that's all.

My true feelings and opinion regarding OI is a nothing turned into a something, Skewed by a few hucksters promoting a nothing into a something.
It has been going on for what 170 yrs at least.
Sucking in New investment chasing one of the oldest scams known.

Prove me wrong.

 

[SSR]

....Hobson's Nose, and commenced to dig at the place where they had left the crowbar, then went round to the point with lanterns and were again hid from view. They left the bay about daylight the next morning. The islanders then examined the place, and saw blocks and ropes left in the trees, and underneath a hole....

That's from the Hobson's Nose account that DesBrisay recounts in his History of Lunenburg county. It's the only one we know off where anyone allegedly sailed to an uninhabited island and where we are given this "block hanging from a tree" detail. The suggestion of multiple treasures also appears o come from this account.

 

[SSR]

I fully agree-nor did I imply that such was found/used/quoted.

I replied to Releventchair regarding the term "Tree Nail"

No more-no less that's all.

My true feelings and opinion regarding OI is a nothing turned into a something, Skewed by a few hucksters promoting a nothing into a something.
It has been going on for what 170 yrs at least.
Sucking in New investment chasing one of the oldest scams known.

Prove me wrong.

It need not be that simple, though. Reality is always a lot more complicated/nuanced than just one simple explanation. I do like the idea that this is an evolving story, though. One where there is a mix of deception and naivete on the part of even the 1840s searchers. It's a story of "fits and starts" that has reached us. How many fits and how many starts is not exactly known. When we are dealing with borrowed stories there is a temptation to work back to the first instances of what is being suggested. That's the "pitfall" in the OI mystery. One shouldn't track back to the origin of the recognizable stories in myths. It is enough to look at what are potentially the first NS influences that may have had a hand in the story telling there. For the earliest suggestions I think we have candidates with Philipps and Morris. For an exploitation of that we have the Archibalds with the Truro group. After that it branched off in a few directions that involve new twists (Chappells and their vault of Tudor documents afterwards). Whether or not the first searcher groups believed in the possibility of success is unclear. What success would have been to them is very unclear. They may have been smart enough to not sink their own money into having a look. It seems hard to believe that they would have taken time out of their very busy lives elsewhere to try and just scam the locals. Someone may have been trying to scam them by luring them there, and they may have taken a position (like the Laginas) that there was no harm in having others pay for a chase of things they may have wanted to believe in. What exactly lures men with a lot of money into a search for treasure is probably not just money. The same type of delusion we see with Rick and his templar relics probably existed in the early Freemasonic community. Crazy conspiracy theories are not just a modern thing. A quest for a "Nova Scotia Ark" was lampooned in the literature of the time too. Lewis Carroll hints to this with his "Hunting of the Snark" nonsense poem. Carroll and Haliburton were know to each other. In fact, Haliburton Sam Slick stories were a childhood favorite of Carroll. Was it a foolish quest for the ark in NS that was the thing in back of he mind of some Freemasons with money? Seems possible as a motivation. We should never forget that this period in history was absolutely polluted with magical thinking. It was a period of esoteric revival.