Gunpowder booby trap in money pit

[Crow]

S

Geez ... What a buzzkill. Lol

But I get you.

Let's face it. We are all all here AMUSING ourselves, so throwing out a new theory to debate seems like fun 😊. If it survives the first go around (no one comes up with ANY reason why THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE BECAUSE...) then the question for the "well seasoned" thread followers will be "how does this theory stack up against all the others?"

At least it's a cheap hobby.

U

Geez ... What a buzzkill. Lol

But I get you.

Let's face it. We are all all here AMUSING ourselves, so throwing out a new theory to debate seems like fun 😊. If it survives the first go around (no one comes up with ANY reason why THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE BECAUSE...) then the question for the "well seasoned" thread followers will be "how does this theory stack up against all the others?"

At least it's a cheap hobby.

Unlike a boat

Geez ... What a buzzkill. Lol

But I get you.

Let's face it. We are all all here AMUSING ourselves, so throwing out a new theory to debate seems like fun 😊. If it survives the first go around (no one comes up with ANY reason why THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE BECAUSE...) then the question for the "well seasoned" thread followers will be "how does this theory stack up against all the others?"

At least it's a cheap hobby.

Unlike a boat.

Please buzz away and by all means do continue. For its a forum for treasure legends is it not? And its your time to kill

It just my opinion. I wanted to believe in the story as I have a soft spot for all treasure legends Yet some times we all need to face reality. There is no point in debating how long is piece of string?

I see you full of enthusiasm like many come here obsessed with one topic. But Your cheap holiday could be even more exciting rather than trying to flog a dead horse. if you knew where to look.

Some times it the hardly noticed stories that leads to fascinating stories and some times the money ticket.

As for treasure legends being cheap holiday as a hobby? it maybe for some? But for others the boat will be a much cheaper option. Amigo.

Trust me on that one.

Crow

 

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[Armchair detective]

S




Please buzz away and by all means do continue. For its a forum for treasure legends is it not? And its your time to kill

It just my opinion. I wanted to believe in the story as I have a soft spot for all treasure legends Yet some times we all need to face reality. There is no point in debating how long is piece of string?

I see you full of enthusiasm like many come here obsessed with one topic. But Your cheap holiday could be even more exciting rather than trying to flog a dead horse. if you knew where to look.

Some times it the hardly noticed stories that leads to fascinating stories and some times the money ticket.

As for treasure legends being cheap holiday as a hobby? it maybe for some? But for others the boat will be a much cheaper option. Amigo.

Trust me on that one.

Crow

I:m getting the impression you think I am obsessed with my theory. Nope.
At the end of the day, it will go on the pile even if it turns out to be the true story.
Gloom.
Doom.
But I can talk about other things.
Boats you say. Power boats, rowboats, sea boats, lake boats. Houseboats.
What's your favorite boat? The best boat you've ever owned? How long do you think it would take to sail from NYC to OI in a three-master?
You see?
No problem.

 

[Armchair detective]

And I found my first impossible thing.

 

[Armchair detective]

The impossible thing.
Remember how on an OI episode the Bros pulled out a whole bunch of wood which looked like ship's rigging from the MP?
It started me wondering where it came from.
There isn't any mention of encountering anything like this when the original three or Truro dug down, and there surely would be, yet the Bros pulled some out by digging deeper than the original level of the assumed ammo room.
So OK, it was in the MP shaft lower than the ammo room and became part of the underwater woodpile when the shaft collapsed.
Hold that thought.
There is/was a newspaper story about a driller for the Truro co wanting to set the record straight. He stated that after drilling through the bottom level of the assumed ammo room, they hit 7 ft of loose "disturbed" clay, THEN HARD PACKED "undisturbed" CLAY. This was a correction to the first story that Truro only went the 7 ft.
If there was a "clay plug" below the ammo room, how did the rigging get down there?

 

[Armchair detective]

Rationalization to the rescue !!!
Between 1782 (the burial) and 1849 (the Truro auger finds the clay plug) there is 67 years.
Given that the MP is an actual sinkhole, the ground there is always changing, so let's assume a leakage carrying clay silt to under the ammo room builds up with the lower layer being compressed.

 

[Armchair detective]

It means the clay plug formed in the 67 year span, and the theory remains intact.
Yea !!!

 

[Armchair detective]

I owe n2mini an apology. I said that I saw an aerial photo of Dunfield's dig and described it as half a sphere with a flat bottom. In thinking about it, I realized that in that photo there was only one such "crater" high on that hillside, which means Dunfield hadn't got there yet (his excavation was downhill from that). So yeah, he could have dug 120 ft, just not in the MP.

Sorry.

I am still suspicious of the #1 photo, rock sizes don't track, bucket shadow missing top and cable, dark shadow typical of doubled negatives, and let's not forget that cute 3rd person on the platform (behind the bucket).

 

[Armchair detective]

Time to put this thread to bed.

Whether you agree with my theory and/or the Adventures of Samuel Ball, I think you'll admit that...

I am a pretty good storyteller.

Or at least a legend in my own mind.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

You're talking to yourself. Not a good sign.

 

[Armchair detective]

True dat.

 

[gollum]

Oh man, if I was gonna hide a metallic treasure I'd situate it maybe about ten yards to either side of a high tension power line, the falsing would be so bad it would be damn nigh impossible to detect anything. Setting a booby trap is one way of doing things too I guess lol

HAHAHA Somebody thought of that before you. I hunted a bunch of caches a Jewelry Store Robber hid near San Pedro, Ca. He got caught and went to jail. He had buried them at the base of several Power Poles in the area. He said for two reasons;
1. If anybody got caught digging around a power pole, they'd probably get arrested.
2. If anybody tried using a metal detector to look it would just make a bunch of noise and not find anything.

Turns out he must have been mistaken about one of his two reasons, because when he got out of jail he went to get his loot. It was all gone. LOL

Mike

 

[Midden-marauder]

HAHAHA Somebody thought of that before you. I hunted a bunch of caches a Jewelry Store Robber hid near San Pedro, Ca. He got caught and went to jail. He had buried them at the base of several Power Poles in the area. He said for two reasons;
1. If anybody got caught digging around a power pole, they'd probably get arrested.
2. If anybody tried using a metal detector to look it would just make a bunch of noise and not find anything.

Turns out he must have been mistaken about one of his two reasons, because when he got out of jail he went to get his loot. It was all gone. LOL

Mike

Maybe someone noticed the disturbed ground. After less than 8 months of relic hunting my eye for things like freshly dug holes (backfilled) and unnatural linearities has gotten very sharp. Better bury that loot good man, if there's markings on the ground either visible from ground level or from satellite someone is gonna see it

 

[Armchair detective]

A darker variation.

Assume that the remnants of the Ward unit arrive at OI in 1782 and cached/boobytrapped an ammo supply as speculated.

Now assume that the 90 ft stone did indeed had and always had the markings "Forty feet below..."

Note that the length of the pull/trip wire was 12 - 15 ft, so if you had deciphered the stone you were "encouraged" to dig through and trigger the trap.

Since the stone decoded to English, the British were supposed to read it.

Recall that the British essentially abandoned all blacks to a likely fate of being re-enslaved.

How about some payback?

I can easily see someone putting this stone in their fireplace, staring at the marks for 10 - 12 years, utterly certain that if only he could decipher them there was a great treasure to be had...

And doomed to failure....

For he only knew French.

 

[TruthbeTold]

Except that the 90 foot stone was proven to be faked and after its novelty and ability to griff more investors out of money it was used in a basement foundation,

Think about it…the key to a limitless treasure used as a stone in a foundation wall.

 

[Armchair detective]

I am curious about your statement that the 90 ft stone was PROVEN to be a fake.

There may be a THEORY that it is, and there may be a CONSENSUS OF OPINION that it is, but this is not proof.

Still it could be true.

If proof there is, please direct me to it. At the moment, I would flip a coin.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Until someone proves that there is indeed a treasure there, this is ALL just theory, presumption and a whole bunch of "what if's".

 

[Armchair detective]

Not necessarily.

It could all be true and there is no treasure.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Not necessarily.

It could all be true and there is no treasure.

It *could* all be true. "Could", in this case, is yet just another "what if".

What, if any, actual proven facts are there?

 

[Armchair detective]

Depends on what you define as proof.

Would you agree that a rock with markings on it appeared in that book bindery window? Period, nothing more.

This type of proof is called COMMON KNOWLEDGE. Do you accept that?

I ask to know on what basis we can discuss this.

 

[Armchair detective]

You all got me to thinking about proving stuff - what it actually takes to support any assertion.
Take for example proving the 90 ft stone is fake - how would we do that?
You would have to prove SOMEBODY faked it.
Probably 90 plus percent of the information found on this forum is shall we say charitably "low confidence". There is some solid stuff easily identified by sound reasoning BACKED BY REFERENCED SOURCE DATA. You can check it. For any of the rest to be right would have to be a LUCKY GUESS.
Let's look elsewhere.
For the question posed you would use a lot of shoe leather. Start with checking Halifax newspapers - there must be a mention of the contest to decipher the stone. This establishes that a stone existed with marks on it.
Now research all the newspapers in Halifax from when the stone first appeared (Onslow) to when it was last sighted (?).
Develop a history of the stone.
Now check the newspapers of other towns along the coast - see what they have to say.
Don't forget historical societies. Public libraries.
Original photos are king. Be skeptical of photos on the web - there was a time when it was a game to see what crap you could get away with.
Check histories of the people who organized the digs. Look for criminal records, poor reputations, family stories.
Keep an eye out for the stone itself (but of course you will be conned somewhere)

Assemble the information. Think like a cop.

Find the person who made the stone.

Actually you won't have to do all of that - it is just potential source material. As you investigate you will start to focus on possible suspects.

If you ID a suspect, you still have to put the chisel in his hands. Remember, proof.

Am I going to do this? Nah, smacks of effort.