History Channel - Oak Island mini series January 5, 2014

[FinderKeeper]

Hi All, They where still filming the show in June 2013 when we where in New Ross, NS at the Templar Castle site. They called the land owner of the site to see if we wanted to be on the show and we turned them down. We had hired equipment for a major dig at our site and we had a lot to do in the 3 days. I do believe the Money Pit was dug down to 90' and thats it. The clay in parts of Nova Scotia is deep from the ice age. Hobson Island was all clay and it was 26' high with a light house, its all gone now, Our site in New Ross has 120' of clay and its the highest grade of clay ever found in Nova Scotia. At our site we dug down 15' with a large 3' bucket and the walls stayed and did not cave in. We dug 6' from the well and the clay was dry. Ya every one took pictures of the dig. The hole was 12' by 15' and the walls stayed and no water. So I am sure if they had clay on Oak Island it would be easy to dig 90'. But I do not believe in man made tunnels. If the newer diggers went lower into bedrock then yes it would fill up with water from cracks in the bedrock but no one talks about hitting bedrock. Even at 200'down no one talks about bedrock, maybe Oak Island has more than 200' of clay under it . I hope they would stop at bedrock and bring this to a end. The Money Pit is a simple hole dug and many added their storys to make it the way it is. I still like the show and we plan to return to New Ross in the spring and do more digging and drilling.

 

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[Dave Rishar]

The people doing the burying being frightened off: not hardly. If they had time to throw the last few shovels of earth in, they had time to grab the block and tackle and throw it in the woods. Besides, nearly every theory regarding what's down there implies that the "treasure" had been buried for some time before McGinnis found it. McGinnis also reportedly saw lights at the island the night before; had something been buried 200 feet down within sight of his house during his life, I'm quite sure that someone would have noticed - a hole like that is not constructed over night. I think it's safe to assume that if something was buried there, it happened before the McGinnis family was in the area, meaning that they weren't the ones that left the block and tackle behind, as it would've rotted into garbage within a few years.

People recovering treasure? No. He saw lights the night before; that's what got him over there to check it out. It does not take all night to set up a block and tackle. It takes more than one night to excavate a 200 foot hole, retrieve something from the bottom, and then fill the hole in again. (And why fill it in again? This is retrieving a treasure from the wilderness, not coinshooting in the city park. Screw filling holes, especially one that deep. And where did they put all that dirt while the hole was open? Red flag after red flag.)

Was it flooded by booby traps? Were there even drains to begin with? Appendix --Woods Hole Explores Oak Island Questionable evidence to be sure, but tales told 150 years ago by folks with a vested interest in the project are also questionable. We can't know for sure what Woods Hole found, but it would be in Triton's best interests to make a favorable report public; a thumbs-up from a third party would undoubtedly attract investment. An unfavorable report, on the other hand...yeah, I wouldn't want to make that public knowledge either.

But, let's assume that all of this silliness is true. We've located the original shaft. There are tunnels flooding it. This is not one of the many sinkholes in the area, but is actually man-made. Someone buried something 200 feet deep there. The block and tackle was left by someone else, or McGinnis fabricated it - in fact, let's disregard McGinnis entirely, and the story basically falls apart at him. Let's assume the best possible scenario for the folks who think that something is actually buried down there. My questions are:

1. Why the layers of logs, charcoal, etc? If the hole is being dug by someone who is supposed to be able to digging it, they need maybe one small indicator to let them know that they're on the right spot. They don't need a reminder every ten feet. This is extra work for no benefit and might actually alert someone who isn't supposed to be digging it (*cough* McGinnis *cough*) that they're digging on a good site.

2. Why bury a stone with runes carved in it? Again, an authorized digger knows that he's digging the right site. Someone who can't read the runes will simply become more interested in what might be further down, or nearby.

3. Why is it that a stone with runes carved in it comes up every time a shaft is sunk? (That's actually an easy one.) Am I supposed to believe that someone traversed the Atlantic to dig this massive engineering project, and then spend more time burying carved stones and logs all over the place?

The closer that one studies this, the worse that it stinks. And the McGinnis story stunk pretty badly to start with.

Like FinderKeeper, I'll watch the show. (I did watch the first one.) I like treasure legends just as much as the next person does. I'll go one further and state that I truly hope that someone finds something down there that turns history on its head and shakes up the world, or at least our corner of it. I also hope that we can achieve world peace at some point. I don't expect either thing to happen in my lifetime, but this doesn't prevent me from hoping for the things I want, and if I can't have the things that I want, I'll settle for understanding why I can't have them.

 

[jeff of pa]

Yes I finally got to watch the first episode this morning.
and Yes, I already know the series will end with more Questions & a Hint or two
to keep investors interested & forking out more Money

it is called the "Money Pit" with good reason.

But must admit I enjoyed watching it enough, I set up series recording on my DVR for now.

I can always cancel if they start soap opera drama in mid-series.

 

[FinderKeeper]

I feel the logs where put at every ten feet because these where storage rooms for the Templar Treasure. Ya the ship they had could hold 25 tons of cargo or 25 tons of treasure. There is no way to put the enitre Templar Treasure at the bottom of the money pit unless you fill one room at a time and use coconut fibers to pack some artifacts. If you placed the entire treasure on top of its self it would crush everything down below. No I still believe this hole did hold the Templar Treasure but its gone. Then why fill in the hole and leave the pully . Well if anyone came to Oak Island to get the treasure this would be a great place to keep them bussy digging while the treasure is at another site on land . It worked.

I have posted our story on this site of how the 5 tons of coconut fibers made it to Oak Island but Scott Wolters didn't have time to put it on the TV show. My story works. 5 tons of coconut fibers did not just float to Smith Cove and dig a trench and cover them selves with flag stone.

 

[Dave Rishar]

So wait...they came and buried the treasure, then someone came along later and dug it all up, then they moved it to another site (even though nobody had found it, or ever would if they hadn't left clues that it was there), but left clues that something might be there? In the late 18th century? After burying the treasure here because nobody would look for it, they're going to leave a clue that treasure is buried somewhere, thereby getting people who wouldn't normally be digging holes to look for holes to dig? Does this make any kind of sense at all? Seriously?

This brings up yet another problem with this story - that in a lot of these theories, the various explanations for illogical situations contradict one another. We could devote an entire thread to that alone, and probably should at some point. Maybe someone already has.

Also, what Templar treasure? The vast amounts of real estate that they'd purchased, or the loans that they'd made? Perhaps the relics that were confiscated? I'll admit that not all of their wealth was tied up in various investments, but a lot of it was - that's how they became wealthy in the first place. We know where all of that went. What was left and wasn't stolen by local authorities probably wasn't as much as some seem to think that it was. This is also contingent upon Templars making it to the new world, which is far from proven and likely won't ever be. It is possible, I'll give you that, but the evidence does not back up the theory at this time.

If you're talking about some OTHER treasure...hey, I don't know everything. Nobody does and nobody ever will. I have been proven wrong before and I'm sure that it will happen again, but I'd like to think that I'm a logical man and when I'm dealing with a situation with a lot of unknowns, I pick the simplest answer and I'm usually correct. The simplest answer for what happened to the Templars is the generally-accepted historical version of events, and barring extraordinary evidence to the contrary, that's the version that I'll choose to believe. It's not like they burned every Templar at the stake. After the leadership was terminated, most of the rank-and-file guys walked. Some even went on to other knightly orders. And make no mistake about it, Philip IV tortured the hell out of these guys, to the point where most of his victims were saying whatever he wanted them to say; I would be very, very, very surprised if there was a significant treasure trove lying around that he didn't know about by the end of the whole ordeal, and if someone had talked about it, he would have sent someone to get it. And someone would have talked about it. We're not talking about stress positions and waterboarding here; they really tortured you back then. I won't go into the specifics, but everybody sang (guilty or not, including the senior management) for a reason, and these were some pretty hardcore guys that did the singing. No one can stand up to that sort of punishment for any length of time.

No, I don't believe that there is a treasure...at least, not some 25-ton goliath that made it across the Atlantic.

 

[jeff of pa]

I feel the logs where put at every ten feet because these where storage rooms for the Templar Treasure. Ya the ship they had could hold 25 tons of cargo or 25 tons of treasure. There is no way to put the enitre Templar Treasure at the bottom of the money pit unless you fill one room at a time and use coconut fibers to pack some artifacts. If you placed the entire treasure on top of its self it would crush everything down below. No I still believe this hole did hold the Templar Treasure but its gone. Then why fill in the hole and leave the pully . Well if anyone came to Oak Island to get the treasure this would be a great place to keep them bussy digging while the treasure is at another site on land . It worked.

I have posted our story on this site of how the 5 tons of coconut fibers made it to Oak Island but Scott Wolters didn't have time to put it on the TV show. My story works. 5 tons of coconut fibers did not just float to Smith Cove and dig a trench and cover them selves with flag stone.

nothing Personal... but

I still believe the whole Knights Templar, fantasy is just that ... fantasy ..

but I will say your belief is as good as the rest including mine

if not a ship as mentioned above, I think the platforms were from one of the first
"marks" who bought into this whole scam & just used as levels to stand on, as they went up and down their hole

they aren't even digging the real first hole,
and even if there is something down there, they are bypassing it

the way they go about things, they could just as well row up anywhere on the beach & start drilling or digging, and say the treasure is down there
they just need to go deeper

and when they hit water (or oil ) call it a magical trap

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

No ship bulkheads Jeff. what a depressing lack of faith in humanity you evidence

Don Jose de La Mancha

 

[FinderKeeper]

Prince Henry Sinclair left Europe with many ships and I think one ship was over loaded with treasure and they hit a 6 day storm just East of Nova Scotia. The ship with treasure made it to Manhoe Bay while the rest landed on the North part of Nova Scotia. The Ship in Manhoe Bay made its way to Oak Island and hid the treasure fast in the Money Pit. Rember there was a lot of Micmac Indians on Nova Scotia , so Oak Island would be a safe haven for them until Prince Henry located them. At this point Prince Henry made good with the locals and in time decited to build a castle on the highest mountain in Nova Scotia. Gold River runs from Oak Island up 19 miles to the castle in New Ross. They could use the river to move goods up and down the mountain to the castle. When the treasure was moved to the castle the Money Pit was filled in. Now if someone was to show up with an army to take the treasure I would think the Templars would give up the Money Pit as the hiding place before they gave out the real location. We have stones from the castle, man cut key stones for a smaller window. There is so many other stones that show something big was built at this site but over the years the good hand cut stones where removed and taken to build other buildings. We know there was a big stone building at the site but trying to carbon date something to prove its age is the hard job. If something smaller is found then every one will say it was planted there by us , so we are looking for something major to prove our case. This summer I hope we do.

 

[Dave Rishar]

In order for this story to work, we have to make a number of assumptions that are based on questionable evidence:

1. That Henry Sinclar actually left.
2. That Nicolo Zeno accurately reconstructed letters that were 150 years old by the time of their publishing.
3. That the Zeno brothers were not embellishing things, if they'd actually written those letters.
4. That Zichmni was Henry Sinclair.
5. That Henry Sinclair was a Templar, or at least had Templar connections.

It's worth noting that the alleged Zeno letters are full of errors, so even if they're real (and I doubt that they are), they don't constitute a reliable source of information. Another issue is that Sinclair was born several decades after the Templars had been disbanded. In the unlikely event that this happened, any speculation about treasure on board is exactly that - speculation.

There are some issues with this theory, obviously, and I only mentioned the obvious ones. When one digs deeper, there are significant chronological problems and a very serious issue with his title: Sinclair was not a prince, for one thing; he was a jarl, or earl in the anglicized version. Are you familiar with the duties and responsibilities of a jarl?

 

[Leila]

Finderkeeper..........................I found a video of the Search for the Holy Grail, about the finding of the castle in New Ross and the search of the well. I enjoyed watching it and wish more research could be done in this area.

I'm new here.............just registered today in order to discuss Oak Island. I grew up in upstate New York and as a child remember hearing my father and his friends talk about the treasure at Oak Island. As an adult, my husband and I both read the 1965 Reader's Digest article on Oak Island that was mentioned in the first episode of History Channel's "Curse of Oak Island." Over the years we've both read other articles and have been intrigued by the mystery behind Oak Island.

Of all the theories mentioned, the pirate treasure seems the most unlikely. If pirate loot, to be retrieved within a short period of time, why bury it more than 100 feet deep? But more than that, I don't think pirates had the degree of sophisticated knowledge to be able to construct the elaborate system of tunnels that would flood the treasure pit with sea water.

When you stop to consider the tools available to someone prior to 1800, it took a long time to dig to the depth of more than 100 feet and whatever lies at the bottom of the money pit. Common sense tells me that the depth of the money pit plus the engineering it took to construct the channels to flood it, means it was more than simple pirate treasure.

I would like to believe that whatever is or was buried on Oak Island is of historical significance. The possibility of it being Knights Templar treasure is tantalizing. But I feel there has be to a lot more research done in this area to prove that Knights Templar were involved.

I've read a lot of theories about Oak Island, and there are several I think have merit. On another forum, someone said that at one time a low flying plane with ground penetrating radar showed a large metal anomaly at the other end of Oak Island. Could whatever is or was buried at the money pit on Oak Island be only a small part of a larger treasure......with part of it buried on the opposite end of the island?

Another theory holds that Oak Island is only a part of the treasure and another part of the treasure is buried on nearby Birch Island. It would be logical on the part of whoever buried the treasure to have more than one repository for their treasure. If part of it was discovered, they'd still retain an undiscovered part of it. I think it's possible that there's more than one buried treasure in Nova Scotia.

Both my husband and I are very interested in the History Channel's presentation of Curse of Oak Island. While we don't expect a huge surprise of the treasure at the end of it, we're hoping there will be some sort of resolution of whether or not anything is there to be discovered and perhaps clues as to what it is or was.

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

G'd afternoon Leila, and unammed Hubby, join us for hot coffee? Welcome our group & to where we can hear your input.

K for another bit of treasure that may lie down there with a pirate quite capable of accomplishing it May I suggest Morgan and his loot of Panama??

Of course I had an Indian from Quintana Roo in Mexico that had a map by Morgan suggesting that the loot is still buried between Belize - former British Honduras -and Quintan Roo.

An interesting story here whiich was sabotaged because of one of my wierd, then, partners. Perhaps part of Panama's treasure is there and the main part on Oak Island

Don Jose de La MaNCHA

 

[Peyton Manning]

I think they could have dug the hole with old technology, my doubts are about the flooding tunnels. An 8 or 10 foot well is doable, a one foot tunnel to the sea was not.

 

[Dave Rishar]

Welcome.

Seeing as how there's no compelling evidence to suggest that anything was ever down there to begin with, speculating about what was buried, who buried it, and what else might be buried is a bit premature at best.

The show will end with a couple of questionable finds that may or may not suggest something, just as all the previous digs have ended. The investors would lose interest otherwise.

 

[jeff of pa]

Welcome.

Seeing as how there's no compelling evidence to suggest that anything was ever down there to begin with, speculating about what was buried, who buried it, and what else might be buried is a bit premature at best.

The show will end with a couple of questionable finds that may or may not suggest something, just as all the previous digs have ended. The investors would lose interest otherwise.

The last paragraph on the last episode will have a question, then the words
"And If so" in the middle of it, than another question
they like those 3 words "And If so"

anyway, I just finished watching last nights episode....
I like this show No Drama !!!
Was still interesting, But

They go down on the beach, dig a small hole before the tide comes in,
& miraculously found allot of coconut fiber possibly from the 13th. or 14th. century just that easy ?

and the under water boulders supposedly pointing towards the pit ?
wrong ! as they panned away from the air you could see the boulders pointing off on an angle from their imaginary line.. if lined up with a string would probably point a football field or more to the side

Sorry , I'm still waiting for
"Ze plane Ze plane !" from Tatoo

again , I still enjoy this show

 

[maipenrai]

I just cannot see any reason for burying anything 90 or more feet deep, and doing that in a "real" hurry! Digging in clay is not easy, try it sometimes! How about giving one reason for digging that deep, and dont say they knew metal detectors were going to be invented.

 

[xrunndonex]

I just cannot see any reason for burying anything 90 or more feet deep, and doing that in a "real" hurry! Digging in clay is not easy, try it sometimes! How about giving one reason for digging that deep, and dont say they knew metal detectors were going to be invented.

Cursed treasure and they have to bury it 90ft or they die? Unno lol those sea dogs were insane yup

 

[TraceyS]

I like the show but I must admit I was disappointed in last night's episode. So far they have just revisited everything that is already fact. So much time spent on coconut fibers when they have already been investigated and dated in the years past. This was not a new discovery. I'm almost betting that the small bones are opossum or racoon bones as its fairly common for these type of animals to fall into uncapped wells. In my opinion...which is simply my opinion and means very little...the most plausible explaination is a buried ship. Coconut fiber is a packing material, and so much of it has been found at varying depths. Is it a far-fetched concept that it could simply be a buried ship that was emptied...therefore, the reason behind no items of value being discovered? And what of the "tusk" protruding from the cove? Could this be a ship's bow? I dont understand why they dont treat this like an archeological dig site and grid the area and begin removing layers of soil. Seems as there is more in the surface layers than below. Drilling a hole seems to have been done many times before and yielded nothing. Would love to know what you guys think of this theory. Like the rest of you, I enjoy the show and really hope the Lagina's have great success.

 

[jeff of pa]

I like the show but I must admit I was disappointed in last night's episode. So far they have just revisited everything that is already fact. So much time spent on coconut fibers when they have already been investigated and dated in the years past. This was not a new discovery. I'm almost betting that the small bones are opossum or racoon bones as its fairly common for these type of animals to fall into uncapped wells. In my opinion...which is simply my opinion and means very little...the most plausible explaination is a buried ship. Coconut fiber is a packing material, and so much of it has been found at varying depths. Is it a far-fetched concept that it could simply be a buried ship that was emptied...therefore, the reason behind no items of value being discovered? And what of the "tusk" protruding from the cove? Could this be a ship's bow? I dont understand why they dont treat this like an archeological dig site and grid the area and begin removing layers of soil. Seems as there is more in the surface layers than below. Drilling a hole seems to have been done many times before and yielded nothing. Would love to know what you guys think of this theory. Like the rest of you, I enjoy the show and really hope the Lagina's have great success.

on the bones, human or not, I'm guessing they were planted, and will be declared Human,
or if actually dug, & they don't want to outright lie, will say inconclusive, & need more tests.

like the "tusk" to be ignored because the truth doesn't fit.

as for the iron bits, again, just trash no proof of any of the theories other then
humans were there off & on & still are

Personally I think they need to Bankroll me & a few friends,
bring us up with our detectors, & don't tell us where they want us to detect, so we know
they didn't try to plant things for us.

 

[HenryWaltonJonesJr]

So it is interesting that they found fibers that date back so far. Although someone thats been involved with the island for a long time told them where to dig (Not saying they were planted, but who knows). Shouldn't there be fibers all over in smiths cove? Why not dig a few holes 10-15ft down and see if they turn up more fibers or dig down to the supposed drains?

With the previews for next week I really hope they don't turn the thing into a ghost story.

 

[jeff of pa]

So it is interesting that they found fibers that date back so far. Although someone thats been involved with the island for a long time told them where to dig (Not saying they were planted, but who knows). Shouldn't there be fibers all over in smiths cove? Why not dig a few holes 10-15ft down and see if they turn up more fibers or dig down to the supposed drains?

With the previews for next week I really hope they don't turn the thing into a ghost story.

I didn't see the Previews, But Ghosts Now ?
well I guess that's the beginning of the end for anything even remotely legit happening

so I guess the following week Big Foot will be throwing rocks at them :/