Oak Island how it all ended. The Mystery of Oak Island: The Money Pit and Its Mysterious History

General information

Oak Island is one of 360 small islands that make up the archipelago located in Mahon Bay off the West Coast of Nova Scotia. The size of the island is 57 hectares (140 acres). Maximum altitude above sea level is 11 m (35 ft). The island is covered with oak trees, which is where it got its name.

The so-called Money Mine was discovered in the 18th century, but since then, repeated attempts to find treasures supposedly hidden in it have invariably ended in nothing. The island is private property and entry to it requires special permission.

History of treasure hunting on the island

Opening of the Money Mine

Money Mine Diagram

Sources differ greatly on how the famous Money Mine, from which the island's fame began, was found. A more “romantic” version says that 16-year-old Daniel McGuinness and his friends Anthony Vaughan and John Smith in 1795, intending to play pirates, unexpectedly discovered an old oak tree on the south-eastern tip of the island, from one of whose branches was hanging a ship's block with a piece of rope half-decayed by time and a piece of fishing gear. Right under the oak tree, inquisitive teenagers discovered the entrance to a mine, covered almost to the top with earth.

According to another, more prosaic one, it all started with two old sailors, rumored to have retired from the same ship - John McGuinness and Robert Lethbridge. John McGuinness was engaged in breeding pigs and growing vegetables, lived as a hermit, stubbornly refusing to leave the island, although his son and daughter-in-law constantly invited him to their place. The old man had special trust in his eight-year-old grandson Daniel, and according to the latter’s recollections, having once drunk Jamaican rum, he declared that “when he dies, his grandson will become the richest man in Nova Scotia.”

One way or another, old McGuinness apparently drowned in 1805 while fishing, and his grandson received almost complete ownership of his hut. One day, while playing pirates, young Daniel discovered several old maps in his grandfather's chest, where an island was marked, covered with incomprehensible icons and encrypted inscriptions. Unable to decipher the symbols, Daniel turned for help to Robert Lethbridge, who lived nearby. He allegedly became interested in the find and promised to help, but that same night a fire started in the hut and old Lethbridge died in the fire, along with him all the notes of old man McGuinness, of which the children did not think to make copies in advance, disappeared. Digging through the ashes, the boys allegedly managed to discover the entrance to the mine under the stone slabs that covered the floor.

On the walls of the mine there were incomprehensible icons made by someone unknown and when. The young treasure hunters immediately began to deepen the hole they found, but at a depth of about 3 meters (10 feet) they discovered a ceiling consisting of thick oak logs. They managed to break through the ceiling, but there was no treasure underneath, and the shaft went down to an unknown depth.

The boys' parents showed no interest in treasure hunting, however, Lethbridge's widow remembered that she kept a stone with an encrypted inscription.

Daniel McGuinness and his friends returned to excavations in adulthood, when in 1813 the Lethbridge farm was bought by one Joe Sellers, a retired British Navy captain. In collaboration with him, McGuinness, Vaughan and Smith had to go deeper into the Money Mine to a depth of about 28 m, passing over and over again overlapping layers of charcoal, coconut sponge, and dense clay. Under one of them, made from ship's putty, there was another stone with an encrypted inscription. This stone disappeared in 1912, but a copy was made of it in advance, later allegedly deciphered as follows: “2 million pounds sterling is buried at a depth of 40 feet under this stone.”

However, there is another option - the first stone given by the widow of Lethbridge is read in Latin as “Look for the entrance to the mine to the north-northwest from the main landmark,” and the second, found in the mine itself, reads “Gold dropped at a distance of 160 + 180 feet from here." It is not possible to prove anything, since the inscriptions are too short.

Work continued at this time. Four treasure hunters at that moment were not interested in deciphering the inscription, but were in a hurry to dig in order to remove the treasure lying literally under their feet. They, however, had to face new difficulties. Water penetrated into the mine, and literally on the day when the steel probe was able to identify something small and solid at a depth of about 30 m (the desired chest!) the mine was filled almost to the brim with sea water that came from nowhere.

After painstaking research, it turned out that the Money Mine is just one part of a giant hydraulic complex, from the side of Smuggler's Bay at the northern tip of the island, at least several drainage tunnels were connected to it, which constantly filled the lower levels with sea water, thus preventing access to content. Several more years passed in attempts to block the tunnels, and finally on August 23, 1813 (as indicated by the miraculously preserved diary of Joe Sellers), a certain oak barrel was brought to the surface.

Traces of treasure hunters are then lost. The discovery of anything was not officially announced; the further fate of the main characters in this story is also unknown. The exception is Anthony Vaughan, whose traces were found in London (Great Britain) where he owned huge estates in Canada and England, and Anthony Vaughan’s son, Samuel, at one of the auctions bought his wife jewelry worth about 50 thousand pounds sterling (when converted at modern prices - about 200 thousand dollars).

Truro Syndicate

Work at the Money Mine. 19th century

The story of the Money Mine continues in 1848 when two residents of the town of Truro, located on the west coast of Nova Scotia - Jack Lindsay and Brandon Smart, who ended up on the island through unknown means, discover an accidentally forgotten diary in Joe Sellers' hut.

Those who want to continue the excavations immediately appear, rightly believing that for the sake of one barrel, even full of gold, no one would build such a puzzling structure. The founders of the Truro Syndicate are the same Lindsay and Smart, in collaboration with a certain James McCulley, an adventurer from Boston.

Such a depression may look like a shallow hole with loose soil, which creates the incorrect impression that it has recently been shoveled. Fallen trees gradually ending up underground may well create the effect of the “platforms” or “overlap” found in the Money Mine. The fact is also indicated that in 1949, while digging a well in the nearby Mahon Bay, a similar failure was found with loose, as if recently excavated earth. The workers then recalled that “At a depth of about 2 feet, the shovels encountered a layer of flat stones. Somewhat deeper, fir and oak trunks were found, piled up without any order, some of them were charred. It immediately occurred to me that we had stumbled upon another Money Mine.”

Natural hydraulic complex

At the beginning of the 20th century, a sample of part of the material found in the bay was sent to the Smithsonian Institution (USA), where it was finally confirmed that it was a coconut sponge. Radiocarbon dating (1960) showed the age of coconut fibers to be about 600-800 years old, but this only indicates that the palm from which the fiber was extracted was cut down in -1400, but there is no evidence of when the fiber was delivered to the island .

As you know, Oak Island is located in an area where a glacier left many hills and underground karst cavities, which, constantly filling with water, flooded the entrance to the Money Mine, thereby creating the impression of a hydraulic complex built by human hands.

Perhaps the formation of the legend was influenced by obscure rumors about the missing treasures of the French crown and stories circulating at that time about hidden Masonic treasures.

Joe Sellers's diary, allegedly found in his hut, could well have been fabricated in order to attract capital and potential partners - such cases are known in the history of treasure hunting.

The photographs taken by Daniel Blankenship in 1971 are too blurry and you can see anything in them if you want.

Literature

Heather Whipps For Sale: Island with Mysterious Money Mine
100 great treasures. Moscow, “Veche”, 2007
“The Secrets of Oak Island,” Joe Nickell, Skeptical Inquirer, March/April 2000.
Microfiche of the original Liverpool Transcript articles
Unnamed author. "Correspondence." Liverpool Transcript, 15 August 1857.
McCully, J.B. "The Oak Island Diggings." Liverpool Transcript, October 1862
Patrick. "Response to the Oak Island Folly." The Novascotian, 30 September 1861
Unnamed author. "The Oak Island Folly", The Novascotian, 29 August 1861
A Member. "A History of The Oak Island Enterprise." British Colonist (in 3 chapters published on January 2, 7, and 14, 1864)
DesBrisay, Mather, A History Of Lunenburg County (1895)
Snow, Edward Rowe. True Tales of Buried Treasure, (Dodd and Mead, 1951) ASIN B000OI2EFC
The History Channel, Decoding the Past: The Templar Code, video documentary, November 7, 2005, by Marcy Marzuni
Doyle, Lynn C. "Nova Scotia's Treasure Island." MacLean's June 1, 1931
Ellerd, Kerry. "Finding Buried Treasure: It's an Expensive Business." Montreal STAR February 6, 1971
Howlett, A. "Mystery of Captain Kidd's Treasure." World Wide Magazine October, 1958
Lamb, Lee. Oak Island Obsession: The Restall Story (Dundurn Press, 2006) ISBN 978-1-55002-625-2
Godwin, John. This Baffling World. (Bantam, 1971)
Leary, Thomas P. The Oak Island Enigma: A History and Inquiry Into the Origin of the Money Pit. (T. P. Leary, 1953)
Loe, Erland, and Amundsen, Petter. Organisten (Cappelen, 2006)
Sora, Steven. The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar (Inner Traditions/Destiny, 1999). ISBN 0-89281-710-0
This section follows Nickell, section “Man-made or Natural?”.

On the east coast of Canada, off the Nova Scotia Peninsula, lies the small Oak Island - “Oak Island”. In its depths lies a secret that enthusiasts have been unsuccessfully trying to unravel for more than two hundred years. It is believed that there, protected by rather simple but skillfully constructed hydraulic structures, hides a priceless treasure worth millions of dollars.

The history of treasure hunting began in 1795, when three teenagers appeared on Oak Island who dreamed of finding the treasure of the famous pirate Kidd - Daniel McGinnis, John Smith and Anthony Vaughan. Having discovered suspicious depressions, they began excavations.

To their amazement, literally half a meter later the shovels buried themselves in flat stones, under which at a depth of 3 meters lay a wide oak board. Enthusiasts continued to dig. It turned out that every three meters of the shaft there were horizontal partitions made of oak logs with a thickness of 15 to 20 centimeters. The young people were unable to dig further and left the island, deciding to return soon.

The rumor about the discovery quickly spread throughout the surrounding area. A few years later, a large group of new diggers, fully armed, arrived on the island. The treasure hunters broke through several more oak ceilings and came across a flat stone with an encrypted inscription. Experts are still puzzling over how to read it, although countless decryption options have been proposed. Where this stone went afterwards is unknown.

The searchers also had to break through a layer of resin, a layer of charcoal and a layer of coconut palm shavings, which caused particular surprise: coconuts do not grow off the coast of Canada. As the mine deepened, it began to fill with sea water. They tried to pump her out, but to no avail.

Apparently, the unorganized and hasty actions of the treasure hunters disrupted the drainage system, resulting in access to sea water into the mine. Faced with this unexpected obstacle, the diggers had no choice but to abandon their further attempts.

During excavations in 1849-1850, it was discovered that the well was directly connected to the sea through one or even two artificial channels. It was through them that water penetrated the well and flooded it to a level corresponding to the water level in the ocean.

The searchers tried to probe the well and as a result they discovered the so-called “treasury chamber”, from which three links of a gold chain were extracted - irrefutable proof that there really was precious metal in the cache.

Unfortunately, no one knows where these links went later. Today, many researchers are inclined to believe that they were simply planted by the diggers themselves in order to attract investors. Be that as it may, investors were found.

In subsequent years, dozens of expeditions visited Oak Island. They brought with them powerful pumps, dredges, dredgers, and drilling mechanisms. But no tricks could stop the flow of water and no devices made it possible to reach the bottom of the mine.

Millions of dollars were spent on the search, and five people died during the grueling work. The reward for all these efforts was the above-mentioned fragment of the gold chain, iron scissors and a piece of parchment with two Latin letters: either “ui”, or “vi”, or “wi”...

This fragment was examined by palaeographers from Boston, who concluded that it was made of sheep skin, and the icons were written in ink and quill pen. In addition, a flat stone was found covered with “illegible marks.” Television cameras lowered to the bottom of the water-filled shaft showed the presence of some boxes or chests at its bottom.

Over the past two centuries, six lives and millions of dollars have been thrown into the insatiable throat of the Money Mine, but its secret has remained unsolved. In 1967, searchers searching the island managed to find a pair of iron scissors.

Experts have determined that the scissors are Spanish-American, most likely made in Mexico, and are 300 years old. Elsewhere, treasure hunters stumbled upon the remains of a dam, apparently part of the mysterious hydraulic structures of Oak Island. Only a few logs, 61 centimeters thick and 20 meters long, survived from it. Every 1.2 meters the logs were marked with Roman numerals carved into them. Radiocarbon dating has shown that this wood was cut down 250 years ago.

Surprisingly few discoveries were made in the “Money Mine” and on the island during the entire search, which cannot be said about the versions of the origin of the hypothetical treasures of Oak Island, if, of course, they exist there.

The most popular version attributes the treasure to the famous pirate Captain Kidd. Others claim that the treasure on Oak Island is indeed pirated, but it was not Kidd who hid it in the Money Mine, but another no less famous pirate, Edward Teach.

They also said that a Spanish treasure ship was once brought to the island by a storm, and the sailors hid the gold in the “Money Mine.” The alleged “owners” of the treasure were Vikings, Aztecs, fugitive Huguenots, British soldiers from the Revolutionary War and, finally, the French kings of the Bourbon dynasty: it is possible that in the “Money Mine” of Oak Island on the eve or in the first years of the bloody revolution of 1789 valuables of the French crown were hidden.

In 1954, someone started a rumor that the treasures of Oak Island were not pirate wealth at all, but something more valuable than gold: sacred relics from the Temple of Jerusalem, manuscripts and documents that once belonged to the Knights Templar. There may even be a Holy Grail at the bottom of the Money Mine.

The discovery of bottles with traces of mercury on the island made some people recall the intriguing note of Sir Francis Bacon that “the safest way to store important documents is in mercury.” Proponents of the latter version claim that the Money Mine contains documents that irrefutably indicate that the true author of Shakespeare's plays is Francis Bacon.

According to another, less original version, the Oak Island treasure is nothing more than the treasure of St. Andrew's Cathedral from Scotland. In the monastery, which was something like a state treasury, precious religious objects, gold and silver coins, jewelry and precious stones were accumulated for centuries.

In 1560, the treasure mysteriously disappeared without a trace, and it is possible that it could have been transported from Old Scotland to New Scotland. Finally, the “Money Mine” may not contain anything at all, maybe it’s just a hydraulic structure, and that’s all. Who said there must be treasure at the bottom of a mine?

Whatever assumptions may be made regarding the origin of the structures on Oak Island, one thing remains certain: someone with engineering knowledge and the ability to attract the appropriate funds and labor built a 40-meter shaft (the diameter of which is about 3.65 meters) at a depth of 40 meters. underground storage.

Construction was completed (probably with the participation of many people using powerful earth-moving machinery), of course, before 1795. Radiocarbon dating pushes this date back to 1660, and analysis of the logs used to construct the walls of the shaft by Canadian forestry experts suggests that the cache was built between 1700 and 1750.

They tried to look for the “authors” of the mysterious structures on Oak Island, in particular, among the famous pirates of the 16th-18th centuries, but could the pirates, many of whom were simply illiterate, create such complex structures? In any case, they are unknown anywhere in the world.

Those who built the well did a tremendous job. But the question is: why? Probably not for my own pleasure. Maybe the structure was really intended to hide something incredibly valuable.

This secret was and continues to be guarded by an ingenious defense system that challenges even modern technology. In any case, after the unlucky treasure hunters of the 19th century disrupted the drainage system, the well filled with water and it still cannot be pumped out.

“Treasure Island” has long passed into private hands; various treasure hunting companies have sold it, bought it, and divided it into shares many times. In 1969, most of the island was acquired by the Triton Company, created by two frantic treasure hunters, Daniel K. Blenkenship and David Tobias.

In 2005, part of the island was put up for sale at auction, with the starting price set at $7 million. The Oak Island Tourism Society hoped that the Canadian government would purchase the island, but it ended up being co-owned by a group of American businessmen working in the drilling industry (the so-called Michigan Group).

In April 2006, it was announced that the Michigan Group now owned 50% of Oak Island, with Blenkenship and Tobias still holding the rest, and that the search for the treasure would continue.

Materials from the book by N. N. Nepomniachtchi “100 Great Treasures” were used

Oak Island, a small island located in Mahon Bay off the West Coast of Nova Scotia (Canada). The island is covered with oak trees, from which it actually got its name. - Oh, how many lives have been lost here and destinies broken!

In 1795 teenagers (Daniel McGuinness, Anthony Vaughan, John Smith) on the farm of John McGuinness of Daniel's grandfather, during the game they found a vertical shaft, one might say just a hole, filled almost to the top with sand. The boys immediately became interested, began to dig and saw strange and mysterious icons on the walls of the mine. They continued even more intrigued, but at a depth of three meters they discovered a ceiling made of thick oak logs. They managed to break through the ceiling, but there was no “treasure” underneath, and the shaft went down to an unknown depth. The idea was temporarily abandoned.

The friends returned to the “treasure” as adults in 1813, joined by Joe Sellers, a retired British Navy captain. . This time things went more successfully, having dug to a depth of 13 meters, the treasure hunters were surprised to find a layer of coal. They discovered the same “surprises” when they continued digging at a depth of 16 meters from ship’s putty and 19 meters from coconut sponge. And then, at a depth of 28 meters, having passed through another layer of dense clay, a stone with an encrypted inscription was found.

Work continued at this time. Four treasure hunters at that moment were not interested in deciphering the inscription, but were in a hurry to dig in order to remove the treasure lying literally under their feet. They, however, had to face new difficulties. Water penetrated into the mine, and literally on the day when a steel probe was able to identify something small and solid at a depth of about 30 m (a treasure chest!), the mine was filled almost to the brim with sea water that had come from nowhere.

After painstaking research, it turned out that the Money Mine is just one part of a giant hydraulic complex, from the bay on the northern tip of the island, at least several drainage tunnels were connected to it, which constantly filled the lower levels with sea water, thus preventing access to the contents . Several more years passed in attempts to block the tunnels, and finally on August 23, 1813 (as indicated by the miraculously preserved diary of Joe Sellers), a certain oak barrel was brought to the surface.

The story continued in 1848 when two residents of the town of Truro, located on the west coast of Nova Scotia - Jack Lindsay and Brandon Smart, who got to the island by unknown means, discover a diary he had accidentally forgotten in Joe Sellers' hut. Those who want to continue the excavations immediately appear, rightly so. Believing that for the sake of one barrel, even full of gold, no one would build such a puzzling structure, this “community” entered under the name “Truro Syndicate.” The founders of the Syndicate are the same Lindsay and Smart, in collaboration with a certain James McCulley, an adventurer from Boston.

The Syndicate was able to begin work on the island only four years later. It turned out that the walls of the Money Mine had long since collapsed. In two weeks it was dug up again to a depth of 26 meters, and then... one fine morning the well was flooded again. The water was pumped out to the point of insanity - to no avail. We decided to drill. They reinforced a platform in the mine above the water, installed a simple drilling rig on it. The work has been going on for 20 years, and it is being carried out haphazardly and very illiterately from a geological point of view, as a result of which it is neither possible to clog the tunnels nor to pump out the water completely. Another one appeared next to the Money Mine; subsequently there were so many mines on the island that they had to be numbered and only then did they realize that the water was salty. The money mine was connected to the sea! I had to explore the coast of the bay, which, of course, should have been done a long time ago.

That's when the cunning plan of the unknown builders of the Money Mine began to be revealed. Having cleared a meter-thick layer of sand and pebbles on the shore, workers hired by the Truro Syndicate discovered a layer of coconut sponge five centimeters thick, and under it a layer of brown algae twice as thick. A few days later there were piles of foul-smelling algae - their weight was estimated in tons! — dotted the shore of the bay. Flat stones firmly driven into the sand were exposed - as if someone had paved the littoral strip, like a city square. It turned out that on the shore - between the marks of the highest tide and the lowest ebb - mysterious hydraulic engineers built a giant drainage “sponge” that covered 45 meters of the beach. During high tide, the sponge was saturated with water and released it into a drainage well, connected to the Money Mine by a 150-meter-long inclined underground tunnel. Subsequently, when this tunnel was found, it turned out that it was also well-made: its height reached a meter, its width - seventy-five centimeters, the walls were lined with smooth stones.

Did the Truro Syndicate not think about the colossal amount of work that someone spent on the construction of Oak underground structures? Didn’t anyone realize that this was not just a buried treasure, but an amazing achievement of engineering? No. In Oak, for a long time, people generally acted first and thought later.

A little later, in October 1856, information about excavations on Oak Island appeared on the pages of newspapers. The Liverpool Transcript was the first to report this, then the Nova Scotian and the British Colonist picked up the news. Once and for all, the history of the Money Mine becomes public knowledge.

The Syndicate built a powerful dam in the bay, hoping to cut off sea water from the underground tunnel. It didn’t work out: the dam was demolished by an unusually high tide. Then, as if maddened, the treasure hunters rushed to dig new mines - No. 4, No. 5, No. 6... From the last well they led another horizontal adit towards the Money Mine. Only a lunch break saved the workers' lives. The mine collapsed and the adit was filled up.

The Truro Syndicate temporarily stopped working and returned to the island only in 1859 - with new forces and new money. Again they dug mines and made tunnels. Thirty horses walked in circles, powering pumps. By the fall of 1861, steam pumps were brought to Oak, but as soon as they were put into use, the boiler exploded. The mechanic died. The misfortune did not stop the clueless figures from the Syndicate. In 1862 they were still pumping the sea.

In 1863, the company changed its name and became The Oak Island Association. The number of people hired for the work is constantly increasing, reaching two hundred, the latest equipment at that time is being purchased, but only in 1865 Sellers finally reports to management that chests filled with soft metal were discovered under the next ceiling of oak logs.

Later the story took on an openly criminal character. Sellers, according to the workers, removed and hid in his pocket something stuck to the drill, after which he fled from the island at night, and with unknown money (however, it is believed that he managed to pocket a fairly large diamond) he tried to put together his own company and buy it off from the Syndicate Truro has the right to develop the Money Mine.

He did not succeed, however, in June 1865 the company unexpectedly curtailed its work, and at night, in a hurry, all the managers disappeared from the island, leaving the corpse of William Sellers in the Money Mine. However, it was not possible to prove the involvement of the Syndicate in his death, since witnesses unanimously insisted that Sellers had long ago gone crazy due to treasure hunting, and could have completely fallen into an open mine on his own. In Nova Scotia, there is still a rumor that The treasure on Oak was found back in 1860 and it was the Truro Syndicate that dug it up. It seems that this was the case. The workers pumped water out of the mine in the evening (how they managed to block the water tunnel - history is silent) and went by boat to the mainland. In the morning they returned, but the members of the Syndicate’s board were no longer found. The management loaded all the equipment onto the ship and set sail. The workers had no reason to complain: they were paid in advance. But the diggers still felt as if they had been duped

In 1866, the directors of the Truro Syndicate ceded their rights to search for treasure to a new company, Oak Eldorado Island. It subsequently became better known as the Halifax Company, led by industrialist Clifton Riggs. However, Riggs stayed on the island for one summer in 1867 and managed to find the exit of the second drainage tunnel at a depth of 34 m, but all attempts to plug it ended in failure.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the soil in the area of the Money Mine was so dug up and saturated with underground water that the next expedition found the subject of its research with great difficulty. It was the so-called “Company for the Search of Lost Treasures,” founded in 1909, with an authorized capital of 250 thousand dollars, and whose partners included the future US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt, who was studying law in New York at that time, believed that the treasures of the French royal family, valued at $20 million, were hidden on the Oak and invested $5,000 of his personal savings in the business, expecting to receive 4,000 percent of the profit from them. After two years of persistent searching, the company spent all its money and left the island with nothing. Roosevelt himself never remembered this later, fearing ridicule from his voters.

In 1931, William Chapel took charge of further development of the Money Mine. He manages to reach the 50 m (163 ft) mark by drilling a new drift southwest of the main mine shaft. At 39 m (127 ft) he comes across an axe, part of an anchor and a pick. The latter was identified as being made in Cornwall. However, the finds themselves did not prove anything; so many expeditions visited the island that what was found could belong to any of them.

The next attempt is made by Gilbert Hedden, an engineer and steel specialist who worked in one of the large steel concerns in New York in 1928, came across a note in a local newspaper telling about the history of the Money Mine, and, of course, immediately became interested in the idea of treasure hunting. However, as a specialist, he sufficiently imagined the difficulties associated with finding the drowned treasure. For several years, Hedden prepared. He visited the island six times, examined the surroundings of the Money Mine himself, and collected all possible information about the work of previous expeditions. He managed to buy off the southeastern part of the island, and he continued drilling from the point where Chapel left off. A letter from Hedden to King George VI about the state of affairs on the island has been preserved. However, this time nothing worth attention was found.

In 1955, drilling rigs of a company called the Texas Petroleum Syndicate appeared on the island. This expedition, through ultra-deep drilling, discovered vast karst cavities under the island, flooded with sea water.

At the beginning of 1960, the Restall family continued the treasure-hunting race, however, they had to interrupt their work after four people (among them the head of the family, Robert Restall, his son and two rescuers) suffocated in one of the drifts from the release of methane - or another version - drowned.

In 1965, Robert Dunfield brought a 70-ton bulldozer to the island (for which he received the contemptuous nickname “Bulldozer Driver” among treasure hunters) and managed to go deep into the mine to the level of 41 m, expanding its opening to 30 m, and at the same time turning everything around , so that not a trace remains of the original landscape. To transport equipment, a road was built to the mine opening, the remains of which are still preserved.

However, unlike his predecessors, he handled the matter somewhat more scientifically, diligently sifting the earth in search of possible archaeological and other finds. Lack of funds forced him to stop further excavations.

Daniel Blankenship, a forty-two-year-old businessman from Miami, came to Oak with the Dunfield expedition, and even for some time was the companion of the famous “bulldozer driver.” When the Portland engineer went bankrupt, Blankenship registered the rights to continue the work for himself, and then, with the help of the finances of a certain David Hopkins from Ottawa, founded the Triton Alliance company, the authorized capital of which was more than 500 thousand dollars. But Blankenship, to the surprise of many, is in no hurry to dig new mines, but like the famous researchers Fisher and Stenui, he plunges into the depths of the archives and begins to study all sorts of ancient documents. In August 1969, Blankenship finally began drilling. At the point indicated in the encryption, he laid a hole under the designation “10X” and mounted a device above it. At a depth of 65 meters, his drill hit the rocky base of the island, but the researcher did not stop there and continued to drill further. After some time, the well reaches an underground cave filled with water, and the workers immediately begin to expand this well. They drive metal casing pipes with a diameter of 70 centimeters into it, and the next day Blankenship lowers a portable camera into the cave on a cable to see what is happening in this cave. According to Blankenship himself, cameras lowered under water recorded a severed human hand, a blurry image of a skull, equally blurry outlines of chests, wooden parts and several tools. However, the pictures turned out to be of very poor quality, and it was not possible to definitively establish what was depicted on them. Ultimately, the pit collapsed and they had to dig again, but work stopped again due to lack of funds and disagreements between the partners. The legal battles of the heirs continued until 2000, and it is unknown who started and sealed the canard that Blankenship, going down into the pit, saw something there that forced him to flee the island in panic. He was later killed during a store robbery, and this was also attributed to the "curse of the island".

Gopkin sues Blankenship, but achieves nothing. Half a million dollars allocated for many years of research were wasted, and the mysteries only increased. Then Gopkin tries to find other partners - he intends to drill another well on the island and finally achieve what Blankenship did not achieve, but according to Gopkin, his partner was so close to the goal!

A person interested in continuing work on Oak is found quite quickly - this is a certain Clive Sheffield - an English treasure hunter who made his millions from the sale of gold and jewelry he found on board the sunken Spanish galleon La Moncada in 1961. The companions are engaged in vigorous activity to recruit and train personnel for the new expedition, but at the very beginning of the new year, 1971, they both die in a plane crash.

The last attempt to find the “treasure” was made by a Japanese electronic equipment company (Hikoki Manshu), but in 1983 the company’s management unexpectedly declared bankruptcy, and that was the end of the matter.

In 2005, part of the island that originally belonged to David Tobias went up for auction for $7 million. The Oak Island Tourism Agency offered it to the Canadian government but was rejected. In April 2006, the island was purchased by the Michigan Deep Drilling Group. The exact amount of the transaction remains secret. According to preliminary reports, the search for the treasure will continue...

Hypotheses

The most common hypothesis about the origin of the possible treasures of the money mine is the pirate treasure of William Kidd, or Edward Teach, nicknamed “Blackbeard.” - In my opinion, a crazy theory (although all the “treasure hunters” of Oak Island in the 18th century adhered to it). How do you imagine pirates in the form of engineers with knowledge of hydraulic engineering and mining? And why should the followers of the “Jolly Roger” hide their loot so carefully (I think they were satisfied with a simple hole about five meters deep).

Another theory (followed by Roosevelt) about the French crown treasure - No less controversial, based only on an allegedly overheard conversation between the king and queen (Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette) who planned to hide the jewels in case they had to flee the revolutionary capital

Another theory connects the Money Mine treasures to the Spanish, who may have escaped from a ship washed ashore on Oak Island in a storm, or, more commonly mentioned in the literature, to British troops during the American Revolutionary War. According to this theory, a certain ship carrying salaries for the troops was forced to turn back or, caught by the rebel fleets, hide the gold so that it would not fall into the hands of Washington's army. John Godwin, who defends this possibility, also points out that the style of construction is reminiscent of French hydraulic structures of the time, and therefore the Money Mine contains the treasury of the Louisbourg fortress, removed just before its capture by the British during the Anglo-French War for Canadian Territories. The question remains open: why was it necessary to hide the treasury instead of delivering it to the metropolis, and even if there was an urgent need to hide it from enemies, did the crew have time to calculate and build such a complex complex.

Episode 1: For Now

Mattie Blake travels to Oak Island to tell viewers about Rick and Marty Lagina's project, the first four years of searching for hidden treasure. We will also find out what awaits us in the new season.

Episode 2: Family Forever Part 1

Episode 2: Family Forever Part 2

Rick and Marty Lagina continue their search for the original Money Mine, but during one of the dives a tragedy almost occurs.

Episode 3: Drilling deeper, the search continues

Mattie Blake reports on the finds and plans of treasure hunters on Oak Island, including the latest discoveries.

Episode 4: Dead Man's Chest

The discovery of a treasure chest dating back to the 18th century supports the theory that pirates landed on Oak Island. There is also news of an amazing discovery in the GEL-1 well in the Money Mine.

Episode 5: Obstacle

The searchers are encouraged by new, irrefutable evidence of European presence on Oak Island a century before the discovery of the Money Mine, but disturbing news threatens the entire project.

Episode 6: By a Thread

Episode 7: Drought

Brothers Rick and Marty Lagina continue to explore the mysterious Oak Island in hopes of finding treasure.

Episode 8: At the End of the Day

Ted and Leckie uncover an old mystery that could lead to a hidden treasure trove. Meanwhile, Henry and Kelly run out of supplies heading into the season finale.

Episode 9: Things Get Complicated

Two more ancient objects have been found deep in the Money Mine, confirming the treasure theory. They may shed new light on the history of the mysterious Oak Island.

Episode 10: Dan's Breakthrough

New finds support the theory that Europeans visited Oak Island 100 years before the discovery of the Money Mine, and also suggest a connection between the island and the Knights Templar.

Episode 11: French Connections

During an expedition to an ancient French castle and prison, new evidence was found of the connection between the Templar Order and the mysterious Oak Island.

Episode 12: Signs of the Cross

The Lagina brothers' discoveries at the Money Mine on Oak Island may change the way we think about history.

Episode 13: Moving Targets

Brothers Rick and Marty Lagina continue their excavations at the Money Mine on Oak Island.

Episode 14: Key to the Mystery

Searchers continue to explore the Money Mine drainage tunnel in hopes of solving the 223-year-old Oak Island mystery.

Episode 15: Trouble

A lead cross of supposedly ancient origin was found on the island, which leads to new theories and guesses. Finding Rick in the swamp confirms one of Fred Nolan's ideas.

Episode 16: Steel Trap

Perhaps excavations in the new Money Mine tunnel will help seekers unravel the mystery of Oak Island. Gary Drayton investigates what may be a fragment of a missing treasure chest.

Episode 17: Fury

There is less and less time left: winter is coming, and all search work will have to be postponed until spring. Treasure seekers are battling unpredictable tides in Smith Bay, and one discovery may support Dan Blackenship's theory.

Episode 18: Amazing Discoveries

The season is coming to an end. The moment of truth is coming. The search team has to make an important decision: end the operation or continue the search?

An object similar to an ancient Roman sword was found off the east coast of Canada. The find indicates that even before the 2nd century the ancient Romans set foot on this land. This predates the Viking landings, which are now considered the first contact between the Old and New Worlds, by at least 800 years. /website/

The sword was discovered slightly off the coast of Oak Island (Canadian province of Nova Scotia) during the search for treasure, which, according to local folklore, is buried on the island.

The search was conducted as part of the hugely popular History Channel television program "The Curse of Oak Island."

J. Hutton Pulitzer worked as a consultant for this television program for two seasons (and appeared in the second season of the television program). His team began research on the island eight years before the History Channel arrived there in 2013.

Pulitzer gave The Epoch Times exclusive information about new finds on the island that, along with this sword, support his theory of a Roman presence there.

J. Hutton Pulitzer is a renowned businessman and prolific inventor. Many remember him as the host of NetTalk Live, an early Internet IPO pioneer, and the inventor of the CueCat (an idea that attracted major investors; it was a device that could scan codes similar to today's QR barcodes). The collapse of his company when the dot-com bubble burst caused a lot of noise at the time, but Pulitzer's patents live on today in 11.9 billion mobile devices.

A little over a decade ago, he rediscovered his passion for forgotten history and has been working with experts in many fields to explore the mysteries of Oak Island ever since as an independent researcher and author. His theory about the presence of ancient Romans on the island has already met with some resistance, because it challenges the now generally accepted theory that the first travelers to reach the New World were Vikings. And yet, he asks historians and archaeologists to approach the factual material objectively and not deny the obvious.

The authenticity of the Oak Island sword has been confirmed by the best testing available, Pulitzer said (The Epoch Times was given access to the test results). However, a sword alone is not proof that the Romans visited Oak Island.

It is quite possible that someone only a few hundred years ago sailed near the island with this Roman relic. It was later travelers, not the Romans, who may have lost the sword. But other artifacts also discovered at the site provide context that is difficult to ignore, Pulitzer says.

Other artifacts his team examined include a stone with inscriptions in an ancient language associated with the Roman Empire, ancient Roman-style burial mounds, and crossbow bolts (reportedly confirmed by U.S. government laboratories to originate from ancient Iberia (part of the Roman Empire) )), coins associated with the Roman Empire, etc.

Sword

An X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzer confirmed that the metal matches the chemical composition of Roman votive swords. XRF analysis uses radiation to excite atoms in a metal to see how the atoms vibrate. Researchers can thus determine which metals are present in an object. Chemical elements found in the sword include zinc, copper, lead, tin, arsenic, gold, silver and platinum.

These findings are consistent with ancient Roman metallurgy. Modern bronze uses silicon as its main alloying element, but the sword does not contain silicon, Pulitzer notes.

Several similar swords have been found in Europe. This brand of sword has an image of Hercules on the hilt. It is believed that Emperor Commodus gave this ceremonial sword to outstanding gladiators and warriors. The Naples Museum has made copies of one of these swords from its collection, leading some to wonder if the Oak Island weapon is such a copy. Although these replicas are similar in appearance to the Oak sword, Pulitzer said tests of its composition have 100% confirmed that it is not a cast iron replica. The sword also contains lodestone, which points due north and thus can aid in navigation. There is no magnetite in the copies.

The History Channel directors received the sword from a local resident - the sword had been passed down in his family from generation to generation since 1940. Initially, he was found during the illegal collection of shellfish - he was clinging to a rake. The family never told anyone about this discovery until there was a surge of interest in Oak Island. They did not talk about the sword both to avoid fines for breaking the law and because collecting shellfish is frowned upon and considered taboo in the local community. Also near the place where the sword was found, a shipwreck was discovered.

Pulitzer's team scanned the wreckage using side-scan sonar, and the History Channel television program also backed it up with detailed underwater terrain maps. Pulitzer's research team and scientists who support the idea are working to apply for government approval to dive underwater and recover artifacts from the shipwreck.

The History Channel's The Curse of Oak Island featured a Roman sword in its January 19 episode. Pulitzer turned down an offer to work with the program's creators as a consultant for the program's third season. He felt that the reality TV approach to research was not the style of work he wanted to pursue.

Participants in the television program brought the sword to Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Canada, so that its chemical composition was studied by senior associate professor of chemistry Dr. Christa Brosseau. She removed shavings from the sword for analysis and reported that the results showed a high zinc content, which suggested that it was modern brass.

Pulitzer responded: “We were amazed that they would apply such a rudimentary [underdeveloped] method of chemical analysis to the sword. The analysis was not the best or the most professional, but what makes us even more perplexed is the fact that their conclusions differ significantly from our XRF analysis, and they failed to mention the use of arsenic in the production of the sword.”

He noted that the television program did not mention the presence of precious metals and magnetite in the sword. According to Pulitzer, the bronze used in the manufacture of the sword could have come from a mine in Breinigerberg, in Germany. Near the ancient Roman settlement at this site, two Roman swords of the same brand were found, and the ores of this mine contain natural impurities of zinc.

This could explain the presence of zinc in the sword and prove that the zinc was not added intentionally, as is the case with modern brass, he says.

Dr. Brosseau identified the material as brass. Both brass and bronze are copper alloys and were both used by the ancient Romans. However, Pulitzer insists that the material should be defined as bronze, because zinc is a natural impurity there and was not added. He hopes further research will be carried out next, especially by scientists with experience working with Roman relics. Other artifacts may provide context for the Roman presence on the island.

A stone from the ancient Levant?

In 1803, a stone was found on Oak Island that was nicknamed the “90-foot stone.” It was discovered 90 feet below sea level, in the so-called Money Pit. The first treasure hunters on the island were a group of young men who saw a depression in the ground and a pulley in the large oak tree above it. Out of curiosity, they began to dig and discovered wooden platforms in the ground, located at regular intervals. They also found and took out this stone. Before the diggers could reach the bottom of the hole, it filled with seawater. It was assumed that the pit contained treasure. According to the diggers, the hole was poorly walled up and through it, along the shaft, one can get to the shore.

There were inscriptions on the stone with signs of unknown origin. In 1949, Rev. A. T. Kempton of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, claimed to have deciphered the inscription and said it said there was treasure buried 40 feet below the surface.

Although the drawings from the stone survived, the stone itself disappeared without a trace in 1912. Pulitzer announced exclusively to The Epoch Times that he had found the stone, and his analysis showed it may have close ties to the ancient Roman Empire.

Pulitzer was given the stone by one of the treasure hunters on the island, whom Pulitzer does not want to publicly identify (The Epoch Times was privately revealed his identity). The man's family recently opened up to Pulitzer and is allowing the stone to be analyzed.

Pulitzer claims that in 1949 the inscription on the stone was misinterpreted.

Reverend Kempton ignored some of the signs as a mistake and misinterpreted others. Now the inscription has been subjected to statistical analysis using a computer program, which compared it with a database of different languages.

The result was 100% consistency with the writing associated with the ancient Roman Empire. Pulitzer's background in technology and statistics helped him carry out this analysis. According to his analysis, the inscription corresponds to the Old Canaanite script, also known as the Old Sinai script. It is the ancestor of many languages in the Levant.

The text on the 90-foot stone is an Ancient Canaanite derivative [language descendant] of the Ancient Canaanite language, which during the Roman Empire was used as a common language for communication in ports with various local vernaculars. It is a mixture of Old Canaanite with Old Berber (the ancestor of the North African Berber languages) and other ancient languages. The inscription on the stone has undergone extensive analysis at universities in the Middle East by the world's leading experts on the ancient languages of the Levant.

Pulitzer says his team has deciphered the inscription, but he is waiting for the final report before announcing what the inscription says and where the analysis was conducted. This writing was lost in ancient times. Only at the beginning of the 20th century it was rediscovered by Hilda and Flinders Petrie. Full codification [the process of standardizing and developing norms for a language] of writing was achieved only after the discovery in 1999 of the so-called Wadi el-Hol inscriptions, which were found in Egypt by John and Deborah Darnell.

Since the 90-foot stone was found in 1803 [and the writing used on the stone was only rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century], it cannot be a fake, Pulitzer concludes.

After a visual comparison, Pulitzer suggested that it was clearly a distinctive type of stone called imperial porphyry, which does not exist naturally in North America. Ongoing analysis of the stone will include testing its mineralogical composition.

The Roman naturalist Pliny (23-79) documented in his Natural History the discovery of imperial porphyry by the Roman legionnaire Caius Cominius Leugus in 18 AD. Its only known source is the Mons Porpyritis quarry in Egypt. Porphyry was prized for its use in Roman monuments. The exact location of the quarry was lost from about the 4th century until 1823, when it was rediscovered by the Egyptologist John Gardner Wilkinson.

Crossbow bolts

At the turn of the century, a treasure hunter dug a thick wooden beam out of the ground. When the beam was cut, they found three crossbow bolts inside it. This means that they shot bolts from a crossbow into a tree, and the tree grew around them.

According to calculations, the tree was about 1000 years old when it was cut down. The bolts were stuck 3/4 of the way in, suggesting they hit the tree hundreds of years before it was cut down. However, it is unknown how long ago the tree was cut down to make a wooden beam. More precise dating of the bolts was made when they were analyzed by a US weapons testing laboratory, Pulitzer notes.

Rick and Marty Lagina, stars of the television program “The Curse of Oak Island,” showed Pulitzer the results of this analysis. The laboratory determined that the bolts originated from Iberia, and that they dated from the same time period as various military campaigns of the Roman Empire and possibly the sword.

The Epoch Times was unable to verify the laboratory test results. According to Pulitzer, he asked for a copy of the results and was promised one, but was never given it.

The documentation is in the possession of Oak Island Tours (in which the Lagina brothers own a controlling stake) and its partners. The History Channel did not respond to requests from The Epoch Times. Pulitzer said he has seen the results and knows they were obtained through a contact at the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Massachusetts.

The extent to which this conclusion is controversial is evident from the response that Pulitzer says the Lagina brothers received when they contacted an expert at a large American university about the bolts. Pulitzer, reading his notes from meetings with Lagina, shared his response with The Epoch Times: “Don't use our name, don't drag us into this, don't mention the university. Don't even tell anyone that you sent this to me. These things are dangerous, they are dangerous for my profession, I don't want to be in any way
involved in this."

To suggest that the Romans reached the New World could be considered professional suicide [destroying one's own].

Ancient burial mounds

There are mounds off the coast of Oak Island that are currently underwater.

The mounds are of non-Indian origin, according to James P. Schertz, an earthworks expert and professor emeritus of civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “I agree that the underwater mounds are of a foreign (Mariner) style and not native to Nova Scotia or traditional North Americans,” Schertz said in a comprehensive report on the evidence that the Romans reached Nova Scotia.

The report's authors include Pulitzer and several other scientists. The report will be published in the spring; “The Epoch Times” got acquainted with it in advance. “These mounds... in terms of the ocean levels in this area, known from specific Canadian reports of sea level rise, the possible dating of these mounds is 1500 BC. - 180 AD,” concludes Schertz.

The local indigenous Mi'kmaq culture is not one of the mound-building cultures. However, the way the stones are lined up there is consistent with ancient mounds in Europe and the Levant. Schertz also noted that the mounds are astrologically aligned [to match the alignment of the stars].

Pulitzer's team examined the underwater mounds using surface scanning and direct diving for visual inspection and photography.

Roman marker stone?

Several other artifacts found on the island could, with further study, support the theory of Roman presence there, Pulitzer says.

Pulitzer's team is working with ancient language experts to compare the marks on the stone with other known Roman inscriptions. From what he knows so far, he believes they will turn out to be Roman navigational markers.

Petroglyphs in Nova Scotia depict what Pulitzer's team interpreted as possible depictions of ancient sailors and Roman soldiers.

In the late 1990s, a local amateur metal detectorist found a cache of Carthaginian coins near Oak Island. Their authenticity was confirmed by Dr. George Burden of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Dr. Burden also confirmed the authenticity of two 2,500-year-old Carthaginian coins that were similarly found by amateurs near the ocean in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

It is possible that the Romans required the sailors of their empire to help with the voyage, since the Romans themselves were not renowned as great shipbuilders or navigators. The Carthaginians (ancient Tunisians) were famous for their shipbuilding and, as Roman subjects, could take the Romans on their voyages, says Pulitzer.

Pulitzer notes that if someone had asked him if he could swim across the Atlantic Ocean, he would have answered, “Yes.” But not because he personally can do it, but because he can hire a ship that will take him with him. So it was with the Romans.

Myron Payne, Ph.D., a former engineer who taught at Oklahoma State University, wrote in a detailed report that he believes "swimming-jumping" was feasible for ancient mariners in pre-Columbian times. They could take a route with stops in the UK, Iceland, Greenland, Baffin Island, Cape Breton and eventually Oak Island.

They could choose Oak Island as a route point, says Pulitzer, due to the presence of fresh water there and good visibility from the sea. Tall oak trees, after which the island is named, appear on the horizon as you sail along the coast.

Similar finds in Brazil

Oak Island is not the first place in the New World where Roman artifacts have allegedly been found. It is beyond the scope of this article to describe all of the controversial statements, but we will briefly discuss one of them as an example.

In 1980, archaeologist Robert Marks reported that he had found a large collection of amphorae in Guanabara Bay (24 km from Rio de Janeiro). Amphoras are vessels with two handles that the Romans used to carry goods.

Elizabeth Will, an expert on ancient Roman amphorae at the University of Massachusetts, confirmed the authenticity of the amphorae. At the time, she told the New York Times: “They look ancient, and due to their outline, thin-walled structure and the shape of the rims, I guess they date back to the 3rd century AD.”

Dr. Harold E. Edgerton of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a pioneer in the field of underwater photography, also supported Marx's claims.

The Brazilian government prohibited Marx from further studying the find. Wealthy businessman Americo Santarelli stated that these amphorae are copies he made. However, according to him, he only had four. Marx reported a huge number of them, located in one place.

Some amphorae were on the surface, and some were buried at a depth of more than a meter, which suggests that they had been stored there for a long time. Marx also claimed that the Brazilian Navy covered the site with mud to prevent further exploration.

According to a New York Times article, Marx said a government official told him: “Brazilians are not interested in the past. And they don’t want their discoverer [16th-century Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvarez] Cabral to be replaced by anyone.”

Pulitzer hopes the same thing doesn't happen in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia Culture Minister Tony Ince took some interest in the sword and suggested that it be sent to Roman antiquities experts for examination.

The sword is not currently protected by the Canadian Provincial Sites Protection Act, as the law was passed after the discovery of the sword.

But the act would give the province the right to intervene when it comes to any artifacts found in the future. Pulitzer hopes that the artifacts found on and near the island will attract the interest of scientists around the world and that the area will be declared an archaeological site and thus protected for further study.