Notice: Since February of 2019, this website has seen very erratic drops in search engine referrals. So if you consider the information on this page to be worthwhile, I recommend posting a link to the page where you can. Otherwise it is unlikely that it is going to reach very many people. For more on that, see About Dave Conklin.net. 2/23/20, last rev 10/14/21.

Dave’s Oak Island theory

[12/20/19 Note: As the story usually goes, I decided to condense this lengthy blog into something more readable.]

Here is another subject that has peaked my interest in the past and present. Like the Lagina brothers, who currently star in a reality series titled The Curse of Oak Island, my own grandmother had a subscription to Reader’s Digest, and I remember reading the 1965 Oak Island article at an early age. Then, in 1976, my grandfather received a Sept, 76 issue of Popular Mechanics that had a brief article—still have it, to this day. Sometime in the 1980s I discovered D’arcy O’Connor’s book The Big Dig in a bookstore, so when the reality series premiered, I had a little bit of a head start on the subject.

This spring (2016), after doing a Google image search, I discovered some of the old survey maps and diagrams that have been posted on the Internet. So with all the new info at hand, I drew up the following diagram in an attempt to form a mental picture of what the underground structure around the money pit might be like, and in doing so, arrived at a theory as to what might have happened on Oak Island during the big collapse of 1861.

As the new season of Curse approaches (season 4), I decided to post the diagram—just for kicks—and see if I get anything right. I do not claim it to be fact; just a guess and nothing more. Of course, I’m sure something will go wrong, and they will never get far enough to settle the issue anyway, but . . . Obviously, I am skeptical that there was ever anything more to the construction of the money pit other than a 150' deep pit and a flood tunnel: I am of the opinion that the amount of labor involved in excavating the money pit and constructing a cofferdam at Smith’s Cove was probably an intentional deterrent for any particular individual returning and digging up the “loot” for himself.

4/22/17: A new diagram (#2), based more on what is known rather than theory. If the following diagram differs from everything else on the web, it is in the fact that it at least depicts everything to scale from top to bottom. While based on a certain amount of educated guesswork, I will admit, of special note is the dip in the bedrock about 15' north of the Chappel shaft, which—I think—is directly under the caisson known as V-3 (looks like a very good place, to me anyhow, to look for loose coins or gold bars).

As you will note, I included a few things learned from the last season (season 4) of Curse, such as the general size and shape cavity found by C-1 north of the money pit. As mentioned, I am not 100% certain as to the exact location of the holes that the Laginas and company have dug, and although the show did describe features in the cavern similar to my diagram, I don’t know the N-S E-W orientation of those features, at present, so that part is complete guesswork. The distance of the money pit from the Chappell shaft is based on Blair’s money pit.

Studying the Becker drilling records posted by John Wonnacott and Les MacPhie on oakislandcompendium.com, there is one hole that Becker drilled in 1969 labeled B37 (164' from -20' level), that supports my hunch that there is indeed a significant dip in the bedrock under Dunfield’s money pit.

3/14/18: Since I’m already in the business; yet another diagram (#3). Given all the holes the Oak Island team drilled in the money pit area last season (S5) the Laginas and company should probably have a better understanding of the subsurface topography than anyone. But when you study something long enough, you are bound to gain a better understanding, so perhaps there are a few insightful things I can offer. I came to the realization that the various layers, or levels, of rock under the money pit area are probably much flatter than I first surmised. About 23’ below the upper limestone layer, there appears to be a layer of shale (or shale-like rock) at 165’ from the 1795-1909 surface level. And in places, this shale is either thin or weak, allowing drill heads to pass through and drop about 11.5 feet or so through a silty layer to a relatively flat surface of sound anhydrite.

But under the flat surface, the so-called sound anhydrite is obviously riddled with natural cavities; and it stands to reason that in places, the roof of these cavities must be thin. The jest of my original theory was that the weight of the collapsing debris from the 1861 collapse caused a cascade that broke through the upper limestone layer, depositing the vault lower than its original location. But now I’m not so sure that the collapse did not involve deeper layers of rock. I am also wondering if a second collapse might not have occurred somewhere deep in the money pit sometime between 1909 and 1931, perhaps involving the roof of a water-filled void.

At any rate, the layers appear to be flat and solid except for an area with a roughly pear-shaped outline extending from under Dunfield’s money pit over to and under the Chappel shaft’s onetime surface location. As to just how far down the money pit was originally dug, it is anyone’s guess, of course. Some contend that the deep cavern (referred to as the deep-rock area by MacPhie and Wannacott) located under the Chappel shaft’s surface location was part of the original work, but I just cannot imagine why someone would purposely dig such a wide hole into the bedrock—even if the original entrance was much smaller than it is now. So if indeed ever occupied by man, my bet is, it was a discovered cavern that was taken advantage of.

Other: For this diagram, I chose Dunfield’s location for the original money pit for two reasons: one, it gets it out of the way, and two, it may explain what the Chappels were thinking as they were digging their shaft back in 1931, although--beyond all the interesting finds made there last year--there are compelling reasons why the money pit might have been farther south. Who knows?, perhaps there were two shafts about six feet apart, one used to ventilate the other.

One more thing regarding the money pit: Not being personally involved in the dig, there are a lot of technical details I am missing, of course. For example, although the show is constantly giving depth assessments, the depth of fill added in 2016 has never been mentioned on the show, and the money pit ground water level mentioned—I believe for the first time in the series—in S5, E18 does not jive with the notion that the original ground level was 10 feet higher than the 1930s level. But here is something interesting that I doubt the Oak Island team even noticed: The Chappels reported running into a layer of shale-like rock at 155’ back in 1931 while searching for the vault. In season 4 episode 14, the T-1 caisson hits the same thing at 156’. And in season 5, episode 3, a hole is drilled near the Chappel shaft (H-3.5) that hits an iron obstruction at 162’. Now, assuming for the sake of argument that ground level was indeed 10 feet higher in 1897 than in 1931, and the shale layer is relatively flat (as one would expect), then the iron obstruction at 162’ (as well as the human bone fragments) would be at precisely the same depth—to the inch—as the iron or steel obstruction William Chappel struck at 171’. 

The Curse of Oak Island, Season 5, A.K.A. How many goofy questions can be posed in an hour’s time: I was a bit dumbfounded when it was announced in the first episode that a series of 38 holes would be drilled in the money pit area before anyone bothered to send the GAL-1 or V-3 caisson farther down. Then there was a bit of an “oh, crap,” moment during the second episode when I realized what they were referring to as the “Geo-tech system” was my idea. I’m referring to a brief email I sent to Marty Lagina and the Oak Island team back on Feb 10th, 2015.

Excerpt: [Just a thought I had: I will have to pose the first part of it in the form of a question: First of all, is there any sort of plastic pipe strong enough to be used as well casing, such as schedule 30 PVC, for example? Next, if that were possible, seems like there should be a way--by lowering separate emitter and collector coils down separate holes--of getting a three dimension cross section of the metal content of a sizable area of earth, down to considerable depth--as far as the casings will go. The process would no-doubt require the creation of an entirely new computer algorithm, but seems feasible to me, anyway. Stu Auerbach is probably the person you would want ask about all this, of course.]

(I meant schedule 40 PVC, of course, although I recently learned that they make a schedule 80, with walls about twice as thick. Plumbing is not really my area of expertise, anyhow.)

My initial thought was, how unfortunate they implemented my idea after they had sunk a series of huge metal objects into the ground. And this, after old accounts of drill pipes breaking off deep in the money pit area, to complicate matters. I personally would have focused more on the area from the Chappel shaft to Dunfield’s money pit, but that is all “water under the money pit” now, I suppose.

The show, of course, attributed the Geo-tech system to everyone but the person who actually suggested the concept—namely me—and that is plagiaristic. I realize that the Laginas and company do not produce the TV show, and I sympathize with their disappointments and personal tragedies, but I would hold them responsible for its content to a degree; and they could at least have mentioned that the concept was sent in by a viewer. Even so, I will refrain from calling them names, for the time being, and give them a chance to put things right.

So, Dave where is the treasure? Well, it’s unfortunate that drill pipes tend to deviate, and it remains to be seen if my pvc pipe idea is going to lead to treasure, but the fact that the new caissons sent down last season found so little is foreboding: It makes one wonder if whatever (and whoever) was buried there is not scattered over a wide area and range of depth, and just how things ended up that way (cave ins and water circulation are at the top of my list).

One last thing: An episode of “Curse of” every now and then that got away from the dig, the usual hype, and the fifty goofy questions and focused more on the technical aspects of the dig would be a definite “groove.” I am referring to the various historic reasons why the money pit might be in this or that location, the present theory as to where the original surface level was located, and a much more detailed look at what the underground topography probably looks like based on all of the exploration to date.

6/05/18: On 3/14/18, I once again contacted Marty Lagina and Craig Tester at the same email address as the 2/10/15 email, and have not received a reply. Anyone reading this article knows as much about it as I, but it looks to me as though there has been some decision made on their part to perpetuate a lie regarding the whole Geo-tech thing. For me, anyhow, this throws the integrity of their entire operation and all discovered artifacts into question. After all, if someone will lie about one thing, they will lie about another. I think it is high time someone pressed this issue with them and got a yes or no answer from them regarding the origin of the Geo-tech concept.

5/10/19: Since last spring, I have learned a few more things and have created what is probably the most informative vertical-cross-section diagram of the money pit to date (#4), although I think the last diagram that I posted (#3) is fairly accurate, generally speaking. And after six years of reading and studying everything I could find regarding the money pit itself (old documents, maps, books etc.)—on top of the limited knowledge I had to begin with regarding Oak Island—I had an epiphany one day as to where the original money pit might be located. I created a map (a surface map), and on further study, a number of things seemed to fall into place—not vaguely, mind you, rather “dead on,” so to speak. Bear in mind, this is not an “X marks the spot” based on star maps or the direction the wind blew last Tuesday; the map is entirely based on Oak Island history of the dig site. I would never profess to know anything about Oak Island with absolute certainty; all I can say is that the map is very, very interesting. And if I’m right, the Oak Island team has been digging in all the wrong places.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that an idea of mine was taken to heart without credit given where it was due, let alone a thank you or even acknowledgement of my existence, I will not be posting anything more that might somehow assist the present treasure hunters on Oak Island. And I probably won’t be following the show very closely from now on, as I don’t think I can take another season of the show’s endless repetition, stupid questions, and inconsistent attention to the digging operation, anyway.

Who knows where the Oak Island treasure hunt will go from here: Maybe I’m wrong and the team is indeed closing in on the money pit. Perhaps a member of the team will receive a bump on the head (like Stan Laurel in A Chump at Oxford) and have the same epiphany as I. Or perhaps they will go on digging in all the wrong places until they stumble upon the money pit by the sheer number of holes they have dug. Well, if the present group ever gives up and someone else takes over, all I can say is, look me up. I would recommend it before you go spending millions of dollars digging any holes.

One last note: As the story goes, before season six even aired, I modified my last diagram (#3) to do away with the dip in the bedrock directly under Dunfield’s money pit. (I had come to the conclusion that the "hole" that both Greene and Dunfield drilled through down to 182’ was most likely about midway along the western side of the Hedden shaft). So I replaced the dip with a gradual slope from where C-1 entered sound bedrock. Note: The sound bedrock I am referring to is erroneously annotated "sound anhydrite" in diagram 3 (the first 11 feet, or so, is actually limestone). Skip to Curse S6, E3; the team travels to Calgary to view some of the results from the seismic study. During the session, they are shown a vertical cross section of the money pit area, which depicts what is described as a void from about 160-175’ (most likely soft ground between a shale layer and the bottom of a pit in the limestone bedrock). Imagine my dismay when the cross section turns out to be an almost exact match to my diagram, except for the void's profile being completely backwards in a north-south direction. In other words, the seismic results depicted a void that was a mirror image of my new diagram. Then a hole is drilled that supposedly does not find a void. And on top of everything, back in S3, E12, the drill at C-1 supposedly went through 11’ of rock before entering the water-filled cavern. (The 11’ feet of rock would appear to be the same place where the seismic results are showing the "deep end" of the void.) Later, in S6, E12, the team sends a tiny ROV down H-8 to the same depth as the void, which might have provided a better idea of the void’s general shape. But wouldn’t you know it, the ROV fills with water before much is learned about the void’s shape. I have no explanation for the discrepancies, of course; you the reader now know as much as I do. (rev 12/20/19, 1-19-20)

6/30/20: Not going to delve into the subject, but I’ll share a couple observations I made upon viewing some of season 7: First off, I noticed there are two dates that keep popping up in regards to pre-searcher construction at the money pit and Smith’s Cove—1706 and 1771. And if one would choose to assume these are the only two periods where anything major took place at the two locations, I do believe the various carbon-dated objects would support the theory. However, that is my unprofessional opinion on the subject.

Observation two: In S7, E21, an 8’ caisson (RF-1) is sunk over a tear-drop-shaped seismic anomaly at 160’. On its way down, some pretty interesting items are pulled from the shaft: an old pickax, and some large hand-hewn timbers put together with dowels and inscribed with Roman numerals. Members of the team exclaim, “We’ve never seen anything like that before.” But something about that didn’t seem right to me, so I did a search and sure enough . . . A wood beam with a dowel pin sticking out of it was brought up from the very first caisson sunk (V-3) back in S4, E5. It looks as though RF-1 probably overlaps V-3, so most likely the team is going in circles and is rediscovering what they have already found.

6/01/21: Again, I only viewed a handful of episodes from season 8, and I was a bit dumbfounded when the team began drilling holes close to the C-1 caisson and declaring they had likely found a tunnel at around 90’. I don’t know where they came from, but I have a couple diagrams on my computer: one depicts the surface border of Robert Dunfield’s 1965 excavation, and the other depicts a cross section of the pit. And according to the diagrams, anyhow, one hole, dubbed BC-3, is only several feet or so from the center of Dunfield’s pit. And the “tunnel” struck at 90’ ends up about 50’ higher than the bottom of Dunfield’s pit, which was reportedly dug to 140’ (about 139’ from the current surface, per my best guess). Admittedly, Dunfield’s pit was steep walled, but not that steep! So it would appear very unlikely that Dunfield could have missed such a tunnel, but I heard no mention at all of this important fact in any of the episodes that I watched.

But the old wood they found is interesting, in that it suggests the possibility that Dunfield dug into some of the original works somewhere and then unknowingly backfilled the pit with pieces he had dug out.

Lastly, I noticed that while Rick Lagina often mentions his faith in science, his hunch about the swamp has probably turned up more items of interest than any scientific study of the island, except, of course, this new finding of dissolved metals. Does this mean the Laginas and co. might finally find more treasure on Oak Island than I did under my couch cushions last week? In regards to those gold-colored objects in the wall of the C-1, though, I would bet money they are nothing more than iron pyrite deposits, otherwise known as fool’s gold.

5/10/22: So after eight years, the show finally starts including useful surface diagrams with actual landmarks (Hedden shaft etc) and even a grid system; wonderful! Anymore, though, I can only stand to watch a few episodes, perhaps, of each new season due to all the repetition and stupid questions.

But rather than just gripe about the show, I decided to do something different for this entry and write it to bring the person who perhaps has not followed the show for very long, but perhaps has read a couple of the old standby books on the subject, such as Darcy O’Connor’s or Bill Crooker’s, up to date.

Essentially, after nine years of excavations, the only thing the money pit has proven to be is the probable grave of at least two individuals, one of European origin and one of Middle Eastern origin; One possible explanation for the bone fragments is a collapse that occurred in the money pit in 1861, which could easily have pulverized the remains into bits and pieces, along with some other items (china, pottery, books etc) that are now scattered far and wide in the money pit.

I believe I am correct in the statement that most of the carbon dating of the oldest wood and the bone fragments recovered from the money pit, taken in conjunction with other things such as a dendro-chronology dated log brought up from a caisson dubbed OC-1 dating to 1706 (very close to the date inscribed on a stone found by the Restalls [1704]), suggests the money pit was constructed sometime during the late 1600s to early 1700s. However, tree rings put a (presumed) wooden coffer damn and a slipway constructed in Smith’s cove as probably constructed after 1770. So what were they doing, retrieving something and filling in their holes all nice and neat, to go on keeping the place secret for some odd reason? Were they adding something to the money pit? These are open questions.

There have been a lot of things uncovered on the island that suggest an even older European presence on the island, possibly predating the construction of the money pit. Recently, accumulated evidence points to a possible Portuguese connection to the island, perhaps related to a branch of the Nights Templar, with a later British presence. However, as stated, the who-and-why jigsaw puzzle has yet to be completed. There is an upcoming episode of “The Curse of Oak Island: Drilling Down” scheduled for May 17th, 2022 titled “The Ultimate Answers” that promises to go over things related to the who and why, for anyone interested in that side of things.

Frankly, nine years ago I would have been skeptical of such claims as original-works tunnels some 160’ down from the original surface level, but time and again the present team has encountered old wood and various artifacts of the type mentioned previously at the depth of 150-162’ from the current surface level (about 9’ below the original surface, I believe). 148-162’, by the way, is also the depth range of two sets of tunnels dug nearly on top of each other, one dug by Mel Chappel in 1931 and other dug by Erwin Hamilton about 1941, per my best understanding. However, it does not appear that any of these newer tunnels ever crossed paths with any existing tunnel (the old wood they are finding does not appear to be from these later tunnels). The big question is just why the original builders were risking their lives to build tunnels at that depth—as booby traps to protect two human bodies, or is there more to it? Sadly I’m not sure we will ever know, as the present team has, I believe, probably all but obliterated the remnants of these tunnels.

As far as Mel Chappel and Fred Blair’s “vault” is concerned, it should also be in the 150’ range—146’ 8” per my best estimate—from the current surface, but I wonder if it wasn’t an intact section of the previously mentioned original tunnels that he happened to hit, and not a treasure vault at all. A while back, researcher Doug Crowell discovered a statement that evidence of gold could be seen on the end of the drill back in 1897 after drilling into the supposed vault. But if so, where did it go? I have never heard of gold having a tendency to vanish into thin air.

Enter season 8 episode 24 of Curse: Silver and gold are detected in the ground water at various locations around the money pit. All I can say about that is, if the deep tunnels did lead to a cache of treasure, the tunnels would provide a good conduit for the spread of the tainted water—if some of the tunnels were still intact. Well, even if the old tunnels are now collapsed, stands to reason that they probably lasted for quite some time.

The Oak Island Team spent most of season 9 (the summer of 2021) chasing imagined original-works tunnels running 90’ down through the backfill of a huge pit dug in 1965 in the money pit. While I must admit that they did run into wood at a fairly consistent depth of 90’, it would seem highly unlikely to me that any of these 90’ “tunnels” could have been missed back in 1965. But, I could be wrong. At any rate, the last episode showed them bringing up a large round timber from around 90’ that could probably be dendro-dated. I am curious as to what it will date to.

At one point in the last episode, Gary Drayton exclaims, certain that they had just located a tunnel at 90’, “That will lead us to the treasure.” Well, it might have if you had not have just converted the “tunnel” into “ground chuck.” At the end of the show, the team hires an outfit to take an “X-ray” of the entire money pit using a new technology called muon tomography, which they think is going to show them what’s left of any tunnels they have not pulverized, in the midst of a complete underground mess of shafts and tunnels; maybe even show them the location of the treasure itself. We shall see.

End update

Hindsight is always 2020, and what should have been done at the money pit long ago could not be any more obvious then it is now. What I am referring to is a pressurized caisson that would have allowed a proper excavation of the money pit back before it was destroyed in 1861. I’m thinking that, if there is indeed a treasure somewhere near the money pit, such an excavation might have pointed the treasure hunters in the right direction, even if nothing of significant value was buried in the money pit itself.

Presently, I fear it’s much too late, but these gigantic 10’ caissons that the present team is using led me to a thought: I’m still not going to tell them where I think the money pit might have been located, but I wonder if one of these caissons couldn’t be pressurized. I would hate to think of the expenditure involved, but I wonder if one couldn’t be plugged with a big heavy airlock the same width as the caisson. In other words: sending the caisson down over a target, scooping it out down to a point just above the target level, then lowering the plug/airlock down and securing it with an air tight seal perhaps eight feet or so above the dirt.

I think the pressure needed at 150’ (in the money pit) would be somewhere around 54 psi to keep the water out completely. If my calculations are correct, that would equal a total upward force of some 305 tons on the plug/airlock. I’m thinking that filling the caisson with water above the plug/airlock (or lowering the plug into the caisson already filled with groundwater) would balance things out. At any rate, the primary plug/airlock could act as an emergency refuge and staging area, while another smaller airlock mounted on top the first could serve the transport of spoils and workers to the surface. And, a decompression chamber on the surface would, of course, be another necessity.

If only they had something like that back in 1861 . . .

5/18/23: And the dig just keeps going and going, and this page just keeps getting longer and longer.

Back in my 5/10/19 entry, I reported I had formed theory as to where the original money pit might have been located. Well, I will say this: It was nowhere near the Garden Shaft or the shaft they discovered east of the Hedden shaft back in Season 7, which produced the wood dendro-dated to 1796 and was presumed to be Shaft 2. Watching re-runs of Season 7, I happened to notice that the aformentioned shaft was very close to 18’ east of an old 6’x10’ shaft discovered during the sinking of the Hedden shaft back in 1937. The top of this old shaft had been lobbed off down to 20’ below the original surface level. The bottom was found at 111’6” from the O.S.L. That is too shallow to be Shaft 6, the shaft involved in the big collapse of 1861. But there was a 6’4” circular tunnel running underneath it to a final depth of 117’10”. Shaft 6 was reportedly dug to 118’. Pure speculation, but it makes me wonder if it wasn’t the infamous Shaft 6 after all, and someone tried to hide it, dismantling about 20’ off the top and 7’ off the bottom. Anyway, probably isn’t, but . . . just a thought. rev 6/11/23.

Note 6-14-23: While a shot of Steve Guptill’s grid map in S7, E9 depicts “Shaft 2” about 17’ 6” east of the 6x10 shaft, later shots of Terry Matheson’s paper working diagrams have “Shaft 2” about 2' 6" farther east. You will have to ask them which one is correct.

An 8-foot caisson, dubbed OC-1, was later put down where the east end of the old 6x10 shaft would have been, and it did find some interesting stuff, including part of a small keg, beams, a post that dendro-dated to 1706, and what looked to be someone’s elbow (never heard any more about that). Most of the items came up from around 147’. I figure these could be items from the 1861 collapse that entered tunnels extending from the Money Pit at that depth, tunnels which various searchers, present team included, have encountered here and there. The team also thought there was an east-west tunnel running between the two shafts at around 98’6” – 103’6” (107’6” – 112’6” from the O.S.L.). But as to whether the shaft they thought was Shaft 2 could be the original Money Pit, it stands to reason there should be a debris pile under the shaft at lower depths, left over from the 1861 collapse. Unfortunately, the show more or less skimmed over the drilling results of the various boreholes they put down at “Shaft 2,” so I have insufficient information on that to form an opinion . . .

At any rate, the original borehole, FG-12, that prompted the OC-1 caisson ran into wood at 104’ and 106’ (113 – 115’ from the OSL). The 106’ wood carbon dated 1626-1680. It all suggests a possible tunnel (Shaft 6 tunnel?) sloping downwards towards the west, a tunnel that funneled debris from the Money Pit during the 1861 collapse.

Side note: While a map drawn up for an 1893 prospectus for the Oak Island Treasure Company depicts Shaft 6 as an oblong shaft southwest of the Money Pit, all of the old papers I have read merely describe it as the “west shaft.” The shaft was actually sunk in 1850 to 112', at which point a tunnel was ran to the M.P. It was then deepened to 118' in 1861, at which point another tunnel was ran, apparently under the first.rev 9/10/23.

Season 10: So the ghosts of Oak Island are speaking, and they are saying, “There is gold here, and a lot of it;” however, progress certainly did seem slow at the money pit this season, didn’t it, even if it really wasn't? Oh well, I would rather see a proper excavation done of whatever is there, rather it getting ground up and pulverized. I just don’t quite understand how they think they are going to avoid the same insanity that has plagued every search effort to date if-and-when they encounter a water source as they explore outward from the Garden Shaft.

An interesting observation I made about half way through the season: As the team was drilling holes in what they had began calling the “Blob,” I noticed they were drilling in the area of what is known as the white drilled rock. The rock was one of a number of possible markers first surveyed by Charles Roper in 1937 for Gilbert Hedden. The rock was due north of the stone triangle, a little ways north of the Hedden shaft, and--when connected to another drilled rock at Smith’s Cove--formed an angle that deviated 7 degrees from true east. Going by the Roper Survey, Bobby Restall’s map and old photos, the best estimate for its position I came up with is about four feet northeast of CN-11 on the grid being presently used at the M.P. CN-11 is a borehole in which they had detected gold in the water, and not long after this, they added a large red dot at CN-11, apparently signifying a large concentration of other metals in addition to gold. If that wasn’t interesting enough, they later think they have found a tunnel directly under and following the survey line drawn by Charles Roper, which connected the two drilled rocks.

Correction 6-14-23: The white drilled rock was about 9’ northwest of CN-11 (I misjudged the location of CN-11).| Incidentally, I noticed that a screen capture from season 10 of Steve Guptill’s grid map not only depicts the location of the white drilled rock, but indicates a hole was drilled next to it (D.5N-10.5) so someone must certainly have made the connection. However, I consistently get a distance of about 34’ between the Hedden shaft and the rock (Roper survey map, 1937 aerial photo), about 2’ farther north than where Steve has the rock centered, and a little closer to the center of the "Baby Blob."

But as amazing as that is, there is something even more amazing, to me, anyhow; and that is, if anyone ever noticed the connection to the rock and survey line, it was never mentioned in the show, unless I missed something, which is possible, as I have not watched episodes 21-25 as of writing this. From the sound of things, though, I didn’t miss much.

Another item that caused me to do a double-take was a large water-filled void about 12’ x 27’ discovered 150’ below the surface in episodes 7 and 8. It is exactly what I imagined back in 2016 as the possible cause of a secondary collapse in the MP back in 1861 [see diagram 1 (money_pit.jpg) link at the top of this page.] However, my current thinking is that tunnels extending out from the money pit at around the same depth might have provided a place for the lost material to go.

So, like everyone else, I suppose, I still don’t know what to think happened at the Money Pit itself. As it stands, although a lot of things have been found on the island suggesting European habitation hundreds of years prior to 1795, no definitive evidence has ever been discovered in the Money Pit itself predating the 18th century. And the authenticity of Zena Halpern's Oak Island map has been called into question. So did the Templars bury something there, only to have a search commence in the early 18th century? Or did someone else, the French perhaps, create a repository in the early 18th century. Could there be, or have been, two treasures? I think it is going to take a treasure or two to solve this riddle, once and for all. Just for the record, I’ll take it if no one else wants it. Templar Treasures, arks, and stuff like that are cumbersome, you know; they will just get in your way and fill up your garage, anyway.

End note: Check back in now and then dedicated Oak Island enthusiasts. I don’t know how long it will remain relevant, but one of these days, certainly before this coming November, I am going to post cross-section diagram #4 . . . pretty much like diagram #3 only a little more refined. It will also include the depth ranges of some of the various tunnels that have been dug in and around the Money Pit by different searchers.

Srcs: Early Oak Island documents, compiled by Les MacPhie.

The Curse of Oak Island, season 7, episodes 7-13, 18-19; season 10, episodes 1-20.

Monsters and Critics.com (previews and recaps for Curse, episodes 21-25)

https://www.monstersandcritics.com/tv/the-curse-of-oak-island-lagina-brothers-finally-get-their-x-marks-the-spot-for-gold-at-the-money-pit/ (screen capture of Steve Guptill's surface map from Curse S10, E10, showing location of the white drilled rock).

9/01/23: As promised, the latest vertical cross-section diagram (Diagram #4) from the most underpaid “employee” of Oak Island. (It's actually an updated version of a sketch I made about four years ago, which was an updated version of diagram 3, etc., etc.) As with the first three, it is an educated guess based on a lot of sketchy and often conflicting information, with some searchers using shaft collars for a depth reference while others used the elevated ground near the money pit, so take it as you will. And, to be clear, the diagram is in regards to the original Money Pit area, where everyone has been assuming the treasure to be at for the last 228 years, and not the Garden Shaft, which must be something else unless someone got severely lost at some point.

9/10/23: Special note: I have changed my opinion regarding just how far the original surface level was above the present one. I now think it was probably about 7’ or so higher, 2’ less than my previous guess of 9’. So just knock off 2’ from any previous reference I made to the O.S.L before diagram #4. Of course, as with any conclusion regarding the money pit, there are things that do not agree, such as a 1929 affidavit by William Chappell that states his drill platform was set up at 90’ in 1897—right where it was discovered a couple years later.

5/01/24: So if anyone at all  has been following this blog, then you probably know where this is headed: In last year’s entry, I wrote: [I just don’t quite understand how they think they are going to avoid the same insanity that has plagued every search effort to date if-and-when they encounter a water source as they explore outward from the Garden Shaft.] Well, I guess my question has been answered.

Back in the 19th century, it took people 94 years just to dig 20’ farther down in the Money Pit, which works out to an average of 2 ½ inches per year, and all because of water. So, don’t know what to say except, any hardcore Oak Island fans might want to look into the latest on suspended-animation technology. Seriously though, I have been wondering just how long it would be before they gave up on the Garden Shaft and sank a large “can” over the “Baby Blob,” only to pulverize whatever might be down there. I mean, yes, you could pour or inject tons of underwater cement or concrete down there and probably plug up any water flow, but you will never know what you might have encapsulated in all that cement, so I don’t see underwater cement as being a solution, in this case. Anyway, I still think it's kind of a shame that some small section of the original works can't be properly excavated, which leads me back to my old idea of a pressurized caisson: I think if I was in charge of the dig, and still had a good amount of funding, I would ask the US Navy if they had any of those escape trunks lying around that they use in submarines that they would want to part with. Take one of those, wedge it inside one of those big steel caissons with a circular seal, and rig it so another smaller pressure vessel could easily attach to the top exit to transfer spoils to the surface. The main engineering challenge would, I think, be the seal, which would have to be designed to tighten and release.

I must admit, it is frustrating that they cannot seem to drill into a chest full of metal objects for a target, but for anyone not following the show closely: There are multiple clues pointing to an area to the immediate northwest of the Garden Shaft, referred to as the Baby Blob: Water tests that have found dissolved metals in the water, including gold; a “connect-the-dots” theory by one Brian Pharoah that has multiple intersecting lines associated with Nolan’s Cross landing on it; and then—near the center of the Baby Blob--there once was a rock on the surface with a hole drilled in it that had a triangle of rocks pointing to it from some 300-plus feet to the south.

So I really didn’t view much of this season of Oak Island, but I have been studying some of the old papers on Oak Island a little more closely. Some are a hard read: odd language, parts missing, and jumping from one era to another with no announcement. But just to give you an inkling how confusing things can get: In a 1867 paper written by James McNutt, Secretary of the Halifax company, he tells of the digging of a tunnel from a shaft somewhere east of the money pit that entered the MP at 108’, where a “hard bottom” was discovered at that level. I think he is probably referring to the dig in 1863, a couple years after the 1861 collapse. Problem is, the drilling results done in 1849 indicated seven feet of soft clay under the platform at 105’, so don’t ask me where the hard bottom came from. The diggers then proceeded to dig outside the cribbing, finding pick marks, presumably in the perimeter of the original MP, which suggests they were in the right place. They also found a downward hole on the east side, and surmised that all the mud from the 1861 collapse had gone down that hole.

So, perhaps there is no debris field, of wood beams anyway, deep in the MP after all.