06x21 - Seismic Matters

[bunniefuu]

Tonight on
The Curse of Oak Island...

That star laid right on

the southeast corner
of that swamp.

-RICK: The back door.

-This leads to the Money Pit.

Here it comes.

Steady up.

I think the swamp has answers,
and I want them.

-It’s a coin!

Maybe there are answers
in the swamp.

-Oh, oh, whoa, whoa!

It looks like a pile
of boulders.

LAIRD:
See the water?

Substantial amount of water
flowing out of it.

Maybe the flood tunnel?

COLIN (over Skype):
The wood in the slipway

matches with
the 550-year-old tree.

-It is original.

-Predates the Money Pit.

-Yes.

-It’s conclusive proof.

NARRATOR:
There is an island

in the North Atlantic...

where people have been looking
for an incredible treasure

for more than 200 years.

So far, they have found
a stone slab

with strange symbols carved
into it,

mysterious fragments
of human bone,

and a lead cross whose origin
may stretch back

to the days
of the Knights Templar.

To date, six men have d*ed
trying to solve the mystery.

And, according to legend,

one more will have to die

before the treasure
can be found.

♪ ♪ Music ♪ ♪

(thunder rumbling)

NARRATOR:
With only two weeks to go

before the Oak Island team

is set to leave the island
for the winter,

the activity at the Money Pit
area remains at a standstill.

The strike is on.

It can last anywhere
from one to 21 days.

That’s the only good news.

I’m still optimistic
it won’t go 21,

but in the meantime,

we are shut down
and we are running out of time.

I’m not seeing anybody.

RICK:
Hammer grab is down.

CRAIG:
That does not look good.

We’re in trouble.

NARRATOR:
One week ago,

brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,

along with their partner
Craig Tester,

received troubling news
that the union

of crane operators
for the province of Nova Scotia

had suddenly gone on strike.

-It’s just a waiting game.

-Mm-hmm.

They’re hoping to have this
resolved within 21 days.

NARRATOR:
It is a development

that forced a halt
to the Oak Island team’s

current excavation
in the borehole known

as Site Three,
a borehole that they believe

could be on course to intersect
the original Money Pit.

There’s no question
it’s serious.

If it’s an all-stop, well,
we can’t proceed.

NARRATOR:
While the excavation

in Smith’s Cove continues...

RICK: I think we should
call Marty up.

NARRATOR: ...Rick and Craig
are meeting with Marty

via videoconference
in the w*r room

to discuss
a radical new strategy

to help them achieve
their ultimate goal,

to solve the 223-year old
Oak Island mystery.

Hey, Marty.

Hey, guys.

How’s it going out there?

Uh, it’s wet and cold today.

Wet and cold.

Glad I’m not there, then.

No offense.

RICK (laughs):
Well, guys, look, I...

I think we need to make
some decisions.

Because of the strike,
the door is closed,

and, uh, so with the possibility

that the strike may indeed last
the full 21 days,

what are we gonna do?

MARTY:
Talk about right down

to the wire, huh?

Are we gonna have time
to finish this year?

You get into November,
it’s gonna get ugly, right?

I was here last year
till November 18.

The prob... the thing is,
is that the strike,

we know that’s
an elongated process, right?

That’s gonna take a long time.

Why would we dither about

and then it-it turns out that
we have to wait till November

’cause we squandered
these weeks?

And we’re just gonna get

too close to it,
won’t be able to dig.

Then we’re sh**ting ourselves
in the foot.

You know, we got about
two weeks left

before it gets ugly out there.

Let’s finish up Smith’s Cove,
and then we take

a long, deep breath,
and we decide either

we’re looking at enough stuff

that encourages us
to keep going

or we’re not,
but we sure as hell

would have done a damn good try
this season.

-Do you feel that way, Craig?

-CRAIG: Yeah.

But I-I guess the one issue Rick
and I were kicking around is:

How-how thin are we gonna
spread ourselves,

and are we just
stressing ourselves out?

So I’m gonna say finish
Smith’s Cove, and then,

um, I don’t know, but...

maybe it’s time to call it
quits, you know, for the year,

so... just so
everybody’s on board,

and then I-I’m fine.

Well, I disagree there.

We’re not...

nowhere near defeat,
but... (chuckles)

What’s the point of being here
if we’re not going to try

everything within our means

to get an answer?

You know me-- I’m not
a quitter, but... (chuckles)

-I know.

-I-I’m gonna defer to you guys.

RICK:
I don’t like to fail,

and I don’t like, uh, giving up,

and all of those things
are probably helpful

in this endeavor on Oak Island,

but we are a team,

and we will have to make
that assessment as a team.

Well, you know, Churchill said,

"When you’re going
through hell,

well, you better keep going."

(chuckling): So that’s kind of
what’s going on here.

-Yeah.

You know we’re not gonna
make any more time.

You know what Dad
always said, you know.

-Nobody gets...

-Can’t b*at time.

Can’t b*at Father Time, so...

what are we gonna do?

You know, here’s how I feel
about the whole thing.

You know, I can feel...

I can feel in my heart that,

on an overall sense,

I want to do everything we
possibly can this year because,

you know, we’ve been at this
for a long time,

we’re not getting any younger.

I mean, for right now, though,

I feel, like, let’s do it all.

And even if that includes
resurrecting that damn swamp.

NARRATOR:
Over the past six years,

the Oak Island team has made
numerous discoveries

in the mysterious
triangle-shaped swamp.

-Is it a coin?

-I believe this is a coin.

NARRATOR:
From a Spanish pirate coin

dated to 1652...

Oh, look at that.

That’s nice.

NARRATOR:
...a large iron spike

and a piece of deck planking.

All of these finds
gave credence to the theory

held by the late
treasure hunter

and Oak Island land owner,
Fred Nolan, that the swamp

may have been artificially
created centuries ago

to hide a large sailing vessel.

I like the idea of seismic
in the swamp.

I do.

And, I mean, I’m on board
for the... for the seismic, too.

-Do we have permits?

-RICK: Yes.

I have all the permits.

They’re waiting for us
to give them the okay.

Yeah, they’ve done their
preliminary homework,

and-and there should be
no problem on their end.

Okay.

-Ready to go?

-Roger.

Here it comes.

NARRATOR:
Earlier this year,

the Laginas and their partners

worked with a team
from Eagle Canada

out of Calgary, Alberta

to conduct
a geophysical exploration

of the Money Pit area
by means of seismic testing.

By detonating more than
1,500 small expl*sive charges

and measuring
the resulting sound waves

as they traveled
through the earth,

the team was able to generate a
virtual map of potential voids

and man-made structures as deep
as 200 feet underground.

This anomaly here,
very interesting.

Is that consistent
with a chamber?

-Yeah, it is.

-Wow.

NARRATOR:
But could this same process

also help unravel the mystery
of the swamp once and for all?

It’s always bittersweet for me

to talk about doing something
in the wretched, fetid swamp,

but in the cool light of day,
Rick is right,

we have to make sure
we’ve searched it properly.

Let’s go.

Let’s do it.

Let’s sh**t it.

Let’s dig the holes.

Let’s find something.

Let’s finish Smith’s Cove.

Let’s b*at ourselves to death

-for two more weeks.

-Uh, you know, I mean...

-That’s how I feel right now.

-As long as we’re all on board.

RICK:
As long as we’re all in,

and that would include
everybody else.

Okay, make the deals.

I’ll be out there soon.

-CRAIG: Okay.

-All right.

-CRAIG: Sounds good.

-See you.

MARTY:
Full speed ahead.

NARRATOR: Following his meeting
in the w*r room,

Rick Lagina joins other members
of the team at Smith’s Cove,

where they are continuing
their massive excavation

of the beach area.

RICK:
Nothing yet?

Regret to inform,

it doesn’t seem to continue
beyond the edge.

All right.

-Let’s start.

-We’ll be ready.

NARRATOR:
Three weeks ago,

the Oak Island team

began digging beneath the beach

in order to remove
the wooden crane pad

used to construct the cofferdam
that surrounds Smith’s Cove.

It is here that the team hopes
to locate the place

where the legendary
stone box drains,

first discovered in 1850,

converge into a single
flood tunnel,

a flood tunnel
that the team hopes

could lead them directly to
the Money Pit treasure vault.

And there’s no metal
around here whatsoever.

A few tiny little
pieces of iron,

small, small,
around where the shaft is,

but there’s just nothing.

You find anything
on the wash plant?

TERRY:
Oh.

Piece of wood?

It looks like we found
another structure.

-So we have.

-Yeah.

NARRATOR:
Another wooden structure?

Could it have been placed here
by previous searchers

in an attempt to block
the flood tunnel

leading to the Money Pit?

Or could it be much older

and connected to
the flood tunnel itself?

GARY:
Wait a day, and we’ll

find another structure.

RICK:
Wow, look at that.

-Lots of sand.

-Interesting.

Those stones look like they were
placed there above it.

NARRATOR:
Placed stones?

When the five finger-like
stone box drains

were first discovered in 1850

by members of
the Truro Company,

they were reported
to be constructed

out of large, flat rocks with
smaller ones packed inside.

Could these stones
be more evidence

that the structure
the team has found

is associated with
the main flood tunnel?

It’s pretty sticky stuff.

See how far it goes.

All right, just cut along
the face of it.

Yeah, and sift out, maybe.

(crunching)

-Whoa.

-Whoa.

Whoa, okay.

Look at this.

Maybe this is one
of the walls.

Look.

-That’d be a piece here,
hand a piece here.

-Yeah, looks like it, yeah.

Well, dig it out
and see what it looks like.

Uh, perfect timing.

You show up
when we find a structure.

If structures were treasure,
we’d be rich.

(laughter)

TERRY:
Here it is.

Here it is, here.

-LAIRD: Got it?

There’s the length of It
right there.

NARRATOR: At Smith’s Cove,
members of the Oak Island team

are continuing to uncover

another mysterious
wooden structure.

Oh, looks like it continues.

LAIRD:
I just want to see if there’s...

see if there’s a corner.

TERRY:
Billy!

Would you push that back so we
can see if there’s a wall there?

-Perfect.

Perfect.

-(soft laughter)

The quest for corner
I think has been found.

There’s a corner right there.

GARY:
Well, this-this is

really entrenched, isn’t it?

TERRY:
Particularly, yes.

Well entrenched.

Give it... give it
a little dig there.

TERRY:
What do you got there, Laird?

LAIRD:
They’re like slats.

TERRY:
It looks like they had

a picket fence around it.

GARY:
Yeah, that’s what it looks like.

LAIRD:
Yeah.

GARY:
That is...

I never
expected to see that.

-That’s bizarre, isn’t it?
-(laughter)

LAIRD:
It doesn’t look

real structural, does it?

Purposeful for something, right?

But what?

GARY:
There’s four sides.

This is another shaft.

NARRATOR:
Another shaft,

buried at Smith’s Cove?

If it predates the discovery
of the Money Pit in 1795,

the Laginas and their team
may have just made

a breakthrough discovery.

Perhaps one that could lead
them to the main flood tunnel

connected directly
to the Money Pit.

-If we clean that wall up...

-Yeah?

-Right here?

-Clean it back.

We’ll clean this up
and then photograph it.

Yeah.

LAIRD:
Just when you thought it

couldn’t get any weirder.

TERRY:
Yeah.

NARRATOR:
While efforts to locate

the main flood tunnel
continue at Smith’s Cove,

Rick Lagina, Craig Tester
and other members of the team

gather in the w*r room to meet
with Oak Island theorist

Chris Donah.

I want to introduce, uh,
Chris Donah

-to everyone.

-Hello.

NARRATOR:
Chris has contacted Rick Lagina

about new research concerning

the mysterious
triangle-shaped swamp,

which, in light of the team’s
upcoming seismic test,

could prove more than valuable
to their operation.

Since I’ve really started
working with Oak Island,

I got into the meat
of astronomy.

I’ve really learned a lot
about constellations.

They’re a creation by man.

You know, they’re there
with a purpose,

not just a picture.

Some people think that that’s
where the secret knowledge is,

in the constellations.

So whoever was here

used that information
to map out things on the island

and create structures
around the island.

I think it’s a roadmap, too,

for what they did here,
and possibly lead

to the treasure location
on the island.

It’s like a treasure map.

PAUL:
There is an esoteric saying

-that goes:
As above, so below.

-Yes.

And this is a classic meaning
to that.

NARRATOR:
Many researchers,

and even some scientists,

have speculated,
based on careful study,

that the key to solving
the Oak Island mystery

may not lie underground,
but rather somewhere above.

Including the night sky.

PETTER:
This is Nolan’s Cross.

NARRATOR:
Over the past six years,

Rick, Marty and the team
have heard numerous theories

connecting the constellations,

not only to important landmarks

such as
the megalithic formation

known as Nolan’s Cross,
but also to a massive star map

corresponding to points
across the entire island.

TRAVIS: If we follow
the right procedure,

we might be led
to the point on Oak Island

where the actual treasure is.

I don’t know if you guys
are familiar

with the Royal Arch or not,
of Freemasonry.

It’s very big.

It’s also celestial,

and it starts with Leo
at the top,

and then it talks about the
three pillars of Freemasonry:

strength, which is Leo;

uh, Libra is wisdom;

and Aries over here is beauty.

But it’s the arch
of the zodiac, actually.

NARRATOR:
For more than two centuries,

the ancient order
of Freemasonry

has been closely intertwined
with the Oak Island mystery.

Many prominent treasure hunters
such as Daniel McGinnis,

M.R. Chappell and even
future U.S. president

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
were members.

There have also been several
well-known masonic symbols

documented on
and around Oak Island,

including the sacred letter G,

as well as
the triangle or pyramid,

which appears not only
in numerous stone carvings

but also in the shape
of the mysterious swamp.

Virgo is a very important
female constellation.

It’s the only female
constellation

in, uh, the zodiac.

And Spica, the main star
that’s in her hand,

is very strong
in Freemasonry symbolism.

I always think of it
as being the swamp.

Uh, as a womb.

That is like Eve
of Adam and Eve.

Mary.

Any positive female, uh,
representation is Virgo.

That sets right over the swamp.

The path of the sun passes
through that corner of Virgo,

and Spica lays right on
that southeast corner

of that swamp as it sets.

-What is the purpose?

-My guess would be--

along that eastern edge
of the swamp,

there’s got to be something.

There’s got to be a back door

through that way
to the Money Pit.

NARRATOR:
A back door to the Money Pit?

Could the constellation Virgo

really be used as a star map
corresponding to points

throughout the mysterious
triangle-shaped swamp?

One of which was meant
to mark a secret entrance

to the original Money Pit
treasure vault?

That’s definitely
the closest point to where,

if the swamp was man-made,
have an access point.

Maybe that would be it.

We can tell you this:
that we were out there,

we found a rock
about as big as this table,

-as long as this table,
easily this width.

-Mm-hmm.

You could slide a rebar
across it,

smooth as... smooth as the top
of this table.

You got stuff here, buddy.

-There’s something there?

-Yeah.

NARRATOR: While investigating
the southeast corner

of the swamp five years ago,
Rick Lagina, Charles Barkhouse

and metal detection expert
Steve Zazulyk identified

a large, nonferrous signal,

indicating the possible
presence of gold or silver.

-This is what you wanted, right?

-That’s what I want.

NARRATOR:
However, when the team

attempted to retrieve

the precious objects
with the help

of professional diver
Tony Sampson...

-He’s coming up.

-...the signal
mysteriously disappeared,

and their search instead
produced nothing more

than a mysterious line of flat
rocks on the mucky bottom.

I have no idea
what to make of it.

NARRATOR:
Could these stones have

actually been evidence

of a tunnel or passageway
buried beneath the swamp?

One built as an access point
to the original Money Pit?

And if so,

might seismic scanning
of the area confirm it?

The east side of that swamp
is definitely...

should be investigated
for any tunnels.

There’s got to be a back door
through that way.

DOUG:
I’m impressed by that.

That’s cool.

What’s buried here,
I don’t know.

But all I know is that
it was important to them,

and hopefully, it’s still here.

RICK:
It’s the reason why you’re here.

You’re not new with, uh...

You know,
I don’t exactly know who,

I don’t exactly know when,
but this is what I believe

based upon my studies,

and that’s why we invite
people like yourself

to come to the island,
because we have yet to answer

-who, what, when,
where, why and how.

-Right.

RICK:
To that end,

I think we have our work
cut out for us.

Sure do.

-RICK: Let’s go.

-DOUG: All right.

NARRATOR:
As a new day begins

on Oak Island...

-RICK: There he is.

-Hey, guys, how you doing?

He’s actually smiling.

Did you
take a real hard look out here?

NARRATOR: ...Rick Lagina,
Dave Blankenship

and Charles Barkhouse
welcome back

representatives
from Eagle Canada,

who have returned
to begin preparations

for a seismic survey
of the triangle-shaped swamp.

What-what is
your first impression?

I think it’s gonna be
manageable for us.

I’m hoping your-your...
you guys feel the same way.

-(laughter)
-We’ve got, um,

three-eighths-inch plywood
there.

-Yeah.

-Uh, we’d be happy to help,
uh, plank it out.

-We did do that.

Right, Charles?

And it... and it...

-CHARLES: Yeah.

We’ve done it
a number of times.

I’d say 80% of that
is-is easily walkable.

Areas where that darker
color is, that’s soup.

NARRATOR:
In advance of the operation,

the Oak Island team
has spent the last two days

draining the entire
four-and-a-half-acre swamp.

However, in order to create
a workable surface area

for the Eagle Canada team,

sheets of plywood have been
laid across the muck and mud.

So we’ll do everything we can
to get points in there,

but some we would just...
we would put stub lines in

and move them out a little bit.

-Yeah.

-We’ll see.

-If we have to,

we can change
the program around,

just to suit the conditions.

We’ll start in the west...
west edge of the swamp here.

We’ll work our way east.

How are you gonna
deal with this?

Because it literally
is a peat bog.

CLINT:
Yeah, well, we got... we got

big poles to plant these phones.

It’s not like the ones
you guys have seen,

which we use in the mega-bin
and the Money Pit,

where you’d sort of plant
with hand and then use

the orientation tool
to align them.

These got longer leads on them,
and we’ll have poles.

We can get extensions.

We can put them down.

If they’re all at
different depths,

doesn’t really...
doesn’t really, uh,

affect the data or anything,

so we’ll-we’ll get them
down there.

Okay.

I’m sure you’re antsy
to get going.

The plywood we have
is down there.

-Okay.

Excellent.

-All right.

Sounds good.

NARRATOR:
Although some 1,500

dynamite charges

were set off
over the Money Pit area,

the seismic operation
in the swamp

will require more than 2,000,

placed approximately
two feet deep

in the muddy ground.

They will also stage 4,000
recording devices,

known as geophones,
spaced two meters apart

in a designated grid pattern.

RICK:
Okay.

Good luck.

NARRATOR:
As the team from Eagle Canada

continues to prepare
the seismic operation,

Marty Lagina and metal
detection expert Gary Drayton

arrive at Lot 27,

where they have transported
spoils taken from the swamp

during the team’s recent
efforts to drain the area.

MARTY:
So, do you want

to search it first, and then

-I’ll start spreading it around?

-Yeah.

Yeah, the oldest stuff
come from a really great area.

When Billy was putting
the pumps in

on the edge of the swamp there,

he noticed that it
had been disturbed.

He figures that someone had been
previously digging there.

MARTY:
Okay, so what do you

want me to do?

-GARY: Just rake this over.

-Yeah.

All right.

NARRATOR:
As Marty uses the excavator

to spread the spoils out,
Gary will scan the material

with his metal detector

in the hopes of finding
any important clues

or potentially
valuable objects.

-Oh.

-(beeping)

Got a target here.

-(beeping)
-It’s not very deep.

Three or four inches.

Right in the deer track.

This here.

-Oh, I see it.

I see it.

-What you got, Gary?

Look, look at that.

Is it a coin?

Is it a coin?

It is.

-I think it’s a coin, yeah!

-Or is it a button?

-A coin or a button?

-No, I think that’s a button.

It’s got a border
all the way around.

GARY:
Yeah, that’s an oldie as well.

That’s a 1700s button, that is.

-That’s nice.

-It is.

Keep going, though, then.

It’s always fun to watch Gary

get excited, you know, and in
this case, it was a button.

Uh, and he thought quite old.

We’ll have to clean it up
and see,

but it’s always a pleasure
to dig in the swamp

without being in the swamp.

I’d do it any day.

(beeping)

MARTY:
That sounds good.

Yeah, it does.

Two-way repeatable.

Seven inches.

Yeah, I think it’s
a shotgun shell.

No, it isn’t.

-No, it isn’t.

-No, that isn’t.

That’s-that’s a coin
or a token.

MARTY:
That’s pretty cool, Gary.

-That is.

-I would say it...

you know, you’re, uh,
often saying... things are...

I’d say that’s real old.

Yeah, I mean, that does...
that looks old.

I know back in the day,
mainly 16-1700s...

-Mm-hmm?

-What they used to do

in, uh, the colonies,
’cause they didn’t like

-the king or the queen...

-Yeah, would punch the...

Yeah.

-Punch through the portrait.

-But it was still currency.

GARY:
Yeah, but it was still currency.

And-and I believe this is
possibly one of those

-type of coins.

-Mm-hmm.

NARRATOR:
A coin?

Possibly dating back

as early as the 1600s?

Although antique coins

are commonly found
on Oak Island,

the fact that this one
was recovered from the swamp

makes it a potentially
important clue.

If this coin can be
positively identified,

it might be key in suggesting
who may have visited Oak Island

before 1795 and was behind

the 223-year-old mystery.

MARTY:
Uh, hey, you know what?

I hate like hell to say this,

but maybe there are answers
in the swamp.

It’ll be interesting to see what

the seismic says--
that is for sure.

Yes, and then the seismic
will show, you know,

you’re kind of doing
the top layer,

and the seismic
will show what’s deep.

All right, let’s go tell
Rick and the guys

-what we found.

-Okay.

Let’s go.

-CRAIG: Hey, Alex.

-ALEX G.: Hey, how you doing?

-Hey, Alex.

-Looks like you’re about ready.

Yeah.

NARRATOR:
It is the start

of an exciting day
on Oak Island,

as Rick Lagina, Craig Tester

and other members of the team
gather at the swamp,

where representatives
from Eagle Canada

are about to begin a seismic
survey of the entire area.

ALEX G.:
We have enough gear

on the ground

so we can start sh**ting.

So we’re on schedule.

A good rule of thumb

is don’t move
if the sh**t are not moving.

We’re gonna start on the
northwest corner of the swamp.

Uh, we’ll have five sh**t
on five different lines.

So they’ll make their way down,

and we’ll finish
on the beach road here.

How many sh*ts in total
are we taking this time?

2,025.

Wow.

We’re probably gonna do about,

uh, 300 sh*ts today, so...

we’re good to go whenever
you guys are good to go.

I’m more than ready.

I think the swamp has answers,
and I want them.

NARRATOR:
Now that over 2,000

expl*sive charges,

each armed with 20 grams
of dynamite,

have been placed
throughout the swamp,

they will be detonated
one at a time

from the command center
located nearby on Center Road.

-Hi, Jeff.

-How are you today?

Good.

How are you?

Good.

Just getting rolling.

Okay, everybody, steady up.

Here it comes.

Steady up.

NARRATOR:
As each blast sends sound waves

deep below the surface
of the swamp...

...they will be measured

and recorded
by geophone receivers.

Unlike more common
large-scale seismic tests,

which are used to scan as deep
as six miles underground,

these geophones have been
specially calibrated

to create a diagram of the area
from 15 to 85 feet deep

beneath the swamp.

It is the team’s hope

that this diagram will reveal
any man-made objects

or possible structures
that might lie hidden there.

Okay, you guys can move
out there.

RICK:
There are lot of

questions that still remain

regarding the swamp.

Is the swamp man-made?

Is it a way in

to the Money Pit,
i.e., a back door?

I think seismic is gonna reveal
some significant results,

and I’m hoping we’ll see it.

NARRATOR:
As the seismic operation

at the swamp continues...

-TERRY: Hey, Charles.

-CHARLES: Hey, guys.

NARRATOR:
...Charles Barkhouse joins

geologist Terry Matheson

and archaeologist Laird Niven
at Smith’s Cove,

where they’re continuing
to excavate

what they believe could be
the main flood tunnel,

first discovered in 1850.

If they are correct,
it could lead them directly

to the original Money Pit.

-CHARLES: What do you got?

-TERRY: Another feature

just about where
the Cat is right now.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Hit a few boards.

-LAIRD: We’re just gonna

carry on until we find
our next feature.

You see the water?

Yeah.

-Ah, look at that.

-Yeah.

TERRY:
You see the water moving

out of that...

It actually looks like a pile
of boulders, doesn’t it?

LAIRD:
Yeah.

TERRY:
Now, that’s pretty wild,

actually, isn’t it?

NARRATOR:
Piled-up boulders with water

flowing through them?

Might the team have uncovered

one of the five
stone box drains,

first reported by
the Truro Company in 1850?

If so, could they finally
be on the verge of locating

the convergence point
to the main flood tunnel?

TERRY:
Hey, Alex, how you doing?

-ALEX: What’s up, guys?

-Yeah, well, we notice...

we noticed this, uh,
rusty concentration of rocks.

-ALEX: Oh, yeah.

-LAIRD: It’s really
the contrast, right?

ALEX:
Right, what does that

say to you?

TERRY:
It’s a concentration of boulders

sitting directly on top
of the sea horizon.

LAIRD:
And water just pouring

out of it...

You got a lot of water movement.

You see the coloration

-as iron oxide’s coming out
of solution?

-Mm-hmm.

I don’t know what it all means.

Heck of a lot of work
went on down here.

LAIRD:
Heck of a lot of work

at different times.

CHARLES:
Undocumented work.

-LAIRD: Yeah.

-That’s the thing.

TERRY:
Looks like it’s a pile of rocks

where water’s flowing through.

-So you think,
maybe the flood tunnel?

-Yeah, exactly.

COLIN:
The pattern is fitting

really well

with our master chronologies.

-This is quite impressive.

-Yeah.

-It is original features.

-Yes.

-It predates the Money Pit.

-Wow.

-So you think,
maybe the flood tunnel?

-Maybe.

NARRATOR:
While excavating beneath

the beach at Smith’s Cove,

Alex Lagina,
geologist Terry Matheson

Charles Barkhouse
and archaeologist Laird Niven

have just made what could be
an important discovery.

TERRY:
This is coarse,

bouldery material
with water flowing through it.

It starts to fit the model

-that we’re... we’ve been
searching for.

-Yeah.

ALEX:
Right.

I think we’re actually

really close
to the convergence point.

NARRATOR:
The convergence point?

Could the team have actually
located the place

where the legendary
stone box drains

join to form
a single flood tunnel,

leading directly
to the original

Money Pit treasure shaft?

-Hey, Rick.

-So?

LAIRD:
We just... we stopped

at this feature

because it’s unusual.

We weren’t getting
a lot of rocks,

but then we noticed
this iron-rich stuff

and the water flowing from it,

the concentration
of rocks, the contrasts...

-RICK: Right.

Significant.
-...on either side.

TERRY:
You have undisturbed

below it and natural,

bedded sediments
from the beach above it.

-RICK: Yeah.

TERRY: It’s kind
of interesting,

substantial amount of water
flowing out of it.

-It seems like it’s going
that way.

-LAIRD: Exactly.

RICK:
So, what’s... what’s the idea?

-Cut... cut in,
peel this back slowly?

-Yeah.

If it continued like that,

it would become
a significant feature.

Yeah, yeah.

RICK:
Okay, continue forward.

LAIRD:
Yeah.

RICK:
I’ll be curious about that.

LAIRD:
Yeah.

NARRATOR: Before another day
comes to an end on Oak Island,

brothers Rick and Marty Lagina
and their partner Craig Tester

gather in the w*r room with
other members of their team

for a much-anticipated meeting.

Guys, this is the part of the
w*r room meetings I really like.

We’ve got some information,
some results coming in

on dendrochronology.

Um, it’s specific.

It’s to the wood we took out
at Smith’s Cove.

I believe we sent samples
of the U-shaped structure,

the L-shaped structure,
some of the walls

that were more
dimensional lumber,

so Professor Colin Laroque,

with the University
of Saskatchewan,

has analyzed everything,
and Jack, he’s standing by.

-Can you get him
up on the screen?

-Sure.

MARTY:
Colin, how are you, sir?

-Good.

How are you guys?

-Good, thank you.

We’re looking forward
to the results.

TERRY:
That’s quite a significant wall.

This is totally undiscovered.

NARRATOR:
Over the past three months,

the Oak Island team

has unearthed numerous
mysterious wooden structures,

buried as much as ten feet
beneath the seabed

at Smith’s Cove.

In addition to finding
the U- and L-shaped structures,

first discovered by
Dan Blankenship in the 1970s,

the team uncovered the remains
of a massive slipway,

or shipping ramp.

With each new discovery,

the Oak Island team extracted

wood samples
for scientific testing

in the hopes of obtaining
reliable dates

as to when
they were constructed.

These samples were then sent
to Dr. Colin Laroque,

a professor of dendrochronology
and climate science

at the University
of Saskatchewan.

Hey, Colin, why don’t you
explain what you did, briefly,

on preparing the wood and then,
uh, go ahead with the results?

Okay, basically, many
of the samples that we saw

were probably in salt water,
so we had to, you know--

controlled oven setting--
sort of slowly dry them,

and then we sawed them
into very flat surfaces

to see the ring pattern
and, uh, figure out

where the wood came from
in time.

NARRATOR:
Dendrochronology,

or tree ring dating,

is a scientific method
studying the size

and pattern of growth rings,

which develop as a tree grows
over its lifetime.

The process can
accurately determine

not only the age of wood

but when it was cut for use
in construction.

CRAIG:
Why don’t you go through sample

by sample and give the-the date?

COLIN:
Okay, the first sample

was number one.

CRAIG:
Item one is a two-inch

horizontal wall.

COLIN:
Yeah, our initial

assessment was that

they were tamarack larch wood,
which is very common,

especially
in the shipbuilding areas

around in Nova Scotia
and New Brunswick.

And that had a lot of rings.

It had the most rings.

It’s, uh,
one of our best samples.

It looked dimensional, but we
couldn’t quite, uh, fit it in.

It had a lot of wormholes
or the kind of holes

that were dug in
by the burrowing creatures

in the water, so, uh,

we’re still kind of trying
to work on that,

trying to see if we’re missing
some of the rings

in some of the holes, and so,
uh, that one is still waiting.

-Mm-hmm.

-But sample seven,

that was one of our more
confident samples.

CRAIG:
Sample number seven

is the slipway.

It’s the north arm
on the east end.

COLIN:
So the slipway,

it was, we believe, red spruce.

It’s reminiscent to some
of the samples we did

in other areas of Halifax.

We had a fairly strong date on,
and that’s 1771.

Wow.

COLIN: So the slipway,
we had a fairly strong date on.

That’s-that’s 1771.

-Great.

-It is original features.

-Yep.

-Predates the Money Pit.

Yes.

NARRATOR:
In the w*r Room,

Dr. Colin Laroque
has just shared

an amazing scientific report
with Rick, Marty

and members
of the Oak Island team.

Using a dating process
known as dendrochronology,

he has determined
that the slipway discovered

at Smith’s Cove
was likely built in 1771,

over two decades before
the original Money Pit

was discovered in 1795.

I did not expect that.

I’ll be candid.

COLIN: That was one
of our more confident...

The pattern
is fitting really well

with our, uh,
master chronologies.

Wow.

-That’s really cool.

-Yeah.

COLIN:
The two that are coming up next

are actually

some of the biggest samples--

uh, sample eight
and sample nine,

-we call them.

-Sample number eight

is the U-shaped structure,
and sample number nine

is another piece
of the U-shaped structure.

Yeah, those were
the bigger samples.

Uh, quite well-preserved,
especially in the center,

so we had really good rings.

It was, we believe, red spruce.

So, for both samples,
we had 1769.

Wow.

I don’t know if it’s part
of the slipway features,

but it seems to all pointing
towards that 1770s area.

-This is quite impressive.

-Yeah.

COLIN:
And, you know, people didn’t

take the time and effort
to cut down a tree

unless they were gonna use it
for something.

-Yes.

-And so,

many of these trees are
kind of all in that ballpark

of a few years in the 1770s,

and so, I think that data
is telling us that time period.

-I mean, that’s huge.

-Yeah.

We can pretty much be sure that
all that work in Smith’s Cove

occurred in about 1770.

-That’s pretty amazing.

-Yeah.

PAUL:
Well, if we can find

more of that wood

from the Money Pit
that dates to that same era,

then we’ll have a bull’s-eye.

-Yes.

-And it ties in.

-Yeah.

-CRAIG: Hey, Colin,

how accurate of a-a list
do you have

-that you can compare it to?

-COLIN: Right.

The one, uh, red spruce
chronology that we were using,

which is about a 550-year-old
tree that is still growing,

and it matches with that.

So something like, uh,
sample eight, we’re at probably

99.999 sure that it sort of
ends in that 1770 time.

Wow.

-This is big.

-Yeah.

COLIN:
In these kind of things,

they...

they tend to, uh,
answer one question

and-and raise
two or three others.

-What a shock that is.

-(laughter)

MARTY:
Great work.

I love the 99.99.

We don’t...
we don’t get that ever.

So, thanks for being in
on the quest.

-You’re welcome.

-All right, Colin.

Thank you very much.

We will be in touch.

Really appreciate it.

Excellent report.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you.

You’re welcome.

Take care, guys.

That was good news
on the slipway.

Yeah, and the slipway,
and the U-shaped structure,

they all were put in
at the same time.

-Yeah.

-RICK: The obvious question is,

now, do you both believe
there is something here?

-Who?

Who you looking at?

-You.

You.

MARTY:
I believe that we have

just found, uh, conclusive proof

that not everything
we’re finding is searcher, okay?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

For me, this is the biggest
thing that’s happened

since we started this quest.

It’s amazing.

I-I was about to say to Rick,

turn to him and say "Look, it’s
time to turn this island over

from the archaeologist
to the psychiatrist," because...

-(laughs)
-First time I’ve heard that.

Because... because this
isn’t making any sense.

And then, at the 11th hour,
we find out

something very significant
happened here

25 to 30 years prior to
the discovery of the Money Pit,

and it’s in Smith’s Cove.

To me, that’s gigantic.

Well, I have to say,
I’m impressed with this.

-I’m happy
that you’re impressed.

-I am impressed.

Okay, so this
is great information.

-Yeah.

-All right, well, look, guys,

-food for thought.

Let’s go.

-CRAIG: Okay.

NARRATOR:
For Rick, Marty

and the Oak Island team,

the news that some of the
mysterious wooden structures

at Smith’s Cove were built
decades before the discovery

of the original Money Pit

offers an extraordinary
breakthrough.

It means that all
of the money and hard work

that was invested
was not done in vain.

Not only has the team found
hard evidence

of a large engineering project

that was undertaken
as early as 1769,

but the additional evidence
they’ve gathered

neatly corroborates
numerous legends and stories,

suggesting that a vast treasure
was brought here

and then buried centuries ago.

A treasure that six men
have d*ed trying to find,

and armed with a curse,

claiming that one more
will have to die

before the mystery
can be solved.

Next time on
The Curse of Oak Island...

Everything’s closing in.

We’re running out of time.

NARRATOR:
...it’s the exciting

season finale.

-No record of this.

-No.

-BILLY: Maybe there’s something

-on the other side of this.

-ALL: Whoa!

CORT:
The Rochefoucaulds shared

the truth of Oak Island
with the Founding Fathers.

BRUCE:
They used the treasure to

finance the Revolutionary w*r.

-MARTY: Holy smokes.

-RICK: What’s that symbol?

BRUCE:
George Washington designed it.

JUSTIN:
It matches perfectly.

-GARY: Holy schmoly.

-RICK: There’s a wall here.

-Isn’t that something?

-I mean, that’s evidence.