07x03 - Eye of the Swamp

[bunniefuu]

Tonight on
The Curse of Oak Island...

Guys, we're in
the Eye of the Swamp now.

There's definitely metal here,
and it's iron.

Any sign of wood or any sign
of flat rock,

it might be a sign
of some kind of waterway.

Here we go.
Let's get after it.

If we're gonna hit
a flood tunnel,

it's probably
gonna be right here.

See the peaks for iron?

So these could be evidence

of a large‐scale operation
on Oak Island.

At least some of the answers
are in that swamp.

The data says it might
go back 300, 400 years.

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.

After learning that the
mysterious ship‐shaped anomaly

that lies at the center
of the Oak Island swamp

might, in fact, be a tunnel...

We very much look forward
to what you're about to tell us.

‐Gentlemen.
Welcome.

‐Good morning.
‐Doctor.

Rick Lagina and members

of the team
gather in the w*r room

for a highly anticipated report

by Canadian geoscientist
Dr. Ian Spooner.

Before you, uh, give us
your presentation, Doctor,

we'd like to get my brother
and Craig on the line.

Certainly.
‐Doug, if you'd be kind enough

to bring them up.

‐Hey, guys.
Hey.

Hey, Marty. Craig.
‐Hi.

So, all the usual suspects

are around the table right now,

but we have
Dr. Ian Spooner here.

He's come to give us
his initial report.

Great.

So, anyway, I‐I'm gonna
turn it over to Dr. Spooner.

Dr. Spooner,
what exactly do you do?

So, I'm an environmental
geoscientist,

and my focus is primarily
on wet environments.

And not necessarily on rock,
but on sediments.

And when I was contacted
to take a look at the site,

you know, there were some
pretty specific questions.

How old is the swamp?

Can we take a look at

what kind of environments, uh,
existed there through time?

That's the kind of work I do.

Come on, baby.
Be something good.

One week ago,

while conducting
a core drilling operation

in an attempt to identify

a mysterious
200‐foot‐long anomaly

that was discovered in
the swamp earlier this year...

Here's the first core
right here.

...Rick and Marty
enlisted Dr. Spooner

to examine
the extracted materials.

It was their hope
that Dr. Spooner

would find evidence, not only

that the anomaly might be
a sunken ship,

but that the swamp itself
could be man‐made.

You're saying that whatever time
that interface is,

‐it was sea bottom.
‐Yeah.

So, by looking at the sediments,
you can tell

kind of how the swamp formed
over time.

How it filled in.

‐What the nature was.
‐Yeah.

There's all sorts of techniques.

I look for cores that have
a high sedimentation rate.

So the sediment's
coming in rapidly.

That means that as I work my way
through the core,

every centimeter represents
maybe ten years.

And so it's like having a book.

Yeah.
I go back in time,

but I use the records
that wetlands and lakes capture

to rebuild that story,
that history.

Okay. Well,

what did this book say?

We got some initial data,

and what the book so far says,

it's some kind
of depressed feature

‐in the landscape.
‐Right.

The longest core
we possibly could get

really suggests to me
that it's fairly young.

It might go back
maybe 300, 400 years.

‐Okay.
Aren't you
suggesting, then,

that that's man‐made?

That could be the case.

‐That would be great.
‐Yeah.

The Oak Island swamp?

Just 300 to 400 years old?

Could the team have finally
found scientific proof

that the swamp is man‐made?

It's pretty intriguing

that Dr. Spooner's observations
are that

the swamp here on Oak Island
is actually

quite a bit younger
than he thought,

maybe 300 to 400 years old.

Right around the time frame

when the swamp
may have been manipulated

for some purpose
associated with perhaps

original depositional work
in the Money Pit.

Nothing you've found yet
is inconsistent

with this thing being created,

say, between zero
to 500 years ago, right?

That's true.

I'm sure in your career
you've looked

at lots of things like this.

Is this an oddity?

Yeah. It is a bit.

It's kind of fascinating to me
because it's, um...

it's just not what I expected.

And so,

the thing that I've seen here
is it's much different.

It‐it's more complex.

And I think that some of that
has to do with the geology,

or it's something
that people manipulated.

‐Absolutely.
‐And so,

if we went back 300 years,

I just don't think you'd have
this triangular feature,

and that might have been
just terrestrial vegetation.

So there's no chance this could
have been two islands?

Uh, at one point,
I think it might have been

at least two drumlins.

Yep.

But what intrigues me
about it,

what got me excited was,
at the top of the triangle,

we saw that oval feature.

In addition to
the core samples collected

in the swamp just one week ago,

Dr. Spooner
and members of his team

recently returned to extract
additional samples,

as well as probing
the swamp's muddy bottom.

We were probing around
that circle,

and we started hitting rock on
the perimeter of that feature.

‐So it's like a circle
of stones?
‐Yeah.

It's an interesting
scientific problem

because a circular feature
like that

in this kind of environment
is not something we'd expect.

And it's defined by vegetation.

So something's going on here.

Something's stopping vegetation
from growing?

In‐in there. Right. Exactly.

If there's this rock feature

in association
with that water area

that has not changed
whatsoever.

The swamp has changed,

but that feature has not.

It's probably associated

with some sort
of human intervention.

Okay. Well, I‐I think
this is great data.

Very interesting.
I'd like to see your,

you know, as you continue, uh,
please stay in touch.

And, you know, Rick,
we don't have any problem

with him having full access,
right?

‐Absolutely not. Yep.
‐No issue there.

Anyway, good. So this is good,
this has been a great session.

‐Let's go back and get at it.
‐All right. See ya.

‐See you.
‐See you guys later.

The following day...

Here we are, guys.

‐The swamp.
Marty Lagina

has arrived on the island
to join his son Alex,

along with metal detection
expert Gary Drayton

and surveyor Steve Guptill,
at the swamp.

They are eager to follow up
on Dr. Spooner's report

of a mysterious rock formation

that lies beneath the swamp's
northern point,

an area also referred to
as "the pond."

The objective is to delineate
this structure.

‐Yeah.
‐We need to find out what it is,

and we're trying to see
if it's man‐made.

‐Right.
‐If it's got answers,
I want to know

‐what they are,
so let's get going.
‐I'm gonna hand you that one

‐so you get the oars in there,
and I'm gonna get ready.
‐Sure. Yep.

I'm gonna get the probing rods.

Let's put this in the boat.

I find the most
significant thing

about Dr. Spooner's observation

that the pond area,
which is sort of at the top

of the triangle of the swamp,

by kind of probing around
the edges of it,

he thinks there might be
a rock wall encompassing it.

There you go.

Go ahead and get in.

Avast!

Here we go.

See that little clump
right in the center there?

‐That island of bottom debris?
Yep.

‐Let's stay to the west of that.
‐Got it.

Gary has volunteered
to actually go in the swamp.

Steve has
the high‐tech equipment

to map what Gary finds,
and we got just the right crew.

We're gonna go out
and figure this thing out.

Guys, we're in the eye
of the storm now.

Careful, Gary. It gets deep.

Whoo!

There you go.

‐On the rock.
‐Yep.

Nice and cold.

That's straight on the rock.

I can actually feel it
under my feet.

How does it feel?

‐Flat? Smooth?
‐Um...

Is that a rock,
or is that metal?

Put my pinpointer in.

‐Ooh!
‐Did you get metal?

Yeah, there's metal down here.

Really?

While investigating

a mysterious
oval‐shaped rock formation

at the northern point
of the Oak Island swamp,

metal detection expert
Gary Drayton

has just located what could be
an important find

some six feet deep
below the surface.

Yeah, strong vibration
just here.

Just there or everywhere?

In this area, it's going...
it's going nuts.

I mean, is it maybe just
malfunctioning, but...

No. Because when I've got it
here, there's no vibration.

You go... There we go.

‐I've started getting it.
‐Hmm.

Once you get down there,

there's definitely metal here,
and it's iron.

Hmm.

'Cause I'm getting that short,
rapid vibration.

Iron?

Found throughout the
oval‐shaped stone formation?

But, if so, who put it here?

And what is its purpose?

You know what, Gary?
Why don't you come up here,

because this is a lot shallower,

and maybe you
can pinpoint again,

see if there's metal
all the way around this puppy.

Everywhere else on the island,

people have been looking
for treasure for 200 years,

and everything has been torn up,
and it's hard to rely

on the context of anything,
and everything's been observed.

But in the swamp,
if we find a...

a man‐made structure
or otherwise,

we can be pretty sure

that we're the first people
to actually find it.

So we have the potential
to get a lot of answers

from what we find here

that we wouldn't get
anywhere else on the island.

Well, you know what?
Then while you're there...

Give him that probe.

I hate to be demanding, but...
we're out here for data.

Here we go.

That's solid.
‐Yeah, that's a good one.

Why don't you try
your metal detector again,

‐if you can reach down.
‐That is a great idea.

Let's see.

Pinpointer on.

Ooh. Yeah.

‐You getting more metal?
‐Yeah, getting more metal.

‐Yeah.
As Gary continues
metal detecting...

All right, I'm
gonna come sh**t that, Marty.

...surveyor Steve Guptill
uses his GPS receiver

to plot the dimensions
and coordinates

of the mysterious
stone‐and‐iron formation.

Got it. Thanks, Gary.

Are you sure these aren't false?

Try and find a place where
you aren't getting metal.

Yeah, that's what
I'm doing now.
‐Yeah.

Not getting any signals here.

Hmm.

So it's always around the rocks.

Yeah.
‐Yeah, seems to be.

Odd.

What becomes apparent to me

pretty quickly is two things.

Okay, head out this way, Gary.

One, yes, there are a lot
of rocks around there,

and we can't really determine

if there's a shape
to these stones.

But there's enough there
that I'm keenly interested,

and he keeps getting hits
all over the place.

Ooh‐hoo, that's a clank!

I can feel this one.

This is the biggest one so far.

Get the center of it,
Gary, please.

It seems to have a flat edge
on this side.

‐Really?
‐Slopes down.

Flat edge.

Rounded.

All of the Nolan's Cross
boulders have a flat edge.

‐Yeah, this is impressive.
Well...

we'll go back
and put it on the map,

see whether it might fit
into something.

This is a very puzzling feature
here, this Eye of the Swamp.

The all‐seeing eye.

"The Eye of the Swamp"?

Could Marty Lagina
have just identified a link

between the mysterious anomaly

at the apex
of the triangle‐shaped swamp

and the ancient symbol
of "the all‐seeing eye"?

Also known
as the Eye of Providence,

the symbol of an eye

as representative
of a divine power dates back

to the days
of the Egyptian pharaohs.

Later coupled
with the image of a pyramid,

the symbol was adopted
by both the Knights Templar

and later by the Freemasons.

It was this same image
that was added to the design

of the one‐dollar bill in 1935
by none other

than U. S. President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt,

who was not only a Freemason,
but also spent time

as a young man searching
for the treasure on Oak Island.

We got a slip down
the side of it there.

I can feel it on my feet.

It's kind of like a dome shape.

It's definitely...
it's got, like, a peak on it.

Like a cone.
It goes up to a cone.

‐You want to run
your metal detector on it?
‐Yeah.

I'll run it
over the top of the stone.

No, no metal, but this is so...

so much different
to the other stones.

This is really,
really impressive.

This is a large stone.

Yeah. Fred Nolan thought those
sorts of rocks were markers.

That's what it looks like,
some stone marker.

We for sure need to see
what the stones are

and see what the heck
it's all about.

There's enough interesting,
anomalous stuff.

I want to see it.
I want to know what it is.

We need to drain this puppy.

This is... this is
already mysterious enough.

Yeah.

Let's drain it.
If we drain it, we might be able

to figure out what's setting off
your metal detector.

‐Yep.
All right, good job.

Get back in the boat.
Let's get out of here.

Following their
investigation at the swamp,

Marty, Alex, Gary and Steve

head to the w*r room
to report their findings

to Rick Lagina
and other members

of the Oak Island team.

Gentlemen, I think my job
here today is to report,

because we had an expedition
to the eye,

the Eye of the Swamp.

And Gary came along because...

I was keenly interested
in metal detecting.

Gary got in that nasty,
rotten, stinky water,

basically up to his neck
at times.

‐It was great.
‐

Several times,

Gary reached down
with his pinpointer,

several times,
in several different locations,

and got hits.

Yeah, I was getting

good iron hits
with a pinpointer,

and it was vibrating every time
I got close to a rock.

And it was too big of an area

‐just to be one marker's halo.
Yeah.

I mean, that was
all the way around the eye.

‐It certainly is interesting.
Anyway,

‐go ahead, Steve, take it away.
‐Okay, so you'll see

on the west side...

a decently defined
ring of rocks.

And, now, most of that work
is from...

Dr. Ian Spooner.

What we did was this.

Every mark you see here
is a Gary find.

The red is the only rock

that Gary didn't get a ring
of iron on.

Yeah, because Gary kept
describing that one as conical,

massive, with a flat side

‐on one side, which is...
Yeah.

...kind of like
all the Nolan's Cross rocks.

It's a pointer.

We just haven't figured out how.

It's the eye.

That feature has been

a puzzle to all of us.

You can go back to the 1920s

and look at old aerials,

and that feature
has not changed at all.

Vegetation has not crept in.

The Eye of the Swamp,
if you will,

has stayed the same, and...

There may be
some sort of rock feature

in association with it.

And we believe
this has indeed been developed

at the hand of man.

We were intrigued enough, uh,
and of one mind

that we need to drain the swamp,
bottom line.

And we know, Rick,
we know from your experience,

it's gonna be difficult
to drain it.

‐Yeah.
‐But even if we could get it
down to a foot,

you'd see a lot of these rocks.

We have a draining permit.
We don't have a dig permit.

Although Rick and Marty
are eager

to continue their investigation

of the mysterious
rock structure in the swamp,

Canadian provincial law
requires they obtain

two separate government permits

before they can begin to drain
and excavate the area.

This is really... brand‐new.

I mean, we've never
attempted to drain,

certainly, that back area,

and, uh,

I don't know
if it's gonna work.

We need to figure out

how we could excavate
the swamp,

how we could hold back...

all of that fetid...

junk.

That concludes our report.

Everybody concurs, right?
We need to drain it.

‐Absolutely. Yeah.
‐Absolutely.

So let's go make it all so.

One day
after the team's decision

to conduct
a large‐scale dig operation

in the Oak Island swamp,

Rick Lagina, his nephew Alex,
and other members of the team

meet with Shawn Wilson
of Wilson Excavation, Ltd.

‐How are you, Rick?
‐Good, good.

So, we've got a bit of a...
problem.

We've got the swamp, we've got
potential targets in the swamp.

‐Right.
‐And‐and it's extensive,
and it's deep.

‐Well, should we go down
and have a look and...?
‐Yep. Absolutely.

Now that the team
has decided to conduct

a large‐scale excavation
in the swamp,

they have scheduled
on‐site meetings

with contractors who specialize
in projects that involve

similar logistical
and engineering challenges.

As far as I'm concerned,
I think the...

the process, the digging,

the exposing of the swamp
is really gonna tell the tale.

And I think the first step
is to give it to experts

and let them render an opinion
on how we dry up the muck.

So, this is, uh...

our little pet project.

We've got
a water‐filled swamp, a bog.

But we want to dig in this bog,

and we're looking
for ideas, options,

in order to accomplish
that task.

‐Right.
‐Okay, so here's the thing.

Within those
orange flag stakes...

Yeah.

This is a targeted area, and...

the area over here,
this would probably be

more of a dig, because we don't
have a complete understanding

of the target area.

And over here,
it would be more...

"dig to search" rather than
"dig to actually find."

‐Right.
‐Scott, if you want to show him

‐the area of interest?
‐Yeah.

Although
the team's ultimate goal

is to explore the swamp
in its entirety,

they've decided, for now,
to focus their search

in three target areas.

First, the place where
seismic scanning identified

a massive 200‐foot‐long object

resembling a ship or galleon.

Then the mysterious
stone wharf, or roadway,

discovered by diver
Tony Sampson two weeks ago.

And finally, the area recently
identified by Dr. Ian Spooner,

the Eye of the Swamp.

So, it's three separate issues.

So I like the idea
of isolating the dig areas.

‐Right. Yeah.
‐But what do you do
with the material?

Uh, once the swamp's
drained down,

we need to find out
if we have a hard enough bottom

to be able to put
some rig mats out there,

so we can get a machine
out into the swamp

and basically make a square
with trench cages.

And that's gonna seal off
all that slump of peat

that wants to slump back
in the hole that we're in.

‐You're basically creating
a dig box.
‐A dig box, yeah.

A dig box, or trench cage,

is a structure created
by placing four barriers

made of aluminum or steel
in such a way

as to isolate
a desired dig area.

In addition to preventing
cave‐ins caused by loose soils

and groundwater,
dig boxes also provide a way

to store the excavated
earth and materials,

known as spoils,

so that they can later
be searched by hand

and metal‐detected
for important clues.

How big are these
so‐called trench cages?

So, we'd probably want to stay
with some 16‐foot cages.

You'd want the cage to weigh
at least two, three tons.

Something that's still gonna be
enough weight that it's

just gonna sink down through
that peat to hard bottom

but still hold
all the peat back.

‐I see.
And how tall are they?

Uh, they range between
four feet high and 16 feet high.

‐Can you stack 'em on top
of each other?
‐And you can stack 'em, yeah.

‐And get 20 feet out of 'em.
‐If you wanted to, yeah.

You can just build the boxes
of your trench cages right in

‐where you're working.
That's what I think

‐makes the most sense.
‐Yeah.

But we should probably
actually run the numbers on it.

Yeah. Yeah.
‐Absolutely.

It sounds easy.

Yeah, sounds...
sounds good, doesn't it?

Yeah. Yeah, now put it
in action.

‐Yeah.
I think it's...

simple on its face
but very difficult

when you start getting
into the nitty‐gritty.

Yeah. As everything is
on Oak Island.

I am not going
to dispute that one iota.

Me, either.

The whole point of this

is to get everyone's
professional idea as to how

we can do a proper investigation

in the swamp.

And given Shawn's experience

in wetland environments,

the hope is that he can help us
with that endeavor.

‐Shawn, appreciate your time.
‐Yep. No problem.

We'll be in touch.

Later that afternoon,

Alex Lagina, along with
his cousin Peter Fornetti

and island historian
Charles Barkhouse,

travel to Saint Mary's
University in Halifax.

They are eager to have
the two metal swages

recently discovered
by Gary Drayton...

and identified by blacksmithing
expert Carmen Legge

scientifically examined.

This is probably gonna be
the first swage that...

Dr. Christa Brosseau
has ever seen, right?

It‐it's quite possible, Alex.

Although we're trying
to tell the story

of everything
that happened here

as part of our efforts,

what we're really looking for
is evidence

of the original story,
that there is treasure here.

So it's possible that we have
an everyday swage here,

but it's also possible
that we have evidence

in the form of the swage

that there are tunnels
under the island.

‐I wonder how old they are.
‐If we could get

a date on‐on these objects,
maybe that may,

you know, lock in, you know,
some of the theories.

‐Or‐or one or two
of the theories.
‐Yeah.

Just narrowing things
to a certain...

‐a certain time frame.
‐Right.

We're here.

Do you have the, uh...?

‐Got the artifacts.
‐Cool.

Carmen Legge has suggested

that these swages
might be medieval,

which puts them old enough
to have been used

in the original depositing
of the treasure.

So we're gonna show them
to Dr. Christa Brosseau,

and hopefully,
she can date them for us.

‐Good to see you again.
‐Yeah. Nice to see you.

‐Charles.
‐Hi, Charles.

‐Peter. Nice to see you again.
‐You, too.

I'm excited to see
what you've brought me today.

Dr. Christa Brosseau is

an associate professor
of chemistry

and an expert
in the study of metals

and their chemical
compositions.

‐Very heavy.
Right.

So, these are...
uh, they're iron.

We took them to a blacksmith‐‐

uh, Carmen Legge,
who's a blacksmith‐‐

who identified these
not as sledgehammers, actually,

but as things used
to sharpen rock chisels.

And why we find it interesting
is that a lot

of the legends and a lot
of the stories and theories

involve a lot of tunneling
through rock.

So this is probably the first...

‐Right.
‐...hard evidence
that that happened

on Oak Island that we've found.

‐Exactly.
‐If it's old enough.

‐That's what we're hoping that
you can help us with today.
‐Oh, okay.

All right.

‐It's really quite dirty.
‐Mm‐hmm.

But we'll do our best to...
to clean them up

‐and get a sample today.
‐Okay.

So, you can see
as I clean it up,

‐the metal's...
‐Mm‐hmm.
‐Yeah.

...shining through,
so that's what I want.

I want just a little tiny piece
of that shiny metal.

‐Mm‐hmm.
‐Because that'll be a nice...

fresh surface to look at.

And then I'll use my steel file
to try and get a sample.

Uh, cast iron can be tricky,
'cause it's so hard.

So this may be, uh, difficult.

Yeah, I think it looks good.

And so we'll pack it up and...

‐take these downstairs.
‐Sounds good to me.

‐Hey, Xiang.
‐Hello.

‐How's it going today?
‐Good, good, and yourself?

Good. Thanks for helping us
with the samples.

Oh. Yeah.

‐Hi, Xiang. I'm Alex.
Remember me?

‐Yeah.
‐Peter.

Working with her colleague,

Dr. Xiang Yang,

Dr. Brosseau will now perform
a chemical analysis

of the metal samples

using a high‐powered
scanning electron microscope,

or SEM.

Unlike traditional microscopes,

which rely on a combination
of light and lenses

to magnify objects,

the SEM performs scans

with a focused beam
of electrons,

which can produce magnification

as much
as 200,000 times greater

than an object's actual size.

It can also provide
a detailed analysis

of the item's
chemical composition.

See the peaks for iron
pop up there?

And not much for oxygen,
which is good.

‐And we do not see
manganese here.
‐Um... no.

In the objects we look at

where there is manganese and
they're... they are more modern,

‐it's very evident right away.
‐Right.

So...
‐Yeah, so it's...

Possibly very old.

Yeah. It's hard
to nail down a date,

but I would say you're looking
at a pre‐1840 date.

Wow.

At Saint Mary's University,

located in Halifax,
Nova Scotia,

Dr. Christa Brosseau
has just shared

a potentially exciting
scientific report

with Alex Lagina,

Charles Barkhouse
and Peter Fornetti.

By finding no traces
of manganese

in the iron swages
found on Lot 21,

blacksmithing expert
Carmen Legge's assessment

that the artifacts might date
back as far as the 15th century

could be correct.

After all the tests
and everything,

we have an iron swage
that has no manganese.

So that means that it's
definitely pre‐1840,

and it's probably
older than that.

So we have
a very exciting artifact here.

Well, I think this is
pretty exciting and meaningful,

because there's nothing that
rules out that these things are

‐as old as, uh, Carmen Legge
suggested they might be.
‐Yes.

‐Yeah.
‐That's good news.

‐That's right.
You know, this...

if this is pre‐1840,

then there's
only two search groups

that it would apply to,
that we know of,

and that would be the 1795 group
of the three individuals,

and then we have the 1803,

you know, the Onslow Company.

Other than that, uh,

it's either
a recovery operation or a...

or a deposit operation
that would predate those.

Did either
of those companies work...

in that area
that we found these?

Uh... not that we know of, no.

They were concentrated
on the eastern end.

So we know more

than we knew
when we arrived here today.

We know they're pre‐1840s.

‐Mm‐hmm.
‐So I‐I think it's exciting.

‐Yeah.
The swages

are interesting
on a number of levels.

One, they are unlike
any other artifact

we have found on the island.

Two, Dr. Brosseau's
compositional analysis,

which might indicate age,

possibly prior to the...

discovery of the Money Pit.

Well, this has been
a great result, you guys.

Thank you very much
for helping us out.

‐It's always great.
‐Thanks again. It's always fun.

Good luck with your search.

Thank you.

The next day...
‐Morning, Brennan.

‐Hey, morning, Rick.
‐Rick Lagina,
along with researchers

Paul Troutman and Doug Crowell,

meet with geologist
Terry Matheson

and the team from Choice
Drilling at Smith's Cove.

What's the overall plan
for Smith's Cove this year?

Craig forwarded some, uh...
a plan that showed

five sites in and around
that very interesting zone

where I hope we... I think
we're gonna see the coalescence

‐of the, uh, drain system.
‐Yeah.

Now, are these
borehole locations here,

with the blue flags, are they...

potential drains
that we're actually after?

Yeah. Everything seemed to be

lining up with the Cave‐In Pit.

So these become very important
in trying to extrapolate

‐that drain out uphill.
Yes.

We have insight
as to where they might be.

We applied GPR
to try to locate them.

Last year, after constructing

a massive steel cofferdam
around Smith's Cove,

Rick, Marty and the team

conducted
an extensive investigation

of the entire beach area.

In addition to unearthing

numerous wooden
and concrete structures...

‐Right there. See the opening?
‐Yeah.

...the team discovered
a portion

of one
of the five stone box drains,

suggesting they were close
to locating the place

where the drains
are believed to merge

into a single tunnel‐‐
one that leads directly

to the original Money Pit.

Okay. Let's roll.

This notion was further
validated when, one week ago,

ground‐penetrating
radar experts

Steve Watson and Don Johnston

identified a number of places

where a tunnel
could be located,

not only at the beach,
but also further uphill...

Let's go ahead and mark that.

...at the area between Smith's
Cove and the Money Pit site

known as the Cave‐In Pit.

Certainly, last year,
we recognized the importance

of the sonic drill program.

So we're gonna do
a variety of drilling

between the Money Pit
and Smith's Cove,

and we're gonna try to find
the so‐called flood tunnel.

Certainly,
there's enough interest

in our experience
in Smith's Cove

to warrant
half a dozen or more holes,

looking for something,
and that's why it's imperative

to be "eyes on the cores"

to see anything at all
that says, "Hey,

guys, we need
to investigate this further."

‐Okay.
‐So, if we can get

two points‐‐
obviously, that's a line‐‐

we can track that back
to the Money Pit.

‐We'll be looking
for those types of things.
‐Okay.

There's a lot of things
we could learn,

but we'll not find it
standing here.

‐All right. Let's get at it.
‐Okay.

That's the spot.

Much like their past

core drilling operations
in the swamp

and the Money Pit area,

the team will be using
a 30‐ton sonic drill rig,

which exerts
powerful vibrations,

producing a sound
that pulverizes

and advances through soil

and other obstacles
such as wood.

A specialized coring barrel
will then be used

to extract samples of earth
and other objects

down to a depth of 500 feet.

We know because of

the extensive work we did
in Smith's Cove

that there are surprises
in that area.

We don't know
what we're gonna find.

We're trying
to connect the dots

between Smith's Cove work,
which we know existed,

and the Money Pit.

And, hopefully, this process

will allow us
to do that very thing.

‐All right. Good luck.
‐Thanks, guys.
‐Thanks.

‐Here we go.
‐All right.

Let's get after it.

At Smith's Cove,

researcher Paul Troutman

and geologist Terry Matheson

continue supervising
the core drilling operation

in the area known
as the "upper beach."

This is probably
the most important

two or three holes down here.

You know, if we're gonna hit
a flood tunnel, it's probably

‐gonna be right here.
All right.

So the terrain has changed
a little bit,

‐uh, in the past hundred years.
‐Yeah.

And so, we've calculated that
you at least need to go 90 feet,

‐potentially up to 120.
‐Okay.

Although, when they were
first discovered in 1850,

the five stone box drains
were located

just a few feet beneath
the coastal area,

it is believed
that the main tunnel

leading to the original
Money Pit

could be as much as
90 feet deep, or even deeper.

The topography, the elevation

has significantly changed
over the years

in the area of Smith's Cove
and the Money Pit.

Drastic change
such that we don't know exactly

what that elevation change
has been.

So, as part of this process,

we start looking significantly
at 50 feet

for a so‐called flood tunnel,

and probably
do not exceed 120 or 130.

We want to be certain
we don't miss anything.

‐Is this to...?
‐73.

‐73.
‐And a half.

Terry, this is... So that's
69 and a half to 73 and a half.

Okay. Thank you.

It's pretty cobbly, this run.

It's a little bit more
moisture‐rich

than the last one was, but...
everything else is in place.

‐It's not too disturbed
at this far.
It's a subtlety.

So that's a little
disappointing.

‐It is.
‐But optimal.

Yeah. We still...

‐We're still ten feet above...
‐Mm‐hmm.

...the pay zone that we hope
to encounter.

Do another 20 feet

‐and see what we turn out.
Yep.

‐Let's see what happens.
All right.

Pretty regular stuff, Mike?

The last third of that run
was very soft.

Good. Well, we're in the zone
of interest, so that's great.

We done here, Terry?

No. We got quite a bit more
to go yet.

We're only
a little over halfway.

What depth are we at, Mike?

‐91.
‐91, so...

That's our zone of interest.

Soft clays.

That's just...
it's not just soft.

It's...
there's no structure to it.

Amorphous.

‐We haven't seen anything
like this before.
‐No.

Lots of little stones

‐inside of it, too.
‐Yeah.

‐This has, uh...
‐There's a rock.

...been significantly affected

‐by something.
Yeah.

Wet clay?

Mixed with small stones?

Could the strange nature
of the soil

be evidence
of the main flood tunnel?

It's more saturated than it was
the last run that we had.

There's no, uh, natural
in situ features left.

I see a ghosty bedding here,
and then it's just destroyed.

Could have been the recipient
of a great, enormous blast.

But we haven't found
the channel yet.

We didn't see it above,

so, hopefully,
we'll see it below.

Could be in this next string

‐that he's pulling up here.
‐Yeah.

What depth is this, Mike?

99.

Is it breaking apart
pretty good?

Yep. There's some, uh,
darker spots in there, too.

Potentially organics there.

Hey, Rick.
‐Hey.

‐Just in time.
‐So we're‐we're at 99 feet.

Where are... where's that?

95‐ish.

Is that my imagination,
or does that smell

‐a little bit charred or burnt?
‐It does. It does.

Whoa. Look at this.

What is that, do you think?

Whoa, baby.

That's very interesting, Paul.

That's a piece of dynamite
right there.

Yep.
Wow.

Woah, baby.

While searching for the elusive

flood tunnel system
at Smith's Cove...

There you go. Right there.

Right in here.

There's some man‐made stuff
right there.

...Rick Lagina
and other members

of the Oak Island team have
made a surprising discovery.

That's a piece
of dynamite right there.

That's incredible.

What a find.

It's what generated this blast.

That smells like gunpowder
even today, doesn't it?

‐Take a smell of that.
‐Oh, yeah.

You can smell the dynamite
in the till.

Like the dynamite
went off yesterday.

Dynamite.

Found buried some 95 feet deep

below the beach
at Smith's Cove.

And in the same area

as the island's
legendary flood tunnel.

But what does it mean?

Look.
There's the paper wrapping,

I would say, on the chunk
of that dynamite.

Look at the cut edge.

And there...
yeah, it's on the end

'cause there's a square edge.

Okay. Yeah.

Oh, is this another piece here?

‐Wow, look at that.
More than just a piece.

That's a chunk of the tube that
they must have put it down in.

‐Yep.
‐Good eye, Paul. Wow.

So we got the paper
from the dynamite.

We've got the tube or something
or other that they put it in.

And we've got evidence
of a blast.

This helps validate
from 1897 to 1898,

within those two years, for
Oak Island Treasure Company

‐for setting off the dynamite.
‐Yeah.

In 1897, nearly 50 years after

the stone box drains
were first discovered,

members of the Oak Island
Treasure Company,

led by Frederick Blair,
devised a plan

to permanently disable
the flood tunnels.

Approximately 50 feet
above the high tide mark,

they drilled
five boreholes in a line,

down to a depth
of some 90 feet,

and then set off between 50

to 75 pounds of dynamite
in each one.

If the plan had worked,

they would be able
to dig in the Money Pit

without the thr*at
of massive flooding.

‐
‐Unfortunately, it didn't.

But shortly after
the operation,

water began boiling up and out
of the Money Pit,

leading the workers
to speculate

that the flood tunnel
must lie somewhere

in the vicinity
of the blast holes.

Could the evidence of dynamite

mean the Laginas
and their partners are close

to locating
the fabled flooding system?

When they dropped the dynamite
down that hole,

the water in the Money Pit

and the Cave‐In Pit
boiled for hours.

You know, if you find that,
you know,

maybe we do
more drilling in the area.

Try to define that connection.

There. Go ahead.

‐You see the flat edge
of it there?
Yeah.

We found the blast hole,
certainly,

but what does that tell us?

Now we're searching for what
they were searching for

‐the flood tunnel.
‐Yeah.

Now it's a matter of

How much more
do we want to search around

to try and find the tunnel?

The tunnel should go more
or less in this direction,

so if you want to find that,

you want to go up and down
the hill, not side to side.

‐Yeah.
So chase it
towards the uphill,

maybe try to find wood
to make an assumption

‐that there's a structure
or tunnel.
‐Structure.

‐Okay.
‐Okay.
‐Yeah.

Chase the path
to where we know it is.

The hope is that we can find

something above the Cave‐In Pit,

whether it be a tunnel
or tunnels.

Uh, maybe even
a previously unknown shaft

that, for the first time ever,
may put an X on the ground

where the original
Money Pit might be.

It would be huge.

‐All right.
‐Okay. Good luck.

Okay, Rick.
See you later. Thanks.

For the Laginas
and their team,

finding evidence
that they may, at last,

be closing in on Oak Island's
legendary flood tunnel

has them more hopeful than ever

that they will soon make
a breakthrough discovery.

But as they continue to drill

beneath the beach
at Smith's Cove,

where will it lead?

To a treasure vault filled
with vast riches?

Or will they find out
that the island's secrets

are more complex‐‐
and more dangerous‐‐

than they could ever
have imagined?

Next time on
The Curse of Oak Island...

The goal is
to delineate an area

where a possible
flood tunnel might be.

We got something here, guys.

This is the entrance.

Let's dig it up.

‐You know?
‐

Look at that.

That is really, really unusual.

See the braiding around it?

To me, it has sort of
a maritime look to it.

Right there.
Oh, wow.

These are pieces,
probably of beams.

It's probably a tunnel
that we're in.