07x13 - Bromancing the Stones

Episode transcripts for the TV show "The Curse of Oak Island". Aired: January 5, 2014 to present.*
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Follows brothers Marty and Rick as they search for the infamous treasure on Oak Island.
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07x13 - Bromancing the Stones

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Tonight on
The Curse of Oak Island...

The 90 Foot Stone is

‐the most important artifact.
Rick, look at this one.

I think we found it.
Yeah.

Whoa!
The Eye of the Swamp

is connected to the paved area.

‐Ooh! Look at that!

That is a really old
tunneling tool.

That's awesome!

Oh! Holy crow!

‐What the heck is it?
‐This is old.

We found the smoking g*n.
The paved area is man‐made.

All right!

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.

Look at that.
Huh.

Isn't that remarkable?

Yeah.

Tell me that's natural.

Oh, there's no way that's
natural, Rick. Look at it.

It's just layered right on top.

For brothers
Rick and Marty Lagina

and their team,
the historic discovery

of a massive, paved‐stone
walkway in the Oak Island swamp

has offered what could be
their greatest breakthrough yet

in their quest to solve a
225‐year‐old treasure mystery.

One they are eager to share

with fellow landowner
Tom Nolan,

whose father, Fred Nolan,
spent over five decades

tirelessly investigating
the area.

It was Fred's belief that not
only was the swamp man‐made,

but that the keys to finding
the Oak Island treasure

were hidden beneath
its murky surface.

Strange‐looking.

And I don't know what...
what purpose?

I mean, it's not a drain system.

No. Too shallow for that.
‐Yeah.

And it's so uniform.

It's just perfectly flat.

Let's go down and have
a little closer look at it.

All right.

The paved stone area is of

significant interest,
and the more we dig,

the more impressive
that structure becomes,

and there has
to be a reason as to the why.

And what is its purpose?

Look, look. The water's
washing that all off.

‐It's all, like, little stone
placed on big stone?
‐Mm‐hmm.

A lot of it's the same type
of rock, isn't it?

It is. A lot of it is this.

Ooh.
‐It's graywacke.

I can't believe
you guys found this.

It's like
you're standing on a paved road

in the middle of the bog.

It's certainly wide enough.

Yeah.
‐I mean, it's so level.

If humans didn't do that,
how is that possible?

I've seen some strange things
in the swamp, but this is...

I don't know. I don't know
how you explain this.

I don't, either.

I wonder what
your father would have said.

He'd be amazed by this

'cause, I mean, you can't help
but look at it and say,

"What the heck is it?"

Nobody knew the swamp
like he did.

But he never had the ability
to do this to the swamp, so, mm,

you know, this is taking this
to a whole different level,

‐what we're doing.
‐Yeah.

I think there are answers
in the swamp,

but we may not be attuned
as of yet to those answers.

I.e., is there some grand scheme

larger than what we had
at first anticipated

about Oak Island?

Some sort of really intricate
and involved mystery

that surpasses
the so‐called Money Pit?

Um, it's possible.

I always said it was worked,

somebody worked the swamp.

Well, you look at this,
pretty hard to say

‐somebody didn't work the swamp.
‐Pretty hard to say. Yeah.

But to what end?
Like you say,

it's the questions
it leaves behind.

I think, let's try

to get Dr. Spooner
to take a look at it in the dry.

Yeah, take a look at the face
and see what he thinks of it.

What is going on here?

None of it makes any sense.

Following his meeting
with Tom Nolan at the swamp...

Doug and I made
a little road trip

to Fortress Louisbourg...

...Rick has called
his brother Marty

and other members of the team
to the w*r room

to share important information

that he and Oak Island
historian Doug Crowell

found during their recent trip

to an 18th‐century
French fortress.

One of the reasons
for going to Louisbourg was that

we would see some semblance of

any structure that looks like
the structures on Oak Island.

Those buildings‐‐
the‐the ancillary features,

the tunnels under the earth‐‐
I mean, it was remarkable to see

‐what they had accomplished.
‐Yeah.

One week ago,

after the team obtained
scientific proof

that the wooden structure
recently unearthed

at Smith's Cove was built
in 1741...

Pretty impressive.

...Rick and Doug traveled
some 300 miles northeast

to an 18th‐century
French m*llitary fort

in the town of Louisbourg.

The data supported a theory
presented earlier this year

by naval historian Chipp Reid,

who believes
that a vast French treasure

may have been moved
from the fortress to Oak Island

during the early 1740s.

Oh, Rick, come look at this one.

Incredibly, it was
while touring the fortress

that Rick and Doug were shown
a centuries‐old,

stone‐paved flooding system,
one eerily similar

to the possible pathway that
the team has just uncovered

in the Oak Island swamp.

So, we have a few pictures
of what we saw up there.

As we were being shown around,

Rick had asked if there was
any part of the fortress

‐that was original,
that wasn't a recreation.
‐Mm‐hmm.

And this particular corner
of the inner courtyard

was original,

and inside
this particular room,

this is what the floor
looked like.

Wow.
That's interesting.

This whole system seemed
to be drainage.

There was an actual small tunnel

that went out
under the rock wall.

So, uh, there's another picture
of the floor.

The rocks, though...
Oh, the rock, yeah.

MARTY
...are very similar
to our paved area.

Yeah.
Yes.

Well, don't we have
multiple layers like this

actually stacked
on top of each other?

We‐we do have
multiple layers here. Now this,

you know, from what we could
tell, was only one layer,

‐but they were far
from an even floor.
Mm‐hmm.

But that was probably
the closest thing we saw to

‐our paved area.
‐Yeah.

‐That is close.
Yeah.

Could Rick and Doug

have discovered a link

between the 18th‐century
French fortress

and a massive
engineering effort

that took place
in the swamp centuries ago?

And if so,
could it be further proof

that the swamp may have been
artificially created,

and possibly used
to hide a stolen treasure ship,

as the late Fred Nolan
believed?

What's this?

This is an historic photo
the historian provided us

that just shows a platform
of rocks on top of the soil.

This floor is
several stones deep,

and that is
original construction.

That's the way it was
in the day.

Yeah, looks just like it.

Yeah.

That's remarkable.

Yeah.

All right. Well, cool.
I mean, I‐I find that

to be very interesting,
actually.

‐Yeah.
‐MARTY; You know,
we're supposed to be

looking around to figure out
the significance of 1741.

‐Yeah.
‐If the French were here

for some repository, and they
were using the same technique

for a paved area
for purposes unknown,

‐well, that fits.
Absolutely.

So,
as we were being shown around,

we came into their armory.

And there are some cannonballs
there in the background.

Mm‐hmm.
But look at the size
of that cart.

That's one of the things I know

we had some discussions
here about‐‐ the paved area

‐there be too rough for a cart.
‐Would have to be big wheels.

‐Yeah.
These are big wheels.

‐These wheels are probably
five feet tall.
Mm‐hmm.

See, look how big
those carts were

that were in use
in that time period.

That cart.
Maybe they used carts here?

‐Yeah.
That would make sense

that somebody would use carts

like that to cart something,

whether it be depositor,
I don't know.

The floor in Louisbourg
looks identical

to our paved area
out here in the swamp.

I mean,
I'd say virtually identical.

‐Pretty much.
‐And what else did he find?

That‐that the sort of
transportation of the day

involved using
these big wheeled carts.

They would function beautifully

on a cobbly thing
like we found in the swamp.

I think that these paved areas

in the swamp and the paved areas
in the fort

are eerily similar, and...
I've‐I've got my toes tingling.

I want to get out there
and go metal‐detect it.

I‐I was just thinking
you want to get back

‐to metal detecting,
so, let's call it.
‐Yeah.

Good trip, you guys.
Excellent data.

Following their meeting

in the Oak Island w*r room...

Hello!
‐Hey.

...Rick Lagina and Billy
Gerhardt return to the swamp,

where they are joined by
geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner.

They are eager for Dr. Spooner

to examine the mysterious
paved area now that

it has been more fully drained,

in the hopes
of finding any evidence

that might help determine
when the structure was built

and for what purpose.

Oh! Holy crow!

What are we looking at?

I think something
really important here.

The key thing is,
I need to find wood

around the rocks,
and I need to have

an indication that the rocks
were interacting with the wood.

‐So, you see this stick here,
right?
‐Mm‐hmm.

‐And you see this rock here.
‐Mm‐hmm.

And so,
if we move this rock away,

what's happened to the stick?

Yeah, it's squished.

It's smashed by the rock.

You see how it fit
right like that?

So, what that tells me is that

these rocks couldn't have been
laid down by a glacier.

‐Right?
‐Why not?

Because you wouldn't have
a stick. No trees.

‐No wood.
‐Right.

And that can't be done
by anything natural.

So, the contention
that this is some kind

of placed stone platform,

I don't think
there's any question.

‐Really?
Yeah, yeah.

I guess

I'm a little bit happy
that the swamp

really did yield
something significant

because I put everybody
through the gristmill

about, "It's not over.
We've got to keep looking."

And now it...

it turns out that, you know,

there's
some interesting data there.

Now, I'm going to ask you
the‐the question

I always ask Gary Drayton.

What's your...
what's your guess? How old?

When was this work done?

It's not Mr. Nolan's time.

It's not Mr. Blankenship's time.

It's way before that time.

It's old, it's old, it's old.

Here's the thing.

This certainly predates
the discovery story, right?

‐Yeah.
‐And the discovery story

‐essentially predates
habitation here.
‐Yeah.

‐Yeah.
So,

who did it and why?

To me, here's the key.

This stick will tell me
when that stone was placed.

If you date the stick,
you know when that happened.

Finding evidence

that the mysterious
paved stone path is,

in fact, a man‐made structure,

one possibly built

prior to the discovery
of the Money Pit in 1795,

is an exciting development.

If Dr. Spooner's assessment
can be confirmed

through further
scientific analysis,

the team may be one step closer
to dating

this potentially ancient
construct.

Dr. Spooner has

"found the smoking g*n."

The paved area is man‐made.

This is probably...
Well, I won't say

it's the most important
discovery on Oak Island,

but it certainly is up there.

The swamp is proving
to be more interesting

and more, uh, enigmatic

than, perhaps,
even the Money Pit.

You know what? I'm in awe.

The work you've done
and continue to do...

All we can do is say thank you.

But we very much look forward
to that date, certainly.

I know that Marty and Craig...
All of us are really...

are gonna be
very interested in that date.

But we've got a lot of work
ahead of us, Bill.

Yeah. Yeah. No problem.
Thank you.

Appreciate all the help.

One day after
obtaining scientific evidence

that the paved stone area

is a potentially ancient,
man‐made feature,

Jack Begley

and metal detection expert
Gary Drayton,

along with heavy equipment
operator Billy Gerhardt,

are eager to resume digging
near the mysterious structure

to see where it might lead.

You have to define the area,

the‐the complete extent
of the paved area.

Otherwise,
it's just patchwork guesswork.

We have to know
its exact physical dimensions

because Dr. Spooner
is proposing

that it predates the discovery
of the Money Pit.

‐Hey, Billy.
Hey, Gary.

So, what's the plan for today?
These spoils?

Yeah. We'll work
at these spoils and try

to see if we can find the extent
of the paved area.

If you do a little area,

I'll pull it back,
and then we‐we'll keep moving.

Right on, mate.

As Billy carefully excavates
the area,

Gary Drayton
will search the spoils

with a metal detector

for any important clues
or artifacts.

We got to find
some metals today.

Yeah, this looks natural.

It's just clay.

So, when you dig down into it,
there's no rocks.

If you want to check
right here, Gary,

then I'll peel that down.
Maybe we'll dig another hole.

Okay.

Nothing here, mate.

Yeah, take it
a little bit further.

It's a unique opportunity

to metal detect
around this paved area.

My theory is

that this was used

as a place to load
and unload things,

and it's a great place
to trap coins and artifacts.

Anything lost in that area

is still gonna be there.

Where are the rocks?

There's not much
of that up here.

It's just mostly small sticks.

It's falsing off some twigs.

Yeah.

You keep digging this out, mate.

Check all this, Gary?
‐Yep.

Whoa! Do you see that?

Finally!

That's awesome.

If you look
in the end of the hole,

it looks like rocks
on top of rocks there, right?

Yeah, it does look
stacked there, Billy.

We might have
to jump down and...

you know, sort of, like,
clean the side off.

Scrape it off a little bit?

Sure.


You don't have
to say that twice, Billy.

Jack's down there.

See, the‐the rock
where your shovel just touched,

Jack, is suspended
by the other rock, right?

Yeah. Yeah, they're laid on top

of the natural layer.

I also notice
there's vegetation,

as in wood branches

on top of the rocks
but not below them.

They were put there
a long, long time ago.

That's probably a continuation

‐of the paved area,
by the look of it.
Yeah.

Could it be

that the paved stone area
is even larger

and extends much further
than previously thought?

You look at the area

of the paved area,
and it's not just

what we defined it as.
It looks like

it extends out even further.

And there's got to be
a reason for it,

cause it's been buried
in the swamp

for at least
a couple hundred years.

So, what are all these rocks
doing here,

and why are they so even?
Why is it level?

There's so many other questions.

It does look very similar,

but we got to dig up more
of the area.

Yeah.

We'll have to dig up
a little bigger spot.

‐Yeah.
Yeah.

Okay. Let's keep going, then.

Something went on in this area.

We should see if we can

‐find the edge where...
Yeah.

If it's extended into land,

‐try to see where at. Yeah.
Right.

We could make a hole
just up‐up here

to see if it exists.

After hearing

that Jack, Gary and Billy
have unearthed

more of the mysterious
paved stone structure,

Rick Lagina, Craig Tester
and surveyor Steve Guptill

arrive at the Oak Island swamp

to inspect their progress
firsthand.

Craig, you got a good look
at the other

‐stone structures
over there, right?
‐Yeah.

You can see
there's‐there's rocks here.

It's a little muddy,

but it would resemble

over on this side.

You can see
the normal gray clay,

and then you had orange
under it.

Then you got all these big rocks
stacked on top.

Steve,

can you get down there
and take an elevation

and see if it mimics that?

Yeah.

That there
is a foot below sea level.

And the paved area's

two feet, on average, below.

‐Quite consistent.
This, definitely,

I would say,
is very much like that.

It's got that raw profile.

Take your bar
and just probe right there.

Oh, yeah. There's...

There's rocks there.

I'd be interested to know

how far out in this direction
this paved area goes

towards the Eye of the Swamp.

Maybe the Eye of the Swamp

is connected to this paved area.

Here we go.

While probing near the apex

of the triangle‐shaped swamp
earlier this year...


‐That's solid.

‐Yeah, that's a good one.
‐...Marty Lagina

and members of the team
discovered

an unusual circle of stones,
which the team

has dubbed
the Eye of the Swamp.

It is a formation

that they believe
could represent

the so‐called all‐seeing eye,

a prominent symbol
for both the Freemasons

and their predecessors,
the Knights Templar.

But could
this mysterious feature

and the paved stone area
really be connected?

And, if so, for what purpose?

From a mid location
on the paved area

to the Eye is 150 feet.

So, I don't know
if that's a correlation.

But when we were out there,

the rocks just feel similar.

This is the type

of formations we're looking for

to show us of human activity.

And as long as we continue
to dig,

hopefully they dropped something
like in Smith's Cove.

There's a good chance

around here there's gonna be

some sort of indication
of who built it.

I'm hoping
it's a yellow brick road.

Golden brick road.

We need to start

remediating some of these areas,
so, Billy,

as you walk the excavator out,
you can level that area off.

And then, hopefully,
the most interesting thing

still lies in front of us.
So...

Got a lot of work to do.
We better get after it.

‐All right, mate.
‐Okay.

Later that same day,

as the investigation
at the swamp continues...

Hey, Terry.

‐Oh, hi, guys. How you doing?
‐Good, good.

Craig Tester joins

Oak Island historian
Charles Barkhouse

and geologist Terry Matheson
at the Money Pit area

to resume
the core drilling operation

near the site of Shaft Two.

The shaft,
which was constructed

just 14 feet from the Money Pit
by searchers in 1805,

featured a horizontal tunnel
at a depth of 110 feet

which collapsed from flooding
just two feet

from the location
of the original treasure shaft.

‐Whoa!
‐We got some wood here.

Whoa!

How 'bout that?

While drilling

at this same site
two weeks ago,

Marty and members of the team

discovered
unusual a*‐cut wood

at a depth of 106 feet.

‐That's very old.
Yeah.

Think maybe
we're just skimming down

the outside of the potential
Money Pit shaft.

While they are

currently awaiting test results

on that wood sample,

Craig and the team
are continuing to drill

in the hopes that the next core
they bring to the surface

may have hit
the Money Pit itself

and the fabled treasure vault.

We are at G10.5,
which puts us...

right there.

We're very close
to the center, so...

Yeah.
What we're looking for

is the Money Pit.

If Shaft Two,

which we feel we found here,
and the tunnel comes here,

14 foot puts it
in this area somewhere.

Yep.
‐And so we're looking

just west of there.

And we're just about five feet

from where we found the wood
that we thought

might've been the wall
of the re‐cribbed Money Pit.

Yeah.

So, anyway, there it is.

How deep are we going
with this one, Craig?

We'll follow this down
to 110 feet.

It's what we get below that
that really matters, so...

That‐That's when it's gonna get
interesting. Yeah.

Knock on wood.
It's what we want to find.

Yeah.

Whoa!

Easy!

Wonder how far that went.

Well, this'll be interesting,

'cause it should've cored.

Okay. Where's it all fit in?

I started coring at 109,

and I cored it to 119

and it didn't feel
like hardly any resistance.

News that the sonic drill bit
has begun advancing faster

and much easier
through the earth

is a potentially significant
development,

one that could mean
that the team has intercepted

an open void
or cavern deep underground.

Let's go with that, then.

Your feeling is that might be in
and around 120, right there?

I'd say 125.

What you thinking, boss?

I'm thinking
probably undisturbed.

This is massively bedded,

limestone‐rich,

you know, crumbly material.

It is never gonna hold together.

So, this is not fill, right?

No, this is not fill.

This is, uh‐‐
There's‐‐

You can see
primary bedding there.

It's not the original Money Pit
if we're in virgin ground.

Yeah.

The bad news is

it can't be... the Money Pit.

‐Yeah.
‐But it being very loose

and drilling so easily, um,

we've got to be near something,

whether it's the‐the Money Pit

or something that‐that's
loosened up the ground.

Yeah.

Although the core sample

the team has obtained
contains undisturbed soil,

indicating they have missed
the original Money Pit,

it is Craig
and Terry's assessment

that the loose earth
they are drilling through

is due to past human activity
nearby,

meaning their target
could be just inches away.

We might as well stop here
and move over

‐a foot and a half or so.
‐Okay.

Okay. Let's see what happens.

As a new day begins,

Rick Lagina
and members of the team

have traveled
some 52 miles northeast

of Oak Island to
the Dartmouth Heritage Museum

in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

Can you think of a better day
to try and solve

the mystery
of the 90 Foot Stone?

I'm hoping
the first bucket finds it.

They are eager
to follow up on a tip

Rick received earlier this year

from area resident
Kevin Rideout

concerning
the possible whereabouts

of the legendary 90 Foot Stone.

Discovered in 1804 by members
of the Onslow Company

when they excavated
the original Money Pit

down to the 90‐foot level,

the stone was reported to be
a flat, olive‐colored slab

carved with strange,
rune‐like symbols.

Although later translated
to read "Forty feet below

two million pounds are buried,"

there are some who believe
that these symbols

could be coded instructions
on how to shut off

the booby traps that feed
seawater into the Money Pit.

Unfortunately,
no photographs or rubbings

of the carvings
were ever taken,

and the stone itself
has been missing

for more than 100 years.

We looked out from that window,

and it was pointed out to me

this side of the rhododendron,
right here.

But according to Kevin Rideout,


the stone was shown to him
over 40 years ago

while visiting
the Dartmouth Heritage Museum,

where it was
reportedly embedded in the yard

behind the property.

‐Let's get started.
‐Yeah.

Having just obtained
a government permit to dig

on the museum grounds,

Rick and the team
are hopeful

they will finally recover
what could be

one of Oak Island's
most important artifacts.

Hey, Bill.

I'd dig up what we talked about,
maybe a 20 by 20.

‐Yeah.
‐You know, I mean,

we'll want a good understanding

of what‐what the ground
looks like.

‐Okay?
‐Yeah.

While Rick and the team

begin their search,

Jack Begley
and metal detection expert

Gary Drayton
are beginning to search near

the so‐called Eye of the Swamp

for any important clues
or artifacts.


‐Got a target, mate.

Right in there.

Ooh, I like this matrix.

Nice and thick.

Thick enough to trap good coins
and artifacts.

Oh, I think I got it.

Oh, yeah.
It's moving.

Ooh!

‐Wait.
‐Now, look at that!

That is a really old pick.

You don't think
that this is Fred Nolan's?

No, I don't think
it's Fred Nolan's,

'cause it is fairly chunky.

It's old,
because it's so heavy.

And, look, a more modern one
would be more round.

This is that nice oval shape.

‐Mm‐hmm.
‐Because back in the day,

they would have a wooden...

handle,
and they would shave it down.

Wouldn't be like
a machine‐made, round one.

And this is cool.

It's got that‐‐

The‐the tines

or the picks are really short,

so you would have used this
for tunneling.

'Cause you know what
a big old pickax is like.

Normally,
it's got two really big

‐pick parts to it.
‐Mm‐hmm.

This hasn't.

This is more
of a‐a tunneling tool.

An old iron pickax

possibly used for tunneling

and found near
the Eye of the Swamp?

Dry.
It's very tight.

Earlier this year,

while investigating
a 200‐foot‐long anomaly

detected by seismic scanning,

the Oak Island team
obtained core samples

of unusually hard‐packed clay

up to 40 feet deep
in the swamp,

creating ideal conditions
for tunneling beneath the area.

Interestingly enough,

you probably could tunnel
through this stuff.

‐Right?
‐Oh, yeah. Oh, no question.

‐You could.
‐Yeah.

There has been talk of tunnels
in the swamp,

like some kind of back entry
to the Money Pit.

Well, if you're gonna be digging
in the swamp and tunneling,

you would need
a little tunnel pick

like the pick that Jack and I
just pulled out of this hole.

What the heck is this
tunneling pick doing over here?

We're so far away

‐from the Money Pit.
‐Yeah.

Who's been tunneling
or digging round here?

‐It's an artifact
that we can have tested...
‐Yeah.

...and see how it lines up
with all the other artifacts

we found in the swamp this year.

Set that down somewhere safe,

and we'll see if there's
anything else in the hole.


‐There is.

Dig that sucker out, Jack.

If I can get it out of there.

I got to actually grab it.

The heck is that?

I don't know.

Looks like a...

It could be anything,
couldn't it?

‐Could be, like, an old bucket.


It does kind of look
like an old...

‐spade.
‐It does, doesn't it?

‐Yeah.
‐It looks‐‐ You know what,

‐that's a‐‐ Yeah.
‐Like a round point spade.

Look.

‐Yeah.
‐Good eye, Jack. Yeah.

It is an old spade.

But it's a‐another tool.

And i‐if you look at this
and you compare it

‐to that modern one...
‐A second digging tool

‐over here!
‐Yeah.

We're in the old toolshed, mate.

But a toolshed from the 1700s.

A round point spade

dating back to the 1700s

and found alongside an old
iron pickax in the swamp?

Could Jack and Gary have found
further evidence

to support the notion

that a large‐scale
tunneling operation

took place in this area
centuries ago?

And if so, could it also be
connected in some way

to both
the mysterious paved area

and the Eye of the Swamp
located nearby?

We should take it
to Carmen Legge.

Oh, yeah. I think he's gonna be
excited about that.

And you know what?
We ain't finished shopping yet.

‐I just think we're gonna keep
finding stuff in here.
‐Yeah.

Let's see if there's
anything else in the area.

Later that day,

back at the Dartmouth
Heritage Museum,

Rick and members of the team

continue to dig
in search of the 90 Foot Stone.

The last four or five buckets,

we've hit bricks.

That's not why we're here,
so... keep going.


Rock there.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Hang on.

Let's see if that's flat or not.

It feels flat, but I don't want
to scratch it. Right there.

Whatever that is,
it's been in there for a while.

Wow.

It's squared off.

It's flat on that face.

It's not bad.

‐It fits, right?
Well, it's...

that's the area we'd exp...
we wanted to find it, right?

While excavating the grounds

of the Dartmouth
Heritage Museum

in search of the legendary
90 Foot Stone,

Rick Lagina and members
of the Oak Island team

have just unearthed
an unusually flat rock slab.

It's definitely green.

Yeah.

‐It's got a square corner.
Yeah.

Dig it out.
See what it looks like.

Nah, it's too big.

It had some promise when you
first started clearing...

cleaning it off,
'cause it did look quite flat.

Yep.

According to Oak Island legend,

after the 90 Foot Stone
was discovered

and removed from
the original Money Pit in 1804,

treasure hunter John Smith,

one of the three young men
who first discovered

the treasure shaft in 1795,

mounted the stone
into the fireplace of his home

as a decoration.

In 1865, it was removed

and transported
some 60 miles north

to the city of Halifax,

where it was put on display
in the window

of the A & H Creighton
bookbindery

in the hopes
of attracting new investors

to the Oak Island
treasure hunt.

However, after the bookbindery
closed its doors in 1919,

the 90 Foot Stone vanished
without a trace.

Some believed that the stone
was secretly donated

to the nearby Halifax Club,

a fraternity made up
of prominent businessmen,

where it was supposedly
embedded into the floor.

But when, in 2016,

Alex Lagina and members
of the Oak Island team

tracked down that lead,
they reached a dead end.

We didn't find
what we were looking for,

but I think
we made some progress.

We've got some good leads
to chase down.

One year ago,

Oak Island historian
Doug Crowell

believed
he had found the stone

in the basement of the building
where it was last seen,

the site
of the Halifax bookbindery.

Oh, look!
There's something carved there.

Holy smokes!

But although it did match
an earlier description,

the total absence of any
of the hieroglyphic markings

suggested to the team that
it was not the original stone.

‐Where's all the inscriptions?
Where's
the writing on it?

Earlier this year, Rick Lagina
received a credible tip

from area resident
Kevin Rideout.

He insisted that he had seen
a gray‐green stone

matching the 90 Foot Stone's
description several years ago

on the grounds of
the Dartmouth Heritage Museum.

Kevin.

‐Thank you for coming.
Appreciate it.
‐Morning, Rick.

So, if you were looking
for a general area,

from where to where
do you think it might be?

Rick, I thought you'd find it
right here.

You're‐you're right
on the money.

You can see the elevations.

That lower grade was over here.

So somebody did a lot of work
in‐filling or whatever here.

It's your suggestion,
then, that...

we need to go much deeper?

Yes. Yes.

We very quickly learned

that this is not gonna
be as easy as we had thought.

And the more we dig,
the more we expose,

we realize how difficult
this enterprise is gonna be.

But we're not gonna give up.

Ooh. Wait, Billy. Whoa.

Nope.

After digging
for several hours,

and uncovering the entire area

believed to possibly contain
the legendary 90 Foot Stone,

Rick Lagina and the team
have come to an unfortunate

and disappointing conclusion.

I think we've got our answer.

Not here.

Yeah, I think we exhausted that.

I hate to use
the word "disappointing"

when it comes to the work
we did at the museum.

We didn't find the stone,

but we did everything we could
to find the stone.

We‐we followed the lead.

We dug at the site.

And we will continue
to follow it.

Perhaps the trail
doesn't end here.

That would be the hope.
‐Mm‐hmm.

There's one thing
that sums up everything

we, together, have attempted
to do on Oak Island

we have never, ever given up.

And we're not done here.
We're not done looking.

We're not done searching.
We're not done researching.

‐We're not giving up.
‐On to the next.

On to the next.

Following their investigation

in search of the 90 Foot Stone,

Rick Lagina and Doug Crowell
return to Oak Island,

where they join
Rick's brother Marty,

Craig Tester
and other members of the team

in the w*r room.

They have gathered
to hear a scientific report

that has just come in

concerning
the strange wood sample

recovered two weeks ago

during their
core‐drilling operations

in the Money Pit area.

Yeah, guys,
as you'll recall, um,

in some of our test drilling,

uh, specifically FG12,

we found
some very peculiar wood,

and the reason it was peculiar
is because it was at the end

of the tunnel
that you guys found,

or we think, from Shaft Two.

The base of that tunnel
was consistently at 103 feet,

I believe‐‐ is that right?‐‐
and this one was deeper.

It didn't look right.

Uh, it certainly had none
of the characteristics

of the Hedden Shaft.

So, I mean, it was too dark.

It looked very old,
so we decided to get it,

uh, carbon‐14 dated,
and Craig here has the results.

Um, definitely got good results.

It's from 1626 to 1680.

Wow.

‐I like that.
‐Mm‐hmm.

Wood from the Money Pit area?

Dated to more than a century
before the discovery

of the fabled treasure shaft?

Have Rick, Marty and the team

finally pinpointed the location

where the Oak Island
treasure vault

lies buried deep below?

It's very encouraging that

the highly likely date
of this wood is quite old.

In the 1600s somewhere.

We've got lots of data
that says

that something substantial
happened here,

maybe between 1650
and 17‐something.

And that‐‐ all that's new.

I was not a believer
in that at all.

I wonder what was happening

in this area late 1600s,
early 1700s.

Yeah, that's the question.

‐Can I see it?
‐Yeah, absolutely.

Huh.

Well, you know what? 1680.

That's, um,
Dr. Spooner's big date.

Yeah.

1680, he said
with some degree of certainty,

that something went on
in the Eye of the Swamp.

There's a sediment right there.

Earlier this year,
after extracting core samples

from the swamp, Dr. Ian Spooner
presented Rick, Marty

and the team
with some astonishing data.

This is quite
a provocative site.

He determined that not only was
the swamp potentially created

over 800 years ago, but that
significant human activity

took place in the so‐called
Eye of the Swamp

sometime
in the late 17th century.

I'm very confident
we're looking at 1680 to 1700...

that that disturbance
took place.

Really interesting.

That's his date‐‐ 1680.

Dr. Spooner said that something

of an industrial scale
went on here.

‐Those dates are
bloody fantastic.
Yeah, those are good.

This certainly begs

for further investigation‐‐
I mean,

those outlier dates,
there's no question about it.

Got to follow the clues,

‐see where they lead.
‐Yep.

This is the year!

For brothers
Rick and Marty Lagina

and the Oak Island team,

obtaining
hard scientific evidence

that they may have finally
located the original Money Pit

is a potentially
historic development.

It may no longer be a question

of where the Oak Island
treasure will be found,

but rather,
how deeply buried is it?

And... is it a treasure
of gold and silver,

or priceless artifacts?

But as the team keeps digging,

it may be that they
are forced to answer

a much more difficult question

was the search
for the Oak Island treasure

worth all the time and money

and human lives
it took to find it?

Next time
on The Curse of Oak Island...

I'd like to know
who did it, why they did it.

Watch yourself.
Oh, baby.

‐Oh, no, no!
‐Whoa!

Hey!
Whoa! Whoa!

I see a big timber down there.

Oh, yeah. And I think
this is a notch right here.

‐Yeah, it's a big structure.
Yeah, it's huge.


‐Got a signal over here, Jack!

We got it! All right!
‐Look!

Wow.

What's that doing in the swamp?
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