NARRATOR: Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...
TERRY: Here we go.
STEVE: There's wood. We got it.
TERRY: There it is, guys.
-Wow. -We must be close to some type of a structure.
MARTY: There could be some treasure just below us.
-Hey, Laird. -Yeah?
JAMIE: This is definitely the largest artifact we've found here.
-What? -Come on. Be something.
Look at that. It's old.
Emma, what have we learned?
So, right now, I am finding
something that I was not expecting.
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...
...man-made workings that date to medieval times,
and a lead cross whose origin may be connected
to the Knights Templar.
To date, six men have died
trying to solve the mystery.
And according to legend, one more will have to die
before the treasure can be found.
♪ ♪
CHARLES: Here we go!
-ALEX: Core is up. -TERRY: All right.
-Here we go. -60.
Thank you.
-That's pretty firm stuff there. -Yep.
There is a lot of room yet
-for something to show itself. -ALEX: Yep.
NARRATOR: It is the start of a new day on Oak Island
for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina and their team.
One that begins with renewed optimism
that they are finally on the verge
of solving a 228-year-old mystery.
TERRY: I think it has the possibility to intersect
the Garden Shaft tunnel,
-leading to or seeking -Yeah.
-the treasure chamber. -Yeah.
It may put some answers to that tunnel down there.
We don't have enough information in the area.
We don't have a start point,
-we don't have an end point. -No. That's right.
We as a group have not explored much up here.
-This is a plausible location. -Yes.
NARRATOR: Currently, the team is drilling
a borehole on their strategic grid known as D.5N-26.5.
Located several feet east
of the mid-18th century structure
known as "the Garden Shaft,"
it is their hope that this new borehole
will encounter a mysterious tunnel
that they previously discovered
at a depth of 95 feet.
A tunnel which is believed to run directly west
beneath the Garden Shaft and into an area
that has been dubbed "the Baby Blob,"
where water tests conducted one year ago
revealed high-trace evidence
of silver, gold and other metals
between 80 and 120 feet below ground.
Last year we were able to concentrate
and be very confident in the Baby Blob area.
That's right.
NARRATOR: However, when the team met
with geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner
and his colleague,
hydrogeologist Dr. Fred Michel last week,
the two presented their updated testing analysis,
which suggested that the fabled treasure
could actually lie buried anywhere
within a 20-foot radius of the feature.
Nothing is dissuading us from our opinion
that there's an area around the Garden Shaft
where something's been deposited.
Well, that I consider very good news.
Yeah.
NARRATOR: Now, while the team awaits a new permit
to deepen the Garden Shaft by approximately 20 feet,
which will also allow them to construct lateral tunnels
in order to reach potential targets,
Rick, Marty and the team
are looking for any evidence of valuables
more than 100 feet underground
that might be located to the east of the shaft.
MARTY: The tunnel that goes under the Garden Shaft
doesn't appear in the literature anywhere,
doesn't appear in the records,
so that's the one I'm most interested in.
So, we need to keep going.
That, perhaps, could go off to a chamber.
Meaning, there could be some actual treasure just below us.
And we're gonna find that out this year.
STEVE: Hey, Mike. What do we got?
-78. -78.
78.
SCOTT: Anyone got a knife?
TERRY: I love this hole.
We are in the middle of all
of the very, very soft material.
And this to my eye is relatively soft.
What do you think, Scott?
SCOTT: There is a lot going on in this area,
I mean, that we really don't know about.
-There's a lot of possibilities. -Absolutely.
Yeah, we've seen that whenever we're near a structure.
-Yeah. -We could be coming down on the intersection
-of the tunnel here. -For sure.
TERRY: Time is going to tell.
We are going to do the work that's gonna find that out.
NARRATOR: While the drilling operation continues
in the Money Pit area, on Lot 5,
located on the western side of the island...
-JACK: Here he comes. -LAIRD: Oh, yeah.
NARRATOR: ...Marty Lagina joins Jack Begley,
archaeologist Laird Niven,
Jamie Kouba
and their assistant Fiona Steele
as they continue investigating
a strange, circular feature.
Okay, Laird. What's the mission?
LAIRD: All right.
We're going to do the big rocks in the interior.
Show me.
-Oh, yeah. There are some big rocks in there. -Yeah.
-MARTY: You want all that out, right? -LAIRD: Yeah.
I-I don't know why it's filled with rocks.
But underneath all those,
we think there's that intact layer
that we want to get to.
-That will help tell us exactly what this feature is. -Yeah. Yeah.
MARTY: Interesting.
Just keeps getting more interesting.
-Yeah. Okay. -Okay, I can do that.
NARRATOR: Since the Laginas' and their partners' purchase
of Lot 5 one year ago,
Laird and his colleagues have been mystified
by the unique construction
of this stone-lined, circular depression,
especially when it was determined
to have a 13-foot diameter,
which matched the description
of the original Money Pit
when it was first discovered in 1795.
However, one week ago,
the team discovered a piece of pottery
that could date back to as early as the 17th century,
along with an iron latch.
A latch that when analyzed
by archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan,
was determined to have the exact same composition
as other artifacts directly connected
to Sir William Phips,
the 17th century English politician and privateer
who is believed by some
to have buried treasure in the Money Pit
around 1687.
LAIRD: We have a big rock here, right in the wall.
Maybe if you can tickle it out a bit.
-Oh, I'm sure I can. -(Laird laughs)
-FIONA: Yes. -JAMIE: Nice.
MARTY: We've got a very mysterious,
very old round rock structure
which is still being excavated,
but it's full of artifacts,
with no record of human habitation.
Then Laird lets me know that
I can do something I am fond of,
which is to pull the big rocks, at least, off
with the backhoe.
FIONA: Well, that really helps.
MARTY: And that is going to get
the ball rolling really fast
and so I'm eager to do it.
Yeah, that's it, right?
-LAIRD: Yep. That's good. -Okay.
LAIRD: We're starting to see a wall. Maybe?
There should be another 90-degree corner
-somewhere over there? -That's the hope.
So, ideally, we'd find the base of a nice structure here.
MARTY: It's pretty kind of hard to believe.
I mean, this is massive and yet not...
not any reference to it.
-Yeah. -It, yeah, it's very odd.
It was quite an occupation for the time. Isn't it?
Yeah, it was a substantial structure.
People weren't here for just a month, were they?
-JAMIE: No. -No.
I mean, we really don't know what
this structure was used for at all.
LAIRD: Not at the moment, no.
JACK: Because there could have been some feature here
-that was older. -Yeah.
That's why we need to get rid of this stuff
and come down on the good stuff.
I think, Jamie, the first thing you work on
is to the right where the rock came out of.
JAMIE: Yeah, absolutely.
That's gonna be my first area of attack for sure.
-Yeah. -MARTY: Okay.
Well, I'm hoping it yields some clues to what we're after.
-Carry on. -All right, thank you.
-Thanks, Marty. -Yeah.
JAMIE: Thank you.
LAIRD: All right. In we go.
The ultimate goal is to find
artifacts at the bottom of the feature
and get a better idea
of when this structure was built.
We know nothing about it.
We don't know who was there.
Uh, we don't know why they were there.
And we don't know when they were there.
So, this is a first step for us
to solving those questions.
Oh. Hey, Laird.
Yep.
You might want to stop what you're doing
and come take a look at this, my friend.
This is definitely the largest artifact we've found here.
I can guarantee that.
What?
-JAMIE: How about that? -LAIRD: Oh, wow.
FIONA: You think you can get it out in one piece? -Oh, yeah.
FIONA: Oh, lovely!
JAMIE: This is incredible!
NARRATOR: While investigating
the mysterious circular feature on Lot 5,
Jack Begley and members of the team
have just made a potentially important discovery.
JACK: That is a big piece of pottery, isn't it?
LAIRD: It's coarse earthenware.
-We call it Anglo American ware. -JAMIE: Okay.
LAIRD: So, it's either from England
or it's from possibly Pennsylvania.
Uh, would've been a large cooking vessel.
When do you think that'd date to?
So, very broadly, second half of the 1700s,
-like maybe 1770s. -Oh, wow.
NARRATOR: A large piece of pottery,
that may predate the discovery of the Money Pit
by more than two decades?
Was it left behind by those who created this feature?
Or by someone who found it already in place?
LAIRD: Cool. You have a bag?
FIONA: I do. It's over in my knapsack.
All right. I'll go put it there.
-Thanks. -Great find.
Okay, let's find the rest of it now.
NARRATOR: As Jack Begley and members of the team
look for additional clues
in the circular depression on Lot 5...
-Away we go, mate! -RICK: Okay.
NARRATOR: ...less than 100 yards away
Rick Lagina and Gary Drayton
are searching an area
where they have made some of the oldest discoveries
ever documented not only on Oak Island
but in all of North America.
RICK: You're about due for a coin, Gary.
I am, overdue a coin.
-Yay! It's a coin! -(laughter)
NARRATOR: One week ago,
Gary, along with Rick,
Marty and their partner Craig Tester...
SANDY: This is clearly Roman design.
-(laughter) -Roman, baby!
NARRATOR: ...unearthed four ancient coins in this area,
making a total of five
that have been discovered in the past year.
Incredibly, three of these coins
have been determined by numismatist Sandy Campbell
to date between 500 AD and 300 BC
and to also be of Roman origin.
RICK: Lot 5 is a complete mystery.
It's a mystery in terms of the man-made constructs,
uh, the kinds of artifacts
that have come out of the ground,
it's mystifying.
GARY: It's got to come out, 'cause I don't know what it is.
-Right in the middle, mate. -Okay.
GARY: Thank you, sir.
(detector beeping)
Sounds a little bit better now.
(beeping)
RICK: Come on, be something.
Some kind of strap.
And this looks like it goes down,
like to a point there, and then down there.
It's almost decorative. Like a decorative strap.
RICK: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it could be just something
broken off of something else.
Yeah, a lot of these straps were around boxes, or chests.
-That would be cool. -There you go.
I would imagine this has something to do with whatever
that depression is over there.
NARRATOR: A strap? Possibly from a box?
Or chest?
Could Gary be correct
that it might be related
to the nearby circular depression?
Or might it possibly be connected
to the numerous Roman coins
that the team has found in this area?
GARY: That CT scanner will give us a good view of this.
At that point, you no longer have to speculate
as to what it is, you speculate as to its purpose.
-Yeah. -RICK: The information that Emma
and the, uh, CT scan will provide,
might be very highly revealing what it means
to the feature on Lot 5.
You can't argue with the science.
It will be what it will be,
and hopefully that information
connects up to the greater mystery.
GARY: Let's see if we can rustle up another find.
(detector beeping)
(beeping rapidly)
We've got something in this area.
Let me just brush the stuff away
and then take another swing, all right?
(detector beeping)
Not sure what it is. It's this side of that root.
(grunts) Wow.
It's not an easy one.
GARY: Huh.
(detector beeping)
Think it's out.
-Could be iron. -(beeping)
It is iron.
Chunky iron. Look at that.
The heck is that?
No idea.
-Heavy? -Oh, yeah. It's heavy.
Well, I believe this is some kind of fastener
by the look of it.
-Mm-hmm. -And it could be a rose-head type fastener.
It's old.
A lot of that old, hand-forged iron
tends to be on the heavy side.
RICK: Well, we're close
to the most prominent feature on Lot 5, right?
And if there was a structure,
what do you need to put a structure together?
-The fasteners, right? -Yeah.
RICK: Why are we finding bits of iron
on lots where significant finds are made?
It is very strange given the fact that
iron was a valuable resource,
and you wouldn't just waste it.
So, what is the explanation?
As of yet, I don't think we know.
And these are the type of things that you show to Carmen.
And you never know, it could be
more than what we believe it is.
-Adding to the story on Lot 5. -Yep.
Emma's gonna be busy.
NARRATOR: Later that afternoon...
TERRY: This is the one, gentlemen.
This could be the one, right here.
-Hi, guys. -Oh, hi, guys.
-Hey. -What's going on?
Uh, we're just pushing to 108 right now.
NARRATOR: ...Marty Lagina and his son Alex
join Craig Tester and other members of the team
in the Money Pit area.
-We're going from 98 to 108. -Okay!
NARRATOR: ...as the drilling operation in borehole D.5N-26.5
has now reached the target depth
where they hope to encounter a tunnel
and evidence of buried treasure.
Now, this is really the money stroke here from 98 to 108.
We'll pull that up. I mean, right there,
that should have top to bottom
our intersection of the tunnel.
If there is a tunnel.
-What do we got, Mike? -108.
108. Great.
Oh, here we go. Another one right here.
There's wood. We got it!
-What? -Really?
Right on. Excellent.
Wow.
-106 probably? -Yeah.
Yep.
It's back up higher here.
There's wood there as well, yep.
CHARLES: Comin' in!
-Thanks, Mike. -Thanks, Mike.
Perhaps another piece?
Wow. About 106 and a half, we intersected that beam.
This does in no way resemble soft, tight, dense maroon till.
This is very soft and slushy.
-Interesting. -Terry, is that--
Is that another chunk?
Something there. What's that? What's that?
SCOTT: Oh, yeah, that's a nice chunk right there.
Another good chunk of it right here.
TERRY: Wow.
SCOTT: Lots of little flecks in here.
So, we see kind of a debris trail here, coming down.
And we get bigger and bigger as we come down
toward the chunk at the bottom here.
There it is, guys.
We must be close to some type of a structure.
And I'm guessing...
it's probably a tunnel.
TERRY: It's got to be a tunnel.
Is it the same structure?
-We're not sure. -ALEX: It's possible.
NARRATOR: In the Money Pit area,
the Oak Island team has just recovered
evidence of a possible tunnel
several feet east of the Garden Shaft.
The question is:
could it be the same tunnel
believed to run directly below the feature
and into the Baby Blob
where they have detected high-trace evidence
of both silver and gold?
-Hi, Rick. How you doing? -RICK: Hey.
Core is down at that end.
Go on down there. Brief him, Scott.
Well, you can see in this core we've been finding wood.
It really kind of picks up here to here.
And you'll notice it's on a pretty good line
with the Garden Shaft tunnel,
which we find over on the west side.
Rick, that wood right there
matches pretty much exactly.
Yep. This could potentially be our first hit
of the Garden Shaft tunnel on this side.
MARTY: The reason it's likely, in my mind,
that this wood we just found is associated
with the tunnel underneath the Garden Shaft
is because it lines up
with other hits we have to the west
and it's at the proper depth.
This one is a mystery tunnel.
We don't know where this one goes,
we don't know who did it, we don't know why.
I think this thing is proving to be very long,
-and it's-it's mysterious. -Yeah.
I wonder if we couldn't rush an expedited C-14 test.
-Yes. -Yes.
The effort here is about dating that structure.
Does it reflect original work,
or does it reflect searcher work?
And if it's not searcher, it could lead to anything.
It could lead to an offset chamber.
Well, I mean, I think this is a good...
a good discovery.
This is the first wood
we've gotten on the east side
of the Garden Shaft.
MARTY: Correct. It's more verification,
which makes it really exciting
about what Dumas is going to find
when they go down.
But we have to keep following it
because it could be a tunnel
to the offset chamber that we seek.
NARRATOR: Could Marty Lagina's assessment be correct?
Is it possible that when Dumas Contracting Limited
is permitted to extend the bottom of the Garden Shaft
they will encounter a tunnel
that may lead them to the fabled treasure
that people have been trying to find
for more than two centuries?
MARTY: We need to keep going.
And I'd jump pretty far this time. Like ten feet.
Yep. We'll get more information
the closer we get to the Garden Shaft itself.
-I agree. -Okay. Good.
Let's follow it and see what it is.
MARTY: Okay. Let's pick a hole.
STEVE: Sounds good.
NARRATOR: The following morning...
IAN: They just pushed in, right?
CHARLES: Yeah.
He's got 30 feet of core barrel on there.
NARRATOR: ...as the drilling of a new borehole
known as D.5N-25.5
begins in the Money Pit area...
-RICK: There he is. -CARMEN: How are you?
-Carmen. -Hey, Carmen, how are you?
-Not too bad. -NARRATOR: Rick Lagina
and members of the team meet with blacksmithing expert
Carmen Legge at the Oak Island Interpretive Centre.
As you see, we've got a bunch of items here
that have been recovered from a specific lot of interest.
I see that.
NARRATOR: Carmen has been invited
to examine some of the artifacts that were recently
discovered on Lot 5,
including a 17th century iron latch that was unearthed
in the mysterious circular depression one week ago.
CARMEN: Well, I'll start with this one here,
because you can see that it's a wedge
about four inches long with a ring through it.
The thickness of it indicates that it's very old.
I'd like to see the... the scan of this,
uh, up on the screen for us.
Yeah, sure thing.
NARRATOR: In order to help Carmen examine the artifact,
Emma Culligan is presenting an image
that she generated using
the SkyScan 1273 CT scanner.
The device emits X-ray radiation,
which can penetrate corrosion and sediment on objects
to produce three-dimensional images
of them and their finer details.
RICK: Does that help you at all?
Oh, yes, certainly does, yeah,
'cause you can see down at the bottom there,
there's a certain amount of wear onto it as well.
Hey, can you turn it around so I can see the top?
Yeah, that looks like it wasn't used for repeated use...
So it was inserted in whatever it was into and left.
It would be nice to be able to analyze
-the metal, as well. -Emma?
So, the ring bolt's got no modern indicators.
And it's got the potassium and calcium content throughout,
consistently matching with old context metal.
But the most interesting thing about
this one is that it matched,
100% sensitivity,
with artifacts from the William Phips site.
Yeah, at least 17th century.
-Yeah. -RICK: When William Phips recovered
gold and silver from the Concepcíon,
the salvage of the Concepcíon,
there is, uh... a growing body of evidence
that perhaps he came here.
We know that Phips found silver on the Concepcíon.
And I believe some of the treasure
from the Concepcíon was secreted to Oak Island.
Very interesting.
NARRATOR: In 2019,
32nd-Degree Freemason
Scott Clarke presented a stunning theory
to Rick and members of the team.
According to his research, in 1687,
the English politician turned privateer, Sir William Phips,
conspired with a high-ranking Freemason
named Captain Andrew Belcher to bury
a vast cache of treasure in the Money Pit,
which they had salvaged from the Concepcíon,
a famed Spanish galleon that sank
off the coast of the Dominican Republic
in 1641...
while transporting more than 100 tons of gold,
silver and jewels.
I was contacted by Frank White who had some
archaeological artifacts from the William Phips birthplace.
NARRATOR: Since that meeting, Emma and Laird obtained
and analyzed a number of metal artifacts
that are known to have belonged to Sir William Phips.
And, incredibly, the artifact found in the circular depression
on Lot 5 is an exact compositional match
to those objects.
JACK: What would that be used for?
CARMEN: Well,
the wedge part could be used
for driving into wood or rock.
My guess is-is, it was driven into wood.
It could be used for many purposes.
-GARY: Wow. -JACK: Yeah!
CARMEN: If you wanted to hoist something or lower something
into the ground you would use something like that.
Wow.
NARRATOR: In the Oak Island Interpretive Centre
blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge has just
informed Rick Lagina and members of the team that
the metal latch found in the circular depression
on Lot 5, and which is believed to be connected
to the 17th century privateer Sir William Phips
may have been used to place heavy cargo underground.
We have the possible Phips connection in the metallurgy,
though I'm not sure what that tells us other
than that feature continues to be interesting.
GARY: What I see here is connections
to a certain story from 1795.
-(laughter) -Hoists, block and tackles.
We do know he was in Nova Scotia.
If there was an enterprise conducted here on the part
of Phips, there would be many more objects to find.
But we are not done with Lot 5.
So it may yet prove to be a very interesting find.
Perhaps even significant.
What's next, Carmen?
Um, I think I'll go over to this one here now.
GARY: I'll give you a little bit of context
on that chunky piece of iron.
Found on Lot 5 and when it first came up,
I knew it was old because it's nice and heavy.
And it just had a feel like
it was some kind of broken tool to me or a fastener.
It's very old.
This is much older.
Can we have a, uh, scan of that?
-I need to see the head. -The head? Yep.
CARMEN: From what I see there, on the head there,
it looks like it's a broken end off of something.
-GARY: Yeah. -JACK: It looks to me like it could be
-some sort of a chisel. -Yes. This could be a, uh,
tool that could be used for mining or tunneling.
Wow. And with the size that you've got in your hand, mate,
how much bigger would it have been?
CARMEN: Lengthwise, you'd probably be looking at a foot.
If it's shorter than that,
again, it might not be long enough to fulfill
the purpose of what you want it for.
Could we see the metallurgy, Emma?
Sure thing.
No modern elements.
Potassium and calcium.
So it's, it's an older metal.
So we've got a lot of old fasteners and tools,
and more to come, mate.
Yeah. I'll go with this one here next.
It looks like a bow tie strap.
-You can see how... Yeah, you can see the... -You can see the bow tie.
-What's a bow tie strap? -CARMEN: It was a decorative piece.
It added decoration to it.
It would be narrow, wide, narrow, wide.
All the way around to decorate a chest.
-Oh, so, specifically, chest decorations? -Yeah.
-Wooden boxes and chest. -Okay.
RICK: That's exceedingly interesting.
Is there a cultural influence?
Yes.
-French. -Really?
-CARMEN: Yeah. -Wow.
NARRATOR: A decorative strap from a chest?
One that is not only possibly of French origin,
but may also predate the 17th century?
If so, who brought it to Oak Island?
We've found important artifacts that have been French.
We can't forget, of course, the lead cross
where the testing has indicated that the lead came
from the southern part of France, so...
Yeah. Doesn't get any better than that.
It's curious that this stuff is found
near an area on the Zena map
that is a French map,
that is a possible location for a hatch.
NARRATOR: In 2016, the late author and researcher
Zena Halpern presented maps of Nova Scotia
and Oak Island featuring French writing,
and what she believed had been created between
the 12th and 14th centuries by members of the Knights Templar.
This led Zena to theorize that Oak Island
had been visited numerous times
by the Templars and related organizations
such as the Freemasons in order to hide
sacred valuables.
Is it possible
that the discoveries made
by Rick, Marty and their team,
such as the lead cross and the numerous finds on Lot 5
that predate the discovery of the Money Pit,
offer mounting evidence that Zena's theory is true?
RICK: We have long puzzled about the possibility
that these French items, the lead cross
and Zena's map were associated
with some depositional work.
I have always believed that this work
on Oak Island, the original deposition work,
was started incredibly early.
We just have to fill in the gaps more precisely,
more accurately, more definitively.
But it's very interesting.
CARMEN: The artifacts you've shown me over the years,
is very unique.
There's artifacts coming out of Oak Island
that I haven't seen anywhere else.
That's the reason for this type of analysis.
What we are trying to do is come to an understanding
of what the item represents in terms of the...
complexity of the story on Oak Island.
It's not a simple process.
GARY: Makes me want to get back to Lot 5
-and find some more. -Well, let's have at her.
That's why we have a lot more to dig.
We have a lot more to excavate.
All I can say, Carmen, is thank you.
Appreciate it.
CARMEN: See you later.
NARRATOR: As the team concludes their meeting
at the Interpretive Centre...
STEVE: As long as this borehole stays straight,
-we should hit the tunnel below. -CHARLES: Sounds good.
NARRATOR: Surveyor Steve Guptill, Oak Island
historian Charles Barkhouse
and geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner
continue monitoring the drilling operation
in borehole D.5N-25.5.
He's got something else coming.
NARRATOR: A borehole
located several feet east of the Garden Shaft
where they hope to encounter a tunnel
at a depth of some 105 feet
and more evidence of precious metals.
STEVE: The elevation of the wood that we've been finding
in this area, matches the wood that we found for the tunnel
that goes under the Garden Shaft.
All I'm saying is I hope we hit wood again.
-CHARLES: Yeah. -STEVE: Got a core?
-This is 98 feet. -OTHERS: 98!
CHARLES: Let's hope it's a good one.
IAN: Thank you. Look at that.
-It gets soft right here. -STEVE: Oh, yeah, you can feel it.
-You can see it. -IAN: Yeah. You can see it.
You can take it and you can just break it apart.
Different color, too.
What this means to me,
when you get those different colors,
it's not standard gray till,
it is possible that you're in disturbed ground.
To me it looks odd.
-It does look odd. -IAN: Yeah.
CHARLES: Core coming out.
Let's go, guys.
Looks like they got a full run.
They've got a full run.
What've you got?
Uh, 104 and a half.
STEVE: This is just slush.
This would be the depth of the tunnel.
So we might be inside of it.
Seeing any wood?
-We got a little bit. -IAN: Are you sure?
There's a little bit, just a little bit of...
wood debris at the bottom here.
IAN: Yeah. That-That's wood.
-What we've got here is a tunnel. -Yep.
I would say we are probably inside the tunnel.
-Right. -Yep.
CHARLES: Very, very interesting.
STEVE: Well, we've got Craig and Scott coming.
-Just in time. -CRAIG: Gentlemen!
-STEVE: Hey, guys. How ya doing? -Good.
You guys joined the party at the right time.
NARRATOR: It is an exciting moment for the Oak Island
team in the Money Pit area.
IAN: There's the wood. If you look
around in there, you can find little bits.
NARRATOR: Nearly 105 feet deep
in borehole D.5N-25.5,
they have once again drilled into a possible tunnel.
A tunnel that may lead to the source
of the precious metals,
which have been detected
at the same approximate depth
within a 20-foot radius of the Garden Shaft.
STEVE: I do think this is the tunnel
that goes under the Garden Shaft.
-Everything lines up too well not to be. -Okay.
Typically, we've been going out the bottom of it at 106.
-Yeah. -So I think the next drill,
if we hit wood, we should have the bottom.
CRAIG: Potentially.
We'll see, we'll see what comes up.
The way this tunnel is positioned,
it is sure pointing towards the Garden Shaft.
It's not one of the searcher tunnels,
so is it an original tunnel leading the way to a vault?
CHARLES: We got a core coming!
CRAIG: The water chemistry is telling us
it's a very important area,
so we just need to follow the tunnel.
STEVE: Here we go, fellas.
What've you got, Mike?
-111 and a half. -111 and a half.
SCOTT: There you go. There's our wood.
There's our tunnel.
-Right there. -MIKE: Oh, yeah!
So let's get a measurement on that then. See where we're at.
107 to the wood.
-STEVE: Roughly, that's the zone of interest. -Right.
-So this is matching up well. -Yeah.
Well, we definitely have the tunnel.
I mean, this is a floorboard or ceiling board that fell down.
But it's, you know, it's definitely wood.
It's definitely at the interval we want.
Yep.
RICK: We've hit this tunnel
in multiple locations.
I think we now have a certainty at the elevation of this tunnel.
Right now, we have suspicions of a target.
We don't have a really hard target.
And thus the reason to try to follow that line
of tunnel detection holes
to understand the direction that the tunnel is taking.
Because we are going to extend the Garden Shaft.
And then there's the possibility that we could
put in our own tunnel and maybe it will
help us find the treasure.
What about drilling another well
in this area?
Yeah. I think that's the best thing
-to do at this point. -Okay.
CRAIG: All right!
MIKE: That sounds good.
NARRATOR: The following morning...
RICK: What are we looking at and what
have we done, from a scientific perspective,
to understand the importance
-of these finds? -...in the Interpretive Centre
Rick Lagina meets with archaeometallurgist
Emma Culligan and other members of the team to receive
her analysis of two wood samples that were collected
from different boreholes during the past two weeks.
The first was obtained
from borehole DN-12,
which sets to the west of the Garden Shaft
in the Baby Blob or possible treasure zone.
While the second was taken just several feet east
of the Garden Shaft in borehole
D.5N-26.5.
STEVE: So we've spent a lot of this year in the Money Pit
looking for the tunnel that goes under the Garden Shaft.
And we've been trying to find it on the west side, which would be
this piece and the east side, which is this piece
if it's the same tunnel.
And to add to that, too, I mean, we know last year
whenever they were digging in the Garden Shaft,
they were taking some samples on the way down
and we saw some gold in the wood.
We may see something like that in this.
Something to indicate that we're still close to that source.
And right now, we are sort of at a stop gate.
We've drilled a lot on the west side, in the Baby Blob.
And we're running out of room on the east side.
So any piece of information she can give us is gonna
help move this forward.
NARRATOR: Using a device known
as an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer,
Emma has conducted elemental analysis
on the two wood samples in order
to determine if either contain evidence of precious metals.
Well, I think the next turn of events is up to Emma.
-Right, Emma, what did we learn? -Yep.
So you do see a lot of, uh, the potassium and aluminum,
which is what we're used to seeing.
-RICK: Mm-hmm. -Um...
Unfortunately, no gold or silver or tin.
But I am finding points with palladium,
which is something that I was not
expecting, especially at that depth.
.39, which is pretty high for palladium.
And the actual geological association?
I think Moya would be a better judge of that.
-Moya? -Okay.
Palladium can be found
in gold and platinum deposits.
So, if there is the gold treasure,
maybe the gold in the treasure was sourced
from a gold palladium deposit.
NARRATOR: In the Interpretive Centre, Rick Lagina
and members of the team have just learned
that two wood samples obtained from a believed
tunnel located more than 90 feet deep in the Money Pit area,
and which may run directly below the Garden Shaft
contain high traces of palladium,
a precious metal that could be related
to the fabled Oak Island treasure.
Is that for both pieces of wood?
Yeah, so there is exhibit on both pieces.
-Okay. -EMMA: Yeah.
Like, it's not what I would be expecting.
Right.
MOYA: So there isn't
really a palladium deposit,
like, here on this island,
obviously, um, but maybe there's, like, trace
palladium within the treasure, if there is treasure.
NARRATOR: First classified in 1803
by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston,
in modern times palladium
is commonly used to produce
hydro-carbon reducing devices
such as catalytic converters for automobiles.
However, it has often been associated
with jewelry made of gold, silver
and platinum, dating back to as early
as the Ancient Egyptian era.
It's not a common thing that you find, especially around here.
-That's even stranger then. -Yeah.
SCOTT: We should also review the water data to see
if there's any indication of palladium in the water data.
RICK: Palladium might be associated with gold refining
or gold being in the ground.
That would be exceedingly interesting to me.
We have a piece of wood at an elevation
we have significant interest in, so
it's not just a piece of wood, it's a clue.
And this clue needs to be followed.
STEVE: This is great information.
We have a trace on both that suggests it's the same tunnel.
I think we need to get it dated, so C-14 carbon dating.
RICK: I mean, it's interesting analysis, interesting breakdown.
But let's retest and see what happens and then go from there.
We can learn something from this,
and it may be highly instructive.
Ultimately, data like this will affect what
decisions are made regarding the Garden Shaft.
Anyway, uh, thank you, Emma.
-Thank you, yeah. -As always, appreciate it.
And I think the rest of us need to go back out
and to our specified work areas.
Okay. Thanks, everybody.
ALEX: Yep.
NARRATOR: After another week
of surprising discoveries on Oak Island,
Rick, Marty, Craig and their team
have good reason to believe that they are close
to the ultimate breakthrough in a 228-year-old mystery.
And while the evidence that they have unearthed shows
that the Money Pit is more complex than anyone ever knew,
the mounting clues suggest that they are
narrowing in on something not only of great value,
but, also, incredible historic importance.
But one looming question still remains.
Will a deadly curse, that has claimed the lives
of six men so far,
stand in their way?
Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...
That is an unusual find!
But you see on the top right?
-GARY: Yeah. Ooh, yeah. -We get those crazy Roman numerals
and the U-shaped structure, too?
TERRY: I got seven and a half foot of tunnel.
-Yeah, that's nice, eh? -STEVE: You don't build a tunnel like this,
-unless you are moving something important. -Yep.
We want to take a look down in that cavity.
There we go.
SCOTT: Slowly. Whoa!
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