NARRATOR: Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...
MAX: We're excited to present the results
from the muon tomography. So, what we're seeing is
high-density anomaly below the surface of the Money Pit.
We think it's Aladdin's Cave.
It could lead to the treasure.
-I think I've hit a void. -The plot thickens.
Oh! It's here. Look at that.
RICK: This is really something.
-There are letters stamped on. -MARTY: Whoa!
-It could be very old. -Yeah.
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.
♪ ♪
-RICK: Morning, Paul. -COTE: Morning, Rick.
I see you're set up, ready to rock and roll.
Yeah. Roger got us all, uh, moved in.
-Okay. -And he started
-pumping some water. -Right.
How many hours a day are you pumping?
-Six hours, maybe. Yeah. -Oh, really?
NARRATOR: A new day of abounding hope
has begun on Oak Island for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina
and their team as the operation to deepen
the mid-18th-century Garden Shaft
has finally gotten underway.
Is the system gonna be the same, then,
for, like, extracting the material?
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's pretty much the same.
So, we're, uh, we've got a little bit
-of hammer-grabbing to do. -Okay.
Taking out the old spoils and the slime
-from the bottom. -Okay.
And then we'll start adding sets, wood sets.
Right.
NARRATOR: Once representatives
from Dumas Contracting Limited
finish draining water that has flooded
the 82-foot-deep shaft,
they will use a three-ton digging tool,
known as a hammer grab,
to excavate the earth below it
and construct new eight-foot wooden levels,
or sets, in the hope of breaching a mysterious tunnel,
a tunnel that has not only yielded water samples
containing evidence of gold,
but which heads west into the so-called Baby Blob,
where the team has detected the highest traces
of precious metals in the Money Pit area.
There's a lot of hope
regarding this shaft extension work.
We can use the Garden Shaft to drill horizontally
at various elevations, as much as 40 feet out.
So, you're talking about
an 80-foot investigative program.
RICK: I think that we're gonna know
with some certainty what's out there,
and that's important information.
NARRATOR: If high-valued targets
are encountered during the lateral drilling process
and are not reachable within the mysterious tunnel,
Dumas can construct a new tunnel
in order to allow the team to retrieve them
and hopefully solve the 228-year-old mystery.
Well, like last year, I know it's a futile offer, but
if you need an extra body, I'd be happy to go down.
-Sure. Sure. -(both laugh)
-Saves me the work. -And there you go.
-(laughs) -It's a deal.
-Okay. -All right.
And if we're not around the next day,
that means we got the treasure. (laughing)
We'll chase you.
NARRATOR: As the team from Dumas Contracting Limited
continues their work in the Garden Shaft,
later that morning...
RICK: Welcome, everybody, to the war room.
The importance of this meeting can't be overstated.
NARRATOR: Rick, along with
his brother Marty,
their partner Craig Tester,
hydrogeologist Dr. Fred Michel,
and other members of the team
meet with representatives
from Ideon Technologies
for a highly anticipated
scientific report.
So, uh, gentlemen, I'm gonna turn it over to you because, uh,
you certainly have a lot more insight into
the possibilities of what
muon technology will help us with
-as we move forward this year. -Yeah.
We appreciate your time today, uh, from this big group.
Um, and we're excited to present the results,
uh, from the Money Pit.
-Absolutely. -MAX: Great.
So, as you all know, we've deployed
14 sensors in five boreholes
in the Money Pit at depths ranging from
80 to, uh, 250 feet below the surface.
Yeah.
NARRATOR: In 2021,
a team from Ideon was contracted
to place several subsurface devices
deep within five previously drilled boreholes
across the Money Pit area.
These devices detected subatomic particles
which constantly pass through the Earth,
known as muons,
in order to search for evidence of potential voids,
tunnels, and large objects.
It was an intricate process
that needed nearly two full years to complete.
The primary targets we were looking for
were tunnels that crosscut the Money Pit,
vaults or voids,
and of course, um, any high-density anomalies
that could reflect treasure.
Those are the ones I'm interested in.
(laughter)
MAX: I figured.
So, let's move underground.
-Do you want to? -Sure.
DOUG S.: So, if we take all of the detector data
from these months of imaging time,
and we combine them all and run our tomography reconstruction,
you can already see some interesting structures
in the data.
MAX: So, what you're looking at right now
are slices through the 3-D density model of the Money Pit.
Uh, the yellow background
represents kind of the neutral baseline density
of the Money Pit.
Low-density anomalies are in blue
and higher-density anomalies are in orange to red.
CRAIG: Our preference is always the high-density
'cause that may mean treasure,
but a low-density could be a tunnel
or the water portion of a vault.
Do you see anything over by the, uh, Garden Shaft?
And it would be looking more at around the 100-foot level.
Do you see anything over there?
So, this is...
where my mouse is,
this is approximately the area of the Garden Shaft.
That blue and gray column is the Garden Shaft.
There is a high-density anomaly
to the west of the Garden Shaft.
At what depth?
MAX: 65 feet
below the surface of the Money Pit.
And that's a high-density?
MARTY: And then a low-density anomaly directly underneath.
MAX: Correct.
And what depth would that be, the deeper one?
112-ish below the surface of the Money Pit.
Well, Dr. Fred there, those anomalies
over at the Garden Shaft is what we're looking for.
FRED: I would agree with-with Marty.
I mean, there's definitely a high-density area
to the west of the Garden Shaft
in the area of the Blob.
You know, which is where we have the highest
concentrations of gold and silver in the water.
So, I'm-I'm encouraged by that
because it backs up what we've been seeing in the water.
But we can't drill these with Dumas in the Garden Shaft.
Correct.
RICK: Well, the target near the Garden Shaft,
I think presents the option certainly of tunneling to it.
But Dumas is working in close proximity to the Garden Shaft.
We have to give them area to do their work.
So, have you detected anything else?
MAX: So, we'll take a look at a key
high-density anomaly that we picked out.
So, what we're seeing is a high-density anomaly
sitting approximately
85 feet southwest of the Garden Shaft,
about 230 feet below the surface of The Money Pit.
It's significant.
DOUG S.: So, this is looking at that anomaly
in a little more detail.
MARTY: Wow. Is it consistent with, say,
a six-by-six-by-six metal-lined box?
It could be a treasure of some sort.
It's almost got to be something.
But at that depth?
Below the depth
that known searchers have explored.
Yeah.
NARRATOR: A high-density target?
Some 230 feet deep in the Money Pit area?
Could that mean there are potentially multiple treasures
buried on Oak Island?
RICK: When they explain about the high-density target
at 230 feet deep in the bedrock,
it makes one pause and think, "Could it have been done?"
-We got to drill it. -I agree with that.
RICK: The proof will come from some sort of very
disciplined drill program.
But I think we have to investigate it.
Another interesting thing is this
kind of unaccounted for low-density anomaly.
In fact, you've already found something there.
This low-density anomaly perfectly overlaps
the void that you guys call Aladdin's Cave.
STEVE: Right now, we're looking into the cavity.
So, wait. Now, stop.
MARTY: That's pretty square.
Some sort of, like, pedestal sticking out.
NARRATOR: One year ago,
after drilling a borehole known as L-15,
the team discovered a large cavern
to the southwest of the Garden Shaft,
which Marty Lagina dubbed "Aladdin's Cave."
Incredibly,
the team recorded video images
of potential man-made features within it,
and during a subsequent sonar scan...
-SCOTT: Whoa! -STEVE: Oh, that's a good opening.
NARRATOR: ...determined that it was nearly 30 feet long
and 12 feet wide.
-It's not some simple kind of cave. -Right.
It's kind of a tendril going out.
It kind of extends out.
RICK: That tendril going out,
how long is just that?
It's in the 20 feet range,
20, 30 feet.
So, Dr. Michel, what was the results of
the water associated with L-16, Aladdin's Cave?
We have been getting, fairly consistently,
some elevated metal concentrations with that one.
So, we are seeing gold in
the cavity, or Aladdin's Cave.
-RICK: That's stunning. -CRAIG: Absolutely. Yeah.
Wow.
It seems a bit too much to be a coincidence.
NARRATOR: In the war room,
Rick, Marty, Craig, and other members
of the team have just been informed
that muon tomography scans deep below the Money Pit area
have detected potentially
important clues in a large void known as "Aladdin's Cave,"
a previously discovered cavern some
160 feet underground where, one year ago,
water tests revealed high trace evidence of gold.
And if you wanted to kind of figure out what was there,
you would drill right in the middle of the structure.
Yeah.
So, we have a bunch of targets now.
MARTY: Yeah. This is exciting.
This is what we were looking for.
And the fact that you can image
what we call "Aladdin's Cave,"
that's very gratifying.
So, I say, "Let's go drill it."
-Yeah. -MARTY: One of the things we
were concerned about last year about Aladdin's Cave
is it didn't appear
to have an obvious inlet or outlet to it,
but the Ideon data suggests that it does.
We should drill through the muon target.
It's at the right depth to be some sort of vault.
It's at the right depth to have been
protected by a flood tunnel.
It's, uh, it's clearly an offset chamber.
Uh... It could be it.
ALEX: Another piece of good news is that
it's not anywhere near the Garden Shaft,
-which means we can drill it. -Yes.
Which is good for us because I like the cave, right?
Yes.
MARTY: Yeah. I think
we should head for it, Rick.
This is, by far and away,
the most compelling data we've ever had.
Every anomaly that Max and Doug have presented are interesting.
-There's no question about that. -Yep.
This is all really exciting
because it's always been suggested that the Money Pit,
perhaps there were multiple treasure cache locations.
And now, we are finding that
the muon detected evidence of it
and suggestions of work
at various elevations all around the Money Pit.
Does it strongly suggest the possibility
that there are more than one location in the Money Pit?
Yes. In my opinion, it does suggest that.
Well, for me,
we've always believed that it's only by introducing
new technologies that this will ultimately get solved.
And it's by working together
that, ultimately, we might be able to solve
a 228-year-old mystery.
I think I speak for everyone.
-Thank you both very much. -Our pleasure.
So, I think we better get after it.
-Fantastic. Great. -Thank you, everybody.
MARTY: Talk to you all later. Goodbye.
NARRATOR: The following morning,
as representatives from Dumas continue excavating spoils
from underneath the Garden Shaft...
-STEVE: So, we're currently set up on L-14. -TERRY: Yeah.
We're gonna put some of these areas to either rest
or we're gonna find what we're looking for.
Exactly so. All right.
NARRATOR: ...and while drilling begins in a new borehole
known as L-14, where Aladdin's Cave
sets some 160 feet underground...
-PETER: Seems you made a lot of progress. -HELEN: Yeah.
As you can see, we're getting deeper down into it.
PETER: Yeah. Okay.
NARRATOR: ...Peter Fornetti and Jack Begley
join archaeologist Helen Sheldon
and other members of the team on Lot 5.
They are continuing their investigation
of a mysterious stone foundation,
a feature which has been dated
to the same era as the Garden Shaft,
and which appears to have been deliberately buried.
Whatever this was, the fill indicates
that it was buried
mid to late 1700s.
-Yeah. -JACK: But that means that someone buried this
around the discovery time of the Money Pit or
maybe even just before.
Well, see, the interesting thing is,
like, as we get into the middle of it, the rubble fill
in the middle is obviously post-construction.
That's, like, abandonment of whatever this feature is.
So, the feature itself is earlier than that.
-Yeah. -Right?
So, we need to get down to the bottom
and see if there's anything remaining on the bottom
-under there. -Mm-hmm.
So, Helen, what would be the best use of Jack and I?
Um, Jack's really good at screening.
-I love it. Yeah. -Yep.
You can do that. Um,
-you join Lindy in that unit. -Yep.
And just start troweling away, and we'll find something.
-Okay. Sounds good. -Yep.
-Let's get to it. -Okay.
NARRATOR: While Peter, Moya, and Lindy
carefully remove earth and sediments
from the bottom of the feature,
Jack will sift through them with a screen
to search for any important clues or artifacts.
Wow.
-Hey, Moya. -MOYA: Yeah?
I found a bit of metal.
Oh, wow. Thank you.
JACK: I think it's like a staple or something.
MOYA: Yeah. To me, it kind of almost looks
like a chain link.
JACK: Oh.
I don't know. What do you think, Helen?
It's kind of...
Let me see it. (grunts)
Yeah, it is more like chain link that's been fused together.
NARRATOR: A piece of chain link?
Found in the rectangular stone feature on Lot 5?
Could it be a clue that a heavy object
was once hauled away from or into this structure?
HELEN: We can CT this back in the lab
and see if that's an actual link-linkage in there
under all the corrosion.
MOYA: And get it cleaned off
to see what it looks like.
-Thanks, Jack. Good find. -JACK: Oh, for sure.
I'm really hoping, right at the bottom layer,
we find something cool that really helps show
this wasn't a domestic site but military
-or something like that. -Yeah. Yeah.
PETER: Well, there's only one way to find out,
-and that's for us to keep digging. -HELEN: Keep digging.
NARRATOR: As the investigation on Lot 5 continues...
GARY: Where there's muck, there's money.
(Charles laughs)
NARRATOR: ...back in the Money Pit area,
metal detection expert Gary Drayton
and Oak Island historian Charles Barkhouse
prepare to search through the spoils that have
recently been removed from below the Garden Shaft.
I wasn't joking, mate, when I said we was
gonna get stuck in.
Oh, we are gonna get stuck in.
And it smells like treasure.
You know, Gary, I've got to be honest, I was hoping treasure
would smell a little different than this.
Oh, it will smell good, mate,
when we're holding it in our hands.
But seriously, mate,
this is the material that I'm interested in
because, last year, we got those hits...
-Yeah. -...at the bottom of the Garden Shaft,
those nonferrous hits.
All right.
Oh, that's the best sounding target.
That's a nonferrous, yeah.
-Really? -Yep.
NARRATOR: Just before the team was forced to halt
their search operations last winter,
Gary, Rick, and Marty obtained evidence
of possible precious metals in the mud
several feet below the Garden Shaft.
If we're in here, mate, we are gonna pull them out today.
-So, let's get at it. -Yeah.
All right. Let's see what we've got in here.
NARRATOR: Now, it is Gary and Charles' hope
that they will make an important discovery
that appeared to be just out of reach last year.
Even though I know it's iron, it's coming out.
-It's coming out. Okay. -Yeah.
I'll try pinpointing it, mate.
Want me to dig it?
I'm nearly there, mate.
Ooh, what's this?
Big chunk.
It's here.
NARRATOR: While searching through the spoils unearthed
from the bottom of the Garden Shaft...
Some kind of, like, metal wedge?
NARRATOR: ...Gary Drayton and Charles Barkhouse have
just found a potentially important clue.
GARY: What do you think?
CHARLES: You know what that reminds me of? You know that,
when you put an axe handle into a wooden staff, right?
They put a wedge in the top to drive it in to kind of
-lock it in? -Yeah.
NARRATOR: A possible metal wedge from an axe
found more than 80 feet deep
near the bottom of the Garden Shaft?
CHARLES: Yeah. That's pretty cool.
NARRATOR: Could it have been left behind
by those who built the structure
as early as 1735?
If so, might it be an important clue
that may help determine just who they were?
All right. That's going in the pouch.
All of this stuff will go back to Emma in the lab.
There might be a little diamond in the rough.
Literally in the rough.
CHARLES: If we could find something like that, that'd be great.
GARY: I think we're done, mate.
We'll wait for this to dry out
and then see if there's anything hiding right at the bottom.
CHARLES: Sounds like a plan.
GARY: All right, mate. Good digging.
NARRATOR: While Gary and Charles take their discovery back
to the Oak Island laboratory for analysis,
just to the west,
in the Money Pit area...
TERRY: Hopefully, we'll get down into the cavern.
The cave could turn into something very interesting.
NARRATOR: ...other members of the team
continue drilling borehole L-14,
several feet southwest of the Garden Shaft.
So, we're gonna have a new hole,
new location in the cavity.
NARRATOR: A borehole where they hope
to encounter a possible treasure chamber
160 feet underground known as "Aladdin's Cave."
SCOTT: We may see something that we didn't see before.
Yeah, it was a relatively large, man-sized cavern.
But this hole's gonna tell the tale.
-A big void? -Oh, yeah.
STEVE: We have Mike coming over.
TERRY: Hey, Mike.
So, I'm at, uh... I'm at 142 and half,
and I think I've hit a void or something soft.
-Do you want me to keep pushing deeper? -Yeah.
Let's get an idea of where it's open.
-All right. -Okay?
-The plot thickens. -The plot thickens.
NARRATOR: A void at a depth of just 142 feet?
Having previously encountered evidence of Aladdin's Cave
at 160 feet, is it possible
that the top of the cavern--
where the team has detected trace evidence of gold--
sits at a much higher elevation than previously thought?
TERRY: Uh, look, that's interesting.
The roof could be a little higher in this area.
SCOTT: Yeah. I mean, when you look at the 3D
model of it, it's not a regular shape around that.
So, I mean, I'm not surprised to find it higher.
Yeah.
MARTY: Aladdin's Cave remains very interesting to me because
I can't think of a geologic reason it's there.
And yet, it is there.
I think it's plausible
that Aladdin's Cave
could either have been an original repository,
or it could be where the Money Pit collapsed.
Either way, there could be something valuable in that cave.
So, I'm down to 148, and there's nothing in there.
-Open space? -Open space.
-TERRY: All right. -STEVE: That's what we want.
TERRY: Thank you.
SCOTT: I think this hole was a great success.
We wanted to get down into that cavity and, uh,
find some space there where we could use the camera
and this new sonar that we have.
Our sonar is still a week away,
so it's kind of why we want to drill this hole now.
Give it time to settle out, and it can give us a clearer image.
NARRATOR: In the coming days,
the Oak Island team will further investigate Aladdin's Cave
with both a high-definition camera
and a three-dimensional sonar device
after the clouds of silt and sediment have been given time
to settle at the bottom of the potentially man-made cavern.
We are not leaving this island this year
without having a go at this Aladdin's Cave.
We know that there are precious metals
dissolved in the water that came out of Aladdin's Cave.
Well, geez, I mean, if you add those things up,
it sounds like a cavity that has treasure in it.
Step one was a success.
TERRY: Yeah. L-14 is going
to yield up some secrets very shortly.
SCOTT: Now, it's just a matter of ground-truthing it.
TERRY: Exactly.
NARRATOR: The following morning...
ROGER: There we go. Looking good.
NARRATOR: ...as representatives from Dumas Contracting Limited
continue their work in the Garden Shaft...
-RICK: More flags I see, Gary. -GARY: Yeah, mate.
-This is the coin zone, mate. -This is the treasure zone.
NARRATOR: ...Rick Lagina
and Gary Drayton arrive on Lot 5,
located on the western side of the island.
They are returning to search the area
where they have previously discovered five ancient coins,
three of which are of Roman origin
and have been determined to be approximately 2,000 years old.
And I've got to be honest.
A couple of these flags sound like they could be coins.
-That would be fantastic. -(laughs)
-Here you go. -All right. See what we've got.
-All right, first one up. -(beeping)
-RICK: That ain't bad. -Good sounding target, mate.
Just there.
(groans)
(grunts)
Well, that's not what we're looking for.
Nope. Not unless it's on top of a treasure chest.
All right, let's see.
(beeping)
-Ooh. Still in the hole. -Yeah.
-RICK: It's iron though, isn't it? -Nope.
-RICK: There she be. -Yup.
It's in my hand.
Now, we both know that was down there.
That's deep target.
What's that?
GARY: What the heck is this?
-RICK: What's that? -GARY: I like the shape of it.
NARRATOR: Near the middle
of Lot 5 on Oak Island...
GARY: See that edge there, mate?
RICK: Can't be a button.
NARRATOR: ...Rick Lagina and Gary Drayton
have just made a curious discovery.
What've we got, mate, is that a bit of ancientness in that.
GARY: Oh!
Ooh! It's here. Old coin.
It looks like a really old coin, mate.
Look at that. Oh!
-RICK: That is thick. -Ooh!
Yeah, that is thick, mate.
-GARY: Oh! -That is beautiful.
Wow. Look at that. There's no mistaking that.
-Yeah. -That ain't no button.
NARRATOR: Could Gary and Rick be correct
that they have found another potentially ancient coin
on Lot 5?
If so, could it offer more evidence
that this area may be directly connected
to the 228-year-old treasure mystery?
We know, mate, when we pulled those ancient coins out
in this area before,
they've just got that look and feel about them.
Let me... Let me feel
-how heavy it is. -Here you go, mate.
-Ooh, it's heavy. -Yeah, that is.
And that baby was down there.
You know, what the heck happened here, Gary?
Yeah. I mean, there's some secrets still in this area here.
RICK: As the work on Lot 5 continues to evolve,
I continue to be puzzled by it.
We have always sought to find connective tissue
between the lots and the original depositional work.
And so, I think that's the hope on Lot 5.
Once all of the artifacts are analyzed,
then you will be able to say with some sort of clarity that,
"Yes, this presents an answer."
-That goes back to the lab. -Yeah.
That goes back to the lab, mate.
So, we have got to put this in the bag.
RICK: That's cool. Very cool.
GARY: Bloody fantastic.
NARRATOR: The following morning as operations continue
in both the Garden Shaft and Aladdin's Cave
in the Money Pit area...
RICK: So, Gary and I happened to be out on Lot 5 up
into the areas where we had found the Roman coins, right?
-Mm-hmm. Good area. -Well,
we came across this.
NARRATOR: ...Rick joins Marty
in the Interpretive Centre
for a meeting with archaeologist Laird Niven
and archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan,
who have both had the opportunity
to examine the artifact discovered one day ago on Lot 5.
We were ecstatic when... when this came out of the ground.
We thought, "Wow. This is really something."
MARTY: I mean, Laird, what do you think it is?
When I first saw it, I knew...
-It's lead, right? -Mm-hmm.
LAIRD: So, I discounted coin.
My best guess was that it was a bag seal.
-Oh. Another one of those. -Yeah.
NARRATOR: Dating back to as early as the 13th century,
lead bag seals were fasteners used across Europe
to package large quantities
of both industrial and military goods.
Three years ago, the team discovered a lead bag seal
just west of the swamp on Lot 32.
Incredibly, lead isotope testing indicated
it was a compositional match
not only to the 14th-century lead barter token
found one year ago on Lot 5
but also the 14th-century lead cross
that was unearthed at Smith's Cove in 2017.
RICK: So, what made you come
to a bag seal assessment?
Um, it was that little... the little, cut section there.
Because bag seals are two lead circles brought together
and then stamped.
MARTY: Well, I'm guessing
we have results from the machines over here
-and our own Emma. -I do.
NARRATOR: Earlier this morning,
Emma analyzed the new discovery made on Lot 5
using the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer,
a device that emits non-destructive radiation
in order to determine
the elemental composition of objects.
So, this is the scanning XRF.
EMMA: So, it is lead. It has
very little impurities, but it does have
some iron impurities and a little bit of copper.
And I did get a report on another bale seal or bag seal
-that you guys found. -Mm-hmm.
And it doesn't match with that.
So, I can say that it's not exactly the same composition.
But the most interesting part is the image
on the front surface there.
-RICK: Definitely letters, that's for sure. -LAIRD: Yeah.
And the first letter that was obvious to us was the "K."
MARTY: Oh, those letters.
-"E" is it? I see an "E." -LAIRD: Yup.
This should be "K-E-R."
And we were having a hard time tracking down
what "C-K-E-R" Was.
But we were able to find an exact match.
The is the example I found.
And it says "I. Lloyd" on the top,
and the "I" is actually "J."
"I. Lloyd Packers,"
-and on the bottom, it says, "London." -MARTY: Oh.
So, this is a cloth packer's seal
from the 1700s.
They were the people-- they got the cloth
and literally packed them into the bales.
-Oh. -And then sealed them.
The bale it was sealing was about half a ton.
-Wow. -MARTY: So, half ton.
I mean, would the military use such a thing?
If you had a bunch of soldiers, they need cloth.
LAIRD: Yeah, and ironically,
this company was listed as army packers.
-Oh. -So, there's a direct connection with the military.
Wow.
I haven't been able to find a great date
for the, uh... for the company.
We found one entry from 1808, giving
their address in London, but I think it's previous.
MARTY: Why do you think it's older?
It was the use of "I" instead of "J."
It's "I. Lodge," and the "I" is for "John."
So, that usage went out of fashion?
Yeah. Js came into use in, like, 1524.
So, it's an older use.
It's an artifact in itself.
Then that would imply that it could be very old.
-Much older. -MARTY: Still potentially means
anytime between 1500, and let's say, 1800,
this bag seal arrived on Oak Island.
-Is that fair? -Yes.
NARRATOR: A bag seal designed for packaging
large quantities of goods for the British military?
Dating to as early as the 1500s?
And found on Lot 5?
Because the team has found artifacts and structures
on Lot 5 that date back as much as 2,000 years,
could this bag seal have been left by people
who hid something of great value on Oak Island
prior to 1795?
Or was it left by someone who came here
in order to search for the fabled treasure?
Look, is this interesting? Yes.
Does it provide pathways to-to learn more? Sure.
Find out about that company.
Well, and there's a lot of stuff, Rick, adding up
to saying something dramatically different than homesteading.
-It does. And then, the military component. -MARTY: Okay.
Rick, go grab Gary and find some more stuff.
-(laughs) -Let's figure this thing out.
RICK: I agree.
JAMIE: How are you guys doing?
-BOTH: Good. -Everything's been great.
-We're, uh, we're about halfway through here. -Okay.
-We're starting to get close to our round feature, so... -Mm-hmm.
We'll keep walking the transects and
gather some more data.
NARRATOR: At the northern region
of Lot 5 on Oak Island...
LAIRD: These instruments are really important for us.
NARRATOR: ...Craig Tester joins Laird Niven
and Jamie Kouba, where they have just begun
a new underground scanning operation
near the mysterious circular feature.
This electro-magnetic induction instrument actually
forces a field into the ground, which then reacts off of things.
All right. Okay.
NARRATOR: Following the recent discoveries within
and near the stone depression,
which have been dated to between the 14th and 18th centuries,
the Oak Island team has obtained a device
known as Geonics EM38B from the anthropology department
of St. Mary's University in the city of Halifax.
Things like, say, fire can change the geochemical
properties of the ground
-and actually make it more magnetic. -Okay.
So, yeah, I'm hoping to find some areas of interest.
Okay.
NARRATOR: By emitting magnetic pulses into the ground,
the EM-38B can detect not only buried metal artifacts,
as well as wooden or stone structures,
but also so-called "susceptible" qualities,
such as changes in layers of soil
that were created by human activity.
Once you collect the data,
we'll get it sent out to St. Mary's, right?
-And get it finally processing? -Yes.
-Absolutely. -Okay. Well, why don't you run it.
-Perfect. -If you find anything,
-let us know. Okay. -I will.
CRAIG: We've been exploring the circular feature,
trying to determine what that is.
But we need to keep gathering information.
What else is in the area under the ground?
And so, we're looking for structures, artifacts,
and hopefully,
they can determine
who built it, and-and what for.
-(beeping) -Huh.
That's... that's actually kind of interesting.
Hey, guys.
-Hey. -Okay. So, what'd you find?
So, I just paused it here because I didn't
want to keep moving on, but check this out.
Notice what's happening with those lines?
Yeah. Separating more.
There's definitely something happening with
both the conductivity and the susceptibility, so...
-Okay. -It's in an interesting location.
It really is. Yeah. This close to that round feature.
LAIRD: It could be a structure. This is what we're looking for.
I'm actually excited about the anomaly, particularly given
its proximity to the round feature.
I think it's related to the round feature.
I think it's something that would have been used
at the same time as the round feature.
So, people settled on Lot 5
at a time that we have no record of anyone else
being on the island.
Yeah, running several more lines will give me
an idea on how wide it is.
LAIRD: But the data has
to go and get processed
before we can actually get a visual idea of what's there.
Each of the lines are set up at about 50 centimeters apart.
If we're seeing something here, it'll tell us.
Are we seeing it on the next line
and the next line?
And that'll let us know how big
this potential anomaly is,
and where exactly it's located.
LAIRDD: That's what I'm waiting for.
Because we'll be able to pinpoint where to excavate.
-Yeah. -CRAIG: Okay.
-We'll, keep after it. -That sounds good.
-Okay. -All right. Thank you.
Bye, guys. See you later.
CRAIG: Well, good start.
LAIRD: Yeah. I think it's great.
NARRATOR: The following morning...
-RICK: Morning, Craig. -CRAIG: Hey, guys.
NARRATOR: ...Craig Tester joins Rick Lagina
and other members of the team via video conference
for an important meeting in the war room.
Getting reports like this carbon dating is kind of exciting.
You know, it's something we look forward to
because we were hoping,
and maybe these reports will differentiate
between searcher work and perhaps
original, depositional work.
NARRATOR: Craig has just received
a carbon-dating report
on a wood sample collected one week ago
from a depth of some 100 feet
in borehole C5N-27.
A borehole where the team encountered a mysterious tunnel
believed to run below the Garden Shaft
and into the Baby Blob.
Why don't you, uh, give us the results, please?
CRAIG: Sure thing.
We had a wood chip.
We sent it out to get a carbon date on it.
And the, uh,
specific brackets are 53.2%:
1726 to 1811.
25.5%:
1644 to 1694.
And 16.7%:
1917 and 1950.
There's a high probability this wood's
the outer edge of a tree.
-Right. -So, I tend to think these dates I'm giving you
are fairly close
to the time it was chopped down.
So, to me, you know, the results from C.5N-27
mean it-it really
puts it into pre-searcher.
I just think this could indicate
that it's a, uh, original work.
-RICK: Wowza. -JACK: Whoa.
This could indicate that it's a original work.
Wowza. (laughs)
Well, that's good to hear.
(laughter)
NARRATOR: In the Oak Island war room,
Craig Tester has just revealed
carbon-dating results which offer more evidence
that the tunnel they have been tracking below the Garden Shaft
may very well be related to the original Money Pit.
Those dates line up with the other dates
we found on what we deemed to be the same tunnel.
D.5N26.5, they were all 1600 to 1700s as well.
Yes. And none of those make sense for searcher.
STEVE: I mean, it's very exciting because
it's starting to confirm that this is probably all
-one continuous tunnel. -Yep.
So, I recall that in the Garden Shaft,
we found a piece of wood that dated to 1735.
Yeah. And the Money Pit seems to have been,
at least from this data and other data,
built sometime in what, the late 1600, early 1700s?
There must be some sort of a connection to the tunnel.
-Yeah. I- I would agree. -Yeah.
I think the dating of those wood chips, though,
paints a compelling picture for staying the course
as far as deepening the Garden Shaft goes.
Because once we deepen the Garden Shaft, and hopefully
break into this tunnel, we might have an open tunnel there.
-Sure. Absolutely. -JACK: Yeah.
If it is original works and a depositor tunnel,
it could lead to a new discovery,
-or the treasure. -RICK: Exactly.
These new C-14 results
certainly raise the level of anticipation in the war room.
I mean, we are engaged in a process that will
get us to that elevation where this tunnel exists.
Can we put our eyes and our boots on original work?
And this may represent that opportunity.
I'm quite pleased by all of the efforts to date
for one simple reason: I came here wanting to prove
to all of us, to myself and to the world, literally,
that Oak Island was real.
And now, perhaps, we are on the cusp
of the answers, right?
We've got a lot of work to do.
We need to get after it. So, thanks, Craig, for the data.
-See you guys. -See you, Craig.
JACK: Thanks for the info.
NARRATOR: For more than 200 years,
Oak Island has defied all who faithfully worked
to unearth something of great value in the Money Pit.
Their only certainty was that
someone went to great lengths
to ensure that it would never be found.
But now, through their equally determined efforts
and disciplined applications of science,
Rick, Marty, Craig and their team have made it
all but certain that there are multiple locations
where treasure may lie buried.
And nothing, not even a deadly curse,
can defy their will
to solve the mystery.
Next time, on The Curse of Oak Island...
FIONA: What is this? Oh, look at that.
-Oh, my God! -That looks like the handle of something.
We suspect that it's from the 1700s.
Even earlier.
-Really? -Absolutely.
MARTY: We have an opening into this cavern.
Yeah. It looks man-made.
It's amazing.
Okay, going in.
MARTY: We're all eager to see
-Aladdin's Cave. -ALEX: Stop!
STEVE: What is that? Wow.
This is different.
This is way different than anything we've seen.
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