[Narrator] Tonight, on the thrilling season finale
of The Curse of Oak Island...
-[Marty] Start your engines. -[Craig] If there's
-a vault below here, this could tell us. -[Fiona] Wow.
[Jack] It could lead literally to where
treasure's deposited.
[Rick] Whoa. Check this out.
This is strange.
This came from 200 feet in the Money Pit?
-That's incredible. -Oh, yeah.
-[laughs] -Oh, you got it.
-Oh, my gosh. -Oh, wow.
It's treasure, from the Money Pit spoils.
-[Katya] That's amazing. -[Emma] Yeah. -And it's ours.
[laughter]
[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.
♪ ♪
[Alex] Well, guys, it's a new day.
So, I'm optimistic here in Money Pit-1.
Terry, remind me what depth we finished at yesterday.
-Finished up at 138. -Okay.
[Narrator] Winter is fast approaching on Oak Island,
which means the year will soon come to an end
for Rick, Marty and their team.
But as they excavate a key target in the Money Pit area,
they may have all the time they need
to solve a 231-year-old mystery.
[Terry] We're just about 12 to 20 feet short
of the actual solution channel top.
[Alex] So, high hopes.
We're just now getting to the most interesting depth,
and it's only gonna get better from here on out.
[Gary] And that's music
to my ears because that means it could be artifacts
at any level we're going through.
Mm-hmm.
[Narrator] The seven-foot-diameter shaft,
known as Money Pit-1 or MP-1,
is located in a region where soil and water tests
from more than 200 feet deep in the solution channel
have revealed unnaturally high traces of silver.
[Terry] Swag time.
All right, Terry, let's get stuck in.
You got it.
[Narrator] And even more compelling
is the fact that those silver levels
match the composition of the so-called Pitblado coin,
a 14th-century silver coin
reportedly extracted from the original Money Pit in 1849
by a drilling foreman named James Pitblado.
[detector beeping]
Big signal here, mate.
[detector squeals]
Is that it, there?
[detector beeping]
[Terry] Wow.
-[Gary] Oh, piece of drill pipe. -Piece of drill pipe.
-Looks about two inches. -Yeah.
[Terry] It's a little bigger than that inch-and-a-half stuff.
So, it's a little different, isn't it?
-Yeah. -Okay.
-Be interested to see how old that is. -Yeah.
Well, that was an interesting go.
What'd you find?
-Two-inch pipe. -Two-inch pipe?
-[Terry] Yeah. -So, the last time
we found two-inch pipe out here,
that dated in the lab to mid-1800s.
-Right. -We figured it may be connected
to the Pitblado incident, right?
-Yeah. -I think this is more of that same pipe.
Yeah.
[Narrator] Earlier this year,
as the team was core drilling
just a few feet from this location,
they recovered an identical piece of drill pipe
that was scientifically dated to the same era
as James Pitblado's drilling operation.
We are chasing the collapse of the Money Pit.
So, it's possible that we are in the vicinity
-of the original Money Pit. -Exactly.
[Terry] It's an interesting artifact.
-Hey, guys. -[Alex] Hey. -[Gary] Hello, mate.
Hey, Adam. How you doing? So, what do you got?
-We're at 151. -Great.
Uh, we're gonna push pretty hard here on this--
these next few, uh, turns.
-Sounds good. -Sounds good.
Everything from here on out is gonna be good for us, I think.
-Good. -Okay, guys.
-Thank you for the update. -[Adam E.] Yep.
See you, mate.
[Terry] Onward and downward, for sure.
-Mm-hmm. -Target depth's about 215.
We've just, we've just got to get down there.
[Narrator] As the dig continues in the MP-1 Shaft...
[Marty] Hey, Laird, Fiona.
-I got my support troops here today. -Uh-oh.
-You sure do. -Yeah.
[Narrator] ...Marty brings Rick to the mysterious
stone cradle on Lot 8 to update him
on a potentially important recent discovery.
So, Rick, I dug a trench over there
to see if there was something underneath it.
What if it covered a tunnel?
-Yep. -And then I dug down to the bedrock.
-Yep. -You both observed I was pounding on it.
The teeth were scraping.
-And you were hitting it directly. -Yep.
[Narrator] After the team previously found evidence
of both silver and a possible shaft
buried below the mysterious cradle of stones,
Marty dug a trench to the side of it
in search of a possible tunnel.
However, he was surprised to reach bedrock
just six feet down,
which is at a shallower depth than the cradle feature.
Here's where you come in, Ian.
Laird never hit bedrock in the stone cradle.
-It's as if this was dug through the bedrock. -[Ian] Right.
Topographic change of rock over a short distance
isn't something I've experienced anywhere.
-Mm-hmm. -[Rick] It's impossible
to be more surprised than we were
to find that rock cradle.
It's intentional, it's purposeful.
So, I think there's more work to be done
to come to an understanding of what this is.
Is there something under here?
We need to find out.
The Lot 8 feature represents
one of the most enigmatic finds on the island.
And Fiona and Laird are taking their time
to uncover the cradle.
But we're going to run out of time here.
There's-there's no question about it.
Perhaps we need to take a different approach.
Well, if we want to know how far bedrock is there,
the only thing I can think of is basically a hammer drill
if you wanted to keep on going down, down, down here.
You need, like, a-a pneumatic hammer drill.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
A hammer drill would work.
[Narrator] Often utilized in masonry,
a hammer drill is a power tool
that simultaneously rotates and "hammers"
an attached auger bit into a hard surface
such as stone or concrete.
The percussive motion allows the drill to penetrate
denser objects more efficiently than a standard drill.
And it wouldn't shake
-and vibrate the cradle? -Nope. No, it doesn't...
-No, doesn't shake, doesn't do anything. -Okay. Just checking.
It's more that I'm thinking of shaking the rocks loose
-that I don't wish to come loose. -Yeah. Yeah.
-What do you think? -No, it sounds good.
-Yeah. -[Craig] You know,
if we're not finding the bedrock, I think
we need to keep on going just in case there's a shaft
or a tunnel underneath here.
I mean, while we're here, we should get it done.
You know, we don't want to do it invasively or destructively,
but I think, to your point,
I'd like to know where bedrock is.
-Me too, Rick. -I mean, both of you have said that
many, many times, you know?
Is there something hiding under here?
[Marty] Let's do this for right now.
We don't have the right equipment right now.
Let's go talk to Billy and see what he's got.
-Yeah. -And, uh, then we'll come back here and see
if we can get to the bottom of this.
[Laird] All right. See you later.
[Narrator] Meanwhile...
-[Steve] Hey, Katya. -[Katya] Hi, Steve.
-How's it going here? -Really good.
This area has just been amazing for us.
We're digging through a lot of the old spoils
from old searchers.
[Narrator] ...Steve Guptill joins Katya Drayton
and Billy Gerhardt several yards south
of the Money Pit area
to search the so-called Dunfield spoils.
These are several mounds of earth
that were excavated from the Money Pit
by Robert Dunfield in 1965,
during his unsuccessful effort to recover the treasure.
-Could be quite exciting today. -Well, let's find some treasure.
-Yeah, let's find something. -[Billy] Yep.
[Rick] Robert Dunfield's efforts
to conduct his big dig,
uh, certainly pushed an-- a lot of spoils piles
from the Money Pit down the hill,
and they were never really investigated for clues
to the area we are now intent on exploring.
So, the hope is that we will find artifacts
that will help us unravel
what happened in the Money Pit long ago.
[detector beeping]
-Ooh, hoo-hoo. -Oh, you got a hit.
-That sounds really good. -It sounds really good.
[detector squealing]
Ooh, it's small, too, and nonferrous.
-Right here? All right. -Yep.
-[Steve] Where would you like it? -[Katya] Anywhere in front
of me is fine.
That's good.
Yeah, we'll give it a little pinpoint in the hole.
-See if we can find it. -Sure.
-[pinpointer beeping] -Ooh.
-[Steve] Right there? -[Katya] I'm on it.
-[laughs] -Oh, you got it.
[Katya] Oh, my gosh.
[Steve] It's very clean. What is that?
[Katya] I mean, the things that really don't corrode...
-Mm-hmm. -...are precious metals.
[Narrator] While searching spoils that were removed
from the Money Pit by treasure hunters
more than 60 years ago...
[Katya] I think
that we just found a silver coin.
-[Steve] Oh, wow. -[Narrator] ...Katya
has just made a potentially critical discovery.
[Steve] I've learned that when you don't have--
what do you call, the-the beveled edges?
-[Katya] Milled edges. Yes. -Milled edges.
Okay, so, that dates back to older.
[Katya] Much.
[Narrator] In the late 17th century,
Sir Isaac Newton, who also served
as the Master of the Royal Mint of England,
was the first to design coins with milled edges.
This was done in order to combat counterfeiting.
Oh, you know, you can see s-something written
-on the edge there. -[Narrator] Could that mean
that this silver coin may date back to the 1600s
or even earlier?
We've been looking for silver in the Money Pit a long time,
and based on what Dr. Spooner has shown us,
there is a bunch of silver up there somewhere.
Could be a whole bunch of that somewhere, right?
And I should run that back to the lab.
-I agree. -Good find, Katya.
Thank you.
[Narrator] Later that day...
[Craig] Is there a vault below here or something?
This could tell us.
[Narrator] ...Rick, Marty, Craig
and other members of the team
arrive at the man-made depression on Lot 8
dubbed "the stone cradle."
[Craig] Laird, as long as he's in that square area,
-he can drill multiple holes? -[Laird] Oh, yeah, absolutely.
In our world, it's transitioned from archaeology to geology.
[Fiona] So, when you bring it up,
we'll get the sample.
Start your engines.
[Narrator] Laird is allowing the team
to punch a three-foot hole
in the bottom of the cradle with a hammer drill
to collect new soil samples
and look for evidence of man-made workings
buried deeper below.
[Marty] What if we just don't even encounter
the bedrock at all?
That would tend to mean something.
And whatever might be interesting is deeper yet.
[Fiona] That went down quite far.
[Rick] Doesn't seem like it's bedrock.
[Alex] Well, we're about to find out.
Trade spots, and I'll take that sample.
It's pretty gritty.
Look at the color in that.
It doesn't look like bedrock to me.
Okay, well, let's drill a boulder that is slate
-and see how it compares. -[Marty] Yeah, let's see what
the difference is and we can see what the cuttings look like
and the penetration rate and all that stuff.
[Narrator] In order to be sure that they have not drilled
through the slate bedrock beneath the cradle feature,
the team will now drill into a nearby boulder
that is also composed of slate.
This will allow them to see if the drill experiences
the same kind of resistance.
[whirring]
I bet you the, uh, bit's heating up
-a lot more than it did as well. -[Craig] Yeah, I wouldn't touch
that bit. [chuckles]
[Rick] The conclusion has to be that it's not on bedrock.
Is there a feature or-or a void or a tunnel or a shaft
underneath the cradle or close by?
[Marty] Okay, here's what we can be certain of:
we're not done with this.
-Mm-hmm. -[Fiona] I agree. -Not until we get an answer.
[Marty] Of all the frustrating
archaeological waits we have had to endure,
this one is the most aggravating.
I thought, by the end of this year,
we would have figured it out, but we haven't.
The archaeologists are incredibly protective
of the site, for good reasons,
but I'd really like to know what's at the bottom of it,
because I know there's a good chance
of something really interesting.
[Fiona] Well, I think it's good that it gives us
a little bit of time to actually do
some research on this as well.
And we certainly know it's purposeful
and-and extremely significant.
[Marty] Well, let's run with that. In the meantime,
we will leave you to it for now.
Thanks. Okay, let's go.
-[Alex] Okay. Thanks. -[Peter] Thank you, guys.
[Marty] Thank you.
[Narrator] After finishing their work on Lot 8...
[Josh] Watch your back.
I'm gonna shake down. Just watch yourself.
[Narrator] ...while the dig proceeds in the MP-1 Shaft...
[Marty] Welcome back to the lab, everybody.
Emma's ready with some data.
[Narrator] ...members of the team meet
to receive a scientific report
on the believed silver coin
found near the Money Pit area.
[Emma] Well, right off the bat,
I'm just gonna confirm that it is silver.
[Rick] Solid silver?
It's a silver alloy.
What did you get? What percent?
-[Emma] 87%. -Wow.
-That's good enough for me. -Yeah.
[Marty] That's a silver coin.
It's a silver coin. Yeah.
-What do you make of that? -It is very worn.
Um, it took a lot of effort to get a good image in the CT scan.
What you're seeing on the screen right now
is all that remains on the coin.
So, you have the back of the head,
which is very clearly remaining.
You have a very clear "MVS,"
and then some lettering over here...
-[Steve] Wow. -...which is great for identification.
So, this is an overlay of the CT image
on top of the coin that I found on the coin database.
[Marty] Oh, yes, you can certainly see that.
-[Laird] Mm-hmm. -[Emma] And I got
-an exact match with... -Oh.
...the sixpence, uh, William III.
-[Marty] Wow. -[Rick] Really?
[Emma] So, it's English.
-[Katya] That's amazing. -[Emma] Yeah.
And that all aligns...
...with this coin right there, and you can see the ribbon.
-[Marty] Perfectly. -[Emma] Yeah.
[Marty] Oh, yeah. Now that you show that,
-I can see it right in the coin. -[Laird] Yeah. -[Emma] Yeah.
[Laird] Cool.
[Rick] What date are you putting on this?
So, the date range is 1697 to 1701.
-Whoa. -[laughs]
[Rick] What date are you putting on this?
So, the date range
is 1697 to 1701.
Wow.
It's so significant.
That is a full hundred years
before discovery of the Money Pit.
I think it's great.
-Yeah. -[Narrator] In the lab,
Emma has confirmed that a silver coin
found in the Dunfield spoils
is more than three centuries old.
Common people weren't carrying silver.
-So, this probably wasn't a worker? -No.
-Somebody of means, right? -Yeah.
[Marty] A hundred years
before the Money Pit was discovered
is a heck of a long time.
-[Rick] Very long time. -[Marty] That's a big deal.
-Mm-hmm. -[Marty] These late-1600 dates
lead you one of two places:
either that's the time of the depositor
or searchers that were searching
before the Money Pit was discovered.
Bottom line, this is a silver coin,
and I would call it a piece of treasure.
I think it's an incredibly important discovery,
but just like almost everything we've found all over the island,
it continues to provide partial answers
and then pose a lot more questions.
[Rick] We found a silver
treasure coin in Money Pit spoils on Oak Island.
It's treasure, from the Money Pit spoils.
It's silver. It's-it's...
-it's ours. -[laughter]
[Rick] It's the end of the year,
and we're hoping to find more coins,
or a chest or a keg
full of the Portuguese treasure coins,
but it validates the reason why we're here.
I'm not willing to give up on solving the mystery.
I mean, we say it all the time. Sempre avanti.
"You-you do not stop."
[Marty] Very cool.
A big "well done" to everybody involved.
-All right, let's go. -[Laird] See you later.
-[Rick] Thank you. -[Katya] No problem.
[Narrator] As a new day begins on Oak Island...
-[Terry] Hey, guys. -[Peter] Hey, guys.
The two gentlemen we want to see.
Where are we? How deep?
So, we're about a 195 depth.
Good stuff. 195. Got it.
[Narrator] ...Rick and other members of the team
monitor the progress of the MP-1 Shaft,
which has now reached the solution channel.
Just hoping to find the one thing.
We're working on it. We'll keep you updated.
-[Terry] Thank you. -Okay. Thank you.
-Appreciate it. -Yes, sir.
Let's go over there and find something.
[Gary chuckles] Oh.
-[Terry] A lot of muck and mud. -[Peter] Yeah.
-[detector beeping] -[Peter] You got something?
[detector squealing]
-Got a signal. Right there. -Sounds good.
[Gary] It's in here, whatever it is.
[Terry] Just a heavy chunk of metal.
Yeah, don't know what it is until it's washed off.
It's a whatsit.
This is a piece of twisted metal
from the MP-1 spoils at the moment.
But when it goes back to the lab,
maybe Emma runs scans
and tell us it's something completely different.
There's a lot of stuff caked on it, for sure.
This could be some kind of bladed tool,
'cause I see a curve on it.
See if you other guys can make heads or tails of it.
[Terry] It's very heavy.
Whatever it is, it's been down there a long time.
[Rick] This is really, really hard.
It's been on there for a long time.
Yeah, let's bag it, Terry.
[Rick] I don't know what it is, but it has--
certainly has the appearance of being old.
[Terry] Thank you.
[Gary] All right. We've got another load waiting for us.
-[Peter] Okay. -Let's find some more.
That is strange.
-[Gary] Clean, Billy. -[Billy] Yep.
[Rick] Check this out. I washed it and I see this...
-[Peter] Oh, yeah. -...stain in it.
[Rick] What do you think it is?
[Gary] That sure looks like exotic wood.
-Why? -[Peter] Why do you say that?
-[Gary] The colors on it. -[Rick] Really?
[Gary] And-and the curve.
-[Peter] That shouldn't be here. -[Gary] Nope.
[Rick] This is strange.
This linearity and that staining?
It could be palm tree.
Yeah, we don't know where that's from.
I mean, we're on an island and we know people
have traveled from a long way away
to this island by boat.
Well, it'd be really cool if you're right, Gary.
Uh, to come from 200 feet in the Money Pit?
That's incredible.
This is wood from the bottom of the solution channel
and wood should not be at this depth,
unless it were pushed down from above.
-Get a bag, Peter. -[Gary] Yeah, put it in a bag.
[Rick] We need to talk to experts.
If this is an exotic wood,
it would lend credence to an old-world ship
coming to the New World.
All right, let's take a look at this.
[Gary] Let's get stuck in.
[detector chiming]
[Rick] The year's come to an end,
we're within a few hammer grabs of being done,
and I hope we find the one thing or solve the mystery
or find the treasure.
I still have-- every fiber of my being believes
that Oak Island is real, the mystery is real.
I want to know what happened here.
[Terry] It's a lot of rounded stuff.
[Gary] No. No solid hits.
[Terry] We're probably getting very close,
-to the bottom. -Yep.
-[Peter] Hey, guys. -Hey. -[Terry] How you doing?
So, we're on bedrock, bottom of the hole.
[Terry] Okay.
What are the final numbers?
-210. -Okay.
[Gary] We gave it a good shot, mate.
[Rick] We did.
Hundred percent, we did.
We should all be quite proud of what we all did.
[Gary] Oh, yeah.
[Rick] I-I love the fact that the Money Pit,
even though it denies us answers,
at the end of the day,
we walk away with our heads held high.
-Thank you. -[Adam E.] Thanks, guys.
-[Rick] Thank you. -[Terry] Appreciate it. -Yep.
♪ ♪
[Rick] Sometimes you get the ball
across the goal line and sometimes you don't.
But we did learn some things and we made some discoveries,
which may be impactful as we delve into them.
You can't deny the science.
There is silver at depth
down in the solution channel.
I'm not willing to give up till we find it.
[line ringing]
Hey, Marty.
[Marty] Hey, Rick. What's going on?
You know, this is the, uh, last caisson.
[Rick] Good news is that it was a technical success.
The concept of the treasure having fallen to depth,
everything we encountered,
would have permitted that to happen.
There's no question about that.
And we got down.
210, we bottomed out.
And unfortunately, we... we didn't find it.
Right. But if we think about the year in its totality,
I think there's a lot to be proud of.
I think there's a lot to be happy about.
Right.
Okey doke. All right, see you.
[Marty] Welcome, to everybody.
We have reached the end of this year's exploration,
which makes this the last meeting.
Hello, Terry and Derek.
-Hello, Marty. -I think a good place to start
is with this heat map that Steve made some time ago
to update it for this year's efforts.
The idea is to say,
"Where are the spots
we have found old artifacts?"
[Narrator] Earlier this year, surveyor Steve Guptill
created a so-called "heat map."
It illustrates where the team
has made their most significant discoveries,
noting their approximate dates of origin
by using different colors.
So far, we have found about 800 artifacts island-wide.
Laird and his own team, they find hundreds more than that.
We found about 1,200 artifacts this year.
[Steve] And then, let me go over the hot areas.
Most of the artifacts that you see
are from the last two years.
If it's in the 1700s, um, I've been clicking orange.
If it's earlier than that, I click pink.
-Blue is 1800s to now. -[Scott] Yeah.
Let me turn off every color except pink.
[Marty] Wow.
[Jack] There's an overwhelming amount of evidence
that shows that people were here earlier
than we originally believed.
[Laird] It's almost indisputable that
there was island-wide activity to a fairly large scale.
That's significant, is it not?
[Laird] It is significant.
Yeah. We just need to know who and why, and when.
-Yeah, and what they were doing. -Yeah.
-[Marty] Yeah. -Mm-hmm.
Well, we also know that the Lot 8 boulder was moved.
And looking up there on the heat map,
that would have had to be work that was done earlier.
That's a huge anomaly.
That's a great segue to go to Lot 8,
and to me, this boulder came out of nowhere this year.
Something rather significant
had to happen here.
Laird, is there anything like it in Nova Scotia
-that you know of? -No. I haven't found
anything like it in North America.
[Fiona] I think it's much older.
I would not be surprised if it got us into the 1200 range.
[Narrator] The team was stunned to discover
a 40,000-pound boulder on Lot 8 this year
that was covering the cradle of stones
and a potential shaft deeper below it.
However, prior to that,
they had found two curious artifacts on the lot.
One, a lead bag seal that may date back some 700 years.
And the other was a copper artifact with symbols
that may be connected to the Knights Templar.
[Marty] Well, and Rick,
you got some light that you can shed on the Lot 8 boulder
-from that trip to the Azores. -[Rick] Yes.
We wanted to find if there is
some evidence that the Templars,
or associated groups in the 1300s,
needed to safeguard a treasure, uh, via the Azores
prior to coming to Oak Island.
We went to a megalithic site.
And on the way up the hill,
I just noticed a huge stone,
but it had slots carved into it.
And to me, it's...
it was so similar to the spacing in the Lot 8 boulder.
That rock has a big void, to me, purposely built underneath it.
[Marty] Which brings me
to what Scott did yesterday.
[Scott] So, yesterday,
we went and got a large hammer drill,
a three-foot-long core bit.
And when we drilled in there, we didn't find bedrock.
Okay, well, here's what's certain:
there's a lot more work to do on this boulder on Lot 8,
including digging underneath it.
There still could be a tunnel, there could be a shaft.
Or there could be treasure.
There could be treasure, Gary.
We need to completely eliminate any question
as to what might have been done underneath that boulder.
But let's shift over to Lot 5,
which has been hugely significant.
So, we have this feature
which became two features which became three features.
[Narrator] This year, the team made a number of new discoveries
in the rounded stone foundation near the shore on Lot 5
that suggest it was occupied
by different groups over different periods
prior to the discovery of the Money Pit.
These include a folded coin,
meant to represent a religious symbol of protection
that may be more than 300 years old.
They also found a decorative lead artifact
that may date back more than 700 years.
And in just the last month, they began investigating
what was previously thought to be a modern well
just a few yards away.
But after digging next to it,
they discovered evidence
that it is a much larger feature,
and may be connected to the rounded foundation.
[Marty] And my understanding, Laird,
it wasn't just a domicile.
-Something different than that? -Correct.
[Marty] We've always looked for the camp.
If there was this tremendous activity
at the Money Pit, it would have taken men
and animals and support structures
and all kinds of stuff, and maybe Lot 5
is what we've been looking for.
[Rick] You have evidence here
that substantiates that.
And we have possibly found a road
that might be a-a way to move the treasure
here on Oak Island: the sand road.
And again, it leads us down
a-a path of discovery in the swamp.
The sand road potentially changes the whole island.
[Narrator] While excavating the western side of the swamp...
-[Peter] Still sandy. -[Narrator] ...the team
was surprised to uncover a sand-covered cobblestone road
that was lined with eight-sided wooden survey stakes.
And as they kept exposing the mysterious feature...
...they found signs that it may run through
the center of the island toward Lot 5,
as well as through the swamp,
toward the believed Portuguese stone road.
I find the sand road really interesting now.
We were always looking for a connection
between the Money Pit and Lot 5.
And perhaps the sand road is the connection.
[Jack] It could lead literally to a place
where treasure's deposited.
[Marty] Good. Excellent.
The sand road could lead literally to a place
where treasure's deposited.
Exactly.
I love this little oxshoe that was found
along that path.
Only mean one thing, and that's hauling.
[Billy] We thought that the Portuguese stone road
that we call it was a big job?
Well, you know, look at the length of this thing.
-[Alex] They might be the same thing. -[Billy] Right.
[Alex] The sand road is a continuation of Center Road.
That means that it's there much earlier
-than we first thought. -[Marty] Agreed.
And so, we have these in front of us,
are what we believe to be a hand cannon
and four stoneshots.
These two are from previous years.
They're both from the Azores.
But then this year, we find two more--
actually, Derek found them on the wash plant--
and here's the ultimate point: no country significant
was using them after about 1450.
So, what are those doing on Oak Island?
It really, I think, is one of the most
concrete dates we have.
[Narrator] When the team first uncovered
a section of the sand road in the swamp this year...
-Look at that. -[Narrator] ...they also found
part of an early firearm known as a hand cannon.
And that is unusual.
[Narrator] It was a curious find,
given that they have now also discovered
four pieces of stoneshot,
three of which were unearthed in the Money Pit area.
Mm-hmm.
[Narrator] And during the team's recent trip
to the Azores islands...
[Narrator] ...Portuguese archaeologist Tiago Rodrigues
affirmed that these artifacts may not only date back
to the 14th century
but could also be of Portuguese origin.
Is this enough to prove a pre-Columbian voyage?
No, but it's a good indication.
[Gary] And a good sign of treasure,
because you'd need guns and ammo
if you're putting a large treasure in the Money Pit.
[Marty] Yeah.
And so, finally, conceptually,
we arrive at the Money Pit.
Did a lot of work there,
and what got us very excited is this right here.
This is the fabled Pitblado coin.
So, this coin turns out to be
a 1369 to 1371 Portuguese coin.
Extremely rare
and very valuable.
And of course, that got us all really excited,
including me, who is fixed on treasure more than story.
-[laughter] -A chest of these
would be worth just that, it would be worth
an enormous fortune.
And it did, apparently, come out of the Money Pit.
So, we got really excited about this,
and then we chased the theory of...
"All right, there was a treasure in the Money Pit,
and the treasure fell into the solution channel."
[Jack] And scientific evidence to show
-that it's still down there. -[Marty] Exactly.
So, it got us all enthused,
and we were able to get canisters
down into the solution channel.
-Yeah. -We found lots of things
that shouldn't have been in the solution channel.
My analysis of that is that
it was proof of concept,
and proves the theory that stuff could fall down in there.
We weren't successful in finding the treasure.
But we all still think it's here because of your work, Ian
and Dr. Fred, because of the metals in the water.
-[Ian] Mm-hmm. -I...
I know you have a potentially new method
that we could zero in and maybe find the treasure.
-Yep. -Can you bring the group up to speed on that?
[Ian] Yeah.
A little while ago, Dr. Michel suggested...
we're having problems with water.
Water moves around, gets diluted,
so Fred suggests, "Why don't we look at wood?"
Because it has the ability to soak up metal.
Just like a water filter would soak up metal from water.
And the wood's much better at soaking up metals than water.
And I think we just need to do more work with the wood.
The wood's at its early stages.
And we got the data back.
Results from, like, 15 sort of random samples.
So, if you've just done the tests now,
where did you get the wood to test?
We got it from the outside of logs and planks
that were in various tunnels and shafts
throughout the Money Pit.
And something did show up
in Shaft 2A.
Which is, I think, the unknown shaft.
We're digging up the first ever searcher shaft on Oak Island.
[Narrator] In 2024, the Oak Island team
began uncovering a feature that they believed
to be an early 19th-century searcher shaft known as Shaft 2,
which according to historical records,
was located 14 feet southeast of the original Money Pit.
[Craig] I tend to think
-it's two different shafts. -[Narrator] However,
during the excavation,
they discovered another undocumented shaft
some ten feet to the northeast that they dubbed "Shaft 2A."
This made them wonder whether they found
an old shaft built by treasure hunters
or perhaps treasure depositors.
So, in Shaft 2A-- the wood sample from Shaft 2A--
we had the highest amount of silver we've ever seen.
And also, uh, I think the third highest level of gold.
[Ian] So, in Shaft 2A, we had the highest amount
of silver we've ever seen.
And also, uh, I think the third highest level of gold.
-[Marty] Great. -There you go.
Well, that's pretty exciting, right?
It's another direct indication of treasure, isn't it?
[Ian] With that result, if we have
this kind of silver-- highest silver we've seen
in something like 2A-- that could mean
that there's silver very, very close to where that wood is.
[Narrator] After testing numerous samples of wood
that the team has unearthed
in the Money Pit area over the years,
Dr. Spooner has found new evidence of buried silver
in the mysterious shaft known as 2A,
a structure located more than 30 feet northeast
of where they detected precious metals in the solution channel.
-Dr. Spooner... -Yeah.
...how do you reconcile the silver
that we're finding in the wood from 2A
and the silver that we're finding in the solution channel?
Maybe what we're looking at here is...
um, a-a variety of sources.
Or multiple deposits.
-Yep. -[Marty] This is getting interesting.
-Multiple treasures? -It's a possibility, sure.
-Wow. -[Ian] What I'm proposing is
we take a much more detailed look at, uh, metals in wood.
[Rick] Dr. Spooner's latest report perhaps proves
the worthiness of the idea of testing the wood
in several of the shafts.
It certainly introduces new possibilities
that we're chasing after multiple treasures
on Oak Island.
This is pretty much a no-brainer.
-Let's continue this. -Yep.
So, yes. Proceed, please.
Tell us where the treasure is. We're ready.
-I'll do my best. -[laughter] -[Marty] Perfect.
Yeah.
[Craig] Well, I just think it's a very
productive year.
We've had some major finds.
The-the boulder on Lot 8,
the sand road in the swamp...
-Right. -It just seems like
Oak Island has its secrets and we've uncovered some.
-Yeah. -So, I want to thank you, and I think we had a great year.
-Yep. -[Marty] So,
I thought a long time about how I would like
to close here today,
and I thought a good way to do that
might be to use a symbol.
Gary?
[with accent] It's right here in me top pocket.
-[laughter] -Top pocket find.
[Marty] Yeah, top pocket find and, uh...
It's...
this.
This is one ounce of pure gold.
It appropriately has the Canadian maple leaf on it.
And here's the pure gold I would like to find.
And we have found pure gold here from the people of Canada,
from the people of Nova Scotia
and certainly, the people in this room.
And if we are moving caissons around next year,
instead of these poker chips,
we're gonna move this maple leaf around
to decide where to dig,
and hopefully, find the treasure.
-Yeah. -Yep.
It goes without saying how important
you have all become to me.
We're a family.
Because the experience here is only as wonderful
as it is because of each and every one of you.
Without you, without each of you,
these past years of my life would have been...
...far less rich.
The treasure and the story are...
...like brothers, they're together, right?
But the real treasure, really,
is each and every one of you.
This is the true treasure in life,
what we share now.
Hundred percent.
We are very grateful to be a part of
your passion and share it with you.
We would not be here if you did not share your dream,
not only with us but the world.
Thank you.
-Thank you. -Yeah. -Yeah, well said.
-I agree. -Absolutely.
-Yep. -[Rick] The thank-you that Craig
expressed, the thank-you that Marty expressed,
the thank-you that I'm expressing is heartfelt.
It is genuine and it is important.
Emiliano, why don't you close out the day?
-Grazie mille. -[laughter]
-Perfetto. -[applause]
Okay. Let's go.
-[Peter] All right. -Thank you all.
-[Rick] Thanks, everybody. -After you.
[Narrator] The year on Oak Island has come to an end.
Her legendary secrets remain unknown...
[Rick] Look at the enormity of the finds.
[Alex] Fiona, thanks.
[Rick] Look at the early dates.
-[Gary] Thanks, mate. -[Rick] We have written
maybe not the answer to the Oak Island mystery
but we have added chapters
upon chapters of information.
Goodbye, all.
[Narrator] However, Rick, Marty, Craig and their team
have proved one thing: the quest for answers
to this 231-year-old mystery is well worth the pursuit.
My whole life, I've been curious about things.
Very, very curious about things. It gets me in trouble sometimes.
[Craig] That was another good year.
[Marty] Yep. Always bittersweet, isn't it?
How can we have found so many inexplicable things in one year?
So, there's many reasons that would make me
come back here to find this treasure.
We have to be close to the endgame, don't we?
[Narrator] So far, they have found more than 2,000 artifacts
and numerous man-made structures
predating the discovery of the Money Pit.
Some by as much as 800 years.
And they have obtained mounting scientific evidence
that treasure really may lie buried
all across the island.
So, next year, when they return,
they will build upon all they have learned and revealed
to solve the mystery.
[Rick] I'd like a year where we said, "You know what?
We did it."
That moment has not come, but that is still my hope.
I won't relent.
I'm quite stubborn that way.
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