Narrator: Tonight on the curse of oak island...
Marty: Something massive was occurring well before
the discovery of the money pit.
That looks exactly like an old roman road.
Hey, craig, I found a piece of leather strap.
Ship's log or something like that made with a leather strap.
-Wow. -The money pit can only be here.
That is the only place it can be.
This is the top of a tunnel, not maybe.
Craig: This wood was from 1648.
-It seems like we found our money pit. -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,
mysterious fragments of human bone,
and a lead cross whose origin may stretch back
to the days of the knights templar.
To date, six men have died trying to solve the mystery.
And, according to legend,
one more will have to die
before the treasure can be found.
♪ ♪
marty: Wow.
Rick: It's quite impressive, though, isn't it?
Marty: It's incredibly impressive.
Stand right there and you'll get a real good perspective.
Unbelievable.
Narrator: It is the beginning
of an exciting new week on oak island
for brothers rick and marty lagina and their team.
Over the past two months,
they have discovered two massive stone pathways
in the mysterious, triangle-shaped swamp,
one of which is believed to have at one time been part
of a ship's dock
and another which is leading into the uplands
and possibly toward the original money pit.
Let's go talk to aaron and miriam.
Narrator: Today rick and marty have arrived for an assessment
from archaeologist dr. Aaron taylor,
now that he and his team
have carefully removed layers of muck and mud from the features
that may be keys to solving
a 225-year-old treasure mystery.
-Marty: Hi, guys. -Hey, marty.
How do you like your swamp expressway?
This is really cool.
-Yeah. -I mean, this is mondo cool.
-Yeah. -It's impressive.
That looks exactly like an old roman road.
Aaron: It's possible, you know?
It indicates probably a loading
or unloading from a ship.
-Then we found coal at this end. -Yeah.
So that's what we've been trying to do, is find more ties.
-So sort of making that connection. -Miriam: Yeah.
That is a piece of oak island history.
Narrator: In addition to recently finding
a large iron ringbolt believed to have been used to anchor
a large sailing vessel to a dock...
-We found a piece of coal. -Wow.
...One week ago, the team found a piece
of charcoal along the stone pathway
that was determined to be of european origin...
Check that out.
...As well as part of the lid to a wooden keg barrel
that was used to transport some kind of cargo,
and which may date to as early as the 15th century.
Marty: For what possible purpose
would somebody need a big harbor here?
Unloading something big or a lot of something.
But the mystery is where it's going.
-Yeah. -And it's going there
-rather than there. -I want to know where it's going.
Is a right angle occurring here, you think?
Aaron: Looks like a-a nice curve.
That I don't see. Can we go over there?
Because it looks like it ends.
All the dates that we found in the swamp
associated with the stone road
are quite old.
It means to me
that something rather massive
was occurring well before the discovery
of the money pit on oak island.
Could it be an indirect indicator of treasure? Yes.
Because why go to all this expense and construct this road
that seems to have been constructed to be hidden?
So, miriam and I yesterday, uh,
came down here, and we've cleaned this off,
and, uh, we're seeing this cobblestone.
So we're-we're making an inference
that it's here and it's there,
and the inference is-- it's-it's all throughout.
Well, especially if you come right over here
-and it's not, right? Right. -It's not.
-And that's what you look for, you know. -Mm-hmm.
-Rick: It's either going straight or it's bending. -Aaron: Yeah.
Marty: So, where do you want to dig next?
I'd love to keep pushing this way.
In archaeology, you always chase the feature.
Marty: Yeah, let's do it.
We, at this date, have exposed well over
400 feet of this so-called path.
And even the archaeologists are a bit mystified at this point.
So, of course, it has significant interest.
We're keenly interested in where this goes.
It's a big boulder.
-Can I get under it? -Rick: Yeah, I think
you're under it right now if you just curl your bucket.
-Up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up. -Up.
Aaron: Great.
-Is that enough? -Yeah.
♪ ♪
-it's definitely here. -Aaron: Yeah.
There's cobbles here. There's no question about that, but...
Yeah.
Rick: But they seem to be spaced.
We might be on the edge. Well, it's to here certainly.
Yeah.
But I don't necessarily see it here.
♪ ♪
well, what are you finding?
More rocks, more dirt, and more wood.
Oh. Any gold?
-None of that. -Okay. (chuckles)
I think we should get steve, billy. Is he around?
-Yeah. Steve? -Steve: Yup.
Narrator: To determine whether the recently excavated area
is, in fact, a continuation
of the road, steve guptill has been recruited
to measure the elevation of the cobblestones.
If the elevation matches that of the cobblestones
in the previously exposed sections of the stone pathway,
it would be evidence that they have found
a continuation of the feature.
The elevation is right.
-Consistent with that? -Consistent with the other side.
-How far off? -Not off at all.
-Rick: Really? -Oh, great.
It's 1.5 feet above sea level on the cobble,
and it's been very consistent, and it was the same
-on the other side. -Well, that's good to hear.
That's what we're hoping to hear.
You want to focus over there, then?
Yeah.
-I think we've got a nice little section here. -Okay.
Aaron: I think it's definitely-- we need to keep exploring this.
We're getting more of the cobble coming this way.
But what I think our next thing is,
on the other side,
we need to pull back from the cobble we know
and come back this way.
But I think that's worth a real careful look.
Marty: You know, this morning I arrived here, thinking
all we have to do is follow this road to an answer,
and now the s.O.B.S who put this in
are making the road go all over the place.
-It's almost like they're trying to hide something. -Yeah.
What's that all about?
Narrator: While rick, marty and members of the team continue investigating
the stone pathway near the swamp...
Terry: Okay, c-4.5 is underway.
Narrator: ...Scott barlow joins geologist terry matheson
and oak island historian paul troutman in the money pit area
as they continue a core-drilling operation
in the hopes of finally locating
the original treasure shaft,
first discovered in 1795.
I just talked to mike. He says he's still soft where he's at.
We could be very close to a shaft.
-That's what makes c-4.5 really important. -Yup.
Narrator: One week ago, the team began investigating
the area near a borehole they first drilled five years ago,
known as c-1.
A borehole where they have discovered
not only a large void and a possible tunnel
some 170 feet deep in the bedrock...
That's definitely a gold object
right there, a gold-colored object.
...But also video evidence of three different
mysterious gold-colored objects embedded in the wall.
The first hole on their new grid,
known as c-5,
which sits just five feet to the northeast,
produced surprising evidence of another wooden tunnel
some 89 feet underground.
-You see, that's what I'm talking about right there. -Yeah.
Narrator: Now the team is drilling borehole c-4.5
two and a half feet to the west of c-5,
where they hope to find more possible evidence
that will lead to the original money pit
and, with some luck, the fabled treasure vault.
Check this out.
Right beneath very integral, in situ, maroon till,
into a fairly solid chunk of beam.
And that intersection is 87.5.
This is a very sharp break
and into a very significant chunk of beam.
This is the top of a tunnel, not maybe.
So it comes from somewhere and it goes to somewhere.
Narrator: The top of a tunnel?
Found some 87 and a half feet deep
in borehole c-4.5?
Since this is approximately the same depth that
the team discovered evidence of a tunnel one week ago,
in borehole c-5,
could it mean that they are tracking the same feature?
And, if so, could it be leading them
to the original money pit?
There's the top of it. It looks like it goes to at least 92,
so that's a four-foot section
of probably somewhat collapsed tunnel.
-Scott: Yup. -At this point
we're going to wait for rick to open that up
and show it to him because I think
we've got something to say to him.
-Scott: Yes. -Terry: Yeah.
-Scott: Hey, rick. -Terry: Hi, rick, how you doing?
-Hey. I don't know, you tell, you tell me. -Interesting days.
Narrator: In the money pit area,
rick lagina has just arrived
after being alerted by members
of the team to the discovery of a possible tunnel
some 87 and a half feet deep in borehole c-4.5.
So, here we are, rick.
There's a very dense maroon till.
We have a nice sharp contact right here on a good beam hit.
And it's at our famous about 87.5 depth,
close to where we hit it in c-5.
So, that being the case, something's going on
at that horizon, and time's going to tell,
but for right now I'm convinced this is a tunnel.
Rick: The depth is so same, it's...
-So similar. -It's so similar.
Right on the money similar.
Yeah.
I mean, we forget, right?
This is all interesting conversation and trying
to puzzle out an enigma.
But this program was solely dedicated
to finding the money pit.
Exactly so. Yep.
And I think right now
the money pit, it has to be west.
The money pit can only be here.
That is the only place it can be based on this grid.
Scott: I agree 100%.
Rick: We don't want to just hope and poke.
We want a very disciplined approach to try to understand
not only this collapsed tunnel feature,
but we need to know where it comes from,
where it ended up,
and are there any other shafts associated
with this construct in the area?
Marty: With all that data we acquired,
a very simple answer as to why we haven't found it
is 'cause we weren't looking in the right place.
And so, if we have hard data leading us somewhere else,
I'm very excited about that.
Well, let's stay the course,
plot the data.
I would drive it to 118 minimum-- well, 120, 130 even
to get you the ten feet for the gyro and see what happens.
Terry: Yup. Absolutely.
Narrator: While the drilling operation continues
in the money pit area...
...Back at the swamp,
as marty lagina helps to unearth more
of the recently discovered stone pathway...
Okay, we'll keep pulling back.
...His friend and partner craig tester,
along with archaeologists dr. Aaron taylor and liz michels,
are investigating the massive stone road in the hopes
of finding important clues or artifacts
that could help reveal more about the origins
of these mysterious features.
I'm wondering, aaron. We're finding a lot of large
chunks of coal, but it's almost exclusively on this end.
You think it might be associated with, like, the later,
you know, like, topping up with the rubble?
I think, yeah. It makes sense.
Rick: We're very early in terms of
the archaeological understanding of this stone road feature.
What we have come to learn about oak island
is you have to follow the data, you have to follow the finds.
Oh.
What's that?
Aaron: I found a piece of leather strap.
-Liz: Oh? -With notches in it.
Wait. With notches?
Aaron: Oh, yeah, girl.
Narrator: A notched leather strap?
Found on the stone road in the swamp?
Could it somehow be related to other leather artifacts
the team has found this year?
Such as the leather boot heel found in the spoils
of borehole 8-b in the money pit one month ago,
which was dated as far back as the 15th century?
-Hey, craig. -Craig: Yo.
Take a look at, at this.
I thought it might just be bark or something,
but you can-- it's leather.
Oh, that's nice.
Was it just in the rocks there?
Just right in the cracks of the rocks.
And I'd-I'd be interested in getting it dated just because
-of where it was found. -Okay.
If it had been... In the upper levels,
I would just attribute it to being something modern.
But because it's way down in the cracks
and because leather would float, it makes you think
that it might have been dropped when this road was being built.
Yeah, no kidding.
Aaron: It also-- it's got the little notches in it.
I don't know if for a watch. That's what I would suspect.
It kind of widens out.
Craig: Okay, but could that be,
you know, used to, to tighten up a boot or something, too, or...?
Yeah, it could be a bootstrap.
Just something... Something that required,
-you know, that you cinched. -Mm-hmm.
-Like a watch, like a belt. -Okay.
Well, that'd be nice if one of the original people
-lost their bootstrap, and we can date it. -Absolutely.
We'll bag it, and that's something
some lab work can hopefully help us out with.
Okay. That sounds great.
Nice find.
(wind blowing)
narrator: The following day,
while the investigations continue both in the swamp
and in the money pit area...
Rick lagina, along with metal detection expert
gary drayton...
Rick: Look at all these flags.
Gary: It's a sea of flags, mate.
...Have arrived at lot 25 in the hopes
that critical new clues and evidence of valuables
can be found on the property
that once belonged to former 18th century american slave
turned wealthy oak island landowner samuel ball.
Gary: Lot 25, mate.
Laird was good enough to let us come in here
to metal-detect around this samuel ball foundation.
Yup.
Narrator: Although he was known as a simple cabbage farmer,
from 1786, when he bought his first lot on oak island,
until his death in 1846,
samuel ball would mysteriously become
one of the richest men in the entire province,
ultimately owning nine lots on oak island,
as well as several more on the mainland.
This has led many to speculate
that perhaps he found at least a portion
of the legendary treasure.
Until recently, this area was completely off-limits
to rick, marty, craig and the team.
However, with the help of archaeologist laird niven,
they're now legally permitted
to conduct supervised surface investigations
while laird and his team
carefully excavate the foundation
and surrounding area.
Well, as you can see, there's a sea of flags here.
-Rick: The grid work. -Yeah, the grid work.
And what I've been doing
is flagging all the nonferrous
-targets I can get, and... -Right.
-...Well, we'll see what's here, mate. -Okay.
Let's go see what we can find.
-I have high hopes for the day. -Yeah. So do I, mate.
There's no mistaking my pink flags.
I think there's eight or nine in this area.
There is some interesting hits here for sure.
(metal detector beeping)
all of these are good two-way repeatables.
And it is just there, mate.
♪ ♪
-what do you think? -Um, all I know is,
more than likely it's not iron, and it should be something good.
Because, I mean, samuel ball was here a long time ago,
and no one's ever lived here since the early 1800s.
Now, see if you've moved it.
(beeping)
still a good two-way repeatable!
(beeping)
oh.
It's in my hand.
Look at that!
Joe: Oh, there's a bit of lead.
Always a great sign.
Narrator: On lot 25, near the foundation
of 19th century oak island landowner samuel ball,
gary drayton and rick lagina
have just made a potentially important find.
I think that is not too far off the size
of a musket ball.
So this could possibly be...
It's either a lead splash or a musket ball.
When I say a "lead splash," that is the remains
of musket ball molding.
And I'm sure samuel ball made his own musket balls.
But that's a great sign whenever you find old lead
on an old site.
The good news is that it's a good start, right?
-Gary: Yeah. -One flag. One find.
Gary: Yep. Exactly.
We're going to have to mark what we found.
Okay.
Rick: Every find on lot 25 certainly can be
partially attributed to samuel ball and his life
that he created for himself on lot 25.
-All right, mate. -(metal detector beeps)
next one's over here.
Rick: The man is an enigma. He's a mystery.
And slowly but surely,
we're pulling back the veil on his life
and what he accomplished and what he did and maybe...
What he learned about the oak island mystery.
That sounds very, very good.
If I was guessing what this was,
I'd say that is your typical coin or button signal.
(metal detector beeping)
right there, mate.
A coin or a button
-on this one, rick. -Okay.
Pretty high bar there.
Gary: Right, we're metal-detecting in a very old area.
Yep. You got it out.
-Sure sounds good. -It does, doesn't it?
(beeping)
oh.
♪ ♪
I do not know.
At the moment.
(blows)
it looks like...
I know... It's thick, but it kind of reminds me
-of a back of a pocket watch. -(beeping)
narrator: Part of a pocket watch?
Found on the property of samuel ball?
Could it have been something he bought with the wealth
that he mysteriously came to possess?
Or could it have been part of a valuable discovery that
he made while living here?
Gary: That is a steep curve,
but it looks like there would have been
an hole there and an hole there, so I am unsure on this one.
I have no idea. I know it's fragile.
I know what it is. It's a top-pocket find.
It really is a top-pocket find, mate.
We found it, and we'll bag it and tag it.
That's the safest place for it. On to the next.
Rick: Hopefully this one is just as productive.
Narrator: As rick and gary continue searching on lot 25...
Charles: Here we go.
...Oak island historians charles barkhouse
and doug crowell
have traveled some 60 miles northeast
to the dawson print shop in halifax, nova scotia...
Doug: Hello?
...To meet with leather and rare documents expert joe landry
to get his analysis of the leather strap
recently discovered along the stone pathway in the swamp.
We have a piece of leather here we'd like you to take a look at.
-Sure. -Yeah, we'll give you a little bit of the backstory on this.
This year in the swamp,
-we uncovered an old stone road. -Uh-huh.
It was under over a foot of swamp material, organics.
So this road could be very old.
That makes us really curious about this. I mean...
How old is this, what is it a part of?
This could be before the money pit was discovered.
Anything you could tell us would be appreciated.
(foil crinkling)
♪ ♪
joe: Yes, this is a fairly thick leather, and...
...There are series of holes here that may indicate
a strap of some kind,
perhaps for a boot or something like that.
We can see by the thickness of the leather here
that we're talking about a cowhide.
How do you know it's cowhide as opposed to some other animal?
Joe: The general appearance of it. It's quite smooth.
The leathers in common use
in the periods that we're thinking of
are, are calf, which is quite a bit thinner,
sheep, which is very thin,
-and cowhide, which is quite thick. -Okay.
Joe: But, yes, it's quite interesting.
The archaeologist aaron taylor, who found this
between two rocks on top of the road,
he thought it might be a watch strap.
Joe: Yeah. You can see from the shape why he might've
originally thought watch, but I think the leather
is too thick for that kind of thing.
There were, uh, account book structures that were made
using basically a belt around the book.
They would use that kind of closure, and so there was
actually a buckle and that would use a series of holes.
It would? On-on a, on a-a ledger book?
A ledger book.
Any kind of stationery binding,
like a log or anything of that-that nature.
Narrator: Leather possibly connected
to a ledger book of some kind?
But if so, how did it come to be stuck beneath layers of mud
on the mysterious stone pathway in the swamp?
Who left it behind?
And just how old might it be?
Joe: While working in europe, I worked on books that were
from the 1500s and 1600s that were made exactly that way,
-with a leather strap for closure. -Wow.
-Charles: It's amazing. -Doug: Yeah.
Narrator: At the dawson print shop
in halifax, nova scotia,
leather and rare manuscript expert joe landry
has just given his opinion that the leather strap recently found
along the stone pathway in the swamp
may not only be of european origin
but also predate the discovery of the money pit
by more than two centuries.
Doug: So now we have a possibility
that this could be part of a medieval ledger.
That style, using a strap like this with holes in it,
you've only seen in your experience on
-something from the 1600s, a ledger book. -Yes.
So if somebody was keeping
an inventory or they were keeping, you know...
A ship's log or something like that, it's quite possible.
♪ ♪
doug: I found eight pages
of what looks like a ship's log.
Narrator: Three years ago,
doug crowell discovered a copy of a document
connected to an attempted french invasion of nova scotia
that took place in 1746.
It was led by an admiral known as
duc d'anville, who not only belonged to a family
with ties to the knights templar dating back to the crusades
but also, according to the record doug crowell found,
brought a vast treasure with him.
Yeah, I'm just gonna read through it really quickly here.
"at midday we reach a deep bay
"with several hundred small islands wooded to the shore.
"the great quantity of treasure on this vessel
"makes it unwise to jeopardize it
in any engagement with the enemy."
September 8th: "it has been agreed that
"a deep pit be dug and treasure securely buried.
"the pit to have a secret entrance
-by a tunnel from the shore." -and it ends.
And that's where it ends.
In my mind, there's no doubt that
they're pointing right to oak island.
Narrator: Is it possible that the oak island team
has now found physical evidence that could be connected
to the d'anville ship's log
and his mission to bury treasure
on a wooded island in nova scotia?
Doug: What would you need if
you were putting a vast amount of treasure underground?
You might have a ledger to tally the deposit.
Maybe they were keeping a, a total of how much
they, they put in the, uh, in the pit.
Joe: The tannage, too, is important,
and that would help indicate the age
to get an idea of the date
and perhaps even an origin for some of the materials as well.
Is there anything that was used to tan leather that would be
non-native to north america?
Joe: Yes, I mean,
the black thorn, you know, tends to be in europe.
Doug: So, one of the more interesting things
that charles and I learned from joe landry today
was that leather, in its preparation, is treated
with various tannins.
So, if we test these tannins and determine what was used,
then perhaps it will lead us to a country of origin.
So, dna testing next, possibly testing for tannins,
trying to determine the origin of this leather
and the type of tannin that it was treated with.
We've got some work ahead of us.
Once again, thank you very much, sir.
-Charles: We'll be back. -Doug: Thank you.
Narrator: While doug and charles make their way back to oak island...
All right, next one up.
-(beeping) -(chuckles)
...Rick lagina and gary drayton continue checking the locations
that gary marked earlier on the former property
of samuel ball with flag markers.
I love that tone. Rock solid.
I'm hoping it's a coin.
Wow. That's a good plug, mate.
Again, it's towards the top.
♪ ♪
(beeping)
oh! It's a button.
Yeah, it's a-- ooh, an old flat button.
That is a single-loop flat button.
Look at the condition of that.
And it would have been on a jacket.
Easy, you know, 1750 to 1850.
Early 1800s, actually.
What we're hoping for is some kind of military
insignia on this, uh...
Connect it to samuel ball.
Definitely a fantastic old find.
Rick: Literally everything you're finding
on oak island is part of history.
Now, this might be samuel ball's part of that history.
Is it definitive? No.
The hope is that there'll be some sort of
telltale mark, insignia,
something that will say definitively
who it might have belonged to and when it was lost.
(phone ringing)
you getting a call, mate? I'll flag this.
Yeah, it's doug. Hi, doug.
Good.
We're digging some nonferrous targets.
What have you got?
That's right.
Right.
So it's a kind of book clasp.
It just speaks to how necessary follow-up is.
It was a great idea to bring it there.
Absolutely is.
Yeah. Thank you. Bye.
Yeah, if you think about it,
that makes sense if that is off
an old manuscript or a ledger.
Those straps-- I have seen those old straps on books.
We're slowly starting to connect timelines,
but there's a lot of work to do here.
And I like that ship's ledger idea. I mean, it fits.
-Let's find a coin with a date. -Yeah.
-Let's keep them buggers busy researching. -(rick laughs)
narrator: Another new day has begun on oak island,
and while the drilling operation continues
in the money pit area...
Gary: Anything interesting down here?
Rick: Not yet. It's all cobble. All cobble.
Narrator: ...Rick lagina,
archaeologists dr. Aaron taylor and miriam amirault,
along with members of the oak island team,
are making their way further into the uplands
near the eastern border of the triangle-shaped swamp,
uncovering more of the mysterious stone pathway.
-How's it looking here, alex? -There's one there.
Aaron: Yeah.
And I know doug's, doug's on cobble down there.
-I don't know about the other side. -Everything through here
-is cobble at the same level. -Yeah?
What you got there, rick?
Rick: I think it's pottery.
It's got, like, a curved surface.
-Want to take a look? -Sure.
-It's red. -Yeah.
It does look like a piece of earthenware.
Rick: How old?
Aaron: So, earthenware is early.
They couldn't get the kilns very hot,
so it's quite porous, and there's a trick.
If you stick your tongue to it, and it sticks,
it's earthenware because it's porous.
If your tongue doesn't stick, then it's stoneware.
What does that mean, "earlier"?
So, when the europeans first came over,
-they would have had mostly earthenware. -I see.
What years?
So, this comes in, right, 1604, and then,
when the british come here
in force, then they're able to get
the kilns a lot hotter, and then you get the more vitrified,
the finer ceramics.
So, this is a very crude one, which means it's quite old,
but let me wash it.
Narrator: A piece of european pottery?
Possibly dating to as early as 1604?
But, if so,
just when did it arrive on oak island?
Is it earthenware, aaron?
I would say I'm fairly confident it is.
It's got some darkness on the rim,
but that could be burning.
So I'm quite confident it is,
but let me try the old lick test and see if my tongue sticks
to it, and that's an indication that it's earthenware.
Okay, mate.
(gary laughs)
aaron: There is some sticking.
So I'm pretty sure it's earthenware,
but we'll get it cleaned up and let
laird take a look at it,
but this is quite crude.
So I think it's potentially a pretty exciting find.
So there's a possibility that could be
spanish or portuguese.
Yeah, they all had the similar ceramic-making techniques.
Rick: One ingredient that just
doesn't taste right with all of this work...
Where's the rest of it?
Why just one piece?
You're sitting there, you're having...
You break an item, right?
You don't just toss one piece over there and one piece
-over there. -No.
Then what happened here?
Aaron: It's almost like...
They were cleaning up after themselves as they went along.
And why would you do that?
I mean, you look at the samuel ball site...
-There's lots of pieces. -Tons.
Like, there's truckloads.
And there is far more work here
than over there.
Far more people, far more work.
It almost seems like they were picking up after themselves.
They're not leaving pipe stems.
They're not leaving drinking vessels, they're not leaving
eating vessels, plates.
The fact that there are no artifacts may be just as telling
as if there were a bunch.
That is true.
Yeah, so maybe it's an older area.
Less artifacts normally means it's older.
Well, I still want to find
-a number of items... -Aaron: Yes.
...And hope one tells a story.
Narrator: Later that afternoon...
So, guys, it's a very important meeting.
...Rick and marty lagina, along with
craig tester and other members of the oak island team,
have gathered to hear a scientific report
that has just come in
related to their core-drilling operation
in the money pit area.
Doug: We just finished a hole with interesting results.
We pretty much consistently
hit tunnel at 87 feet.
Steve: 86 to 90 plus or minus
a half a foot on each one.
Doug: Thing is, at this point it-it's an unknown tunnel.
Historically we weren't expecting anything out that far.
-So, what's it doing there? -At that depth.
It's a relatively shallow depth as well.
Doug: Craig, you sent off some wood for c-14 dating
from these tunnel hits up there.
Is there any word back yet?
Craig: Well, we had one that we asked
for a quick return.
-That came out of c-5. -Yes.
There are two main time periods
that came back.
The first one was 1726
to 1813.
And then
1648 to 1694.
-That was the earlier date. -Yeah.
-All right. -(chuckles)
narrator: In the oak island war room,
craig tester has just revealed carbon dating results
indicating that the evidence the team has obtained of
a possible tunnel nearly 90 feet deep in the money pit area
could date back as early as the mid-17th century.
Nearly 150 years before
the discovery of the original treasure shaft.
Craig: I think it's exciting that we're finding
tunnels on every single well we're drilling.
You know, but I'm not convinced by what
we've seen so far that we really know
what the heck's going on at all.
Mm-hmm.
There could be multiple tunnels
going in different directions.
Um, I just think we need to drill
more in the area and define it better.
I think we need to chase this.
I think that makes a lot of sense.
-All right, but where's the gold? -(chuckles)
jack: Well, it appears we're getting close to it, marty.
Doug: If we can get a drill hole inside of it,
-maybe we'll find it. -Yeah.
Marty: Yeah, look, I'm sold.
It is exciting enough and interesting enough to chase
this data because it could possibly be the money pit.
So we can't quit at this point.
The data coming in in and around c-1
is-is encouraging because we,
because we never thought there was anything up there.
I mean, in my mind at least,
c-1 was a long shot when charles proposed it.
But now we're finding these evidence of tunnels
where they shouldn't be.
So, are these the clues that are leading us to the money pit?
Well, that would be great.
Rick: We're finding things that are
perplexing and confusing,
so we have to push forward and see where it leads us.
Yes.
All right. Good deal.
-Thank you all. -Thanks, everybody.
-See you all soon. -Bye-bye.
Narrator: Later that afternoon...
...With a couple precious hours of sunlight left,
scott barlow and geologist terry matheson
join the team from choice drilling in the money pit area
where they have already broken ground
in the next borehole on the team's grid:
Borehole b-c-3.
This is the first in a series of detailed holes to cover off
the northwest side of c-1.
Well, you see the pattern we did on the east side.
-Terry: Yeah. -So, I mean, there's still lots of places
-for things to hide. -Yeah.
Rick: To me c-1 is interesting
not just because of the shiny gold thing.
It's because when it was first
put down, it ran through a shaft,
a shaft we're not quite certain as to what it was.
There's always been this thought that the money pit was a decoy,
that there was a shaft well above that maybe where
the real treasure lays, so...
C-1 is interesting on a couple of levels.
-Scott: You've got some wood. -Terry: Looks interesting to me.
-What's our footage here? -88 feet.
Okay, so this is our, our 87 intersection again.
I'm loving it.
It really corroborates other hits.
Narrator: More wood found nearly 90 feet deep underground?
Could that mean the team has once again hit
the potentially 17th century tunnel?
-Hey, scott. -Hey, steve.
Narrator: And if so, could they be one step closer
to the location of the fabled treasure vault?
Terry: Hi, rick. How you doing?
Hi, guys. So, what's up?
Where are we right now?
I'll show you on the plan.
We are now on b-c-3, so we're on the northwest side of c-1.
-Yeah. -And I believe we're about 89 foot right now?
Terry: That's 89 down there.
From here to here, rick, we got
two and a half feet of solid wood.
Rick: I mean, it's-it's almost a certainty
that that is connected to these other hits.
There's some sort of tunnel running through here.
-Yeah, it's going somewhere. -Rick: I think the thing
that buoys our spirits regarding this,
this current drill program is, we have
reason to believe that we may be close
to the original money pit, and hopefully
we'll be able to discover what it may hold.
The question still remains: Where is the money pit?
-You're running out of space. -Yeah. Exactly.
I am absolutely hopeful that
what we're doing this year, outside of
our traditional exploration area near the money pit,
may lead us to where it really is and explain to me
why we haven't found it already.
And you know what? We have to find it.
We have to be getting close. With all the data we have,
it can't hide forever. We're gonna get it.
There has to be a shaft somewhere around c-1.
-Exactly. -We have to stay the course.
We just have to.
Scott: The only way we know is if we keep drilling.
Narrator: Every promising clue
that rick, marty, craig and their team unearth
not only validates the generations of searchers
who came before them
but also provides compelling evidence
that something of great value
may still lie buried on oak island.
But just what could it be?
Pirate gold? Priceless documents?
Or religious artifacts?
What would require a deep pit with secret tunnels
and a system of ingeniously designed flood traps?
Or an artificial swamp
with carefully hidden pathways?
And, finally,
what would carry with it a deadly curse
that has claimed six lives...
So far?
Next time on the curse of oak island ...
Marty: Wow. Look at that.
It's showing that this whole thing is being staked off.
Marty: It might lead us to treasure.
Deveau: Wow. This is 16th century and before.
-That's remarkable. -Terry, we got wood.
That's interesting. Probably at the edge of a tunnel.
(chuckles) could have even come
off samuel ball's walking cane.
It's pretty incredible. This does seem to match
what we have in our collection.
-We found the smoking gun. -I knew it!
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