NARRATOR: Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island.
GARY: Ready to find some good stuff out of these spoils?
- RICK: Wow. - GARY: What have you got there, Rick?
- RICK: Look at this. - Ooh. That's nice.
Wow. This is old.
JOE: This came out of the medieval period
- from about 1235. - CHARLES: It's amazing.
- Yeah. - (laughs)
GARY: I'm hoping that we smash
straight through the Chappell Vault
and come up with some treasure.
- This should be it. - Wow, big timbers.
Chappell Vault, here we come.
(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.
♪ ♪
CRAIG: Gentlemen.
- GARY: Morning, mate. - Had many pulls yet?
No, they're readjusting and sinking the can down.
This is it, mate.
DANNY: All good? All right.
NARRATOR: It is the beginning
of another potentially historic day
on Oak Island for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,
their partner Craig Tester and the members of their team.
- DANNY: Okay, go ahead. - GARY: First hammer grab, mate.
I'm hoping that we smash straight through
the Chappell Vault and come up with some treasure today.
Yeah.
MICHEL: We're going in.
NARRATOR: In the area dubbed the C-1 cluster,
they are now approaching a depth of nearly 150 feet
with their ten-foot-wide steel-cased shaft known as EC-1,
or more affectionately, "Early Christmas."
Positioned just one foot east of Borehole C-1
and just eight feet northeast of the recently dug TF-1 shaft,
which may have intercepted part of the original Money Pit,
EC-1 is believed to possibly be on target
to reach a seven-foot-high wooden vault
first reported by searchers in 1897 at a depth
of some 153 feet and encased in concrete.
I'm gonna go see what kind of, uh, pressures
Danny is seeing over there.
- All right, mate. - All right, sounds good.
GARY: I'm confident, mate.
Today is the day.
NARRATOR: The team has good reason to be hopeful,
as it was in this same location
that, earlier this year, water testing
and a core-drilling operation revealed evidence
that vast amounts of both silver and gold
lie buried somewhere below.
PETER: Here comes the first hammer grab, so let's...
- GARY: Yep. - go to it.
I'm confident.
- Hopefully. - Yep.
GARY: All right, mate, let's get stuck in
and find some treasure.
I've got high hopes for EC-1.
It's not too far off where we found traces
of gold and silver on pieces
of metal and water samples.
If this can works out, we'll all be home for Christmas.
- Good? - I'm not getting any metal hits.
- Okay. - It's clear, mate.
Yeah.
GARY: Maybe the next hammer grab.
We're following along this concentration of gold
that they found in the Money Pit itself in the C-1 cluster.
There's just too much there.
Gold on the metal, ancient wood,
and so, we hope this is it.
This is the one.
PETER: What did Danny say?
We're down to about 147, 148 feet.
He'll measure in a little bit.
He figures the plug is about six feet behind him.
RICK: No increase
in pressures or decrease or anything?
No. Nothing significant.
What about what's coming up?
GARY: Yeah, we had one hammer grab
of slurry and limestone.
Next, treasure.
(laughs)
NARRATOR: As the excavation of EC-1 continues,
just 200 feet to the northeast, near Borehole 10-X...
We got to go through Early Christmas material
and try to get as much of that taken care of as possible today.
- ERIC: Okay. - NARRATOR: Jack Begley and surveyor Eric Valois
are at the wash table, preparing to search for clues
and valuables in the spoils recently unearthed from EC-1.
So, keep your eyes peeled.
Um, but I-I'd like to do a little bit bigger loads
than we have been.
And as you can see, I've added
- this plastic mesh on top. - Mesh, yep.
Hopefully it's gonna be able to catch
if there are any parchments or other softer materials.
- Really, in the past, I was just looking mainly for gold coins. - (laughs)
- JACK: Now, we should be able to see everything. Yeah. - Catch those smaller finds.
- Perfect. - And-- Yeah, I-I say we get cracking.
I'll get in there, I'll go get our first load.
All right.
We've got huge hammer grabs this year
to facilitate the extraction of soils
from the ten-foot caisson.
It's just a process to move that material
and at the same time, visually inspect the material.
And we need to be at the top of our game
in order to get through as much material as possible.
Here's a piece of glass.
Wow.
We'll save that. It doesn't look very old, though.
No, it's pretty thin and clear.
JACK: Which could be from down in the shafts, but...
still just searcher stuff.
I've grown quite fond of just washing through the spoils,
'cause that's where you find things
that everyone else misses.
And so, I'm really hoping
that we can make it through all the material,
'cause I'd really like to put a coin--
A gold one, specifically-- In Marty's hand this year.
ERIC: What about this? It's got a little flex to it,
so it's not a rock.
JACK: I-I'm not quite sure, though.
I-It might be a conglomerate of some other type.
- ERIC: Okay. - You see how it's not a natural limestone...
- Yeah. - because you wouldn't see so many little clasts
or small, little stones included inside this rock.
- ERIC: Yeah. - You know, I can't say
that what's drawing it all together in here
is, uh, limestone, though.
It could be even a type of a concrete.
Like, look at those stones
that are all trapped inside of there.
- Mm. - It almost looks like it's a cement.
It might be an older one.
NARRATOR: Concrete,
found nearly 150 feet deep in the spoils of EC-1?
Since no previous searchers have ever been documented
to use concrete while excavating
or reinforcing shafts in the Money Pit area,
could Jack and Eric have possibly found
an important clue?
Perhaps evidence of the concrete-encased vault
first reported by the Oak Island Treasure Company in 1897?
It could be a depositor concrete.
- Yeah. - When they encountered the vault,
- they encountered a layer of concrete... - Yeah.
that surrounded the entire vault
- at the bottom of the Money Pit. - Yeah.
So this could be a piece of that.
- Yeah. - But for me, this is a keeper.
And-and maybe it's big enough
that we can actually get it tested.
- Okay. - You know, figure out if it is natural
- or maybe it is an old concrete? - Yeah.
Great job finding this. I'll bag it.
NARRATOR: While Jack and Eric continue sifting
through spoils at the wash table...
RICK: It sure would be nice to find something.
- Anything. - CRAIG: Oh, yeah.
NARRATOR: back at the Money Pit...
- Hey, Charles. - Guys.
NARRATOR: Rick Lagina, Craig Tester
and members of the team continue monitoring the excavation
of the EC-1 shaft as it approaches
the critical depth of 150 feet.
You know, we all hope that this encounters
the Oak Island Treasure Company vault.
- Yeah. - Because we're in that vicinity right now.
We are in that vicinity.
It was the Oak Island Treasure Company in 1897 that drilled
through what they believed to be cement and then wood
and then loose metal.
Is that coins? Is it silver bars or what?
You know, I know you-- Or gold bars?
Who knows? So, hopefully,
we can find what they found in 1897.
- RICK: That'd be great. - Oh, yeah.
CRAIG: If we're gonna be finding it,
it's gonna be in the next
- few hammer grabs. - CHARLES: We're close.
Yep.
GARY: Got another load coming in.
RICK: Well, Gary, have at it.
All right.
Another shot at glory.
Dang, that was a big bucketload.
PETER: There's some wood.
- There's wood in there? - Yeah, right there.
GARY: Excellent.
- That's exactly what we want. - Yeah.
- GARY: It was in that area. - PETER: Let's see.
CHARLES: Let's hope it's a good one.
GARY: Here we go.
Oh, look at that.
PETER: There's some wood.
GARY: Oh, look at that.
NARRATOR: In the Money Pit area, Rick Lagina,
Craig Tester and members of the team
have just made a potentially important discovery
nearly 150 feet deep in the EC-1 shaft.
That could be important.
- That fits with the story. - Mm-hmm.
- Especially with this vault area. - Yeah.
This wood recovery is exciting because, so far,
we've been going through in situ material
and now we're going through wood
at quite a deep depth.
I'm hoping that we've hit the vault.
So, this just came up.
- Just in there? - It was in-- Yeah, it was in the bucket.
CRAIG: Well, it'd be a good one to carbon-date, then.
RICK: Yep. Well, let's see if anything more comes up.
Yeah, it's the next one that really matters.
RICK: There's hope that the Oak Island Treasure Company vault
resides roughly around 150 feet,
and now we have a limited amount of wood.
It's exciting.
So, after the hammer grab dumps,
it's kind of like a-a race to get in
to see who can find what.
Well, gentlemen, anything today?
It brought up a little bit of wood.
GARY: And unfortunately, no metals at the moment,
but that might change.
We got another bucket coming up.
A couple buckets of hope here yet
for the Chappell Vault, right?
- Yep. - We should see some wood, though,
- in these next grabs. - CHARLES: That's right.
- MARTY: Boy, that is a lot more water for some reason. - CHARLES: Yeah.
That's the most water we've seen come up yet.
RICK: It's somewhat surprising that we're not finding
substantial amounts of wood.
And the amount of water coming out of the grab
suggests we're getting to the bottom of the hole.
- PETER: It's silent. - Yep.
It is silent.
- This looks like a report coming. - Hey, guys.
- Here's a report coming in. - Uh-oh.
So, this is what came out of the hole with the last bucket.
That material is coming up now.
It's the same as that gypsum.
MARTY: Did the can rotate down
or didn't it really go anywhere?
We achieved an inch and a half in 15 minutes.
- Oh. - Currently as it sits,
we're at 152 and a half with the can
and 151 with the grab, so we're really struggling.
Danny is seeing some high pressures right now,
obviously associated with that as well.
Hey-- they run those things through all--
They don't, they don't only just go through
glacial till, they go through rock.
- That's right. - Why is this stopping it dead like this?
That's the question that we're all looking at
for an answer right now.
Anhydrite is notoriously hard to drill.
It's actually soft, but it's gummy.
And it gums up the bit, it gums up the teeth,
and the teeth don't cut.
It's really hard to drill, even with a big rig.
Given that metric of advance,
we could be here for a full day and we can't afford it.
MARTY: I'm with you. Let's just see
if Gary will find ten coins in this one
and then we'll reconsider.
Other than finding ten coins, I think we're done.
- Yeah, then we'd be done. Yeah. - RICK: All right.
MARTY: Not a lot in that one, either.
Essentially nothing.
Yeah.
- GARY: I've got the okay from Michel. - PETER: Yeah.
That's some anhydrite right there.
- Yeah, that's what they're struggling... - Yeah.
- to get through at the moment. - That's it.
PETER: I'll take this over to Craig and Dr. Spooner.
GARY: Okay, mate.
So, I think we're pretty much there.
I mean, that's anhydrite, isn't it?
Well, this could be gypsum already.
- CRAIG: Yep. - IAN: Yep.
RICK: There's nothing in it,
so I think we're done.
- I'm ready to call it. - MARTY: Yeah.
Call it. Start getting ready to backfill
- and do all your thing. - Okay.
- Thank you. - Perfect. Thanks, guys.
- RICK: Thanks. - Yep.
NARRATOR: After excavating two ten-foot-wide caissons
in an area where, earlier this year,
two six-inch-wide boreholes
returned high traces of precious metals,
the team finds themselves facing an extraordinary question.
Just where is the vast source
of the detected valuables located?
MARTY: We just dug two enormous holes,
bigger than we ever have.
We expected to find gold and silver,
and we didn't.
So, are we disappointed? Damn right we're disappointed.
Those two caissons were costly, time-consuming, labor-intensive,
and we had high hopes for them and we didn't find any treasure.
RICK: Well, we're done in this can.
Unfortunately, Dan, it didn't turn out,
but there's always the next one, right?
We need to go to the war room now
and decide about the third location.
MARTY: Let's go. We're done.
- The king is dead. - RICK: The king is dead.
NARRATOR: Later that evening...
MARTY: We have a full house today.
And that is entirely appropriate,
because what we're gonna discuss today is basically what we do,
what we're here for, we want to find some treasure.
NARRATOR: brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,
Craig Tester and members of the team
have gathered in the war room to make a collective
and critical decision.
MARTY: We have now placed
two ten-foot canisters into the ground,
the hallowed ground of the Money Pit,
and we didn't come up with a lot.
We came up with some clues...
- Clues. - but nothing I would call treasure.
MARTY: We have the time and the material
to do two more caissons.
So, with that, I will open it up to discussion
because we're running out of time,
so we have to decide where we go next.
RICK: So,
when we started the year, the Dunfield dig
was certainly on the list of priority targets
because of F-4, again, a-a gold signature.
NARRATOR: After conducting water testing
earlier this year in previously drilled six-inch boreholes
across the Money Pit area,
the Oak Island team was astonished
that F-4 was one of several to yield high concentrations
of gold and silver.
Coincidentally, F-4 happens to be located
at the very center of the most notorious operation
in the history of Oak Island,
the excavation by California geologist Robert Dunfield.
After constructing the Causeway in the fall of 1965,
Dunfield transported a 70-ton crane to the Money Pit
and dug a massive 100-foot diameter hole in the hopes
of finally locating the legendary Chappell Vault,
believed to lie buried at a depth of 153 feet.
Unfortunately, his plan was thwarted
at approximately 140 feet
when his massive crater flooded and caved in.
Is it possible that even though Robert Dunfield failed
to recover any treasure, he may have come dangerously close
to solving the Oak Island mystery?
So, I guess I'll open it up.
What's everyone's thought about, uh, the Dunfield, um, location?
From the evidence in front of me,
my best placement should be
to cover very thoroughly the area
on the north and west side
of the bottom of the Dunfield dig.
That's F-4.
And so, the quadrant is entirely opened
and could have a vault
that is not covered by any drill hole
that we've done since 2017.
And a ten-foot can should cover that really quite easily.
ALEX: So, my thought is,
that's a good reason to investigate there.
If you look at the TF-1,
C-1 area, Dunfield took a lot of earth
off the surface of the Money Pit area
and saw all the shafts, as far as I'm aware,
as they're laid out.
If there was anything to see, he saw it.
- Right. - Yes, absolutely.
And he never really got the answers
in that location that he was looking for.
Not because he didn't find anything but because
- he lost the hole. - JACK: Yeah, and maybe
he actually saw the top of what the old Money Pit was?
You know, maybe there are some real nice things
just sitting right at the bottom.
DOUG: Well, one thing we can't deny, though,
is our testing this year has told us that is the site
of the highest concentration of gold in the water.
You cannot deny that.
RICK: There are more than a few reasons
why the location should be centered
over the deepest part of the Dunfield dig.
One of the reasons, of course, is that there's always been
this conjecture that Robert Dunfield did not go deep enough.
The other reason, of course,
is that the F-4, sonic drill location,
that's the highest gold level that we've tested.
So, there's a reason to place it there.
DOUG: I like that spot.
I mean, the F-4 results are really intriguing.
MARTY: So, is this RA-1,
- "Rick and Alex"? - RICK: No,
I'd propose it to be... DH-82.
Anybody know what that means?
Oh, I do. (chuckles)
MARTY: It stands for Dan Henskee-82,
the, uh, senior explorer here.
This will be your can, Dan.
- DAN H.: Uh-oh. - Your chance to shine.
- In other words, I have to take the blame. - (laughter)
MARTY: If it's good, we'll give you partial credit,
and if it's bad, you can have the entire blame. Yes, sir.
- Sounds fair to me. - (laughter)
- MARTY: Well, let's do that, then. - RICK: I think we're good.
CHARLES: Yeah, let's do it.
NARRATOR: As a new day begins on Oak Island
while representatives from ROC Equipment
and Irving Equipment Limited
fill in the EC-1 shaft and prepare for the team's
next excavation in the Money Pit area,
approximately 200 feet to the south...
- GARY: All right, Billy. - BILLY: Hey, Gary.
I'm gonna remove some of this junk
and make a little better spot for you.
NARRATOR: metal detection expert Gary Drayton
and heavy equipment operator Billy Gerhardt
begin searching through a mound of spoils
that were excavated from the Money Pit
by Robert Dunfield in 1965.
Spoils which have never been thoroughly searched
for clues or potential valuables.
GARY: It's just a matter of time, mate,
before we pull up a nice coin
or some kind of artifact with a date on it.
If we find one thing, you know, it changes everything, right?
Yeah, I mean when these spoils
were moved around originally, mate,
they didn't have a magic wand.
- (laughs) - You dig it, I'll detect it.
- Okay. - All right, mate.
NARRATOR: Because Dunfield never searched
through the spoils that he unearthed,
and because the team did detect gold earlier this year
in the area where Dunfield conducted his work,
they are hoping to recover any more important,
or valuable clues that he may have missed.
GARY: Here we go.
JACK: Oh, oh, wow.
There's dowel holes.
NARRATOR: At the beginning of this year,
the team made a number of promising finds
in a nearby spoils pile from the Dunfield dig,
including timbers that were potentially related
to the original Money Pit,
as well as an iron spike that could date
to as much as two and a half centuries old.
GARY: There could be anything anywhere,
because Dunfield totally dug all this area out.
It's a higgledy-piggledy mess,
but there could be some treasure in these surface layers.
BILLY: Pretty old-looking plank in that one, Gary.
Big old plank in there?
See the black piece of wood?
Yep.
RICK: Found anything, Gary?
GARY: Perfect timing, mate, yeah.
Just that piece of wood was in this last load.
That came off that other piece of wood there.
It's fairly rotten.
Yeah.
As you peel the top,
you know, up here, I think you can look and see
one pile and then another pile.
I don't know what it tells you, but it...
If you see these different horizons,
that is from long, long ago.
I hope so.
Have at her.
MARTY: Going through the Dunfield spoils
out by the Money Pit, it's been a hard job.
There's a lot of stuff up there.
The good news is, we can find anything in the spoils.
I mean, it could've come from deep in the Money Pit.
(beeping)
GARY: Got an hit here, mate.
RICK: What's that?
GARY: I don't know what it is, so it's got to come out.
- RICK: Where is it, Gary? - Uh, well, let me pinpoint it.
(electronic whirring)
In there somewhere.
- RICK: Where to? - Anywhere you like, mate.
All right, well, pinpointer time.
What's this?
Looks like a...
- Wonder Woman bracelet. - (both chuckle)
No, it looks like a...
- just a piece of cut pipe, doesn't it? - RICK: Yeah.
- Cast-iron pipe, by the look of it. - Yep.
Don't know how old it is, though,
but I'll put it in my pouch.
Keep digging.
I am always keen about digging the material
from the so-called Money Pit spoil piles
because that material is from long ago.
And so, I'm hopeful that we can find something
that will be relevant, uh, to the search.
Perhaps another clue.
You only find clay like this in a backfill of a shaft.
GARY: What do you got there, Rick?
RICK: I don't know.
Leather, that's for sure.
GARY: Wow-- Oh, yeah.
It's like a, an old leather strap, by the look of it.
Looks like an oldie.
Yeah, we could get this tested.
NARRATOR: A potentially ancient leather strap
found in the Dunfield spoils?
What do you think with this piece?
- Oh, wow. - NARRATOR: Over the past five years,
the Oak Island team has recovered
several leather artifacts in the Money Pit area
including bits of bookbinding
and the heel of a boot that was dated to as early as 1492.
GARY: Looks like a belt.
NARRATOR: Could this leather strap also predate the discovery
of the Money Pit in 1795?
If so, what else could still be hidden
within the so-called Dunfield spoils?
What do you think it would be that wide from?
It could be a, could be an harness,
- perhaps off an ox. - Yeah.
Or it could be the bottom
of a leather shoe.
There has been some old shoes found.
Yes, there has. Yes.
- Thick. - GARY: And it's thick, yeah.
Yeah, that is sweet.
That's a sweet piece of leather.
I've got some bags in the back of me car.
I'm gonna put this in the bag.
- I'll go get them. - So we'll see-- All right, mate.
Right in the trunk.
RICK: Usually, we find little scraps of leather.
This is quite a large piece, but it could be anything.
- Here you go. - Nice one, mate.
RICK: It's a heavy piece of leather,
and I think this piece of leather is substantial enough
that it should be tested.
I'm going to bring this down to the archeology trailer,
have Laird look at it, see what he thinks.
If you and Billy want to keep going on this,
I would just carry us out right to the end, okay?
And I'll keep my twin optical scanners on the soil.
- Okay. - Good find, mate.
And I will be back.
GARY: Okay, mate. See you later.
NARRATOR: Another exciting day has arrived on Oak Island...
RICK: Good morning.
How's it going?
- CHARLES: Good. - TERRY: Not too bad.
NARRATOR: as Rick Lagina joins members of the team
in the Money Pit area...
PETER: DH-82,
first scoop's right here.
NARRATOR: where the excavation of their third ten-foot-wide
steel-cased shaft known as DH-82 is now underway.
Gary's in there like a dirty shirt
seeing if he can dig up some metal.
How deep is the can? How deep is the excavation?
Uh, they are somewhere between 17 and say,
let's just say 20.
They're going about two feet a grab,
and they'll give us another measure here before too long.
- RICK: You know, it's-it's the Dunfield Dig, right? - CHARLES: Yeah.
So, you know, we know he got down to a certain depth
and that measurement is a bit in dispute.
I mean, and he-he was fighting it every day.
I mean, it was caving in,
uh, it was a bad time of year, December,
there was rain, there was snow.
The sides were-were-- Kept caving in,
so probably for every bucket he was pulling up
or every grab he was pulling up,
he was probably losing two or three.
- That's right. - So, it was a constant fight.
I don't agree with the-the methodology,
but you know, h-had he found the treasure, he'd have been a hero.
Absolutely.
MARTY: We're convinced that Dunfield,
doing what he did under very difficult conditions,
without a lot of the technology we have,
without metal detectors, without observers, without wash tables,
could easily have missed extremely substantive things.
MARTY: And then he also stopped a little bit short
of the so-called vault.
So, we're kind of just trying to find
what Dunfield might have missed.
It's down there, Rick, you just haven't found it yet.
TERRY: That's it.
RICK: I'm hoping for the Bravo-Tango moment.
This could be it. This could be "X" marks the spot.
You know, there's all kinds of possibilities here.
All kinds.
So, we'll see what happens.
I'm very hopeful.
- Yeah. - TERRY: Yeah, for sure.
NARRATOR: While Rick Lagina continues to oversee
the excavation of DH-82 at the Money Pit,
later that afternoon...
PETER: You know, Oak Island is more than a treasure hunt,
there's a story here.
And the research might help tell
- the other half of the story. - Oh, I agree.
NARRATOR: Rick and Marty Lagina's nephews
Peter and David Fornetti, along with Charles Barkhouse,
are traveling some 50 miles northeast
to Dawson's Print Shop in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
They will be meeting with rare documents
and artifacts expert Joe Landry,
to get his analysis on the piece of leather
discovered just one day ago in the spoils
that were excavated from the Money Pit
by Robert Dunfield back in 1965.
MARTY: Leather is always important
from any of these holes because it can be dated.
It was used for a couple years, maybe.
I mean, at the outside ten,
so if it comes back with a, pardon the pun, concrete date,
it's probably gonna be accurate.
And if it's old, and old enough, it could have been used
in the original digging of the Money Pit.
- CHARLES: Right here, guys. - MARTY: So,
it's something we have to get an expert to look at.
Hi, Joe.
- Hi, guys. - Hi, nice to see you again. - Hello.
- Guys, this is Joe Landry. - Hi.
CHARLES: This is Peter Fornetti and David Fornetti.
-DAVID: Nice to meet you. -PETER: Nice to meet you. So, we were
exploring, um, to the west of the Money Pit area,
and we found something interesting.
And in this area, just to give you a little bit of context,
there's belief that this area had spoil piles
that may be from the original Money Pit.
So, as they were digging, they found this piece of leather.
JOE: Yeah.
PETER: We kind of want to know what your take is on it.
A bit of a shoe sole here.
It looks like the, uh, oak bark-tanned leather.
So, when you say that tanning, what do you mean by that?
The, uh, the process
is that they take bark from an oak tree
and-and make an emulsion that they can soak the leather in.
And the, uh, the leather absorbs the tannin from this emulsion
and, uh, that preserves the leather,
and, uh, it takes them a full year to tan this.
- Okay. - It makes quite a strong leather,
a well-wearing leather.
And was particularly sought-after
for the soles of shoes and boots.
Just to give you an idea of what it looked like, probably,
you know, when it was tanned,
it was sort of this lighter color.
But once this gets wet, it gets much darker.
And if it's wet and put under pressure,
it can get very dark, even black.
And, uh, you know,
obviously if it was underground,
it was under a certain amount of pressure.
You mentioned that it's oak tanning.
When was oak tanning done?
Well, it was started, uh, in the, uh,
medieval period, you know, ar-- about, uh, 1235 or so.
JOE: So, this type of tannage was done from about 1235,
the medieval period.
NARRATOR: At Dawson's Print Shop in Halifax, Nova Scotia...
leather expert Joe Landry
has just informed members of the Oak Island team
that the artifact found one day ago
in the 1965 Dunfield spoils
is the sole of a finely made shoe
and could date as far back as the 13th century.
You know, Joe, we're getting some different date ranges
i-in the Money Pit area.
And one in particular was 1488 to 1650.
Is it possible that this could relate to that?
Yeah, it could quite easily fit within that period.
CHARLES: Wow.
PETER: What type of people
wore this type of shoe?
JOE: It's difficult to say for what's left here,
exactly what style this was.
It looks to be a sole from an officer's boot
rather than a heavy-duty workman's boot.
- What makes you say that? - Well, it's the shape, mainly.
It looks like it was quite a nicely cut and shaped boot.
You know, with a good taper here and here.
NARRATOR: A potential fragment from a military officer's boot
discovered in the Dunfield spoils?
- ALEX: Oh. - PETER: Yeah, what is that?
- It looks like leather almost. - It for sure looks like leather.
NARRATOR: One year ago, the team recovered the sole of a fine leather boot
in spoils they excavated in the Money Pit area
that was carbon-dated to as early as 1492.
It's a refined design.
NARRATOR: If Joe Landry is correct in his assessment,
could that mean that the two artifacts are related?
And could it also offer hope that the team is digging
in a location where something of even greater value
lies buried?
So, you-you've talked about the oak tanning
as a way to somewhat date this,
and maybe you can't tell us just from looking at it,
but are there any other tests that could be done
or any other avenues that we could take
in order to try and get a-a better date?
Well, yeah, you can try to see if-if they used anything
to dye the leather, because that-that kind of locks in
- the date as well. - Yeah, that'd be great.
RICK: We need to press the envelope every time
we make a find such as this to apply science,
technology and expertise to try to understand it.
And not just what it is and when was it made.
There are other questions. Is there a cultural influence?
Is there some s-- Type of science
that we're currently unaware of that can be brought to bear?
Are there other experts we can ask?
So, there's a lot of things to do
and that is what we are in the process of doing.
I want to thank you for everything
that you've done today and pointed us
in the right direction to how to proceed.
You're welcome. I enjoyed the chance to look at this material.
It's not something we see a lot of
in Canada or Nova Scotia, so it-it's a real treat.
PETER: We'll take this information back to the guys
and let them know and, hopefully,
we'll get some testing and we'll let you know
if anything evolves from this.
- Yes, it'd be very interesting. - All right.
- Thank you. - CHARLES: Thank you, Joe.
- CHARLES: You're a wealth of information. - JOE: Take care.
NARRATOR: While Charles, David and Peter
make their way back to Oak Island...
GARY: So, we haven't seen a lot of timber yet.
RICK: Nothing but backfill.
NARRATOR: Rick Lagina and members of the team
continue to monitor the excavation of the DH-82 shaft.
- Hey, Terry. - Hey, how you doing, Andrew?
- Good, you? - Not too bad, my friend.
- Yeah? - So, what's the tale of the tape at this point?
We are sitting at 75 with the excavation right now.
"Excav: 75."
ANDREW: It's going a lot faster than anticipated,
and I think that's just solely due to the backfill
in here as well.
There's no new ground to be into,
no timbers are really being encountered.
No holdups, essentially.
- You guys are going quick. - Real quick.
- That's great. - Real quick, so it's looking good.
Hopefully we see past that 100-foot mark today.
-Right on. Okay, good. Thanks a lot, man. -All right.
- No problem, Terry. - Thanks for the catch-up.
GARY: All right. Let's get stuck in.
What have we got here?
Ooh, look at that.
That's shaped.
That's definitely shaped.
RICK: Yep. For sure looks like it.
- GARY: Yep. Definitely, mate. - Like, right here.
Maybe like an old handle off an old tool?
It could be a trunnel?
- It doesn't have a collar... - Yeah.
- but it's definitely been shaped. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: A possible trunnel
found some 75 feet deep in the Money Pit?
Dating back as far as the seventh century AD,
a trunnel is a wooden fastener
utilized to connect large planks or timbers together,
especially for the purpose of withstanding wet environments.
GARY: Terry, this came out of the last load.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that Gary
has just found an ancient wooden fastener that was part
of the booby-trapped, original Money Pit?
- TERRY: That's definitely a peg. - Yeah.
TERRY: You see where it goes in here, I mean, it looks like
- it was pounded in to about that point. - Yeah.
- Thanks a lot, Gary. - Okay, mate.
Got to get back to the spoils.
- Wow, a lot of material. - Yeah.
GARY: That last bucketload was a different shape.
And more big timbers coming up.
RICK: Wow.
This has just started, mate.
Holy crap, that's a big timber.
RICK: That's great.
That's what we're looking for.
I think our fortunes are changing, mate.
GARY: Holy crap, that's a big timber.
RICK: Look at that.
NARRATOR: It is an exciting moment
in the Money Pit area...
GARY: That's a big boulder as well.
- I haven't seen any of those. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: as Rick Lagina and members of the team
have begun unearthing what they hope to be evidence
of the original Money Pit some 80 feet deep in the DH-82 shaft.
RICK: Hi, Terry.
You can see...
- Wow. - here.
RICK: This is probably adze cut.
Oh, yeah.
NARRATOR: A timber with possible cuts
made by an adze?
First developed in ancient Egypt more than 5,000 years ago,
an adze is a type of cutting tool
featuring a sharp edge that runs perpendicular to the handle,
and was designed for shaping timbers.
GARY: That's a little screamer.
NARRATOR: Earlier this year, while metal detecting on Lot 4,
over on the western side of the island...
GARY: Ooh, look at that.
Gary and Rick discovered one of these very tools.
One which blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge believed
could predate the discovery of the Money Pit
by nearly two centuries.
MARTY: Those are good numbers.
Yeah.
RICK: That is pretty rough.
TERRY: Oh, yeah.
- And we'll get those tagged up. Thanks. - Okay.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that this adze-cut timber
is connected to that discovery?
And if so, could it be part of the original workings
constructed long ago
in order to hide the fabled Chappell Vault?
GARY: Yeah, he's definitely gonna have to get these out of here.
RICK: I think any time a piece of wood,
coming from a borehole or a caisson,
if it's cut with an adze, that indicates age.
Yeah, that looks good, too. Thanks, Rick.
RICK: So, it's possible that the older wood we're seeing,
some of which is adze-cut,
is actually part of the original Money Pit.
- You can see a few marks here. - Yeah.
RICK: I think it demands
further investigation.
GARY: Do you think it could be a shaft or a tunnel?
- RICK: This place is such a conundrum. - Yeah.
Such a puzzle.
GARY: Yeah. But you know what?
You never know what's gonna come out of your next hole.
And this is a bloody big hole.
RICK: Yeah.
Look, until all the gear's gone,
until all the keys are turned off,
every hammer grab is a-a chance.
- Yeah. - Every single one.
Every time they turn on the wash plant,
every time your metal detector goes off,
every time you put a shovel in the ground,
there's always that chance.
That's really the essence of treasure hunting.
Yeah. All it takes is one good find, mate.
So let's find some gold and silver next.
NARRATOR: For more than two centuries, a fabled treasure
has eluded generations of determined searchers.
Although many tantalizing clues have been unearthed,
hinting at its location somewhere deep in the Money Pit,
Rick and Marty Lagina and their team
may finally be zeroing in.
Will the Fellowship of the Dig soon realize
an extraordinary dream, and justify the sacrifices
of all those who came before them?
Or will they encounter
another fabled presence on Oak Island...
the manifestation of a deadly curse?
(bird squawks)
Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...
TERRY: We've got gold in the water.
Let's hope we get some gold in the mud.
There's anomalies all over the island.
On land and in the water.
RICK: We have to map the whole island.
COLIN: She's gonna go out.
Oh.
- Oh, there's a big target. - Holy-- look at that.
- Big one? - It's big.
Is there a shipwreck off the island?
GARY: Here we go. Come on.
- Wow. - RICK: That's it.
- GARY: That's it. Yeah! - That's old.
RICK: It's possibly the Money Pit.
(laughter)