5 Discoveries Surrounding Nolan’s Cross | The Curse of Oak Island

Well guys, we’re going up here to, I think, probably Fred Nolan’s most dramatic discovery.

While waiting for the operation at the Money Pit to resume, Rick Lagina, along with island historian Charles Barkhouse and Jack Begley, have invited stonemasons Mike Welling and Mark Fuir to inspect one of the most intriguing rock formations ever found on Oak Island: Nolan’s Cross.

“Our interest was for Mike and Mark to look at it — it’s right over here — and see if the stone had actually been carved. This is the headstone of the cross, so where the arms and the stem intersect. This is what Fred found in 1981.”

Landowner and professional surveyor Fred Nolan discovered five large cone-shaped boulders on his property that formed a perfectly symmetrical cross that measured 720 by 867 feet.

Believing there could be something buried at the center, Fred dug down and uncovered a sixth boulder that eerily resembled a large human head.

“You know, like right here — that looks like it’s been chiseled. Here, here, here, here, here. Yeah, it looks like somebody shaped it.”

Although there are many who believe that the mysterious boulders on Fred Nolan’s property were meant to represent a Templar Cross, there is another, more ingenious theory — one that suggests the boulders were carefully arranged to form what is known as the Tree of Life, an ancient Hebraic symbol which represents the ten spiritual principles, or sephirot, that are contained in God’s creation of the universe.

“Yeah, this is it. This is it.”

This theory was given further credence when a number of smaller, strangely flat-sided stones were found at the exact places around the cross where the sephirot would be located.

“What is interesting is it’s rounded on the back — yeah — and the flat side… Yeah, here it comes. It can kind of hurt if you have to look at it looking down. But it’s the impression — you know, you can see that this would be where the eye would be, and the nose, and the mouth. And there’s an indentation here, you can see right here — although it has weathered — where you could put, like, a small naval cutlass or naval sword in. Like, this is the blade part, right? And where’s — now, again, it’s weathered a lot, and it was much more defined years ago when I first saw it, about twenty-some years ago.”

“What’s unique about this is it’s completely different from the other stones. The other stones are basically granite and they’re cone-shaped. Where this one is obviously was flatter. The suspicion is that the face — especially the eye, perhaps — was looking at an area of significance. That’s our suspicion.”

“We’re hopeful that Mike and Mark will be able to give us some information from the stones. You know, might it lead to treasure? I don’t know. Might it lead to other discovery agendas? I don’t know. But we have to start somewhere, and the place to start is with experts.”

“Okay gentlemen, we’re going to go down here and we’re going to look at the bottom of the cross, if you will — if it was standing upright — and it’s a cone-shaped granite boulder, possibly up to five tons in size. And just take a look at it and give us your impressions.”

“This is it, right here.”

[Music]

“Again, they’re all granite, the five stones, and they’re all shaped like this. The question is: did they find a stone close to what they need and maybe just do some — a little bit of — you know, tweaking?”

“Right. Exactly. Or was this actually manipulated?”

“Oh, one — the surface there — is it? Yeah. I don’t think it’s natural, that’s all. I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t appear natural.”

“Oh my — never seen anything quite like this.”

Near the middle of Oak Island, on property belonging to the family of Fred Nolan, local stonemasons Mark Fuir and Mike Welling may have just found an important clue on the bottom boulder of the megalithic formation known as Nolan’s Cross.

“That surface is unusually smooth here. And it would take a lot of — a lot of dragging to get a surface that smooth.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“What does that — whether it was — what does that tell you?”

“Maybe it was in transport. Yeah, something’s happened to that surface of the stone. The granite is rough — the whole stone — and yet at the bottom, it was smooth. If these stones had been dragged for long distances to position in this particular place — I mean, that’s an ‘aha’ moment. I did not know this about this stone.”

“No, it’s not natural. But as to when it was done is anybody’s guess.”

“If you drag a stone like that down, like a gravel path, you’d almost get a finish like that if you went long.”

“That’s interesting. That’s very interesting.”

“Yeah. I’m just thinking — how do you maneuver such a large stone? And if that is possibly the result of transport, as you indicate — they had to have a way to move this thing. It’s almost the footprint, if you were to drag it.”

“Yeah. Yep.”

“I’m glad you found it.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Wow.”

“Oak Island is a thousand-piece puzzle with 5,100 pieces missing. You — and you just added one.”

“Yeah.”

“And we thank you for that.”

“Thank you for asking us. Happy to help.”

“Thank you.”

“Happy to help. Okay, let’s — on to — on to more puzzles.”

“Yeah.”

It is a moment of great anticipation for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina, as they, along with Charles Barkhouse and metal detection expert Gary Drayton, head to Lot 12 to begin their new search efforts on property now belonging to Fred Nolan’s family.

For the first time since Fred Nolan’s death, his son Tom has granted the team access to all of his father’s 16 acres. This includes the areas where Rick believes Fred made several of Oak Island’s most important discoveries — including Nolan’s Cross.

“Here comes Jim with a backhoe. I wonder if you just dig a trench two feet down, all the way roughly to where they’re standing — a little bit beyond that — right? And we’ll try to locate where this thing might be.”

“All right. Sounds like a plan.”

Noted on Fred’s maps as a location of particular importance is an area the veteran treasure hunter once described as an ancient dumpsite. It was here that previous searchers reported finding evidence believed to be connected to the original construction of the Money Pit.

“We’re looking for clues in that area as to what happened here long ago.”

“I’m getting some — it’s like — iron.”

“That’s it.”

“Yup. Square nail. I got some pottery here.”

“Pottery?”

“Yup.”

“Should we go have a look?”

“Oh my God, I could have the old dinner service here. Look — there’s a big piece. Look.”

“Yeah, different look. Oh wow. That’s a lot of pottery. Look.”

“Well, looks like we hit the dump, guys. Pottery.”

Could these pieces of pottery possibly be connected to the Oak Island mystery? Perhaps left behind by whoever constructed the original Money Pit?

“Another piece here. Take that.”

“Good eye, Charles. I think — get a pottery shard count now.”

“Kinda like hit the jackpot here. There’s another little piece right here.”

“I think our dump is right there, Rick. It’s this perfect cross-section. We found it. It doesn’t go through this way.”

“You’re finding all kinds of bits of pottery and stuff right there — another piece.”

Locating the dump. Finding it. Realizing that the stories were true.

“Yeah. This is a successful day. We got to figure out the oldest thing here, because that might tell us who was here.”

“Sure. At the times we’re wondering about.”

“A date. Yeah — it’s always about the dates.”

“Mhm.”

“From the beginning, we’ve tried to look to the past and try to confirm what the past has taught us. And now today, we’ve taken story, gone into the field, and corroborated that the story is real. And that’s important as we move forward.”

“Ooh, this is worth digging, guys.”

“What is it?”

“That is a beauty.”

On Lot 12, near the middle of the island, metal detection expert Gary Drayton, along with Charles Barkhouse and Jack Begley, have just made a potentially important find.

“That’s like a decorative hinge. I found some beautiful ones that were off chests on Spanish shipwreck sites.”

“Mhm.”

“I would say this is very old. A decorative hinge from a chest.”

“Oh look at this. Check this thing out.”

Could it be connected to one of the three missing chests that once belonged to the pirate Captain James Anderson? And if so, could there be a connection to the skeleton key found by Fred Nolan back in the old days?

“You don’t take your money and put it in a bank. People kept it on their property. They put it in a tin can, they put it in a chest or somewhere, and they bury it on their property.”

“Let’s see if there’s any more.”

“It’s amazing. I’m still getting little pieces of iron — a chirpy little iron signal.”

“You don’t want to go for it?”

“No, there’s something. What is that? Wow.”

“It’s got a nail in it or something.”

“It’s got — you know what that is? Gotta look at it. That’s a strap of some sort.”

“No, it’s a hinge. That is a hinge. That’s another hinge.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what that is.”

“Wow. Yeah, these are the type of hinges that come off chests or boxes.”

“Yeah, that — save the best to the last.”

Another hinge, possibly belonging to a chest. Could these hinges be evidence that this centuries-old dump site was used not only during the construction of the original Money Pit, but also as a place where treasure was deposited long ago?

“If so, what else might this so-called dump contain?”

“Here’s some pottery.”

“Yeah, is it pottery?”

“Yeah. Thin little pottery sherd, gentlemen.”

“Yeah.”

“Hey guys.”

“Hi. Well, has he danced yet?”

“Not yet. No dancing yet.”

“I mean, we’ve really hammered this area.”

“It sure looks like it. Yeah. And I’m pretty positive this is the — the dump.”

“All right. Well, that’s good. Let’s — uh, you have a whole bunch of stuff?”

“Yeah, yeah. There’s a couple of nice finds that came out at the end there.”

“What are they?”

“Hinges.”

“Oh yeah. And I found decorative hinges like this — off boxes or chests.”

“I mean, for me, the Nolan property is a mystery within a mystery. I don’t know what Fred came to know, but there are answers there. There’s no question about that. Who knows what may be excavated out of that? Who knows how many more items of interest may surface?”

“That could be the missing chest. Yeah.”

“So this is a really good first step in terms of cooperating with Tom. I think that, you know, we find the limits of this dump — yeah — and, you know, as we go forward with cooperating with Tom again, this is the first step.”

“I — I think it’s a positive first step. It’s a success. We were looking for an old dump, and we found an old dump.”

“Good job, guys. Carry on.”

“Why don’t we just walk up here, Tom? I think we can go right over this way.”

On Lot 13, near the eastern border of the swamp, Rick Lagina and members of the team are joined by fellow Oak Island landowner Tom Nolan, the son of the late Fred Nolan.

“Take a look.”

“Wow. It should be interesting — this revelation, if you will — that this large stone next to the old apple tree on the Nolan property actually has the long sought-after ring bolt.”

“The point of this is to bring Tom in to look at it and have him decide once and for all — is that the ring bolt that you saw as a young boy?”

“And I hope he’ll say yes.”

“Jeez, that’s interesting.”

“That is one of the original ring bolt rocks.”

“It is?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow.”

“Dad removed the top, and that’s what’s in the pictures. Right? You can see the original ring bolt was a little bit thicker. These things have taken some — you know — time, and weather’s beaten them down a bit. But that’s one of the original ones, right there.”

“Wow.”

With Tom Nolan’s confirmation that they have discovered the remains of another iron ring bolt — first located some 50 years ago by his father Fred Nolan — Rick, Marty, and the team may very well have confirmed that not only does the stone pathway feature extend further into the uplands of the island, but that it could be leading them directly to a major breakthrough discovery.

“It’s just — it’s to me very interesting, ’cause I can’t even imagine the amount of work the original depositor put in. And to what end?”

“To what end?”

“To support something either high or heavy.”

“Perfect spot for it though, you know? If it is a ring bolt — to get you up the hill. Right?”

“You know, it — it would be a very logical place for it with a block and tackle. Right? If you were tying something up around here. If this is some sort of a — you know — a loading or an unloading area.”

“If what you’re doing here — you don’t want anybody to see — you bring it all the way in here to the center of the island. Who’s going to see it?”

“If they were digging here, they have a ready source of cobble. They could continue the road.”

“Actually, I think the road is right over there.”

“Over there?”

“Yeah. Yeah. All the cobbles. Either it’s a turnaround to go up here, or it’s some kind of Y.”

“I think it’s very preliminary. Uh, but Dr. Spooner does advocate — perhaps strongly — that the orientation of the path is now leading up in this direction, towards the Money Pit.”

“Now you have a ring bolt. Tom has asserted that is indeed the ring bolt that he remembers.”

“We need something more substantial, but we also need to focus our energies in a specific area. And there are enough clues here — small clues — that tell us that this is an area worthy of investigation.”

“It really seems like if somebody wanted to put in a road that then would be easily hidden — well, that’s an eye-opener.”

“That sounds like clandestine activity. The question is — where does it go?”

“It is a direct indicator of substantial human effort here on this island well before the Money Pit.”

“Well, in order to get to a certainty, we just have to keep plugging away.”

“Yep.”

“Well, I should get down and continue.”

“I’ll head back down.”

“Head back down. Great find.”

“Oh yeah.”

The only thing that seems certain at this point for Rick, Marty, Craig, and the members of their team is that the more they dig into the Oak Island mystery, the more evidence they will find that something profound happened here long ago.

But if it really does revolve around a vast treasure, what would have justified such painstaking efforts to hide it, a possible lethal force to guard it, and a legendary curse that has claimed six lives so far?

Perhaps the answers will come — by drilling and digging in the Money Pit…

Or by careful excavation, one cobblestone at a time.