Marty Lagina: The Sad, Dark Truth Behind the Curse of Oak Island

Off the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada lies the infamous Oak Island. Legends of a vast treasure being buried on this island have been shared for centuries. Despite countless efforts by dozens of treasure hunters to find and retrieve this fortune, it appears the treasure still remains hidden. It is known as the longest treasure hunt in history, but the mystery of Oak Island runs even deeper than its alleged riches.

It was predicted that the treasure would not be found until seven treasure hunters died during the search. Currently, the count stands at six. Now, some people would call that rumor or superstition, but what if I told you there’s a real curse on Oak Island that affects every person who joins the search? And what exactly is this legendary treasure that people have lost their lives over?

Since the beginning of its fame, Oak Island was surrounded by whispers of piracy. Particularly popular in the 1700s were the rumors that Captain Kidd had hurriedly stashed a horde of loot from his adventures on the coast of North America. Even Blackbeard and Henry Morgan were thought by some to have dealings on the mysterious Oak Island. People from the mainland in the early 1700s even claimed to witness fires and hear loud laughter echoing across the water, which led to stories of pirates throwing violent parties on the island at night.

Yet, even if the pirate tales were fictitious, perhaps the island does hold the key to one of the many unexplained disappearances throughout history. Some have believed Sir Francis Bacon hid a secret manuscript of Shakespeare’s lost plays on Oak Island to keep the world’s eyes from tainting the work of art. Other stories of Marie Antoinette’s missing jewelry or a missing Spanish ship laden with the gold of the New World have also been theorized.

A concept significantly popularized during the past century is that the long-lost Ark of the Covenant or the reputed artifact known as the Holy Grail might be hidden deep in the island. Tied to these religious artifacts is possibly the most popular theory about Oak Island today. This theory is that something important was hidden on the island by a powerful sect, such as the Knights Templars or the Freemasons.

The Knights Templars were a Catholic military group during the Crusades, known for having played a large part in religious government and early banking in Europe and for having extensive rituals and secret orders. During the Crusades, as part of reclaiming the Holy Land, the Knights Templar supposedly procured many religious artifacts. Legend says they even confiscated the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail, though that is just conjecture. It is possible the knights did have important relics to hide. Some believe the Masonic Lodge was actually started by surviving Templar knights who escaped persecution to Scotland in the early 1300s. Allegedly, some survivors traveled to North America and may have carried treasure from exploits with them, possibly hiding them on Oak Island. Or perhaps the Freemasons simply used the island for their own secret activities later on in the 1700s.

Most of the facts behind these mysteries have been lost to time, but more recent legends helped to keep the stories alive, such as the tale that seven treasure hunters will die before the treasure is found. The “Curse of Oak Island” is a History Channel series which has now been running for 10 seasons. Brothers Rick and Marty Lagina and their team have been taking the public audience on all of the twists and turns of a seemingly endless investigation.

On the show, the seven-death curse is presented as a known local legend; however, there is no recorded evidence of when this curse came about or who said it for the first time. The first death was recorded by the Oak Island Association in 1861 when a water pump suddenly exploded, scalding several workers and killing one man. In 1897, an excavator fell to his death into the very hole his team had dug. In 1965, a hunt funded by the Resto family collapsed when, on one summer day, its leader Robert Restol went down into a tunnel and was knocked unconscious by an unsuspected natural gas leak. Not hearing a response, Robert Jr. followed and also succumbed to the gas. Three workers went in to rescue, but tragically only one man survived, carrying the body of his coworker back to fresh air, though it was too late. No other trace of such gas has been found in the digging since then, and that day remains a dark memory in the island’s history.

May this curse have come about after the Restol family incident? Another mystery in the midst of this curse is the running count. After six people had already died looking for the treasure, the TV show’s executive producer Kevin Burns also passed away, which brings the count to the seventh death. If so, does that mean the curse is just a hoax, or if it doesn’t count, could there still be more to come?

Besides the curse, other “ghost stories” have also been rumored concerning the island, such as haunted equipment and strange lights at night. One such mystery occurred in the ’70s when a group of diggers lowered a camera down into a deep borehole. Searching the fuzzy footage of the dirty water in the hole, individuals claimed to have sighted a dismembered hand floating. Was this merely a tree branch imagined to be a specter, or is there something truly eerie happening on Oak Island? But, of course, the event was not recorded and cannot be verified.

Oak Island is known to be the world’s longest and most expansive treasure hunt, having had companies and individuals dedicating their finances and even lives to over 220 years of searching for its trove of glory. But what do we really know about this presumed prize? Oak Island got its name from the red oaks that once grew there and were unique to the area. Almost all traces of these oaks have now been destroyed by black ants.

Records indicate the island was split into 32 plots for farming in 1762, and about 30 years later, a group of teenagers happened to discover a circular depression in the ground under an oak tree, which may have had signs of being used in a pulley system. This is the first account we have of someone believing there is something valuable buried on the island. Yet, the details of this story are unclear and vary among researchers. In the history of Lunenburg County, a farmer named Samuel Ball is said to have played a part in the discovery of this circular depression in the ground, and some believe he actually found the treasure. Some stories even say Ball suddenly became rich and moved away from the island, yet others believe this was merely a rumor.

The teenagers who helped find the circular depression meant to turn and dig deeper for treasure, but they were only able to dig about 30 feet down at the time of the discovery. Years later, one of them went looking for investors, and in 1804, the Onslow Company began to dig further into what is now known as “The Money Pit.” As they dug, they made a strange discovery. They uncovered what appeared to be a platform made out of logs. About 10 feet below that, they found another platform. About 10 feet more, they found another. Eventually, they reached a platform where they believed the treasure was located, but had to leave the island for the Sabbath. When they returned, the pit was filled to the brim with muddy water, and the hard work was ruined. The company had to abandon their work, just as it would be abandoned by several other companies in the future.

One excavator believed the water came from an underground spring, so he and his team dug a tunnel next to The Money Pit to reach the supposed treasure below the water. However, this plan was also devastated by hitting water, and the tunnel was submerged. Some believe these underground streams to be intentional, man-made waterways leading to the ocean—perhaps even booby traps protecting the treasure below. This seemed to be another dead end in The Money Pit, but some have viewed it as sure proof of something valuable being down there, only encouraging the treasure hunters to continue.

But there have been some interesting finds in The Money Pit or near it. Some of these include coconut fibers, small pieces of fragments, leather binding, bone fragments, ship spikes, a silver button, and a gold chain. One of the most significant finds is a stone allegedly discovered at the first 80 to 90 feet of digging in The Money Pit. This stone was not native to the island and had strange symbols in an unrecognized language. One translation, now widely accepted, reads: “40 feet below, 2 million pounds are buried.” This message certainly added fuel to the hunt and continues to drive people to search for the 2 million pounds to this day, even though the stone no longer exists. In fact, we do not have any verified evidence it was found on the island at all or that the translation was even correct.

But it is not just The Money Pit that is a mystery. Other areas of the island also seem to hold some unknown significance. Over the years, some non-treasure-related theories have been offered up for the island. Pine tar was an important resource for centuries and began to be produced in the Americas as industry was growing. The process of making pine tar requires a large deep kiln, which some believe could have been the origin of The Money Pit. Others have suggested the island was used for mining, for war, or as a shipyard, which may solve the mystery of the seemingly man-made waterways in the depths of the island. Yet others still have pointed to nature as the reason behind all of the geological formations.

The island is largely made up of soft clay, gypsum, and limestone, which can lead to sinkholes. Of course, natural underground caverns and streams are found all over the world. Could The Money Pit be just a sinkhole, swallowing pieces of the island’s