Are More Valuables Buried Below? (S13) | The Curse of Oak Island

Getting stuck back in again.
…Rick and Craig join Gary Drayton and Tom Nolan to continue searching for clues on Tom’s property in the northern region of the swamp. [Gary] We’ve got a lot of history that’s been uncovered recently.
The mystery vault.
We got a row of stakes leading us to that vault and we’re digging -right on the line. -Yep.
[Narrator] They are following a cobblestone path that is lined with eight-sided wooden survey stakes. A path that, one year ago, led them to a mysterious but unfortunately empty vault some 50 yards to the south. Now they are eager to see if more hidden structures that contain valuables are waiting to be found in this area. [Alan] That deep enough?
Yeah. That’s good over there, Al. Take another one here.
Whoa-ho!
Rick, I got a find here.
Look at that.
That’s leather.
[Rick] Oh, yeah.
[Gary] That’s a boot or a shoe.
-That’s not a modern piece of shoe. It’s… -No.
More than likely, it’s a sole.
And look at all the little holes.
So you know it’s not stitched.
Yeah, that’s like the old little hobnails.
-It’s got an old feel about it for sure. -Hmm.
-You start slipping, you lose your shoe. -Mm.
Next thing you know, you’re losing your coins.
Aside from the bits of leather we found in the Money Pit, the majority of the finds have been in the swamp.
That leather down there in the southeast corner was very, very old.
-Oh, yeah. -You know what?
-Oh, yeah. -You know what?
There might be more in here.
[Narrator] In 2023, while searching for clues near the possibly Portuguese stone road in the southeast corner of the swamp… [Rick] Check that out.
What the heck is that? Ooh!
…Rick and Gary found part of a boot, which was of European origin and could date back to the 17th century. Could Rick and Gary have found a related clue? And if so, might it help identify just who built the cobble road? Mm.
Look at that, Gary.
[Gary] Oh-ho.
With big, uh, -nail holes in it. -Yeah. They’re-they’re hobnails.
-[Rick] That’s not stitching. -Yeah. Yeah. For sure.
That’s not a modern piece of shoe.
Hell of a great eyeball find, Rick.
Leather is where you say to yourself, “You know what, -there’s a real story here.” -Yeah.
If these pieces of leather are from shoes or boots from the people who did the original work in this area…
-That’d be something. -Yeah.
We have the lab here on the island to really– no pun intended– -to nail down where that leather came from. -Yeah.
This is how it’s gonna go– leather, coins, and champagne.
-There you go. -Yeah.
[Rick] I think there’s a lot of information that might reside within this shoe leather. The platforms, the paved area, the suspected paths, roads, all of the constructions in the bog. There’s so much we don’t know about the reason why it was constructed. But everything you find could be the clue you’re looking for.
But we live to fight another day, -so let’s pack it up. -Yes.
-Yep. -Let’s bring the things to the lab, see what kind of results we can get.
Okay. Sounds good.
Off we go.
[Narrator] Later that day… [Rick] We’re getting to the end of the north end -of the bog. -Yeah.
[Narrator] …Rick, Tom and other members of the team continue the dig in the northern region of the swamp to track the projected direction of the cobblestone pathway. I’ll start pulling down some of these sides.
I can watch everything that’s coming out here.
-All right. Let’s get going. -Sounds good.
[Tom] Let’s spark ‘er up, Al.
[beeping] -[Tom] Hey, Rick. -Yeah?
We got some old boards down here you might want to have a look at.
Just came out of the bank.
[Rick] What have you got?
[Tom] It’s a pretty heavy plank that just came out of this, after Al took that last bucket out.
Three pieces here and it, it’s in good shape, but it’s old.
-You can tell it’s old wood. -[Rick] Yeah, it’s thick. Yeah.
And there’s a nail right there.
-[Rick] Can you tell? Round, square? -It’s hard to tell.
It’s-it’s thick plank. Like, I think it’s over an inch thick, which– Yeah, that would… Not modern, right?
No. No. That’s old.
They don’t happen to fit together, do they?
[Tom] We didn’t really look.
Ah, you know what?
I think I do see how this might have gone together.
-[Rick] Yeah, look at that. -Yeah.
[Rick] That is a wide board.
You want to build a chest out of that, there’s your side, guys.
-[Tom] Yeah. -[Rick] But…
-I don’t know, the key is that nail you found. -Yeah.
If that’s square, it could be really, really old.
[Narrator] Could Rick be correct that this thick wood planking may have been part of a structure in the swamp, and perhaps a chest of some kind? If so, might it be related to the empty brick-and-slate vault they found several yards to the south one year ago? Or could it be related to another one in this area that might still contain something of value? [detector beeping] Ooh.
Think we’ve got something in there.
-Something there? -[sustained beep] [sustained beep] -[Katya] Ooh. -Look at that.
That is…
It doesn’t look like a nail.
-I think this is a key. -What do you got?
[Tom] It’s not a nail, a spike or anything like that.
It’s got the round head there.
-Have we just found the key to the swamp? -Maybe you found the key to the swamp.
[Rick] What did you find?
Now tell me what you think of that.
-Oh. -It rung like iron.
[Rick] Very heavy, and it has a look about it.
[Katya] It is key-shaped.
-And it was deep. -Mm-hmm. -[Rick] A key?
This part would be the key?
It depends on how much is rust and how much is the actual artifact.
You know how a key, the old keys, had the, at the very end…
-A spade-like end? -Yeah.
I think this is the, like you said, the spade-like end of the key.
And then, right here, that’s where you would unlock it and lock it.
[Rick] It’s definitely unique.
[Katya] I want to see what -the CT scan says about this. -Yeah.
-[Tom] Yeah. -Cool find. -[Katya] Right?
-Well, let’s find the lock that goes with it next. -Oh, yeah.
[Tom] Okay, Al, let’s see what else we can find in here.
[Rick] In front of us, we have leather finds, and I actually found one myself.
[Narrator] …Rick, Marty, Craig and other members of the team gather in the war room to receive a preliminary scientific report on the leather shoe pieces found in the swamp. Um, it’s very interesting.
It’s saying “super early.” The biggest time period which is 1148 to 1216.
-No way. -There you go, Rick.
-Yep. -[Doug] Wouldn’t that be amazing?
All the other ones are earlier, going back to maybe even, uh, 1047.
So, showing very, very early here.
Darn it, I’ve got to get a medieval shoe dance now.
[laughter] [laughter] What’s that top date? What was that bracket?
1148 to 1216.
[Marty] Holy smokes. I mean, for what it’s worth, that’s the Gaspani era, isn’t it?
-Yeah, it is. Absolutely is. -It really is.
[Rick] They align perfectly with what Professor Gaspani has articulated to us.
That the construction of Nolan’s Cross -happened in the 13th century. -Yeah.
[Narrator] In 2023, Italian archeoastronomy professor Adriano Gaspani presented peer-reviewed research about the megalithic formation of boulders known as Nolan’s Cross. According to the boulders’ historical alignments with certain stars in the night sky, Professor Gaspani calculated that the formation was likely created in the early 13th century by members of the Knights Templar. Remember, one of the first things we ever found -in the swamp was the paved area. -[Rick] Mm-hmm.
I mean, that date is almost perfect. 1200s.
-[Rick] Mm-hmm. -And so, we’re starting to accumulate dates in the swamp.
[Narrator] Based on this preliminary carbon-14 report, could the team have found a clue that may help identify just who created Nolan’s Cross, as well as the vast paved area in the swamp, I never argue with a reason to dig.
Ever. Let’s dig.
We have the machinery, we have the time.
And a treasure’s never gonna find itself.
So, let’s dig. We got the guy who can go through the soils.
We got everything we need. Let’s dig.
Let’s use your theories and dig. Let’s use this data and dig more -in the swamp. -I think we’re all in.
[Marty] It sounds like we’re doing the right thing, and I hope we get good news in the Money Pit.
[Rick] Yeah. And get back on track.
-On that. -Let’s go.
-Let’s go. -Okay.