Tales from Oak Island: The Mystery That Sparked the Treasure Hunt (Season 1)

In 1965, an article appeared in the January issue of Reader’s Digest, one of the most popular magazines of the 20th century. The article was only 5 pages long, but the story it told would captivate and inspire generations to come. Authored by staff writer David McDonald, it bore the simple but highly intriguing title, “Oak Island’s Mysterious Money Pit.”

The Reader’s Digest article about Oak Island was masterfully done. I mean, it was crafted in such a way that it caught your imagination—buried treasure on a secluded island, and it was giving us a master class in engineering to protect the treasure. I mean, how could you not be captivated by the story? The Reader’s Digest article, as it turns out, was of great significance, but the significance wasn’t the article itself, but the readers of the article. Some saw the allure of finding treasure, and some saw it as a mystery that needed to be solved.

I was 11 years old and went to Catholic school. I had a little library. I got the ’65 Reader’s Digest, and the first article that gripped me was the Oak Island mystery story, and I was hooked. The 11-year-old boy was Rick Lagina, and the Oak Island legend described in the pages of the Reader’s Digest article had a lifelong impact that would be felt by both him and his 9-year-old brother, Marty.

“It was an intriguing story, you know, all things people like: treasure, mystery, booby traps, you know, adventure. Yeah, it’s your big brother talking to you too, you know, and he knows he’s—look what he’s found. You know, wow, this is going to be great. But the real core of the Oak Island story is who, why, when, where, how. That’s for me. I was more interested in the treasure.”

In the early 2000s, Rick and Marty arrived uninvited at the causeway leading to Oak Island with the idea of offering their help to Dan Blankenship. “We sat on the other end of the causeway, that bloody causeway. I mean, there it was, Oak Island. You know, and I said, ‘Okay, well, you go, you go.’ And so, we’re sitting there, like, you know, like kids again. I said, ‘Just drive,’ and so we went across, and then we ran into Dan Blankenship.”

And I looked up, and I see two guys, one carrying a basket of flowers, and the other one carrying a bottle. And I said, “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.” And he says, “Uh, we’re not Greeks.” He said, “We’re Italians.” I said, “They’re worse yet.”

In 2006, Rick, Marty, and their two Michigan-based partners, Craig Tester and Alan Crave, convinced Dan Blankenship to let them join his company, known as Oak Island Tours Incorporated. “So, you know, when we partnered up with him, we were sort of in awe of the guy. He still was a legend.”

When the Laginas and their team began investigating the triangle-shaped swamp on the island that had been overlooked by many previous searchers, they made one of their first and most significant finds.

“Is it a coin?”

“I believe this is a coin.”

“No, you’re serious?”

“What is it?”

“Yeah, it is an 8, isn’t it?”

The coin was a Spanish 8 cob marav, bearing a date of 1652.

“How’s that, brother?”

“That’s good. Good deal.”

It was an exhilarating find for the Laginas. “Hey, D, but they knew it would be worth much more to Dan Blankenship.”

“We just brought something we want to show you.”

“Okay, what do you think?”

“That’s Spanish, I know.”

“Yeah. It confirms a lot of things, Marty. You know, and that’s the first thing I’ve held in my hands since I’ve been here. Almost 48 years. That’s why we came right here. You got to give us credit for persevering though.”

“Oh, yeah. Believing in something you believed in. I know you did. Hey, Mary.”

“Yeah, over here. What do you guys got?”

In 2016, while investigating Lot 24 on the western side of Oak Island, members of Rick and Marty Lagina’s team discovered a cache of potentially critical clues.

“Holy smokes, see that guy there? See King George II?”

In addition to a number of British coins, they unearthed tools and pieces of musket rifles dating to the mid-18th century.

“There’s so much stuff here. I think this is an encampment or a camp.”

But soon after these discoveries were made…

“Look what we found so far this year!”

Rick, Marty, and their team would unearth additional clues across the island that widened even further the list of suspects of who might be behind the legendary treasure mystery of Oak Island, such as the French military, members of Freemasonry, and even the medieval order of the Knights Templar.

And while many more incredible discoveries followed, the team suffered a major loss when in 2019, their revered mentor and partner Dan Blankenship passed away.

“Hey guys.”

“Guys, there is one member missing.”

“Yeah.”

“What we really wanted to do at the end of this was give Dan his breakthrough, and we should try really, really hard to do that.”

“Yes, we’ll get it done, Rick.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

“Dan Blankenship, who was a true giant of this Oak Island quest.”

“Absolutely. And there’s a little bit of Dan in every one of his here.”

“Yeah, a whole bunch in me.”

“It was a privilege to know the man. He was our friend.”

“There will not be a single day where we won’t miss him.”

“One last crack. Make her count. We’ll do this last one of the year.”

With Dan’s passing, the Laginas and their team pressed forward, adding new experts across a number of scientific and academic fields, including geology.

“This is unusual.”

“Archaeology.”

“The edges are what make me think it’s older.”

“And metallurgy.”

“There’s a lot of chlorine, so it’s been in contact with saltwater for a really long time.”

With the flooding of the garden shaft in 2023, Rick, Marty, and their team faced a major setback in their quest to solve the Oak Island mystery. But one clue gave them hope that they were on the right track.

“Did they test for salinity?”

“We got a sample, and it came closer to success than ever before.”

“We’ve got a blood tunnel. We have an enormous amount of water coming into the garden shaft, that at least some component of it is seawater immediately.”

“Let’s face it. You know, flood tunnel jumps to mind. It strongly hints at the historical narrative that a treasure was brought to Oak Island, deposited in a vault below ground, protected by a flood tunnel system. But at the end of the day, you have to prove it. You have to find something.”

“There’s a lot of work to do.”

In 2015, exactly 50 years after Oak Island’s mysterious Money Pit appeared in Reader’s Digest…

“Gentlemen, I have a special guest.”

“Indeed, this is David McDonald. You’re the one that caused all this trouble.”

“Well…”

And four years before Dan Blankenship’s passing, Rick Lagina invited the article’s author, David McDonald, to join the team in the Oak Island war room.

“There it is. There it is. Wow, in a bone. That’s the one.”

Two generations of treasure hunters finally met the man who had inspired them all.

“Suppose that article had never been written? You think it wouldn’t be here?”

“Well, David, you didn’t change the history of the world, probably, but you certainly changed the history of Oak Island.”

“I guess, yes. Well, you’re directly responsible for these two characters being here, for sure, at the minimum.”

“Yeah, and I want to say thank you.”

“Thank you very much.”

The impact of that Reader’s Digest article is monumental. It’s only five pages long, but it was a powerful, powerful article. It changed the destiny of a number of people, and it changed the destiny of Oak Island.

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