Engineered Secrets Beneath the Surface | The Curse of Oak Island

NARRATOR: A week of great excitement has begun on Oak Island for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina, their partner Craig Tester and their team. (laughs) Now that looks like a stone road.
Why don’t you do one more right along here, but a little deeper?
Okay.
NARRATOR: And that is because in the northern region of the triangle-shaped swamp, they have uncovered a new pair of man-made features that may be critical to solving a 230-year-old treasure mystery. One is a stone pathway. The other is some kind of small cellar or vault. We’re seeing absolutely the same rock size.
-Yeah. -IAN: No gravel.
Um, if this was natural, you wouldn’t have such a tight -distribution of size. -ALEX: Mm-hmm.
So, this is, like, easily Anthony Graves, right?
-Right. -ALEX: Mm-hmm.
NARRATOR: In 1857, a farmer named Anthony Graves purchased a majority of Oak Island and built his home just north of the swamp. While he was never an active participant in the searches for treasure that took place in the Money Pit, curiously, he was rumored to have found a large cache of Spanish silver coins somewhere on his property. That might be Anthony Graves, too, -the feature. -ALEX: Yeah. I think we should take this opportunity to try to figure that out.
-Yeah. -LAIRD: I agree.
-Okay, let’s go for it, mate. -All right.
(device beeping) That is a great signal. Now, it’s iron and quite a decent size chunk.
It’s in that area where your hand is.
That’s it.
Let me get down there.
-ALEX: You got it, Gary? Okay. -GARY: Yeah.
Let’s see.
When we went to the north side of the swamp, I didn’t really expect to see much.
And sure enough, as-as the dig proceeds, there’s a square vault-ish looking thing that was submerged in the swamp. Purpose unknown. So was it a hiding place? Did Anthony Graves set it up himself to hide his own stuff in? That’s what we hope to find out. GARY: Ooh. (grunts) It’s coming out.
Is that it?
-And the big reveal. -ALEX: What the heck?
-GARY: That’s it. -ALEX: What the hell is that?
-GARY: Yeah… -(Laird laughs) ALEX: That is certainly not what I expected.
GARY: Look at that. It’s got something attached to it.
-That’s a piece of brick, by the look of it. -Yeah.
Any ideas, Laird?
-But it’s been down there for a long time. -GARY: Yeah, it has.
-LAIRD: I think we have to go clean it off, but… -GARY: Yeah.
LAIRD: I mean, it’s a pipe of some sort.
ALEX: The question that we want to know really is: -how old is that thing? -Yeah.
GARY: We don’t know what else is down there.
We’ve got to get to the bottom of it.
-Yeah. -That’s the only way we’re gonna find out.
Yep.
All right. I’m gonna take that back to the lab.
-Okay, mate. -LAIRD: I’ll let you get on -with your work over there. -Works for me.
GARY: Okay, mate. Good work. NARRATOR: The following morning… RICK: There it is, Tom.
-After you. -Wow.
NARRATOR: …Rick Lagina leads fellow Oak Island landowner Tom Nolan to the mysterious vault-like structure that was recently uncovered in the northern region of the triangle-shaped swamp. ALEX: What do you think?
I-I don’t know what to say. I’ve never seen -anything like this. -Mm-hmm.
TOM: I mean, look at that slate, it’s perfectly cut.
Yeah.
What did you think of this?
It-it doesn’t look like anything we’ve ever found here.
I mean, there was nothing here after Graves left, that we know of.
Over the years, we-we’ve located two wells on the property, which we assumed were Graves’.
This is different.
To me, it just makes no sense other than it’s a structure built to contain something, and I believe to hide something.
There’s a lot of brick down here.
It’s a very hard bottom.
RICK: What is that? May I see?
May I see?
Oh.
That’s odd.
NARRATOR: In the northern region of the Oak Island swamp, Rick Lagina and other members of the team have just found a potentially important clue inside of a mysterious vault-like structure. -I just can’t place what it is. -RICK: A handle?
A handle off a chest.
KATYA: What a cool find.
NARRATOR: Could Rick Lagina be correct that the team has recovered a handle from a chest inside of the vault-like feature? If so, might it be related to the Spanish silver coins that former landowner Anthony Graves reportedly discovered on Oak Island more than 150 years ago? Question is, what else is there to find?
This is such a weird structure.
It pulls up a lot of questions.
TOM: We need to excavate this and see what is at the bottom of it.
So, uh, we should do that right away.
RICK: Laird, why don’t you come up with a process…
-Okay. -…how we can proceed.
Define the areas. How deep you want to dig.
-Yep. -RICK: And let’s get her done.
-TOM: Sounds good. -RICK: Okey doke.
NARRATOR: Later that afternoon… RICK: Okay, here’s something. What’s that?
RICK: It was stuck way under there.
A hook?
-Looks like wrought iron, maybe. -CRAIG: Yeah.
Was this was built by Anthony Graves to safeguard a subsurface treasure that he found? Or does it represent something else? Well, I mean, if it is Graves’ work, and he did use it as a hiding place, it was a pretty good one.
You know, hope springs eternal, but for this evening, I think we’re done.
Right.
RICK: We’ll let Emma do her work, and… (stammers) it was a great day, a dirty day.
And we all need to go clean up and get ready for tomorrow.
-ALEX: Yep. Okay. -KATYA: Let’s do it. -RICK: Yeah.
NARRATOR: The following afternoon… RICK: I want to thank you, Emma and Laird, for inviting us down. Everyone knows my fascination with the swamp, and we did extensive work there and found the three items here in front of us.
NARRATOR: …Rick Lagina and members of the team join archeologist Laird Niven and archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan in the Oak Island laboratory. RICK: What are these things?
The who, what, when, where, why, and how?
Right.
EMMA: When you look at the handle, you do see the wood grain-like structures, which is wrought iron.
Let me go to the CT.
And you do see that grain-like structure on the handle.
Right here, you can see it as well.
LAIRD: The square hole to me implies you’re-you’re moving something else.
-EMMA: Mm. -LAIRD: Yeah.
I think it’s a crank.
-CRAIG: Yeah, it is. I agree. -EMMA: Yeah.
I mean, when you look at this section over here, you can see just where the wood handle would’ve ended.
-CRAIG: Yeah. -EMMA: Based on the metallurgy, I can narrow down a possible date range.
So, the hook in the center there, it does have a slight manganese content.
So, that one kind of fits more towards the early to mid-1800s.
LAIRD: Yeah, so, Anthony Graves was on the property in the mid-1800s.
He died in 1888.
But the pipe and the crank handle, they’re definitely late 1700s.
That’s before we have a record of Anthony Graves on that lot.
So, right now, we’re looking at a feature and artifacts that pre-date the recorded Anthony Graves occupation of that lot.
-Interesting. -Yeah.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that the team has uncovered a treasure vault in the swamp, where former Oak Island landowner Anthony Graves reportedly discovered Spanish silver coins more than 150 years ago? If so, then who created it? And what else might be buried deeper within it? There’s a purpose to this feature.
I think it has to do with Anthony Graves.
I think it was his safety deposit box. We know there was a Spanish coin that was found on Lot 5, and then there’s the story of Anthony Graves using Spanish coin as his currency to buy his goods. So, I think we need to do more work in the swamp. So, there’s all kinds of reasons to try to further our understanding here, in my opinion.
And… what is it? Who built it?
When was it built? Why was it built?
Right? I know you’re not a big fan of the bog, but…
I’m trying to find this treasure.
Sometimes, you got to get dirty.
-(laughter) -I’m willing to do it.
-It’s in your blood now. -RICK: Okay.
Mm-hmm.
All righty, well, again, thank you.
-We’ll go find you some more curiosities. -LAIRD: Excellent.
RICK: Hopefully, next time, we’ll all have some answers. -KATYA: Thank you. -CRAIG: Thanks. -LAIRD: See you later. [narrator] A new day of fresh excitement and anticipation has begun on Oak Island for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina and their team. I guess we’re gonna get a look down the hole?
Yes, we are.
We’ll see what the camera has to say.
[narrator] They, along with underwater imaging expert Blaine Carr, are about to begin a two-step operation in the Money Pit area that they hope will reveal the answers that could help solve a 228-year-old treasure mystery. So we’re gonna enter the cave today at 140 to 142 feet.
Aladdin’s Cave, as you deemed it last year.
So what do we hope to see once we get to the bottom?
Treasure chests, doubloons.
We want to know whether this cave is natural or whether it’s been influenced by people.
Secondarily to that, we’d like to see a way in and a way out.
The primary targets we were looking for were tunnels, vaults, and of course, any high-density anomalies that could reflect treasure.
[narrator] One week ago, representatives from Ideon Technologies presented a stunning report on data that had been collected deep underground over the past two years all across the Money Pit area. Today, what we’re gonna be discussing are results from the Money Pit, targets of interest.
[narrator] Five devices known as muon detectors had been placed at various depths in previously drilled boreholes to scan for possible voids, tunnels, and large objects. Incredibly, a number of potential targets were identified, suggesting that there could be multiple treasure deposits buried in the Money Pit area. Now, after drilling a new borehole into Aladdin’s Cave, the team will first investigate it using a high-definition camera to look for more definitive evidence that it may have been artificially created and also what it might contain. Okay, lights are on.
-You good? -You’re good. Just go for it.
[narrator] If they are successful, Blaine will then conduct a comprehensive sonar scan to create a detailed map of the feature. Okay, we can see the water.
[Rick] I mean, we’re gonna run the camera down first. Why not put eyes on that void and see if we see anything, because if we happen to see a feature down there that we could orient off of with the camera, it will be helpful to the 3D mapping sonar. We should almost be to the water by the look of it.
Okay.
-Now you’re right there. -Keep going.
[Rick] So hopefully, this photographic imagery will help us come to a greater understanding of what this cave represents.
We’re still seeing the side of the caisson.
This is going down.
Where are we at?
Okay, right there. Stop.
-We’re right into it now. -Yup.
-There. -That’s the edge of the caisson.
Okay, rotate around.
Yeah, those are the teeth right there.
You want him to lower it another foot?
Yeah, can you go down another six inches to a foot?
There we go. A little bit more.
And…
stop there.
So this would be the actual cavity here.
Gotta be a couple feet in by now.
Yeah, well, there’s the wall.
-Isn’t that the ledge? -Yeah.
It is a ledge.
[Marty] As we break into the cavity, we can start to see the walls, the sides of this cave.
So I would think there’s something else there, but that something else could be covered with silt. It might not be obvious. I want to get under that ledge.
Steve, can you really slowly lower it like three inches?
There you go.
[Rick] That looks like it’s open, to me.
[Blaine] Yeah. Now you have a much bigger opening.
Good that it’s open because that means you can map it.
Yeah.
[Rick] The expansiveness of Aladdin’s Cave, it’s-it’s quite interesting, very exciting.
We’d see some features. It’s certainly very plausible that the camera is not seeing something which may be on the floor of the cave. Do you want to lower it down a little more and see what you can see on the bottom?
We need to see exactly where the bottom is without any doubt.
Go.
I think we’re facing down now.
So, Steve, just very slowly, another six inches or so.
-Six? -Yup.
That’s good. A little bit more. Same again, please.
-There. What– whoa, whoa, whoa. -Hold up.
Spin it around, 360.
-There. What’s that? -What’s that?
I can’t tell if that’s the bottom or…
-I’ll wait for it to settle out. -There we go, there’s something.
Visibility is actually better than we’ve seen.
What’s this over here on the right?
There’s something sticking out.
-Right there. -This piece right in here.
The way the shape is. It’s kind of angular.
-That flat thing, you mean? -Yeah.
That’s a piece of debris or something.
This is a very exciting thing, and it’s important to see whether it’s manmade or not.
I think there’s a chance the treasure might be placed there, which would answer a lot of questions. [narrator] After obtaining video one day ago of possible manmade workings some 150 feet underground in a large cavern known as Aladdin’s Cave… We can tie a rope to it. Let’s do that.
Start putting it down the hole that way.
Yeah.
[narrator] They are now scanning it with a sonar device in order to determine its exact dimensions and to also see if there are tunnels leading into the feature. Okay, Scott. Good.
Okay, going in.
[narrator] The EchoLogger DASS710 sonar device emits high-intensity radar pulses that reflect off of objects and barriers, such as the walls of a cavern, in order to produce a three-dimensional map of the underwater environment. One hundred and forty feet down hole right now.
Going in and let’s look at this.
[dramatic music playing] [Blaine] Got it in a position where it’s getting returns.
-Starting to spit out data. -I see it. Yup.
[man] What we’re seeing looks like the outline or perimeter of the cavity. How long will it be before we have kind of a picture to look at?
I think what we’ll do is we’re gonna let it run, and when we come back in the morning, hopefully everything will be finished and we’re gonna see up into this cavity.
[Marty] All will be revealed.
I can wait till tomorrow to get good data.
Let’s let it do its thing.
[narrator] The following morning… -Hey, Rick. -Hey, Rick.
-Hey, everybody. -We’re all eager to see what you’ve got to show us.
Okay, so the view that we’re looking at here is looking straight down.
-Okay. -So we’re gonna try to just slide it up into a 3D image.
-Oh. -You can see the yellow-green.
-Mm-hmm. -[Blaine] That’s sloping down.
This darker red is the wall in between us and the floor of the cavern.
That being said, we can’t see the bottom.
Uh, the aspect of the sonar looking out, the wall is blocking us from seeing any further down.
-Mm-hmm. -What I can see, see this blue line’s crossing over what look like two gaps?
-Yeah. -Mm-hmm.
[Blaine] Looks like an opening through here.
So I think you have the potential for manmade ingress into a natural cavern.
Right.
What’s the size of the cavity?
Without being able to see the bottom, I just don’t know the right answer, ’cause it’s on a slope.
So, it varies.
It does slope off in one direction, about 30 degrees.
But if anything was gonna be there, I mean, gravity’s gonna take everything to the bottom of that slope.
Right. Something could be buried in there.
-For sure. -Maybe the treasure.
I suppose it’s quite possible.
[Rick] I’m pleasantly surprised that there might be a way into the cave. It’d be even more interesting if we saw some manmade feature in there.
Perhaps it’s buried in the silts on the floor. It’s an interesting thing to investigate.
Something that makes you go, “Hmm, we need to see more.” Yeah.
There’s some indication that the cave has some things that aren’t natural cave-like.
It could be some sort of treasure chamber. That’s why we’re spending all this money and time investigating it, and it checks a lot of the boxes. Let’s put it this way. We can’t walk away from this without knowing what it is.
It’s unique.
So what I would do at this point if we’re really interested in seeing something else is we would move over about…
-five, six feet. -Mm-hmm.
Put another hole down so the sonar can now see back into this area and tell us, are we indeed in an isolated cavern, or is there an opening?
-Right. -And see if this carries on.
Yeah.
I would dearly love to put a hole there, but I don’t know.
Rick, what do you think? What do you wanna do?
I think you have to put another hole in to get a different perspective. -Yup. -But you can’t walk away.
You have to… we have to exploit it as much as we can.
All right. I think we’re all in agreement as to that particular point.
Let’s get some more data.
-Sounds good. -All right, back to it.
Let’s go. We’re gonna find that treasure.
I agree.
RICK LAGINA: Holy shimoly.
Look at that.
NARRATOR: At the northern point of the swamp on property belonging to the family of Fred Nolan, Rick Lagina has just found a large wooden stake.
Does it look old to you?
It’s tough to tell, isn’t it?
It’s hacked.
It looks like it’s been hacked.
It’s ax cut. there’s no question about that.
Yeah, it’s not sawed.
NARRATOR: A wooden stake found in the swamp?
In 1969, Oak Island landowner and treasure hunter Fred Nolan set out to drain the swamp after becoming convinced that the answers to the Oak Island mystery were located within it.
During his investigation, Fred was astonished to discover several uniform lines of wooden stakes, which were carbon dated to the 1500s.
A land surveyor by trade, it was Fred’s professional assessment that these stakes were evidence of centuries’ old survey markers used to plot out the boundaries in a massive construction project.
This led Fred to the astonishing conclusion that Oak Island was once actually two islands artificially joined together by means of the triangle-shaped swamp.
How many cuts are there?
Fred and Tom both told me there were four or five on every one.
1, 2– (IN UNISON) –3, 4.
GARY DRAYTON: Yeah, five.
That’s exactly what they described.
Fred actually did show me one.
It’s certainly got the proper look to it.
It’s got the proper size, diameter.
And thus, one could speculate– again, it’s speculation– that the swamp had been created.
Dan and Fred, they pulled one up together, cut the tip off.
And [inaudible] sent it off to be carbon dated.
Carbon date came back 1575, plus or minus 85 years.
Finding a survey stake is important because it’s corroborated.
Is this really a man-made activity that is associated with the swamp?
You know, it’s items like that that may provide answers.
Marty!
MARTY LAGINA: Yo.
I think I find one of the survey stakes.
Why don’t you come over and take a look.
Hey, that sounds great.
We’re on it.
ALEX LAGINA: It’s a pretty big deal, right?
Yeah, well, that’s what he was looking for.
All right, let’s see it.
ALEX LAGINA: What you got?
Oh, yeah.
Well, that’s for real.
Oop.
That’s not a natural shape.
No.
And remember how they said it was preserved.
Yeah, from the bottom.
From the bottom.
ALEX LAGINA: Well, it’s definitely been in place a while because you can tell if you look at preservation here and how much it’s decayed up there.
So you get a kind of sense of time with the top being so much– MARTY LAGINA: Oh, yeah, this looks virgin.
ALEX LAGINA: Right, but this looks old.
MARTY LAGINA: Very much so.
I agree with you.
It’s pretty cool.
Hey, Rick? – Hm.
What?
MARTY LAGINA: OK, so I don’t get it.
Why aren’t you over the moon about this survey stake?
Why aren’t you doing a stake dance?
[chuckling] Because I don’t do stake dances.
I’m very interested in it.
To me, they look– Exactly right.
Exactly right.
MARTY LAGINA: Yeah, I was impressed, honestly, because to me, it looks identical to what he’s described.
And my skepticism level diminishes.
NARRATOR: For Rick, Marty, and the team, finding new evidence that the mysterious triangle-shaped swamp is man-made could soon lead to another major breakthrough.
It also means that the access they now have to Fred Nolan’s property could allow them to gather a host of even more important clues.