The Curse of Oak Island: Treasure Unearthed as a Menacing Storm Nears (Season 11)

We have a hurricane on the way, so let’s try to get as much work done as we can, and then we’ll see what we can do after the hurricane passes.

Yeah, Gary, metal detection expert, Gary Drayton joins Jack Begley, Jamie Kuba, and Fiona Steel as they continue investigating the large foundation that was discovered earlier this year beneath a circular stone structure. We’re trying to figure out why they brought deep Money Pit soil in and packed it into this portion of the wall, like 104 ft down, and pretty intentional.

Yeah, since the team purchased Lot Five and began searching for clues in this feature one year ago, they have made astonishing discoveries that include metal tools and various kinds of pottery, a lead barter token that is a compositional match to the 14th-century lead cross. It reminds me of like a crude mortar or cement, and a man-made cement-like substance that has also been found approximately 100 ft deep around the tunnel below the garden shaft.

Now, Gary is going to scan the rocks and spoils that have recently been removed from the feature.

“I got my big coil on, so depth is not a problem in order to look for more clues as to how it might be connected to the Money Pit.”

That sounds great. “We’ve got an it right on the top here. Jack, do you want me to dig it out, or do you just want to pinpoint it?”

“Yeah, I’ll try pinpointing it, that sounds really good.”

“That is not iron, that’s non-ferrous. Let’s see what we got.”

“Waiting for it… Yep, it’s in my hand.”

“Oh, make sure that is it. Yep, and I see the edges of it, mate.”

“Let’s see what we got—a nice little button. Oh, wow! Look at that, that is really, really nice. Is it silver?”

“I think it could be, mate. It’s either silver or pewter. I mean, look at that, you can see the shine on it.”

“Oh yeah, that’s a great find.”

“Yeah, that is sweet. There’s a chance this could be silver, mate, meaning treasure. That’s great. This is great, and the thing is it’s fancy. We find a lot of cuff buttons, especially around here, but none as fancy as this. This might have been an officer’s button.”

“Nice. So, based on it being a flat button, what period of time were flat buttons in use?”

“Mid 1600s all the way through into the early 1800s.”

“Brilliant, great find. Yeah, just there. Alright, I’ll bag it. I love the buttons, it’s an oldie. This can still tell a story. Let’s find some more artifacts, mate, ’cause that was really, really cool.”

“We’ve got another non-ferrous here. That is going to be something good. Should be able to pinpoint it.”

“Come on, where are you? Where are—”

“Oh, oh, oh, I see something around, mate. Oh, it’s got a design on it, guys! It’s three cannons.”

“Is it this? It is! Is it artillery? Yes, it is. It’s a cuff button, and a military button, mate. Can we see?”

“Yeah, come on over. Come and check this out. Think we got ourselves a military button!”

“That was fast. Look, look at this! This is special because it is artillery that was on a uniform. As far as dating it, it’s a flat button, so we’re in the 1700s, maybe even older with this.”

“Yeah, that’s absolutely correct.”

“Oh, there you go. Wow. No, I’m pretty sure it’s three cannons, and then there are three dots along the base.”

“Sweet. I know artillery buttons were popular with the French, the British, and the Spanish.”

“That’s awesome. This could tell us not only who, but when—not just who worked on Lot Five, but who was deep down in the Money Pit digging, depositing something before the Money Pit discovery. If the military was here, then this could change what the entire feature is understood as.”

“As I said, let’s get this back along with the other button back to the lab. See you soon.”

“See you, Gary. Great job, thanks.”

“I don’t want to be here. I don’t see anything helpful about the hurricane coming in.”

In the War Room, Rick, Leina, and other members of the team are regrettably planning to temporarily shut down all search operations on Oak Island due to reports that Hurricane Lee, a category 5 storm system, will reach the eastern coast of Nova Scotia in a matter of days.

“Bottom line is, first and foremost, everybody stay safe.”

“The next thing that’s paramount, of course, is making sure that we try to protect the work that’s already been accomplished, keep all the infrastructure that’s in place up and ready to function when the good weather comes back.”

“So, Leina, why don’t we start with you? You’ll take care of your sites, all your tools, everything?”

“Yeah, exactly. All we can do is batten down our two sites with tarps so we can just protect them as much as we can, but there’s very little we can do to prevent water from getting in them. We’re just going to be eyes and boots, guys. You need us, help us. We’re at your disposal to say you go do this, you go do that.”

“Then, Roger, you’re up next. What do you do?”

“On our side, it’s not so much the wind, it’s the amount of rain. That rain, obviously, we’re in the hole—water goes down the hole, so it’s going to be like Niagara Falls down there. We’re going to put the lids on. We don’t want the water to fill up in the shaft and go up to a height that’s maybe going to cause us grief, and we’ll have a couple of guys here keeping the water down, just pumping out every two hours. Start the pumps and let the water go down.”

“Kido, really, not much you can do about water and swamp.”

“Yeah, probably my biggest concern is for the island overall. We have a couple of sections of the swamp road that are still narrow, so we have to make sure those are shored up, because we want to make sure that the ocean doesn’t breach. I hope the island doesn’t take too much of a pounding, because we don’t want to continue to lose shoreline, but it’s going to be the wind that’s a big thing here. So, we’ll cover the whole island and we’ll just go area by area.”

“Just one other thing, from the big rain we had months ago, it washed out a lot of roads. This storm may wash them out again. And so, even, you know, you’re thinking about the island, you’re driving here—there are a number of places where these roads have been undercut and they can give out on you, so really watch out for that when you’re coming back.”

“Yeah, if you don’t need to be up during the storm, stay home, I guess. We do have a full day ahead of us, so we should get started, get some stuff done.”

“Okay, sounds good. Everybody stay safe.”

“Yes, there’s no question that safety is paramount. You can’t do anything about Mother Nature. What you can do is say, you know what? We’re going to deal with these issues, and we’re going to keep moving forward, and that’s what we intend to do.”

“You can see this weather closing in. It’s certainly been a topsy-turvy year, bad luck happening right at the right time where it hampers your efforts. I don’t believe in curses, but here we are in the garden shaft, maybe only feet above some real answers.”

“Alright, guys, we’re good to go.”

“I don’t know why mysterious setbacks seem to occur at very inopportune times, but they do.”

“Ah, it’s just incredible, isn’t it? And it seems to be when you’re close to the treasures, when it becomes really impossible.”

“Let’s get going.”

“For Rick, Marty, Craig, and their team, that’s the way to do it. It has already been an especially challenging year. However, it has also been one in which they have made astonishing new discoveries all across the island. And now, if the mysterious forces that some believe guard the island’s secrets are once again emerging in order to try and stop their efforts, perhaps it is yet another sign of just how profound the ultimate discovery that awaits them could actually be.”