Massive Island Mystery Solved? | The Curse of Oak Island

• Charles!
• Hey, Terry.
• How you doing, Charles?
• Good. Good.
• Good to see you. Terry, how you been? How are you? Good to see you again.

So I really want to show you this stone that I think could be pretty important.

Now, this is a stone that is not widely known.

Myself and a few other people, as far as I know, are the only ones who know about it.

So this is something new for you guys to—to take in.

Well, if it’s half as intriguing as, you know, what you showed us last year, I’m on board.

NARRATOR: One year ago, Terry Deveau invited Rick, Marty, Craig Tester, and Dave Blankenship to the town of Overton, some 144 miles west of Oak Island.

There, he showed them an incredible series of carvings which are believed to be hundreds of years old.

You have the cross with the circle that obviously is a Christian symbol.

That is quite remarkable.

And isn’t that a Templar cross?

NARRATOR: Could Terry have found another important clue—one that connects Peggy’s Cove to the Oak Island mystery several miles away?

So Terry, when exactly did you discover this stone?

Yeah, about four years ago, just scouring the area around here, looking for any old walls or foundations or—I’m always on the lookout for petroglyphs.

You don’t find them very often.

So when I noticed that this particular stone had been worked, as opposed to just being a purely natural boulder, obviously that really caught my attention.

NARRATOR: In recent years, Rick, Marty, and the team have found a number of strange and potentially significant stone carvings, both on and around Oak Island, from New Ross to the Bedford Barrens.

Is it possible that a number of these carvings were deliberately created to form a series of clues?

Clues that would help solve the Oak Island mystery?

There we have it, gentlemen.

What do you think?

Do you see the features?

Definitely features.

Yeah.

See where the mouth, the nose?

And the face is this way.

The face is out to sea, yeah.

I’m also intrigued by—do you think that that was manipulated into that position?

Because I see little rocks underneath it.

Exactly.

Yeah.

This does look like there are some shims under there that were put down to make sure it stayed in that configuration.

And there are some modifications to the outline to—to make the facial features more prominent.

If you look carefully, there’s a difference in texture from this surface to this surface.

It’s rougher, which means it’s younger.

And if—if you look here—

Right here.

Yeah, this has been hacked off, right, to make the shape better.

And it’s not here, as though—

No.

Or even here.

I mean, these surfaces appear to be natural weathering, the result of glaciation.

But these surfaces look like they’ve been subsequently worked.

What else could have subsequently shaped it, other than the hand of man?

We may have discovered the top of the shaft, Pete.

PETER FORNETTI: Wow.

NARRATOR: While metal detecting in the southeast corner of the swamp, Gary Drayton and Peter Fornetti have just made what could be a major discovery.

GARY DRAYTON: Look at that.

There’s even more going on here.

Definite cross timbers.

What a day, mate.

Any time you discover something new on Oak Island is a good day.

I believe we’ve got to call Laird.

OK.

Maybe he might want us to stand down.

[phone ringing]

Hey, Laird.

GARY DRAYTON: Good, mate.

Pete and I are on the edge of the swamp, and we stopped to dig a piece of iron.

And we’ve discovered some kind of wooden structure feature.

We don’t know what it is, so we’re hoping you can come over here, mate, and check it out.

OK, mate.

I don’t think it’s a bad idea to call my uncle and have him take a look.

Yeah, Rick would love this.

We don’t know what these pieces of timber are, but hey, we may have discovered another feature.

But more importantly, this new feature is not too far away from the money pit.

Perhaps they’re both connected.

PETER FORNETTI: Oh, Laird’s here.

GARY DRAYTON: OK, good.

LAIRD NIVEN: Hey, guys.

PETER FORNETTI: What do you think?

I mean, it looks like a slipway, doesn’t it?

I mean, that’s a post.

GARY DRAYTON: Yeah.

We never thought about that.

We was thinking shaft when we first saw him, but you are right.

That does look like a slipway.

Yeah.

NARRATOR: A possible slipway or ship’s wharf protruding from the swamp?

Could Gary and Peter have found the first visual evidence of the stone feature that Rick Lagina and Dr. Spooner identified in the swamp two weeks ago?

What do you got?

What happened here, we got a couple of iron hits.

And as we dug down, we started seeing these timbers, and look.

And they’re notched here.

Oh yeah.

GARY DRAYTON: And there’s iron in here.

There’s an iron fastener there, and there’s one here.

And at first we think it was the top of a shaft, but Laird—well, you’ve seen this type of thing before in Smith’s Cove.

Yeah, the slipway.

Yeah, slipway.

That is.

This is a cut in.

• Yep.
• Yep.

Yeah, that’s cut too, though.

That’s a little strange.

It’s short.

PETER FORNETTI: It’s almost a brace.

You know, their activities—their metal-detecting activities in the eastern corner of the swamp, you know, that’s our area of focus.

When I laid eyes on it, you know, they used the verbiage “slipway.”

Does look like a slipway?

Yeah, it does.

It has two sides and cross members, and this feature is certainly interesting.

I mean, this is grown above and below the structure.

So there’s some age to it.

If you’ve got a notch here and you’ve got a notch here but it’s cut here, it’s way out there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It is a significant discovery, is it not, Gary?

GARY DRAYTON: It is.

Is there a medal in that too, the cross piece, or is that—

Yeah, where is metal?

Here?

Yeah.

Actually, I’ll show you.

So that would be a brace.

[beeping]

Oh yeah.

The iron fasteners would tell the story of this, but definitely date it.

Well, that’s cool.

I mean, I think we should uncover it.

• Yeah.
• Don’t you agree? Laird?

I agree definitely, yeah.

There should be a little treasure trove in this area.

Yeah.

Pat on the back, mate.

You dug it out.

Let’s see what my dad thinks, if I can get a hold of him.

Sure.

MARTY LAGINA (ON PHONE): Hello?

Hey, you’re on speaker, and I got Rick, Peter, Gary, Laird.

We’re standing in the southeast corner of the swamp, and we’re all looking down on what we think is a slipway.

Yep.

This is the edge of the swamp where boats would have come and probably docked, and this is the type of slipway, just a small one like this, that you would need to take small cargo up on the hill.

This looks like an area where boats would pull in and pull something up the slipway.

I’m hoping treasure.

Well, we’ll keep looking at it, and we’ll keep you posted.

Will do.

That’s what we’re hoping for.

See you.

See you.

RICK LAGINA: It’s a significant find.

GARY DRAYTON: This is going to be a fantastic day.

NARRATOR: Metal detection expert Gary Drayton, along with Rick and Marty’s nephew, David Fornetti—

GARY DRAYTON: Hello, chaps.

Hey, guys.

NARRATOR: —join geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner and archaeologists Dr. Aaron Taylor and Miriam Amirault near the eastern border of the swamp to help them investigate the mysterious stone pathways and possible cellar feature.

AARON TAYLOR: So as you can see, we’ve opened up some more areas, and we have this trench here that Billy dug.

GARY DRAYTON: OK.

And then we have spoil piles.

GARY DRAYTON: Yeah.

We have this area here.

GARY DRAYTON: Wow.

And finally, Miriam is down on what we think might be a cellar feature.

So that’s very exciting.

So any artifact out of that is really important.

Because if that’s a cellar, that means there was a structure there.

Yeah.

GARY DRAYTON: OK, mate.

David and I’ll start at the end of the trench.

Beautiful.

OK.

Fingers crossed.

Yeah.

[music playing]

[beeping]

Oh, I feel the cobbles.

[beeping]

Here we go, David.

I got a signal, I believe.

I do believe it’s in that angle.

Just there.

It’s in that wall.

DAVID FORNETTI: See if we got it.

Let me see if I can pinpoint it.

[beeping]

Well, that’s way down there.

You know what?

I should really call Aaron over here and let Aaron dig this out with his trowel because if this is in situ, this could be important.

Aaron?

Yes.

GARY DRAYTON: Come and check this out, please.

David and I got a signal over here.

AARON TAYLOR: Mhm.

And it looks to be in that area there.

Oh.

[beeping]

Ooh, that is a strong signal.

It’s there.

AARON TAYLOR: Right there.

What the heck is this thing?

Want me again, mate?

Yeah.

[beeping]

Oh, it’s down there all right.

DAVID FORNETTI: Wow.

That’s a screamer.

DAVID FORNETTI: Yeah.

That’s going to be something good.

Whatever it is, I mean, this is fantastic.

Here we go, boys.

Ooh, you got it out.

Good work, Aaron.

Now, what are we dealing with?

It is very heavy.

GARY DRAYTON: Oh, that’s a great sign.

Heavier it is, the older it should be.

AARON TAYLOR: I don’t know what it is.

GARY DRAYTON: I know what it is.

It’s a caster.

It’s a caster wheel.

You think about it, we’re on an island with lots of tunnels.

You would need a little dolly with casters on the bottom.

That is—that’s a little wheel of a caster.

The type of little trolley that you would need if you’re running along tunnels.

And it makes sense if you think about it, a wheel off a little tunneling car, because we found tunneling picks not too far away from here, at the back of the swamp.

NARRATOR: Designed for furniture, as well as trolley or mining carts, casters are components that contain wheels for the purpose of moving objects with ease and in multiple directions.

Could Gary Drayton be correct that this caster might have been utilized for a tunneling operation on Oak Island?

If so, could it be connected to previous evidence the team has discovered, such as the tunneling tools also known as assuages found one year ago on lot 21 which could date to as early as the 15th century?

DAVID FORNETTI: So I think the question remains, is this from depositors, or is this from searchers?

More than likely depositor.

AARON TAYLOR: Good job, guys.

I think this was off a tunneling car.

This is fantastic.

What an artifact.

AARON TAYLOR: Yeah.

I’ll bag that, and we’ll get that to the lab ASAP.

Excellent.

That is fantastic.

DAVID FORNETTI: Get back to work, Gary.

[music playing]

RICK: What do you think?

What is that?

RICK: That’s the proper question to ask.

What is that?

That is not something that should be in a swamp.

NARRATOR: As another exciting morning begins on Oak Island for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina and their partners—

TOM: That is absolutely amazing to see in a place like this.

You would never think this would be here.

I mean, it’s just awesome.

NARRATOR: —they continue to uncover two of the most incredible discoveries ever made in the 225-year search for a legendary treasure.

Massive stone pathways that have been unearthed in the southeast corner of the triangle-shaped swamp, one of which may be leading directly toward the original money pit treasure shaft.

To ensure that the continued investigation of the swamp is conducted as completely and as carefully as possible, they’ve enlisted the help of archaeologist Dr. Aaron Taylor.

Tom has some questions for you.

And he’d probably like to hear your opinion to date as to what you think this might be.

Sure.

If I had to give you my opinion on what it is right now, I’d say it’s a road leading up to the uplands.

And then we have sort of a rubbly pathway all the way down to here.

Yeah.

Possibly, they had built a little harbor somewhere to unload things.

And it was a road that would have taken a lot of work to build.

TOM: This is an incredible discovery.

I’ve never seen anything like it.

Yeah.

Question is, what’s keeping the stone up.

And we’re finding pieces of wood, so we’re thinking possibly some cribbing underneath.

Yeah.

AARON: So that’s what we got right now.

RICK: What’s that right there?

[music playing]

There’s no wood or anything.

Aaron, you thought there might be some wood here, right?

Some timbers?

Yeah.

RICK: OK.

There’s no—

Or some sort of cribbing?

There’s another layer of stone underneath this one, though.

Right here.

It’s really—

Careful.

It’s really firm right here.

Feel how firm that is.

AARON: Yeah, and then—

RICK: Here’s a stone here.

Then you’ve got that real thick whatever it is.

SCOTT: Cut stake.

AARON: And that’s very interesting.

Yeah, there is some sort of cribbing or support.

NARRATOR: Another layer of stones and wood cribbing?

Has Rick discovered another feature in the construction of this stone road in the swamp?

Or could it be another structure below it?

If so, just what is it?

And why was it built?

That might be something that [inaudible] wants to look at, eh?

AARON: Mm-hmm.

And it looks cut.

Definitely not natural, and it’s running right under that big stone there.

So, we’ll take that, sample it, and see if we can get some testing.

[music playing]

Ooh, look at that chunk.

Coal?

Yeah.

SCOTT: Nice.

Wow.

See, that’s the coal we’re finding.

Yeah, we found some pieces fairly large.

We have pounds of it now.

TOM: What would coal [laughs] be doing down here?

SCOTT: Well, coal doesn’t float.

So it’s not like it came in here floating in the water.

No, somebody left it here.

I’d say whoever did this—

Yeah.

That shows there was a burn event.

Yeah.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Charcoal found on the stone pathway in the swamp?

Yes.

That’s what we’re looking for in the swamp.

NARRATOR: One year ago, metal detection expert Gary Drayton discovered a badly burned strap identified by blacksmith Carmen Legge to have come from an early 18th century ship.

[whoosh]

This offered compelling evidence of a long held theory by Fred Nolan, that at one time Oak Island was two islands.

And that a treasure galleon had been sailed in between them, unloaded of its precious cargo, and then burned and sunk in a man-made swamp.

Could the discovery of charcoal on this stone pathway be corroborating evidence that Fred’s theory is true?

The only time we know coal was used in any volume on the island—at least as far as the search goes—was 1860 or beyond.

There’s no need to burn coal on that island in the search until then.

So, what’s the coal for?

Another mystery.

RICK: Here’s another one.

Another piece.

So we’re finding these stakes that are cut stakes.

Well, something would have to hold all this up, you know, in a bog?

Yeah.

SCOTT: We get excited about all these things we find.

And we’re just left with more questions.

TOM: Yeah, bigger questions.

RICK: Well, it’s a mystery.

That’s for sure.

AARON: Absolutely.

MAN: Hello, Matt.

Hello.

Welcome to the war room.

Thank you.

NARRATOR: Jack Begley and Billy Gerhardt join Rick, Marty, and other members of the team in the war room.

They are meeting with mechanical engineer and Oak Island theorist Matt Sandt, who recently contacted Marty with new research he has conducted related to the previous work of the team’s late friend and author, Zena Halpern.

So Matt, you wrote me the letter basically saying we were misinterpreting some aspects of the Zena Halpern map.

Yeah.

What I have in front of us right now is the map that Zena Halpern had found some years back, and I thought it’d be real interesting to go back and take a fresh look at some of the original information that we had.

ZENA HALPERN (ON TAPE): When I found the map, which is dated 1347, I began to put pieces together.

NARRATOR: In 2016, Zena presented the team with three documents that she believed to have been created by members of the Knights Templar.

One of these documents was a map of Oak Island that reportedly dated back to the 14th century and featured a number of locations labeled in French.

ZENA HALPERN (ON TAPE): So this map is one hell of a mystery.

NARRATOR: Locations that when translated to English, appeared to offer compelling clues.

MAN: One’s called The Anchors, one’s called The Valve, and one’s called The Hatch.

I mean Rick, don’t you want to go dig up the hatch?

No question about it.

Go ahead, look.

And take a look.

NARRATOR: Although the team searched the western side of the island for evidence of the so-called hatch for a possible tunnel entrance, to date, nothing definitive has been found.

MATT SANDT: I’m going to switch here to the English translation.

Here we have something called The Hatch, the hole under, and so forth.

From each label, we have a line pointing to a general location on the island.

It just says the hole under it, and it’s pointing to a location.

And then it says The Hatch, and they’ve got a line pointing somewhere else.

I mean, a hatch can be a hatch, but they didn’t know what the hole under refers to.

That seemed to be kind of strange language.

That made me want to go back and look at the French map again.

Let me point out here these leader lines.

You see that the draftsman—the guy that made this map—did it the same every single time.

He puts a little squiggle, and then he draws a line to the right.

If you look at the leader line that goes to the hole under, it’s got a little squiggle, and then it points to the text.

The next one down has got kind of a big squiggle and then it does the same thing.

And what I found—which I thought was kind of an aha—it’s actually not a translating error.

It’s just an error when they made the English version resulted from misinterpretation of these leader lines.

And when I saw that, the French here, it says “le trou sous la trappe” which means the hole under the hatch.

That’s one label right here.

The label underneath it is a separate label.

If there is a leader line mistake, that’s just a hope that maybe it’s just one more opportunity to find some information.

That is an excellent observation, because the whole under the hatch makes a lot more sense.

That blew by all of us, did it?

I guess.

Yeah, it actually did.

Yes.

MATT SANDT: I have one other thing I’d like to show you real quickly.

Sure.

MATT SANDT: I took a satellite image and overlaid it onto the island, and just because I wanted to know what the general area looked like.

So where it points at the hole under the hatch as the map depicts it, it looks like it’s a wooded area.

It looks like it’s over on lot 4.

Yes, it does.

MAN: There’s always been the curiosity with Zena’s map and the general area of The Hatch.

If we can confirm but one of the items on the map, then it would compel us to do a much more thorough investigation of the other locations that are mentioned.

If I were one of you guys, boy, I’d be up there with a shovel looking around.

[laughter]

We’ll certainly put some boots on this.

There’s no question about that.

Well, you can rest assured, we will look there.

Well, I certainly wish you the best of luck.

MAN: Cheers.

Thanks a lot.

Take care.