EXCLUSIVE FDR Evidence Hidden in Shaft (Season 1) | Tales From Oak Island

Since they acquired property
on Oak Island in 2006,
brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,
along with their partners,
have conducted a series
of excavations in search
of what is believed to be
an extraordinary treasure.
However, in addition
to their own efforts…
Good.
…the team has
also carefully studied
the work of treasure hunters
who came before them.
And in 2015, one of their
first large-scale operations
was intended to find the remains
of a long-lost searcher tunnel
known as the Hedden Shaft,
which was dug in the 1930s
by a man named Gilbert Hedden.
MARTY:
When Gilbert Hedden
dug that shaft,
he thought he was digging
in the Money Pit,
and he was that much closer
to history than we are.
So, we thought that by
locating that accurately,
digging down and
finding the corners,
it’s another clue
to pin down the Money Pit.
RICK:
Oh, there’s…
Getting wood there.
DOUG:
Gilbert Hedden
never lost faith
in his belief that something
was buried on Oak Island.
It’s got to still be here
in some way, shape or form.
NARRATOR:
But who was Gilbert Hedden?
Why is the shaft
he excavated so significant?
And what secrets
did Hedden uncover
that might help solve
the Oak Island mystery?
DOUG:
Of all the individuals
interested
in the Oak Island mystery,
one of the most
interesting groups
are the Freemasons.
So many of them have
actually participated
in efforts to solve the mystery.
From Gilbert Hedden
to Frederick Blair
to Mel Chappell,
these were all prominent Masons,
and I think one of the reasons
so many Freemasons
are interested
in the Oak Island mystery is
the other inscribed stones
on the island
that have Masonic symbols…
like the center-dot circle
and the four-dot cross,
the shape
and design of the swamp
with the all-seeing eye.
I think they see so much
from their own symbology
and belief systems that
they can’t help but wonder
who built the Money Pit.
Why did they build
the Money Pit?
And was it somebody from within
their own organization perhaps?
NARRATOR:
The origins of Freemasonry
date back
to 17th century Europe,
when intellectuals
and great thinkers
formed the secret society
in order to pursue
spiritual enlightenment.
GOUGH:
The Freemasons were
a highly ritual-focused
organization
about the betterment of men.
They use esoteric symbolism
to veil their secrets.
And guess what.
Freemasonry appears to be
not something new
that vaporized out of thin air
but rather an extension
of the Knights Templar.

LYNN:
Obviously, an organization
as powerful
as the Knights Templar
weren’t simply gonna disappear
on the official suppression
like meek little boys.
There’s evidence
that they went underground
and emerged again
in another form:
Freemasonry.
Because the Templars
and the Freemasons
certainly shared
some obsessions.
Both were
very ancient traditions
that were frowned upon
in the mainstream
and secret
in their practices that would
give them spiritual
and material power.
NARRATOR:
If the Knights Templar did,
in fact,
bury treasure on Oak Island,
then is it possible
this secret knowledge
was passed down
when the Templars later evolved
into the Freemasons?
And if so, did Gilbert Hedden,
just like the Freemasons
who came before him,
flock to Oak Island
because he knew
for certain that Templar
treasure was hidden there?
Perhaps a clue lies
in the actions
that Gilbert Hedden took
when he ended his search
on Oak Island in 1938.
DOUG:
Gilbert Hedden never lost faith
that something was
buried on Oak Island.
But as is the fate of so many
other individuals in the past
who have been pursuing
the Oak Island treasure,
he met with
financial difficulties
in his personal life,
and this prevented him
from pursuing the hunt
at that time.
So he leased out
his right to hunt for treasure
to Professor Erwin Hamilton.

CHARLES:
Gilbert Hedden handed
all his work,
including the structure
that was still there,
over to Professor Hamilton,
who was going
to carry on the search.
They were brother Masons.
And that may have had
something to do with Hedden
wanting Hamilton to continue
the work that he started.
NARRATOR:
Did Gilbert Hedden specifically
choose Erwin Hamilton
because he was
a fellow Freemason
who, like Hedden himself,
was well aware
that the lost treasure
of the Knights Templar
had been buried on Oak Island?
For further evidence to
support this elaborate theory,
some researchers point
to Erwin Hamilton’s
communications
with another prominent Freemason
who also took
a keen interest in Oak Island,
the 32nd president
of the United States,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
CHARLES:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
came to Oak Island
as a young lawyer
and investor in 1909.
Now, Professor Hamilton
used to go to dinner with FDR,
and they were good friends.
And Gilbert Hedden
and Professor Hamilton
would send reports to FDR
about what took place
on Oak Island
because all three of them
were Freemasons.
NARRATOR:
Were Gilbert Hedden,
Erwin Hamilton,
and President Roosevelt
part of a Freemason attempt
to recover the treasure
of the Knights Templar?
It’s just one of many
intriguing theories
involving Hedden
that the Oak Island team
is actively investigating.
NARRATOR:
In the years
since the Oak Island team
rediscovered
the Hedden Shaft,
they have conducted further
excavations in that area,
believing it to be close
to the original Money Pit.
-(detector beeping)
-GARY: We have got
a signal, mate.
NARRATOR:
And in 2020,
while sifting through spoils
collected from deep underground,
they uncovered
an intriguing artifact.
Hey, Jack. Check this out.
Whoa.
Good find, Mike.
Do you see that?
It looks like it, uh,
it might be pounded
into an old rosehead.
-MICHAEL J.: Exactly, yeah.
-JACK: Yeah.
NARRATOR: The team determined
that the small
piece of metal was
a hand-forged rosehead spike,
which may predate the 1700s.
This is the type of thing
that we’re looking for.
I mean, that’s another
indication that humans were
doing something a long time ago
deep in the Money Pit.
NARRATOR:
The spike was also significant
because it appeared to be
covered in cement,
much like
the mysterious artifacts
unearthed back in 1897
that motivated Gilbert Hedden
to dig in the same area.
Are you ready
to find some treasure?
-Always.
-Yep.
NARRATOR:
This discovery led
the Oak Island team to conclude
that they will need
to keep digging
near the Hedden Shaft.

MARTY:
So, where do you guys
want to go?
I want to go back over
on the east side
to– I think it’s DE-11,
is what I’m calling
kind of the center of it.
And it’s outside
of the Hedden Shaft.
STEVE:
So there’s another piece of
information that helps support
this location.
I mean, you know we’ve done
a bunch of water testing.
We did have
three wells very close
to this proposed caisson
location that did test
for precious metals
right in this area right here.
I’m pretty sure that is centered
around DE-11, isn’t it, Craig?
Right.
RICK:
Good location.
That’s most curious.
If you had to pick a spot
where the vault is, is that it?
CRAIG:
Yeah, I would say so.

NARRATOR:
The fact
that the team has detected
traces of precious metals
and recovered
a metal spike
near the Hedden Shaft
is proof that although
Gilbert Hedden died in 1974
after failing in his effort
to find the treasure,
he nevertheless
continues to loom large
in the Oak Island mystery.
RICK:
We’re here for two reasons:
one, to honor the people
that have come before us and,
and also to try
to solve the mystery.
Gilbert Hedden was incredibly
inventive in-in his approaches.
We have intense respect
for him as a, as a human being
and as a man
and as a participant
in the quest for answers
here on Oak Island.
MARTY:
Look what he did.
He stayed at it
because he believed in it
for whatever reason.
I can absolutely
identify in many ways
with the previous searchers,
uh, the frustration.
Look, it’s called the Money Pit.
And so I see my brother,
who is absolutely
in that same vein.
You know, he’s gonna
stay with it until he,
until he figures it out.
RICK:
Gilbert Hedden was fascinated
with the possibility
that every bucketful,
every shovelful, every ping
of the metal detector,
everything is an action
that will lead
to, to solving the mystery.
Any activity that a human
being endeavors to do,
you’d better believe
that every day
you’ve done
as much as you can do
to prepare yourself for success.
And it’s all about faith,
belief and hope.