Manmade Evidence Leads to BIG Treasure (Season 12) | The Curse of Oak Island

RICK:
I don’t know if this is a—a board or a log. The dimension of that is roughly what Fred described.

JACK:
It could be evidence that we’re getting close to finding the wall.

RICK:
Could be.

ALAN A.:
Want it out of there?

RICK:
Yeah, we might as well take it out. We’ll take a look at it.

NARRATOR:
While investigating the northernmost region of the Oak Island swamp, Rick Lagina and other members of the team have just unearthed a large, potentially man-made timber.

RICK:
That’s roughly what he described: 10, 12 inches wide.

NARRATOR:
A timber that may be part of a wall, or dam, that the late treasure hunter Fred Nolan believed was built long ago in order to artificially create the swamp.

RICK:
You think that might be a piece of the wall?

ALAN A.:
I don’t know. Clean it up a little, Al, and we’ll take a look.

ALAN A.:
All right.

JACK:
Based upon everything that we’ve found in our excavations in the northern part of the swamp, it keeps leading to more and more strange work.
Is that a really big rock down there?

RICK:
A big rock. (grunts)

JACK:
It makes me think more and more that there is a wall and that somebody dammed off to make sure that they formed into a swamp to hide the work that they dug.
Maybe this could be a clue.

JACK:
Ho-ho, wow. (clanking)
There’s even more big boulders down there.

RICK:
Yep.

JACK:
Something tells me all these boulders were put in place, and not by Mother Nature.

RICK:
There was the piece of timber, and now to find three boulders in a line, it does appear as though these boulders were placed in a way that would be reflective of purpose, some sort of intent.

ALAN A.:
There’s lots of wood here.

RICK:
Oh, yeah, a bunch of wood.
I think we found something, Rick.

RICK:
Hopefully. Yeah, because we have one right here that ties these two together.
So there’s one here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here.
So it’s just kind of like a wall.

JACK:
Mm-hmm. It’s a clue.

RICK:
Yep.

NARRATOR:
A wall of boulders?
Could it be connected to the evidence of a man-made dam that Fred Nolan reportedly uncovered in this area of the swamp back in the late 1960s?

RICK:
It’s still not making too much sense yet.

NARRATOR:
And if so, was it built to conceal numerous caches of treasure, as Fred also believed?

RICK:
The swamp was heavily manipulated, in all kinds of ways. Roads, paths, ramps, paved areas, stone roads.
The next big domino to fall would certainly be if there is a wall associated with that manipulation on the north end of the bog.
We’re hoping that if Tom’s father was correct and there is a wall, this could lead to answers to the mystery.

JACK:
Another big boulder, right alongside, Rick.

RICK:
Really?

JACK:
Yeah. That’s a pretty straight line.

RICK:
Same elevations, too.

JACK:
Yeah.

NARRATOR:
Rick Lagina is joined in the northern region of the swamp by fellow Oak Island landowner and son of Fred Nolan, Tom Nolan.

TOM:
Somebody did a tremendous amount of work in this swamp, and there’s more swamp we haven’t taken apart yet.
It’s very interesting, because it leaves a big question of who did this work?
There’s something here.

TOM:
Oh, I see it.
Yeah, it looks like a bit of a log.
Unless it went through the rock?
It’s right here. It’s just kind of pinned against the rock.
Seems to be cut there.

RICK:
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
That’s cut, right there. For sure.

RICK:
Axe cut, too, that’s no chain saw.

TOM:
Mm-hmm.

RICK:
We should save that, because if we reveal this—and this looks like something…

TOM:
Yeah.

RICK:
…then that would be a perfect test subject because it’s in the structure.

TOM:
Yeah.

RICK:
Let’s set it aside and just see where this is going.

ALAN A.:
I’ll scrape the top off it.

RICK:
Okay.
The bog has some story to tell.
Fred spent a lot of his time trying to uncover secrets in the bog.
And I firmly believe that when Fred volunteered this information about a wall in the north end of the bog, I believe him.
And I hope that we find that wall.

TOM:
Looks to me like we’ve got an alignment here.

RICK:
Yeah.
And I’d like to find another one alongside this.
But between this and whatever that bigger boulder is there, it—it seems like something, something went on here.
But what is that?
Is that to keep that from intruding on the workspace?

TOM:
Yeah.

RICK:
Or this is to prevent water from coming in till the wall is built?
And then you can control the water in and out.

TOM:
Yeah.

RICK:
But it’s all speculation till you find the wall.

TOM:
Yeah.

RICK:
I still believe there’s a wooden wall in here somewhere.

TOM:
Yeah.

RICK:
Maybe there’s a tie-in somehow.

TOM:
Yeah, definitely.
I know from the top of the spoil pile it really stands out.
A line of big boulders that come here and then you’ve got like a little offshoot of boulders here.
Seeing it’s like some kind of, like, wall or… no idea what it is.
That’s why Steve should come out and pin all of these.
Pin the orientation.
Pin the elevation.
Take a look at it.

RICK:
So I’ll—I’ll just text Steve, tell him to come down.

TOM:
Yeah. All right. I got to go, but I think we got a plan here.

RICK:
Yep.

TOM:
All right.

RICK:
We can’t be dismissive of anything found in the north end of the bog, albeit the real objective here is to find the wall.
Steve can do a survey and you might see a relationship between some other constructs across the width and breadth of the swamp.

STEVE:
Hey, guys.

RICK:
Hey, Steve. How you doing? What do you got?
No one’s looked at the plans more than you have, but you see this line?

STEVE:
Yep.

RICK:
And we have one, two, three, and we don’t know what’s beyond.

STEVE:
Yep. I think you have a seawall.
This is how you’d close this swamp off.

NARRATOR:
Built to shelter the coastline from ocean waves, tides and storms, seawalls are often constructed out of boulders, concrete or wood to protect man-made structures such as wharfs or docks.

STEVE:
You guys have done a great job of uncovering it.

NARRATOR:
If Steve is correct that this feature is a kind of seawall, or dam, could it be part of the so-called wall that Fred Nolan discovered?
It wouldn’t take long with a bunch of boulders this size to build up enough material to block this off… to build a swamp.

NARRATOR:
And if it was indeed used as a dam to create the swamp, could it also be the same feature on the believed 14th-century Templar map that Zena Halpern shared with the team back in 2016?

RICK:
I wish I knew if there was a relationship between these boulders and the wall.
It’s possible.
The one thing that came to mind when Fred first spoke of this wall was the reference to Zena’s map and the reference to a barrage, which is a dam or a barrier.
It would be wonderful to prove that.
To me, it speaks to the fact that Fred saw something there and it affirms that the map is legitimate.

RICK:
I think you have to plot all of them together and see if it makes sense.

STEVE:
I will.

RICK:
It’s just a very unique alignment, right?

STEVE:
Mm-hmm.

RICK:
And it would be hard to say it’s a nothing.
Oh! This is a something.
If this really is some sort of seawall, between all of us, we can figure out what this may or may not mean.

STEVE:
All right?

RICK:
Okay. Sounds good. Thanks, Rick.

STEVE:
Thank you.

RICK:
Cross our fingers.