Gary Drayton: “I’m EXPOSING All The Oak Island Scams!”

Not in my wildest dreams, Matty, but just like you guys. I dreamt as a kid of far away treasures, uh, islands and pirates.

So, they they take this out. They keep digging. They get down 10 more feet. Now, they’re down 20 ft and they’re boys. They hit another layer of oak logs and they give up.

Forget the flood tunnels and mysterious stones for a second. The real Oak Island bombshell might be in Gary Drayton’s pocket. One of his most overlooked finds is now being re-examined, and its shocking origin could dismantle centuries of lore.

This isn’t just about treasure anymore. It’s about exposing a potential historical cover up that Drayton himself may have accidentally stumbled upon. The cross that challenges everything.

Get this, the single most important artifact ever found on Oak Island might also be the one that blows the whole Templar Knight’s theory right out of the water. We’re talking about the now famous lead cross discovered by none other than Gary Drayton in 2017.

On the surface, it was a monumental find. A heavy simple cross pulled from the mud of Smith’s Cove. The team was ecstatic, immediately linking it to the Knights Templar, the secretive holy order rumored to have buried treasure on the island.

It seemed like the ultimate proof, the piece of the puzzle that finally connected all the dots. But hold on, because this is where the story takes a sharp turn.

Truth be told, the real story of the cross is far more complicated and frankly far more controversial. While the show celebrated the find as a Templar relic, holy shamoly, right, it’s a cross.

Independent analysis and historical deep dive suggests something else entirely. The design of the cross, a simple Latin cross with a square hole at the top, is not exclusively Templar. In fact, this style was common among Spanish and Portuguese explorers and missionaries from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

But here’s the kicker. Tests conducted on the lead itself revealed its origin. The lead was traced back to a mine in southern France, which sounds promising, right? The Templars were powerful in France.

But here’s the thing. That same mine was also a primary source of lead for French and Spanish colonial efforts for hundreds of years after the Templars were disbanded in 1312.

This single fact throws a huge wrench in the works. The cross is more likely a personal religious item from a much later period, perhaps lost by an explorer, a soldier, or even an early settler.

This is where the idea of a deception comes in. By focusing so heavily on the possible yet unlikely Templar connection, the show might be ignoring a more grounded and perhaps less glamorous historical truth.

Gary Drayton in Finding This Cross may have accidentally provided the evidence that debunks the show’s central premise. He found a piece of history, but the narrative spun around it is what’s being questioned.

Is the team so focused on finding what they want to find that they’re ignoring what they’re actually finding? Gary just finds the stuff. How it’s interpreted is everything.

The controversy deepens when you consider other finds Drayton has made. “Is this worth anything?” It could be. That could be part of the treasure that we’re looking for. Don’t have to be gold and silver. It could be some fantastic religious treasure.

He’s unearthed numerous Spanish Meaved coins, buttons from French and British military uniforms, and other objects that point to a long history of European activity on the island.

None of these things scream secret Templar vault. Instead, they paint a picture of an island that was a stopping point, a repair station, or a small settlement for various groups over centuries.

The real treasure might not be a single horde, but the scattered story of all these different visitors. By finding these items, Gary Drayton is adding chapters to a history book that the main treasure hunt seems to be ignoring.

What if the ultimate Oak Island deception isn’t an outright lie, but a carefully edited truth? What if the show’s producers are cherry-picking the theories that make for the best television, even when the evidence found by their own star metal detectorrist points in a different direction?

But if the cross isn’t the key to the Templar treasure, then what about the most legendary part of the island? What if the real deception is the very hole they’ve poured millions of dollars into?

The money pit has been the heart of the Oak Island mystery. It’s a legend built on stories of booby traps, mysterious platforms every 10 feet, and a fabled treasure vault.

But let’s be honest for a second. After decades of modern searching, and millions upon millions of dollars spent by the Logs alone, what is the money pit actually produced? The answer is shockingly little.

They found wood, coconut fiber, and traces of metal, but not a single gold bar, not one chest, not a single definitive piece of treasure.

“You think that’s coconut fiber?” That is interesting. “Well, it’s hairike.” Yeah. “Yeah. And it’s clumped as well.” Yeah. “No, that’s that is very interesting.”

This is where Gary Drayton’s role becomes absolutely critical. While the heavy machinery drills endlessly into the money pit area, creating a landscape of shafts and quesons, Gary is walking the island surface and pulling actual verifiable history from the ground.

Think about the contrast. The team spends an entire season and a fortune to drill a new shaft H8, only to be stopped by debris and flooding.

Meanwhile, a few hundred feet away in the swamp, Gary gets a signal on his detector and unears a 17th century coin. Which one is closer to the truth of the island?

This has led to a growing and uncomfortable question. Is the money pit the biggest red herring in history? It’s a fascinating story, but what if that’s all it is? A story.

Some researchers now propose that the original pit discovered in 1795 might have been nothing more than a natural sinkhole or a simple tar kiln pit common in the area for ship repair.

The stories of platforms and traps could have been embellished over time, growing more elaborate with each telling to attract investors for new treasure hunts. It became a self-fulfilling legend.

Gary’s finds support this alternative theory. He consistently finds artifacts in places like Smith’s Cove, the swamp.

“These guys to dig for me. But yeah, Rick and I were on Smith’s Cove Beach, and Rick dug that out.”

And on the island’s uplands, places connected by a stone road, not the money pit.

These finds, like the British and French military buttons and the ornate hinges, suggest that the real activity on Oak Island was related to ship maintenance, military presence, or trade.

The so-called treasure might have been nothing more than the supplies and personal effects of the people who used the island as a temporary base.

Gary isn’t finding clues to a central vault. He’s finding the scattered remains of everyday life and industry from centuries ago.