A Shoe-In Clue on Lot 18 (Season 12) *Exclusive* | The Curse of Oak Island

We might have found
a piece of shoe leather,
digging in the Money Pit.
This is a fantastic clue
that could help us take a step
in the right direction
towards figuring out
who came to Oak Island
and buried treasure
a long time ago.
♪ ♪

RICK:
You have to keep
your eyes open on Oak Island
because you’re always
looking for clues
that will speak eloquently
to what happened here.
And we’re digging
at the Money Pit,
looking for some evidence
of Shaft Two
when Gary makes
a very interesting find.

Hmm. Hey, Rick!
Yeah?
A find, mate.
We’re not finding
a lot of metals,
but on that last load,
Billy, this came off.
It’s a bit of leather.
-BILLY: Oh, wow.
-RICK: Yeah, that’s cool.
-Yeah. It’s a…
-Well, how did you–
What, did you just…?
I just saw it, yeah,
with me twin optical scanners.
I was just climbing
the side there,
hoping to find some metal,
and at first I thought
it was a piece of bark,
but then, when you pick it up,
you can tell it’s leather.
And that’s similar to that, um,
-shoe that we found
in the swamp.
-Yeah.

GARY:
This is a nice find,
not found with my
metal detector either.
I’m always looking
at the spoils,
and what I just pulled up
is a nice piece of leather.
Now, we did find
a piece of leather
in the swamp dig last year,
and we’re always looking
for connections on Oak Island,
especially between the swamp
and the Money Pit.
Maybe these two pieces
of leather
coming from the swamp
and the Shaft Two dig
are connected.

If it’s leather, we really
shouldn’t be handling it.
No, I’m gonna put it in a bag.
I mean…
’cause this can be tested,
-and is it Joe Landry?
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
If we could get Joe Landry
the leather expert
to look at it.
Yeah, normally,
you can tell the age
by the nail holes
that go around the shoe.
And I’m just seeing
if there’s any– Oh, look.
That looks like a little
square nail hole there.
-See at the top there?
-BILLY: Yeah.
RICK: You see the way
it’s done, though?
This must be the arch.
‘Cause see how much
thicker it is?
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
-Uh…
-Well, or-or
it was really worn, right?
-GARY: Yeah.
-RICK: Or if it’s– uh, I mean,
we’re even guessing
that it’s a shoe, really.
GARY:
Yeah, could be a boot, a shoe.
I mean, that’s what
it looks like, though,
when you see that arch there.
Well, that came out of the clay.
All this thick clay
that’s coming up,
it rolled out of there.
-Hmm.
-Well…
Again, it doesn’t say, uh,
original or re-crib.
-Not yet, no.
-No.

BILLY:
If we didn’t have
good eyes on that one,
that would be hard to see.
Okay, but to think-think
about it, right?
It’s like, it’s all the ceramics
we find, all of them,
you know, why just…?
(laughs)
That’s the interior of a boot.
That’s not the exterior
of a boot.
(laughing):
Wh-Where’s the boot?
The boot might be coming up.
Well, unless it’s
a real old boot.
Could it be the ex–
like an old sole, right?
-In your boot.
-GARY: Yeah.
Well, we’ll find out,
we got enough equipment
on the island and enough experts
we can contact.
I was expecting to find
pottery, glass,
but leather’s good.
Leather’s good.

RICK:
The leather
that Gary found is interesting.
It certainly does have
the possible appearance
of being part of a shoe.
-Yeah.
-Interesting.
-It’s a step in the
right direction.
-(Rick laughs)

RICK:
I think we have
avenues to pursue,
i.e., I think we bring it
to a cobbler
or someone familiar
with old-style constructions
of leather shoes,
who can say, “Well,
this was tanned in this manner,
“and these…
it was only used this way
from such and such
to such and such.”
I think there are reasons
to be excited about it.

-All right,
I’ll put it in a bag.
-Yeah, no.
Any find is a good one.
-RICK: It’s a great find.
-GARY: Yep.
RICK:
Just shows,
you know, not just metal-
detecting, it’s watching things.
-Oh, yeah.
-RICK: I don’t know if I’m
better off over there
or better off here.
-Okay, good eyes.
-BILLY: All right.
-GARY: Thanks.
-RICK: Really, good eyes.

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