Exciting Money Pit Excavations | The Curse of Oak Island

JACK BEGLEY: Hey, Rick.
RICK LAGINA: Hey, Jack. Morning.
JACK BEGLEY: Good morning. That hammer grab’s fun to watch.
RICK LAGINA: Yeah. DUMAS seems to be moving along quite quickly. Good.

NARRATOR: As a new day dawns on Oak Island,
for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina and the members of their team,
the hope that they may be on the verge of solving a 228-year-old treasure mystery has never been higher.

RICK LAGINA: Morning, Roger.
ROGER FORTIN: Morning, Rick.
RICK: How are you?
ROGER: Morning. How’s it going? Nice to see you guys.
RICK: Yeah. What’s the depth?
ROGER: Oh, right now, we’re about 23 feet.
We’re gonna be marking a little bit more, blowing that in.
And then we’re going to be installing another two sets.
RICK: OK.

NARRATOR: Although a number of investigations are currently being conducted all across the island
to search for critical clues and valuables,
their most promising operation is underway in the Money Pit area with DUMAS Contracting Limited,
a mining company that is reconstructing the so-called Garden Shaft.

WORKER: The material’s still just really mucky right now.
JACK: Yeah, yeah.
WORKER: So it’s kind of—you can tell that it’s backfilled clay.
JACK: Yeah.
WORKER: But you’re right. They kind of were careful as to what they dumped in there.
JACK: Correct.

NARRATOR: Based on numerous recent discoveries this year,
the team has good reason to believe that this 80-foot deep, decayed wooden structure
may be connected to the original Money Pit.

Wood samples from the shaft have not only been dated to 1735,
but water testing within it has also revealed high trace evidence of gold.

In addition, it is also located in close proximity to a potential void or chamber
that the team drilled into earlier this year at a depth of just 55 feet.

MARTY LAGINA: There are some pretty concrete signs that say this might be the original Money Pit,
or it could be right next to it.
It could have been the original attempt, one of the original attempts.
I really would like to see what’s at the bottom of that shaft.
So the hope is that once we get down 50, 60 feet,
we’ll be able to drill horizontally, vertically.
JACK: Yeah.
MARTY: Then hopefully, we do find the tunnel from this shaft, at least in some direction.
Some of our better water sample tests have been from here, that had the gold and the silver.
JACK: Yeah. We would love to find original work. So there’s all kinds of hopes here.
We just have to learn as much as we can about this location.
MARTY: Yeah.

NARRATOR: Having already rebuilt the first two sets or 8-foot sections of the garden shaft,
in the coming weeks, DUMAS will complete a new vertical structure down to a total depth of approximately 80 feet.
During the process, they also have the ability to probe outside the shaft
and even build lateral tunnels in order to let members of the team search for evidence of treasure.

CONSTRUCTION WORKER: Here we go.
ROGER FORTIN: Heads up, guys.

[Music playing]

JACK BEGLEY: Here we go.
SCOTT BARLOW: OK, tight lining coming down. Watch out!

NARRATOR: As the team from DUMAS continues excavating and reconstructing the Garden Shaft—
RICK: Well, that’s pretty cool.
SCOTT: Very cool.

NARRATOR: —members of the team will be able to monitor the operation
using the INUKTUN Spectrum 120 high definition camera.

SCOTT: We’re fortunate enough to be able to put a camera down here with Roger’s assistance.
So I mean, it’s a great tool for us to be able to see what’s going on down there.
JACK: It’s amazing.

NARRATOR: The device, which features a lens that can pan 360 degrees,
is not only designed to operate in low light conditions
but is also equipped with a number of visual enhancement capabilities,
such as high-powered zoom function.

SCOTT: It really gives you an idea how small of an area it is, seeing those two guys down there.
RICK: It is, yeah.
SCOTT: Do I believe that there’s treasure at the bottom of the garden shaft?
I’ll be honest, I’m hopeful. [chuckles]
But I just want to get underground in the Money Pit.
Let’s get underground and exploit the opportunities that the shaft represents.
I want to go down there—[laughs]—soon. It’s an exciting day.