NEW DISCOVERY in the Swamp (Season 12) | The Curse of Oak Island

GARY:
There’s got
to be something here.
We’re really close to the shore
in an area
with a lot of history,
-and we know there’s been
a lot of activity.
-Yeah.

NARRATOR:
…Rick, his nephew Alex,
metal detection expert
Gary Drayton
and Billy Gerhardt prepare
to begin excavating near the
mysterious, cobblestone pathway
in the northern region
of the swamp.

Which side are you going
to put the spoils on?
Probably over this way, I think.
Okay, mate.
We’ll get ready for ’em
and count
all those silver coins.
All right,
get ready for the spoils.
Smells like treasure.

ALEX:
That’s how you know
we haven’t dug here before.

GARY:
Yeah.

RICK:
It’s important
to understand the swamp.
And there are some answers
in there. I truly believe that.
I mean, how do you deny
that there are some sort of
answers there
that will affirm the fact
that this may have been
a multigenerational attempt
to hide something on Oak Island?

Hold up, Bill!
See this log here?

GARY:
Yeah.

RICK:
And then there’s
a couple more here
running this way.
Big ones.

ALEX/GARY:
Yeah.

RICK:
So somebody was out here
doing something.

ALEX:
There’s the bottom.
(scraping)
Lot of rocks there.
Boulder under that wood there.
Stone in there,
in amongst the…

RICK:
Yeah, I see that.

ALEX:
This is a lot like the cobbles
from the paved area.
-Same kind of rock.
-Yeah, same kind of rock.
Which you don’t really see
on the beach.
Yeah, I don’t know.
It’s quite
a collection of rock though.
It’s quite
a collection of rock though.
-Yeah.
-What have we found?
Well, we don’t know. There’s
that log embedded north-south.
And then there’s some
big timbers running east-west.
Appears to be on top of it.
Right, and then
also in the corner down there,
there’s all those rocks
on top of each other.
No material in between ’em.
I remember when Dr. Spooner
looked at the paved area,
he said that’s not common
in nature.
I mean, there’s a lot
of questions here.
Let’s stand down and figure out
a way to-to take advantage
of what-what we might be seeing.
But first we need to see
what Tom says.
So…
Okay.
Let’s, uh, stand down for now.
Stand down for now.
-But there’s other work to do.
-BILLY: Yep.

NARRATOR:
Rick is eager
to have Tom examine
the mysterious wood
and stone feature
that was uncovered
just one day ago.

RICK:
It’s at least 14 feet,
I would guess.
We never really found that end,
and we never really found
this end.
It’s underneath
a substantial root structure.

TOM:
I don’t think
it was done by us,
uh, or my dad.
You know, to get
those size logs out here
is quite a– quite a job.
You know, uh,
I can’t imagine
how somebody really did.
-RICK: Mm-hmm.
-BILLY: The other thing is
we got rocks in a row
underneath you here.

TOM:
Yeah, that’s
almost a perfect line.

BILLY:
Yeah.

RICK:
If you’re saying
that probably not your dad’s
and that he didn’t know of it,
then it makes it
certainly very interesting.

RICK:
It’s very apparent
from the first log
we uncovered is that
it’s well made.
Right here.

RICK:
That’s not a small log there.
What in the heck is going on?
There are two parts
of the construction.
There are what
I call the “carry logs.”
They are the support
of the structure.
And then there are
what I call the “platform logs,”
which sit on top
of the carry logs.
And there are multiples
of those.
There’s one here,
running this way,
and there’s another one there,
running that way.
And it was Alex
who noticed the cobbles
at the bottom of the dig.
An intentional layer of cobble
laid down for some purpose.
I don’t know its relevance
to furthering our understanding
of the mystery,
but it’s definitely quite large.
-This is a mystery.
-GARY: Yeah.
-This is a mystery.
-GARY: Yeah.
-RICK: And it’s massive.
-Yeah.
I mean, this would carry
a tremendous amount of weight.

LAIRD:
I think you’re right.
What do you make of it, Laird?
It’s odd.
-RICK: That’s not sufficient.
-(laughs)

LAIRD:
We have enough for Dr. Spooner
to make a pretty good
evaluation right now.
-ALEX: Yeah.
-LAIRD: I think
we get Dr. Spooner in, and
he can take these organic
samples that we can date.
This is unique.
But Dr. Spooner can maybe tell
us exactly what happened here
and what progression of time.
So, we’re done for the day.
It was a cool day, though.
-Interesting day.
-Oh, yeah.
-Yeah.

GARY:
A new discovery on Oak Island.
It’s a great day.

NARRATOR:
The following morning…
You seen anything
like this before, Ian?
No. No, I haven’t.
And, uh, I haven’t seen
a platform like this.
I wonder how it extends back
towards land.

RICK:
Well, these are
the platform logs.
But if you see here…

IAN:
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
RICK:
So there’s this one
-and then there’s that one.
-Yeah.
And it looks like it
keeps on going into land there.
It’s almost like this is a…
-a ramp, right?
-Yes.
Yeah, this is a ramp.
I have no problem with that.

RICK:
The-the amazing thing is
how big this structure is.
-Yeah.
-This was meant to carry
extremely heavy loads
or to be very stable
for something very, very heavy.
If you just wanted access
out here,
you’re not doing this.
You know, for me, it’s–
This is built with purpose.
But to what end?

BILLY:
It’s the first thing
that we ever have found
that points directly
to the Eye in a structure.
And we have Dr. Spooner
that did work in that.
His cores show
industrial activity way back.

MARTY:
This is
a very puzzling feature here,
this Eye of the Swamp.
-ALEX: Mm-hmm.
-The All-Seeing Eye.

NARRATOR:
In 2019, the Oak Island team
investigated a mysterious
circular formation
in the triangle-shaped swamp
where vegetation
would never grow.

GARY:
Wow. That is massive.
That’s-that’s a big boulder.

NARRATOR:
Incredibly,
after draining the area
and discovering a man-made
formation of boulders,
they dubbed it
“the Eye of the Swamp”
due to its eerie resemblance
to the Masonic symbol
known as the All-Seeing Eye.
This is quite
a provocative site.

NARRATOR:
And after analyzing
organic materials
within the feature,
Dr. Spooner presented the team
with astonishing data
about when it was
likely created.
I’m very confident
we’re looking at 1680 to 1700
that that disturbance
took place.
Really interesting.

IAN:
I just want to take a look
at the stone,
at the bottom of it.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible
that this wooden ramp
and cobblestone feature were
constructed at the same time
as the Eye of the Swamp?
But if so, by who
and for what purpose?
This kind of stuff
always intrigues me.
-See that rock?
-RICK: Mm-hmm.

IAN:
This little rock here
was wedged between this piece
of wood here and that rock.

ALEX:
So if we date
that lowest piece of wood
that’s sitting right
on the rocks,
we know that the rocks
were put there
before the age
of that piece of wood.
-Yeah.
-If this feature
is the same age
as the Eye of the Swamp,
that lines up
with the William Phips theory.
Right.
We know that Phips found silver
on the Concepción.

NARRATOR:
Since 2021,
the team has been investigating
the theory
that the 17th-century
English treasure hunter
and politician Sir William Phips
and his Masonic associate
Captain Andrew Belcher
buried a vast cache of treasure
in the Money Pit.
In 1687,
at the direction
of the English crown,
Phips conducted two salvages
of the famed Spanish
treasure galleon
known as the Concepción…
…which sank in a hurricane
near the Dominican Republic
in 1641.
In a controversy
that bewildered many,
Phips delivered less than half
of the 100 tons
of silver and gold
that were recorded
on the ship’s manifest.

Now, after previously finding
iron tools
in the round feature on Lot 5
that have been
scientifically matched
to the birthplace
of William Phips,
could the so-called
Eye of the Swamp
and perhaps these two additional
man-made features
offer more compelling evidence
that this theory is true?

ALEX:
I would just send these out
for dating.
-Oh, we’re
absolutely gonna do that.
-Yeah.
And some of these logs are
-sufficient size
to facilitate that.
-ALEX/LAIRD: Yeah.

RICK:
Whole area seems to have
some sort of reason.
If you’re moving through a bog,
you-you would have to have
a platform from which to work.
If it were 1680 dates
or thereabouts,
you know, certainly one
of the possible theories
might be a Phips connection.
So, we got a plan.
I think we just keep pulling
down this line.
Yeah. And we start finding
some metals
and some bobby-dazzlers
and top-pocket finds.
-ALEX: Yes.
-Hopefully.
There are still answers
down there.
There are still answers
down there.
Yeah.