Rick Lagina’s Explains What Really Happened Inside The Money Pit!!

What we got here that looks like a bit of a barrel stave? Maybe similar to those barrel staves we found digging in the swamp there. Yeah, it looks like a barrel stave, Gary, because it’s wider here than it is there. Yeah, hey, what do you think you hit the last spade bit? I thought I hit something different.

See that? The Lagina brothers and their team are racing against the encroaching winter to get as many new clues and artifacts as can be found before their season of exploring the island comes to an end. Do you feel anything? Yeah, definitely would write here. See your bar here. However, the darkness of the island blinds and deters them the closer they get to answers. Will they be able to overcome the challenges of this cursed island, or will they fail and pack up and go home empty-handed?

Stay tuned because Rina just revealed what really has happened inside The Money Pit. I don’t know, what do you think? I know what I think—what, that these remind me, these big ones, of ship timbers? Yeah, these big ones. The crew kicks off their latest exploration of hole RF1 in The Money Pit area. This location is of special interest to them because of the ancient wooden timber they found, which was inscribed with mysterious Roman numerals. This find was important to their current line of questioning, as they have already wondered if the island was somehow connected to other civilizations and societies.

The Roman numerals are also significant in that they reveal the origin of the timber. It’s exciting seeing round timbers down there. To me, round timbers are a great indication that it’s potentially old. You have to go back to the original story, right? You know, logs every 10 ft, or the origins of the people on the island at the time, as well as the possible time period of the habitation on the island. The team has also concluded that the Roman numbers on the artifacts in Lot Five could also be connected to this old piece of timber. They have to ask themselves how complex and advanced the operations and structures being built on the island could be with all of the mounting evidence.

While they would love to spend their time pondering the implications of these discoveries in peace, the current climate of the island does not allow it. The weather has taken a terrible turn, and the foul weather raises the possibility for injuries and malfunction. Oak Island is located in the North Atlantic Ocean, which is infamous for its cutting winds, deep snowfall, and freezing temperatures. The Oak Island crew has less than two weeks to wrap up their investigations for the year before they are forced to vacate the island.

Marty Lagina is often on-site supervising the various digs and discoveries on the island, and on one such occasion, he witnessed items being pulled out of the RF1 shaft. This shaft was believed to have been created as a way to intercept The Money Pit. They uncover a century-old pickaxe and hand-cut wood from the shaft, 100 ft underground. They noticed that the wood had some strange U-shaped patterns that bear a resemblance to markings found on some uncovered wooden blocks recovered from Smith’s Cove in an area where we have a target based on the seismic data, but we don’t know what that means.

It could be original work. Smith’s Cove was a building that was tested and confirmed to have been built in 1769, which is 20 years before the discovery of The Money Pit. They analyze the patterns on the wood, and they reason that the patterns were made deliberately with a woodworking technique. Even 1769 is impressive if this is the same data Z-shape structure. Of course, we could have it dendro, which means a lot of skill and intention was put into it.

The team is convinced that these findings suggest an operation that involved the creation of multiple features and buildings across the island. As they continue to analyze and catalog their finds, the crew finds that the enormous hand-cut timber they found in the shaft is not connected to the Heddon or Chapel shaft, which means the pieces of wood they found in the RF1 shaft are older and stand apart from anything in those two shafts. The team allowed the Heddon shaft to stay open during the Becca drill, taking the possibility of holding a temporary platform above the shaft safely.

The Becca of the Chapel shaft begins in 1931 when treasure hunters Frederick Blair and William Chapel founded it, after digging under a layer of concrete and finding a 7 ft tall wooden box buried at 143 ft below the ground. The Lagina Brothers consult with their friend Terry about the wooden beams with the strange U-shaped marks, and they all agreed that the beam head has to have been handcrafted. This is a new clue to add to their investigations into The Money Pit.

They also wonder if the wooden beams found in the shaft could have acted as an instructional piece for the original builders. The Money Pit has long been believed to have been a treasure shaft and a safe place for pirates to hide their wealth, but this theory still needs more evidence to back it up. Early reports point to previous silent inhabitants having access to equipment that allowed them to build sophisticated shafts, tunnels, and other structures to hide or protect their goods and money. This is only helped because of the high volume of man-made structures, relics, and forgotten riches that were left behind and survived after all this time.

The fact that much of this is found near The Money Pit only validates their theories about it. As the crew sifts through their deposits, Gary Drayton, the metal detection expert, finds something extraordinary. He pulls out what looks like a fastener or a pin meant to hold objects in place from the muck, and he recognizes that the heaviness and thick look must mean it’s centuries old.

How old do you think it is? I think we’re in the 1700s or older. So crude, oh, so PR Money Pit Discovery. His best guess is that he has found an ancient crowbar. To get more answers, they contact the blacksmithing expert, Caron Lego. This metal pin is added to their long list of significant finds.

Rina gets a look at it and confirms that it must be some kind of crowbar and that it’s a piece that ties back to the original work being done on the island. The next day, Rick oversees the work happening in hole RF1 while his brother Alex Lagina and their business partner Craig Tester head over to the Ross Farm Museum to speak with the blacksmithing expert. K and Leg studies the metal bar pulled from the shaft, and he explains what he is seeing as he examines it. He describes the metal object as hand-forged and highly fibrous with wide marks along one side. He believes it was most likely chiseled into a rock formation or clay wall, and the metal would be put into the wall or roof of a cave afterward. Different equipment, like lights, hoists, and pulleys, would be unchained at one end of the bar.

This piece of equipment inspires the team to turn their thoughts back to the anchor they discovered some 120 ft below the surface, which they believe to have been the original Money Pit. They now believe that the anchor could have been used to secure a pulley system, one that used the metal bar they found to hoist or lower various heavy objects during the construction of the shaft. They also think the bar could have been used to lower something heavy into The Money Pit, perhaps even a heavy cargo of treasure.

Andres Carman’s best guess as to the metal bar’s date of origin is placed in the 1700s. This information can now be reasonably linked to the construction of The Money Pit, which is speculated to have been built around the time. Craig Tester then brings out a second item on which they want Carman’s insight—the rock hammer. He pulls out a small rock hammer and wonders out loud if it makes a difference in how it was used. Could it have been designed for tunneling work?

K and Leg confirms these suspicions and concludes that it was used to work in a tunnel, cave, or small enclosure. He notes that the tool was designed to make a high impact with a short stroke, perfect for small spaces. The shape suggests it was designed sometime in the Middle Ages and was likely made to break rock. This valuable context explains the historical origins and links it to engineering taking place on the island.

“No, I’m thinking we’re in two different structures.” “Yeah, yeah, that’s what it looks like.” So what a shock. The day ends, and we have another miss. It also contributes to the understanding of underground excavations that took place hundreds of years ago. All of these insights lead K and Leg to posit that the pickaxe found in RF1 was older than the original Money Pit by at least 300 years, which means it could have been used to construct the treasure shaft.

Alex Lagina adds that researchers first started documenting things about the island in the mid-1800s. Anything found in The Money Pit is culturally and historically invaluable, so they realize they must proceed with caution and investigate everything thoroughly to honor the work of the people who came before them. The team sifts through more of the spoils retrieved from hole RF1 and lays everything out on their custom wash tables to inspect everything that has been excavated by the massive hammer grab tool.

Jack and Steve are thoroughly cleaning and sorting their finds when Steve finds a bit of rope that is revealed to contain many abnormalities. Jack finds coconut fiber, which leads the whole crew to think that the RF1 shaft has reached the original Money Pit. Coconut fiber was originally discovered in the original Money Pit back in 1804 and then again in 1850. They reasoned that it acted as a filter, keeping sand and debris out of the booby trap flooding system.

The use of coconut fiber is significant in many of the significant constructions on the island. In 1897, treasure hunters Frederick Blair and William Chapel were digging in the original Money Pit when they drilled through a layer of concrete. The drill bit was discovered to hold traces of gold and a piece of parchment with writing on it. The fact that the Oak Island crew of today has found a chunk of concrete, which is likely connected to the Chapel Vault, suggests that they are right on the trail of a big find.

Vanessa and Douglas talk about the progress they have made as they reach 160 ft below ground and note that they are entering a very exciting area where a lot of strange things have been recovered. The crew is using a hammer machine to extract all of this from their shaft. Douglas identifies a metal that was once a shield for the soldiers that were using it to protect from falling dirt and debris as they worked underground. The metal is dated to the 1930s, and they connect it to the Chapel shaft. This discovery sends them into a whirl of excitement.

“Different type of wood now.” “So that almost looks like it was a vertical timber, by the way it came up.” Taking a look back at the timeline of William Chapel and Frederick Blair, they explained that after three decades of searching, they were unable to recover the Chapel Vault. However, in 1931, William Chapel and his son built a 157-ton hole in an effort to retrieve whatever was in the vault. A fascinating discovery was that the workers digging inside the shaft could use a 4-ft tall metal shield to protect themselves from flooding and cave-ins that would be caused by the various booby traps left behind by pirates.

The Chapels found the vault, but they believe it must have fallen even deeper underground. The shield being left at the bottom of the pit only gives more air to that theory. They now believe they are steps away from the legendary pirates’ treasure. The Oak Island team decides that they need to keep going and pass the Chapel shaft until they reach untouched ground. However, they fear they could be hindered by any leftover collapsed features built hundreds of years ago—a possibility that is thrilling and terrifying.

Vanessa, who is operating the search from the comfort of the machine control center, reports to the crew that the pressure is slowly decreasing, which means that things are getting tighter. This pressure decrease then causes a great deal of shaking, and the machine stopper seems to have malfunctioned. This sudden disruption causes the crane to shift, nearly throwing Vanessa off. Thanks to the 2,500 pounds per square inch of pressure, which is operating at nearly double its normal operating pressure, shockingly, one of the steel braces securing the crane suddenly breaks off. This is a disastrous and dangerous event that takes everyone by surprise and sets everyone back according to plan.

To the experts, the steel Quan was grinding and caused the breakage. After a couple of hours of repairing the oscillator in the crane, the Irving Equipment Limited and Rock Equipment crew got the green light to keep excavating the RF1 shaft. But one problem remains: the 8 ft wide drilling gears are struggling to move, and the hammer grab tool is now bringing up very little loot, which means something is getting in the way of its progress.

Vanessa came up with the idea to raise the quiz 5 ft and place everything on top. This would add the needed weight to allow gravity to do the rest of the work, and they will be able to dislodge whatever is in the way. The crew plans to reset the 26-ton hammer grab machine on top of the OB iCal, a process that could cost them several days, eating into the precious time they have left. The Oak Island crew decides to head home and hopes that this will be resolved when they return.

“We have a core gentlemen, this is at one of our last best chans right here. What do you have, Marvin?”

“1919.”

After deciding to postpone the RF-1 dig, Regina and Charles Barkhouse and Lan travel to Lot 25, where they begin a fresh dig in the spot where Samuel Ball, the former American slave, built his mansion in the late 18th century. Samuel Ball has an extraordinary history, as he first arrived on Oak Island as a cabbage farmer, only to die as one of the richest landowners in Nova Scotia. This mysterious rise and ownership of land on Oak Island had fueled rumors that he had discovered something valuable on the island, which allowed him to buy land.

The possible source of Samuel Ball’s wealth has been a popular topic of debate for years. Some have suggested that he could have found the treasure hidden on the island and used it to buy land. However, there is a lack of evidence that supports this theory, and his sudden rise is just a part of the ever-growing list of mysteries on the island. A few weeks ago, the crew had conducted some extensive radar scans around the land and were able to find and identify potential subsurface structures.

Lenen was able to gain a government-issued permit to start an excavation at this site, where it had previously been off-limits and belonged to the Ball Foundation. The Oak Island crew is ready to dig up Lot 25, the former home of Samuel Ball. Lenen is an archaeologist who is meticulous in his documentation of the land and their findings, and he has established a search grid divided into 3×3 ft portions that he calls test pits.

Rick Lagina is of the opinion that Samuel Ball’s true history is a mystery, and he believes that this search could shed some light on the truth behind his sudden and unexplainable rise to prominence in a time when being a person of color would have blocked him from many opportunities. The conservator, Kelly, is careful as she shifts and moves soil in the area, where Jack and Gary will later scan with a metal detector.

A new day shows Lenen and his colleagues digging around the Ball Foundation land, while Alex Lenen goes to a meeting with geologist Dr. Ian Spooner and heavy equipment operator Billy. Over in the triangle-shaped marshes, Calman, they were a Canadian rubber company making these types of boots in 1908-1909. The encroaching winter fuels the team to move quickly as they investigate the stone-paved feature on the island, trying to find a possible origin. Their plan is to get a sample of the wood in the area for analysis, which they will then match to the dates theorized to be the creation of the swamp. This could give them some facts and data to figure out more about the history of the area.

Back on Lot 25, the group of archaeologists, led by LR, is digging at the location where GPR scans revealed a 6-ft deep structure that looks like a tunnel buried under the Ball Foundation property. Jack Bigley thinks that the tunnel could be a sign that Samuel Ball was protecting something. This leads to a visit from Rick and Billy, who are interested in seeing this tunnel in person.

Oak Island has become known for all the vintage tunneling equipment left behind centuries ago, including an iron chisel, two swages, and more, all of which date back over 600 years. This tunnel under Samuel Ball’s property has them wondering if these ancient tools were used to dig the underground structure. Is this the evidence they have been waiting for to prove that Samuel Ball was hiding Oak Island’s treasure?

The next morning finds the Lagina brothers back on Lot 25 with Lenen and his archaeologists. They want to take a closer look at the tunnel, so with the help of Derek Halil, the owner of a septic installation and repair firm, they send a pipe inspection camera down. The team is excited to find a new clue that will help them piece together something of Oak Island’s mysterious history. Once the camera is lowered, they all monitor the operation through a live video feed. The camera keeps getting stuck, and the tunnel becomes increasingly difficult to navigate, especially since it’s so long. Derek Halil doesn’t give up; he continues to feed the camera into the tube using a flexible cable, and the crew finally spots something interesting.

But before they can go any further, the camera is stopped by a massive stone blocking their passage. They now wonder if the stone was purposefully placed to block the tunnel off. Derek notes that it should be easy to dislodge the stone and is confident that they should just continue their investigation.

“A big rock at that, it’s solid,” he says. “I don’t know if we’re getting by that.”

Rick Lagina decides to excavate the area by hand and follow it all the way to the bottom. This marks the end of a busy day for the crew. They managed to find some unique artifacts as well as explore a previously locked portion of the island. The opportunity to research and excavate on Samuel Ball’s land has been a great boon to them. They can add this lot to the other areas of investigation they’ve explored on the island.

Lot 26 is an especially significant area, as it is the location of the famous Snowland Cross that put the team on the trail of the Knights Templar. Taking down the wall on Lot 26 reveals many hidden links and lore of the island. This unexpected finding will change everything for the Oak Island crew and could reshape world history forever.

Rick Lagina is feeling the pressure, as the crew is running out of time for the season, and he feels they are on the edge of something great. Losing this momentum could be devastating. For the metal detection expert, Gary Drayton, it’s the center of the latest update, where he recalls that the previous night, after they had left the site, they had around 12 ft of space remaining in the Quan. Now, the amount of space has changed. This means that something has changed or shifted underground while they were gone, which could indicate there has been a breakthrough.

The change in measurement leaves the team breathless with anticipation. When they measure it with the hammer grab, they record it at 7 ft, which means there is a difference of 5 ft from when it had originally been left at 12 ft. Vanessa, the machine operator, joins them, and the team discusses this new situation, suggesting that the change hints at the obstruction becoming loose on its own overnight.

Previously, they had discovered a big blockage in the steel core at a depth of 1070 ft underground. This was a large obstacle to their excavation efforts and something they believed could be linked to the long-lost treasure. Jared, a team member, diagnosed the problem as being a broken shear on the case, and the Irving Equipment Limited team has spent the past few days using the hammer grab tool as a weight that should dislodge the blockage.

The team waits on the sidelines, ready.

“Dan, if you can go ahead and turn that on for us, please, sir… beautiful. We’ve got the stage set.”

Years of dreaming of finally getting the RF1 to the area where they push the plug in H8. They want to retrieve whatever is inside and add it to the database they keep of the treasures they’ve found on the island.

The crew begins to speculate about what they will find down the ragina. They suggest that finding wood would be amazing, as it would indicate that there is something buried deep underground. Meanwhile, Vanessa and her team are detecting something strange on their equipment. The pressure indicators are showing that there may be nothing down there after all. They speculate that they have stumbled across a void.

This is interesting to the Lagina brothers, who have always been fascinated by voids, as they could be evidence of human interference. The hammer grab brings up material, and the team discovers gravel that appears to be crushed—something not native to the area—and a sign of human handling.

Craig Tester is worried that the material on the backside of H may collapse into a hole, and gravel hints at something dangerous beneath their feet. This could mean there is a possibility of a collapse or sinkholes, which reminds everyone of the danger of excavation work. The question everyone is asking is whether this gravel is the same one used by the team just last year to reinforce a sinkhole beneath their drilling equipment. Could this cause their prior cave-in to reoccur?

Vanessa notes that the backfill from the previous year’s shafts is climbing up the C. This is a sign that something has shifted or moved within the solution channel. This is a huge safety hazard, and Vanessa recommends that they close the hole. The crew wisely listens and suspends their operations until they can determine the risks of the site.

The next day, the Lagina brothers decide to turn their attention to the stone-paved formation they discovered at the bottom of the triangle swamp. Over the past few weeks, they have found several artifacts that strengthen their theory of a galleon—a big sailing ship—having traveled between what were originally two separate islands. After the construction of a cofferdam, the ship was purposefully burned, sunk, and buried within the Oak Island swamp.

This is highly alarming, as a group of people went through a lot of effort to destroy all traces of this ship. Have they found any of those yet?

“Yeah, and those are only about six feet down,” they say. “Now we’re digging six feet down, but why? What secrets or events took place that they felt the need for such drastic measures?”

This activity hints that something suspicious was going on. This discovery is even more remarkable when the “eye of the swamp” circular feature is taken into consideration. This man-made structure is believed to have been made in the 17th century.

The work of geologist Dr. Ian Spooner has been invaluable in analyzing this feature. The Oak Island crew is soon joined by Dr. Spooner and Doug, and the crew relays information about the stick that was crushed by the boulder. The dating on the stick tells them that it could be linked to other discoveries in the area.

Dr. Spooner had come across several tree branches embedded within the rock layers while investigating the stone-paved area earlier this year. The sticks they found were dated to 12,200 BC. This is an incredible discovery, as the material they have found goes back 800 years—six centuries before The Money Pit was built. The interest in this island goes far past a pirate’s hiding place for his treasure.

Dr. Spooner’s contributions are still the talk of the island. When the whole crew meets up in the War Room the next day for the last meeting of the year, Charles Barkhouse has organized all of their significant finds of the year, along with a timeline for their origin dates that stretches to the 12th century.

Jack Bigley is convinced that the Knights Templar are connected to the island, as it was likely a strategic location for them to escape to when times were hard on their organization. Surveyor Steve Guptil adds another revelation: the stone-paved area is much larger than they had thought, shocking the crew.

Realizing that they can learn new things about a known and categorized location only emphasizes how deeply mysterious Oak Island is and validates Regina’s suspicion that their answers are in the swamp.

Marty Lagina asks about the possibility of tunneling outside the Money Pit region, and Gary responds that he believes it is possible, especially since the discovery of the pickaxe near the eye of the swamp required the sharpening of tunneling equipment.

“Well, I tell you what, it looks like to me,” he says. “See how it curves up? Yeah, when you have a warden boat, they put little runners on that that were used long to sure. It’s like the keel of a boat.”

They also touch on finding an iron chisel on the property originally owned by Daniel McGinnis, one of the three people who discovered The Money Pit in 1795, which was significant in their ongoing research of the island. They also talk about their discovery of a building that was constructed sometime near 1741 and suggest that there are more hidden features on the island.

The idea that there are more secrets under their feet only gets stronger as the meeting continues. They recall the findings of old pottery, parchment, book binding, and human bones dating to the 17th century and the potential of them being on a historical site.

The team also believes they have discovered the original Money Pit but fear that the vault containing the fabled treasure may have eroded over time.

To test how likely this possibility is, Marty decides to run a test by dropping a Canadian coin into a 6-inch wide borehole, hoping that if they discover it in a future dig, they will be able to track how much it has drifted over time.

To their surprise, the Lagina brothers find the coin while reviewing the treasure from the nearby RF-1 shaft. This means the coin has traveled 10 feet underground by the solution route. This means that the treasure has likely moved deeper underground and also several feet away from its original location.

The materials shift horizontally and vertically, which is likely why the treasure has yet to be found. Finding the treasure could cost them tens of millions of dollars and years of hard work to recover. They come up with various plans, from a concrete shaft surrounding the Money Pit to a frozen ring method of various 200-ft-deep boreholes in a marriage circle and freezing it with chemicals. However extreme these plans sound, it would be silly to underestimate the Oak Island crew’s dedication.

Hard evidence that the tunnel is not an interpretation—it’s real. You get a little bit of chills now.

“We need to understand that over the past decade, they have proven that they are determined to learn the truth about Oak Island and have consistently worked to find the hidden treasure that has never been claimed.”