The Curse Of Oak Island RAISING THE STAKES 13×16 NO CAP RECAP #moneypit #swamp #lot8 #history

Hello everybody. Video here for you today. This is the no cap recap. The curse of Oak Island season 13 episode 16 called Raising the Stakes. Originally aired March 3rd, 2026. If you missed any of my recaps of previous episodes, there’s a link to my Oak Island playlist in the upper right. Let’s get into it.
Previously on the curse of Oak Island, people have been looking for an incredible treasure for at least 231 years.
The first quesan of the year was started in last week’s episode, but unfortunately the back fill from previous drilling was packed too tightly to push the can past 25 ft with the equipment of choice this year.
Fortunately though, the previous method of syncing quesons and oscillator is on the island because someone was thinking ahead to be prepared for just such a contingency.
So they will be able to continue that first case on named top pocket finds or TPF1 in honor of Gary and Catcha Drayton because of their knack for finding things. They will have to wait another two days though because adapter pieces being transported to the island are delayed.
In the war room, Rick, Marty, Craig, and Scott decide to use the idle time to put a case on in another location a bit northwest of TPF1 that is not backfilled in the same manner. is the bore hole called H.5-8.5 that earlier in season 13 saw the recovery of a piece of drill pipe thought to be from the Truro Company’s 1849 efforts which reportedly pulled up this 1300’s Portuguese silver coin related to the Knights Templar offshoot Knights of Christ. The coin was presented to the team in the season 13 premiere episode by the Truro Company’s Foreman’s descendant.
Rick says maybe it’s Karma and the delay happened so they would move to the correct location. And Scott says maybe the new quesan should be named that. And they do call it Karma 1.
As representatives from SP Canada and Rock Equipment reposition their equipment for the Karma One dig in the money pit area, Craig Tom and other members of the team continue tracing the cobblestone path in the swamp.
The excavator drops the newest spoils which includes another eight-sided stake which they have repeatedly found lining the cobble path. Surveyor Steve Guptal, who has been meticulously plotting the locations of the cobble and the stakes, is texted to join the group there.
In the next bucket of spoils, Gary gets a metal detector hit that he thinks is a token with a design on it.
Craig takes it to Emma in the lab.
Next morning in the money pit area, the augur is drilling the Karma One location. Once the augur is filled with spoils as shown here, it is removed from the queson and spins nearby to dump them.
Once it gets to target depth in the solution channel, the augur will be replaced with a dig bucket for recovery efforts.
Meanwhile, it’s boulder raising day on lot 8. The feature has not been documented by any other searcher group, so it may not have even been touched by anyone since the original builders.
It has evenly spaced small rock supporting it above a cavity that has been backfilled.
The boulder weighs 40,000 lbs and it is thought that there could be a mine shaft and/or tunnel under it.
A road had to be built for the 130 ton crane that will lift a boulder and a few trees were also removed.
The boulder is removed without incident.
Lar says there was no sterile subs soil and that organics were introduced somehow and not naturally. 100% confirming that the boulder was moved there by human intervention.
He also agrees with Craig’s assessment that it looks like a drilled hole and says he thinks there was a coordinated effort by a well organized large group of people. Gary does not get any metal detector hits.
The team thinks that something of interest will be found much deeper.
In the lab, Emma and Leard have researched Gary’s find from the swamp.
Lar shares a new word he learned that day, exonia, which refers to nongover issued metals or tokens, me- ds.
He says it’s one of the first commemorative pieces made in the United States.
On one side is George Washington.
On the other side is aerary urn. It is a medal from 1800 that commemorates the death of George Washington on December 14th, 1799.
As a reminder, the original money pitch shaft was reportedly discovered in 1795.
Leonard explains that the hole at the top was on purpose so that could be worn like a necklace specifically made for a service for the former president held on February 22nd, 1800.
Washington was a Mason and the medal was created by another Mason, Jacob Perkins as a special Masonic tribute. Marty says it’s extraordinary if you found it in Boston. It’s really extraordinary to find it on Oak Island. Lar says the owner would likely be someone of high status. Narrator Robert Clotworthy reminds us that at least one Freemason has been involved with almost every search effort on Oak Island. In addition to several Masons presenting information and theories on the show, the Lagginina Group’s masons are historian Charles Barkhouse and diver Tony Samson.
Many Masonic symbols have been found on Oak Island, including the eye of the swamp, perhaps representing the allseeing eye, which masons used in the United States currency.
In 2018, historian and researchers court and Bruce Lindal presented a theory that Louie Alexander Roshvik, a last name that’s on the Zena Halpern map, may have told his friends Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson about Oak Island and that treasure on it could finance the Revolutionary War and establish the new country.
After the meeting, Marty showed Bruce this Northern Shore carving that is thought to be the Appeal to Heaven symbol. Commissioned by then General George Washington in 1775.
It adorned battle flags throughout the 13 colonies showing support for independence from Great Britain.
Doug suggests that they research Oak Island lot owners from the time period to see if there were any revolution sympathizers among them.
On lot eight, Dr. Spooner arrives with a handheld spectrometer to perform an XRF scan of the soil. He found lead in a previous soil sample that he took back to his lab. His on-site scan reveals some silver as well.
Two days later, there’s a war room meeting with members of the team and archo astronomy expert, Professor Adrianiano Gaspani.
Professor Gaspani previously conducted a peer-reviewed study of the Nolan’s Cross boulder placement matching alignments of stars. The year that they match perfectly was 1200, suggesting that’s when those boulders were placed and that likely group to have done that would have been the Knights Templar.
The team has sent Gaspani Steve’s detailed survey locations of the eight-sided stakes so he could research star alignments on those as well.
He says he was able to measure the orientation with very high precision within less than a tenth of one degree.
The northern stakes are in two group blue and red. The blue ones are aligned with the setting of DANB which is the main star in the constellation Signis which also aligned with Nolan’s cross.
DB aligns with the topmost boulder known as cone A. The stakes are further indication of a European presence on Oak Island in the 1200s. And again, that presence would most likely be the Knights Templar.
Tom says that the Nolan’s Cross stem goes through the bog and that they would be crazy not to search those three boulders.
Rick agrees, saying that he thinks that within the cross construction, there are clues that will be incredibly instrumental in solving the mystery of Oak Island.
Next time on an allnew The Curse of Oak Island episode airing March 10th, 2026, season 13, episode 17 called The Missing Links. Armed with new information about the elusive stakes in the swamp, the team redoubles their search efforts with thrilling results.
And on March 17th, season 13, episode 18, called Breaking the Seal, after raising the 40,000lb boulder from lot 8, the team is astonished to find a man-made feature that may be hiding a shaft or tunnel.
Recaps of all the air shows from every season are in my Oak Island playlist. I will be recapping new episodes as they air from now through May 2026.
That playlist is linked at the end of this video on screen now or very soon.
I’ll also be putting out retro recaps of Secret of Skinwalker Ranch seasons 2 through 4. Seasons 1, five, six, and the first six episodes of season 2 are already done and are in the Skinwalker Ranch playlist. Thanks so much for watching. Please subscribe, like and comment.