The Curse of Oak Island: SHAFT 9 DISCOVERED (Season 7) | History

Near the money pit area, members of the
Oak Island team have called Rick Lagina
and Craig Tester to see what they hope
will be one of this year’s most
important discoveries. Thanks to
information supplied to them by veteran
treasure hunter Dan Henske, they have
unearthed what they believe to be an
1863 searcher structure known as Shaft 9.

So where are we? We have one of the
uphill corners. I think I cleared over
there, so it should be further that way. I
would dig all four—oh, why not?
Yeah, we’ll want to measure it, that’s for
sure. You know, well, it’s one way to
corroborate. You know if it really is, not
right. Okay, well, we’re getting in your
way. Yep, yep.

Is that wood stuck?
He’s got a ton of hay. Thomas, stop, stop.
What? He’s just dropped a ton of wood right
here. That looks like it’s part of the
shaft.

This shaft, it should be six by twelve, so
it’ll be interesting to see what the
size turns out to be on this.
You guys want a tape measure? Yep, coming in.
You’re 6 by 12. Measure it. May not be too
far off. Well, feet inside. That is huge.
Now we got the edge of it here.

6 by 12. We got those 1850s accounts
that say that all the open shafts were 6
by 12.

Let’s get digging. Although the team is
encouraged by the fact that the wooden
structure they uncovered appears to
match the historical dimensions of Shaft 9,
they are also understandably wary, as
over the centuries the money pit has
been the site of more than 40 tunneling
operations.

[Music]

Tunnel that goes down to the sluice goes
through that bank right there. Where’s it
going to appear, though, Scott? In that way?
Yeah, yeah, kind of like this.
Look at that. Yeah, there’s water coming
in over in the bank right here, coming
down through. Gonna have to crossbeam
right there.

There it is. The team has finally
unearthed a connection linking the shaft
to the sluice way. This proves they have
successfully discovered Shaft 9.
Not too often to see a tunnel, you know,
a horizontal tunnel like that, right? Yeah,
you know, and then you can see that the beams
cross beams on top of it right now. Yeah,
this year was nice to see, though, because
now we know the tunnel comes back to
this shaft. Well, beyond a doubt, it’s the
one Dan Henske rid of it.

It’s an aha moment in the history of Oak
Island. We’re staring at a shaft that was
done over a century and a half ago.
It’s incredible to stand there and look
at what they accomplished. They
persevered, they were committed, they
wanted answers. We do too, so hopefully
there were will allow us to finally do
what they sought to do: find the money
pit, understand what’s there, and
hopefully retrieve it.

This information is critically important
coming to an understanding of what we may
do here in the money pit in their future.
Best information is physical evidence,
physical—and from there, absolutely have
yeah.

You’ve got to take this data and bring
it back to the research center and
analyze it. Have Steve input it. Let’s go
do that right now, and maybe before the
end of the day, we’ll have an X on the
spot. Okay, sounds good.