The Curse of Oak Island: SILVER DISCOVERED as the Hunt Continues (Season 9)

So here we go guys, yep
we’ve been doing a lot of preparing and
I’m ready to get on the island. Yes,
I’m looking forward to getting out there
and finding some bobby dazzlers and top
pocket finds and silver’s my second
favorite thing and I’ve got a silver
dance.

You got a silver dance? Oh, I am!
A new year of searching for a legendary
treasure is about to begin on Oak Island.
But for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,
their partner Craig Tester, and their
team,

Here we are.
That’s a heck of a saw, isn’t it?
They are starting out with an assurance
that no one before them has had since
this mystery began back in 1795.

I mean, how can we all not be excited
about the evidence of silver last year? I
think it’s fantastic. Yep,
I think it’s very exciting.

What depth are you going at? 183? 183, okay.
Just before the team ended their search
operations last year, good geoscientist
Dr. Ian Spooner conducted water sampling
tests in a number of previously drilled
boreholes across the money pit area.

We’ll keep that sample.
We’ll keep that for sure. Okay.
The results were astonishing.
There is every reason to believe down in
those holes that there is a very large
amount of silver.

Is it a handful of silver, or is it a
Gearhart dump truck load of silver?
It’s a Gearhart dump truck. Oh baby.

[Laughter]
I think this year is going to be really
really significant. My hopes are high,
that’s for sure.

It was a phenomenally successful year
last year. I mean, how can you not get
enthused about traces of silver found in
the money pit?

Looks like everybody’s inside already.
Okay, let’s head on in. Let’s go.
Last year, for instance, we found all
kinds of things, dramatic things, and this
is the first year we’ve had direct
indications of precious metals. And by
that, I mean we have silver, silver
dissolved in the water.
That screams of treasure.

Hey guys, hey guys, how you doing?
Welcome back! We’re glad to be back.
Fellowship of the dig. I think we’re
closer than ever to
furthering our understanding of what may
have happened here.

The goal, the focus, the hope, the
commitment was always to solve the mystery
and
that has never changed. Friendly faces
all around the table now. The family has
grown.

This is my Everest. I want to climb it. I
want to find the answers. Doug, if you
could get everybody on the screen up and
we’ll see if we can’t get this
meeting started.

Hey everybody. Hey, hello!

Due to important business back in Traverse City, Michigan,
Marty Lagina and his son Alex must wait
before they can travel to Nova Scotia
and join the team in person.

I think the best way to begin this is to turn it
over to Ian. Sure. The bottom line is no
matter how you cut it, there’s silver
there.
It’s in wells in the money pit area and
it’s not a little silver to create an
anomaly in groundwater. It’s
it’s a fair bit of silver, a dump truck
load.

The question was where do we go
with those results so that we can
focus our efforts?

And so we identified a lab
that can take a look not only at our
water samples from the perspective of
silver, but they can take a look at our
water samples from the perspective of
gold.

Alright.
There you go.

I thought gold wasn’t detectable low in
water.
Apparently, it is. Okay. And so this is
something new. It’s a lab in Queens,
Ontario,
and they specialize in looking at
groundwater in exploration for gold
mines. Great.

And so I’m pretty excited.
Rick, I want to look for this gold as
soon as possible.
We’ve been looking for gold for 10 years
now and now we hear that maybe we can
detect it in the water. Let’s see. I think
everybody’s on board with that. Yeah, so we’ll
get going on that as soon as possible.
And we’re just going to need everybody’s
help deciding where to sample
in order to pinpoint the exact location
of precious metals buried deep in the
money pit.

Dr. Spooner will take water samples from
over 30 boreholes throughout the area,
strategically chosen based on last
year’s findings.

Then, using cutting-edge mineral analysis,
the team will be able to identify not
only the areas with the highest
concentration of silver, but also any
presence of gold.

This is not just about chasing the gold
and silver, it’s about chasing where the
gold and silver is, and the only way I
think to do that is testing further
water samples from this area where these
trace elements are coming up.

That’s great. But Rick, we’re all excited
about this silver in the water and eager
to see if there’s gold, but
what about putting down big cans? Yes, we
have reached out to Irving for a quote,
and the quote is for a 10-foot can, right?

Once the upcoming water tests are
completed, the Laginas and their team
will drill up to 20 new six-inch
boreholes in the areas that reveal any
evidence of silver and hopefully gold.

Based on those findings, they will
conduct their biggest and most expensive
dig to date by excavating a series of 10
foot wide steel case shafts to depths of
as much as 200 feet.

The caisson size came down the simple
math:
a 10-foot can
over an 8-foot can represents 40 percent
more material to search through.
That’s why we’re doing this. We want to
find something.

I think we should run back to the swamp.
Who would have thought, you know, we’d
find a stone road, right? Yeah, this is
crazy.

God, look at that.
That looks exactly like an old Roman
road. It’s possible.

Last year, the team
uncovered a massive stone road or
possible ship’s wharf in the
southeastern corner of the swamp. This is
really cool. It’s impressive. This is
mondo cool.

Further investigation revealed a
separate cobblestone pathway
extending up the swamp’s eastern border
and continuing on to an as-yet
undetermined destination on the island.

It was along this stone path that the
team also found pieces of 15th-century
keg barrels,
iron ring bolts possibly utilized as
part of a pulley system, and a trade
weight—an ancient tool typically used
for the measurement of gold and silver
coins.

But who built these features, when, and
for what purpose remain burning
questions for Rick, Marty, and the team.

The sole purpose of everything
associated with the stone path is to
find out where it goes. It may go to the
money pit. If you’re offloading something
from a ship, you’re going to need a stone
path or a road to carry something inland.
So we need to follow that path.

I’m interested in going back to the
stone path.

I think Miriam has kept the trouble
she loaned me, yeah.
Well, we’ll give you a travel. Don’t worry.
Okie dokie.

So that leads us to something that is
will be very impactful this year. So,
can you give us some background about
CCH’s renewed interest and what the
permitting process will be? Yeah, you know,
where we currently sit.

Yeah, so this year, um, obviously we have a
lot of stricter regulations. The
Department of Community Culture and
Heritage, who oversees archaeology Nova
Scotia,
they’ve suddenly set up and taken notice.
They want more control over
any search for past human activities.

So within the archaeological exploration,
we’re not going to be able to operate
the way we did in previous years. In
previous years, the island was divided
into two parts: the western drumlin, which
we needed regular archaeological permits
for, and then the eastern drumlin,
where the vast majority of which we
needed no permits at all.

The Department of Community Culture and
Heritage decided to rescind all of that,
except for that small area around the money pit,
and require permits for
any work done,
and to monitor the excavation work.

So they want more formal tests and
excavated by hand and screen
everything just like we would on a
normal archaeological site. Okay.

When we first started on this quest that
Oak Island, with the original treasure
trove license that we had,
there was very little
extra permission we needed. There has
been a gradually increasing level of
scrutiny, oversight, and regulations since
that time. And I think it’s because of
our efforts. We’ve proven that this place
has some real historical value.

The unintended consequence is we got
more regulation,
but it’s kind of a pat on the back
really.

The powers that be have basically
blessed it now by saying, “Hey, this is for
real. This matters.” Well, that’s great. We
made them care. We made them care. Yeah.

I don’t think at this point you see it
as restrictive or prohibitive.
In fact, what they’ve said, I believe, is
“We’ll work with you.” Yes, it’s all good
news for me, mate. Exactly. Okay.

It sounds like we’re all on the same
team,
and we can do this properly. Well said.

Yeah.

So,
let’s get to work. To the questions.
Thanks, everybody.