The Curse Of Oak Island TESTING THEIR METAL 13×13 NO CAP RECAP #moneypit #lot8 #swamp #history

Hello everybody. Video here for today.
Sorry about the delay. My car’s transmission stopped working in the aftermath of the biggest snowstorm here in Ohio in the last 10 years at least.
It’s also the only time I can remember that it’s colder here, 4° F, on Oak Island, 12° F.
in the very early hours of January 28th.
This is the no cap recap of Curse of Oak Island season 13, episode 13, called Testing Their Metal. Originally aired January 27th, 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.
you. Previously on the curse of Oak Island, people have been looking for an incredible treasure for at least 231 years.
The episode opens on lot 8 at the boulder structure. Marty says that it looks like the booby trap in the Indiana Jones movies.
Dr. Spooner says the archaeological team has found a trench that goes under the boulder.
and they have cleared all of these rocks that were filling it. Marty, perhaps due to having spent a lot of time in Canada, asked Fiona, “You dug all that out?” Fiona says, “Yes,” and tells that it was a huge effort for someone to put all those rocks in the trench.
She goes on to say that the soil stains on these two big rocks indicate that they have been sitting in the soil for a long time, possibly before the discovery of the money pit. Marty later says that the Lahade boulder is the thing they weren’t anticipating and that there is no mention of it in any searcher records. So, it’s the Lagginina group’s find. He wants to lift the boulder right now, but understands that Lear and the archaeologists want to do more hand excavating first.
In the money pit area, the new bore hole is pretty close to the toot1 quesan left in place likely for ground stability without having to backfill it. I don’t recall them giving that explanation on the show, but it does make sense.
The new bore hole is 8.5-9 and while still within the solution channel boundaries is some 50 feet away from the recent bore holes drilled in the peacock formation near the garden shaft.
The location change was due to the previous find of high trace evidence of silver and gold over 200 ft deep in that solution channel. 2 feet away from the new bore hole. The team found a piece of a drill rod augur that Emma dated to the mid 1850s.
Possibly the 1849 operation in which James Piplatto was foreman and reportedly pulled this 1300 silver coin off the drill augur. He kept it, left his job immediately and planned his own search operation. His then ex employer retained the rights to the money pit area, however, so that never happened. The story was partially known, but not what he found.
A piplato descendant presented the coin and more details in the season 13 premiere of The Curse of Oak Island, and there should be a link to my recap of that season premiere episode in the upper right.
The core sample from 210 to 218 feet or the one right after that has soil that sets the metal detection pinpointer off.
Charles and Terry take the core sample to a table that doesn’t have any metal in it. And as has happened many times on the island, including in the swamp near the eye, after the soil and/or water is disturbed, there is no signal. Possible explanation. one metal detection expert gave the team was that there are enough metal particles clumped together to cause the original hit, but then the disturbance breaks them apart, not leaving enough clumped together to be picked up by the detector.
Charles texts Katchcha to join them with her better equipment. She gets a hit with her full-size detector and also her pinpointer as shown here. At this moment, there is constant beeping.
Katcha says there has to be metal in the soil, but due to the small amount, she can’t tell what type it is.
They will take it to the lab to be tested. We are also awaiting core sample testing results from many of the bore holes drilled this season.
Katchcha also gets constant beeping from this wetter section.
Back on lot 8, Marty brings in an excavator to pull those large stones away so that the hand excavation can be done safely.
With that done, Fiona says they want to remove some of the rocks where she is pointing so they can explore the voids between the bigger ones. She is also hoping to determine if they are in situ or placed by humans. Now they can remove more rocks from underneath the boulder as well. Then we’ll put a video camera in there again.
In a northernmost part of the man-made triangle-shaped swamp, the team is following a cobble path in the center of the swamp that is like the one on the eastern side that led to an empty slate and brick vault in season 12. Gary is hoping they will find another and that it’s not empty this time.
At what looks like four feet or so below the top layer of swamp muck, Tom notices this brick.
Gary says that they are testing all the bricks. He says there are brick chips in the sidewall of the trench as well.
Tom finds more of the cobble path. And in this particular area, there are pieces of brick between and under, which he says that means the cobble isn’t there naturally.
Back on lot eight, Fiona has found an original cut into the subs soil under the boulder.
Lar says what they have to look at is whether the builders excavated with the huge boulder in place or if they created a cradle first and then placed the huge boulder.
Craig is sifting spoils and spots this piece of textile.
Lar confirms that the red part would be a dye that they can test to identify. If it’s older, it would have a natural dye.
Greg later says he was thinking that perhaps someone moving the boulder or rocks had the textile piece ripped from an article of clothing and that it was found in the spoils from 18 in below the natural surface.
Lar thinks that it could be important since there have been no other artifacts found other than the possible spike under the boulder.
Larg agrees with Craig’s assertion that the textile would have had to be in place before the rock structure was built.
Right after the commercial, there is rarely given immediate gratification as we are in the lab with Emma and the text time.
She says the CT scan shows the design of the knitting or loops that go inward and outward and says the style is weft knitting. WFT.
It’s interlocking rows of loops. She cannot tell whether it’s handmade or early machine made.
She does a burn test on a small bit of it to reveal the type of fabric.
Peter gets the honor of burning a piece of Oak Island history because it can be crushed after the burn. Emma says it’s wool.
reminds us that very near the boulder, Katcha metal detected a 1300’s lead bag seal that has a sheepkin symbol on it associated with the city of Leeds in England. Leaded’s textile industry goes back to those same 1300s.
And Emma says the die has no 1900’s components.
Back in the money pit area, we move 20 ft southwest from H.5-9 just touching the western border of the head and shaft outline and northeast of the chapel shaft outline to within chapel and touching the solution channel boundary for the new bore hole J.7-7.5.
In this section, from the 166 foot core sample, Charles gets a repeating metal detector hit. In this section, he also detects metal all throughout this core sample from 210 ft. Both samples go to the lab as well.
In the war room, two days later, Dr.
Spooner has a precious metal update for us. Narrator Robert Clotworthy says the core samples were collected over the previous two months. He also says that the X-ray fluoresence or XRF machine can detect metals in soil that are not naturally occurring. As a reminder for me, multiple accredited doctors had already ruled out natural occurring as a source for the high trace evidence in the water under the money pit area.
Dr. Spooner tells the group which borehole and queson samples were tested.
He says that his XRF machine detected significant amounts of silver in I-9.5 and K-9.5.
The letters are the horizontal lines on their grid numbers are vertical.
Steve confirms that K-9.5 is in the deepest area of the solution channel at 217 ft.
Our narrator reminds us that the 1300’s piplotto coin is made of a silver alloy and that it’s possible that very many of them could be in the solution channel.
Going back to season 12, perhaps even earlier, there have been thoughts on the show that all of the drilling and various collapses could have caused any metals once higher to fall down into the solution channel. Marty says it’s enough to contact SP Canada and Rock Equipment, which means that Quesan sinking and recovery will be starting soon.
Next time on an allnew The Curse of Oak Island season 13, episode 14 called The Shining, airing February 3rd.
While investigating under the massive boulder on lot 8, the Lagginas and the team find evidence of a possible second money pit.
Episode 15 is called Swamped, and IMDb says it will air February 10th, but the show may be taken a week off that week because there is something else in that time slot on the History Channel’s TV schedule web page. There’s also no synopsis of that episode available yet.
I would assume it has a lot to do with The Swamp.
Last year on February 18th, 2025, the show did not air due to the premiere of a Thomas Jefferson documentary.
Recaps of all the aired 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 the screen now or very soon. I’ll also be putting out retro recaps of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch. Seasons two through four. Seasons 1, five, six, and the first five episodes of season 2 are already done and are in that Skinwalker Ranch playlist. Thanks so much for watching.
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And also continue to have a very happy new year.
Stay warm.