The Lagina Brothers Just Found Something Under A Mile

And ironically, this company was listed as Army Packers, oh so there’s a direct connection with the military. Wow. I haven’t been able to find a great date for the company. We found one entry from 1808 giving their address in London, but I think it’s previous. There’s the famous Oak Island Legend: six people have died, then a seventh has to die from hunting for long-lost treasure, making some interesting discoveries. This is how the Leg Brothers found something under a mile-long structure leading to the treasure. Could there be closer beneath the dense canopy of oil?

The Legina brothers and their brave team tread along the mysterious stone road path, shrouded in legend and lined with mystery, each stone carefully placed by unknown hands centuries ago. Whispers of hidden vaults and untold riches as they delve deep in the island yield its secrets, one by one. Ancient artifacts and cryptic carvings that could unravel the location of the fabled treasure. With every shovel of earth, they unearth more than just dirt; they excavate the very clues that could lead to one of the greatest discoveries of all time.

Oak Island was shrouded in mystery from the beginning, but more so now than before. Marty and Rina and their friends have devoted a significant portion of their lives to uncovering Oak Island’s hidden secrets, seeking to find things that have been hidden for centuries, if not millennia. Those things, whatever they may be, have been a source of fascination for people around the world. The Legina brothers are simply the latest in a long line of treasure hunters searching for a fabled treasure that has been pursued for over two centuries, yet never found—empirical hard evidence.

“I want to find the answers. This island has got to be close to giving up its secrets. That age-old treasure is believed to be in The Money Pit.” The Money Pit is a man-made shaft that consists of logs of various levels, and perhaps even other materials such as coconut fibers. When the treasure hunters would reach the bottom of the pit (which, of course, is debatable as to how deep it actually is), flood tunnels dug by the supposed designer of the traps would flood the shaft with water from the Atlantic Ocean in an attempt to protect the treasure from ever being found.

Despite skepticism, the Leg brothers, who have never relented in their pursuit, came across one of the island’s greatest discoveries by locating a mysterious ship anomaly in the sea just off from The Money Pit, which was later confirmed by archaeologists and experts to be a ship from the early 1700s. With evidence of human activity on the island over the last 400-plus years, the brothers then became determined to find out who and how the island was first discovered.

The Legina brothers have been on a quest for hidden treasure and solving many buried mysteries for more than a decade. Rick and Marty in their youth read a Digest article that told the tale of Oak Island and its unknown Money Pit. From that day on, they were hooked. Their pursuit has led them to make a documentary show showcasing their own search for treasure and uncovering a mile-long structure believed to be the notorious St. Fi labyrinth in 1938.

By the way, he might have had some things on his mind, you know? Still wondering about Oak Island. So, the documentary raises many questions and curiosities. How did the Legers go from reading an article and having a curious interest in Oak Island to actually owning a share of the island and making their own historical discoveries? What is the actual documentary trying to convey? And what are the hypotheses and conclusions from it? What will be the legacy of the Leg brothers’ contribution to Oak Island’s history and its mysterious treasure?

In 2006, archaeologists working in the South Shore Cove area documented what appeared to be a corduroy road running through the swamp area. The term corduroy comes from the similar appearance between these roads and fabrics of the same name. As the road was excavated, it became clear that this was a much older structure. Several logs were lifted, and several other pieces were salvaged. A review indicated that the logs were not pine or spruce, typical of such a road in more modern times. Rather, some of the wood appeared to be quite old and was possibly from the pre-settlement era of Oak Island. Unfortunately, untimely weather that year caused the roads to be rebuilt to protect the logs until they could be salvaged the following year.

Somewhere to unload things, and it was a road that would have taken a lot of work to build. “This is an incredible discovery. I’ve never seen anything like it,” they said. Regrettably, this led to the decay and destruction of much of the wood. These samples, however, had already provided significant insight. It indicated that activity on Oak Island dated back further than originally thought.

At various stages of the Oak Island treasure hunt, traces of pathways or roads have been uncovered. In each case, it was a matter of time before it became clear that these were something other than simply a trail left by later searchers or settlers. The road was traced for hundreds of yards across different areas and elevations of ground, skirting small bonds and passing through wooded areas. The most substantial segment of the road is found in the watershed area between the upland and Smith’s Cove.

At the northern end of the road, there is a swamp and another discovery of a rock-lin pit or tunnel. Future research may change many of the details of this road, and its construction date and who built it may be answered by other findings in the area. But until then, it remains a mystery. This road was first discovered while searching for the original pit. The formation was bare at first, but the upper layer of the road terminus revealed it to be a rock and dirt field road.

The rock paving was largely covered with dirt and peat and showed little signs of wear, absent from depressions made by the feet of those who laid the roadway. This was the case in numerous areas of the roadway terminus where the formation of the actual road became precarious to follow. “I was really excited to find the coconut fiber. I was really surprised to see it there. I couldn’t believe it at first.”

The Legina brothers and their partners did not know what lay several feet beneath their feet on Oak Island, just off the southeast coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. The road was first noticed early in June of 1996. The clearing of tracks of land within the southeastern end of the island unearthed what initially appeared to be a flat formation, later revealed to be an elevated rock formation paved with flat stones. Various methods of determining the presence of a stone road were discussed by the team around this time.

A geophysical survey produced no concrete result, but the idea of the stone road was allowed to take root after geophysicist Mike Hunt identified, in a separate survey of the southeast corner of the swamp, a packed and rolled stone surface almost a meter below the modern land’s surface, in an area well away from any known foundations or cleared land. A brief investigation was conducted in this area, although the possibility that this feature was associated with a known modern feature (a trench dug during the Second World War) was not excluded.

Digging produced a layer of homogeneous clay that contained some artifacts and was at least as deep as the trench, so the possibility remains that this feature is a continuation of the stone road. It was subsequently decided that an area to the north should be investigated by trenching across the line of the road revealed by the Hunt survey. This proved to be successful in that stone rubble was found a half meter below the modern land’s surface. This was in a fairly small area with a relatively high artifact density.

Future work will involve following this up to see if it leads to a structured or another roadline. Work has slowed to a halt for the winter months, but hopefully will continue in the spring of next year. The stone road has been described as a remarkable remnant, and for good reason. It has been found that the road consists of an estimated 60 stones and is somewhat scientifically advanced for its time.

The stones were specially placed to make a flat and wide road, as opposed to other ancient roads, which were very narrow. This feature suggests that the road was meant to be traveled often and possibly by a lot of people or vehicles. It was also built using a systematic method. The bottom layer of the road is made of packed clay and is covered by a consistent layer of stones, cut definitely—not natural—and it’s running right under that big stone “M.” This road was not just a random group of stones collected to form a path; it was planned and carefully laid out. These features lead to the conclusion that the road was meant to be an artery to and from a major destination, possibly The Money Pit or South Shore Cove.

It is generally accepted by the residents of Oak Island and the Legina brothers that the road was meant to connect two points on the island and make travel between the points easier and more useful. A road of this type would not have been built for the purpose of carrying materials from Smith’s Cove to any other area on the island, but it would be a perfect explanation for the unknown shipments that came to the island. Evidently, this road would have been an important part of its time on Oak Island and would have taken a large amount of energy and work to create. This means that we likely know that very prominent activity was taking place on the island while the road was being built and in use.

The discovery of the road sparked off a frenzy of debate about where the road began and where it led. There has been a great deal of speculation about the road’s origin and purpose, partly fueled by the precision and uniformity of its construction. It has been suggested that the road is something similar to that found at Delphi in Greece—a sacred way that led people to the Oracle. This theory was popular among the Legers, who saw the island in its entirety as a possible site for treasure hunters.

The path of the road and its apparent termination at the swamp have led others to hypothesize that the road was a dryway in the marshlands or a causeway, mirroring the modern road that runs between Tread and Grand Ted. The possibility that the road led to an early settlement or across the river to a possible settlement site has also raised the notion that the road was put down by someone not native to the area in an effort to adapt and exploit the local landscape. Others have claimed that the road is evidence of alien visitation to the island. While these speculations are entirely imaginative, they do reflect the sense of wonder that the road has evoked in the minds of those who have observed its construction.

As previous chapters have indicated, the amount of information gathered from the stone road and the scientific work conducted is impressive. The confirmation that the Azores are a possible source for this and other New World activity is very significant in European history. The road’s construction and period of use correlate with documented events and the material remains found, most notably the British coins for New World studies. Specific documentation is rare, so one of the most difficult tasks is confirmation and evidence.

This work has set a new standard for pre-19th century New World research and provided a model by which future archaeology in this context will be measured. It is difficult to pinpoint and justify a single greatest historic or archaeological finding. Each discovery is relevant not for the moment but for the effect it has on future work and understanding.

The unearthing of an ancient Portuguese stone road on Oak Island has shed new light on a small, yet important, aspect of New World history. Perhaps even more than its intrinsic value, the road’s influence on archaeologists, historians, and even the public is immeasurable. Their discoveries to date on the stone road and its various structures have far exceeded our original expectations.

The historical and cultural significance that these remains appear to hold has added an entirely new dimension to our search for the distant ancestors of Polynesia. Though they have uncovered a nearly continuous stretch of road for over 250 meters in a straight alignment, our geophysical studies have shown that it extends much further to the north and southwest and may continue for over a kilometer.

The approximately 1-meter wide stone feature, which has at times been buried between single and multi-tiered construction, appears to have a consistently aligned edge of large basalt slabs that are backfilled with smaller rocks and duff. This now-buried feature reaches its widest point immediately along the water’s edge, where it appears to have been exposed to wave action from high surf events, that now partially submerge chocolate brown sand cliffs and a large portion of its corresponding stone structure.

As the Oak Island team moves into the future with their quest for treasure, the commitment and expectations for what the treasure is and where it is continue to grow. It is, in fact, the anticipation of what lies ahead in their efforts that continues to be a driving force in the search. Without an expectation of success, it is likely the search would not continue.

Through diligent research, the Legina brothers and their group have generated some ideas of what the treasure may be and the evidence that supports it. One theory about the treasure’s identity is that it could be the treasure of the Knights Templar. “We wanted to know what really happened. There’s all kinds of music theories. Certain people say that it’s Knights Templar treasure.”

Historical records show that Templars were known for collecting and hiding treasure, and en route to the days of Friday the 13th, 1377, when the French Templar order was arrested by King Philip, it is said that many fleeing Templar knights took refuge in Scotland, home to the county of New Ross, becoming relatively close to Oak Island. Meanwhile, at the same time of the Templar arrest, a 14th-century political prisoner by the name of Sir Henry Sinclair would become a fugitive himself, an associate of the Templar order, sailing to Nova Scotia to establish what some believe to be evidence of Templar activity in the area in the form of mysterious stone carvings in Westford, Massachusetts, and Newport, Rhode Island, and what is known as Prince Henry’s supposed 1398 voyage to the New World.

And Oak Island’s 14th-century lead cross and parchment documents indicate the work of a similar Templar expedition. The Templar treasure is believed to have been in Scotland, and when facing suppression, it is highly likely that knights and associates of the order made an effort to transport their treasure to a new and safe location. The last known record of the Templars’ grand mass was, in fact, sailing to Scotland in 1296 with a few choice knights and a possible secret cargo.

This theory is consistent with the known digging and attempts to flood the pit and the sudden halt of workings, to the satisfaction of a believed completion, and possibility of a return by its creators—matching the timeline of the late 14th century to early 15th century activities of the Templars and their associates in Nova Scotia. Excavation of the Oak Island site, aided by night and Sinclair descendant Alexander St. Clair, possibly seeking to find the best means of transporting the treasure to Scotland, into a bat stone and its similar defensive construction to that of the Money Pit’s coconut fiber platforms and famous flood tunnels.

Finally, someone else comes in, and they find that the shaft was actually booby-trapped with a flood tunnel to the ocean. Simply adding to this very complex and logical theory by way of research, the Legina group’s discovery of the island’s history and its degree of mysterious and repeated signs of human activity all the way to the days of their first settling attempt, with a coconut husk and the 90-foot stone, are contemporary. Have led them to believe that Oak Island was indeed a place of repeated visits by various groups, including said Templar and Sinclair expeditions.

The already constructed and active efforts in Newfoundland, by filmmaker and writer Rob McKinney, to gather Sinclair history, and the confirmation via academia and propagation of the theory, will contribute great information to the Legina group and the history of the island. This could spark a later chronicling of New Ross and Nova Scotia’s history and a cultural revival due to the Oak Island mystery.

As a result of findings and the discovery of all physical evidence linking to the documented history, and the team’s mission will aid in a complete revision of the Canadian Atlantic province’s pre-British days, with the island as the focal point. This rich history is something of which all Canadian residents, and in particular Nova Scotians, can be proud.

Due to the island’s proximity to the shoreline, all of these discoveries will be possible. The application of this theory and its completion on the treasures of Nova Scotia remain an open question. Excavating and uncovering such a site as the Stone Road is certain to be fraught with difficulties and complexities, as there are so many things that could go wrong.

The most simple and obvious aspect is the sheer scale of the project. The road is 6 kilometers long, and currently, there is only a team of around 20 excavating the site and its surroundings. Already, evidence suggests that the road had to be worked on continuously for around 100 years. If each person using the road worked on it in some form during its duration, then that would equate to around 60,000 people. Clearly, these figures may be extreme, but the point remains—the road was constructed by a very large workforce over a considerable amount of time.

This will be problematic for the team in the future, as the development of mechanized farming and its machinery has resulted in the destruction of many archaeological prospects and sites. Often, it only takes one plow to cut a furrow through a small part of the land for an archaeological site to be damaged beyond repair, and with the proximity of the road to open countryside, it is only a matter of time before the road is lost for good due to the effects of land modernization.