OAK ISLAND

  OAK ISLAND

In 1795 some boys playing on a island in Mahone Bay Nova Scotia, discovered beneath a lone standing oak tree with a large branch over hanging a depression in the ground some accounts say there was a block and tackle, ( pulley) Some just say that the bark was worn out on the branch that was obviously used to run a rope over the branch to lift something heavy but what?

The depression in the earth was caused from back filled earth settling. They dug into the depressed earth for two feet and encountered man made seal of laid stones not natural stones. They removed them and 10 feet down there was a platform, they kept on progressing every ten feet they encounter a oak platform, they descended 30 feet.

They brought this to adult attention, every one assumed and they still do that their must be something very valuable at the bottom.

By 1802 there were 30 investors involved in its recovery. They formed a company called ONSLOW. They dug down to 93 feet with a platform of oak every 10 feet. Then the tunnel began to flood. For every 2 buckets of earth they removed 1 bucket of water.

This flooding of the pit defeated their efforts and every effort made for the last 200 years. In 1849 the Truro company was formed to try their luck at it. When flooding occurred and they couldn't stop it they changed their methods and used an pod auger that coal miners use. They used five insertions before they encountered something.

The auger went through a 5in oak platform, at the 98 foot level, then 12 inches and encountered another 4in oak obstruction then through 22in of metal in pieces, but the auger was only able to capture 3 links resembling a ancient watch chain. It then went through 8in of oak which was thought to be the bottom of the box. And also the top of another box. In other words two boxes sitting one on top of the other. Then 22 in of metal just as before. Then four inches of oak and 6in of spruce. Then into clay for 7 feet with out hitting anything.

For their effort they didn't recover any treasure, only the three links of chain. There was general agreement that the Auger drilled through 2 oak chests which were filled with metal pieces hopefully coins.

It was clear that treasure wouldn't be recovered until the flooding could be solved, which was not possible in 1849.

The Oak Island Assoc was formed in 1861. Its purpose was to make excavations on Oak Island looking for treasure. Steam powered pumps had just been invented. They started excavating the tunnel again with the help of the powerful pumps. They made it to the 105 foot level just out of reach of the treasure chests then the entire shaft started collapsing downwards.

It seemed that the entire bottom was collapsing and the treasure chest with it.

Other treasure companies sought to take over where they left off over the years without success. With the original shaft ruined they sunk other shafts next to it and tried to keep the water down by pumping it out of these other shafts. Then digging horizontal shafts over to the original at levels where the treasure might be intercepted.

In 1897 another treasure organization with yet another drill probe started to probe again and with a probe drill encountered the same two chests. They had fallen to the 150-160 foot level. It was at this level that a scrap of parchment was recovered.

The writing on it looked like “iv” perhaps “ui” in a fancy script. 11 feet lower at the 171 foot level the probe drill encountered another plate. Which seemed to be a true floor.

In 1909 a new investor became interested, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and bought shares in the “ Old Gold Salvage and Wrecking Co”. Although this company also failed FDR maintained a life long interest. Other attempts also failed by others.

In 1969 the Triton Alliance Ltd was formed and is still the lessor of the “ MONEY PIT” as its been dubbed something like $2,000,000. has been invested in it.

They had the wood samples recovered by the probe drill carbon dated. All of the oak samples dated between 1550 and 1600 A.D. Which works for the pirate era. However the spruce was a different matter. Two spruce planks were recovered from the pit, sample #1 was dated to 860 A.D. Sample #2 was dated to 1135A.D.

The treasure seekers have now continued to the 200 foot level with an interesting discovery. The pit ended in a deep and natural cavern.

TV cameras lowered showed it to be a natural formation. Some of the photo's show part of a chest and also a part of a human corpse. Of course these are murky photo's before today’s carbon fiber HD resolution one thing is definitely true;

The money pit is at least in part a natural. It is a Lime sink hole leading up from a cavern deep below the island. The cavern and sinkhole were probably formed by tidal action and from surface water draining down through a fissure which expanded over the years. This is a natural geological feature. There are other similar sinkholes on the Nova Scotia mainland. The money pit is a natural geological system nobody built it.

There are reports of pirate treasure being found in some of the sinkholes on the mainland.

It appears that originally the bottom of the sinkhole was sealed over the cavern with a iron plate. Then with earth then oak log platforms were added in successive layers probably in the late 1500's to make a more secure floor to hide pirate treasure in.

It will probably never be recovered what ever was in the pit has now fallen through into the deep cavern. But what ever was going on in the 1500's wasn't the first attempt to use the pit. Long before the pirate era, only they used spruce to reinforce their floors. This happened between 850 and 1135. Who could that have been and why?

Is it possible that they used spruce because their wasn't any oak on the island? Did they plant the oak acorns on the island to make it identifiable. Acorns don't float. The only way they could have gotten to the island is by someone planting them. Could these people be associated with the castle on the hill? The spruce carbon dates to the time of the structural methods with the squared flat stones that are fitted together beneath the rubble stone. When the pirates arrived several hundred years later the island was over grown with oak and that was the natural wood to be used. Somebody was busy working in the pit 5 centuries before the era of the pirates.

There is a path on the island that is now a tourist trap, but the interesting thing is the path is made out of rubble stone. Could this old rubble stone path be the top of an ancient wall that surrounded the money pit ? Could there at one time have been a fortress here?

There were also trails of rubble stone that branched off of the main trail, which were in better condition because the tourists were staying on the main path.

In the early 1800 there was a colonial survey performed of the whole Nova Scotia area. The walls of the castle on the hill and the ones on Oak Island were present on the survey. They then divided the island up into very strange sections. It seems that the sections on Oak island were following the walls as boundaries for the property sections. The Gold rRver lays exactly 2 miles and a little to the right of the north shore of Oak Island. 17 miles up the Gold River lays the castle on the hill with the exact same walls.

It takes 200-250 years for a oak to mature. There probably weren't any or very many oaks on the island 500 years prior to the era of the pirates that's why they used spruce logs. But could who was here around the 1000A.D. Have planted the Oaks and they would have been on their second generation by the time of the era of the pirates in the late 1500's?

According to the owners of the property of the castle at the Cross her relatives the Stuart dynasty came here to pan for gold which was laying all over the bed of the gold river. Could they also have been involved in the Money Pit perhaps as a cache for gold they were getting out of the river?

So many questions so few answers!