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 which 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 a 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, everyone assumed and they still do, that there 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, they also 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 a pod auger. This is
an instrument that coal miners use.
They had five insertions before they
encountered something. The auger went through a 5 inch
oak platform, at the 98 foot level, then another 12 inches and encountered
another 4 inch oak obstruction then through 22 inches of metal.
The auger was only able to capture 3 links
resembling an ancient watch chain. It then went through 8 inches of oak which
was thought to be the bottom of the box.
Than through the top of
another box. In other words two boxes sitting one on top of the other. Then 22
inches of metal just as before. Then four inches of oak and 6 inches of spruce. Then
into clay for 7 feet, without 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 the 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 AD. 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 AD. Sample #2 was dated to
1135 AD.
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 process. 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, someone had used the pit, 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 River 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 1000 AD 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?
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