Coordinates: 44°30′46.9″N 64°17′17.9″W Oak Island From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about the Oak Island in Nova Scotia. For other uses, see Oak Island (disambiguation). Oak Island is a 57-hectare (140- Oak Island acre) island in Lunenburg County on the south shore of Nova Scotia, Canada. The tree-covered island is one of about 360 small islands in Mahone Bay and rises to a maximum of 11 metres (36 feet) above sea level. Located 200 metres (660 feet) from shore and connected to the mainland by a modern causeway, the island is privately owned. Oak Island is noted as the location of the so-called Money Pit and the Oak Island, Nova Scotia site of over 200 years of treasure Geography hunting.[1] Repeated excavations have reported layers of apparently Location Nova Scotia, Canada human-made artifacts as deep as Coordinates 44°30′46.9″N 31 metres (102 ft), but ended in 64°17′17.9″W collapsed excavations and flooding. Critics argue that there is no Total islands 1 treasure and that the pit is a Area 57 ha (140 acres) natural phenomenon, likely a Highest elevation 11 m (36 ft) sinkhole.[2] Country Canada Contents Province Nova Scotia Demographics 1 History of the Money Pit Population Unknown 1.1 Early accounts 1.2 Oak Island Association and Old Gold Salvage group 1.3 Gilbert Hedden and William Chappell 1.4 Restall family and Robert Dunfield 1.5 Triton Alliance 1.6 Oak Island Tours Inc. 2 Explanations of origin 2.1 Pirate treasure 2.2 Naval treasure 2.3 Marie Antoinette's jewels 2.4 Shakespeare manuscripts 2.5 Knights Templar treasure 2.6 Freemasonry 2.7 Viking ship 2.8 Decoy 2.9 Natural sinkhole 3 Pit flooding 4 Non-fictional and fictional accounts 5 Television 6 References 7 External links History of the Money Pit Early accounts There are many 19th-century accounts of Oak Island, but some are conflicting or biased.[2] Further, physical evidence from the initial excavations is absent or has been lost. A basic summary of the history of the pit is as follows: In 1795, 18-year-old Daniel McGinnis, after observing lights coming from the island, discovered a circular depression in a Money Pit at Oak Island. clearing on the southeastern end of the island. Adjacent to the clearing was a tree with a tackle block on one of its overhanging branches.[3] McGinnis, with the help of friends John Smith (in early accounts, Samuel Ball) and Anthony Vaughan, excavated the depression and discovered a layer of flagstones a few feet below. On the pit walls there were visible markings from a pick. As they dug down they discovered layers of logs at about every 10 feet (3.0 m). They abandoned the excavation at 30 feet (9.1 m).[3] This initial discovery and excavation was first briefly mentioned in print in the Liverpool Transcript in October 1856. A more complete account followed, again in the Liverpool Transcript by a Justice of the Peace in Chester, Nova Scotia,[3][4] the Novascotian,[5][6] British Colonist,[7] and A History Of Lunenburg County[8] (the last source based on the Liverpool Transcript articles). About eight years after the 1795 dig, according to the original articles and the memories of Vaughan, another company examined what was to become known as the "Money Pit." The Onslow Company sailed 300 nautical miles (560 km) from central Nova Scotia near Truro to Oak Island with the goal of recovering what they believed to be secret treasure. They continued the excavation down to approximately 90 feet (27 m) and found layers of logs or "marks" about every ten feet (3 m) and layers of charcoal, putty and coconut fibre[9] at 40, 50 and 60 feet (12, 15 and 18 m). According to one of the earliest written accounts, at 80–90 feet (24–27 m), they recovered a large stone bearing an inscription of symbols.[4] The pit subsequently flooded up to the 33-foot (10 m) level. Bailing did not reduce the water level, and the excavation was abandoned. Several researchers apparently attempted to decipher the symbols. One translated them as saying: "forty feet below, two million pounds lie buried." The symbols currently associated with the "forty feet down..." translation and seen in many books first appeared in True Tales of Buried Treasure, written by explorer and historian Edward Rowe Snow in 1951. In this book he states he was given this set of symbols by Reverend A.T. Kempton of Cambridge, Massachusetts.[10] Nothing more is known about Kempton's involvement in the Oak Island tale. Investors formed The Truro Company in 1849, which re-excavated the shaft back down to the 86 feet (26 m) level, where it flooded again. They then drilled into the ground below the bottom of the shaft. According to the nineteenth-century account, the drill or "pod auger" passed through a spruce platform at 98 feet (30 m), a 12-inch (300 mm) head space, 22 inches (560 mm) of what was described as "metal in pieces", 8 inches (200 mm) of oak, another 22 inches (560 mm) of metal, 4 inches (100 mm) of oak, another spruce layer, and finally into clay for 7 feet (2.1 m) without striking anything else.[4] Oak Island Association and Old Gold Salvage group The next excavation attempt was made in 1861 by a new company called the Oak Island Association which resulted in the collapse of the bottom of the shaft into either a natural cavern or booby trap underneath. It was later theorized that the imagined chests had fallen into a deep void and that the pit may have been booby-trapped to protect the treasure. The first fatality during excavations occurred when the boiler of a pumping engine burst.[11] (Six people have been killed in accidents during various excavations.) The company gave up when their funds were exhausted in 1864. Further excavations were made in 1866, 1893, 1909, 1931, 1935, 1936, and 1959, none of which were successful. Excavators did however pour red paint into the flooded pit which revealed three separate exit holes around the island. Another fatality occurred on 26 March 1897, when Maynard Kaiser, a worker, fell to his death.[11] Franklin Roosevelt was part of the Old Gold Salvage group of 1909 and kept up with news and developments for most of his life. Gilbert Hedden and William Chappell In 1928, a New York newspaper printed a feature story about the strange history of the island. Gilbert Hedden, operator of a steel fabricating concern, saw the article and was fascinated by the engineering problems involved in recovering the putative treasure. Hedden collected books and articles on the island and made six trips there. He even ventured to England to converse with Harold T. Wilkins, the author Aerial photo of digs and of Captain Kidd and His Skeleton Island, buildings, August 1931. believing he had found a link between Oak Island and a map in Wilkins's book.[12] Hedden purchased the southeast end of the island. He began digging in the summer of 1935, following excavations by William Chappell in 1931. In 1939, he even informed King George VI about developments on Oak Island. The 1931 excavations by William Chappell sank a 163-foot (50 m) shaft 12 × 14 feet to the southwest of what he believed was the site of the 1897 shaft, close to the original pit. At 127 feet (39 m), a number of artifacts, including an axe, an anchor fluke, and a pick were found. The pick has been identified as a Cornish miner's poll pick. By this time, the entire area around the Money Pit was littered with the debris and refuse of numerous prior excavation attempts, so the owner of the pick cannot be identified. Restall family and Robert Dunfield Excavation by the Restall family in the early 1960s ended tragically when four men died after being overcome by fumes in a shaft near the beach. In 1965, Robert Dunfield leased the island and, using a 70-ton digging crane with a clam bucket, dug out the pit area to a depth of 134 feet (41 m) and width of 100 feet (30 m). The removed soil was carefully inspected for artifacts. Transportation of the crane to the island required the construction of a causeway (which still exists) from the western end of the island to Crandall's Point on the mainland two hundred metres away.[11] Triton Alliance Around 1967, Daniel C. Blankenship and David Tobias formed Triton Alliance, Ltd. and purchased most of the island. In 1971, Triton workers excavated a 235-foot shaft supported by a steel caisson to bedrock. According to Blankenship and Tobias, cameras lowered down the shaft into a cave below recorded the possible presence of some chests, human remains, wooden cribbing and tools; however, the images were unclear, and none of these claims has been independently confirmed. The shaft subsequently collapsed, and the excavation was again abandoned. This shaft was later successfully re-dug to 181 feet (55 m), reaching bedrock; work was halted because of lack of funds and the collapse of the partnership.[13] In the January 1965 issue, an account of an excavation of the "Money Pit" appeared in Reader's Digest magazine.[14] Over a decade later, the Money Pit mystery was the subject of an episode of the television series In Search of..., which first aired 18 January 1979, bringing the legend of Oak Island to a wider audience.