The Legendary Treasure Pit of Oak Island

Oak Island / Photo from birds eye viewer

The 140-acre Oak Island is situated in the Lunenderg County to the south shore of Nova Scotia, Canada. It covers almost 360 small, forested isles scattered in Mahone Bay. One of these privately owned islands has become famous as the mysterious site of the rumored Money Pit and drawn countless excavators who tried to unearth ‘buried treasures’.

The Money Pit was first discovered by Daniel McGinnis in 1795 who encountered the circular sinkhole while wandering in Oak Island as a teenager. This hole had a tree standing over it with its branches clipped in a manner that gave the trunk the appearance of a pulley. The young McGinnis had his mind filled with the tales of pirates hiding treasures in such holes and he fetched his friends to quench his curiosity.

The Money Pit, Oak Island / Photo from oakislandtreasure

Their investigations continued for the following days until they found a layer of flagstones in the pit. They continued to dig down to find oak logs at 10 feet and again at 20-30 feet. They recommenced their search with the Onslow Company 8 years hence. This time they went as deep as 90 feet to find a layer of charcoal between the interspersing layers of wooden boards, putty and coconut fiber. What geared up the mystery was a stone tablet containing strange inscriptions.

The search had to be abandoned after seawater started filling up the 90-feet deep pit and pumping proved futile. Digging a parallel 100-feet hole and cutting a channel to the Money Pit did not help. What the whole exercise revealed was that perhaps the Money Pit was a booby trap leading to a 500-foot waterway to Smith’s Cove. It was believed that this flood trap protected the buried treasure by dissuading adventurers.

This is a replica of the inscribed stone, supposedly discovered on Oak Island in 1804. / Photo from oakislandtreasure

The Truro Company renewed the treasure-digging effort in 1849 only to initially face similar results at 86 feet. It refused to give up and initiated a process of extracting drilling core samples. The drill penetrated a 4-inch oak platform to retrieve a 22-inch layer of metal pieces. The drilling cut up two alternating platforms of wood and metals correspondingly at 4 inches interval, which was named as the first traces of the ‘treasure’.

Mouth of the Money Pit / Photo from oakislandtreasure

In 1850, the Truro Company returned with fresh plans of excavating what was beneath the layer of metal fillings. This time it dug up a parallel hole as the Onslow Company had done before it to face water gushing up. While frantic efforts were being made to pump out the water, someone marked that water was coming out of the Smith’s Cove beach during low tides. This telltale sign revealed that the beach, after all, was artificial.

Oak Island foundation / Photo from oakislandtreasure

Further excavations were carried on this assumption to reveal a network of underground channels joining the beach with the converging point, the Money Pit at a depth of 95 to 110 feet. The stones, eelgrass and coconut husks filling up the channel were meant for creating an indigenous filtering system to allow seawater to flow while keeping the channels free of clay and silt.

George Bates Maritime map set (The Oak Island Mystery) / Photo from The Oak Island Mystery

Hence, an imminent solution for the Truro Company was to block off this seawater-feeding channel by building a dam at the Smith’s Cove beach. The dam was destructed during its construction by a storm but interestingly, the builders discovered the remnant of an older dam. Next, the Company tried to dig another 100-feet hole for blocking the channel underground but without success.

The Oak Island Association took up the excavation of the Money Pit in 1861 but its various shafts-digging efforts led to the sinking of the loose bottom of the Money Pit further down. Other efforts at unearthing the mystery of the Money Pit fell through until Fred Blair arrived in the scene in 1893 with The Oak Island Treasure Company. He explored the cave-in drain connecting the Money Pit and found it to be a possible ventilation shaft for digging the flood tunnel.

Again, in 1897, this company dug more shafts and cleared the Money Pit down to 111 feet with the mouth of the flood channel blocked with stone. They even tried to block the water flow permanently by blasting off the flood channel. This effort failed but a new series of core sample collecting was undertaken. The ensuing result was that the Company bumped against wood and iron pieces at 126 feet and finally a blue clay vault between 130 and 151 feet.

This blue clay layer was composed of sand, clay and water to form a watertight compartment. What was curious was that the gap under these clay putty layers had a solid cement vault measuring 7 feet x 7 feet. This vault was found to contain three soft metal pieces. However, what contributed to the mystery was a small scrap of sheepskin parchment with the words ‘vi’, ‘ui’ or ‘wi’ inscribed on it, the real significance of it was never unraveled.

Following the example of Fred Blair, Gilbert Hadden arrived in Oak Island in 1936 to investigate the mystery of the Money Pit. He found a curious stone fragment with inscriptions similar to those found at the 90-foot stone tablet. He also found a series of wooden timbers at Smith’s Cove that could have been used by the ancient architects of the Money Pit. The next excavator Erwin Hamilton found rocks and gravel at 190 feet that he believed were placed there by someone. A layer of limestone was found at 176 feet with a wooden layer below it.

Bob Dunfield kept up the quest for treasures and used heavy machinery to discover a 40-foot void at the depth of 140 feet, which is presumed to be a natural underground cavern. In 1966, Daniel Blankenship found a hand-wrought nail, a washer and a pair of wrought iron scissors sunk beneath the water. These instruments were said to be Spanish-American and made in Mexico. A mass of wood structures and nails were also discovered at the western end of Oak Island.

Dan Blankenship at work on Oak Island – lowered into Borehole 10X / Photo from oakislandtreasure

More ghastly discoveries surfaced when Triton dug the 180-feet Borehole 10-X, a 237-foot tube of steel sunk to the northeast of the Money Pit. The excavations revealed a series of artificial cavities at 230 feet. A camera was lowered to send back images of human body parts, tools and three chests appearing like treasure boxes. Although the search continues under Blankenship and Triton, the Money Pit is officially closed after its collapse.

Borehole 10X, Oak Island / Photo from oakislandtreasure

Repeatedly frustrated efforts of extracting the treasures have given rise to variant theories about the origin and existence of the Money Pit. Some say that it was a French construction for safeguarding their wealth from the English during the colonization of America. Others relate it to the Viking visitation of America who used it as a hideout. People still fancy the Oak Island as a Treasure Island and associate the Money Pit with pirate booty or the cargo of some stranded Spanish Galleon.