The Oak Island money pit is an excavation on a small Canadian island off the coast of Nova Scotia that has been the object of attention of treasure hunters since 1795. As the name suggests, their efforts to date have not produced anything of value. The pit has been repeatedly re-filled and re-excavated.
Perhaps the most ridiculous aspect of its continuing history is that, unlike other treasure-hunting locations (such as Cocos Island will cover in a later post), it had no accompanying legend about anyone actually hiding anything there — the motivation of the original diggers was "it looks like something was buried here, let's dig". Later, various authors were inspired by the excavations to put forward retconned theories of their own.
Why no treasure will ever be found?
Oak Island is dotted with natural sinkholes and depressions in the island's surface, surrounded by disturbed soil and sand.
If you were to excavate one of these sinkholes, you'd find fallen trees (preserved as log fragments), as well as natural layers of clay and rock interspersed at various depths.
Eventually, you'd run into the island's many natural subsurface channels and caves (likewise located at various depths) which act as natural conduits for sea water from the bay. That's about it.
However, if you were convinced a priori that some vaguely defined, secret cache of fabulous treasure was buried in one of the island's many sinkholes, any natural explanations could be readily ignored by you.
The disturbed earth and sand on the surface could then be seen as "evidence" that something was buried there after all. The log fragments could be pictured as part of "regularly spaced oak platforms." And ordinary flooding in the natural subsurface channels and caves could be imagined as "booby traps".
Throw in some rumors of mysterious stone plaques and links of gold chain or gold coins, and you've got yourself a tantalizing hook which will continue to sucker believers into investing incredible amounts of time and money into shuffling around the same natural sediment for many years to come.
The Curse of Oak Island
Following the guiding principle that "no 'mystery' is stale enough to leave unexploited", the History Channel decided to make the latest money pit shenanigans into a TV show, The Curse of Oak Island.
The show follows the typical "treat everything as an anomaly"-format pioneered by History Channel shows such as Ancient Aliens and UFO Hunters. The narration pumps the hype up to ridiculous levels sometimes. ("Wood? Buried underground? Could it be part of a treasure chest containing the lost works of William Shakespeare? The treasures of the Knights Templar? The Ark of the Covenant? The Holy Grail?!")
Two brothers now own most of the land on Oak Island, because one of them is obsessed with finding buried treasure there.
In one episode, the brothers decide to explore an old excavation adjacent to the money pit that was dug and lined with metal by previous treasure hunters in an attempt to prevent flooding. The brothers pumped it full of water, theorizing that "artifacts" would likely be flushed out in the process. Sure enough, some bits of rusted metal did inevitably come up, and were promptly pronounced "anomalous" by the brothers.
Later, one of the brothers goes on a boat ride around the island and comes back with the pithy observation that "It looks like a place that could have attracted pirates who buried treasure here".
Back in 1965, Robert Dunfield excavated the entire Money Pit area, digging a hole 100 feet wide and 140 feet deep; when he found nothing and ran out of money, he then filled this hole back up with whatever material was lying around. Despite this, the brothers will regularly pronounce oak timbers and other artifacts found at depths less than 140 feet as evidence of "the original money pit."
Now im not saying i dont believe in the curse of Oak Island, or that the money pit doesnt actually exist, im just saying is that the TV show make it out to be a bigger deal than it is?
Who knows!
what do you think?