The Curse of Oak Island - The History Channel
In this week’s episode, “CONCRETE EVIDENCE”, we are first taken to the Golden Egg area where the Oak Island team is now core drilling in a new borehole called FN 15.5. This is 14 feet northeast of the previous borehole EN-13. The team believes there may be a flood tunnel carrying salt water that they possibly encountered when working in the Garden Shaft. The plan is to drill this area and try to find out why there is a “unnaturally high” concentration of precious metals. It seems that Dr. Spooner and Dr. Michel believe it is “unnaturally high” because there has not been another place on the island with such high readings. This doesn’t seem to be a sufficient enough reason to exclude the possibility that these metal readings are naturally occurring which would negate a treasure explanation.
The Curse of Oak Island - The History Channel
We are then taken to the Research Center where the Oak Island team is discussing their next project. It is believed that they should try to dig at Smith’s Cove and try to work off the Restall’s findings. The Restall’s believed there is a convergence point for the finger drains and in a vertical shaft they poured concrete into it to try to stop the water from filling up the Money Pit area. It was unsuccessful, but the team would like to try to finish this work with the hope that it will stop the water flow in the Garden Shaft area as well. It is mentioned that they would need to get permits to dig in the exact same location, which is in a tidal area, and another location just a short distance inland was designated as the new dig site.
The Curse of Oak Island - The History Channel
Then the action shifted to Lot 4 where Metal Detectorist Gary Drayton and Craig Tester are working on Lot 4 where the 10 tons of spoils from the circular depression on Lot 5 reside. Gary gets a hit and discovers what appears to be a button, which is rounded. It has a loop on the back and Gary thought it seemed unusual. He stated it appeared to be from a tunic or garment and perhaps was dated from the late 1600’s to mid 1700’s. Gary continued and had another hit that was non-ferrous. This time an old lead piece was unearthed and Gary speculated it was a coin weight. He said it may have been used by someone higher up in the military, possibly for payroll. He said it was an old style with 4 sides that were sloped, and he estimated it was from the 1700’s.
The Curse of Oak Island - The History Channel
We were then taken to Smith’s Cove where the Oak Island team began work to uncover the convergence point for the finger drains of the alleged flood tunnels leading to the Money Pit area. They are beginning the work of finding the area where concrete was poured in the vertical shaft that led to this convergence point. Their goal is to find the alleged flood tunnel and hypothetically stop the flow of water. This has been tried many times in the past, and the effort was always determined to be futile.
The Curse of Oak Island - The History Channel
The scene shifted to the Lab where the Oak Island team met with Emma Culligan, Archeometallurgist and Archeologist, Laird Niven to discuss two artifacts found by Gary and Craig in the Lot 5 Circular Depression spoils. First, the button that was found was discussed. It was subjected to both a CT Scan and XRF Scan. It consists of copper and an iron alloy, no lead and British in origin. Emma dated this to the 1700’s to 1800’s. Laird mentioned it may have been a gentleman’s button and may have been associated with the British Military. The second piece is lead but Emma believed it is modern because it had high levels of phosphorus. The team discusses that this piece may be a candidate for laser ablation to get more detailed results and offer a more expert opinion of this piece. Although it is this writer’s opinion, Emma’s work is impeccable and reliable and the findings of Dr. Chris MacFarlane, the laser ablation specialist, at times seem to be sensational and driven for television.
The Curse of Oak Island - The History Channel
The action then took us back to the Golden Egg area where the team is core drilling Borehole FN 15.5. Drilling revealed nothing significant in this borehole and then drilling was halted. Another borehole, GN 16 was identified, and the team began drilling, going to a depth of 119 feet. Samples revealed nothing of consequence. The team is finding no hard evidence of any sort of treasure deposit in the Golden Egg area, contrary to the report and guidance by Dr. Spooner and Dr. Michel. There is still 200 square feet of area to explore in the Golden Egg, but the results have been less than positive. The team plans to meet with Dr. Spooner to talk about these issues.
The Curse of Oak Island - The History Channel
The scene shifted back to Smith’s Cove, where the excavation continued to attempt to locate the conversion point for the finger drains. As the team looks over the spoils, cobble is noticed. The cobble seems to be stones that are similar, about the size of a human head. The team believes that this cobble was fill for tunnels in this location. The excavation has reached about 30 feet in depth and the team believes they are very close to the target area.
The Curse of Oak Island - The History Channel
The action then took us to the War Room, where the Oak Island team assembled to talk to Dr. Spooner regarding the situation in the Golden Egg area. The team is concerned because the target area identified by Dr. Spooner and Dr. Michel doesn’t seem to be yielding the results that were anticipated. Dr. Spooner states that new water samples are showing no precious metals in the water. Dr. Spooner goes on to say that he believes a Dispersal Plume has occurred and the metals have been diluted and floated away. He suggests that all drilling stops, let the area settle, then retest. The team agrees with the suggestion, but if there was a treasure cache in the area, it would not simply just float away in the water current underground in this writer’s opinion. Like the “Dump Truck of Silver”, this course of action seems to have come up again with an empty load.
The Curse of Oak Island - The History Channel
The episode concluded back at Smith’s Cove where the Oak Island team continued their work in the area. During excavation, some pieces of wood were discovered in various sizes. It is stated that it isn’t believed that this wood originated no later than the Restall’s operation and was most likely repurposed wood from somewhere else on the Island. As the team continued to work, a piece of concrete was found in the spoils. The team believed it was associated with the Restall’s attempt to pour concrete in a vertical shaft at the conversion point of the finger drains. It is suggested that it will be analyzed by Emma with the XRF scanner. It is then mentioned that this is an important find because it could validate the Restall’s work. It appears that the team is attempting to prove the old story about the Restall’s work is true. It is also reminiscent of the team’s attempt to prove the Knights Templar theories of the late researcher, Zena Halpern. While this is very admirable, it doesn’t seem to be a very effective or timely way to solve the Oak Island Mystery in this writer’s opinion.
COMMENTARY: The attempt to block alleged flood tunnels has been an age-old endeavor during the Oak Island Mystery. Before the age of modern Geology and Engineering, it was hypothesized that flood tunnels were booby traps to protect an alleged treasure buried in the Money Pit area. It was noticed that the rise and fall of water in this area was related to the tide in Smith’s Cove. As time went on, this idea was further explored by experts in their field. Robert Dunfield was a notable geologist and mining engineer in the 1960’s. He conducted a very thorough and exhaustive study of Smith’s Cove and determined that there were no flood tunnels and the issues with water were of natural causes. This did not satisfy the treasure hunters obsessed with finding gold on Oak Island. In 1995, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute’s Report on Oak Island indicated that, “the findings indicate that a subterranean stream, normal water infiltration through the deeper 'sand and boulder' soils, and/or other natural mechanisms have caused the flooding of the Pit and other shafts.” This validated Robert Dunfield’s findings.
The current course of action of trying to substantiate the existence of a flood tunnel system seems to be a complete waste of time and resources. It seems clear that there was something constructed at Smith’s Cove, but certainly it did not involve the Money Pit area. Based on the evidence, it appears this construction may have been part of a Salt works. Salt had taxes attached to it through History and would have been in high demand. Most likely this was a secret operation and never recorded due to illegal activity at its time. The Compendium will have more information in a future investigation into this possibility.
Please follow our weekly episode analyses during the season, along with our Throwback Thursday articles from the original “Compendium/Blockhouse Blog”, and special investigations and features involving Oak Island. Feel free to reach out to us for questions, comments, information and any theories to our email, theoakislandcompendium@gmail.com
Good day from the Compendium!