Map by Nickell

The mysterious “money pit” of Oak Island, in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, has stymied treasure hunters for decades. The site was first discovered in 1795 by a local teenager, Daniel McGinnis, who found a ship’s tackle block hanging from a tree branch, overhanging a large depression in the ground. McGinnis and friends John Smith, and Anthony Vaughan dug to 30 feet and temporarily gave up. In 1803, they and the Onslow Company begin excavatiing, hitting layers of timber and clay every 10 feet, until they broke through a clay booby trap at 90 feet and were flooded out, when seawater rushed in from a tunnel to a nearby bay, filling the pit to sea level.

In 1804, the Onslow Company dug a parallel pit to 110 feet. This too flooded when they attempt to tunnel over the Money Pit. Apparently they discovered a flagstone at the 90 foot depth, with an inscription on the stone. James Leitchi, a professor of languages at Dalhousie University, suggested that it was a simple-substitution cipher, which read, “Forty Feet Below Two Million Pounds Are Buried”. But Leitchi was involved in a treasure hunting company trying to sell stocks, and the stone may have been a fraud.

In 1849, the Truro Company started digging. They were able to drill through 2 casks filled with “loose metal”, and claimed to have recovered 3 gold chain links. In 1850, a subterranean waterway and artifical beach were found at Smith’s Cove.

The first life was claimed by Oak Island in 1861, when a man was scalded to death by an exploding boiler. That year, the bottom literally fell out of the so-called money pit, as the items that had been at 100 feet feel farther down to hole thanks to weakening of the pit by several cross tunnels.

In 1893, Fred Blair and The Oak Island Treasure Company begin their investigations, first investigating the causes of the cave-in. In 1897, a triangle rock formation was discovered, and a cement vault and parchment were supposedly found during drilling. A second life was lost that year when Maynard Kaiser fell to his death while being pulled out of the pit. In 1899, a second flood tunnel, The South Shore Tunnel, was discovered.

The “money pit” has been dug and excavated many times - one enthusiastic treasure hunter was a young Franklin Roosevelt, who invested in a 1909 excavation attempt. But even modern engineering has failed to crack the mystery of various staggered layers of logs, clay, ships putty, coconut matting, charcoal and iron. Further booby traps have either opened the pit to sea flooding, or caused it to collapse and kill treasure hunters.

In 1936, a second inscribed stone was supposedly discovered, and more evidence of the original cofferdam found. A further tragedy happened on August 17, 1965, when four treasure seekers drowned in the money pit, overcome by gas, likely carbon monoxide from a generator. In 1971, a new group of treasure hunters lowered a camera into the pit and reportedly captured images of wooden chests and human remains.

So what is at the bottom of the Oak Island mystery? Does it contain Spanish treasure, buried by Captain Kidd, or perhaps the Royal Crown Jewels of France (which went missing in 1791 and were said to have been smuggled to Louisburg), a Masonic “Secret Vault” containing the Holy Grail, the treasures of King Solomon’s temple, Viking or Pirate booty, Inca treasure, payroll for colonial British soldiers, or even the secret writings of Francis Bacon.

A new theory has been suggested recently by researcher Keith Ranville, who believes that nearby Birch Island, owned by Toronto financier Christopher Ondaatje may be part of the mystery. The 16-acre island features a large triangle which takes up a good portion of the landscape.

For more visit http://canadawiki.org/index.php/The_Oak_Island_Mystery

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