This week, The Curse of Oak Island was the season 7 finale, and the boys took the opportunity to take stock of what they have achieved up to this point.
The whole team gathered around the table in the War Room with a collection of artifacts discovered over the past seven seasons and debated what to do next.
The episode had begun with continued digging at Borehole RF1 with one last push of the giant oscillator drill in the hope of revealing the Chappell Vault. Alas, a lack of good finds and an increasingly dangerous dig site, led Rick Lagina to utter, “terminate the hole.”
And that was it. No more digging, at least until next Spring. So it was time to say a fond farewell to Vanessa Lucido and the ROC Drilling Equipment company.
The Fellowship of the Dig gathered in the War Room
In the War Room, the team sat around the table with an impressive number of finds from over the years, some dating back to the 1200s.
Marty and Gary told the guys of their recent discovery of a coin that Marty had dropped down borehole H8 two years ago. At the time, the team suspected they’d found the Money Pit but that the treasure had drifted away.
Marty dropped the coin down the hole as an experiment to see how far it would drift. The idea was it would prove that the treasure moves around underground.
The coin, discovered this week, had drifted at least 10 feet from where Marty dropped it. Marty pointed out that this proves metal (and treasure) can move around underground in horizontal as well as vertical directions.
And it can move quite a distance in a short time.
This fact could mean treasure buried on the island could have been dispersed over a wider area than was previously thought.
Geologist Terry Matthieson pointed out that Marty’s coin reveals strong water currents flow beneath the island, which means “the Money Pit area is nothing like it would have been” at the time any potential treasure was buried there.
Marty Lagina, the man who holds many of the purse strings, told the guys if we want to continue digging the Money Pit area, it will cost “tens of millions.”
Marty Lagina asks ‘is there treasure on Oak Island?’
Bearing that in mind, he asked the guys a very straightforward question: “Does the Fellowship still think that there is still something here to find?”
Doug Crowell pipes up immediately, “yes, definitely” and is followed quickly by Charles Barkhouse, “Yep.”
“Everybody?” asks Marty to a succession of nods and shouts of “yes” and “absolutely.”
Charles said, “there’s treasure here; you just haven’t found it.”
David Blankenship, “there’s something here; we just haven’t looked in the right spot.” Tom Nolan said, “how do you put a price on something that might change history?”
Archaeologist Laird Niven said he’s not sure about there being any treasure, but “something happened here, and it’s worth pursuing.”
Marty pressed Dan Henskee into an answer as to whether he thought there was any treasure to find.
He finally said, “even just to get together is worth it, even if we don’t find the treasure,” and the guys all nodded in agreement.
Gary Drayton said, “I’m not leaving.”
Even Billy Gerhardt, the quiet man in the digger, piped up, “if you don’t do it, I’m coming down weekends to finish it.”
There you have it, folks, the Fellowship of the Dig never lays down and never gives up. Fingers crossed, they’ll be back digging soon.
The Curse of Oak Island airs Tuesday nights at 9/8c on History.
I think Marty Lagina is smart and knows the sunk cost fallacy. Yeah, all his team wants to keep going, but he is the one paying for it. They now know the treasure might have moved (if it exists) so it might be anywhere. That is very bad news and they really tried to brush over that for the viewers. I am betting they will announce no more drilling every year. They probably will try to get history and other to fund one big dig in a couple years that will be a special or something.
If I was betting, I think the show as it is is done other than if they can get the money for that big dig.
Enough already. They milked that cow dry already. All that junk they found could probably be found anywhere else on old homesteads. Old picks and things like that were probably scavenged by the old farmers a 100 years ago. Nobody cares anymore.
Hello to the Fellowship of the Dig.
I have become a dedicated fan over the past three years and find the chronology of the finds especially interesting. My name is Darwin Bright and I am not an engineer or even an educated man but I am a patented inventor and I have a tendency to think outside the box. There is one thing that has bothered me since I first watched the shows. I have developed a theory that encompasses all of the evidence and is simply based upon watching the show. From the appearance of Vikings in Labrador to the present day I think there is a reasonable narrative that fits the evidence and it hinges on a single question. I find it unlikely that after centuries of attempting to protect whatever, if anything, is still buried on the island, the discovery of the money pit doesn’t fit. I think anyone with the engineering skill to construct the flood tunnels would not leave such an obvious clue as a depression in the ground with a pulley hanging in the tree above it. I am a contractor handyman and even I know that disturbed soil will settle if not compacted and the pulley is almost too convenient. Is it possible that the money pit is the King Solomon style diversion, and the real spot with answers is the man made swamp. The presence of the clay mine and the 200 ft. anomaly might be connected. A layer of clay in the bottom of the swamp could be waterproofing for an entrance to a tunnel system and the real “vault” is on the other side of the island and was constructed by Templar depositors when the paved area was built. The strongholds of the Tempar all had subterranean works.
The only people to prosper lived on the other end of the island, the hard rock mining tools were found on the other side, and the swamp is the one spot that could have access to either of the original islands. The slipway dating is consistent with French involvement but not the dates of the paved area. If I were considering spending tens of millions of dollars, I think I would spend the first money on completely exposing the secrets of the swamp. Is it possible that the money pit is designed to encourage digging there ? If I were hiding a great treasure, I think I would put it in a dry vault where I would not have to protect it from salt water. I would not leave a stone marker encouraging digging another forty feet unless I wanted to trip the booby trap. I believe enough treasure was left in the money pit to distract investigation and convince everyone to keep trying but Marty’s Toonie proves there is a large area of fluid environment. If I were the original depositors, why would I create a scenario where I had to do a major engineering dig to retrieve it ? The longer it takes to get access, the greater the chance someone might notice. I believe, “the worthy” with the knowledge could gain access quickly. Why would I create a security mechanism that had the potential to harm the treasure if it malfunctioned ?.I wonder if the knowledge of the real vault was passed down through the leadership of the evolving Templar societies, and the story encompasses the construction of a vault, use of the island as a cache for pirates and others, and these activities are woven together by a succession of an enlightened few individuals over the generations.
Good luck with the dig, and if you are interested in my theory I would be glad to provide the story for your consideration. Sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight.
Thanks for the great entertainment and all the best to everyone involved.
Darwin G. Bright
the treasure was found, stones removed from the gold and melted down to be sold,gold cross is all that’s left