As The Curse of Oak Island team searched for an offset chamber, Gary Drayton uncovered a mysterious bounty of artifacts indicating high levels of historical activity on the eastern side of the island.
Last night’s episode began with the arrival of the Dumas mining crew, who appeared eager to get to work on excavating and stabilizing the Garden Shaft. Rick Lagina thanked them, wished them luck, and then left them to their work.
Meanwhile, the guys, led by Terry Matheson and Charles Barkhouse, continued drilling in their search for a tunnel connected to the Garden Shaft, and they were not disappointed.
The discovery of part of a wood beam at a shallow depth of 70 feet, led them to believe they’d hit a new tunnel. This is particularly interesting because there is no record in the historical documents of any structures built at this depth.
This discovery instantly fed into Marty Lagina’s theory of a secret offset chamber that he believes the depositors may have constructed at a shallow depth, away from the water and the flood traps, and filled with treasure.
Craig Tester is very quick these days with the Carbon 14 dating, and he had some more good news about the wood they uncovered at 70 feet. The majority of the dating pointed to wood from the 1700s to the mid-1800s, meaning it was very likely researcher tunneling.
The guys will definitely do their best to locate more of the tunnel along with any secret chambers, and once the Dumas mining crew have stabilized the Garden Shaft, they will then be able to perform some horizontal tunneling, which will hopefully help the Fellowship uncover any secret tunnels and chambers.
Scanning unearths mystery structure, which leads to a trove of artifacts
In the meantime, the guys got some results back from the LiDAR scanning done a few weeks ago. Through the use of a drone, the team had the entire island scanned in the hope of creating a map of any previously missed structures or formations.
Geologist Dr. Ian Spooner and surveyor Steve Guptill have already examined some of the data, and they’ve noted a mysterious rectangular shape on Lot 30 on the western side of the island. It’s a massive 100 feet by 150 feet.
Ian points out that it’s too rectangular to be a natural feature, and Gary Drayton points out that it’s quite close to the ancient ship’s wharf discovered on Lot 32.
Resident archaeologist Laird Niven suggested that he and the archaeology team immediately get their trowels out and begin examing what it might be.
A high number of artifacts means there was a lot of historical activity
This discovery led indirectly to Gary and Jack Begley performing some metal detecting on the nearby Lot 32, right by the seashore. And oh my, if they didn’t hit a bonanza of artifacts. So much so that Marty, Rick, and Laird joined them with the digger.
While working in a very small area, they pulled artifact after artifact out of the ground, it must have been approximately ten different items. There were a lot of iron items that they suspected may have been related to a stove or a grate.
But there were also some maritime artifacts, such as lead sheeting, which has been used on ship hulls since ancient Greece. The proximity of these finds to the old ship’s wharf, and the mysterious rectangular structure on Lot 30 led to the guys determining there must be a link.
The Curse of Oak Island airs at 9/8c on History.
Yeah, like finding evidence of ships or a wharf on an island must mean treasure. Ever notice how everything they find… every worthless bit of metal… has to be related to a treasure that doesn’t really exist. Seriously, there is ZERO evidence that anyone ever “deposited” anything on that island, except perhaps for commerce and/or trade for the folks that had been living there since the seventeenth century. Oh, we found a piece of metal! Could it be for a chest? A TREASURE CHEST??!! This is not how archaeology works. This is not how science works. These imbeciles are digging up woodwork from past wasteful endeavors and they’re just making stuff up… like, this has to be a tunnel! Look, it’s wood! As if the Windsor Formation isn’t beneath them, with natural occurring channels and caverns. Their “geologist” should have any licensing he’s acquired revoked forthwith.
If you take this show seriously, you need an education. And not from the History Channel.
Interesting how you completely ignore the indications of gold and silver after having the water analyzed. Some of us think this just might be evidence. Solid evidence that something is down there made of silver and gold.
Hi Peg,
Finding miniscule trace amounts of gold and silver is not an out of the norm finding for that region. Not far from Oak Island, there was once a gold mine. Not buried treasure. Simply natural elements that the show uses for mystery mongering in an intentionally misleading fashion. They are lying to you, each and every episode.