As filming continues for Season 12, the action has seriously ramped up for The Curse of Oak Island in the last couple of weeks with the arrival of some heavy-duty equipment.
So, Monsters and Critics is asking what the Fellowship of the Dig plans to do with this equipment. Where’s the big dig happening?
So far, we’ve seen the arrival of pumping equipment, a big crane, a massive new wash plant, sheet piling, and what looks like 20-foot-long caissons. A hammer grab has also been spotted crossing the causeway.
All this points to a massive excavation. The pumping equipment and sheet piling will likely be used to hold back or control flood waters. The wash plant will sort through the spoils of earth, and the caissons will search for the actual treasure.
As previously noted, The Curse of Oak Island producers and cast stay extremely tight-lipped, so we have to rely on information from others.
The primary source of our info comes from Karen Publicover at Oak Island From The Other Side of The Causeway, who posts pics to social media from her property beside the island. Jeff Freeman and his gang of Oak Island enthusiasts at his JFree906 podcast are also super helpful.
So, where will the guys be excavating?
A couple of locations seem most likely. These are the Blob/Baby Blob and Aladdin’s Cave.
Oak Island team needs to dig for treasure at the Baby Blob
The Baby Blob is an area identified by geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner and his colleagues, who claim the water samples in this area contain a higher concentration of precious metals than anywhere else on the island. Crucially, Ian doesn’t believe that the metals are occurring naturally and that treasure may be buried there.
The area lies just a few feet west of the Garden Shaft, about 80 to 120 feet underground. The Baby Blob is a very manageable 20 feet by 20 feet, and it’s high time they dug it up. The team was reluctant to dig there until recently because of the proximity to the Garden Shaft excavation; however, with work on the shaft on hiatus, maybe they decided to crack on with the Baby Blob.
The guys did some exploratory borehole digging in the area last season but got no results. It seems like a no-brainer that it’s time to move in the caissons.
Oak Island team already said they need to put a caisson over Aladdin’s Cave
Another area of interest is a cavern dubbed Aladdin’s Cave by Marty Lagina. It lies about 60 feet southwest of the Garden Shaft and at a depth of roughly 150 feet. Last season, the guys twice sent a camera into the underwater cavern when they spied a possible tunnel-like entry point and a structure.
The team did a sonar map of the cavern, but a sloping floor and a pile of deposits meant they couldn’t see or map the whole area. Ian said there were precious metals in the water samples. He also found trace amounts of wood, which could indicate human activity.
At the time, Marty said it was time to bring in a large caisson, and the team agreed with him.
Of course, the team may be digging at both Aladdin’s Cave and the Baby Blob. Or maybe they’ve found new evidence that’s sent them to another location. We’ll likely have to wait until November to find out for sure.
The Curse of Oak Island Season 12 is expected to return in November 2024 on History.