In this week’s episode of The Curse of Oak Island, we see connections made between finds around the area of the Money Pit and the swamp.
The date of 1680 pops up again. There are indications there was human activity on an industrial scale on the island at that time. The guys now need to figure out what was going on back then.
The guys continue to perplex over the paved stone structure recently uncovered in the swamp. As Rick Lagina says, “the more [they] dig, the more impressive the structure gets.” The question remains, what on earth is its purpose?
“It’s so level,” says Tom Nolan, as they wondered if this might be a paved road in the swamp. Rick began to wonder if the swamp might hold a secret more significant than the Money Pit.
It was time to call in an expert; it was time for Dr. Spooner.
Geoscientist Dr. Spooner got on the case and fairly quickly informed Rick that thanks to the presence of an unnatural piece of wood, the paved area is human-made; it’s a “placed stone platform” he said.
Expert says the paved area is “old, it’s old”
Not wanting to beat around the bush, Rick asked Dr. Spooner straight out, “how old is it, when was this work done?”
Spooner is frustratingly vague, “it’s old, it’s old, it’s old,” he says. He needed to date that piece of wood.
Billy Gerhardt jumped in his digger and continued excavating the swamp area, hoping to uncover more of the paved area as Gary Drayton and Jack Begley went on the hunt for rare and old metals.
They uncovered more unnatural looking rocks that suggest the paved area might be larger than they first thought.
What’s more, Gary and Jack then uncovered what looked like an old iron pickaxe right near the eye of the swamp, a tool that had possibly been used for tunneling.
This begged the question, who’s been tunneling in the swamp area and why? Gary pointed out that there’s always been talk of a back entrance to the Money Pit, of secret tunnels coming from the swamp. Could this be evidence of that?
Wood sample from Money Pitt area is nearly 400 years old
Meanwhile, back in the war room, it was time to hear the results of the carbon testing on the mysterious wood sample uncovered two weeks ago while drilling for core samples at the Money Pit.
Craig Tester calmly read out the results, “it’s from 1626 to 1680.”
Wow, this means they guys have here a lump of wood from the Money Pit area that’s dated to more than a century before the discovery of the fabled treasure shaft. It also means the guys could have pinpointed the location of the treasure vault buried deep below the ground.
The guys now have lots of data to indicate that something big was happening on Oak Island around the end of the 17th Century to the start of the 18th Century.
The year 1680 has been mentioned before by Dr. Spooner as a date when he belives significant human activity on an industrial scale occurred at the swamp.
There you have it. What were our ancestors doing on the island in 1680? “Yeah, that’s the question,” said Marty Lagina.
Things are heating up this season as the guys get closer and closer to uncovering the Money Pit, and the swamp seems to be revealing some of its secrets.