On last night’s episode of The Curse of Oak Island, the team uncovered more gold from the spoils from the Money Pit excavation; however, there was also a significant and unexpected setback.
Longtime viewers of the show will be used to a fair few failed digs and crushing disappointments at the Money Pit, and unfortunately, last night, there was a bit more of that. But there was also some cause for hope too.
The Oak Island team has, once again, found some gold in the Money Pit area, which is getting to be a bit of a habit. But first, the team had to endure some disappointment.
It starts to go wrong at the Oak Island Money Pit
The guys had been using a ten-foot steel caisson shaft to dig the TF1 hole at the Money Pit. They thought TF1 was their best bet because earlier in the season, they had recovered metal with traces of gold on it in this area, and samples of underground water had also revealed the presence of gold and silver.
Things seemed to be going well; the hammer grab was pulling up plenty of wood, indicating that there were shafts and tunnels buried underneath. The team began to suspect that they were following in the footsteps of previous excavations; there was evidence they were covering the same ground as digs from 1861 and 1909, which gave the guys hope that they were on the right track.
Finally, when the hammer grab began hitting off something that was too heavy to lift; they wondered if they had settled just above the Chappell Vault. This was at a depth of approximately 150 feet, which the guys thought would be a perfect depth for a treasure vault encased in concrete.
Sadly, the crew soon determined they weren’t hitting up against a vault; instead, it was most likely bedrock, which meant game over. The hole was a dead end.
There was still hope on Oak Island as gold was discovered
But all was not entirely lost as Steve Guptill turned up with a collection of artifacts recovered from the spoils of TF1. He had a fairly large number of metal objects found at a depth between 110 and 130 feet, and Marty Lagina wasted no time in running them through the XRF Machine. Lo and behold, two of the objects contained gold.
Marty can often be quite pessimistic, but he was full of positive energy last night; speaking of the gold pieces, he argued the pieces showed they may be “getting close to the source of the gold.” He explained that the artifacts could be “detritus from a real treasure trove… about a foot away.”
The final task for last night’s episode was to convene a meeting of the Fellowship of the Dig in the War Room to decide what to do next. Oak Island historian Charles Barkhouse had a clear and succinct plan; he believed that the evidence showed they were super close to the shaft collapse of 1861 but that they had dug a little bit too far west.
So, Charles’s solution was simple. They just need to place the next caisson in the ground a little bit further to the east, specifically over a cluster of old boreholes known as the C1 cluster. It was here that they previously uncovered old wood from the 15th century and metal-containing gold.
Don’t forget, if this doesn’t work, they still have two other caisson shafts in reserve. So, still plenty of opportunity for success.
The Curse of Oak Island airs at 9/8c on History.
Why isn’t the team focusing on the twice contacted cement “vault” that has proven it’s worth twice already? If there ts anything truly in the money pit it will be in the vault not loose in the mud and water. ! l bet they have a radar scan of the “vault” already… Dig ‘er up! AB
The History Channel producers and directors already know whether there is any real treasure down there. I mean it’s not like the program is filmed in real time. It is more likely the episodes are filmed months before we see them, and the digging continues on. We just can’t see future episodes until they are shown on the channel. I, for one, am impatient. I want to know already! Is there treasure down there or are they digging dry holes?