Great news to report for die-hard fans of The Curse of Oak Island, filming for Season 7 of the hit show has begun!
Huge amounts of equipment have been seen arriving on the island as the 2019 treasure-hunting season gets under way, with work already having started in the Money Pit area and at several other locations including the swamp.
Fans who have been visiting the island on tours have posted pictures online showing the team on location — including Rick Lagina, Gary Drayton, Craig Tester, Dave Blankenship and Charles Barkhouse.
The Curse of Oak Island fan Natalie Rousselle, from New Brunswick, visited the island on June 9 with her husband Bernard for the second year in a row.
She said: “I’m not as avid a watcher as my husband, but the tour was very detailed and kept me intrigued the whole time.
“Charles Barkhouse was giving the tour — I could listen to him for hours. When we got back I spotted Rick, Gary and Craig Tester. I went and shook Gary’s hand, and he is as friendly as seems on the show. The whole experience was awesome!”
As she has in years past, local resident Karen Publicover, who lives next to the island, has also updated fans on her Oak Island From the Other Side of the Causeway Facebook page on some of the comings and goings.
In a recent post she wrote, “There are literally hundreds of flags peppering the money pit area, Isaacs Point, both sides of the cofferdam…they are everywhere! If they are for seismic testing they will be at it for months and every square foot will be tested!”
She also showed a parade of trucks arriving across the island’s causeway carrying large amounts of equipment, as well as a crane operating at the Oak Island swamp.
This is exciting news for viewers who watched as the Season 6 finale earlier this year revealed the results of prior seismic testing in the swamp, indicating that the remains of an ancient ship could lie underneath it.
The late Fred Nolan firmly believed that the swamp was man-made, possibly to hide a ship. During the Season 6 finale it was theorized that coring through the mysterious swamp object might be the way to go as a means of determining what it is, and it appeared that the team may have already begun to do so last year.
This year’s tours on the island come after the Friends of Oak Island society was hit by a ticketing scam earlier this year, in which tickets for tours were sold to fans from a fake webpage by someone organizers said they had “known and trusted for many years”. A man has since been arrested in connection with the incident.
However, fans including Natalie Rousselle have told how the society dealt incredibly well with the problem — making sure all fans, including those who inadvertently bought fake tickets, were still able to attend tours.
She said: “The tour was a very good experience and very organized. They explained to us that they are taking the scam very seriously and they are working with officials to get to the bottom of it.”
Another fan, Danny Boudreau, told Monsters and Critics he had also unwittingly bought tour tickets through the scam site, but that the society had dealt with the issue seamlessly.
He said: “In May I saw a communication on Facebook regarding the scam and followed their instructions. Within a week I received confirmation that I was on the roster for my booking date. I am very thankful that the scam tickets are being honored, and am looking forward to our visit to the island!”
What happens next on Oak Island? We’ll have regular updates for you as the summer rolls on!
The Curse of Oak Island Season 7 is expected to return in the fall.