This week on The Curse of Oak Island, the team continued unearthing the new stone roadway located in the swamp, which they hope leads to the treasure.
Not only do they hope the roadway leads to the Money Pit, but they also expect that in excavating the structure, they’ll uncover lots of ancient lost treasures that were left behind.
They also found two iron spikes, two stunning old artifacts from the 1700s that appeared almost identical but were located on different parts of the island.
But this week, the guys were mostly busy excavating the mystifying stone structure they’ve discovered in the swamp. The team is becoming increasingly convinced that it’s a roadway, which they hope was used to transport treasure from a wharf at the swamp to the Money Pit.
As usual, the guys enlisted the expertise of Billy Gerhardt to help excavate the feature out of the swampy mud, and it does look like it might be heading in the direction of Lot 15, which is where the team recently uncovered an old pine tar kiln and also where there might be a tunnel entrance.
Roadway is a brand new discovery where no one has dug before
The guys are particularly intrigued with this find as it’s a brand new discovery; there is no record of the roadway in any of the previous searcher records. Therefore Gary Drayton was understandably eager to take his metal detector where no one has gone before.
And it didn’t take Gary long to unearth something. He found another old coin, which he guessed was from the late 17th century or the early 18th.
It’s not the first time the guys have found coins in the swamp area; fingers crossed it won’t be the last.
Meanwhile, a few of the guys were working on the ongoing project of sifting through the dirt and debris from the deep drilling done last season while searching for the Money Pit.
At the time, they hit a large quantity of wood that was dated back to the early 1700s, meaning it was pre searcher era. And they are still finding artifacts amongst the debris.
The team find old spikes from the 1700s
This week team member Michael John uncovered an old rose head spike, which the guys thought might have been used in constructing tunnels in the early 1700s, i.e., depositor tunnels.
At approximately the same time, Gary was at the recently discovered Serpent Mound with his metal detector, and in an extraordinary coincidence, he unearthed a similar spike.
Both of the spikes were sent off to Dr. Christa Brousseau for analysis, and she confirmed that they were from before 1790 and that it was highly likely they were made by the same blacksmith!
This piqued historian Doug Crowell‘s interest, as he pointed out, it shows a connection between the Money Pit and the Serpent’s Mound. The dates indicate that the spikes and the Mound feature were likely used by people depositing treasure.
Marty Lagina wondered if the Serpent’s Mound was the result of spoils left behind from an already raided Money Pit. Let’s hope not, or if it is, then let’s hope they left some treasure behind.
Either way, perhaps it’s time the guys excavated the mound more thoroughly.
The Curse of Oak Island airs at 9/8c on History.