Last night, on The Curse of Oak Island, the guys uncovered a new tunnel in the Money Pit that appears to lead straight to the Garden Shaft, heightening expectations that they are on the right track to find the treasure.
Also, there’s a compelling new theory that the Money Pit may have been constructed in 1746 on the secret orders of the King of France, Louis XV.
So far this season, the focus is all on the Garden Shaft and the belief it may hold the key to finding the treasure.
This shaft had previously been dismissed as a searcher shaft from the 19th century; however, the discovery of gold in the water coupled with carbon-14 dating of wood has led the guys to suspect the shaft may actually be much older and may contain the treasure.
As the Dumas mining company works to excavate and secure the shaft, the guys are continuing with the borehole drilling nearby, and they think they’ve found a tunnel leading to the shaft.
Once again, the guys hit wood at just over 100 feet, leading them to run a sonar check. The team sent a sonar detector down a borehole, and it bounced back an image that clearly looked like the outline of a tunnel.
An underground camera allows Oak Island guys to see the Money Pit
The guys decided they needed some visual confirmation, so they next sent a camera down the borehole, and bingo, they instantly had eyes on some wood beams indicating they had definitely hit a tunnel. A turn of the camera revealed what appeared to be a tunnel opening.
And what was most exciting of all, this tunnel seemed to be heading in the direction of the Garden Shaft. This area is completely unexplored, and there is no historical record of any work taking place here.
All this means the guys may have discovered a network of tunnels and chambers built by the original treasure depositors.
Oak Island theorist suspects France’s King Louis XV ordered the Money Pit to be built
In the meantime, Oak Island theorist Corjan Mol was back in the War Room with a compelling new theory about who may have built the Money Pit. Corjan and his colleague Charlotte Wheatley have been researching the French archives, and they’ve encountered some interesting documents regarding the Duc D’Anville’s voyage to Nova Scotia in 1746.
Duc D’Anville led an expedition on behalf of France’s King Louis XV to recover the Canadian territory from the British. While the primary purpose of the expedition failed, there is a theory that they may have buried treasure on Oak Island.
Corjan informed the guys that the archives reveal that King Louis sent two ships to Novas Scotia months before the main expedition with orders that have remained secret. The archives show that both ships had an unusually high number of men and that they spent roughly two months in Mahone Bay, where the island lies.
However, on their return to France, the commander of the two ships refused to reveal what they had been doing for two months in Mahone Bay. Corjan speculates that they were building the Money Pit and that a few months later, Duc D’Anville deposited some treasure in the newly built vault.
The Curse of Oak Island airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on History.