The Curse of Oak Island Season 11 premiere returned this week, and the borehole drill team hit instant success by encountering a possible structure that could be an offset chamber or shaft.
Marty Lagina isn’t messing around this season. Right at the start of the episode, Marty declared, “I want to throw every resource we can at it,” to ensure they can solve the mystery and find the treasure.
“We’ll do whatever it takes this year,” he added.
He shared a feeling many viewers have that they are closer than ever. At the end of last season, they reached the bottom of the garden shaft and detected non-ferrous metals just out of their reach.
In the meantime, Dr. Ian Spooner told them there’s buried gold and silver somewhere within a 20-foot diameter around the garden shaft. So, they feel really close.
The Dumas Mining Company will return soon to go deeper below the garden shaft and then push outwards, hopefully toward the treasure.
In the meantime, the borehole drill team, run by geologist Terry Matheson and historian Charles Barkhouse, will keep drilling down, hoping to find something for Dumas to push out to.
Marty Lagina is searching for a secret offset chamber
On last night’s episode, following the failure of the season’s first borehole, Marty strode up and told the drill team exactly where to aim the drill. We told you he isn’t messing about.
Last year, they hit an 8-foot void at a depth of 90 feet in the so-called Baby blob, an area where Ian and his colleague detected a large amount of precious metal in the water. And Marty told them to dig the same area to find it again.
Marty has long suspected that treasure may be hidden in a secret offset chamber to the side of the original Money Pit.
It remains to be seen if Marty is right about the secret offset chamber, but he was undoubtedly right about where to dig. Sure enough, at exactly 97.5 feet, they recovered loose material and wood.
Loose material means there could be a void or a chamber, and the wood suggests there could be a structure.
The guys will now get that wood dated and tested for traces of pressure metals. They are not celebrating yet, but it’s a fantastic start to this year’s drilling.
Oak Island team uncovered more ancient Roman coins
Also, on this week’s Season 11 premiere, the Fellowship of the Dig uncovered perhaps their greatest series of artifacts ever!
The guys found a series of coins buried on Lot 5 that included two of Roman Empire origin, with one being over 2000 years old, making it the oldest coin ever found on Oak Island. Monsters and Critics detailed those findings here.
We’re only one episode into this season, but already, there are a ton of great finds to write about. Long may it continue.
The Curse of Oak Island airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on History.