This week on The Curse of Oak Island, the team started drilling a third 10-foot wide steel caisson shaft at the Money Pit on the site of the old Dunfield excavation.
The guys believe that Robert Dunfield came close to retrieving the treasure in 1965 but that he couldn’t dig deep enough; the Oak Island team is now planning to fix that.
First off, there was disappointment at the Money Pit, which, unfortunately, is something we’re all getting used to. Shaft number two, otherwise known as Early Christmas 1 (EC1), was brought to an abrupt end after the hammer grab began hitting hard rock. There was no early Christmas this year, as the guys called a halt to drilling.
That’s two shafts down and only two more to go. The team reconvened in the War Room to determine where to put the third shaft, and they opted for the site of the previously drilled borehole F4, which is very close to the C1 cluster.
This new site is a bit of a no-brainer; the F4 borehole revealed the highest concentration of gold and silver in the water samples taken last year, which suggests a large deposit of precious metal is down there.
New Money Pit shaft will follow the Dunfield excavation
This new position is right over the deepest site of the Dunfield excavation. From 1965 to 1966, Robert Dunfield made a gargantuan effort to retrieve the treasure by digging a massive hole at the Money Pit that was 100 feet wide and 140 feet deep, but sadly, it ended in failure.
Dunfield had been aiming for a depth of approximately 150 feet, but he suffered from constant cave-ins, floodings, and bad weather, meaning he abandoned the project at 140 feet. The Laginas suspect that he just wasn’t deep enough and that with their modern technology, they can do a better job. Let’s hope so.
Team needs to move fast as winter is coming to Oak Island
The team will need to move fast. The guys were already muffled up wearing heavy coats, meaning that winter and the end of the season will be coming soon. The first two shafts were opened to much fanfare, but the third, not so much. The team clearly just wanted to get on with it.
The new shaft was named DH82 after veteran Oak Island treasure hunter Dan Henskee; on learning the news, he quipped, “so you can blame me if it all goes wrong?”
The early signs for DH82 looked promising. The drill team encountered little resistance and reached 75 feet very quickly. And towards the end of the episode, the hammer grab started pulling out large timbers. This wood appeared old and looked to have been cut using old-fashioned tools.
Unfortunately, there was no more time on last night’s episode, so fingers crossed they start hitting the good stuff next week.
The Curse of Oak Island airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on History.