Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Tonight on the thrilling season finale

of The Curse of Oak Island...

-MARTY: Here we go. -ALEX: Airlift time.

JACK: Today's the day we find Rick's one thing.

MARC: Let's find some gold.

-Oh, baby. -JACK: Oh, ho!

You can see that it's hollow. It keeps going in there.

And then there's something down at the bottom of that rock.

-JACK: Oh, no way! -It's remarkable.

Ooh! That's a nonferrous hit.

-FIONA: Ha-ha! Look at that! -Ka-ching!

The arsenical copper indicates the medieval times.

Medieval, baby.

(laughter)

NARRATOR: There is an island in the North Atlantic

where people have been looking for

an incredible treasure for more than 200 years.

So far, they have found a stone slab

with strange symbols carved into it,

man-made workings that date to medieval times,

and a lead cross whose origin may be connected

to the Knights Templar.

To date, six men have died

trying to solve the mystery.

And according to legend, one more will have to die

before the treasure can be found.

♪ ♪

-MARTY: Morning. -ALEX: Good morning.

-See we're ready to rock and roll. -SCOTT: Today's the day.

ALEX: Airlift time.

NARRATOR: A year that has been full

of historic discoveries

and revelations on Oak Island

is about to reach its culmination

for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina and their team.

You know, one side of the caisson hit the edge

of the solution channel and we know there was a collapse here.

Oh, for sure, but now we know it goes deeper.

-ALEX: Yep. -JACK: The question is, what collapsed

down into the solution cavity?

-Was it the treasure? -Had to go somewhere, yeah.

NARRATOR: In the fabled Money Pit area,

the team has now installed their sixth and final

seven-foot-diameter steel shaft for the year.

A shaft they have dubbed "the one thing" or "TOT-1."

It has reached some 195 feet underground

and penetrated a massive natural cavity

in the bedrock, known as the solution channel.

A cavity that contains more than 100 tons

of earth and debris that collapsed

into it during one of the team's recent excavations

and which may now also contain

the legendary Money Pit treasure.

RICK: There still could be something down

at the bottom of that caisson.

And they're gonna vacuum it up literally,

and we're gonna look in there

and we're gonna hope we find the one thing.

-Today's the day we find Rick's one thing. -MARTY: Let's go, yeah.

NARRATOR: Now with just a few days remaining

before the onset of winter will force the team to suspend

their search activities until next spring,

representatives from ROC Equipment and SB Canada

will attempt to recover evidence

of the believed valuables from the bottom

of the solution channel using an airlift system.

He's in.

NARRATOR: The process will work by blasting air

at a rate of 300 pounds per square inch

down the TOT-1 shaft and into the solution channel.

This will create a powerful vacuum,

forcing tons of dirt and debris to the surface,

which will be deposited into a massive container.

The spoils will then be carefully searched

for evidence of treasure.

Okay. We're ready.

-And you're ready, it looks like. -Yep.

Let's get the guys lined up here.

-Mickey, you all connected up? -Yeah.

-You good, Denny? -Yeah.

We're gonna fire that pump up.

-RICK: Here we go. -ALEX: It's going.

Rough start.

There you go.

-MARTY: Oh, baby! -There it is, there it is.

ADAM: Lots of muck, buddy.

RICK: The weather's closing in, our time here

on the island is closing.

The expectations are high

that within the TOT-1,

"the one thing" caisson, that

some significant discoveries will be made.

ALEX: It's really sputtering though,

as if there's a lot more material in the caisson

-than we thought. -SCOTT: Yeah.

RICK: We're hoping to find a treasure.

Something that will help us ascertain

the what of this mystery.

What was buried here so long ago?

-That thing's gonna fill up... -Really fast.

RICK: ...really fast.

JACK: Wow!

It's obvious that everything's working beautifully.

We can see massive amounts

of material entering the big tank.

After all these years digging and drilling underground

in the Money Pit,

I'm hoping there's some treasure in there.

Just little update: we're pulling now.

You can hear the chunks and solids coming up now.

-So... -Okay.

-Keep you in the loop. -Okie-doke.

Thank you.

So let's fill that up.

And then develop a proper excavation plan

-for the rest of the day. -Yep.

We all know we can't stand still

because time is running away from us.

SCOTT: Yep.

MARTY: All right, well, this seems

to be working quite well actually.

There's stuff going in the tank.

Maybe there's some good stuff going in the tank.

Maybe the one thing is in the tank.

I'm waiting for the Bravo-Tango, Rick.

-RICK: Exactly. -MARTY: Might be over there.

NARRATOR: While the airlifting operation

continues in the Money Pit area,

nearly half a mile to the west

on Lot 5...

You got a whole crew here.

-Everybody's busy. -ALEX: Hey.

-Digging away. Find anything? -ALEX: Yep.

Well, you guys can tell me.

Laird noticed something at least a little unusual

that I thought you might be interested in.

It's down here.

...Rick and Marty join archaeologist

Laird Niven and other members of the team

to look for more potentially critical clues

in the stone foundation near the shoreline.

Laird was scraping away down here in the wall.

And, Laird, tell them what you observed.

You can see that it's-it's almost hollow.

It's-- it keeps going in there.

And then I noticed something

down at the very bottom of that rock.

Ooh.

It's actually a nail.

NARRATOR: After uncovering this feature in 2022,

Laird and the rest of the team have not only found

evidence that it may have been used as a campsite

by different groups over numerous time periods

prior to the discovery of the Money Pit,

but have also unearthed several stunning artifacts

that suggest it was directly related to the treasure mystery.

These include a mortar-like substance

that matches soil samples

from more than 100 feet deep in the Money Pit area...

...five Roman coins

and a 14th-century lead barter token

which may be connected to the Knights Templar.

And four Venetian trade beads,

along with two ornate buttons that could be related

to the Knights of Malta.

Incredibly, some researchers believe

that the Templars and the Knights of Malta

may have conspired to hide priceless,

religious artifacts,

including the Holy Grail

and the Ark of the Covenant on Oak Island

between the 12th and 17th centuries.

Does it help at all explain what this thing is?

-LAIRD: No. -Mm, fair.

Other than... odd?

Other than odd.

How about if we have Gary go around once more?

LAIRD: Yeah. That's fine.

I mean, he's kind of our first line of offense, right?

-Yeah. -RICK: Okay.

Okie doke, Gary.

-It's all yours. -Let's get going.

RICK: Given all the artifacts that have been found

in this localized of an area with this feature,

it presents the possibility of some real answers.

All right. We'll get stuck in.

RICK: My hope is we can find an artifact that will really

give us a proper framework to understand

the earliest activities

associated with Lot 5.

(metal detector beeping)

Nonferrous.

That's a nonferrous target.

Sounds like a shovel test to me.

Fiona, could you, uh, bring that

talented trowel of yours over here?

We got one that's especially interesting.

Yep. We can do that.

-Is it this one here? -MARTY: Yes.

FIONA: Okay.

Oh, here's something.

But it's actually ceramic.

Got a nice piece of hand-painted pearlware in here.

-GARY: You just got a bit of pottery? -Yeah.

-But that wouldn't have been setting your... -No.

-...metal detector off. -No.

What is the date range on that piece of pottery?

-MARTY: Can I see it? -Yeah, when you start getting

into the hand-painted, now you're looking

at 1770 onwards for that.

GARY: That's still older than the original

story of the discovery of the Money Pit.

We're getting down a little deeper here now.

So I'd be surprised if it's too much deeper.

Nothing surprises me about Lot 5.

Oh, what's this?

Oh, wait.

Ooh!

-There you go, Gary. -Yeah, ka-ching!

GARY: It's a coin! Hey, hey!

-It is. -GARY: Hey!

-There you go, Gary. -Ka-ching!

NARRATOR: Just a few feet outside of the mysterious

rounded foundation on Lot 5...

Wow.

...Gary Drayton and other members

of the Oak Island team have

just made a potentially valuable discovery.

Is it a coin or a button?

FIONA: Well, it doesn't have a shank on the back.

It's pretty flat.

I would suspect it's a coin.

And it's even got a bit of a copper patina to it.

It's very thin.

It doesn't have a lot of heft to it.

So it could be a token as well.

It's a coin or a token, but it was down there.

It was. It was very deep.

NARRATOR: A possible coin or token?

If so, could the team

have found a similar artifact

to the possibly Templar-related barter token

that was unearthed here in 2022?

-That's a... -(laughter)

That's going in my pocket.

Yeah. Yeah, it is.

Oh, that's fantastic.

-LAIRD: So I heard some yelling. -Yeah. Look at this.

-This kind of popped out. -Oh, wow.

-Do you see that copper patina on it? -Oh, yeah, yeah.

Well, that's worth getting back to the lab, obviously.

GARY: I've got a bag here.

That little nice clean one.

That's what we want for this.

This is a productive couple of pits.

Yeah, it has been.

There's a building body of evidence

that there was a relationship

between Lot 5 and the Money Pit

and the mystery in total.

It's hard to refute that.

This find, obviously,

comes at the end of the year

and my hope is that we will come to an understanding

of its relative importance.

You know, it might be the end of the year,

but it's not the end of the interest

in this area, that's for sure.

I mean, that continues to be remarkable.

-Yeah. -And it reaffirms the fact

that this treasure hunt, this mystery, is island-wide.

That is quite remarkable.

And it's never too late to pull up a Hail Mary find.

RICK: Pull up another.

NARRATOR: The following morning...

RICK: How's that one look?

Still likely a good

foot and a half or two feet of stuff in here.

Yeah. There's a lot more in here

than I thought there would be.

NARRATOR: ...Rick Lagina joins operations manager Scott Barlow

and heavy equipment operator Billy Gerhardt

in the Money Pit area.

There's lots there to go through.

Well, the first thing would be

get it out of here, right?

NARRATOR: Now that the airlifting operation

in the TOT-1 shaft has been completed

and the excess water has been drained

from the spoils container,

they are eager to begin searching

through the solid debris and soils for clues

and hopefully evidence of treasure.

Should be a lot of silt in here,

but we could definitely hear the sound

of things tinging off this dividing wall

-when it was shooting in there. -Mm-hmm.

So hopefully one of those things is what we're looking for.

The one thing.

Yeah, the one thing.

Okay, well, let's get it started, right?

Get the vac truck in and see what we've got.

Okay.

RICK: If there's anything in here

that is of metallic nature,

it has been airlifted from more than 200 feet

underground in the Money Pit.

So now it's up to...

us to make sure that the container gets clean

and then it's up to Gary, really, to try to find

any metallic objects.

(truck beeping)

-There's the rig for the job right there. -Yep.

Hi, Marc, I'm Rick. Nice to meet you.

We have some suspicion that there might be something

in this container and that's why you're here.

-Let's get after it. -Let's do it.

NARRATOR: Utilizing a process known as hydro evacuation,

Marc will use an industrial-grade water jet

to break up the sediment and earth

at the bottom of the container

while a powerful suction pump

will draw the liquids and spoils

into a 3,500-gallon tank.

All right, guys, let's find some gold.

RICK: We're about to find out.

MARC: All right, light her up.

Voilà!

NARRATOR: Once the spoils are removed

from the container, they will be

transported to nearby Smith's Cove

where metal detection expert Gary Drayton will scan them

for clues and potential valuables.

It looks like he's making some pretty good progress there now.

He'll be done with that-- what's left in there in short order.

RICK: Look, we all want to find something.

The only way to find something is

to have Gary come in and metal detect.

All right.

Let's get treasure hunting again.

NARRATOR: Later that afternoon...

-GARY: We got a busy day ahead of us. -CRAIG: Yes, we do.

-Quite a mess you made down here, Bill. -Isn't it?

NARRATOR: ...Rick, Craig and Gary Drayton arrive

at Smith's Cove to begin searching the TOT-1 spoils.

Now it's had a chance to dry off.

So we have a little chance for a better visual.

I believe today we're gonna find a diamond

in the rough, right in that pile there.

Okay. You got two guys to shovel.

You get the metal detector.

Billy, if you can scrape that off?

-All right. -Let's get stuck in.

This is great that we're doing this.

We got a chance to metal detect it and use

-the twin optical scanners. -Yeah.

Yep.

RICK: We've got work in front of us.

We recovered a container full of mud,

a tremendous amount of cobbles and, hopefully,

some potential discoveries to be made.

We have to do everything we can

to make certain that we find whatever lies within.

GARY: It'd be nice to find one great find.

CRAIG: Yep.

Hold up, Bill.

What is that?

That was a dowel.

CRAIG: Yeah.

-That's worth keeping. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: A wooden dowel?

Found in the TOT-1 spoils?

Dating back to the 7th century AD,

dowels are wooden fasteners that were used in construction

to lock planks or timbers together.

According to historical records,

all previous treasure hunters

are believed to have used metal fasteners

in the construction of shafts and tunnels

in the Money Pit area.

Is it possible that the team has recovered evidence

of the original Money Pit in the solution channel?

If so, might something of great or even

priceless value also be contained in the TOT-1 spoils?

(metal detector whining)

Got a good signal.

Hey. Looks like I'm just in time.

Something good, Gary?

GARY: Yeah. It sounds good.

MARTY: Let me know if you need to dig.

Yeah. Got to do the honors.

-MARTY: Right there? -GARY: Yep.

Right underneath that pile there.

All right. I'll have a regroup.

And a pinpoint.

See where this is.

-Ooh, ooh! -Wow!

-Something. -GARY: Yeah!

That's nice.

Yeah! That's nice.

It's the end of a pick by the look of it.

-So, it is. -Yep.

NARRATOR: While searching through the spoils

of the TOT-1 shaft,

Rick, Marty and members of the Oak Island team

have just found another potentially important clue.

But it's in great condition.

It's heavy for its size.

-RICK: It's very small. -That's what I like about it.

If you're tunneling you'd need a little pick like that.

-Tunneling, not shafts. -GARY: Yep.

Wouldn't it be ironic if it's a match to that old tool

-that we found in TOT-1? -Yes. Yeah.

NARRATOR: Part of a pickax?

What is that?

It looks like it's part of a tool.

NARRATOR: One week ago, while searching spoils that came

from more than 160 feet deep in the TOT-1 shaft,

Gary and Marty found a fragment of another pickax.

GARY: That could be a really old tool, mate.

MARTY: Yeah.

NARRATOR: One that blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge

believed to have been used for tunneling

and may date as far back as the 16th century.

RICK: I see a little bit of...

striation right here.

NARRATOR: Could this be a similar tool?

If so, was it possibly used by someone

who deposited something of great value in the original Money Pit?

-All right, you want to swing some more? -GARY: Yep.

MARTY: We could be seeing and we're hoping we're seeing

more evidence that something went on

deep in the Money Pit area prior to its discovery in 1795.

I think it's exciting.

Anything in there could be items from the original Money Pit.

I'd like to see some treasure.

Got a good signal.

(metal detector whining)

Right underneath that slab.

Ooh, it'd be nice if it was a bit of treasure there.

(beeping)

Hopefully, it's old.

What have we got here?

Another real old pick?

Yeah. Look. Can you see those lines?

-Yeah, that's hand-forged. -Yeah.

That could be an oldie.

Quite chunky and heavy for its size.

Yeah, this is, this is good.

Yeah.

It's got to be a pick or maybe even a chisel.

MARTY: Could be a chisel.

GARY: That's a sweet find.

Check this out, guys.

RICK: It's a something.

-CRAIG: Good find. -RICK: Yeah, it is.

There's a lot more to go through but we're running out of time

in every sense of the word.

For the moment, for the year.

I think we're gonna have to get the rest of the team to have

a meeting in the war room, talk about what we did,

what we got to do, what our hopes and expectations are.

It's an enormous amount of material.

I wish we had more time to search.

However, we will finish this work

next summer and it's typical Oak Island in terms of making

what could be a significant find at the end of the year.

What it's saying is you just got to keep going.

MARTY: The search has merit.

No real treasure but hints

and indications and intriguing possibilities

that maybe this treasure has fallen

much deeper and it's still there.

So, Gary, if you'll get those to Emma,

we'll get quick analysis going on that.

That'd be great.

All right then, we'll see you guys in the war room.

-See you there. -All right. See you.

NARRATOR: The following afternoon...

MARTY: Hey, guys.

Here we be.

-Wow! -Hey!

(overlapping greetings)

I am always overwhelmed when I walk into this group.

-And today is no exception. -(laughter)

NARRATOR: Rick, Marty and Craig gather for the final time this year

with their fellowship in the Oak Island Museum.

MARTY: I'm a bit humbled and I'm in a bit

of awe of the amount of brainpower and discoveries

as I walk into that room.

You know, there's a bunch of happy faces

and interested people.

And they're our team. They're our team.

RICK: You know, I'll use a Gary Drayton term.

Gobsmacked. I mean,

it's quite remarkable to see

how many people all gathered together

to do one thing.

Solve this mystery.

We owe each and every one of you a huge debt of gratitude.

As I look around, I see a willingness

to come together for the greater good.

And the greater good to me has always been solving

the mystery of Oak Island.

I want to start with something I specifically asked for.

Well, I have in front of me eight things and there are more,

that do not have a question mark.

Items that are without question,

uh, not only pre-1795, but pre-1760.

So, with that, I'll turn it over to a discussion

of Lot 5 and, uh, Laird, you can start over there.

Yeah, the Lot 5, this work this year expanded

to the exterior of the circular feature.

We're finding

the typical artifacts from 1760 to 1820.

But we're finding more hints that there may

have been an earlier presence on that site.

I mean, if you look at the artifacts just recently,

we have another button that was previously thought to be a coin.

And for good reason, the area of the shank is barely visible.

And the metallurgy is suggesting is an early period.

-And you have results on what it is, Emma? -Oh, I do.

(Marty laughs)

All right, so this is the coin,

or what was thought to be a coin.

It is a button.

The body of the button is made of a copper alloy.

But what's really interesting about this,

is what's in the copper

and what's surrounding it, so, first off,

it's a silver gilt.

Uh, so you're seeing that-that composition

of silver throughout, but the copper

has a unique signature of a very,

very high arsenic content.

The arsenical copper indicates the medieval times.

It's coming. Medieval, baby!

MARTY: How about that?

EMMA: Copper was often recycled.

A skilled person made it,

refined the copper and created this alloy.

So, they're recycling medieval copper.

MARTY: So if you had to put a date on it,

most likely pre-1750?

EMMA: Yeah.

So the copper iron alloy indicates 1600s, 1700s.

MARTY: Well, there you go.

NARRATOR: It is another potentially critical moment

for the Oak Island team.

According to the scientific analysis

of archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan,

a button that was found two days ago

near the round feature on Lot 5

was most likely made in the 17th century.

MARTY: That fits

-into your earlier occupation. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: That means it may have been left there

by someone who used the feature

nearly two centuries before the discovery of the Money Pit.

This is also a major find.

-This is the other starburst button. -LAIRD: Yeah.

And you still haven't identified

-the original starburst? -No.

ALEX: The button expert we showed it to

thought it might be Spanish.

GARY: Is that the expert

-in Malta? -Yeah.

NARRATOR: Two weeks ago,

Rick Lagina, his nephew Alex,

and other members of the team traveled to Malta

in order to research the theory

that members of the Knights Templar and the Knights of Malta

made multiple treasure deposits on Oak Island

between the 12th and 17th centuries.

After seeing a number of Templar-related carvings

that have also been found over the years on Oak Island...

DENIS: How are you?

...they met with Maltese historian Denis Darmanin

to have him analyze the so-called starburst button

that was discovered in the rounded feature

on Lot 5 in 2023.

I did come across a similar pattern here.

I would date it to about 1650,

not later than 1675.

That's crazy.

ALEX: One of the carvings we saw

on Gozo looks like sort of

a more primitive version of this new starburst button pattern.

That right there.

NARRATOR: Incredibly,

upon returning from Malta,

Alex was stunned to realize

that another carving he had seen at the citadel of Victoria,

a former stronghold of the Knights of Malta,

where some believe holy treasures of the Knights Templar

were once safeguarded,

was similar to a second ornate button

that had just been unearthed near the rounded feature.

RICK: Lot 5 remains

an enigma and possibly an important enigma.

NARRATOR: Is it possible

that the three potentially 17th-century buttons,

in addition to the 14th-century barter token

that were all found near the rounded feature on Lot 5

offer key evidence that both the Knights Templar

and the Knights of Malta may have been connected

to the Oak Island mystery?

MARTY: What's the path forward

-on Lot 5? -LAIRD: I think

there's more work to be done on the exterior

-of the foundation. -Mm-hmm.

LAIRD: And I think we-we work with Gary

-to do more precise metal detecting. -RICK: And run

-GPR again. -Yeah.

JACK: 'Cause if they were doing

work over on Lot 5, maybe there is a hatch

or a shaft or something right nearby.

MARTY: Without question, a-anything like that

would be worth investigating.

But let's go to that favorite place

for just about everyone here-- the swamp.

Dr. Spooner, you played a very significant role.

Why don't you tee off that discussion from your standpoint.

Yeah, I-I think we've moved, uh...

moved everything forward significantly

in terms of understanding the swamp

and just how sort of vigorous an area of activity it was.

We find structures there... (chuckles) that are enigmatic.

Yeah.

This is really cool.

NARRATOR: After previously discovering structures

in the triangle-shaped swamp

such as the believed 800-year-old paved area

near the center

and the potentially 500-year-old stone road

in the southeast corner...

CRAIG: Seems to be quite a few more rocks,

-at least right in through here. -Yeah.

...this year, the Oak Island team once again discovered

numerous man-made structures throughout the brackish bog.

These include multiple sections of a cobblestone pathway,

which were bordered by wooden survey stakes

that have been dated to as early as the 17th century.

JACK: Whoa!

There's even more big boulders down there.

NARRATOR: Near the northern shoreline,

they uncovered a line of stacked boulders

that appeared to be an artificial seawall.

Doesn't that look like

-a vault to you? -ALEX: Wow.

NARRATOR: But the most compelling find

that may be related to the treasure mystery

was an empty brick and slate vault-like feature

that was also dated back to as early as the 17th century.

STEVE: The swamp has

multiple dates.

It goes back to as far as possibly

in the 1200s AD era.

You go to the northern end of the swamp and that dates

late 1600s right through the late 1700s.

The time period is 1630 to 1750,

and that was what I would call the major construction

and major use of it.

BILLY: To find a vault in the swamp,

along with all the other evidence, to me,

just brings the whole mystery up another notch.

It's irrefutable, uh, in terms of it was worked,

manipulated-- call it what you will--

over an extended period of time.

It was intentional, and it was purposeful.

I don't think we're anywhere near understanding it,

because, all of our efforts,

probably there's maybe 30% done.

And you've said it yourself, Tom--

if there are answers to the Oak Island mystery,

they perhaps lie within the bog.

It was a lot of manpower went into what we're finding.

Okay.

IAN: And this all fits into,

I think, a vision of Oak Island at that time.

When you take Lot 5, the swamp, as a place

for industrial activity. A-Activity that was island-wide.

And the swamp would've been a little bit like

a highway across the island.

And we find stakes there that seem to point

towards basically the western drumlin

and maybe Lot 5.

So, to me, what's super exciting is

maybe the swamp is very, very strongly connected

to Lot 5.

And, of course, if you go from Lot 5,

cross the cobble path, where are you?

But you're on the eastern drumlin,

the Money Pit area.

Yeah. Exactly.

Uh, with that,

I think we can transition

to our favorite spot, the Money Pit.

So let's go there.

And we got two really interesting artifacts.

And I'll turn it over to Emma to describe them.

EMMA: Well,

these two pieces.

So I think we were calling this piece a chisel,

from the Money Pit spoils.

Yeah.

EMMA: And then a pick.

-This giant piece. -MARTY: Yeah.

So I scanned the artifacts, and they are both quite clean irons.

They're actually very similar in composition.

And I would give a date range on the artifacts.

They are at least early to mid-1700s.

Potentially... before that.

How far back?

They could go back to the 1650s.

MARTY: Fantastic.

-...the teamon, baby.

excavated a seven-foot-diameter shaft known as RP-1

some 20 feet southeast of the TOT-1 shaft,

hoping to unearth evidence of treasure

nearly 120 feet belowground.

Unfortunately, no valuables were recovered.

This is the largest diameter pipe stem

we've ever found on the island.

Whoa.

NARRATOR: However,

the team did find a clay pipe stem,

a disposable artifact for its time,

which Laird believes could date back

more than 100 years prior to the discovery of the Money Pit.

Is it possible that the Fellowship of the Dig

has unearthed at least three items that were left behind

by those who buried something of great value on Oak Island?

MARTY: We now have proof

that people were down there way before discovery.

Just that this year lends credence

to all the stories about the Money Pit...

-Yeah. -...and credence to why

we first set foot on this island.

So that would be a smoking hot find.

-(laughter) -MARTY: Yes. Exactly.

Smoking hot find.

We were able to put down

six large canisters in the Money Pit this year, uh, successfully.

Uh, we didn't find treasure, per se.

But I think we found treasure in the sense

of a lot of knowledge that's gonna help us proceed.

-STEVE: Yeah. -ALEX: I went into the year thinking

that there's no possible way

that if there's treasure down there

that we could've missed it

with the 600-some boreholes that we put in the ground--

whatever the number is.

-Yeah. -But when we did the caisson work

and everything started collapsing down

into the solution channel,

that explains why we might have missed it.

And so I think the odds, in my mind,

of there still being something underground in the Money Pit

are a lot higher.

MARTY: Let's talk about this, then.

Because the other big thing we discovered this year,

in my belief, is this business about,

most likely, the solution channel being able to swallow

whole material and at copious quantities.

That was something we suspected.

-Mm-hmm. -But I think it was proven this year.

-Yeah. -So I asked Steve to do something for me.

So, Marty, you asked me to put together a map.

This is a bird's-eye view looking at the Money Pit.

This is what we've done.

MARTY: The exercise was to say, "All right,

"if we know the original Money Pit was here

"and it had treasure in it,

"the reason we haven't found it

is because it collapsed way deep." Okay?

And so I wanted to see if,

statistically, that was possible.

STEVE: At this point, in the Money Pit,

for everything we've ever drilled,

we've done just over 500 boreholes and 27 caissons.

We've really only dug about 20 to 25 boreholes

at the bottom of the solution channel.

-MARTY: And green is the solution channel. -Yes.

So, each one of these yellow depths

hit the bottom of the solution channel.

We have four caissons, really, that hit bedrock.

And the solution channel isn't flat.

You've got 205 feet, 206 feet depth.

Well, there's pockets mere feet away

where it's 215 feet deep, 210 feet.

So if a treasure did collapse into a solution channel,

it potentially could have fallen into one of these pockets.

Sure.

We have more than 80 square feet

of unexplored area in the Money Pit at those depths.

MARTY: The solution channel,

this-this natural cave-like system underground,

may have played a bigger role in hiding this treasure

than we ever thought before.

Yep.

MARTY: It could go down to 230 feet,

easy.

Yeah, it really could.

-Correct. -MARTY: We're zeroing in

on this treasure.

But how are we going to get it?

How are we going to actually find it

and get it to the surface?

JACK: There's something down there.

MARTY: The solution channel,

this natural cave-like system underground,

could go down to 230 feet, easy.

We're zeroing in on this treasure.

But how are we going to get it?

We either have to do a pretty intensive

deep drilling program with a conventional rig,

some sort, sonic rig, something, to test that out.

-Or a big dig in that area. -Yeah.

Given all the information

and all the input from everyone around this table,

your default position has to be a potential big dig.

A system of caissons, one next to the other.

Basically, a honeycomb design.

NARRATOR: For over ten years now,

the Laginas and Craig Tester

have researched excavation methods

to explore a much larger region of the Money Pit area.

One of these is the so-called honeycomb process.

This would involve digging a series

of eight-foot-diameter steel shafts next to one another

down to depths of as much as 230 feet,

allowing the team to thoroughly search the solution channel

for the legendary treasure.

CRAIG: For me,

I want to go deep.

Um, whether we...

drill for it or a, a big dig of some sort,

um, you know, we need to hammer those numbers out.

But, you know, I think we advanced the ball on all fronts.

And I think the team did a great job.

MARTY: To me, I came onto this island,

I was absolutely mercenary.

I was here after treasure.

Rick always was more colored towards, "Hey,

"this is a worthwhile thing. This is historical.

The-the hunt itself is worthwhile."

I've been moving gradually in that direction for a long time.

And I would say this year moved me even farther.

I still want to find a great treasure.

But, you know what,

this is a worthwhile adventure with worthwhile people

doing worthwhile things.

RICK: I asked you at the beginning of the year

to inspire each other,

to do something which is more than each of us individually,

and that is working as a team, working as a unit,

working... together.

Look at the table.

Look around.

You know, as a little boy, I, um...

...I believed in Oak Island-- in the mystery, in the story,

and in the treasure.

And, uh, I believe it now.

But the thing that is really quite compelling for me

is that...

Um...

-Mm. -You can do it.

-Yeah, I know. -(chuckling)

RICK: It has been...

...one of the greatest pleasures...

(crying softly)

...of my life... (shudders)

to not only have shared this

with all of you...

...but with my two nephews

and David, who is not here,

and my brother, of course.

It's been... fantastic.

And without each of you...

...we wouldn't be sitting here the way we are.

And so, for that,

I am exceedingly grateful.

If it wasn't for you,

I don't think any of us would be sitting here right now.

Yeah. I didn't come out here

'cause I believed in the treasure.

I came out here

'cause I believed in doing this with my family,

so...

And look how far he's come.

-Yeah. -(laughter) -RICK: Yeah.

That-that is what is really cool is,

I remember when Marty first came to Oak Island.

You know, he came, and he's brutally honest, you know?

He came here and thought it was a bunch of madness,

-collective madness. -That.

And I think Alex had a little bit of that.

-Yeah. -And-and Peter.

As everybody knows, Peter was like,

-"Okay, I'll come, but..." (chuckles) -Yeah.

RICK: And yet they have been moved...

...by the proof that each and every one of you

have helped provide.

So, thank you.

Thank you.

MARTY: Hey, look,

I've always said this-- and I'm sure of this--

it's impossible to follow a Rick Lagina speech,

so I am not going to even try.

I believe we're done for the year.

-Sound good? -Hear, hear.

-IAN: Sounds good. -Hear, hear. -CRAIG: Thank you.

-Okay. Off we go. -Here we go. -ALEX: Okay.

NARRATOR: The year is ending on Oak Island for Rick, Marty, and their team.

But it saw them discover more evidence than ever before

that profound and perhaps priceless secrets

are hiding deep in the Money Pit area.

Emiliano.

Ciao, buddy.

NARRATOR: So when they return next spring

and conduct the biggest and deepest digs ever attempted,

will the answers to a mystery

that has captivated the world for 230 years

finally be revealed?

MARTY: It was a good year. We put

an X-marks-the-spot... (chuckles) in the Money Pit.

Now we just have to execute,

because we think that the treasure dropped

into the solution channel.

And somebody was deep in the Money Pit

way before the Money Pit was discovered.

Just those two things in a very general sense

make you pretty enthusiastic to keep going.

There's a lot of work left to do.

-Yes. -ALEX: Almost feels like

as much work as we had

when we first showed up here.

Which is amazing.

RICK: I always believed.

I think now the world believes

that something unique happened on this very special place.

I am exceedingly grateful of the opportunity

that this story, this island has given back to me.

But at the end of the day, there really is but one goal.

Let's solve this thing.

This is a really amazing place.

(chuckles): This is an amazing place.

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