Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...

-SCOTT: Whoa! -TERRY: Wow!

If it's a shaft, it's a very large shaft.

-(detector beeps) -What the heck is that?

-To me, it looks like a chisel. -Wow!

(chuckles): What the hell are these doing on Oak Island?

The composition of the rocks are quite unusual.

Whoa. Au.

-That's gold. -(chuckles)

CHRISTA: The really interesting part of this particular object

is that there are several gold flakes on it.

-Wow. -(chuckles softly)

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.

♪ ♪

It is the start of a new day on Oak Island.

-So, this is it, eh, Laird? -LAIRD: This is it.

This is the scene of the problem.

-Ground zero. -(chuckles): Ground zero.

NARRATOR: But unlike most others during the summer months,

it is one that begins with an unusual absence

of search activity in an area that

brothers Rick and Marty Lagina and their team

believe may be critical to solving a 226-year-old mystery:

the triangle-shaped swamp.

MARTY: Well...

We were working. This is all under permit.

-Mm-hmm. -Um...

Looking to see what's here

-in the southeast corner. -Yeah.

-And I worked in this unit behind us. -MARTY: Mm-hmm.

LAIRD: And we found Mi'kmaq pottery.

-Indigenous stuff. -Indigenous stuff?

-Yes. -Yeah.

LIZ: What you got?

LAIRD: I have a piece of pottery

but I think it's really delicate.

-Okay. -This is definitely Mi'kmaq.

NARRATOR: One week ago,

while investigating a newly unearthed stone feature

in the southeast corner of the swamp,

archaeologist Laird Niven discovered pottery

that was made by Indigenous Mi'kmaq people

between 500 and 2,500 years ago.

Basically, Acadia First Nation got hold of

Community, Culture and Heritage.

NARRATOR: When Laird reported the finds

to the provincial department of Community, Culture and Heritage,

he was given a stunning mandate

to share with the Laginas and their partner, Craig Tester.

The archeologists asked that we stop down.

I.E. you must cease and desist immediately.

NARRATOR: Now, until an assessment of both sites can be made

by representatives of the Indigenous authorities,

the Oak Island team has agreed to cease conducting

any search activity along the eastern border of the swamp,

also known as the buffer zones.

And so, what we're constricted by is,

we call this the center of the circle, the buffer.

-If we go out 120 feet all around... -Mm.

...is-is kind of the no-go zone.

-Yes, exactly. -That's the center?

-LAIRD: Yeah. -MARTY: What is this stone feature?

Well, I think you can guess that there's human-placed rock here.

-It looks like it. Not as clear as that, honestly. -IAN: Yeah. No.

-LAIRD: No. -IAN: But I think it's again some kind of attempt to,

in the interface between land and wetland,

-produce a dry... a dry surface. -A platform of some sort?

Platform or possibly even a continuation of a...

To me, this looks like the pav-- the original paved area.

-IAN: Yeah. -RICK: Quite irregular. -MARTY: Me, too.

This was an incredibly active area.

The stone road tells us that.

NARRATOR: Of the sites affected by the new restrictions,

perhaps the one that is the most critical

to Rick and Marty's investigation is

the mysterious stone road-- or possible ship's wharf--

first uncovered last year

in the southeast corner of the swamp.

This is one right here, too.

GARY: I think we found a barrel here.

NARRATOR: It was here, over the past three weeks,

that the team recovered not only evidence

of a possible shipping operation,

including parts of cargo barrels and tools

used to construct wooden sailing vessels...

That right there could be an outlet that heads

-towards the Money Pit. -Yeah.

...but also a new stone feature

which according to surveyor Steve Guptill

may be part of a pathway

heading directly toward the Money Pit.

I'm not surprised to find evidence

of the Mi'kmaq, uh, on Oak Island.

But the stones are really puzzling to me.

I think we can discount the Mi'kmaq from doing it.

We have no record of them doing anything like that.

However, we're not digging in there

until we get clearance

from the Mi'kmaq Rights Initiative

and Community, Culture and Heritage.

Okay, well, we're gonna do what's right.

We're gonna continue to do what's right.

But we have to look after our own rights, too.

-Yeah. -So, this has, this has thrown

a major complication into things, from my standpoint.

Don't you agree?

-Well, it certainly hampers the search. -Yeah.

Especially when you're turning up all these...

things that were relevant to us.

We're starting to find some amazing things

in the southeast corner of the swamp.

And all of a sudden, now it's all shut down.

We want to follow the law. We will follow the law.

Being shut down in an area that hasn't yet

revealed all its secrets is frustrating.

RICK: Because there are certain areas now that are off limits,

I think we have to refocus and readjust

and maybe look in areas that previously we dismissed.

We'll just keep moving forward.

There-There's no obstacle that cannot be overcome.

Okay, well, we'll deal with it.

-All right. -All right.

-Let's get after it. -LAIRD: Yeah.

NARRATOR: While Rick and Marty finish the meeting at the swamp...

TERRY: Okay. Here we go. This is D-1.

...less than a quarter mile to the east, on Lot 18...

More coming in.

What do you got?

-85. -85?

...geologist Terry Matheson and project manager Scott Barlow

continue supervising the team's efforts to find

what people have been looking for since 1795--

the fabled Money Pit treasure vault.

-Is it fairly dense? -No. I've seen tighter.

We're getting some of those little marker horizons.

NARRATOR: Today, they are drilling a new six-inch-wide borehole

known as D-1.

A borehole located in an area

that has been dubbed the C-1 cluster.

It is here, near the four-foot-wide C-1 shaft,

that the team has recently found not only evidence

of man-made tunnels at a depth of nearly 90 feet

but also-- through water-sample testing--

traces of both silver and gold.

Pretty Mother Nature-ish.

NARRATOR: As Terry, Scott and the team continue

retrieving core samples at ten-foot intervals,

if they obtain more compelling evidence

of possible treasure,

Rick, Marty and their partner Craig Tester intend to dig

a number of ten-foot-wide

steel-cased shafts across the area

in order to retrieve it.

TERRY: D-1, still no tunnels.

Our next run still has the potential to hit,

you know, uh, some wood from a tunnel.

We chased that tunnel right across the north side of C-1.

-Yep. -And, I mean, this is, this is our depth where we brought up

the iron that contains gold.

That's right. We're five feet away from D2.

CHARLES: There's something in here.

CRAIG: Oh, there's a piece of flat metal.

CHARLES: Yeah, looks like it.

NARRATOR: Two weeks ago,

while drilling in nearby borehole D2,

the team not only recovered a piece of metal

from a depth of some 88 feet

that contained a significant amount of gold...

...but also wood that was carbon-dated

to as early as 1488.

How deep did you get, Adam?

-99. -99? Okay.

More to come. 89 to 99.

NARRATOR: Based on these discoveries,

the team is hopeful that they may be close to

not only pinpointing the original Money Pit

but also the fabled treasure vault.

-What is that? That's 89. -89 feet.

Just caught the edge of something, it looks like.

SCOTT: Whoa!

TERRY: Interesting all the sudden. Wow.

SCOTT: We weren't expecting that.

-That's more than one beam. -Yep.

Just by the initial looks, I would say shaft.

TERRY: It's a shaft or a tunnel, for sure.

We've hit a lot of tunnels in and around the 90-foot mark.

NARRATOR: A possible tunnel?

Or a shaft some 90 feet deep in the area

where the team also recently found evidence

of silver and gold?

Has the team once again encountered an ancient tunnel

that might be leading to the original Money Pit?

Or could it be the Money Pit itself?

If it's a shaft, okay, it's a very large shaft.

If it's a tunnel,

it matches very well with our tunnel intersections

-at 90 feet in the C-1 cluster. -Yeah.

TERRY: Let's, uh, give Rick a call.

SCOTT: Let's do it.

NARRATOR: In the Money Pit area...

(whirring)

Hey, Rick. How're you doing?

-Hey, how are you, Rick? -Hi, guys.

So, you came just at the right time.

-Good. -This hole just got very interesting.

Yeah, I can see that.

...Rick Lagina has just arrived after being alerted

by geologist Terry Matheson and project manager Scott Barlow

of a large amount of wood discovered at a depth

of some 90 feet in borehole D-1.

TERRY: We're thinking possibly intersection of a tunnel,

but we're leaning shaft.

You're now in an area where we had

very little inclination that there may be something up here.

-Yes. -Now we have empirical evidence

-that there's something in this area. -Yeah.

-So, I think we have to continue. -Yeah.

We certainly have found man-made workings

at the most northerly part of the Money Pit.

So, on that basis alone, it's significantly interesting.

The hope, of course, is that it is original work

and, thus, the implication that we are near

to a depositional target.

We'll see where it goes.

-TERRY: Follow the evidence. -RICK: Yep.

Follow the evidence.

NARRATOR: While the drilling operation

in the Money Pit area continues...

...later that afternoon...

...Scott Barlow joins Oak Island historian

Charles Barkhouse,

and heavy equipment operator Billy Gerhardt on Lot 18

at a location that just may be holding vital clues

that could help solve the Oak Island mystery.

-Hey, Bill. -Hey, Billy. -Hey, guys.

Been a rainy day.

-Washing the excavator, yep. -(chuckles)

You know, as this pad was leveled off,

all the spoils from Dunfield that were still...

I mean, that's what the remains of these piles over here,

this is all Dunfield's spoils.

-CHARLES: Yeah. -Right.

So, you dig this up and have Gary go over it.

We-we may find something.

NARRATOR: In November of 1965,

geologist Robert Dunfield conducted

the largest excavation ever in the Money Pit area

by digging a 100-foot-wide by 140-foot-deep hole

in a failed attempt to find the fabled treasure vault.

Using a 70-ton digging crane

with a massive clamshell bucket,

Dunfield had his team feverishly pile tons of soil

and remnants of old shafts off to the side.

However, he never sorted through them for clues

nor to verify if the large pieces of wooden beams

were from past searchers or from much earlier works

to deposit something of great value.

MARTY: We could find Rick's fabled one thing in these spoil piles.

We could find anything.

NARRATOR: Now, because the team is currently

unable to work in the swamp,

it is Rick, Marty and Craig's hope

that searching through the so-called Dunfield spoils

will lead to the discovery of important clues

and potentially objects of great value.

Hey, Charles.

Joining the effort to scan and search

through the spoils as Billy digs through them

are Craig Tester's stepson Jack Begley

and metal detection expert Gary Drayton.

Billy, you want me over there doing the spoils?

Yeah, I spread it thin all over there.

So I'll let you go over that once,

and then we'll start making some piles.

Okay, mate. Let's find something good.

-Hope so. -JACK: Go get 'er, Gar. -GARY: All right, mate.

I'll be calling you.

We're hoping to find an artifact that is an aha moment.

I don't know what that would be.

It may be some woodwork

shaped by the hand of man

that comes up with a very early date.

(detector beeps)

Hang on, Billy. I might have a signal here.

-CHARLES: Something good, Gary? -(beeping)

-(beeping) -What the heck is that?

What'd you find, Gary?

I think it's a chisel by the look of it.

Here, come show us.

GARY: It's got some heft to it.

Um, to me, it looks like a chisel.

I-I don't believe it's a spike.

Feel how heavy that is.

It's an oldie 'cause it's got some heft to it.

CHARLES: Yeah.

Well, what would you use a chisel like that for?

It's hard to say, Jack, what they were using it for.

Yeah. To me, a chisel like that is for doing the finer work.

CHARLES: I agree with Bill on that. It's not to break rocks.

It's for detail work.

-Yeah. -This is a good candidate

to be depositor-related.

-Maybe. -You know the history

-of the carved stones on Oak Island, mate. -Yes.

NARRATOR: Ever since the Oak Island mystery began 226 years ago,

searchers have found a number of mysterious carved stones

both on the surface and buried deep below ground.

Perhaps the most notable of those

was the legendary 90 Foot Stone,

discovered at that depth in the Money Pit back in 1804.

The greenish-gray slab reportedly had a series

of strange hieroglyphic symbols carved across it,

which were translated to read:

"Forty feet below, two million pounds are buried."

Although the stone has been missing since the early 1900s,

is it possible that the team may have discovered

the tool that was used to carve its cryptic message

in the spoils that were excavated from the Money Pit

more than half a century ago?

Well, we'll definitely get it checked out.

-Yeah, for sure. -I mean, it's not written in stone what it is.

-But it... it looks like... -(chuckles) No pun intended.

-...a hand point chisel to me. -Yeah.

JACK: Good job, Gary.

NARRATOR: The following morning,

as the operations at the Money Pit area

and the Dunfield spoils continue...

GARY: We've recovered a nice top-pocket find on Lot 16.

...in the research center, brothers Rick and Marty Lagina

and other members of the team

have invited geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner to examine

a potentially important artifact recently discovered on Lot 16.

-What do you think? -Uh, it's not natural.

I mean, I've been around Nova Scotia a lot,

you know, looking at rocks.

This stone isn't what I've seen around here at all.

I believe we have got another gun stone.

-Well, it sure looks like it. -Oh, a gun stone? -GARY: Yep.

Do you remember the one that Michael John found

on the wash table?

-It was similar size, wasn't it? -Yeah.

Whoa, look at that!

NARRATOR: Two weeks ago,

while searching for evidence of a stone pathway

between the swamp and the Money Pit,

Rick and Gary discovered the stone artifact,

which Gary believes could be a kind of ancient projectile

fired from small canons.

-Steve, look at this. -Yes.

NARRATOR: Curiously, it was nearly identical

to one discovered last year in the spoils of borehole E5.25

that were excavated from the Money Pit area in 2019.

MARTY: Lo and behold, they're virtually identical

in terms of shape and density.

These rocks are really interesting.

They really are.

Did you see the one Michael John found a few years ago?

No. No, no, no.

-We have it here, right? -Yeah, it's actually here.

Oh, wow.

MARTY: Very similar. Not-not in texture but in size.

GARY: And if they are gun stones,

roughly the same caliber by the look of it.

The main thing to me is, that regardless of

where they're from, they're not from-from here.

That's-that's important.

I know somebody I can take these to

who will provide you with a lot more information than I can.

This is his arena.

-Yeah. -But this is very, very odd.

Look, whenever you can find something like that

and get an expert to weigh in on it, who knows what we'll learn.

Well, that sounds like a great first step to me.

-Yeah. -Good.

Make it so.

-IAN: Okay. -MARTY: Fantastic.

(beeping)

-Find anything? -I got a hit here,

but I-I'm trying to determine whether it's a screw

-in the table or... -Here, want me to lift it up?

-Yeah. -Okay.

(beeping)

-Yeah, there's something in here. -Something there.

CHARLES: Yep.

(beeping)

-There you go. -It's in this piece, whatever it is.

A little piece of metal.

What the heck that is... I don't know.

NARRATOR: A metal object,

also discovered with possible evidence of a wooden tunnel

some 75 feet deep in borehole CD4.5?

SCOTT: Great find, Charles.

CHARLES: We're very interested in the C-1 cluster area

because we're getting a lot of wood hits,

and we're finding pieces of metal.

-Bag it, tag it, and have Kelly look at it. -Bag it, tag it. Yep.

But what's even more interesting about it

is we have no historical record

of any work being done in this area.

-Hey, Rick. -Hi, guys.

NARRATOR: After being alerted of the new

and potentially important discoveries,

Rick Lagina arrives to inspect them

and receive a detailed report.

So, CD4.5,

uh, we hit wood at about 74 and 75 feet.

And we also found a chunk of metal.

This was at 75 and a half feet.

It's encrusted, so it's really hard to tell what it is,

but it does have some weight to it.

Yeah, it does, it does. Yeah.

-It's hard to say what it is. -CHARLES: Yeah.

-Certainly not from the rig. -No, no. No. -CHARLES: No.

-RICK: Another mystery. -CHARLES: Yeah.

NARRATOR: Although finding evidence of a tunnel, along with metal,

at a depth of 75 feet in the Money Pit area

offers the team hope that they could be close

to a major discovery,

three weeks ago,

while drilling in borehole D2

just 13 and a half feet to the southwest,

at a depth of some 90 feet,

they also obtained evidence

of another wooden tunnel that dated to as early as 1488,

as well as a mysterious piece of metal

that contained a significant amount of gold.

Is it possible that both of these potential tunnels

could be connected to the original Money Pit?

I think, based on everything we've learned,

the interesting metals in D2,

-perhaps this will be a surprise as well. -Could be.

-Okay. -So, I'm gonna take this on the archaeology trailer

-and then put this under XRF. -Okay. -Great.

-RICK: All right. Thank you, guys. -CHARLES: Yeah.

-TERRY: See you, Rick. -RICK: Yep.

NARRATOR: Later that afternoon,

following their discovery at CD4.5...

-MARTY: Hey! -Hey.

...Rick and Charles meet with Rick's brother Marty

and professional conservator Kelly Bourassa

at the archeology trailer.

What do you guys got?

I found another piece of metal.

MARTY: This could be good.

The unusual thing is 75 and a half feet

because the tunnel horizon is 86 to 93.

-Yeah. -So, what's that doing there?

-Yeah. -Let's see it.

Huh.

KELLY: Looks cement-like on-on the surface.

I don't think there's-- much cleaning can be done.

Nonetheless, we can still, uh,

we can still test it with the XRF.

-CHARLES: Okay. -MARTY: See what it says. -Absolutely.

NARRATOR: Using an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer,

or XRF, Kelly will conduct a chemical analysis

of the encrusted object.

The device works by emitting nondestructive radiation,

which can identify the elemental composition of metal objects.

There we go.

MARTY: Iron, that's not a shock.

Yeah.

MARTY: Whoa.

Au. That's gold.

(chuckles)

MARTY: How 'bout that.

MARTY: So, this piece has some gold

NARRATOR: In the archaeology trailer...

At 0.2 percent.

Au. Auric. Gold.

-CHARLES: That's exciting. -That's great.

...Rick, Marty and members of the team have just verified that

the metal object unearthed earlier today

from borehole CD4.5,

which was discovered along with evidence

of a tunnel some 75 feet deep

may also be connected

to the legendary Oak Island treasure.

-RICK: I'm curious in the trace metals, right? -KELLY: Sure.

Because it may be a clue as to how old the metal is itself.

It's a very shallow depth, though, 75 and a half feet.

-That's great. -Yeah.

I've always felt the most logical solution

to this whole thing is an offset chamber.

I mean, how does a piece of iron

from 75 feet down get gold on it?

Maybe we're near it here.

NARRATOR: Could Marty Lagina's notion be correct?

Is it possible that the team has discovered a tunnel,

connected to the original Money Pit shaft,

which could serve as a secret entrance

to a vast treasure chamber?

If so, could that explain

why the team has obtained trace evidence

of silver and gold in a number of flooded boreholes

across the area they have dubbed the C-1 cluster?

-We need to bring that up to, uh, Dr. Brosseau for sure. -Mm-hmm.

I-I want to do it yesterday.

-(laughter) -(chuckles): Let's bring this...

-Let's bring it up there. -Sure.

I've always felt like the most likely reason

for construction of the Money Pit was as a decoy

to an offset chamber or as access to an offset chamber

that would be difficult to find from the surface.

So, finding these pieces of metal with gold on them,

away from the traditional Money Pit area, is very exciting.

RICK: Charles and I will go to the drill table,

and we will be back with more of this.

MARTY: Good. Find some more.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The following morning,

while the core-drilling operation

at the Money Pit continues...

MIKE: Going down!

RICK: Hey, guys.

-Gentlemen, hello. -Hello.

Dr. Raeside, um, welcome to the war room.

...Rick, Marty and members of the team are meeting

via video conference with Dr. Robert Raeside,

a professor of geology and Earth science

at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

He has conducted compositional analysis

of the two believed gun stones

recently discovered on Oak Island.

One, which was found just two weeks ago

along a possible pathway

between the swamp and the Money Pit,

and a second unearthed two years ago

from the Money Pit itself.

So, you looked at these two round,

small-ish rocks.

Um, what is, what is your opinion?

Well, when I first saw the rocks

I anticipated that they were probably

something that had been picked up from a beach somewhere.

But then, I got a chance to look at them

with a hand lens.

If there are small green minerals in each one,

um, my best guess is that

these are actually olivine bearing rocks.

And olivine gabbro and an olivine basalt.

A basalt is a-a rock that erupted volcanically,

and a gabbro is a rock that

never quite made it to the surface.

Would that be likely to be found on Oak Island?

-Definitely not. -Ah, I like that.

And the composition of the rocks are quite unusual

for anything I would expect to see here in Nova Scotia.

Where else in the world might they be?

They form generally in, uh, hot spot volcanic island chains.

So something like the Azores or the Canary Islands

would be the obvious places, I would think.

And those two islands, they're synonymous

with transatlantic adventurers,

conquistadores.

-Yeah. -Canary Islands, Spanish. Spain.

Azores, Portugal.

NARRATOR: The gun stones?

Possibly of Portuguese origin?

Although Nova Scotia was known to have been visited

by explorers representing numerous European nations

between the 15th to late 18th centuries,

numerous clues have been discovered on Oak Island

that suggest both the Spanish and Portuguese

may have been responsible for the construction

of the Money Pit.

Because both nations conquered the indigenous civilizations

across Central and South America,

and then shipped vast quantities of gold,

silver and jewels

back to their home countries in Europe,

many treasure hunters,

including Dan Blankenship and Fred Nolan,

came to believe that rogue sea captains

may have hidden a portion of their plunder on Oak Island.

What I found just blew me away.

Like, I was pretty much speechless.

I've never seen anything of that magnitude in Nova Scotia.

NARRATOR: Three weeks ago,

environmental scientist and historian Terry Deveau,

presented the team with detailed research

about the massive stone wharf discovered

one year ago in the swamp

and his incredible theory about the origin of its builders.

This is a type of road

that was built in Europe in the 1500s.

-CHARLES: Wow. -What comes to my mind is the Portuguese.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that these gun stones,

one of which was unearthed in the Money Pit area,

represent more key clues that could help identify

just who was behind the Oak Island mystery?

So, look, uh, Doctor.

-This is phenomenal from our standpoint. -Stunning.

I mean, if you had to guess, uh,

and pardon my sort of language here,

but what the hell are these doing on Oak Island?

A perfectly spherical chunk of these rocks

transported somehow to Oak Island

would be very unusual.

I mean, it seems like one in a million that these are there.

That one came from the ground in the Money Pit,

-that's the crazy part of it. -MARTY: Yeah.

Well, it came out of the caisson that was put down

right next to C-1.

RICK: These two stone shot,

they are not native to Nova Scotia.

These are from two geographic regions that are tightly aligned

with Portuguese and Spain,

and we now can say to ourselves,

well, what theories align with possibly this stone shot

originating from these-these areas.

-That's phenomenal. Really. -Yeah.

I mean, that is absolutely astounding.

These two little cannonballs are

one of the most significant things we've found

on the island because they were phased out

from use in the early 1600s.

And so, we have a way-back-there date again.

That was a great bit of data for us.

And Dr. Raeside, I just want to say thank you

on behalf of the whole crew here.

Well, you're very welcome. I was glad to be able to help.

-Thank you. -Thanks. -Take care.

IAN: Thanks.

NARRATOR: Following the team's meeting in the war room,

and while the core-drilling operation continues,

in the C-1 cluster...

GARY: Let's find some history, mate.

...metal detection expert Gary Drayton...

Winkle a good find.

...along with Jack Begley

and heavy equipment operator Billy Gerhardt

continue searching through the nearby spoils

excavated from the Money Pit by Robert Dunfield back in 1965.

-(beeping) -See the little bits of wood there, though,

-in that bucket, Jack? -JACK: Yeah.

BILLY: It's consistently wood.

And if you go a little further to your right in the di--

in the bucket, there's a real dark wood.

-And it's right at the bottom? -It's right in those rocks.

-Right? You saw me scraping the rocks. -Mixed with the rocks. Yeah.

You see the wood, that is right at that layer.

That cut looks intentional. Don't you think?

Oh, yeah. No, it's cut.

It's hand-hewn.

That's-- it's too thick for dimensional, too. Right?

NARRATOR: A hand-hewn or manually cut timber?

Because mechanized cutting tools--

such as the circular saw-- were not commonly used

in construction until the late 18th century,

could this hand-cut wooden beam be potential evidence

of the original Money Pit shaft?

If so, what else might be waiting to be found

in the so-called Dunfield spoils?

You mind if I poke around down there a little bit?

Just go around to the other end and walk down that slope, right.

JACK: Okay.

I'll come down there and detect.

-'Cause this is spoils just going all the way up. -BILLY: Yep.

Right. Now, if we do find anything here...

Yeah, a nail or anything would be good to find here, Gary.

(detector beeping)

-You're getting a hit already? -Yeah, it's in this.

Is it that? Yep, it is.

-JACK: Oh, wow. -GARY: It's a cribbing spike.

-Cribbing spike's a... Yeah. -JACK: And that one's probably really old.

I mean, anywhere where we've been at a good depth,

we find these older cribbing spikes.

And, of course, we can have it tested...

Mm-hmm.

...to see if it's, you know, pre-1830s, 1840s.

But it's got some heft to it as well.

That's a good point.

GARY: A cribbing spike is an iron fastener

that was used to connect two pieces of wood together.

Normally associated with tunnels or shafts.

This cribbing spike could actually be

part of the original construction of the Money Pit.

All right, mate, I'll put this in my pouch and keep going.

-All right, mate, let's see what else is down here. -JACK: Yeah.

NARRATOR: Before another productive day comes to an end

-on Oak Island... -(insects chirping)

MARTY: Dr. Brosseau, welcome to the war room.

My pleasure. Happy to be here.

...brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,

their partner, Craig Tester,

and members of the team meet in the war room

with chemist Dr. Christa Brosseau,

who has traveled down to the island

from St. Mary's University in Halifax.

She has come to present her scientific analysis

on the mysterious metal artifact discovered one day ago

at a depth of 75 feet in borehole CD4.5.

It is rare for metal to come up in these cores.

NARRATOR: It is the team's hope

that she can not only verify

their initial findings

that the object contains a significant amount of gold

but also identify its country of origin.

MARTY: So, today you have some results.

Yeah, I found it interesting.

I think you will find it interesting as well.

This is from CD4.5. It was found at 75 feet.

It's this funky, little piece of metal.

It's rare, and exceedingly rare,

that we find any sort of metal object in any of the cores.

If you find it interesting, certainly we will.

So, yes, this is the breakdown of the metal itself.

So, it's an iron object.

It does contain manganese but just in one spot

and in very high concentration,

so, typically for me, that's an indication

that the manganese is original to the ore body.

But the really interesting part of this particular object is

that there are several gold flakes on it.

-Wow. -(chuckles)

CHRISTA: So, there's about three or four large ones,

and then there's a few smaller ones.

And so, they're very obvious under the electron microscope.

Um, so, of course, right away that was

really interesting to me.

-That's why it was, uh... -Yeah, I would say so.

-But, um... -(laughter)

And so, the composition of the gold flakes on this piece

is very, very similar to the composition

of the gold flake that you found on the object

that had come out of D2.

NARRATOR: The metal from borehole CD4.5,

discovered 75 feet deep

within a possible tunnel in the Money Pit area,

a near match to the gold composition

of that found in borehole D2, some 15 feet deeper?

If so, could Rick, Marty and the team have found evidence

that the actual design of the Money Pit

is even more complex than anyone ever knew?

For there to be a significant treasure

where we've been drilling all these boreholes

seems far-fetched at this point.

But if it's in an offset chamber,

which is what this is kind of suggesting,

then it makes sense.

I-It makes sense why it still might be there.

It makes sense why our predecessors didn't find it.

It's exciting.

Do you know how they're adhered to it?

-Are they stuck to it, or are they wedged? -Yeah.

They're stuck into the-the metal itself.

This, at some point, has been transferred onto the surface.

The thing that I found even more interesting,

because of course I can look at composition,

that gold and this gold have essentially

almost identical compositions.

And so, historically, the only thing that I could find

that was, uh, from antiquity,

high copper content in gold artifacts,

uh, is coming out of, actually, South America.

Oh.

Wow.

NARRATOR: In the Oak Island war room,

Dr. Christa Brosseau has just presented a scientific report

that the metal objects unearthed

from boreholes CD4.5 and D2 in the Money Pit area

not only contain the same amount of gold

but may also be of South American origin.

CHRISTA: And so, the composition here

would be consistent with a, like a 14 karat gold.

It could be a rose gold.

The high copper content is used to make gold jewelry stronger.

Does that mean that gold is definitively worked by man?

(stammers) It couldn't be naturally occurring?

I would not think it's naturally occurring.

MARTY: It's exciting that it showed up on two different pieces.

I looked and reached out to these treasure hunters

that are, um, looking for the Spanish gold.

Uh, when the Spanish first arrived,

they first started plundering the artifacts

that the Indigenous people had,

and they often had var--

quite varying amounts of copper in them.

So, they melted it all down and created

what they called tumbaga bars.

If they were mainly gold, they called them gold bars.

-So that was actually really exciting. -Yeah.

There is history of the Spanish Conquistadors

-like, yeah... (stammers) making these tumbaga bars. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that the metal object found

in borehole CD4.5,

as well as the one found in borehole D2,

both contain tumbaga--

the ancient gold, copper and silver mixture,

used by Spanish Conquistadors

to create valuable artifacts as much as 500 years ago?

MARTY: It turns out that

South American Indigenous peoples

used a lot of copper in their gold and silver.

When you melted it all together,

you'd get some sort of composition

very like what we just found in the Money Pit.

I find that incredibly exciting and relevant.

NARRATOR: Could this mean that the Spanish were in fact

behind the Oak Island mystery?

But if so, what would explain the recent evidence

that the team has found of possible Portuguese activity?

Evidence that includes the believed stone wharf

in the swamp...

...and the two gun stones--

one of which was recovered in the Money Pit?

Could the fact that Portugal competed with Spain

for control of South America

between the 15th and 18th centuries

mean that the treasure is of Spanish origin,

but was perhaps stolen by Portuguese rivals

and hidden on Oak Island?

RICK: I find it instructive.

Is it a-a cause for great hope and-and excitement

and anticipation about what we are about to proceed to do,

i.e. the caisson install? Absolutely.

I mean, there couldn't be anything else better,

short of a coin or-or something indicative of possible treasure.

-Yeah. -MARTY: I would say that for sure.

You know, it's-it's the thing that keeps you going.

Okay, well, we all have several things to do.

Thank you, Dr. Brosseau, and, uh,

-we're gonna get back at it. -Sounds good.

NARRATOR: For brothers Rick and Marty Lagina

and their Oak Island team,

a week that began with a frustrating setback,

now ends with incredible evidence

that they are closer than ever

to solving the 226-year-old mystery.

But as they continue drilling and digging

in the Money Pit, just what will they ultimately find?

A treasure vault full of Spanish gold and silver?

Or will they find that the complex workings

of the Money Pit contain numerous chambers,

with not only millions or billions in treasure

but also priceless artifacts as well?

Whatever the case may actually be,

the other burning question that remains

is just how much longer can the island keep its secrets?

Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...

Let's have a look. Whoa, that looks like a beam.

-SCOTT: That's pit saw. -TERRY: You got to like that.

The map Zena Halpern had found says "le trou sous la trappe,"

-which means, "the hole under the hatch." -We will look there.

COLIN: We conducted a magnetometer survey.

This is a decent-size anomaly.

That's near where the hatch from Zena's map could be.

Okay, Billy. Let's find something.

JACK: Whoa! Whoa! Wow!

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