Original subtitles

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

-(metal scraping) -It's catching on something.

RICK: Look at that thing.

BILLY: There's something curious

-about this boulder. -That's like

the Nolan's Cross boulder.

JAMIE: This soil is super compact.

This was constructed for a purpose.

-Whoa. -EMMA: It's an almost exact match

to a Money Pit sample.

Wow.

The association that could be made

is mind-blowing.

-What is that? -Pretty solid chunk of metal.

TERRY: That could be a piece of the treasure vault.

Yep.

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: Hey, Paul.

Morning, guys. How's it going?

Well, we're hoping for an update.

So, uh, we finished drilling a couple holes.

-Good man. -NARRATOR: As a new day

begins on Oak Island

for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,

they arrive in the fabled Money Pit area

to check on the progress of an operation

that they hope will finally reveal the answers

to a 229-year-old treasure mystery.

It's getting close.

The first hole, uh, kind of seemed like

it was deflecting off a wall.

Where are we again?

So, that-- it would be the north side.

NARRATOR: One week ago,

after extending the mid-18th century structure

known as the Garden Shaft down to a depth of 90 feet,

representatives from Dumas Contracting Limited

used a coring drill to penetrate a mysterious tunnel

located at a depth of 95 feet,

which is believed to run due west

toward an area known as the Baby Blob.

It is in this region where water testing

that was conducted in previously drilled boreholes

has detected high-trace evidence of silver, gold and other metals

between 80 and 120 feet underground.

There is a structure of some sort down there,

a wooden structure of some sort, and you're about

-to unearth that, right? -That's right.

Okay. That's enough said for me.

So, today, we put in the landing.

We're adding another set.

NARRATOR: Now, after unsuccessfully drilling

into the believed tunnel for a second time,

over the course of the next week,

Dumas will proceed with constructing

the final level, or set, to extend the Garden Shaft

down to a total depth of some 95 feet,

where they hope to intersect the mysterious passageway

and find out what it may contain.

We've invested a lot of time and energy

delineating this tunnel.

And I think there's great anticipation

on everyone's part

to try to, well, to not only put eyes on it

but to see where it may lead.

If the tunnel predates the shaft,

it makes the tunnel far more interesting

than just finding a "previously unknown" tunnel.

-It's all good news. -MARTY: Yes.

I'm starting to get eager now.

-You've got my toes tickling. -SCOTT: You're so close,

-you can smell it there now. -Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.

All right, let's let him get back to work,

because we're poised to finally do this.

Okey doke.

-Let's go, guys. -Yep.

-Thanks, Paul. -Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Paul.

NARRATOR: As the operation

to deepen the Garden Shaft continues...

-TERRY: Here we are. -CHARLES: Yep.

-TERRY: We're back at it now. -Yep.

-H-8. -H-8.

NARRATOR: ...approximately 60 feet

to the southwest,

geologist Terry Matheson

and Oak Island historian Charles Barkhouse

are monitoring a new core drilling operation

in Borehole H-8,

a borehole that was previously excavated in 2017.

This turned into a very, very interesting hole.

-For a number of reasons. -Oh, my goodness.

JACK: What is this?

NARRATOR: After initially recovering pieces

of parchment and leather book binding

with a six-inch-diameter core barrel in H-8,

Rick, Marty and their partner Craig Tester

speculated that they may have encountered

the fabled Chappell Vault,

a seven-foot-tall treasure chest encased in concrete

that Frederick Blair and William Chappell

reportedly drilled into back in 1897

and recovered not only evidence of gold

but also, a piece of parchment bearing the letters "V-I."

MARTY: Come on, baby.

-Make hole! -(machinery whirs)

NARRATOR: Incredibly, when the team expanded H-8 by installing

a 60-inch caisson in the fall of 2017,

a large object was encountered at a depth of 170 feet.

MARTY: He's on something.

He thinks it's perfectly flat.

Wood?

He thinks wood.

NARRATOR: Unfortunately,

as the team drove the H-8 caisson deeper,

in the hopes of breaching the vault,

the plug, or earthen spoils inside of it, fell out,

pushing the potential treasure chest

somewhere deeper below ground.

Anyway, today, we're going back down this hole

all these years later.

We did not finish that dig.

So, it's possible that it broke the vault open.

So, this is gonna be a look

at the sediments, or pieces of the plug.

Maybe pieces of treasure, Charles.

Yeah.

NARRATOR: Now, after recent water tests

and subsurface scans in this area

have offered more evidence of potential valuables,

it is Rick, Marty and the team's hope

that if they can pinpoint the possible location

of the vault, they will arrange to excavate

a much larger diameter caisson in order to recover it.

The material that fell out of the H-8, uh, caisson

had to have migrated somewhere.

The possibility certainly exists that this is an area

to which the Chappell Vault has fallen.

It could be deeper, and we'll certainly press on.

So anyway, whatever-- we-we're in it to win it.

We got to exhaust all possibilities.

Cross your fingers that we hit the right section,

and maybe the best section.

CHARLES: And hopefully today we'll find out where it went.

TERRY: Exactly.

NARRATOR: While the excavations proceed

in the Money Pit area,

in the southeast corner of the triangle-shaped swamp

located near the center of Oak Island...

-GARY: This is a great day. -JACK: Yeah.

That is impressive.

-JACK: That should go the distance. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: ...metal detection expert Gary Drayton,

Jack Begley and Billy Gerhardt

are about to conduct a new large-scale dig

in a region of the brackish bog

near the potentially 500-year-old stone road.

JACK: So, we're gonna be digging

in the deepest part

-of the swamp. -BILLY: Yeah.

We haven't really done a whole lot of work

in this particular area, and it's surrounded

by really great finds, so...

JACK: Yeah. With the stone road

and stone path, this was a work area,

so we got to keep our eyes peeled for anything.

-Right. -GARY: Excellent.

Well, should we get stuck in?

Yep.

NARRATOR: Of the many remarkable discoveries

that the team has made over the past decade in the swamp,

the stone road, or possible ship's wharf,

may be a critical key to solving the Oak Island mystery.

Look at how beautifully constructed.

NARRATOR: It is not only a near identical match

to a road that Rick Lagina and members of the team

saw in 2021 in Alqueidão da Serra, Portugal,

where the Portuguese sect of the Knights Templar

maintained a stronghold

from the 12th to the 17th centuries...

This looks old.

-That does, yeah. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: ...but it is also in an area of the swamp

where they have unearthed numerous clues

such as a heavy chain with a hook,

suggesting the road was created in order to off-load

some kind of cargo onto Oak Island.

GARY: All right, first bucket of opportunity is coming up.

NARRATOR: Now, it is the team's hope

to find more clues that will help explain

the true origin of the stone road,

and hopefully, evidence of valuables.

-GARY: Whew. -JACK: Oh, gosh.

GARY: Smells like treasure.

RICK: The southeast corner of the bog

is the most interesting location for one simple reason.

We want to understand the reason

for the construct of the stone road.

-Hey. -BOTH: Hey, Rick.

RICK: And if it had something to do

with the original treasure story,

then that whole area is of significant interest.

GARY: Whew. Stinky.

You guys get back to work, I'm gonna poke about

in the pile, try to... see what I can find.

-Okay, mate. -Okay?

Come on. Where are you?

Nothing.

MARTY: Look, I've said this many times.

I hate that swamp 'cause it stinks.

But every time we've dug in it,

we've recovered interesting stuff, clues,

and I don't think we've dug ten percent of it,

so we're not done.

(Gary groans)

No targets yet?

GARY: Not yet, no.

(metal scraping, thudding)

GARY: Wow, he's catching on something.

RICK: What is that?

Look at that.

(metal scraping)

rious about this boulder,

unlike other ones in the swamp.

It's like it's sitting on top of the peat, right?

Which it shouldn't be if it's, if it's glacier, right?

So it was moved before.

Yeah. I-I agree.

NARRATOR: Near the stone road

in the southeast corner of the swamp,

Rick Lagina and other members of the team

have just uncovered a massive boulder

that may have been purposely placed into position

by someone, but if so, by whom?

And for what purpose?

BILLY: Can't believe how easy I can move it.

The other thing that's interesting here is,

see how it's, it's a row of rocks?

RICK: Yep.

BILLY: We got this big flat rock and it's like a...

giant set of stone stairs almost here coming up the bank.

-Hard to say. -JACK: Yeah.

Maybe they were doing work around that boulder.

BILLY: Yep. We know the road is there,

we know the path is there,

we know the Money Pit is right there.

The opportunities are limitless

as what could have went on right in this very spot.

Absolutely. Yep.

Let's just GPS it and keep digging.

NARRATOR: A row or staircase of stones?

Leading to the massive boulder

in the southeast corner of the swamp?

Could this feature have been constructed

as some kind of symbol? Or marker?

And could it be related to the stone road

and perhaps created

in order to hide something of great value?

I'm not going any deeper.

RICK: It's as though

there's some sort of rock platform here.

So it's not well-seated in the organics

and the inference is that it was placed there

and not deposited by a glacier.

That makes it interesting.

Look at that.

And so my first thought really is

we need to find a way to take a look at it.

That's a board.

How deep do you think it was?

-Two feet. -GARY: Yeah.

Two feet. It's out there though.

This is definitely a shaped board.

That is thick.

Hey, check this out, Rick.

Look at the thickness of this.

Now this is in good condition, so it's got to be a good wood.

That looks like it could be ship's decking or planking

'cause of the thickness of it.

RICK: That's a big one.

But there was no metal ringing off of it?

No. I checked it for fasteners. No fasteners.

It was two feet down and it was out there.

RICK: The planks they are finding

could be called ship's planking.

We've found boards that we think might be associated with a ship.

That very near vicinity, of course,

one of the most enigmatic finds we've ever made

is the ship's railing from 600 or 700 AD.

So that area, hopefully, will yield some answers.

It's worth bringing back, washing it off, take a look,

see if there is anything on it, nail holes or anything.

GARY: All right, mate.

MARTY: We're finding more questions in the swamp.

Every time we've undertaken draining it

and digging somewhere, we've found something.

And some meaningful somethings.

But no one knows why these things are in the swamp.

GARY: It's swampy.

MARTY: So, yeah, would I like an answer to that?

Yes, I'd like an answer to that.

Simple answer would be,

I'm hoping for whatever is, is there.

Any metal is gonna stand out in this stuff.

RICK: That would be something.

All right. Let's see what we can get done.

NARRATOR: Later that afternoon,

as the excavation and the drilling operations

continue in the Money Pit area,

near the shoreline on Lot 5,

located on the western side of the island...

Wow, you guys have done a lot of work

since I've last been here.

I bet it looks different, doesn't it?

A lot different.

NARRATOR: ...Jack Begley joins members

of the archaeology team

as they continue their meticulous excavation

of a mysterious stone foundation--

a foundation that was discovered earlier this year

buried beneath a circular depression.

So, what's going on over here?

JAMIE: When we first expanded westward,

we thought that this stone line feature was gonna continue.

-Yeah. -And we assumed that this was where

the house structure sat and that was just a basement.

But it is starting to curve in,

which is bizarre. (laughs)

-It doesn't make any sense. -JACK: Yeah.

But it's too big to be a house.

It's an occupational spot for sure.

NARRATOR: In the past year,

the team has made significant discoveries

in and near this feature that suggest

it may have been occupied by multiple groups

during different time periods.

These discoveries include

a 14th century lead barter token,

which is a compositional match to the lead cross

that was discovered at Smith's Cove in 2017,

two Venetian glass beads, which were not only

once considered a form of valuable currency

but which could date to between 1500 and 1650,

and several metal tools,

which have been scientifically linked

to the birthplace of Sir William Phips--

the English politician and privateer who some believe

buried a large cache of Spanish treasure

in the Money Pit back in 1687.

So the plan today is to make sure

that we define this edge really well.

Well, we've been finding some really good stuff around here.

I can't wait to see what else we dig up in here.

All right. Well, let's get to work

and see if we can figure out what's going on here.

NARRATOR: While the archaeologists remove spoils-- or earth--

from the foundation,

Jack is sifting them through a screen

for clues that might explain how this feature

may be connected to the Oak Island mystery.

JACK: Based upon the different dates,

I'd say this starts to speak more and more to...

people being on Lot 5 earlier.

Bits of brick and pottery and glass.

JAMIE: That's pretty cool.

JACK: Hopefully, we continue to have more finds

and figure out who exactly was here

and is it related to the Money Pit story.

-Thank you. -You girls are digging quickly.

JAMIE: Let us know if we are swamping you

-and we'll give you a hand. -JACK: No, no, no.

You're fine. I'm keeping up.

Good God.

Okay.

This is kind of getting interesting.

This soil over here is super compact.

It's not like the stuff that was over there.

I may have found mortar.

Whoa.

-This is strange. -JAMIE: Like concrete.

♪ ♪

JAMIE: It's really strange.

-LAIRD: Hey, guys. -JAMIE: Hey.

-We have another surprise. -LAIRD: Cool.

I can't wait to hear your take on this.

NARRATOR: Near the shoreline of Lot 5

located on the western side of Oak Island,

archaeologist Laird Niven arrives

at the mysterious stone foundation

after being informed

of a potentially important discovery.

All of a sudden, I hit this stuff

that's got a lot of ash mixed into it,

crushed-up shale and stuff.

LAIRD: Oh, you can hear it.

JAMIE: It's, like, a-a grayish color

and it reminds me of, like, a crude mortar or cement.

LAIRD: Oh.

The mortar looks an awful lot

like the mortar that I found when I was washing through

-Money Pit material. -LAIRD: Oh, really? -Oh.

NARRATOR: Over the past several years,

the Oak Island team has discovered

different forms of concrete

in several of the massive caissons

they have excavated across the Money Pit area.

A prime example was in 2019,

when this type of substance was recovered in the spoils of RF-1.

A ten-foot-diameter caisson

located just a few feet northeast of H-8,

which was also excavated in the hopes of locating

the reportedly concrete-encased Chappell Vault.

We could compare this sample with the Money Pit sample.

See if they come from the same source.

I would love to do that.

If you could get me a sample, I'll take it right back

and, uh, see what Emma has to say.

Okay, yeah, that sounds good.

LAIRD: This is a really difficult feature to get answers from

because we don't quite understand the structure.

So we're not exactly sure what we're looking for.

It's important for us to take a sample of this soil.

It would be interesting to see if it corresponds

with the Money Pit.

And if it does, it would suggest that

those areas were operating at the same time

and were related.

Excellent. You are doing a great job.

I like this. I like what's coming up.

I don't know what it is, but I like it.

(laughs) We're trying to figure that part out.

Okay. I'll take this back to the lab...

JAMIE: Perfect.

LAIRD: ...and check in on you later.

JAMIE: All right.

JACK: I need to get back to sifting.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The following morning...

-MIKE: Ready? -RON: Yep.

NARRATOR: ...while representatives from Dumas Contracting Limited

continue their efforts to deepen the Garden Shaft

in the Money Pit area...

ALEX: Are we getting our core?

-Here it comes, right now. -Right now.

NARRATOR: ...several feet to the southwest...

MARTY: God, I hope something good is in this.

NARRATOR: ...Marty Lagina and his son Alex

join other members of the team at Borehole H-8

where they hope to find evidence of the Chappell Vault

somewhere below a depth of 180 feet.

It's a long one.

Get ready to slice and dice.

MARTY: We know we had the canister H-8 go down,

and it hit something big

that moved around underground and went somewhere.

We're sure of that.

Yeah, there's a lot of water in there.

MARTY: It is possible that H-8

is very near the original Money Pit.

So, we have to look deeper.

CHARLES: How deep are we, Adam?

We're at 211.

-CHARLES: 211? -ALEX: It's gonna be a mess.

Let's get our hands dirty, gentlemen.

Ready?

TERRY: This is the silt and the clay

and there is a few little clumps of material

that might have fallen from above.

There's a little chunk of wood, right there.

It's just below all our silt and whatnot.

And this sits just on top of bedrock.

Start right there, Charles.

MARTY: Come on. Be something.

-(beeping) -ALEX: You got something.

CHARLES: I've got something right here.

-Excellent. -(beeping)

Want me to wash it down?

-Okay, guys. -ALEX: What is that?

A pretty solid chunk of metal.

That could be a piece of the treasure vault.

MARTY: Oh, my goodness. Cool.

This material to here,

that could be part of the plug. No question.

The plug could have disintegrated

and fallen off to one side.

-And all that stuff. -TERRY: That's right.

The plug that fell out was nine feet or a little over nine feet.

-Right. -And they chewed down one side of it

so we could still get a significant size plug

-on one side or the other of the vault. -Yep.

NARRATOR: If the team has found a portion of the plug,

or the spoils, that may have pushed the Chappell Vault

deeper underground when the H-8 caisson

was originally excavated in 2017,

could that mean that they are close to pinpointing

the legendary chest of valuables?

-Hey, Rick. -Hey, Rick. -Hi, Rick.

-How are you doing? -Hey.

How deep are we?

Well, we are at 211 down there.

But here's the thing, that little bit

could have been our plug.

Because if there was a plug in there,

it probably didn't stay intact.

It probably broke up.

Well, that and probably slid the vault

to one side or the other.

Slid to one side or the other, right.

So, we need to move the rig and come down

in another location.

RICK: I do believe

that material, whatever was contained within it,

has fallen to a far greater depth.

To what side and what cardinal direction, we don't know.

I think at this point

the only way to exploit this possible clue

is to continue to do some drilling.

Okay, we need to figure out where the next hole is.

Okey doke.

Sounds like a plan.

-MARTY: Yep. -RICK: Thanks, guys.

NARRATOR: Later that afternoon...

RICK: Hey, Roger. How are you doing?

ROGER: Soggy but otherwise good.

Come on in and sit down, guys.

NARRATOR: ...Rick and Alex Lagina, along with Scott Barlow,

join Roger Fortin in the Dumas trailer in the Money Pit area,

where they are about to receive a carbon dating report

regarding a wood sample

that was obtained one week ago

from the possible treasure tunnel

located below the Garden Shaft.

I'm going to call Craig and my dad

and get the info right from Craig, so...

RICK: These guys from Dumas bought into this process.

This is not a job to them.

They're excited, they're interested, they're invested.

I want to see that somebody's been down there a long time.

RICK: They have a right to know

what the fruits of the labor has been.

So, I hope the results are informative.

-Hey, Alex. -ALEX: Hey, Craig.

Um, I got Rick, Scott and Roger here

and my dad's on the other line.

So, we are looking forward to the carbon dating results.

RICK: Wow.

RICK: That's exciting.

RICK: Wow.

NARRATOR: It is a potentially historic moment

for Rick, Marty, Craig and the Oak Island team.

That is, yeah, that is something.

ALEX: Yep.

NARRATOR: A carbon dating test

that was conducted on a wood sample

collected one week ago

from the possible treasure tunnel below the Garden Shaft

has indicated that the seven-foot-tall structure

could be nearly 400 years old.

ALEX: So, there's a chance

this is connected to the original Money Pit.

ALEX: Right.

NARRATOR: Incredibly, this is the second wood sample

taken from the mysterious tunnel this year

that has been dated to as early as the 1600s.

This means that it was likely constructed

more than a century before the discovery

of the original Money Pit.

MARTY: The dates are well, well before any searcher

should have been in this area tunneling.

I think that's in everybody's, you know, vision right now

to deepen that Garden Shaft and find out what's down there.

RICK: You have a tunnel, previously unknown,

heading in the direction

where these high metal values are being derived.

So, if this is original work,

then you're a small step closer

to the ultimate solution.

We have every reason to continue the process

of trying to understand what this tunnel represents.

-We have to get down there. -No, absolutely.

And that's pretty well our next step, where we're at right now.

Just getting to it, exposing it.

I think it's going to answer a lot of questions

that we-we have right now.

-Yep. -These results tell me you need to work faster.

-Yeah. Yeah. -(laughter)

Okey doke. We'll let you get to work, Roger.

-Thanks, Roger. -Very good.

ROGER: Thank you very much, gentlemen.

Great news.

NARRATOR: The following morning...

...as representatives from Dumas Contracting Limited

continue deepening the Garden Shaft

in order to breach the tunnel

at a depth of some 95 feet...

-JACK: Hey, Billy. -BILLY: Hey, guys.

Ready to keep rolling, mate?

Keep rolling, Gary, I think. Yep.

Got a lot of water in the hole,

but we can see the rock a little better now.

NARRATOR: ...Jack Begley and metal detection expert

Gary Drayton join Billy Gerhardt

in the southeast region of the swamp,

just north of the potentially 500-year-old stone road.

What is the swamp battle plan today?

We'll go a little more back towards the road.

And do the same thing, we'll reach out,

and then continue back towards the peninsula.

All right. We'll get ready to get stuck in.

-BILLY: Okay. -Hopefully not literally.

(Jack chuckles)

NARRATOR: Billy, Gary and Jack are eager

to confirm the potential breakthrough discovery

they made two days ago

of yet another man-made stone pathway in the swamp,

which appears to be leading toward a massive boulder.

This is where the real fun is, Gary.

Yep.

See if we get lucky.

RICK: We have found all of these structures.

They imply purpose, intent.

To me, there's only two trains of thought here

to try to explain the why of the structures

found in the swamp.

One, they were ancillary to other work,

whether that be in the Money Pit or elsewhere.

Or two, there was depositional work in the bog proper

and these facilitated that work.

GARY: Let's see.

Oh, I think we've got a bit of planking here.

JACK: Oh, yeah.

GARY: Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely planking.

Look, it's got that like tongue and groove effect going on it.

-Yeah. -GARY: Wooden planking or siding.

Mm-hmm.

-That looks intentional to me. -GARY: Yeah.

-JACK: More bits of the ship. -GARY: Yeah. For sure.

Good eye, Gary.

Look how deep it came out of.

JACK: Look on the other side, too.

-GARY: Yeah. -JACK: Tongue and groove.

Does that go back quite a long time?

GARY: Yeah.

JACK: All right. I'll set it aside.

GARY: Okay, mate.

We're finding a lot of decking or planks,

which is very interesting

because we are actually way out in the swamp.

Are these planks, these decks part of a mystery ship

waiting to be found in the swamp?

That would be absolutely unbelievable.

It's still sloppy.

-(scraping) -GARY: I hear clanging. Is he hitting rocks?

JACK: Yeah. He's got a rock in his bucket.

Yeah, it's a lot of rocks in line with that big rock

and the shore, but to the side there's none.

Yeah.

If you watch where I put my bucket,

to this side...

...you know, it's-it's nothing there.

-But in here... -(slamming)

Yep.

I think it could be some type of ramp,

leading up around here.

-Yeah. -It could be you're right.

-A ramp for something big. -Mm-hmm.

This is gonna be good.

-RICK: Hey, guys. -GARY AND JACK: Hey, Rick.

-Anything? -JACK: Billy feels like

he might have found some other structure.

It's just hard to see underneath the muck.

Huh, yeah.

Billy, why don't you tell him

what you feel like you can feel?

It's a lot of rocks in line with that big rock.

But as we move this way, there's no stones at all.

RICK: Yeah.

NARRATOR: After being alerted that more of a possible

stone ramp, which may be connected to a large boulder,

has been uncovered in the southeast corner of the swamp,

Rick Lagina joins Billy Gerhardt, Jack Begley

and Gary Drayton to help investigate

the curious feature.

A little bit of mud on top of them,

but they're most definitely there.

RICK: Yeah.

JACK: And this boulder is about the size

of some of those other Nolan's Cross rocks.

Yeah. Definitely conical shape.

NARRATOR: A cone-shaped boulder in the swamp?

And similar to those in Nolan's Cross?

First identified in 1981

by the late Fred Nolan,

Nolan's Cross is a perfectly symmetrical,

megalithic formation of six boulders

near the center of Oak Island.

Over the years,

numerous researchers have speculated

that the cross is a symbol indicating

that the hidden treasure includes

priceless religious artifacts,

such as the Holy Grail.

Nolan's Cross may lead us to a Money Pit location

and where the treasure might be.

NARRATOR: And others, like architect Brian Pharoah,

believe the feature represents a treasure map

which points to the location

of buried valuables in the Money Pit area.

You've got to dig on that side of it and this side of it.

Because then we can shovel it off and take a look.

BILLY: Yeah.

NARRATOR: Could this cone-shaped boulder

and the possible stone ramp

be related to Nolan's Cross?

If so, might they represent clues

that are connected to high-trace evidence of precious metals

that have been detected in the Money Pit?

Or could it be related to valuables that are buried

in the triangle-shaped swamp?

RICK: I would like to know definitively

that the constructs within this body

of the bog are related to the mystery.

Is it perhaps associated with original depositional work?

My hope is that as we excavate the ramp

in association with the stone road,

we will hopefully

find some artifacts that will help with that explanation.

It fits all the parameters.

It's big enough to step on

and it's right at the interface between

the muck and the water.

I mean that's like a Nolan's Cross boulder there.

Yeah. We may have discovered something

really important there, mate.

Just got to work on it, clean it off.

There's no question it's pretty unique.

When you see all the digging we did today, there's

something going on there, so...

-JACK: Yeah. -GARY: Yeah.

If there's a ramp, you know,

there's a possibility of...

defining it and looking for artifacts, so

that might be an "aha" moment.

Yeah.

RICK: So keep digging and see what we see.

BILLY: Okay.

NARRATOR: Later that afternoon...

-ALEX: Thanks, Jack. -LAIRD: Come on in.

NARRATOR: ...at the Interpretive Centre...

-How's it going, Laird? -Hey.

Hey, how are you?

-You called? -I did.

NARRATOR: ...Rick, his nephew Alex, Jack

and Scott Barlow meet with archaeologist Laird Niven

and archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan for an update

on the concrete-like substance that was unearthed

two days ago in the stone foundation on Lot 5.

So, this is a soil sample.

Soil that Jamie thought was mortar.

-Mm-hmm. -And it was

important enough we thought to compare it to some

-of the mortar that we are getting in the Money Pit. -Yeah.

And Emma has the results of the comparisons.

Great.

NARRATOR: In order to analyze

the believed concrete from Lot 5,

Emma has scanned it with an X-ray diffraction device--

or XRD-- which uses X-rays to determine

the chemical composition and physical properties

of materials.

So, I compared it to mortar samples that I have on file,

and it did not match, so it's not mortar.

And it had some differences to...

other soil samples collected from Lot 5.

So I ran a comparison to...

the entire soil database that I have so far.

And on the screen, you can see

a cluster diagram that I have

-of the main soil samples. -Mm-hmm.

And our sample in that grouping,

it's an almost exact match

to a Money Pit sample at a depth of 104 feet.

Wow! That's great.

So, which borehole did this come out of in the Money Pit?

So there's a few.

C-28, C-18.5,

and also the Garden Shaft.

-Okay, great! -Wow.

Amazing.

That's close to our tunnel

below the Garden Shaft.

LAIRD: Explain that.

This soil sample taken from Lot 5 matches with...

Money Pit soil samples found near the Garden Shaft.

-Okay, great! -Wow. -Amazing.

NARRATOR: It is a potentially critical moment for Rick Lagina

and members of the Oak Island team.

LAIRD: I should point out that the little,

tiny piece we thought was mortar,

it's not natural.

ALEX: So it's not naturally occurring.

So it must have been replaced there is what you're saying.

-Yes. -Exactly.

NARRATOR: Archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan has

determined that a mysterious type of artificial soil,

which was recently unearthed in the stone foundation

on Lot 5, matches others that have been collected

by the team some 100 feet deep

in the Money Pit area.

And in the same region as the possible treasure tunnel

located several feet below the Garden Shaft.

LAIRD: We're always looking for a connection between

Lot 5 and the Money Pit.

Didn't think we'd get it from the XRD.

-Yep. Well, this is an exciting possibility. -Mm-hmm, yeah.

And if we think about the interpretation

that we are most interested in, that would be

somebody physically transporting

the same soil from one to the other.

-It doesn't matter which way. -Yeah.

Yes.

Then this might show that the Lot 5 feature

was somehow related to the early excavations

-or the deposit of the treasure. -That's the hope.

ALEX: Yeah, that's one thing we've been looking for on the island

is evidence of people staying here while they did the work.

-We haven't found that at all. -Yeah.

We know that the last reports that we've got on

the wood samples from the tunnel,

there is a strong possibility

that it was pre-searcher from the 1600s.

-Which would be huge. -SCOTT: Which would be huge.

-Yeah. -ALEX: Those dates

do work pretty well with the Phips theory.

Abso-Absolutely.

Phips was in the area.

Yep.

NARRATOR: In early 1687,

the English Naval Captain and politician William Phips

recovered approximately 34 tons

of treasure in the Caribbean Sea from the famed Spanish wreck

known as the Concepción.

Later that year, King James II of England knighted Phips

for his achievement

and ordered him to conduct a second operation

to recover the nearly 65 tons of valuables

that were believed to remain on the wreck

according to its manifest.

Phips made the journey with the help of a Freemason

from Nova Scotia named Andrew Belcher.

But curiously,

they returned with less than two tons of the riches.

I see it as a possible link between Lot 5

and the Money Pit and I think we should try to prove it.

Yeah. Absolutely.

NARRATOR: Could Alex Lagina be correct

that the matching soil samples

from the foundation on Lot 5

and the area around the potentially 17th century

tunnel beneath the Garden Shaft offer evidence

that Phips hid the majority of his discoveries

from the Concepción on Oak Island?

RICK: Here we have a very interesting connection.

I can't deny it.

With these specific timelines

and the significant interest in Lot 5...

...one could make the association

to the salvage of the Concepción.

And it could change the way we perceive

the relationship between Lot 5 and the Money Pit.

But until we get

to the bottom of the excavation,

I think every possibility

is on the table at this point.

That's why it's incumbent on us to

figure out what this structure was.

-Yeah. -RICK: Absolutely.

The association that could be made

is potentially mind-blowing.

Let's just stay the course and move forward.

-Okay. Thanks, Laird. -All right.

-ALEX: Thanks, Emma. -Thank you, Laird.

-EMMA: Thank you. -See you later.

NARRATOR: After more than a decade

of tireless work and perseverance

through numerous unforeseen challenges,

Rick, Marty and their team

may be closer than ever to unearthing the answers

that many before them were unable to reach.

As they dig deeper into the swamp

on Lot 5 and below the Garden Shaft,

will they finally reveal not only

what lies hidden on Oak Island,

but also the truth behind

this 229-year-old mystery?

Or could the next major discovery

that they make unleash a deadly curse?