The Oak Island Mystery: The Secret of the Worlds Greatest Treasure Hunt (Mysteries and Secrets)

Oak Island Money Pit

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McGinnis decided to leave the island to enlist the help of two friends, John Smith and Anthony Vaughan. The following day the three teenage boys began enthusiastically excavating the curious site. One of the reasons McGinnis, Smith and Vaughan were so excited to investigate a dirt depression on an otherwise nondescript island in eastern Canada can be found in an enticing chapter in Nova Scotia's history.

At this time, Nova Scotia had only a few European settlements. With just over nautical miles separating the remote bays of present-day Nova Scotia from the thriving commercial center of colonial Boston, pirates were known to frequent areas near Oak Island. The unpopulated wilderness of the region provided an abundance of natural resources to restock and repair vessels while its isolation proved an ideal place to harbor their vast misbegotten treasure.

In fact, one notorious pirate, the infamous Captain William Kidd, admitted to burying an unspecified wealth of treasure in the area before his capture in Conlin, A long with many residents in the eastern province, the three boys digging on Oak Island must have been aware of the fabled pirates and had notions of gold doubloons in mind. It wasn't long before the young excavators came across buried evidence to further convince their imaginations.

Two feet beneath the topsoil, McGinnis and his friends uncovered a layer of flagstone extending across the surface of the opening Crooker, Excitedly, the boys pulled the rock floor away from the pit to retrieve the golden bounty that must be hidden below.

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Unfortunately for them, the boys only discovered more dirt. Undeterred, they continued their excavation. Any treasure worth finding would certainly require more than two feet of digging. As the teenagers continued burrowing down, they followed the walls of the previous hole.

In doing so, the boys found that the pit had narrowed to seven feet in diameter. They also noticed the work of their predecessors. Imprinted in the clay of the tunnel wall were the impressions of pickaxes. Had these marks been left by pirate laborers before securing their treasure underground?

The adolescent explorers were determined to find out. At a depth of ten feet, the boys discovered a layer composed of rotting wood timbers. The timbers spanned the width of the hole, forming a wooden platform. The ends of the timbers had been driven into the sides of the tunnel wall to firmly anchor the structure. This deliberate barrier and the hollow sound beneath the timbers must have confirmed to the boys that vast wealth was close at hand. The team eagerly continued their efforts, removing the timbers to claim their treasure. Just as before, the enthusiastic excavators were again disappointed.

After taking out the barrier, the boys found a two-foot pocket of air followed by soil that had settled below Lamb, McGinnis and his friends carried on undeterred. Tunneling down to approximately 20 feet, the boys encounter another level of wood timbers. Nevertheless, they continued toiling in the pit, removing one barrier after another in hopes to claim their mysterious reward. When the teenagers pulled away the second platform of wood timbers only to find another layer of soil staring back at them, the team decided to suspend their work at the site Harris, Several weeks later, the young fortune-seekers returned to the pit with their pickaxes and shovels.

However, the second attempt for the boys proved similar to their initial outing. After hours of laboring beneath the June sun, removing ten more feet of dirt from the deepening hole, they were once again confronted by a table of thick timbers embedded in the clay of the tunnel wall Harris and MacPhie, McGinnis and his companions continued down five more feet before defeat set in and the boys stopped their treasure hunt.

A lthough the first attempt proved fruitless, the legend of Oak Island's Money Pit still had many secrets to reveal. Perhaps too convinced of treasure to give up the pursuit, the eldest of the excavators, John Smith, purchased the lot containing the intriguing cavernous pit that same month. However, interest in the peculiar hole was not limited to the teenaged McGinnis, Vaughan and Smith. In fact, more mature and experienced minds would soon succumb to the prospect of wealth contained in those shadowy depths.

According to Harris, in , Simeon Lynds joined the excursion. Lynds was the grandson of a pioneering family from Ireland who settled in Nova Scotia in Rebecca was the fifth daughter of Captain William Blair, a Scottish immigrant who had moved his family north from New England to help suppress the French forces at Louisbourg. Perhaps it was his maternal grandfather's daring nature coursing through his veins when, in , the pit's discoverers convinced Simeon Lynds to continue the hunt.

Lynds was a relative of the Vaughan family and was listed as a "wheel-wright," in historical records. Together, the group established the Onslow Company, a professional venture with the sole purpose of recovering the Oak Island treasure. The renewed effort began in earnest in the summer of That year, the team returned to the pit for what they hoped would be the third and final attempt at uncovering the supposed riches. Lynds and his men started by removing the backfill from the initial excavation. Just as the first team indicated, the Onslow Company noticed marks in the clay walls nearly every ten feet where the wooden timbers had been removed.

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After the first 25 feet, the excavators found themselves in unexplored territory. From this point, every shovelful came with the promise of discovery. At a depth of 30 feet, one of the laborers hit a solid object. Removing the soil, the crew found that another timber level had been installed inside the tunnel Lamb, This time, however, the men noticed the remnants of charcoal scattered around the platform.

Baffled, the crew disposed of the wooden barrier and continued their search. Digging 10 more feet, the enthusiastic men of the Onslow Company found themselves standing on yet another shelf of horizontal timbers. This time, rather than charcoal, the diggers observed a sap-like substance along the seams between the logs. Whatever was stored beneath must have been worth the trouble of encapsulating the tunnel for protection. The men resumed their efforts, encouraged by the added elements of charcoal and sealant. Burrowing another 10 feet, the team encountered something they would have never thought possible.

Atop another platform of timbers were scattered the fibers of coconut shells Harris and MacPhie, To the men, this development seemed to underscore the importance of their efforts. Although the coconut fibers themselves held no commercial value, there were two reasons the Onslow Company crew considered the debris reassuring. First, as could be assumed, coconuts are not native to Canada. The most likely source of this tropical fiber would have been somewhere in the Caribbean.

Secondly, the reason the material probably came from the Caribbean, was that, in a time of long voyages on the high seas, coconut fibers were used to secure and protect valuable cargo. The matted brown fiber could mean a hoard of precious goods was stashed deeper within the pit.

The men wasted no time in dispatching the floor to claim their bounty. To their dismay, the pit was not yet ready to reward the anxious treasure hunters. From the foot depth where the coconut fiber was found, it would take the men another 30 feet of digging and the removal of two additional timber barriers before they would make a significant discovery. There, at a depth of 90 feet beneath the surface of the tiny Canadian island, the weary team of fortune seekers uncovered their first precious stone. What the men found was not a diamond or any type of gem, but a large square-cut stone tablet.

On the face of the heavy stone was an inscription of strange symbols. Each character of the mysterious text consisted of a unique combination of lines, arrows and dots. Despite its significant weight, the crew hoisted the rock from the pit for further examination Lamb, For decades, the encoded message on the face of the rock was thought to be indecipherable.

During this time it was rumored that Smith used it as a fireback in his fireplace, while others claim it was used as a doorstep to a Halifax bookbinder's shop or possibly even displayed in the window as an enticement to potential expedition financiers. It was not until the s that an academic was able to examine the symbols and provide a credible translation. Although this fact, like many involving Oak Island, remains disputed, many believe that Dalhousie University Professor of Languages James Leitchi successfully decoded the tablet's inscription.

Borrowing a page from Edgar Allen Poe's "The Gold Bug," Leitchi employed a technique termed simple substitution cipher whereby unique symbols correlate to specific letters in a given alphabet. For example three vertical lines similar to this " " might substitute for the letter "E. Applying this approach to cryptography, Leitchi resolved that the stone from the Money Pit read Lamb, Since the tablet was discovered 90 feet below ground, excavators subscribing to Leitchi's translation set their sights on a depth of feet.

Given the verbiage used in the text, members of this school also believed the treasure to have been buried by someone of British origin with a flair for the eccentric. To those who hold dearly to legends of pirates and their tie to buried gold, Captain Kidd seemed a likely candidate to construct the elaborate pit and create the mysterious stone. With the stone out of their path, the men of the Onslow Company resumed the excavation. Expecting to dig 10 more feet before hitting another timber structure, the team was surprised when, at a depth of 98 feet, they found their next wooden obstacle.

At that point, the men were exhausted from a strenuous day. The workers decided to make one last cursory attempt before resting. Rather than go through the effort of removing the logs, one of the workers used a crowbar to probe between the timbers to ensure treasure was not immediately beneath their feet. The metal rod pierced a sealed seam between two of the timbers to feel for any potentially valuable objects Crooker, With no evidence of impending fortune, the team retired for the day.

When the members of the Onslow Company returned to the site, they found themselves confronted by another unexpected challenge. It turns out that while the team took time to rest, much of the cavernous pit had filled with water. Now, the prospect of retrieving any sort of riches lay nearly 63 feet beneath a watery chamber.

The startled crew desperately began filling buckets to drain the pit. Feverishly, they scooped away the cloudy water without success. It soon occurred to the hapless crew that every time water was removed from the well, it was somehow instantly replaced. Colonel Robert Archibald noted this peculiar situation and temporarily seized operations at the site Lamb, The Onslow Company promptly realized that the sophistication of the pit would require more than mere brute force to burrow past levels of dirt and timber.

Somehow, the tunnel had been engineered to toy with men as they sought her fortune. Staring into a well that could hold unfathomable fortunes, the members of the Onslow Company refused to admit defeat. Instead, in autumn of , the group decided to employ technology to overcome the pit's defiance. To this end, they hired Mr. Carl Mosher and his mechanical pump to clear the tunnel and allow the men to resume their work. Immediately after Mosher installed and operated the pump, the company appeared to have finally earned a streak of luck. The water level slowly began to recede down the clay wall.

Perhaps the water was a minor stumbling block that would only serve to rinse the gold coins before their retrieval Crooker, Then, at a depth of approximately 90 feet, just eight feet shy of where they had previously left off, Mosher's water pump failed along with the excavators' short-lived fortune. Without the pump functioning, water steadily returned to the pit, dissolving the crew's hopes of a hasty solution. The team decided to retreat and regroup. The following year, the Onslow Company returned to the pit with a new idea to capture the treasure.

Despite the first two attempts depleting much of company's financial resources, the men believed this new approach would more than pay for past failures. Rather than concentrate on the pit itself, in the Onslow Company determined that they could bypass all of the tunnel's snares by simply avoiding the pit altogether Lamb, Their revised strategy included excavating a shaft parallel to the pit. At about feet, once the men were beneath the supposed water trap, they would tunnel over towards the pit to collect the treasure and return to the surface.

The crew would be back on the mainland, celebrating their newfound wealth in a matter of weeks. The site of the auxiliary tunnel was situated 14 feet southeast of the original hole Harris and MacPhie, Eagerly, the men set to work, their shovels flinging dirt from the promising new shaft. It was not long, however, before the promise faded to disillusionment. At a depth of just 12 feet, water found its way into the new tunnel.

With dampened spirits and drained finances, the Onslow Company finally was forced to accept defeat. F ollowing the Onslow Expedition, the strange site on Oak Island lay undisturbed and submerged beneath volumes of water for nearly 40 years. Then, in , fervor for the entombed mystery was reawakened.

That year a member of the original dig, Anthony Vaughan, helped form the Truro Company. David Barnes Lynds Harris, With this team, the Truro syndicate represented an impressive collection of qualified and respected individuals. In spite of the ambition surrounding the newly formed Truro Company, the men did not start further exploration until With improved funding and organization, the Truro Company began the fourth attempt at solving the Oak Island mystery.

In the summer of , the team arrived at the site and continued where the Onslow Company left off; removing water from the pit. After two weeks of laboring against the debris and water of the pit, the crew achieved a depth of 86 feet. These gains, however, did not last. The next day, workers were perplexed to find that the surface of the water had returned to 60 feet Crooker, Decidedly more prepared than their predecessors, the Truro Company was determined to reveal the tunnel's contents, even if human hands did not make the initial discovery.

Seeing that the water had returned, the men fashioned a wood platform that they mounted over the mouth of the pit. Through an opening in the floor of the structure, the men plunged a hand-operated auger into the waters below. They hoped this contraption would give them an idea of what was buried beyond the foot deep timber floor. The results of the remote probing could not have been anticipated by even the most optimistic among them Harris and MacPhie, According to Crooker, the auger initially only confirmed information the men already knew At a depth of about 98 feet, the auger came in contact with a layer of spruce approximately 6 inches deep.

Following the log surface, the auger sunk through one foot absent of any material. This was consistent with Vaughan's past experiences with the pit. After every wooden platform, the excavators found a pocket of air from dirt that had settled below. To Vaughan and the others, it would follow that after another nine feet; the auger would again reach a wood surface and repeat the process.

Surprisingly, the hand-powered drill delivered very different results. Beneath the layer of settled dirt, the Truro Company noticed that the auger then penetrated a series of strata consisting of 4 inches of oak, followed by 6 inches of spruce, before entering seven feet of clay. To the crew, the oak and spruce represented more than just a new configuration of wood platforms.

After so many failed attempts, this could finally be a chest containing the riches they sought. When the operators withdrew their probe from the pit, they were given even more reason for excitement. Attached to the auger, the men of the Truro Company found three small links of gold chain Lamb, Between the wooden object buried beneath the timbers and the metal retrieved by the auger, the men were certain of their victory. Bolstered by the success of their initial drilling, the Truro Company sent the auger down for another attempt. This time the probe was cast to feet beneath the surface.

At this depth, the auger hit another platform of timbers. Although no additional gold was retrieved from this drilling, the device did produce further confirmation of oak and coconut fibers. With the exception of gold coins, the drilling had produced convincing proof that some sort of cache lie buried below. Perhaps the most convincing evidence that treasure was close at hand was furnished by human behavior amongst the team. According to Lamb, Truro Company foreman James Pitblado did something very peculiar following the fourth drilling As the auger brought materials to the surface, other crewmembers witnessed Pitblado wipe dirt off an object before discreetly slipping the item into his pocket.

The Last Great Unsolved Mystery

Several accounts of the event indicate that immediately after this episode, Pitblado left the island and relinquished all ties to the Truro Company expedition. Although Pitblado disappeared that day, he would not be absent from the narrative for long. Whatever Pitblado pocketed from the drilling debris had inspired him to petition the provincial authorities for a license to conduct his own excavation on the island.

To help back his venture, Pitblado convinced lawyer and recognized businessman Charles Dickson Archibald to join him. Unfortunately for the two, the only official privilege they were granted by the government was the right to continue their search on "ungranted and unoccupied" lands. Essentially, the splinter group of fortune hunters could only seek treasure on property not already deeded to a private owner Crooker, This restriction barred the men from exploring the enigmatic Money Pit. After a rejected attempt to purchase the lot containing the pit, Pitblado and Archibald were forced to leave finding the potential riches to the Truro Company.

Archibald eventually retired to England while the duplicitous Pitblado and his unknown trophy disappeared into the fog of history. Despite the promising developments in , the men of the Truro Company left the site for the season. When they returned in the summer of , the team brought with them a renewed sense of purpose and a refined strategy to extract their wealth.

Similar to the Onslow Company's second effort, the members of the Truro Company devised a plan that would descend a shaft parallel to the original tunnel. At a depth of feet, the new tunnel would burrow horizontally, thereby entering the Money Pit Harris and MacPhie, A daring spelunker would then collect the coffers and return to the surface to celebrate. As could be expected, the island would not succumb so easily. Similar to previous attempts, before the adjacent access shaft could reach the intended depth, the new tunnel filled with water.

While not the result the crew had intended, this episode did offer an important discovery. As the team worked to drain the deluge, the laborers made two valuable observations.

Oak Island mystery

First, the water present in the shaft was salty. Second, the level of the water rose and fell with the tide. Although simple, these observations had profound implications. Previously the company thought that the Money Pit was being inundated with water as either part of a complicated trap or as a result of the natural water table. Now the team knew that somehow it was the surrounding sea that flooded their excavations. Equipped with this new knowledge, the Truro Company investigated the area for more clues.

As though a veil had been lifted, the men discovered that a southern portion of the island's shore was actually manmade Crooker, The company decided to build a temporary rock dam in Smith's Cove to see if the key to the mystery could be found outside the actual tunnel. With the water held behind the cofferdam, the crew uncovered remnants of a previous dam as well as five peculiar vent openings.

Tracing the vents back to shore, the investigators tried to determine whether the shafts converged into one before continuing inland toward the pit. Here, their suspicions were confirmed. In order to drain the Money Pit, the team would either have to empty the Atlantic Ocean or obstruct the feeder vent that connected the five shafts to the tunnel.

They chose the latter. After two attempts to find the feeder vent, the crew succeeded and wedged wood pilings into the shaft to prevent further flooding. Thinking they could now remove the water and claim any treasure, the men were puzzled to find that, despite their best efforts, the water level refused to lower. The confused Truro Company ultimately broke camp and left empty-handed from the expedition. Deflated and destitute, the company disbanded the following year Harris, I n spring of , the next group of hopeful treasure hunters was formed.

They were named the Oak Island Association. Under the agreement to give the property owner, Anthony Graves, one third of all findings, the group began work at the Money Pit Crooker, At first, the men of the new expedition found the task to be an easier challenge than expected.

They soon had cleared the main tunnel down to 88 feet, and had excavated two parallel tunnels to and feet all with no sign of flooding. The foot shaft was dug 18 feet west of the Money Pit.

The plan was, at that depth, the excavators would begin tunneling east to access the entombed loot. However, just one foot from penetrating the Money Pit, water flooded the access tunnel Harris and MacPhie, With so little earth between them and the promise of treasure, the Oak Island Association utilized a pumping gin to clear their watery path. After three desperate days of trying to drain the shaft with no results, the company turned their efforts towards the other access tunnel 25 feet from the Money Pit.

Already at a depth of feet with no sign of water, the crew determined to burrow horizontally from this new direction. Here again, with the main chamber just feet away, the second access tunnel was inundated with water Crooker, For two days, the 63 men of the company struggled to dredge the shaft to no avail. Down but not out, the team decided to send surveyors into one of the access tunnels in an effort to assess the cause of the flooding. As two men labored in the shaft, those aboveground heard a loud crash.

The thankful surveyors made it out alive as water began rushing into the tunnel. With everyone safely at the surface, the crew heard another startling sound. This time it was the Money Pit causing the commotion. According to Harris, beneath the weight of the oncoming water, the timbering installed to support the sides of the Money Pit collapsed everywhere below 30 feet from the opening Along with the partial wall collapse, further inspection revealed that the bottom of the tunnel had also given way. The depth of the hole now stood at approximately feet.

Although startling, no one was injured during the event. On the contrary, this episode may have helped heal the concerns of the team. As it turned out, when the floor of the Money Pit failed during the flood, pieces of debris from below washed upward through the murky water. When the men inspected the scene, they discovered several curious items including the bottom of a yellow dish, a piece of Juniper worked at either end of the wood, an oak timber, and a spruce slab scarred by the hole left by a drilling auger Crooker, A s the digging season moved forward, the Oak Island Association remained steadfast in their efforts.

Perhaps encouraged by the debris, the men installed a cast iron pump and steam engine to dispatch the water in the pit. Although pumping operations on Oak Island had become a standard practice for teams of treasure hunters, this particular attempt would have a lasting impression on the hopeful crew. In fall of , as the company struggled to drain the tunnel, a boiler exploded fatally scalding one operator and injuring several others.

To the regret of many, it would not be the last. Despite the tragedy, the men of the Oak Island Association returned to the site over the next four years. Following the incident, much of the group's efforts involved locating and obstructing the feeder tunnels from Smith Cove thought to be responsible for the flooding.

Although these attempts also failed to produce results, there was no further loss of life among the ranks of the Oak Island Association. In , the company relinquished its rights to search for treasure at the site, ending a costly and tragic campaign in the Oak Island narrative. I neffective attempts by misbegotten treasure hunters persisted for much of the 19th century, with little more than mounting debt and sinking hopes to show for the investment. Then, in , excitement for the enigmatic tunnel was reignited when a one and a half ounce copper coin was discovered on the island Harris and MacPhie, Although the copper piece was found outside of the Money Pit, to many observers, it served as yet another testament to the wealth buried below.

Energized by the new potential, in Frederick Blair and S. Despite the enthusiasm of the Oak Island Treasure Company, the organization's efforts proved despairing even from the start. Initially, when the fledgling association met in Truro to appoint officer positions and generate revenue, the group was unable to raise enough capital to cover the purchase of a pump Harris, Without this essential piece of equipment, the company would scarcely be able to move forward with the expedition. Regardless, the group decided to take aggressive action and began a deliberate excavation in Unfortunately for the crew, they had unknowingly been laboring within one of the auxiliary access tunnels 10 feet northwest of the Money Pit itself.

To make matters worse, the team had dug down to 55 feet before the chamber was inundated with water and work was interrupted Harris and MacPhie, Several months later, the Oak Island Treasure Company was confronted by additional difficulties. In September of , the Attorney General of Nova Scotia informed Frederick Blair that, in spite of the lease agreement, any treasure acquired as a result of their expedition belonged to the Queen, represented by the provincial government. To encourage continued digging, officials of Nova Scotia agreed to claim only a portion of the riches recovered from the island Harris, The following year, with the assistance of a new pump, the company returned to Oak Island.

However, this attempt proved uneventful when, at a depth of 70 feet, the pump failed to keep up with the water flow and work was suspended Crooker, However, the trend toward the mundane was abandoned in when tragedy again visited the island. On March 26th of that year, a man named Maynard Kaiser was working in one of the many shafts drilled into the terrain. As he was being hoisted to the surface, the ascension rope carrying Kaiser slipped from the pulley, casting him back into the shaft to his death Fanthorpe, Following the accident, several crewmembers felt convinced that the treasure was either cursed or protected by a malevolent spirit and refused to descend into the Money Pit.

Whether or not they were confronting a paranormal guardian, in June of the Oak Island Treasure Company again tried their luck at acquiring the presumed fortune. After only moderate success in draining the Money Pit, the team followed the lead of their predecessors and relied on drilling to uncover whatever was buried below.

Unbeknownst to the company, their findings that day would taunt innumerable imaginations for years to come. According to Lamb, the team first drilled down feet, encountering a five-inch layer of oak before hitting an impenetrable iron surface The men moved their drill one foot from the initial hole and executed a second attempt. Here, the auger passed through layers of soft stone, oak and a deposit that seemed to consist of loose pieces of metal. Encouraged by the results, the team sent the drill back down the same borehole.

At a depth of approximately feet, the drill again came in contact with what the team perceived to be loose metal. Beneath the supposed metal the auger encountered the same iron barrier and could not descend further. When the drill returned to the surface and the team examined the boring extracted from the pit, excitement soon faded. Despite the layer thought to be loose metal, the men only found pieces of coconut fiber, oak splinters and loose debris.

At first, this appeared to be no different than previous attempts. However, upon closer examination, the debris pulled from the tunnel that day would ultimately invite theories once considered outlandish. While the men continued drilling at the site, the extracted debris was transported to a courthouse in Amherst, Nova Scotia. Porter subjected the materials to closer examination. After scrutinizing the Oak Island debris, Dr.

Porter made an alarming discovering. Amongst the dirt and rubble, he found an unmistakable piece of parchment. Further distinguishing the fragment was what appeared to be the letters "VI" written on one side of the material Crooker, Eventually the tiny script was inspected by Harvard University specialists who verified its authenticity Harris, Another discovery made during that excavation only came to light many years following the summer of As indicated by Lamb, during that fateful excavation, drill operator William Chappell found traces of gold sediment on the auger after drilling into the Money Pit Similar to James Pitblado, formerly of the Truro Company, Chappell hid his valuable discovery from fellow crewmembers.

It was not until that Chappell's findings would come to light. T he next year, a less lucrative yet equally significant discovery was made. Given the amount of flooding in the Money Pits and surrounding auxiliary holes, excavators believed the tunnels were somehow interconnected, forming a sophisticated labyrinth. The crew reasoned that by tracing the path of the pigment, they could determine the locations of the various flood channels and ultimately obstruct them once and for all. When the team set their plan into motion, they were astonished to find the dye streaming out from the shoreline at distant points around the island's perimeter.

Perhaps most astonishing was that the coloring did not appear in Smith Bay where structures thought to be flood tunnels were located in Harris, Further perplexing the crew was that, after multiple attempts to dynamite the feeder channels, they seemed unable to clog the pathways and prevent further flooding. Despite the increase in capital and experience the excavators received from the acquisition, success eluded the teams throughout the early s. T o claim that all of the treasure hunters were somehow misguided would undermine the credibility of even an acclaimed United States president.

The affluent, Harvard-educated Roosevelt spent that summer off the shores of Nova Scotia, as hopeful to find the treasure as any who had preceded him.

See a Problem?

According to written correspondence, Roosevelt nurtured an interest in the Oak Island mystery well into his presidency. In a letter to a friend, the president intimated his intentions to return to the island on Mahone Bay, but was prevented from doing so by the outbreak of war in Europe University Archives, O riginally part of the Oak Island Treasure Company, William Chappell was noted to have found traces of gold on an auger during an excavation. Although he initially kept his discovery a secret, many years later Chappell confided the details of what he had found to Frederick Blair.

In an effort to garner Blair's support as well as his permission to drill at the site, Chappell described his encounter with the gold dust. Convinced of their impending fortune, Blair signed on with the new expedition under Chappells Limited of Sydney, Nova Scotia Crooker, The two men along with Chappell's brother Renerick, son Melbourne and nephew Claude, began work in Like many before them, the group found themselves with far more enthusiasm than solutions.

The first problem they faced was discerning exactly which hole in the ground was actually the Money Pit. By that year, the site had undergone nearly a century and a half of excavation efforts, marring the island's surface with shaft openings. Mistakenly, the team ended up drilling approximately six feet south of the Money Pit Harris, The duration of the Chappell expedition was short-lived; only active for one digging season. However, the team was able to make several astonishing discoveries during their brief stay. All between and feet deep in their new shaft, the men recovered an anchor flute sunk into the side of the tunnel, an implement resembling a year-old Acadian axe, a miner's pick and the remnants of an oil lamp with seal oil Crooker, Adding to the intrigue of the site, Mel Chappell also located a triangular formation of stones situated along the south shore of the island.

Individually, each of these findings would be significant, but together, perhaps they provided more insight into the mystery of the island. A man named Gilbert Hedden initiated the next significant effort at Oak Island. While several of his predecessors were qualified and even intellectual men, Hedden had perhaps the best combination of resources to be successful at extracting the fabled treasure. In this capacity, Hedden grew increasingly familiar with the application of structural steel in engineering. His career also provided Hedden with the financial means to pursue the promise of the Money Pit when his company was purchased by the Bethlehem Steel Company in Something beyond price still lies waiting in the labrinth.

Paperback , pages. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Oak Island Mystery , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about The Oak Island Mystery. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. This book is divided into two nearly equal halves. The first half contains a brief telling of the history of the Island as well as its mystery, followed by chronological telling of history's attempts to reach the bottom of the mystery: Each ending with the same result: The second part of the book details, quite haphazardly at times, the working theories of jus This book is divided into two nearly equal halves.

The second part of the book details, quite haphazardly at times, the working theories of just who, how and why the mystery exists. From the plausible to the obscured, I lost interest when the wheel fell off the wagon with regards to the Bible's Melchizedek involvement, UFOs, and ghosts. This book seems to deserve a split decision rating - searcher activity: Jul 01, Tokoro rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: I picked this up thinking it would be a grea, exciting romp, but what I got instead was much better! I'm no Erik Graff but I found these authors to be able researchers, weighing all the possibilities fairly and cogently not jumping to conclusions because of an exciting or preferred explanation , and describing the progress of the expeditions very well with an admirable precision.

The association of the Old Testament's Melchizedek with the scribe of the Egyptian gods, Thoth and the clarification I picked this up thinking it would be a grea, exciting romp, but what I got instead was much better! The association of the Old Testament's Melchizedek with the scribe of the Egyptian gods, Thoth and the clarification of the grail probably being tablets rather than the Passover cup and it's connection to the mystery was intriguing.

When I become curious about the paranormal and other unexplained mysteries, I will definitely return to this husband-wife team. Highly recommended for clarity, logic, detail and combinatorial-learned grasp of what's at hand. Very much in the style of Ancient Aliens TV show I want to read more. I love Ancient Aliens and Georgio's hair Dave Sadler rated it it was amazing Feb 02, Dundurn Press rated it it was amazing Apr 03, Larry rated it it was ok May 05, Brian rated it liked it May 26, Mark rated it really liked it Apr 13, Lisa Leatherby rated it really liked it Jan 22, Jessie rated it it was amazing Jul 24, Allie rated it it was amazing Feb 18, William Kasza rated it did not like it Mar 04, Dana rated it it was ok Mar 14, David Pascarella rated it liked it Oct 21,

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