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00:00Tonight, on The Curse of Oak Island...
00:03I got a signal!
00:04Oh, look at that.
00:05Hell yeah.
00:06Isn't that amazing?
00:07This, I would actually date mid-1700s to late-1700s.
00:10That could be pre-Searcher.
00:11This could be pre-Searcher.
00:13It demonstrates wealth, nobility.
00:16Wow.
00:17Some prominent person was on Oak Island pre-Money Pit.
00:20Yeah.
00:21That's great.
00:22Where's the gold?
00:23Whoa!
00:24We could have just pierced the tunnel or chamber.
00:26There could be a treasure vault.
00:30There is an island in the North Atlantic,
00:34where people have been looking for an incredible treasure
00:37for more than 200 years.
00:40So far, they have found a stone slab
00:44with strange symbols carved into it.
00:46Man-made workings that date to medieval times.
00:50And a lead cross whose origin may be connected
00:54to the Knights Templar.
00:56To date, six men have died trying to solve the mystery.
01:01And according to legend, one more will have to die
01:07before the treasure can be found.
01:09A bright new morning has dawned on Oak Island.
01:27Settling down again.
01:28That's not good.
01:30But in the Money Pit area...
01:32That side again.
01:33This is really bad.
01:35A chilling crisis has developed for brothers Rick
01:39and Marty Lagina and their team.
01:41It's just falling in.
01:43I got this side coming up.
01:45I think we need to redo this bad and compact it around it.
01:49All right, here's what I think happened.
01:53This casing was at 160 feet, plus or minus.
01:58Simultaneously, all kinds of collapse occurred
02:01around the top of this casing.
02:04That's right.
02:05Yeah.
02:06In a rather scary fashion.
02:08One day ago, after representatives from Rock Equipment
02:13and SB Canada excavated a seven-foot diameter steel shaft
02:18known as True Believer 1, down to a depth of 160 feet.
02:26That ain't good.
02:27Hey, stop.
02:29It's caving.
02:31The earth surrounding the steel caissons
02:34suddenly began to cave in.
02:36We're caving.
02:37This has caused the team to halt the excavation
02:40and backfill tons of soil and gravel around the shaft
02:44in the hopes of preventing a catastrophic collapse.
02:49Now I'm going to stray into what I think it means.
02:52For something to fall, it has to fall into a void of some sort.
02:57It can't fall into solid rock.
02:59It can't fall into clay.
03:00One more thing, though.
03:01Go ahead, yes.
03:02What Vanessa said.
03:03Remember, she said they were keeping an eye on the can.
03:05They didn't think things were coming in.
03:07Meaning it wasn't creating its own void.
03:11No.
03:12We probably removed whatever is the sort of natural seal there.
03:16And I think all that material collapsed all the way down the hole.
03:20Yeah.
03:21If there was still a tunnel or chamber down there,
03:23we could have just pierced the roof of it.
03:25Well, that's a good point.
03:26Possibly.
03:27I guess it could be it.
03:28The treasure vault.
03:29Yeah.
03:30We could have collapsed into that, I suppose.
03:34When the cave-in began, as the TB1 shaft approached a depth of 160 feet,
03:41the team was anxiously hoping that it would encounter the fabled Chapel Vault.
03:46A seven-foot-tall, concrete-encased wooden chest that treasure hunters Frederick Blair and William
03:53Chapel reportedly drilled into at a depth of 153 feet back in 1897.
04:01Curiously, this is the same area where recent groundwater testing has revealed high trace evidence of gold, silver, and other metals.
04:12However, this is also where previous searchers have constructed tunnels and shafts during the past two centuries,
04:20which have left various voids and decayed structures deep underground.
04:25I think it's going to be either original works or some undocumented searcher shaft or tunnel or treasure.
04:33Now, it is the team's hope that ROC and SB Canada can stabilize the area and keep digging
04:41to determine whether the team has simply penetrated an abandoned searcher structure or a vault that contains the treasure
04:49that people have been trying to unearth since 1795.
04:53The collapse feature in this area could represent a variety of different things.
04:58It might suggest a chamber, a void, or a tunnel.
05:03Sure, that's exciting, interesting.
05:05But paramount importance, again, priority number one is to keep everyone safe and address the situation
05:11and hopefully continue to advance the camp.
05:14Here comes Vanessa.
05:16What happened?
05:17Where can I get water?
05:18We can get you water.
05:19Okay.
05:20Yeah, we want to introduce water, get some more hydrostatic head pressure in there
05:24because it's getting tight on us.
05:26So...
05:27How much water?
05:28What do you need?
05:29I would like to fill up my can all the way, so I need to fill 50 feet.
05:32Seven foot diameter.
05:33We'll get you the water.
05:34Okay.
05:36In an attempt to prevent further collapsing around and beneath the TB1 shaft,
05:42the team will fill it with thousands of gallons of water.
05:43The team will fill it with thousands of gallons of water.
05:47This will help stabilize the shaft and voids beneath it, allowing the 18 and a half ton hammer grab to remove more spoils and hopefully valuables from deep below.
05:59We're in a void underground that we're unfamiliar with.
06:02It could be a vault, meaning potentially treasure.
06:06That could be the mystery.
06:08That could be where it is.
06:10There's some pretty good reasons to keep trying.
06:14So we're going to pull out the decks.
06:17It's going to take us a little time, level everything, add some water to the can, and then re-go at it.
06:22Okay.
06:23Okay.
06:24Cool.
06:25Well, what did we know at the beginning of the year?
06:27We'd have surprises.
06:28Yeah.
06:29Well, we just got one.
06:30And a hell of a lot of work.
06:32Yes, there's all kinds of potential difficulties to work through.
06:36Everyone that came before us had problems.
06:39I don't know.
06:40I'm super optimistic that we won't have any further issues, but maybe I'm wrong.
06:44Oh, yeah.
06:45I actually think we will finish this hole.
06:46Yeah.
06:47I mean, it's best guess at this point, but...
06:49Well, we definitely don't want to give up.
06:51No.
06:52We've got a lot to look forward to.
06:53To look down to.
06:54Oh, yeah.
06:55We can figure it out.
06:57Oh, yeah.
06:58As the efforts to locate a fabled treasure vault continue in the Money Pit area.
07:03Morning.
07:04Hey, guys.
07:05How are you?
07:06Hanging in there, ready for some big revelations.
07:08Well, this could be the spot to find some.
07:11The Laginas and Gary join Crank Tester, fellow Oak Island landowner Tom Nolan, and other members
07:17of the team in the northern region of the swamp.
07:21Rick's been wanting to dig this forever, 15 years or so.
07:25It is here where they are searching for caches of valuables that may lie hidden outside of the
07:32Money Pit area.
07:33The thing about this place is it's all about your dad to me.
07:38Yeah.
07:39You know, he believed that there was something here to find.
07:41So let's get out of the machine.
07:43Let's position it.
07:44Let's get to it.
07:45Let's dig.
07:46I want to get dirty.
07:50In 1969, legendary treasure hunter Fred Nolan drained the swamp and was shocked to discover
08:00pieces of large sailing vessels.
08:03He also found 16th century wooden survey stakes, tools that Fred believed had been used to create
08:10the brackish fog in order to hide numerous caches of valuables.
08:16Seems to be quite a few more rocks at least right in through here.
08:20Incredibly, several weeks ago, after uncovering a cobblestone pathway and a number of additional
08:28survey stakes in the northern region of the swamp, the team discovered an empty vault-like
08:34structure made of brick and slate.
08:37This is going to have some real answers.
08:40I really believe that.
08:41Now, along with Fred's son, Tom, Rick, Marty, and Craig are searching several yards to the
08:49north.
08:50It is their hope that they will uncover similar hidden structures that will prove Fred's theory
08:56to be true.
08:57If we find another of these vaults, we can only assume something was hidden here.
09:02And hopefully, whatever was once here is still here.
09:11I got a signal.
09:12I'm going to shut him down, Tom.
09:17Let me see if it's close to the surface.
09:20I'll try pinpointing it first.
09:22All right.
09:23OK.
09:24Fine.
09:25I could save you some digging.
09:26Yeah.
09:34It's there.
09:41Not written a dress.
09:42That's not it, is it?
09:43That was brick.
09:44You see that bit of brick in the hole there?
09:48A piece of brick buried in the northern region of the swamp?
09:57Could the team have discovered evidence that an important structure, or vault, is hidden
10:02nearby?
10:03Here, put it in my pocket.
10:05Just goes to show we're not missing anything, though.
10:07I'd say exactly that.
10:08Yep.
10:09The swamp has always been a mystery.
10:16That's the nature of the swamp on Oak Island.
10:19But by digging in this new area, we're hoping to find clues to what happened here.
10:24We have to follow the clues.
10:30Hey!
10:32What's that?
10:34Coming in, Alan.
10:39Ooh!
10:40Look at that!
10:42This is impressive.
10:46Oh, look at that.
10:51Really nice-looking, sharp and state.
10:56Isn't that amazing?
10:57It just looks like the day it went in the ground.
10:59Yeah, yeah.
11:00It sounded dune, wasn't it?
11:01Yeah.
11:02This is impressive.
11:03In the northern region of the Oak Island swamp...
11:06Here's another one right here.
11:08...Rick and Marty Lagina and members of the team have just discovered two more hand-cut
11:14wooden survey stakes.
11:16What is that?
11:17Two stakes.
11:18Now the question is, could they be clues to validate Fred Nolan's theory that hidden valuables
11:25might also be found in this area?
11:27Are these the first ones that have been found on this side?
11:31No, years ago we found two or three closer to the road.
11:36But this is the first ones I know of that were found this deep into the swamp on this side.
11:41I think Steve should come out and GPS this, because then he can see if there's continuity
11:46here or something different.
11:48Yeah.
11:49Okay.
11:50I'm pretty sure he's coming out right now.
11:52The plan for the swamp, of course, is to follow the line of survey stakes.
11:57But the hope is that as we follow these clues, they will lead to some greater understanding
12:05of what might be here in the bogsburg.
12:08Hey, Steve.
12:09Hey, guys.
12:10What I'm going to do is I'm going to hop down and I'll grab the areas or the two exact locations
12:15of those stakes.
12:16Okay.
12:17Steve, you want to hop down and pin this?
12:18Sure do.
12:19There you go, mate.
12:20Check out this wood.
12:22Let's see that top one.
12:23I don't know why two are together.
12:25That's odd.
12:26That's not the pattern we've seen.
12:28So this line of survey stakes projects to an area where we found all of those wooden stakes.
12:33Nice.
12:34Yep.
12:35I mean, that's perfectly online almost, so I would keep following them.
12:39Yep.
12:40I'm not surprised at all when Steve asserts that the stakes line up with previous stakes
12:46that have been found in the bog.
12:48This took some time and some effort to lay out this line.
12:52Maybe this line has another purpose and relates to another as of yet unknown discovery.
12:58So what I'll do is continue to confirm the line as far as I can walk.
13:02Okay.
13:03Thanks, Steve.
13:04Thanks, Steve.
13:05Good.
13:06Let's dig.
13:07Look at that.
13:08There's a bunch of cobble here.
13:10I don't know if you can see it or not.
13:13It's just right here.
13:15And it's going that way.
13:16Yeah.
13:17More cobblestones found near the hand-hewn survey stakes?
13:22Is it possible that the team has indeed uncovered another section of the cobblestone pathway?
13:29If so, could it lead the team to a vault that still contains something of incredible value?
13:36Yeah.
13:37It's almost like they're stacked.
13:38That's a Spooner question.
13:40Yep.
13:41That's a Spooner question.
13:43There certainly appears to be a structure in the north end of the bog, so I want Dr. Spooner
13:49to come and render an opinion about whether or not it is a man-made structure.
13:55It looks stacked, but I don't know.
13:58I don't know.
13:59We have to follow this.
14:00There's no question about it.
14:01Yeah.
14:02I want to keep digging.
14:03Okay.
14:04Let's keep digging.
14:05Yep.
14:10The following morning, as the team from Rock Equipment works to stabilize the ground
14:16around the TB1 caisson.
14:19We have in front of us several things that hopefully will make us true believers because
14:24they came out of TB1, True Believer 1.
14:27Marty Lagina, Craig Tester, and other members of the team join archaeologist Laird Niven
14:33and archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan in the Oak Island lab.
14:37And we have four of them right here.
14:39They are eager to hear Laird and Emma's scientific analysis of several nails that were
14:45recently unearthed from more than 100 feet deep in the TB1 shaft.
14:50I'll turn it over to Emma.
14:52Based on the composition and the X-ray characteristics, the first three nails I would put comfortably
14:57within early to mid-1800s.
15:00And there is a potential that it could be late-1700s.
15:04Okay.
15:05The last nail I would actually date older and based on its X-ray behavior, possibly within
15:14mid-1700s to late-1700s.
15:17If you had to opine, these three are searcher and that one might be pre-searcher.
15:23So I'd say this has the most possibility of being pre-searcher.
15:27Yeah.
15:28Because more than a dozen searcher companies have constructed shafts over the past two centuries
15:35in the area where the team is currently excavating TB1.
15:40It is not surprising that some artifacts will date to after the discovery of the money pit.
15:46However, could the team have also found a nail that was used by whomever buried the fabled
15:53chapel vault?
15:54Compositionally, they're all fairly similar.
15:56Could that mean that they are closer than ever to potentially recovering it?
16:01Thanks, Emma.
16:02You know, we're getting a lot of information and we brought this stuff up.
16:06So what's sitting down below in the loose clay area that could sink on down?
16:11Yeah.
16:12Well, let's get back at it and try and find something even better.
16:16Thank you all.
16:17Okay.
16:18Take care.
16:19Good luck.
16:20Later that afternoon...
16:21Hey, Marty.
16:22How deep are we?
16:24They're making progress.
16:25Slow but steady.
16:26Marty Lagina returns to the money pit area.
16:30After being informed that the process to stabilize the TB1 caisson appears to have been successful,
16:37and the dig has now resumed.
16:39We got, I'd say, 48 or 49 yards of crushed stone down in that hole.
16:45Vanessa's coming in.
16:47Where's the gold?
16:48Hey, gentlemen.
16:49So how are we doing?
16:51Well, we're doing better.
16:52We're doing better.
16:53So the water is definitely helping.
16:54The water did its trick.
16:55Yeah, the water's doing its thing.
16:57We're dropping the tape down past my casing now.
17:00So, um, right now my dig, depth of hole is at 164 and 6 inches.
17:05Deeper than...
17:06No plug.
17:07No plug.
17:08The so-called plug refers to the earth or spoils contained inside of the steel caissons.
17:17However, since Vanessa is reporting that there is no plug within TB1, that means it and any potential manmade objects have fallen to somewhere below.
17:29He is dropping it down and he's hitting something very hard all the way around.
17:33We think it's rock.
17:36Sure there's not a cave or a cavity.
17:38Pretty sure there is.
17:40This must be the solution channel.
17:42Yeah, we're on the ledge and we got a hole.
17:44The solution cavity or a solution channel, we believe it's natural and it underlies a good bit of this.
17:49So you're on the edge, that's why your plug is going down.
17:53So we could have collapsed into that, I suppose.
17:59During previous core drilling operations in the Money Pit area, the team has repeatedly encountered a large natural cavity that was created by flowing groundwater in the bedrock, known as the solution channel, between 160 and 180 feet underground.
18:18If Marty and Terry are correct that TB1 has now entered the solution channel, could that explain what caused the earth to collapse around the shaft?
18:28And if so, could that also mean that the fabled chapel vault has fallen into it?
18:35This hole, TB1, goes to the bottom of that solution channel.
18:39That could be the answer.
18:40That could be where this treasure resides at this point.
18:43So we need to get down in that solution channel.
18:45As we break through this shelf in the bedrock, we hope to get into the area where the treasure might have fallen to in the relative of soft material.
18:52Yes.
18:53We're about ready to stack another can.
18:54We're going to add some more water and keep going down.
18:57Okay.
18:59All right.
19:00Thank you, Vanessa.
19:01I'll keep my fingers crossed.
19:05All right.
19:06There she goes.
19:07Let's oscillate.
19:08While excavation of the TB1 shaft continues in the Money Pit area.
19:13It's going down pretty good.
19:15There you go.
19:17I think Al will take it down a little more here, where this top's all there.
19:22Okay.
19:25Oak Island landowner Tom Nolan and other members of the team are continuing to investigate an area where just one day ago they found large survey stakes.
19:35Yeah.
19:36It's great.
19:37As well as what appears to be a layer of possibly stacked cobblestones.
19:42Come on, artifacts.
19:44I know you're here.
19:45Ow!
19:46Whoa!
19:47Whoa!
19:48Whoa!
19:49Whoa!
19:50Now I'm seeing this cobble all through here.
20:00Is it me or does this look like the stone path?
20:05Yeah, it certainly does.
20:06There's a very clear line.
20:07You can see the edge of the rocks before you end to that sea horizon right here.
20:11Yeah.
20:12I noticed there was all these small stones.
20:17Some looked like beech stone, which are out of place in the swamp.
20:21All put tightly together, very similar to the stone path on the south side of the bog.
20:30And it seemed to have some sort of shape.
20:32We've got a defined path.
20:34Yeah, it's very linear.
20:36So it shows that there was more work, more effort put into this area for some reason.
20:43It begins to make you wonder, is it searcher or is it depositor?
20:48I'm going to call Dr. Spooner and Laird and get them to come and have a look at this.
20:51Yeah, I think we should because, I mean, they've looked at the other ones, so see what they think of it.
20:56Yeah.
20:57We really should have a look.
20:58Yeah?
20:59Yeah.
21:00Later that day...
21:03We're trying to cut through this stuff, so hopefully we're through the rocks soon.
21:08All right, well, I'll go back to the station.
21:10Looks like you've got it handled here.
21:12In the Money Pit area, the seven-foot diameter steel shaft known as TB1 is approaching a depth of nearly 170 feet
21:22and it's reached the so-called solution channel, a massive natural void in the bedrock
21:29where the team hopes to encounter the fabled chapel vault.
21:34I was going to drag it around.
21:37Yeah, but not before I grab this.
21:39All right.
21:41I got to see if this floats.
21:43Yeah, that's the first piece of wood I've seen in the last few scoops.
21:47Yeah, this could be old.
21:48Yep, could be.
21:50All right, good eye.
21:51Our mentor, Dan Blankenship, always believed that if you retrieved wood from depth and it sank, it was older wood.
22:00If it floats, it's modern.
22:08That sinks.
22:10If the team has indeed recovered a piece of wood nearly 170 feet deep that might predate the discovery of the Money Pit,
22:19could it be a clue that the treasure vault is now also within their reach?
22:24Piece of wood came out of that last scoop.
22:27Just what we were hoping for.
22:28Just tested it and it doesn't float.
22:30It does not.
22:31Does not float.
22:32That's what we're looking for.
22:33Yeah, it could be what we're looking for.
22:35Look at the growth rings.
22:36Look at the growth rings.
22:37That's also real good.
22:38That would be near the center of the tree, I would think.
22:41We get down to depth of about 170 feet.
22:44And we find a piece of wood.
22:46And I feel that this piece of wood is deep enough, it could only be depositor.
22:50But if this was depositor, we could have found what the chapel-era searchers believed to be the treasure vault.
22:56Hey, Terry, I got some new numbers for you.
22:58Great, thank you.
22:59Depth of hole is 168 and 6 inches.
23:02And our casing just broke through 171.
23:05171 at the teeth.
23:07So this came out of the last scoop.
23:09That came from 168.
23:11What does this wood mean to you?
23:12If we found a bunch of it, remember, nobody was down to 168.
23:15Nobody.
23:16Okay.
23:17So if we started finding a bunch of this, we'd start to get pretty exciting.
23:21Awesome.
23:22All right.
23:23We'll keep digging.
23:24Sounds good.
23:25As the excavation of TB1 continues in the Money Pit area.
23:30Later that afternoon.
23:32Gentlemen.
23:33Hi, guys.
23:34In the War Room, Marty Lagina, Craig Tester, and other members of the Oak Island team meet via videoconference with renowned gemologist Jeffrey Bilgore and John W. Ford, Sr., the CEO of the American Gem Trade Association.
23:52Welcome to the War Room.
23:54Oh, thank you.
23:55Oh.
23:56Oh.
23:57No way.
23:58Wow.
23:59John and Jeffrey have analyzed a glass gemstone that the team found two weeks ago near the mysterious rounded foundation on Lot 5, a foundation where the team has not only uncovered man-made mortar that matches soils for more than 100 feet deep in the Money Pit area, but where they have found a number of believed mid-18th century artifacts, including this rare glass gemstone.
24:26Have you seen other stones like this?
24:29Yeah, I've seen other stones like this.
24:31But what is significant is the fact that it was found on an island in Nova Scotia.
24:38So it's very interesting because the origin of the crystal is European in nature.
24:44It could be from England, France, Spain, Portugal, or Italy.
24:48The research shows it could have been made somewhere between 1730 and 1775.
24:55Okay.
24:56That's what Laird and Emma also thought.
24:59What would be more traditional to use for something like this?
25:02It could have been from an object of adornment, sewn onto a heavy fabric, an ornamental type of coat.
25:10Certainly the size and the purity of the material is unusual.
25:15This is the size of, you know, an eight to ten carat sapphire, eight carat diamond, but it's definitely a simulant to look like a diamond, to look like you have something of great value.
25:26Okay.
25:27So somebody really important was on lot five.
25:31We've always thought that even if the money pit is simpler than we think, without any complex engineering, it still would take a team of men to do that.
25:41We always wondered, where was the encampment?
25:44Where were these people while they were doing this work?
25:46Well, maybe lot five is it.
25:48This little gem does indicate that somebody of means, wealth, influence was almost certainly on lot five and on the island.
25:58The fact that it had tin around the edges, which is resistant to tarnishing, is quite significant, because ten would be for more of a noble person.
26:06So this is definitely not something worn by the average person in the 1700s.
26:12This is more evidence that some very prominent person was on Oak Island pre-Money Pit.
26:19Yeah.
26:20There's something else that we haven't found yet, that this person of importance was watching over.
26:26Who was it?
26:27The fact that singular large size, in the way it's faceted and cut, it demonstrates wealth, nobility, part of a military medal possibly.
26:39That's great.
26:44In the Oak Island War Room, gemology experts John W. Ford Sr. and Jeffrey Bilgore have just given their assessment that the glass jewel recovered near the round feature on lot five.
26:58Not only dates back to several decades before the discovery of the money pit, but likely belonged to someone of European nobility.
27:07Because it was made of tin, which is resistant to tarnishing, it might be something that would be on a naval officer because of being at sea and such.
27:22Thinking about the dates and some of the theories, Duke Donville was supposedly in the area in 1746.
27:29So that fits in with the date of the jewel.
27:32It's quite possible.
27:33Yeah.
27:34There you go.
27:35In 2017, Oak Island historian Doug Kroll discovered part of an 18th century ship's log detailing a vast treasure burial in the vicinity of Oak Island.
27:50The log was reportedly connected to the crew of the Duke Donville, a French nobleman and admiral who led an unsuccessful attempt to reclaim Nova Scotia from England in September of 1746.
28:07It's always exciting to have a little artifacts that could potentially mean so much.
28:12Mm-hmm.
28:13Is it possible that the team has discovered a critical clue of just who may have created the round feature on lot five?
28:22And perhaps who left a mid-18th century nail deep in the money pit area?
28:27And lastly, might it answer the burning question of just who buried the fabled chapel vault?
28:34Those are intriguing thoughts.
28:36I mean, it adds just one more artifact that's saying someone or a group of people of importance were on lot five, and we got to figure out why.
28:46And it also means that there could be a lot more out there, and it's not going to find itself, so we're going to get back in the field.
28:52Thank you very much.
28:53It's a pleasure.
28:54We're happy to be involved.
28:55Thanks, guys.
28:56See you later.
28:57Thanks, guys.
28:58See you later.
28:59See you later.
29:00Later that afternoon, as the excavation of TB1 proceeds in the money pit area.
29:09There's more rock coming out.
29:12We're going through.
29:14Hey, guys.
29:15Hey, guys.
29:16Hey, guys.
29:17How are you?
29:18Good.
29:19Welcome to another big question mark.
29:20Blackwater scientist Dr. Ian Spooner joins other members of the team in the northern region of the swamp.
29:27What do you think?
29:28There's a pretty clear, defined side over there, and the same over here.
29:33It is the team's hope that Dr. Spooner will be able to verify that the cobblestone feature they uncovered one day ago is part of a man-made pathway.
29:45There was a couple of sharpened stakes found down there, right at the side of it.
29:50How big?
29:51About this big.
29:53The thing that always gets me interested in these features, having looked at them for the last three years,
29:57is that these big stones are all of a size that could be handled by people.
30:01This was their path?
30:03Well, it's kind of almost to the edge.
30:06Again, we only have a small section of it uncovered.
30:09On the south side with the cobblestone path, it was cleared archaeologically, so you could see the structure clearly.
30:16Well, let's cut a section then.
30:17Why not?
30:19I'm fine with that.
30:21I'm thinking of this as a really targeted way to apply our archaeological resources to the challenge of the swamp.
30:28And we can hopefully apply the results that we get to any of these other features in the swamp.
30:34All right, with that, I'm actually going to take the information I have back to the research center and see where it points to.
30:40Let us know what you come up with.
30:41We will.
30:43All right, thanks, guys.
30:44See you later.
30:45I applaud everyone for having real belief in the work in the swamp that we have done to date.
30:56Before heading back out to the Money Pit area, Rick, Marty, Craig, and other members of the team are meeting with surveyor Steve Guptill in the war room.
31:07I think the swamp is integral to understanding this incredibly complex mystery, and it becomes more complex by the day.
31:15After inputting the new data regarding the wooden stakes and various sections of the cobblestone pathway that have been recently found in the swamp,
31:25Steve has created a digital survey that also includes other man-made features the team has uncovered in the brackish bog during the past several years.
31:35Steve, I think it's up to you to explain what we found and what it might mean.
31:41Let's start with the survey lines.
31:43I believe it was you who found on Fred's plans a line of survey stakes.
31:48This is probably 2018.
31:51We dug this line here, and we found three stakes.
31:54Yeah, that's right, yeah.
31:55I remember again.
31:56That's right.
31:56Sure.
31:57Then we go to yesterday, and I tagged three of these survey stakes.
32:01As you can see, almost perfectly on that calculated line, a straight line north and south.
32:07These things were put down for a reason.
32:09It is consistent with the surveying use.
32:11100%.
32:12Well, if they are reference points for something, it's definitely some construction site.
32:20So that segues well into out the cobble path.
32:22Here's the cobble we found yesterday.
32:25There's the three stakes that we've surveyed that line on the survey line.
32:28Right.
32:29So we'll project that back.
32:31It looks like it relates to the cobble path that comes off the stone road and it heads west.
32:37The pathway seems to be connected to everything that we find.
32:40If we continue westward and northwestward, we come into the eye, we come into this wooden
32:46platform we found this year.
32:48Okay.
32:49So another area that this projects to is the cobble found next to the vault.
32:54The cut slate with the bricks.
32:57Oh, really?
32:58So at this stage, it seems that all these features are loosely connected in time, and
33:04that time period is from the late 1600s to the mid-1700s, and that's well before the searchers
33:12and, in my opinion, wasn't farmers, it wasn't fishermen.
33:17Based upon those dates, it's similar to some of the dates we're getting from the Lot 5 feature.
33:22Yeah, yeah.
33:23I'm thinking that there's a connection to the money pit, to the swamp, and Lot 5, and
33:29that they were doing work around the whole island.
33:32That's pretty cool.
33:35In the Oak Island War Room, surveyor Steve Guptill has just presented the team with data,
33:42leading them to believe that the cobblestone pathway, which the team has unearthed throughout
33:47the swamp, could be connected not only to the various man-made features they've discovered,
33:53such as the empty vault-like structure, but may also have been created to serve as a direct
33:59link between Lot 5 and the money pit.
34:04I think this is good because when we first found this cobble in our northern dig, I suspected,
34:09okay, maybe this is the connection between the cobble path and Lot 5.
34:14Yep.
34:14So we have a pretty targeted area here where we can keep digging and try to establish that
34:19connection.
34:20If you were to project the line further up to the northwest, it could go up to Lot 5.
34:26Cool.
34:28Could Steve's findings help prove the team's previous suspicion that the stone foundation
34:34on Lot 5 served as a staging ground for an operation to hide one or more treasure vaults
34:41in the money pit and perhaps also in the swamp.
34:45I mean, at this point, I think we have so many 1700 dates that if whatever was going on in Lot 5 was going
34:52on in the swamp was whatever was going on in the money pit, I mean, we just find the dates everywhere.
34:561600, 1700 seemed to be the most consistent date we find island-wide, and so whatever was going on
35:01on the island, I think we can start to piece it together that a major part of the construction
35:05on Oak Island was 1680 to 1750.
35:08It is an enormous undertaking if these cobbled features are connected in time.
35:20Obviously, there was an intent, there was a purpose, and possibly an association with
35:25the Duke d'Anville expedition, but there's still a lot of puzzles put together here, so
35:31the work needs to continue.
35:33There's now this belief, and I hope it is well and truly an established belief at this
35:39point, that it is literally an island-wide mystery.
35:46And that's how we need to look at this, and we have to do activities that are insular from
35:53each other, meaning the activities in the money pit, the activities on Lot 5, the activities
35:57on the eastern drum, the activities in the bog.
36:00And at some point, they will meld, they will come together.
36:03Nice report, Steve.
36:04Well done.
36:06Thanks, guys.
36:07Now let's keep going.
36:10Shortly after concluding their meeting...
36:14I just don't know where it's going, but it's going somewhere.
36:17So I don't like now that it's going back under the crane, right?
36:21This collapse is just not stopping.
36:22Rick, Marty, and Alex Lagina have rushed back to the money pit area after being alerted that
36:31the earth surrounding the TB1 shaft has once again started to cave in.
36:36Grab another scoop of dirt.
36:38We need to try to get more in that back hole.
36:39It's like three feet low on the backside.
36:42The solution channel, which underlies a good portion of this, which is a natural cave-like
36:48structure.
36:48There's more liquid than we thought.
36:50Oh, deep partway.
36:51The dig actually went to 179.
36:54The teeth are just above that, so we're even digging below the teeth.
36:58After first encountering evidence that TB1 was descending into a massive natural void,
37:04or solution channel, at a depth of nearly 165 feet, the team has now discovered that the
37:11cavity in the bedrock, which may also now contain the fabled chapel vault, reaches depths of more
37:18than 200 feet underground.
37:21We're caving in constantly, so they're getting concerned from a safety standpoint.
37:26And even more concerning is that it is causing the soils beneath the TB1 shaft and hundreds
37:32of tons of heavy equipment to give way.
37:35Every, what, 30, 40 minutes, we're stopping to try to mitigate the collapsing, but now it's
37:42starting to creep back under the crane.
37:47It's leading towards sudden collapse?
37:50Yeah.
37:50We're going to obliterate this place.
37:55That's not good.
37:56There will become a safety component if it gets too far under the crane that we just all
38:03stop.
38:04In the Money Pit area, the minor collapse of earth around the TB1 shaft that began earlier
38:11this week has become increasingly more dangerous as the caissons sink lower into a massive natural
38:19cavity more than 200 feet underground.
38:22If we can't get this down and we're exacerbating a problem that we really, truly don't understand,
38:28we need to be done here.
38:30Yeah.
38:31I say we call it.
38:33Let's not try and advance the can anymore.
38:35Okay.
38:35I hear the boys firing up the oscillator, so let me go tell them the plan.
38:37Okay.
38:38Thanks.
38:40Although the team now suspects that the fabled chapel vault may lie somewhere down in the
38:46so-called solution channel.
38:48Hey, Gary!
38:49Gary!
38:49They are certain that it is now too dangerous to pursue it in the TB1 shaft.
38:57No treasure in the world is worth compromising somebody's safety.
39:01And like I said, from every negative situation, you'll learn something from it.
39:06We did learn some things from it.
39:08Yeah.
39:09I think we are all on board one simple truth, that the chapel vault, and I still believe
39:14it's here, could have fallen to those depths in the solution channel.
39:18And some of us didn't necessarily believe that prior to putting this can down.
39:22Right.
39:23Our inability to finish TB1 leads me to the conclusion that we may be overlooking what
39:30happened to this treasure completely.
39:32If the solution channel can accept 100 yards of rock and sand and gravel just like that
39:40in one day, why couldn't it completely have taken in the treasure?
39:44I never thought that was possible before.
39:47That looks pretty good.
39:49There is a void at great depth.
39:52Is that where the treasure hides?
39:54It's possible.
39:55But we still have room to maneuver here.
39:58The location of the next cans will be important, but I want to make sure that we get down and
40:03we get back up safely.
40:06So my hope is that Vanessa and her team from Rock can stabilize the area and to continue the
40:12dig.
40:13We're still true believers.
40:15I'm hoping the next can we put down, it'll be, you better believe it.
40:21Yeah, exactly.
40:22So maybe we should get together in the war room and talk about a new plan.
40:25That's a real good idea.
40:28Sempre avanti.
40:29In spite of a devastating setback, Rick, Marty, and their team remain determined that they
40:37can and will solve this 230-year-old mystery.
40:43Because even though the fabled riches escaped their grasp, the team has unearthed more critical
40:49clues as to where they lie.
40:52And perhaps, who deposited them?
40:57Can they devise a solution that will lead them to the vault and the ultimate answers?
41:03Only time, a bold new strategy, and digging will tell.
41:10Next time on The Curse of Oak Island.
41:15I think our next target is what we call Aladdin's Cave.
41:18All right, here we go.
41:19There's a genie in the lab.
41:20And all your wishes will be granted.
41:22It looks like there's something here.
41:23Oh, wow.
41:25Look at the head on that thing.
41:26That could have easily come out of treasure chests.
41:29These teeth are ready to bite on some gold.
41:32I love it.
41:33I think we're breaking through the cave.
41:35Agreed.
41:35We're hitting something, right?
41:37This could be the most important hammer grabbing history.
41:39This could be true.
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