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00:00Look at that.
00:00Oh, yeah.
00:01Isn't that amazing?
00:02This, I would actually date mid-1700s to late-1700s.
00:05That couldn't be pre-Searcher.
00:06This could be pre-Searcher.
00:09It demonstrates wealth, nobility.
00:11Wow.
00:11Some prominent person was on Oak Island pre-Money Pit.
00:15Yeah.
00:16That's great.
00:17Where's the gold?
00:18Whoa!
00:19We could have just pierced the tunnel or chambered.
00:21It could be a treasure vault.
00:26There is an island in the North Atlantic
00:28where people have been looking for an incredible treasure
00:32for more than 200 years.
00:35So far, they have found a stone slab
00:39with strange symbols carved into it,
00:42man-made workings that date to medieval times,
00:45and a lead cross whose origin may be connected
00:49to the Knights Templar.
00:51To date, six men have died trying to solve the mystery.
00:55And, according to legend,
00:59one more will have to die
01:01before the treasure can be found.
01:04A bright new morning has dawned on Oak Island.
01:22Settling down again.
01:23That's not good.
01:24But in the Money Pit area...
01:27That side again.
01:28This is really bad.
01:30A chilling crisis has developed
01:32for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina and their team.
01:36It's just falling in.
01:38I got this side coming up.
01:40I think we need to redo this bad
01:42and compact it around it.
01:46All right, here's what I think happened.
01:48And this casing was at 160 feet, plus or minus.
01:53Simultaneously, all kinds of collapse occurred
01:56around the top of this casing.
01:59That's right.
01:59Yeah.
02:00In a rather scary fashion.
02:04One day ago,
02:06after representatives from Rock Equipment and SB Canada
02:09excavated a 7-foot-diameter steel shaft
02:12known as True Believer 1,
02:15down to a depth of 160 feet.
02:21That ain't good.
02:22Hey, stop.
02:24It's caving.
02:26The earth surrounding the steel caissons
02:29suddenly began to cave in.
02:31We're caving.
02:32This has caused the team to halt the excavation
02:35and backfill tons of soil and gravel around the shaft
02:38in the hopes of preventing a catastrophic collapse.
02:42Now I'm going to stray into what I think it means.
02:47For something to fall,
02:49it has to fall into a void of some sort.
02:52It can't fall into solid rock.
02:54It can't fall into clay.
02:55One more thing, though.
02:56Go ahead, yes.
02:57What Vanessa said.
02:58Remember, she said they were keeping an eye on the cannon
03:00and they didn't think things were coming in,
03:03meaning it wasn't creating its own void?
03:06No.
03:07We probably removed whatever is the sort of natural seal there.
03:10And I think all that material collapsed all the way down the hole.
03:14Yeah.
03:15If there was still a tunnel or chamber down there,
03:18we could have just pierced the roof of it.
03:20Well, that's a good point.
03:20Possibly.
03:21Yeah.
03:22I guess it could be it.
03:23The treasure vault.
03:24Yeah.
03:25We could have collapsed into that, I suppose.
03:27When the cave-in began as the TB1 shaft approached a depth of 160 feet,
03:36the team was anxiously hoping that it would encounter the fabled Chapel Vault,
03:42a seven-foot-tall, concrete-encased wooden chest
03:46that treasure hunters Frederick Blair and William Chapel
03:49reportedly drilled into at a depth of 153 feet back in 1897.
03:55Curiously, this is the same area where recent groundwater testing
04:01has revealed high-trace evidence of gold, silver, and other metals.
04:07However, this is also where previous searchers
04:10have constructed tunnels and shafts during the past two centuries,
04:14which have left various voids and decayed structures deep underground.
04:18I think it's going to be either original works
04:22or some undocumented searcher shaft or tunnel or treasure.
04:28Now, it is the team's hope that ROC and SB Canada
04:33can stabilize the area and keep digging
04:36to determine whether the team has simply penetrated
04:39an abandoned searcher structure or a vault
04:42that contains the treasure people have been trying to unearth since 1795.
04:48I think the collapse feature in this area
04:50could represent a variety of different things.
04:53It might suggest a chamber, a void, or a tunnel.
04:58Sure, that's exciting, interesting.
05:00With paramount importance, again,
05:02priority number one is to keep everyone safe
05:04and address the situation and hopefully continue to advance the can.
05:07Here comes Vanessa.
05:11What happened?
05:11Where can I get water?
05:13We can get you water.
05:14Okay.
05:15Yeah, we want to introduce water,
05:16get some more hydrostatic head pressure in there
05:19because it's getting tight on us, so...
05:21How much water? What do you need?
05:23I would like to fill up my can all the way,
05:25so I need to fill 50 feet, 7-foot diameter.
05:28We'll get you the water.
05:29Okay.
05:31In an attempt to prevent further collapsing
05:33around and beneath the TB1 shaft,
05:36the team will fill it with thousands of gallons of water.
05:41This will help stabilize the shaft and voids beneath it,
05:45allowing the 18-and-a-half-ton hammer grab
05:47to remove more spoils
05:49and hopefully valuables from deep below.
05:54We're in a void underground that we're unfamiliar with.
05:57It could be a vault, meaning potentially treasure.
06:01That could be the mystery.
06:03That could be where it is.
06:04There's some pretty good reasons to keep trying.
06:10So we're going to pull out the decks.
06:12It's going to take us a little time.
06:13Level everything, add some water to the can,
06:15and then re-go at it.
06:17Okay.
06:18Okay.
06:18Cool.
06:19Well, what did we know at the beginning of the year?
06:21We'd have surprises.
06:22Yeah.
06:23Well, we just got one.
06:24And a hell of a lot of work.
06:25Yes, there's all kinds of potential difficulties to work through.
06:30Everyone that came before us had problems.
06:33I don't know.
06:34I'm not super optimistic that we won't have any further issues,
06:37but maybe I'm wrong.
06:40I actually think we will finish this all.
06:42I mean, it's best guess at this point, but...
06:44Well, we definitely don't want to give up.
06:46No.
06:46We've got a lot to look forward to.
06:48To look down to.
06:49Yeah.
06:51We can figure it out.
06:52Oh, yeah.
06:53As the efforts to locate a fabled treasure vault
06:55continue in the Money Pit area...
06:58Morning.
06:59Hey, guys.
07:00How are you?
07:01Hanging in there, ready for some big revelations.
07:03Well, this could be the spot to find some.
07:06The Laginas and Gary join Crank Tester,
07:09fellow Oak Island landowner Tom Nolan,
07:11and other members of the team
07:13in the northern region of the swamp.
07:16Rick's been wanting to dig this forever, 15 years or so.
07:21It is here where they are searching for caches of valuables
07:25that may lie hidden outside of the Money Pit area.
07:29The thing about this place is it's all about your dad to me.
07:33Yeah.
07:33You know, he believed that there was something
07:35here to find.
07:36So let's get out of the machine.
07:38Let's position it.
07:39Let's get to it.
07:41Let's dig.
07:44I want to get dirty.
07:47In 1969, legendary treasure hunter Fred Nolan
07:51drained the swamp and was shocked
07:54to discover pieces of large sailing vessels.
07:57He also found 16th century wooden survey stakes,
08:02tools that Fred believed had been used
08:05to create the brackish fog
08:07in order to hide numerous caches of valuables.
08:11Seems to be quite a few more rocks,
08:13at least right in through here.
08:16Incredibly,
08:17several weeks ago,
08:19after uncovering a cobblestone pathway
08:21and a number of additional survey stakes in the northern region of the swamp,
08:26the team discovered an empty vault-like structure made of brick and slate.
08:32This is going to have some real answers.
08:35I really believe that.
08:36Now, along with Fred's son, Tom, Rick, Marty, and Craig are searching several yards to the north.
08:44It is their hope that they will uncover similar hidden structures that will prove Fred's theory to be true.
08:51If we find another of these vaults,
08:54we can only assume something was hidden here.
08:57And hopefully, whatever was once here is still here.
09:01I've got a signal.
09:07I'm going to shut him down, Tom.
09:12Let me see if it's close to the surface.
09:15I'll try pinpointing it first by.
09:17All right.
09:18OK.
09:18Fine.
09:19I could save you some digging.
09:20Yeah.
09:28It's there.
09:29It's there.
09:40Not written a dress.
09:41That's not it, is it?
09:42That was brick.
09:44You see that bit of brick in the hole there?
09:47A piece of brick buried in the northern region of the swamp?
09:51Could the team have discovered evidence that an important structure or vault is hidden nearby?
09:58Here, put it in my pocket.
10:00Just goes to show we're not missing anything, though.
10:02I'd say exactly that.
10:03Yep.
10:04The swamp has always been a mystery.
10:11That's the nature of the swamp on Oak Island.
10:14But by digging in this new area, we're hoping to find clues to what happened here.
10:19We have to follow the clues.
10:24Hey!
10:25What's that?
10:29Coming in, Alan.
10:36Ooh!
10:37Look at that!
10:41This is impressive.
10:42Oh, look at that.
10:47Really nice-looking, sharpened steak.
10:51Isn't that amazing?
10:52It just looks like the day it went in the ground.
10:54Yeah.
10:54That's Andoon, wasn't it?
10:56Yeah.
10:56This is impressive.
10:58In the northern region of the Oak Island swamp...
11:01Here's another one right here.
11:03...Rick and Marty Lagina and members of the team have just discovered two more hand-cut wooden survey stakes.
11:10What is that?
11:12Two stakes.
11:14Now the question is, could they be clues to validate Fred Nolan's theory that hidden valuables might also be found in this area?
11:24Are these the first ones that have been found on this side?
11:27No.
11:27Years ago, we found two or three closer to the road.
11:31But this is the first ones I know of that were found this deep into the swamp on this side.
11:36I think Steve should come out and GPS this, because then he can see if there's continuity here or something different.
11:43Yeah.
11:43Okay.
11:44I'm pretty sure he's coming out right now.
11:47The plan for the swamp, of course, is to follow the line of survey stakes.
11:51But the hope is that as we follow these clues, they will lead to some greater understanding of what might be here in the bogs.
12:03Hey, Steve.
12:04Hey, guys.
12:06What I'm going to do is I'm going to hop down and I'll grab the areas or the two exact locations of those stakes.
12:11Okay.
12:11Steve, you want to hop down and pin this?
12:13Sure do.
12:15There you go, mate.
12:16Check out this wood.
12:17Let's see that top one.
12:18I don't know why two are together.
12:20That's odd.
12:21It's not the pattern we've seen.
12:23So this line of survey stakes projects to an area where we found all of those wooden stakes.
12:28Nice.
12:29Yep.
12:29I mean, that's perfectly online almost, so I would keep following them.
12:33Yep.
12:35Well, I'm not surprised at all when Steve asserts that the stakes line up with previous stakes that have been found in the bog.
12:42This took some time and some effort to lay out this line.
12:47Maybe this line has another purpose and relates to another, as of yet, unknown discovery.
12:54So what I'll do is continue to confirm the line as far as I can walk.
12:57Okay.
12:58Thanks, Steve.
12:58Thanks, Steve.
12:59Good.
13:00Let's dig.
13:01Look at that.
13:02There's a bunch of cobble here.
13:06I don't know if you can see it or not.
13:08It's just right here.
13:10And it's going that way.
13:10More cobblestones found near the hand-hewn survey stakes?
13:17Is it possible that the team has indeed uncovered another section of the cobblestone pathway?
13:24If so, could it lead the team to a vault that still contains something of incredible value?
13:31It's almost like they're stacked.
13:33That's a spooner question.
13:35Yep.
13:36That's a spooner question.
13:37There certainly appears to be a structure in the north end of the bog.
13:42So I want Dr. Spooner to come and render an opinion about whether or not it is a man-made structure.
13:50It looks stacked, but I don't know.
13:53We have to follow this.
13:55There's no question about it.
13:56Yeah.
13:57I want to keep digging.
13:58Okay.
13:59Let's keep digging.
14:00The following morning, as the team from Rock Equipment works to stabilize the ground around the TB1 caisson.
14:12We have in front of us several things that hopefully will make us true believers because they came out of TB1, True Believer 1.
14:22Marty Lagina, Craig Tester, and other members of the team join archaeologist Laird Niven and archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan in the Oak Island lab.
14:32And we have four of them right here.
14:34They are eager to hear Laird and Emma's scientific analysis of several nails that were recently unearthed from more than 100 feet deep in the TB1 shaft.
14:45I'll turn it over to Emma.
14:47Based on the composition and the x-ray characteristics, the first three nails I would put comfortably within early to mid-1800s.
14:55And there is a potential that it could be late-1700s.
14:59Okay.
15:00The last nail I would actually date older and based on its x-ray behavior, possibly within mid-1700s to late-1700s.
15:12If you had to opine, these three are searcher and that one might be pre-searcher.
15:19So I'd say this has the most possibility of being pre-searcher.
15:22Yeah.
15:22Because more than a dozen searcher companies have constructed shafts over the past two centuries in the area where the team is currently excavating TB1,
15:34it is not surprising that some artifacts will date to after the discovery of the money pit.
15:41However, could the team have also found a nail that was used by whomever buried the fabled chapel vault?
15:49Compositionally, they're all fairly similar.
15:51Could that mean that they are closer than ever to potentially recovering it?
15:55Thanks, Emma.
15:58You know, we're getting a lot of information, and we brought this stuff up, so what's sitting down below in the loose clay area that could sink on down?
16:06Yeah.
16:07Well, let's get back at it and try and find something even better.
16:10Thank you, all.
16:11Okay.
16:11Take care.
16:11Good luck.
16:12Later that afternoon.
16:17Hey, Marty.
16:18What deep are we?
16:19They're making progress, slow but steady.
16:22Marty Lagina returns to the money pit area after being informed that the process to stabilize the TB1 caisson appears to have been successful,
16:31and the dig has now resumed.
16:34We got, I'd say, 48 or 49 yards of crust stone down in that hole.
16:41Vanessa's coming in.
16:42Where's the gold?
16:43Hey, gentlemen.
16:44So how are we doing?
16:46Well, we're doing better.
16:47We're doing better.
16:48So the water is definitely helping.
16:49The water did its trick.
16:50Yeah, the water is doing its thing.
16:52We're dropping the tape down past my casing now.
16:55So right now, my dig, depth of hole is at 164 and 6 inches.
17:01No plug.
17:02No plug.
17:04The so-called plug refers to the earth or spoils contained inside of the steel caissons.
17:12However, since Vanessa is reporting that there is no plug within TB1, that means it and any potential man-made objects have fallen to somewhere below.
17:23He is dropping it down, and he's hitting something very hard all the way around.
17:28We'd think it's rock.
17:31Sure, there's not a cave or a cavity.
17:33Pretty sure there is.
17:35This must be the solution channel.
17:37Yeah, we're on the ledge, and we got a hole.
17:40The solution cavity or a solution channel, we believe it's natural, and it underlies a good bit of this.
17:45So you're on the edge.
17:46That's why your plug is going down.
17:48So we could have collapsed into that, I suppose.
17:50During 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,
18:05known as the solution channel, between 160 and 180 feet underground.
18:12If 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?
18:23And if so, could that also mean that the fabled chapel vault has fallen into it?
18:30This hole, TB1, goes to the bottom of that solution channel.
18:34That could be the answer.
18:35That could be where this treasure resides at this point.
18:37So we need to get down in that solution channel.
18:40As we break through this shelf in the bedrock, we hope to get into the area where the treasure might have fallen to in the relatively soft material.
18:47Yes.
18:47We're about ready to stack another can.
18:49We're going to add some more water and keep going down.
18:52Okay.
18:53All right.
18:54Thank you, Vanessa.
18:55I'll keep my fingers crossed.
18:59All right.
19:00There she goes.
19:02Let's oscillate.
19:03While excavation of the TB1 shaft continues in the Money Pit area.
19:08It's going down pretty good.
19:10There you go.
19:13I think Al will take it down a little more here where this top's all there.
19:17Okay.
19:19Oak Island landowner Tom Nolan
19:21and other members of the team
19:23are continuing to investigate an area
19:26where just one day ago
19:28they found large survey stakes.
19:30Yeah, it's great.
19:31As well as what appears to be
19:34a layer of possibly stacked cobblestones.
19:36Come on, artifacts.
19:39I know you're here.
19:45Whoa!
19:45Whoa!
19:46Whoa!
19:52Now I'm seeing this cobble all through here.
19:56Is it me or does this look like the stone path?
20:02Yeah, it certainly does.
20:03There's a very clear line.
20:04You can see the edge of the rocks
20:05before you enter that sea horizon right here.
20:07Yeah.
20:07I noticed there was all these small stones.
20:12Some looked like beech stone, which are out of place in the swamp.
20:17All put tightly together, very similar to the stone path on the south side of the bog.
20:24And it seemed to have some sort of shape.
20:27We've got a defined path.
20:30Yeah, it's very linear.
20:32So it shows that there was more work, more effort put into this area for some reason.
20:38It begins to make you wonder, is it searcher or is it depositor?
20:43I'm going to call Dr. Spooner and Laird and get them to come and have a look at this.
20:47Yeah, I think we should because, I mean, they've looked at the other ones,
20:49so see what they think of it.
20:51Yeah.
20:52We really should have a look.
20:53Yeah?
20:53Yeah.
20:57Later that day...
20:58We're trying to cut through this stuff.
21:02So hopefully we're through the rocks soon.
21:03All right, well, I'll go back to the station.
21:05It looks like you've got it handled here.
21:08In the Money Pit area, the 7-foot diameter steel shaft, known as TB1,
21:13is approaching a depth of nearly 170 feet
21:17and has reached the so-called solution channel.
21:21A massive natural void in the bedrock
21:24where the team hopes to encounter the fabled chapel vault.
21:29I was going to drag it around.
21:32Yeah, but not before I grab this.
21:35All right.
21:36I got to see if this floats.
21:38Yeah, that's the first piece of wood I've seen in the last few scoops.
21:42Yeah, this could be old.
21:43Yeah, could be.
21:45All right.
21:45Good eye.
21:47Our mentor, Dan Blankenship, always believed that if you retrieved wood from depth
21:53and it sank, it was older wood.
21:55If it floats, it's modern.
21:57That sinks.
22:05If the team has, indeed, recovered a piece of wood nearly 170 feet deep
22:11that might predate the discovery of the Money Pit,
22:14could it be a clue that the treasure vault is now also within their reach?
22:19A piece of wood came out of that last scoop.
22:22Just what we were hoping for.
22:23Just tested it and it doesn't float.
22:25It does not.
22:26Does not float.
22:27That's what we're looking for.
22:28Yeah, it could be what we're looking for.
22:30Look at the growth rings.
22:32That's also real good.
22:33That would be near the center of the tree, I would think.
22:36We get down to depth of about 170 feet, and we find a piece of wood.
22:41And I feel that this piece of wood is deep enough.
22:43It could only be depositor.
22:45But if this was depositor, we could have found what the chapel-era searchers
22:49believed to be the treasure vault.
22:51Hey, Terry, I got some new numbers for you.
22:52Great, thank you.
22:54Depth of hole is 168 and 6 inches, and our casing just broke through 171.
23:01171 at the teeth.
23:02So this came out of the last scoop.
23:04That came for 168.
23:06What does this wood mean to you?
23:07If we found a bunch of it, remember, nobody was down to 168.
23:11Nobody.
23:11Okay.
23:12So if we started finding a bunch of this, we'd start to get pretty excited.
23:16Awesome.
23:17All right.
23:18We'll keep digging.
23:18Sounds good.
23:19As the excavation of TB1 continues in the Muddy Pit area,
23:25later that afternoon...
23:28Gentlemen.
23:29Hi, guys.
23:30In the war room, Marty Lagina, Craig Tester,
23:34and other members of the Oak Island team meet via videoconference with renowned gemologist Jeffrey Bilgorn
23:41and John W. Ford Sr., the CEO of the American Gem Trade Association.
23:48Welcome to the war room.
23:49Oh, thank you.
23:51Oh, no way.
23:53Wow.
23:54John and Jeffrey have analyzed a glass gemstone that the team found two weeks ago
23:59near the mysterious rounded foundation on Lot 5,
24:03a foundation where the team has not only uncovered man-made mortar
24:07that matches soils for more than 100 feet deep in the Muddy Pit area,
24:12but where they have found a number of believed mid-18th-century artifacts,
24:18including this rare glass gemstone.
24:22Have you seen other stones like this?
24:25Yeah, I've seen other stones like this,
24:27but what is significant is the fact that it was found on an island in Nova Scotia.
24:32So it's very interesting because the origin of the crystal is European in nature.
24:39It could be from England, France, Spain, Portugal, or Italy.
24:43The research shows it could have been made somewhere between 1730 and 1775.
24:50Okay.
24:51That's what Laird and Emma also thought.
24:54What would be more traditional to use for something like this?
24:57It could have been from an object of adornment sewn onto a heavy fabric.
25:02An ornamental type of coat.
25:05Certainly the size and the purity of the material is unusual.
25:10This is the size of, you know, an 8 to 10 carat sapphire, 8 carat diamond.
25:15But it's definitely a simulant to look like a diamond,
25:19to look like you have something of great value.
25:22Okay.
25:23So somebody really important was on Lot 5.
25:26We've always thought that even if the money pit is simpler than we think,
25:30without any complex engineering, it still would take a team of men to do that.
25:36We always wondered, where was the encampment?
25:39Where were these people while they were doing this work?
25:41Well, maybe Lot 5 is it.
25:42This little gem does indicate that somebody of means, wealth, influence was almost certainly
25:50on Lot 5 and on the island.
25:53The fact that it had tin around the edges, which is resistant to tarnishing, is quite significant,
25:58because tin would be for more of a noble person.
26:01So this is definitely not something mourned by the average person in the 1700s.
26:07This is more evidence that some very prominent person was on Oak Island pre-Money Pit.
26:14Yeah.
26:14There's something else that we haven't found yet, that this person of importance was watching over?
26:21Who was it?
26:22The fact that singular large size in the way it's faceted and cut, it demonstrates wealth,
26:29nobility, part of a military medal possibly.
26:35That's great.
26:37In the Oak Island War Room, gemology experts John W. Ford Sr. and Jeffrey Bilgore have just
26:47given their assessment that the glass jewel, recovered near the round feature on Lot 5,
26:53not only dates back to several decades before the discovery of the Money Pit, but likely belonged
26:59to someone of European nobility.
27:02Because it was made of tin, which is resistant to tarnishing, it might be something that would
27:08be on a naval officer because of being at sea and such.
27:17Thinking about the dates and some of the theories, Duke Donville was supposedly in the area in 1746.
27:24So that fits in with the date of the jewel.
27:27It's quite possible.
27:28Yeah.
27:29There you go.
27:32In 2017, Oak Island historian Doug Kroll discovered part of an 18th century ship's log
27:41detailing a vast treasure burial in the vicinity of Oak Island.
27:46The log was reportedly connected to the crew of the Duke Donville, a French nobleman and admiral
27:54who led an unsuccessful attempt to reclaim Nova Scotia from England in September of 1746.
28:01It's always exciting to have a little artifact that could potentially mean so much.
28:07Mm-hmm.
28:08Is it possible that the team has discovered a critical clue of just who may have created the
28:14round feature on Lot 5?
28:16And perhaps, who left a mid-18th century nail deep in the Money Pit area?
28:22And lastly, might it answer the burning question of just who buried the fabled chapel vault?
28:29Those are intriguing thoughts.
28:30I mean, it adds just one more artifact that's saying someone or a group of people of importance
28:37were on Lot 5, and we've got to figure out why.
28:41And it also means that there could be a lot more out there, and it's not going to find itself,
28:45so we're going to get back in the field.
28:47Thank you very much.
28:48It's a pleasure.
28:49We're happy to be involved.
28:50Thanks, guys.
28:51See you later.
28:51Thanks, guys.
28:56Later that afternoon, as the excavation of TB1 proceeds in the Money Pit area...
29:04There's more rock coming out.
29:07We're mowing through.
29:09Hey, guys.
29:10Hey, guys.
29:10Hey, guys.
29:11How are you?
29:11Good.
29:12Welcome to another big question mark.
29:14Geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner joins other members of the team in the northern region of the swamp.
29:22What do you think?
29:23There's a pretty clear, defined side over there, and the same over here.
29:28It is the team's hope that Dr. Spooner will be able to verify that the cobblestone feature
29:34they uncovered one day ago is part of a man-made pathway.
29:40There was a couple of sharpened stakes found down there.
29:44Right at the side of it.
29:45How big?
29:47About this big.
29:48The thing that always gets me interested in these features, having looked at them for the last three years,
29:52is that these big stones are all of a size that could be handled by people.
29:56This was their path.
30:00It's kind of almost to the edge.
30:01Again, we only have a small section of it uncovered.
30:04On the south side with the cobblestone path, it was cleared archaeologically,
30:07so you could see the structure clearly.
30:11Well, let's cut a section, then.
30:12Why not?
30:14I'm fine with that.
30:16I'm thinking of this as a really targeted way to apply our archaeological resources
30:21to the challenge of the swamp.
30:23And we can hopefully apply the results that we get to any of these other features in the swamp.
30:30All right.
30:30With that, I'm actually going to take the information I have back to the research center
30:34and see where it points to.
30:35Let us know what you come up with.
30:37We will.
30:38All right.
30:38Thanks, guys.
30:39See you later.
30:40I applaud everyone for having real belief in the work in the swamp that we have done to date.
30:51Before 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.
31:02I think the swamp is integral to understanding this incredibly complex mystery, and it becomes more complex by the day.
31:10After inputting the new data regarding the wooden stakes and various sections of the cobblestone pathway that have been recently found in the swamp,
31:20Steve 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.
31:30Steve, I think it's up to you to explain what we found and what it might mean.
31:36Let's start with the survey lines.
31:38I believe it was you who found on Fred's plans a line of survey stakes.
31:43This is probably 2018.
31:46We dug this line here, and we found three stakes.
31:49Yeah, that's right.
31:50I remember exactly.
31:51That's right.
31:51Sure.
31:52Then we go to yesterday, and I tagged three of these survey stakes.
31:56As you can see, almost perfectly on that calculated line, a straight line north and south.
32:02These things were put down for a reason.
32:04It is consistent with the surveying use.
32:06100%.
32:07Well, if they are reference points for something, it's definitely some construction site.
32:15So that segues well into out the cobble path.
32:18Here's the cobble we found yesterday.
32:20There's the three stakes that we've surveyed that land on the survey line.
32:23Right.
32:23So we'll project that back.
32:26It looks like it relates to the cobble path that comes off the stone road and heads west.
32:32The pathway seems to be connected to everything that we find.
32:36If we continue westward and northwestward, we come into the eye.
32:40We come into this wooden platform we found this year.
32:43Okay.
32:44So another area that this projects to is the cobble found next to the vault.
32:49The cut slate with the bricks.
32:51Oh, really?
32:53So at this stage, it seems that all these features are loosely connected in time, and that time period is from the late 1600s to the mid 1700s, and that's well before the searchers, and in my opinion, wasn't farmers, it wasn't fishermen.
33:11Based upon those dates, it's similar to some of the dates we're getting from the lot five feature.
33:18Yeah, yeah.
33:18I'm thinking that there's a connection to the money pit, to the swamp in lot five, and that they were doing work around the whole island.
33:27That's pretty cool.
33:28In the Oak Island War Room, surveyor Steve Guptill has just presented the team with data, leading them to believe that the cobblestone pathway, which the team has unearthed throughout the swamp, could be connected not only to the various man-made features they've discovered, such as the empty vault-like structure,
33:51but may also have been created to serve as a direct link between lot five and the money pit.
33:58I think this is good because when we first found this cobble in our northern dig, I suspected, okay, maybe this is the connection between the cobble path and lot five.
34:09Yep.
34:09So, we have a pretty targeted area here where we can keep digging and try to establish that connection.
34:15If you were to project the line further to the northwest, it could go to lot five.
34:21Cool.
34:23Could Steve's findings help prove the team's previous suspicion that the stone foundation on lot five served as a staging ground for an operation to hide one or more treasure vaults in the money pit,
34:37and perhaps also in the swamp.
34:40I mean, at this point, I think we have so many 1700 dates that if whatever was going on, lot five was going on in the swamp,
34:48was whatever was going on in the money pit.
34:49I mean, we just find the dates everywhere.
34:5116, 1700 seemed to be the most consistent date we find island-wide, and so whatever was going on in the island,
34:57I think we can start to piece it together that a major part of the construction on Oak Island was 1680 to 1750.
35:04Yeah.
35:04Yeah.
35:04It is an enormous undertaking if these cobble features are connected in time.
35:15Obviously, there was an intent.
35:16There was a purpose and possibly an association with the Duke d'Anville expedition,
35:22but there's still a lot of puzzles put together here, so the work needs to continue.
35:28There's now this belief, and I hope it is well and truly an established belief at this point, that it is literally an island-wide mystery.
35:38And that's how we need to look at this, and we have to do activities that are insular from each other, meaning the activities in the money pit, the activities on Lot 5, the activities on the eastern drum, the activities in the bog.
35:55At some point, they will meld, they will come together.
35:59Nice report, Steve.
36:00Well done.
36:01Thanks, guys.
36:02Now, let's keep going.
36:03Shortly after concluding their meeting, I just don't know where it's going, but it's going somewhere.
36:12So I don't like now that it's going back under the crane, right?
36:15This collapse is just not stopping.
36:19Rick, Marty, and Alex Lagina have rushed back to the money pit area after being alerted that the earth surrounding the TB1 shaft has once again started to cave in.
36:31Grab another scoop of dirt.
36:33We need to try to get more in that back hole.
36:34It's like three feet low on the back side.
36:37The solution channel, which underlies a good portion of this, which is a natural cave-like structure, is more liquid than we thought.
36:45How deep are we?
36:46The dig actually went to 179.
36:49The teeth are just above that, so we're even digging below the teeth.
36:52After first encountering evidence that TB1 was descending into a massive natural void, or solution channel, at a depth of nearly 165 feet,
37:04the team has now discovered that the cavity in the bedrock, which may also now contain the fabled chapel vault, reaches depths of more than 200 feet underground.
37:16We're caving in constantly, so they're getting concerned from a safety standpoint.
37:21And even more concerning is that it is causing the soils beneath the TB1 shaft and hundreds of tons of heavy equipment to give way.
37:30Every, what, 30, 40 minutes, we're stopping to try to mitigate the collapsing, but now it's starting to creep back under the crane.
37:42It's leading towards sudden collapse?
37:45Yeah.
37:45We're gonna obliterate this place.
37:50That's not good.
37:54There will become a safety component if it gets too far under the crane that we just fall stop.
37:58In the Money Pit area, the minor collapse of Earth around the TB1 shaft that began earlier this week has become increasingly more dangerous
38:10as the caissons sink lower into a massive natural cavity more than 200 feet underground.
38:17If we can't get this down and we're exacerbating a problem that we really, truly don't understand, we need to be done here.
38:25Yeah.
38:26I say we call it.
38:28Let's not try and advance the can anymore.
38:30Okay.
38:30I hear the boys firing up the oscillators, so let me go tell them the plan.
38:32Yeah.
38:33Okay.
38:33Thanks.
38:35Although the team now suspects that the fabled chapel vault may lie somewhere down in the so-called solution channel...
38:43Hey, Gary!
38:44Gary!
38:44They are certain that it is now too dangerous to pursue it in the TB1 shaft.
38:52No treasure in the world is worth compromising somebody's safety.
38:56And like I said, from every negative situation, you'll learn something from it.
39:01We did learn some things from it.
39:03Yeah.
39:03I think we are all on board one simple truth, that the chapel vault, and I still believe it's here, could have fallen to those depths in the solution channel.
39:12And some of us didn't necessarily believe that prior to putting this can down.
39:17Right.
39:19Our inability to finish TB1 leads me to the conclusion that we may be overlooking what happened to this treasure completely.
39:27If the solution channel can accept 100 yards of rock and sand and gravel just like that in one day, why couldn't it completely have taken in the treasure?
39:39I never thought that was possible before.
39:42That looks pretty good.
39:43There is a void at great depth. Is that where the treasure hides? It's possible.
39:51But we still have room to maneuver here. The location of the next cans will be important, but I want to make sure that we get down and we get back up safely.
40:01So my hope is that Vanessa and her team from rock can stabilize the area and to continue the dig.
40:08We're still true believers. I'm hoping the next can we put down...
40:13It'll be, you better believe it.
40:16Yeah, exactly.
40:17So maybe we should get together in the war room and talk about a new plan.
40:20That's a real good idea.
40:23Sempre avanti.
40:24In spite of a devastating setback, Rick, Marty and their team remain determined that they can and will solve this 230-year-old mystery.
40:36Because even though the fabled riches escaped their grasp, the team has unearthed more critical clues as to where they lie and perhaps who deposited them.
40:51Can they devise a solution that will lead them to the vault and the ultimate answers?
40:57Only time, a bold new strategy, and digging will tell.
41:05Next time on The Curse of Oak Island.
41:10I think our next target is what we call Aladdin's Cave.
41:13All right, here we go.
41:14There's a genie in the lamp, and all your wishes will be granted.
41:17It looks like there's something here.
41:18Oh, wow.
41:20Look at the head on that thing.
41:21That could have easily come out of treasure chests.
41:24These teeth are ready to bite on some gold.
41:27I love it.
41:28I think we're breaking through the cave.
41:30Agreed.
41:31We're hitting something, right?
41:32This could be the most important hammer grab in history.
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