The Oak Island Money Pit

The story of the Oak Island Money Pit is too long and detailed to go into here in any depth, for a much fuller acocunt of the discovery, excavation and (attempted) expoitation of the Money Pit I suggest visiting one of the many websites dedicated to the Oak Island treasure, such as "The Mysterious and Unexplained"

In short; in 1795 a young lad named Daniel McGinnis was wandering about Oak Island, Nova Scotia, when he came across a depression in the ground. The undergrowth was beginning to creep across but it had obviously been cut back at some point for the purpose of digging some sort of pit, the top of which formed the depression in the ground. Over the top of the depression hung a pulley and some old rope. McGinnis returned the next day with two friends who started to dig. At 2 feet they discovered a layer of flag stones which they removed and continued excavating. Ten feet down they came across a layer of oak logs. They removed the oak logs and carried on, meeting layers of logs again at around 20 and 30 feet. Having exhausted their ability they left the site hoping to come back later with more expertise.

Eight years later the boys returned as part of the Onslow Company and continued the digging out of the pit. The company reached 90 feet, finding a layer of oak logs every 10 feet. More intriguingly they also discovered a layer of charcoal at 40 feet, followed by a layer of putty at 50 feet and a layer of coconut matting at 60 feet. At 90 feet they found part of a stone tablet inscribed with mysterious writing. After the diggers pulled up the layer of oak logs at 90 feet water began to seep into the pit and by the next day had filled it to a depth of 33 feet. Pumping failed so the site was abandoned until the next year. In 1804 a second pit was dug next to the Money Pit to a depth of 100 feet and a shaft then dug from the second pit to the money pit. As soon as the shaft was completed water came through it and flooded the second pit.

In 1849 the next attempt was made at excavating the pit by the Truro Company who dug to a depth of 86 feet before being flooded. The Truro Company then changed the focus of their attack on the pit and, deciding that it would be sensible to find out what was in the pit before wasting time and money excavating it, began to drill. At 98 feet the drill passed through what was believed to be a spruce platform, followed by 4 inches of oak, 22 inches of "loose metal", 8 inches of oak, another 22 inches of "loose metal", more spruce and finally into more soft earth. The conclusion drawn was that the drill had passed into a spruce lined chamber and through two oak chests filled with coins before passing out the other side. From there the pit seemed to continue. It is important to note that it seems te Truro company were using a drill, not a bore, ie., any statement about the contents of the pit based on the drilling is based not on anything actually being brought up from the pit, but on how the drill behaved and what its experienced operators thought that meant. When the drill was removed small amounts of oak and coconut fibre were found stuck to it. There is also mention of three links of a gold chain being discovered at this point. The following year the Truro company returned and tried to dig a second pit as the Onslow Company had done. Again their pit flooded, but they did establish the existence of flood tunnels leading to a nearby beach which was believed to have been artificial.

From this point on the story becomes less important for us. By 1851 the most important elements of the Oak Island story were in place: the discovery of the pit, the oak platforms at 10 foot intervals, the coconut matting, the cavity containing treasure chests, the man-made flood tunnel and the tantalising recovery of a small fragment of gold. Perhaps most important is the discovery of the stone tablet. The mysterious writing turned out to be a simple substitution code and when translated read "forty feet below two million pounds are buried".

In 1861 treasure hunting resumed under the Oak Island Association, and has continued to the present day, millions and millions of dollars have been invested, lives have been lost and two centuries of technological advances have been employed, but to date the recovered treasure amounts to absolutely nothing. The pit has not even yielded anything of archaological value thanks to the slipshod and careless methods employed by the excavators.

For the best explanation of why nothing has been found visit "A Critical Analysis of the Oak Island Legend", by Dick Joltes. Simply put, Mr Joltes excellent analysis rests in part on the fact that no written record whatsoever of the early excavations on Oak Island survive and the only source that we have for the remarkable contents of the pit is a newspaper article given by two treasure hunters trying to raise money for excavation of the pit in around 1860. Since it was in their interest to make the pit sound as exciting as possible and to make it seem certain that something of great value was buried deep beneath Oak Island it was also in their interests to fabricate or elaborate elements of the story for which we have no other source. We must therefore treat any and every aspect of the excavation of the Money Pit prior to 1860 with extreme suspicion and caution.

Since 1860 no real evidence has come from the pit itself. More flood tunnels have been discovered, various things have been found in other pits dug by different treasure hunters, and a million and one thories have been put forward. Very eminent scholars with no connection whatsoever to the various companies have put forward their opinions and evidenc regarding different aspects of the Money Pit. It has been shown that the flood tunnels could very easily be naturaly formed, it has been shown that the "man-made"beach, is probably not man-made. Any artefact which were reportedly recovered prior to 1860, including the critically important stone tablet, have disappeared without trace and no photograph is known to exist of any of them. Most of the things discovered since 1860 can be put down to earlier excavation attempts. In fact, THERE IS NO REAL EVIDENCE THAT ANYTHING WHATSOEVER IS BURIED AT THE BOTTOM OF A SHAFT WHICH MAY HAVE NEVER BEEN DUG UNTIL McGINNIS TRIED TO EXCAVATE IT.

However, many theories abound about the origin of the shaft, from Knights Templar through Aztecs (or Incas) to Lizard-like Aliens. Perhaps the most likely explanations (given the total lack of evidence pre 1860) are that the depression seen by McGinnis was caused either by a natural sink hole (a phenomenon associated with porous rocks and which was seen in Oak Island itself in 1878), or that it was caused by the digging out of foundations for a house which was never built (Oak Island was settled and had been divided up into housing lots well prior to 1795). There are too many theories in fact to list here, but three may be of interest to the pirate enthusiast.

Captain Kidd's Buried Treasure

One of the earliest, and for many years the principal theory about the supposed Oak Island treasure is that it was buried there by the pirate William Kidd in 1700 before he surrendered to the Earl of Bellomont, governor of New York, with whom he hoped to reach some sort of agreement. Kidd is known to have buried some of his treasure on Long Island, but the treasure recovered from there was nothing like the amount Kidd was reputed to have had so from the very time of Kidd himself there has been a mystery of Kidd's missing treasure.

However, there is no reason to believe that Kidd ever sailed as far north as Oak Island between his turning pirate and surrendering to Bellomont. Nor is it likely that Kidd and his crew had the expertise, manpower, or time to dig a pit of the depth and complexity of the supposed money pit. Furthermore, the tale of Kidd's missing loot can probably be attributed to Kidd himself and to the rumour mill of the time. In the spreading of the tale of Kidd's piracies the amount he stole probably grew and grew. Kidd himself, when a prisoner in New York asked leave to go to Hispaniola to recover £60,000 worth of treasure (that recovered at New York was worth only £14,000 by comparison). It suited Kidd for people to believe in his vast wealth, for as long as it was believed he alone knew the secret to a huge treasure he thought his life was safe. A map does exist today which is often thought to be Kidd's treasure map, but its provenance is extremely doubtful and it does not bear any resemblance to Oak Island.

Blackbeard and the Pirate Bank

One of the more far fetched theories (OK, not as far fetched as aliens or incas) about the Oak Island treasure is that the island was used as a kind of storehouse by pirates for their loot. The idea may have been Blackbeard's and it appears that he had a hand in the building of the pit. The supposed traps of the flood tunnels are the key to this theory. The question is; why would anyone dig a deep pit to bury a treasure which they themselves could not recover because of their own flood traps? The answer apparently is that the people who dug the pit knew how to avoid the flood tunnels and so could easily reach the bottom. The pit was therefore designed so that even if its location became known only those people in on the original secret could recover the treasure. Blackbeard and his contemporaries formed a kind of brotherhood, all of whom knew the Oak Island secret, and used the pit as a kind of bank.

The problems with this theory are almost too obvious to be mentioned! If the pit really did exist and really was booby trapped it would take an engineer of great skill to plan and oversee the work, and nobody yet has put forward a name for this great expert. Kidd is the only pirate of the Golden Age known for definite to have buried his treasure, and he did so for a good reason in his specific circumstances. Kidd was definitely not part of any brotherhood with Blackbeard. There's no evidence that there ever was any kind of formal brotherhood involving Blackbeard or other pirates of the Golden Age. And finally, just how many pirates of the Golden Age trusted other pirates enough to let them in on the secret of where their treasure was buried and how they could recover it?

The Lost Treasure of the Nuestra Senora de la Concepción.

 The most sensible and best presented theory yet proposed about the Oak Island Money Pit is that put forward by Harris and MacPhie. In 1641 a Spanish treasure ship, the Nuestra Senora de la Concepción was lost off the coast of Hispaniola. In 1687 its wreck was located and excavation begun by William Phips of Boston. 28 tons of silver was recovered in one year, Phips received a knighthood and arranged a second voyage for the following year. In 1688 however political tension was high, culminating in the "Glorious Revolution" in which James II was ousted by William III. Shortly before the revolution Phips sailed from the wreck site in company of the Earl of Peterborough in possession of (according to Harris and MacPhie) a huge treasure recovered from the Concepción. Where that treasure went nobody knew, none of it ever reached England. Phips maintained that nothing was recovered in that second year, but Harris and MacPhie make the case that Phips did in fact recover a huge treasure which was concealed at Oak Island with a view to helping to finance the Glorious Revolution with it. By basing their theory on mostly verifiable facts, and quoting some archaeological evidence from Oak Island itself they present a very credible argument.

Where Harris and McPhie fall down is in the lack of proof. Their theory is credible, but not watertight. They have (as far as I have seen) shown any real evidence that Phips recovered a great treasure which remains unaccounted for, and they have not shown any real evidence that he took it to Oak Island. Any attempt to really prove the existence of a money pit on Oak Island is doomed to failure unless some startling new evidence is found, so any attempt to prove what lies at the bottom of it is on equally shaky ground. Where Harris and MacPhie's (and most other) theory really falls down is on the problem of time scale. If Phips buried the lost treasure of the Concepción on Oak Island then the pit was dug 107 before McGinnisn found it. McGinnis noticed the pit because of the clearing in the undergrowth, the depression in the ground and the remains of a block and tackle hanging over the depression. However, it is unreasonable, even ridiculous, to suggest that an area cleared of undergrowth for the digging of a pit would remain clear 107 years later. Possibly the evidence of the clearing in the undergrowth is inaccurate, but in that case McGinnis could not have noticed the depression. Harris and MacPhie get around this by telling us that work continued at the site until the mid 18th century, possibly as late as 1759. It is less ridiculous to suppose that the site would remain free from undergrowth for 36 years, but it is still far from likely (for example, anyone with a garden will tell you just how long it doesn't take for the bramble to take over). What I find hard to swallow though is that the treasure could remain buried for 73 years, with people working on the site, without someone saying "hey, actually we could really use all that treasure now, James II is dead and gone, let's dig it up and use it for something". In order to explain away one incredibly unlikely scenario (that the vegetation would not have grown over the pit in 107 years) we are being asked to believe an equally unlikely one. Harris and MacPhie make a fine conspiracy theory, and theirs is by far the most credible theory (except perhaps for the sinkhole or unfinished home theories) to date, but it still falls well short of being a proven, or even believable hypothesis.

All Theories.

With any theory connected with Oak Island, including those listed above, we must ask a number of questions which need to be satisfactorily answered before any theory can progress.

• Given that Oak Island was more or less uninhabited until a short while before the discovery of 1795, and given that Oak Island is just one of many possible places to bury treasure (whatever treasure that may be), would it really be necessary to dig a pit 200 feet deep or more in which to hide that treasure, when a pit of 50 feet, 10 feet, or even 6 feet would have been sufficient to hide it?

• Having dug a pit of 200 feet depth, with elaborate booby traps including at least one flood tunnel of 500 feet or more, why would anybody have then left such obvious clues as to the pit's location?

• Given the enormous scale of the engineering project involved, the many people who must have worked on the pit, and the amount of time they must have spent there, where is the evidence of the extensive settlement and pit workings which must have existed?

Any future attempts to recover the treasure which almost certainly (in this writer's opinion) does not lie at the bottom of the Money Pit, whose very existence is equally unlikely will have one more major obstacle which the early attempters did not have to face: two centuries of treasure hunting has resulted in the deforestation of that portion of Oak Island and the sinking of so many pits and shafts that they location of the original pit excavated by McGinnis and the Onslow Company is now just as lost as the treasure.

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